# MusE - The Linux (Midi) Music Editor

## 4. Window Reference Guide

## 4.1 The Main Window

Here's a screenshot of the main window, with a standard MIDI file already loaded:

The main window is basically divided up into two panes separated by a veritcal bar that is movable horizontally. These two panes together are called the Arranger.

## 4.2 The Arranger

The left pane of the Arranger describes each track in detail, while the right pane describes each track graphically.

### 4.2.1 The Left Pane

The left pane details the following information for each track:

- A -??
- M - Mute the track
- C - Defines whether the track is one of MIDI, Drum or Wave.
- Track - A freely-editable track name.
- Ch - Defines which MIDI Channel this track plays on.
- Port - Defines which MIDI port this track plays on.
- T -??

You can select which track is currently "active" by simply clicking on the track.

When a track's M column is clicked, that track is marked as Muted with a red circle and upon playback that track will not be heard. To hear the track, click on the M column for that track again.

Right click on the C column for a track to declare the track to be of type MIDI, Drum or Wave.

The Track column is free-form, meaning that a double-click on a track's Track column will allow you to enter a descriptive name for the track, for example "Hot Lead Guitar".

The Ch column for a track is changed by right-clicking to increment the number or middle-clicking to decrement the number. It's generally a good idea to keep differing instruments on different MIDI channels and it's considered common to have the drum kit on channel 10.

#### 4.2.1.1 Track Info

At the bottom of the left pane, you'll see a little button labelled "TrackInfo". When clicked, the standard information plus more about the currently selected track is presented:

- Track Name
- Channel
- Transpose
- Delay
- Length
- Velocity
- Compr

The bottom half of the TrackInfo display describes MIDI channel information:

- MIDI Instrument
- H-Bank
- L-Bank
- Progr
- Volume
- Pan

Operations that can be performed on the left pane:

Track Functions |
--- | ---

Select Track

- Left Mouse Button

Select multiple Tracks

- Shift + Left Mouse Button

Change Selected Track

- Key Up: previous Track
- Key Down: next Track
- click with left mouse button in name field

Move Track

- Drag with left Mouse Button

Create New Track

- Pulldown Edit
- Ctrl T
- double click in empty track

Delete selected Track(s)

- Pulldown Edit
- Del

Rename Track

- doubleClick with left mouse button on track name

Change Midi Channel

- left mouse button increments midi channel
- middle mouse button decrements midi channel

Select Midi Port

- click with right mouse button on portname; select from pulldown menu

Mute Track

- click with left mouse button on ´M´ field in Tracklist

Solo Track

- click ´Solo´ button

### 4.2.2 The Right Pane

The right pane desribes each track graphically. Time moves from left to right and is measured in beats that are referenced at the top of the right pane. Tracks are displayed vertically in boxes, called "Parts", that depict where MIDI and audio data are played.

The small sliders that are adjacent to the bottom right corner affect the view of the right pane in terms of "zooming". The vertical slider affects the height of the tracks, while the horizontal slider affects the width.

Operations that can be performed on the right pane:

To do this... | ...Do this
Select Part | Left Click
Select multiple parts | Shift + left click
Select all parts on track | Ctrl + left click
Change selected part | Key left: previous part, Key right: next part Key up: nearest part on track above, Key down: nearest part on track below
Move locators to beginning and end of selected part | Alt+P
Move part | Drag with left mouse button
Create new part | select Pencil tool; draw with left mouse button pressed, OR set left and right mark; double click on track
Delete selected part(s) | select rubber tool; click part to delete
Rename part | double click with left mouse button on part
Copy part | drag with shift + left mouse button
Cut part | select Cut Tool; click on part to cut
Glue part | select Glue Tool; click on part to glue with next part

### 4.2.3 The Button Bar & Menus

Across the top, above the Arranger, is a menu system, icons and other widgets that you use to manipulate your project. Most of these are self-explanatory, while others are described later in this document.

## 4.3 The Pianoroll

The Pianoroll displays the contents of a midi track. Notes are entered with the pencil tool, and are moved around with the arrow tool. The snap value is used to snap the notes to the grid (use no snap value to move the notes freely). Quantize is used to move existing notes closer to a defined interval (f.ex. a quarter note). For example, If one records a piece and want to adjust timing errors. Other alternatives in the menu are scale velocity, gate time modification and selection of specific events

Pressing the 'ctrl'-button in the lower left corner of the pianoroll opens the controller editor. Keyboard shortcuts and other things that can be used in the pianoroll:

To do this... | ...Do this
Change current position | Key left, Key right
Undo last change | Ctrl+Z
Select all events in current part | Ctrl+A
Select all events with a certain pitch | Ctrl key + Left click on event
Insert silence | Insert key
Change quantization & stick to value btwn 1-1/64th | Key 1-Key 7
Toggle triplets on/off in quantization & stick to | T-key
Toggle period (long notes?) on/off in quantization & stick to | Period key
Change event color-mode | E-key
Move locators to beginning and end of selected events | Alt+P

## 4.4 The Control Editor

The control editor is where you can edit controllers and velocity. Use the 'Sel' button to select the controller you wish to edit. The above window is an example of the velocity values for a group of notes. To edit velocity, or already existing controller values, just select the pen tool and paint in the controller pane.

