User manual

514
Entering and editing notes
Note values and positions
Two of the most important settings for entering notes (and
the ones you will change most often) are the length of the
note (the note value) and the minimum spacing between
notes (the quantize value).
Selecting a note value for input
This can be done in one of three ways:
• By clicking the note symbols on the extended toolbar.
You can select any note value from 1/1 to 1/64th and activate/deactivate
the dotted and triplet options by clicking the two buttons to the right. The
selected note value is displayed in the Length value field on the toolbar
and in the Insert Note tool cursor shape.
The note value is reflected in the extended toolbar, the Length value
field and the Insert Note tool shape.
• By selecting an option from the Length pop-up menu on
the toolbar.
• By assigning key commands to the different length
values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, under the
category “Set Insert Length”.
About unusual note values
Not all note values can be selected directly, for example
double dotted notes. Such notes are created by changing
the length of the note after you have put it in (see “Chan-
ging the length of notes” on page 521), by gluing notes
together (see “Lengthening a note by gluing two notes to-
gether” on page 522) or by using the Display Length
feature.
Selecting a display quantize value
When you move the mouse pointer over the score, you will
see that the position box on the toolbar tracks your move-
ment and shows the current position in bars, beats, six-
teenth notes and ticks.
Positioning on screen is controlled by the current quantize
value. If you for example set this to “1/8 Note”, you can only
insert and move notes to eighth note positions, at quarter
notes, at half bars or at bar positions. It is a good strategy
to set the quantize value to the smallest note value in the
project. This doesn’t stop you from inputting notes at
“coarser” positions. However, if you set the quantize value
to too small a note value, it is easier to make mistakes.
The quantize value is set on the toolbar in the Quantize
pop-up menu:
• You can also assign key commands to the different
quantize values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog on the File menu, under the
category “MIDI Quantize”.
• Just like in the other MIDI editors, you can use the
Quantize Setup dialog to create other quantize values, ir-
regular grids, etc.
However, this is not often used when inputting score notes.
The “mouse position box”
While you will most often use the graphical position in the
actual score to determine where the notes go, there are
instances when you will want to verify the position numer-
ically using the mouse position box:
With the quantize value set to “1/8 Note”, you can only
input notes at eighth note positions.