User manual

575
Entering and editing notes
Note values and positions
Two of the most important settings for entering notes are
the length of the note (the note value) and the minimum
spacing between notes (the Quantize value).
Selecting a note value for input
You can choose the length for entering notes as follows:
• By clicking the note symbols on the extended toolbar.
You can select any note value from 1/1 to 1/64 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 Quantize field on the
toolbar and also reflected by the cursor shape of the Insert Note tool.
• By selecting an option from the Length Quantize pop-
up menu on the toolbar.
• By assigning key commands to the different length
values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog (in 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 entered it (see
“Changing the length of notes” on page 582), by gluing
notes together (see “Lengthening a note by gluing two
notes together” on page 582) or by using the Display
Length feature.
Selecting a Quantize value
When you move the mouse pointer over the score the
Mouse Time Position display in the status line tracks your
movement and shows the current position in bars, beats,
sixteenth notes, and ticks.
Positioning on screen is controlled by the current Quantize
value. If you set this to 1/8, for example, 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 does not 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 on the “Quantize
Presets” pop-up menu:
• You can also assign key commands to the different
Quantize values.
This is done in the Key Commands dialog (in the category “MIDI Quan-
tize”).
• Just like in the other MIDI editors, you can use the Quan-
tize Panel to create other Quantize values, irregular grids,
etc.
However, this is not often used when inputting score notes.
The mouse position info
While you often use the graphical position in the actual
score to determine where the notes go, there are instances
when you want to verify the position numerically using the
mouse position info displayed in the status line.
With the Quantize value set to 1/8, you can only input notes at
eighth note positions.