MIDI Note Editing Tools

Note editing overview

The note canvas is the Piano Roll's main editing area. Create, select, move, trim, split, mute, and quantize MIDI notes, or edit multiple notes together.

The Piano Roll provides six dedicated tools: Selection, Pencil, Brush, Eraser, Mute, and Scissors. Switch tools to suit your task, or hold the right mouse button to open the MIDI editing shortcut toolbar and quickly choose a tool.

Note display settings

In Settings > Piano Roll, you can show or hide the following additional note information:

• MIDI note number: displays the note's MIDI note number.

• Velocity: displays the note's velocity.

• Articulation labels: displays the articulations associated with the note, such as those shown in the illustration.

Note data and AI performance

Sonic Vein Studio keeps user edits and AI performance data in separate layers. Changes to MIDI notes are recorded as independent, undoable operations and do not directly overwrite the timing data of the AI-generated performance.

1. Selection tool

The Selection tool selects and manipulates notes and other editable objects. It is the basic tool for precisely adjusting note positions, durations, and other properties.

Its main operations include:

1. Select a note: click a note to select it.

2. Marquee-select notes: drag on the canvas to select notes within a rectangular area.

3. Move notes: drag selected notes to change their start positions or pitches.

4. Trim notes: drag a note's edge to change its length.

5. Batch editing: select multiple notes to perform supported operations on all of them.

When moving notes, their timing follows the current grid settings and whether grid snapping is enabled.

2. Pencil tool

The Pencil tool creates individual notes and adjusts their length and velocity. It is useful for precise note entry and editing notes one at a time.

Create notes

1. Click an empty grid position inside a clip to create a note. Its initial length follows the current grid settings.

2. While creating a note, drag horizontally to adjust its length or vertically to adjust its velocity from 1–127.

3. If clicking an existing note enters length adjustment mode, drag its right edge to change its length.

Create notes outside a clip

When you draw a note in an empty area not covered by a clip, an eight-bar clip is created automatically at the start of the current bar, and the note is added to it.

Audition feedback

Note creation uses throttled auditioning to prevent repeated triggering or audio artifacts during continuous operations.

3. Brush tool

The Brush tool draws multiple notes continuously. It is useful for quickly entering melodies, repeated patterns, or chord notes.

1. Hold the mouse button and drag horizontally on the note canvas to create notes along the drag path.

2. Each new note's default length follows the current grid settings.

3. Move vertically while dragging to adjust the velocity of the notes you draw.

4. A complete Brush stroke is grouped into a single undo operation so you can undo the whole stroke at once.

5. Passing over the same pitch and grid position again does not create duplicate notes there.

4. Eraser tool

The Eraser tool deletes notes and other objects that support erasing.

1. Delete one note: click the note to delete it.

2. Delete multiple notes: hold the mouse button and drag across notes to delete them. Each note is deleted only once per drag.

3. Delete selected notes: select one or more notes, then press Delete to delete them together.

Deleted notes can be restored with Undo.

5. Mute tool

The Mute tool toggles notes between muted and unmuted. It does not delete notes or change their timing, pitch, length, or velocity.

1. Toggle one note: click a note to mute or unmute it according to its current state.

2. Toggle multiple notes: hold the mouse button and drag across notes to apply the target mute state determined for that operation to all notes you pass over.

3. Scope: the Mute tool affects notes only. It does not modify clips, automation, time signatures, or other objects.

6. Scissors tool

The Scissors tool splits notes at a specified time position and updates related sustained articulation events.

1. Split notes: click a time position on the note canvas to split all notes in the focused clip that cross that point. The split position follows the current grid snapping settings.

2. Handle sustained articulations: when notes are split, related sustained articulation events are updated, and the currently active articulation event is copied at the split point to maintain articulation continuity.

3. Scope: the Scissors tool splits notes and related articulation events. It does not split clips, pitch bend, or MIDI CC automation curves.

7. Velocity lane

Displays each note's velocity as a bar (range 1–127). Use the Pencil or Brush tool to draw velocity curves across multiple notes.

Batch velocity-envelope transformations include tilting, offsetting, vertical scaling, and scaling around the center of selected velocity points, helping you quickly shape a phrase's dynamics.