### 4.4.1 Managing controls

When pressing the 'Sel'-button, different controllers will be shown based on the controllers existing in the song. If you want to add a controller not previously in the track, select the option at the bottom of the popup-menu when pressing the 'Sel'-button. This opens the dialog for managing controllers. You can add new controllers to the list as well as save and load controller sets.

To create new controller events when there aren't any existing controller events already entered can be a little counter-intuitive if you're not used to it. This is done by either selecting the pen tool and holding down the shift key while left-clicking in the controller pane, or using the line tool when left-clicking with the shift key pressed.

If you only want to edit already existing controller values, just left click using the pen or line tool. This only changes already existing controller values without creating new controller events. The above example shows editing of pan controller events.

## 4.5 The Drum-editor

### 4.5.1 The left pane

The left pane of the drum editor displays the drum map, made up of drum instruments. When creating a drum track, a default drum map is loaded. It's also possible to load and save your own drummaps.

The different parameters for the instruments are as follows:

M | Toggle instrument mute
Sound | Name of the instrument
Quantize value | Self-explanatory. Quantize value is currently not used though
E-Note | The physical note that is actually stored
Len | Default len value. All events created will have this value
A-Note | The note actually played. (Whenever a E-note occurs, an A-note is played)
Ch | The channel the note is sent to. Makes it possible to f.ex. use different soundfonts in fluidsynth from the same drum map
Port | The port the note is sent to. Makes it possible to f.ex. use different soundfonts in fluidsynth from the same drum map
LV1 | Level value 1. When creating a note with left-click+Ctrl+Shift, this is the velocity value the note is given
LV2 | Level value 2. When creating a note with left-click+Shift, this is the velocity value the note is given
LV1 | Level value 3. When creating a note with left-click+Ctrl, this is the velocity value the note is given
LV4 | Level value 4. When creating a note with left-click, this is the velocity value the note is given

To edit the particular values, you can either double click the value you wish to change or increase or decrease the value by using right and middle mouse keys. Changing port is done by pressing the right mouse button and selecting a value from the popup-menu that appears.

It can be tedious to enter the same value for many instruments, f.ex. port and channel value. To change all the channel and port values, hold down the Ctrl-button before clicking right or middle mouse button.

You can also switch the order between the instruments by pressing down the left mouse key on the name of a specific instrument, and drag it up and down. (Note that some things are not completely finished in the editor. Changing the E-note on an instrument and then switching place makes the result unpredictable! Since the output not (A-note) is generally the interesting one, changing the E-note is not particularly useful and this option might be removed in the future)

To do this... | ...do that
Toggle mute | Left click in the mute-column for the selected instrument
Change instrument name | Double click in the sound column for the selected instrument
Change quantization | Right/middle mouse click in the QNT-column for the selected instrument
Change E-note | Right/middle mouse click in the E-note-column for the selected instrument
Change Len | Right/middle mouse click or doubleclick in the Len-column for the selected instrument
Change E-note | Right/middle mouse click in the A-note-column for the selected instrument
Change Channel | Right/middle mouse click in the Channel-column for the selected instrument
Change Channel for all instruments in drummap | Ctrl+Right/middle mouse click in the Channel-column for the selected instrument
Change Port | Right-click in the Port-column for the selected instrument and select port from popup-menu
Change Port for all instruments in drummap | Ctrl+Right-click in the Port-column for the selected instrument and select port from popup-menu
Change default level values | Right/middle mouse click, or doubleclick in the LV1-LV4 columns

Note: It's possible to only view and edit the velocity of one particular drum-instruments (this can be quite useful when you f.ex. want to edit the hihat only). To do this, open the controller pane (press 'Ctrl' in the bottom left of the editor) and then select a particular instrument by clicking left in its sound-column

### 4.5.2 The right pane

Notes are entered using the pen tool and holding down ctrl, shift or ctrl+shift (to give them the different default level values). Currently, there are not a lot of functions in the drum editor. It's possible to copy, move and delete events, as in the arranger and pianoroll. You can also select all notes of a particular instrument by ctrl+left-clicking on a note.

To set all select drum notes to a particular length (the default lenght in the Len-column in the left pane), press Alt+L. Can be useful with particular soundfonts where the sound dies as soon as the note ends.