Voices
A voice is a layer of a track. Each one has its own clips and its own rhythm, and they can play on the same strings at the same time. Use voices when one instrument plays two independent parts: a fingerstyle bass line under a melody, a held note under a moving one, a piano’s left hand.
Voices
Available on every platform.
Every track has one voice to begin with. All voices play together; you edit one at a time, the active voice.
Add a voice
Right-click the track’s header and choose Add Voice. The new voice becomes the active one, so what you type next goes into it.
From the keyboard, Edit voice 1–9 (⌥1–⌥9)Edit voice 1–9 (Alt+1–Alt+9)Edit voice 1–9 (Alt+1–Alt+9 (⌥1–⌥9 on a Mac)) one past the track’s last voice adds the next one: on a track with one voice, the second adds voice 2. The caret stays where it is, a message at the foot of the view says “voice 2 added” with Undo, and it is one undo step. A track takes up to four voices this way; past the next voice, or at four, the message says why and nothing changes. Songs that came in with more voices keep them.
A voice added from the keyboard or with the Keypad’s New Voice is taken away again if you leave it empty, by switching to another voice or moving the caret to another track, so a stray key leaves nothing behind. A voice added with Add Voice stays.
Switch voices
Once a track has two voices or more, a segment after the track’s tag (its name, M and S, over the start of its lane) shows a chip for each, numbered from 1; the active one is lit. Click a chip to make that voice active. A folded track header too narrow for the chips shows M · S under the name instead: its menu lists the voices, the active one checked. From the keyboard, Edit voice 1–9 (⌥1–⌥9)Edit voice 1–9 (Alt+1–Alt+9)Edit voice 1–9 (Alt+1–Alt+9 (⌥1–⌥9 on a Mac)) makes the caret’s track edit that voice, if it has that many.
Switching voices clears the selection. The caret stays where it is, so you can write the second part over the same bars straight away.
While the caret’s track works in a voice other than the first, a chip in the corner over the track headers says which, V2 for the second, after the step. Click it for the track’s voices and New Voice. Back in voice 1, the chip goes.
How the voices look
In one set of string rows, the active voice is drawn at full strength and the other voices are dimmed. Typing, clicking and Select All work on the active voice only, so you can’t change the other part by accident.
To see each voice in full, show them as lanes: the ▸ before the chips opens a lane per voice under the track, each with its own string rows and a “Voice 2”, “Voice 3”… label, the active one marked at the left edge. Click in a lane to make its voice active. ▾ folds them back into one set of rows. The Arranger shows voices as lanes too.
Moving a passage to another voice
Clips belong to one voice. To move a passage, drag its clip by its header onto another voice’s lane, with the voices shown as lanes. See Clips. Worked by touch, select the notes and use the Note tool’s Voice ▾: the notes go to the voice you choose, or to a New Voice, as one undo step.
In the Score
The Score writes a track’s first two voices on one staff, voice 1 with its stems up and voice 2 with its stems down, and moves each voice’s rests clear of the other. On a keys track, the track’s menu › Left Hand can put chosen voices on the lower staff of the grand staff.