Beat editor

Beats shows a MIDI clip as a grid of steps: one row for each sound of the kit, one column for each step, and a hit wherever a note plays. It edits the same notes as the piano roll, so you can switch between the two at any time and nothing is converted or lost. A clip on a drum machine, a sampler kit or a kit from the sound library opens in Beats; every other clip opens in the piano roll.

When to use it

Program a groove, add a fill, thin out a busy hi-hat line, or sketch a percussion part on any instrument. Switch to the piano roll when you need exact lengths, timing between steps or note-by-note editing.

Controls

Piano roll and Beats

The rail on the left of the MIDI editor chooses how the clip is shown. Dr. Tape remembers the choice for each clip and saves it with the project. Switching is not an edit, so Undo leaves it alone. Keyboard, the third choice, is for playing rather than editing and is not saved with the clip.

Steps

How long one column lasts: 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 or the 1/8 and 1/16 triplets. Changing it never moves notes. A note between two steps sits in its nearest step, drawn narrower and offset towards where it really plays, with a dashed edge.

Hit length

How long new hits last: one step, or a fixed 1/32 to 1/4. The drum machine always plays its whole sound, so length only matters for instruments that follow it, such as a sampler in Gate mode.

Placing hits

Click an empty step to add a hit and click a hit to remove it. Drag along a row to paint hits, or start on a hit and drag along the row to clear them. Each drag is one Undo step. With note preview on, every new hit sounds as you place it. Click or hold a row’s name to hear its sound.

Velocity and Chance

Drag a hit up or down to make it louder or softer; a softer hit is drawn fainter. Below the grid, Velocity and Chance follow one row at a time: the row you last played, clicked or moved to, whose name is marked and shown beside the lanes. Each step’s bar there is that row’s hit alone, so a snare can get a chance while the kick on the same step stays certain. Drag a bar up or down, or sweep across empty space to paint.

Chance is the probability that a hit plays, from 1 to 100 percent. Hits that might not play are hatched. The pattern belongs to the clip: each repetition of a looping clip rolls again, a clip keeps its pattern when you move it, a copy plays the same pattern until you roll it, and an export plays exactly what playback plays. The dice beside Chance rolls the clip again for a new pattern.

Rows

Each row plays one note. Click or hold its name to hear it. The chevron beside the name chooses another note: the instrument’s sounds come first, then every other note. The row moves to that note’s place and takes its hits in this clip along. Point at a row and a cross appears at its end; it removes the row and its hits in this clip. + Add row above the names adds one, for example a scale for a riff on a synth. Rows always follow pitch order, so Beats and the piano roll line up, and they belong to the track, so every clip on it shows the same ones.

Keyboard

Tab into the grid, move with the arrow keys and press Enter to add or remove the hit in the outlined step.

Tips

• Rows list the kit’s sounds with the kick at the bottom, plus any other note the clip plays.
• Remove the extra articulations of a large kit to keep its rows to the sounds you use.
• Set Steps to 1/32 to edit a roll one hit at a time; at 1/16 two hits in one step show a small dot.
• Loop a one-bar beat with the clip’s loop grip, then edit the loop source here to change every repetition.
• Give ghost notes and extra hats a chance around 30–60% so a looping beat keeps changing without losing its backbone.