Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts apply while you are working in the editor, outside menus and text fields. The full list for the current workspace is always one click away under Help › Shortcuts & gestures (Help › Keyboard shortcuts in the single-file editor). Shortcuts written with ⌘ use Ctrl on Windows and Linux, and the File menu shows them that way there.

When to use it

Learn Space, Z, the three tool keys and S first; they cover most of a session. The number keys for places let you move around the workspace from the keyboard, so you can jump between views without leaving the keys. In the Split layout they are always 1 for the sequencer, 2 for the piano roll, 3 for the instrument, 4 for effects and 5 for the mixer. In the Rack layout they follow the order of the sections, as you set it under View › Customize rack.

Controls

Transport and history

Space plays and pauses; holding it down counts once. ⌘Z undoes and ⇧⌘Z redoes. ⌘S saves, ⇧⌘S saves as and ⌘O opens a song. They work even while the project name field or the MIDI editor has focus, and an expanded MIDI editor docks while the sheet they open is on screen. Inside a dialog such as Export they do nothing, and the browser’s own Save page stays shut. Escape cancels a drag and puts the Cut or Draw tool down; otherwise it stops playback and clears a time selection. After you click a button such as Mute, use a control such as the tempo or a clip’s fade handle, or close a header menu, every shortcut still works; a button keeps only Space and Enter, which press it again, and a control keeps the keys it uses.

Multitrack editing

V, C and P choose the Select, Cut and Draw tools. S splits the selected clips at the cursor, every one the cursor crosses, as one Undo step. Delete or Backspace removes the selected clip, or, with an effect card or a mixer row focused, that effect, the same one ⌘C would copy. ← and → move the selected audio clip to the neighbouring grid line, the step the Snap button shows; with Snap off they move it by 10 ms, and with Shift by a fine 1 ms. While you drag, Shift moves or copies clips off the grid and Alt trims clips and draws time selections off the grid. A focused edge of a time selection moves one grid step with the arrow keys, one sample with Alt. A focused track header moves its track with the arrows, ↑ and ↓ past its neighbours, → into the group above it and ← out of its group. ⌘C on a focused effect copies it and ⌘V pastes it into the selected track’s rack; see Copying effects. 1 to 5 jump to the places in the places bar, from the MIDI editor too; an expanded editor docks so the place shows, and opens expanded again next time. They are ignored inside text entry, sliders and menus, and in the Keyboard view or while step recording, where the number row belongs to the keyboard whether Typing is on or off.

Clips, tempo and lanes

Enter on a focused clip selects it, and on a comp opens the Comp takes editor. A focused fade handle lengthens or shortens its fade by 10 ms with ← and →, 1 ms with Shift, and Home removes it. A focused clip gain button changes the gain by 1 dB with ↑ and ↓, 0.1 dB with Shift, and Home returns it to 0 dB. A focused loop grip lengthens or shortens the loop by a grid step with ← and →, finer with Alt, and Enter adds one repeat. The focused tempo goes up or down 1 BPM with ↑ and ↓.

In an automation lane, Enter adds a point at the cursor. With a point selected, ← and → move it a grid step (one tick with Alt), ↑ and ↓ change its value (finer with Shift), Delete removes it and Escape lets it go. A focused chord on the chord track or strum section moves with ← and →, changes its length with Shift, and goes with Delete.

Piano roll

Arrow keys move the selected notes by one grid step sideways and one semitone up or down; Shift with Up or Down moves an octave. Delete or Backspace removes them, ⌘D duplicates them, ⌘A selects every note in the clip, and Escape clears the selection before it closes the editor. Shift+F10 opens the note editing menu from the keyboard, with transposition, duplicate, delete and quantize. The Q button opens quantization for the selection or, with nothing selected, for the whole clip. In Beats the arrow keys move between cells and Enter adds or removes the hit in the focused one.

Comping

In the Comp takes editor, ↑ and ↓ choose the take for the selected passage, ← and → move between passages, Space listens, C turns the cutter on or off, ⌘Z undoes the last choice and ⇧⌘Z redoes it. A focused boundary moves one grid step with ← and →, one sample with Alt. The quick takes popup on a comp has the same arrows, Space and undo, and M silences the passage. See Audio comping.

Keyboard view

While the Keyboard view is on screen with Typing on, the letter, number and punctuation keys play notes, ↓ and ↑ move the octave and Shift holds the sustain pedal. The single-key shortcuts above wait meanwhile; Space, Escape and every ⌘ shortcut still work. While step recording, in the piano roll too, → adds a rest or lengthens held notes, ← moves the cursor back, Backspace erases the step before it and Escape stops.

Instrument controls

A focused numeric control steps with the arrow keys, finer with Shift, and jumps to its limits with Home and End; its reset arrow returns the default. In the Sampler’s Keys layout a focused mapping handle moves a semitone with the arrows and an octave with Shift.

Single-file editor

⌘A selects all, L loops the selection, +, − and 0 zoom in, out and to fit, ← and → scroll the view, and Escape stops and clears the selection.

Tips

• Shortcuts stay quiet while a text field, a menu or a slider has focus, so typing a track name never triggers a tool.
• On a touch screen the same actions live under a hold; see Touch and tablet.