Note editing

Select, move and resize #

Choose Pointer in Tools. Click a note to select it, then drag its body to change its start and pitch. Drag its edge to change its length. Select several notes before dragging to edit the selection together.

When a Pointer body drag changes pitch on a non-vocal instrument, the audition plays the moved note and its directly linked masters and children at their accepted tuned pitches. Equal pitches sound once. Other selected notes and indirect descendants stay silent unless they are directly linked to the moved note. This audition scope applies when dragging one note or a selection; it does not change which notes move. Horizontal moves and repeated updates at the same pitch do not trigger a new note audition. Vocal tracks keep their separate rendered-snippet preview.

Drag empty grid space for a rectangular selection. Use Select All when you want the whole editable note set. Deselect / Cancel clears a selection or ends the current operation. The Keys tab shows the bindings that apply to your setup.

The snap setting controls the timing grid. Check the beat ruler before a move or resize. A time range and a set of selected notes are different selections, so confirm which one the visible transform will act on.

• Find or change a binding
• Create and inspect harmonic links

Use the piano keyboard #

Draft: the keyboard controls have source review. Audible preview, gestures and platform behavior remain native-unverified.

The vertical keyboard sits to the left of the Piano Roll notes, below the ruler. With No temperament off, click a key to audition its pitch. No temperament mode displays frequency references and does not use this click-preview path.

Middle-drag horizontally over the keyboard to change key-row height. Unmodified smooth vertical scrolling moves through pitches.

Play with the computer keyboard #

In Piano Roll, choose Musical Typing on the toolbar. Its floating keyboard shows the current octave, velocity and sustain state. Click back in the Piano Roll before playing so the editor receives your keys. Musical Typing auditions notes through the selected track. Step Input is a separate control.

Use A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, L and semicolon for the white-note row. W, E, T, Y, U, O and P provide the black-note row. Z and X lower or raise the octave; C and V lower or raise velocity. Tab toggles sustain.

With sustain on, a released key keeps its note sounding. Turn sustain off with Tab to release those retained notes. A key you are still holding keeps its note until release. Close Musical Typing or turn its toolbar control off to stop its previews and reset sustain.

A focused Linux check with the selected VA instrument and existing effects confirmed released-note retention and Tab-off release to silence after the effects tail. Other instruments, physical held-key gestures, recording and other platforms remain unverified for this draft.

Pen, Eraser, Knife and time selection #

Choose Pen and draw in the grid to create notes. Eraser removes notes where you click or draw. Knife splits a note at the clicked time. With Pen active, right-drag can erase notes.

Choose Time Selection and drag horizontally to mark a time range. Drag a selection edge to stretch the affected notes. The Comping variant paints active or muted ranges on clips; it is a clip workflow and needs suitable clips.

Draft: Knife lyric handling is described from source. The complete split gesture, undo and vocal playback remain unverified.

When Knife splits a note, the left half keeps its lyrics. The new right half starts without lyrics or phonemes. Check and enter the right half's text before relying on the split for vocal playback.

Fit a Performance Grid #

Select the notes in Piano Roll, then click Fit Performance Grid in the toolbar. Performance Grid authoring requires DonutStudio Pro and the enabled Advanced Transforms & Groove add-on. That add-on has both Free and Pro controls; this workflow is a Pro control.

The grid fits musical positions to the timing of the selected MIDI performance. It captures selected freeform notes and MIDI clip-instance notes. These instructions are source-reviewed; the native workflow remains unverified.

Edit pitch expression #

Choose Pitch Bend to add and edit points on an eligible note. Move a point to change its time and pitch. The curve between points determines how pitch travels through the note. Toggle Vibrato on the selected segment, then adjust its amount or rate with the available bend controls.

Choose Draw Bend to trace a pitch curve. Starting in empty space can create a note; starting on a note edits the relevant note material. Snap bends to nearby notes helps match endpoints. Automatically join snapped notes joins eligible snapped material. Smart Branch lets note-interior endpoints make forks or merges. These are separate switches, so enable only the behavior you need.

Pitch curves on vocal material have separate Draw Pitch, Erase Pitch and Freeze Pitch tools. Erase Pitch exposes the inferred curve beneath user edits. The vocal editor also has formant, amplitude, time, split, heal and transition tools. Availability depends on the vocal material and the corresponding add-on or Pro control.

