5.3. The Encyclopedia of MIDI Editing

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Now that you know how to navigate the Track Editor, you can get down to the business of using it to rewrite history: changing the recorded music.


Note: Any edits you make to a MIDI region that you've looped (by dragging its upper-right corner) appear in all repetitions of that loop, which may take you by surprise. If you'd like to edit only one repetition, create it by copying and pasting the original region, so that it's no longer related to the original.
  • Hear a note by clicking it. (Clicking a note bar also turns it bright green to show that it's selected.)

  • Delete a selected note by pressing the Delete key.

  • Change a note's pitch by dragging its note bar up or down, using the center of the note bar as a handle. (If the note won't seem to budge, try zooming in. GarageBand probably considered the note bar too small to make a decent handle.)


    Tip: In notation view, you can also shift a note's pitch by pressing the up and down arrow keys.
  • Shorten or lengthen a note by dragging the right end of its bar. You'll discover that GarageBand forces the note's end to align with the current note grid, described above. (Once again, try zooming in if you're having trouble.)


    Note: You can't shorten a note from its left side. If your intention is to lop off the "front" of a note, drag the entire note, as described next , and then shorten the right side.
  • Make a note play sooner or later by dragging its center horizontally. (In notation view, you can also shift a selected note by pressing the right or left arrow keys.)

    You'll notice that as you drag a note, it snaps to the next rhythmic grid line (quarter note, eighth note, or whatever value you've selected from the Grid Ruler pop-up menu shown in Figure 5-1). That's GarageBand's attempt to help keep your music in sync.

    If you'd like to be able to drag freely , choose Control Snap to Grid ( -G), so that the checkmark no longer appears.

  • Duplicate a note by Option-dragging its bar. This trick works whether you drag vertically or horizontally.

  • Insert a new note by -clicking at the appropriate spot. (As soon as you press the key, the cursor turns into a little pencil to let you know what's about to happen.)

    In piano-roll view, use the vertical, left-side piano keyboard ruler as a guide to pitch, and the beat ruler to help you figure out where you are in the song.

    You'll soon discover, by the way, that you can't - drag to determine the length of the note you insert. Every new note you create has the same duration. That value (eighth note, for example) is determined by the setting in the Grid Ruler pop-up menu shown in Figure 5-1.

    You can always adjust a note's length once it appears in the Track Editor, of course, by dragging its right end. But when you intend to insert a bunch of notes of similar value, it's worth taking the time to select that duration from the Grid Ruler pop-up menu first.


    Tip: Very often, the fastest way to create a new note is not to use the -click trick at all. Instead, Option-drag an existing note bar to duplicate it; then, before you release the mouse, move it to the proper pitch and time. The first advantage here is that you can duplicate a note that already has the duration and velocity you want; the second is that you can duplicate a batch of selected notes at once.
  • Select a few notes by clicking one, then Shift-clicking each additional note. (Shift-click a second time to remove a note bar from the selected group .)

  • Select a lot of notes by dragging a selection box around them (Figure 5-3).

    Either way, once you've selected notes, you can perform several editing maneuvers to all of them at once. For example, you can cut or copy them (described next), delete them, Option-drag to duplicate them, stretch or shorten them (drag the right end of any one selected note bar), drag them up or down in pitch, drag them left or right in time, and so on. They retain their original timings and relationships.

  • Cut/copy and paste notes to a different spot by selecting them, choosing Edit Copy ( -C) or Edit Cut ( -X), clicking in the Editor's beat ruler to place the Playhead, and then choosing Edit Paste ( -V). The notes you copied or cut appear at the Playhead position.

    GarageBand adds pasted notes to whatever already occupies the paste position, rather than wiping out what's there.

Figure 5-3. To select a batch of notes, begin dragging diagonally from a blank spot on the Track Editor. Your selection will include any note bar that's even partly enclosed by the resulting box.
When you drag them, they remain in perfect formation.


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GarageBand2. The Missing Manual
GarageBand2. The Missing Manual
ISBN: 596100353
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 153

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