Piano roll
The piano roll is another way to edit the same patterns as the pattern editor. Time runs left to right across the order, and pitch runs up the keyboard. Notes you draw here are ordinary pattern notes, so switching back to the tracker shows the same data.
Experimental
The piano roll is unfinished. It stays hidden until you turn on Settings → Experimental features.
Open it
- Open Settings and enable Experimental features.
- Switch with View → Piano roll, or the Tracker / Piano roll control at the top of the song view.
View → Tracker (or the same control) returns to the pattern grid. The pattern length field next to the switch edits the current pattern, from 1 to 256 rows, while playback is stopped.
Layout
The bar across the top lists every song in the project and a button for each of its channels. The roll edits one channel. Ghost channels, to the left of the time zoom, shows notes from the other channels as faint gray blocks marked with their channel. Those notes cannot be selected or edited. It starts off. The same switch is in Settings → Appearance → Piano roll ghost notes. Click another channel button to edit that voice. Chip-wide columns (AY envelope and noise, SAA noise and envelope, and so on) are edited from the lane, not as their own channel.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ghost channels | Show notes from the other channels |
| Time + / − | Zoom the row width |
| Pitch + / − | Zoom the key height |
| Lane menu | Choose which non-note field the bottom strip edits |
The bottom lane is one pattern field at a time: instrument, table, volume (or left and right on SAA), effect, or a chip-wide column. The menu labels chip-wide fields with Chip. Click a cell in the lane to type a value. On an effect lane, the editor also lists the commands for that chip. Enter writes the cell and opens the next row. Escape closes the editor and leaves the cell as it was. Clicking elsewhere writes the value and closes the editor.
Notes
Click an empty cell to place a note at that pitch and row, then drag to set how many rows it lasts. Drag the body of a note to move it in time or pitch. Drag the right edge to change its length.
| Gesture | Result |
|---|---|
| Click and drag on empty space | Place a note and set its length |
| Drag a note | Move it |
| Drag the right edge | Resize it |
| Right-click a note, or drag with the right button | Erase |
Shift+click on empty space | Place a release |
Alt+click on empty space | Place a note off |
| Right-click the time ruler | Note off on that row |
Shift+right-click the time ruler | Release on that row |
Mod+drag starts a selection box. Add to the current selection with Shift. Select all (Mod+A) selects the notes currently on screen.
Copy, cut, and paste use the same shortcuts as the pattern editor (Mod+C, Mod+X, Mod+V). Paste starts at the cursor row. If the pasted notes would overlap notes that are already there, both sets stay and the overlap is marked until you erase one of them.
Arrow keys move the selected note by one row or one semitone. Shift+↑ / ↓ moves it by an octave. With nothing selected, the arrows move the cursor. Delete or Backspace removes the selection. The computer-keyboard piano layout from Keyboard enters a note on the current row.
Space starts and stops playback. While audio is running, edits are locked; click the time ruler to move the play position.
Edits go through the same undo history as the pattern editor.