The Piano Roll Pitch Bend and Draw Bend tools appear when Expression & Automation is active. These per-note curves are separate from MIDI CC pitch-wheel lanes.

Draw a harmonic run #

Choose Run Draw to make a chronological sequence of harmonic tones. Set the tone source in the context row before drawing. Keys/EDO follows the key division, Current tuning follows the active tuning, and Chord uses a chosen chord palette. Choosing Chord without a palette opens the palette chooser.

Drag to define the run span, then shape its endpoints and curve handle. Click or press Enter to commit the shaped result; Escape cancels, and R resets the shape. In Fixed duration mode, the mouse wheel adjusts note length. Even timing spaces the generated steps evenly; Pitch distance timing allocates time according to the pitch movement. Legato extends steps to their neighbors; Fixed uses the fixed duration mode. The consecutive-ratio option suppresses immediate repeated ratios.

The default source is Current tuning, with Pitch distance timing and Legato duration. Check the preview before completing a run, particularly after changing its tone source or chord palette.

Draw a chord region #

Choose Chord Draw, then choose a regular chord palette or an exact JI chord palette in the context row. Draw a region to place the palette tones together. The chosen palette defines the chord; the drawn region defines its placement and duration.

The palette chip reopens the chooser. Selecting a palette for drawing is a different operation from clicking a chord to insert it at the green chord cursor.

• Choose a chord palette

Paint notes or a contour #

Choose Brush, then select Notes or Contour in the context row. Paint rightward and release to commit. Notes paints grid notes snapped to the chosen tone palette. Contour follows the recorded rises, falls and turns of your stroke as successive harmonic runs.

Brush shares the Keys/EDO, Current tuning and Chord tone sources with Run Draw. Contour has its own timing and duration choices. Switch variants deliberately before drawing; Notes is the default.

Use Undo after a practice stroke if you do not want to keep it. Drawing tutorials make real project edits.

Choose the kind of loop #

A transport loop repeats playback between the orange ruler limits. Shift-drag in the beat ruler to create or replace it. The ruler brackets are indicators; change the range with another Shift-drag.

A note loop repeats a region of notes. Choose Pointer, then Shift-drag empty piano-roll space around the notes. Its horizontal edges control the region and repetition extent; vertical extension can create octave copies. Use Detach/Dissolve Loop when you need independent notes.

An arranger clip loop repeats the contents of a clip. Its loop count, loop start and loop length belong to that clip. A repeated note may be an instance of shared clip content, so do not assume a transform changes only the one visible copy.

Harmonic links describe pitch relationships. They do not repeat time or create a playback loop. A loop can contain linked notes, but the two operations have different purposes.

Transform support varies by note ownership. Basic registry Quantize and Legato reject note-loop targets; Consolidate rejects clip, loop and generated selections. Use the dialog result and its selection requirements rather than assuming every operation supports every repeated note.

Hold Shift and click inside a note-loop region to select it. The selected source cell has a stronger blue border; repeated cells use dashed borders. In single-track editing, loops on other tracks are dimmed. Multi-track editing removes that dimming. Native selection and overlay rendering remain unverified for this draft.

• Check transform targets
• Work with harmonic links

Choose note colors #

In the bottom View controls, click the palette button to cycle through the eight Note Colors choices. The visibility menu also lists these choices.

Role distinguishes harmonic roles, and Interval colors notes by harmonic ratios. Each has an Accessible variant. Prime Limit uses the highest prime in a ratio, and Tenney Height uses ratio complexity. Each of these also has an Accessible variant.

The main and second piano rolls share the color choice. Single-track note fills use the chosen palette; multi-track fills retain track colors. The choice is retained in project state. This draft has not verified native rendering or accessibility.

Show cross-track ghost notes #

Choose View > Ghost Notes to show faded notes from other eligible tracks behind the notes you are editing. This reference overlay requires single-track editing. Multi-track editing suppresses it, and track filters still apply.

The View switch displays reference notes. The Ghost Notes transform creates additional notes. Use the selection controls to confirm which notes you are editing.

• Create notes with the Ghost Notes transform
• Select, move and resize notes