+++ /dev/null
----
-layout: default
-title: Handling Overlapping Notes
-menu_title: Overlapping Notes
----
-
-<p>
- Every MIDI note consists of two messages, a NoteOn and a NoteOff. Each one
- has a note number and a channel (also a velocity, but that isn't relevant
- here). The MIDI standard stresses that it is invalid to send a second NoteOn
- for the same note number on the same channel before a NoteOff for the first
- NoteOn. It is more or less impossible to do this with a physical MIDI
- controller such as a keyboard, but remarkably easy to trigger when editing
- in a DAW - simply overlapping two instances of the same note will do it.
-</p>
-<p>
- Ardour offers many options for how to deal with instances where you overlap
- two instances of the same note. Which one to use is a per-session property
- and can be modified from <kbd class="menu">Session > Properties > Misc > MIDI
- Options</kbd>.
-</p>
-
-<dl class="wide-table">
- <dt>never allow them</dt>
- <dd>Edits that would create note overlaps are not allowed</dd>
- <dt>don't do anything in particular</dt>
- <dd>Ardour leaves overlapping notes alone — the behaviour of a MIDI receiver (plugin or hardware) is undefined</dd>
- <dt>replace any overlapped existing note</dt>
- <dd>When one note is moved to overlap another, remove the one that wasn't being moved</dd>
- <dt>shorten the overlapped existing note</dt>
- <dd>When one note is moved to overlap another, shorten the one that wasn't moved so that there is no overlap</dd>
- <dt>shorten the overlapping new note</dt>
- <dd>When one note is moved to overlap another, shorten the one that was moved so that there is no overlap</dd>
- <dt>replace both overlapping notes with a single note</dt>
- <dd>When one note is moved to overlap another, merge them both to form one (longer) note</dd>
-</dl>
-<p>
- Changing the option in use will not retroactively make changes — it will
- only affect new note overlaps created while the option remains chosen.
-</p>
-<p class="warning">
- Ardour does not check for note overlaps across tracks or even across regions.
- If you create these, it is your responsibility to deal with the consequences.
-</p>
-