<p>
- Ardour's handling of <dfn>MIDI editing</dfn> differs from most other DAWs
- and MIDI sequencers.
+ Ardour's handling of MIDI and how it allows the editing of MIDI data differs
+ in key ways from most other DAWs and MIDI sequencers. Also, unlike its
+ handling of audio data, the editing of MIDI data in Ardour is necessarily
+ <em>destructive</em> by nature.
</p>
-<h2>Key features of Ardour MIDI handling</h2>
+<h2>Key features of Ardour MIDI editing</h2>
+
<ul>
<li>
- All editing is done in-place, in-window. There is no separate piano roll
- window or pane. Edit notes right where they appear.
- </li>
- <li>
- MIDI, just like audio, exists in regions. MIDI regions behave like audio
- regions: they can be moved, trimmed, copied (cloned), or deleted. Ardour
- allows either editing MIDI (or audio) regions, or MIDI region content (the
- notes), but never both at the same time. The <kbd class="menu">e</kbd> key
- (by default) toggles between region level and note level editing
+ All editing is done in-place, in-window; there is no separate piano roll
+ window or pane. Notes are edited right where they appear.
</li>
<li>
- Editing note information in Ardour occurs in only a single region. There is
- no way currently to edit in note data for multiple regions at the same time,
- so for example notes cannot be selected in several regions and then all
- deleted, nor can they be copied-and-pasted from one region to another.
- Region(s), though, can be copy-pasted just as with audio.
+ Editing note information in Ardour occurs in only a single
+ region. There is no way currently to edit note data for multiple
+ regions at the same time; so, for example, notes cannot be
+ selected in several regions at once and then all deleted. However
+ they can they be copied and pasted from one region to another.
</li>
<li>
- All MIDI I/O is done via JACK for sample accurate timing and maximal
- efficiency when communicating with external software synthesizers.
- </li>
- <li>
- Every MIDI track has its own JACK MIDI port for input; it may have an
+ Every MIDI track has its own MIDI port for input; it may have an
arbitrary combination of audio and MIDI outputs, depending on the signal
- processing in the track; the full flexibility of JACK connectivity is
- present for MIDI just as it is for audio.
+ processing in the track.
</li>
<li>
Full automation for MIDI tracks, integrated with the handling of all MIDI
There is a Normal and a Percussive mode for note data editing.
</li>
<li>
- The <dfn>scroomer</dfn> is a combination scroll/zoom tool for altering
- the zoom level and range of visible MIDI data.
+ The visible note range is controlled by a
+ <dfn>scroomer</dfn> widget, which is a combination scroll/zoom tool for
+ altering the zoom level and range of visible MIDI data. When in
+ internal edit mode, you can also use scroll operations to adjust
+ the visible range in various ways.
</li>
</ul>
-<h2>Notable Differences</h2>
-<ul>
- <li>
- Fader (volume) control currently operates on transmitted MIDI data, not by
- sending CC #7.
- </li>
- <li>
- All note/data editing is per-region. There are no cross-region operations at
- this time.
- </li>
- <li>
- By default, copying a MIDI region creates a <dfn>deep link</dfn>—both
- regions share the same data source, and edits to the contents of one will
- affect the other. Breaking this link is done by selecting <kbd
- class="menu">MIDI > Unlink from other copies</kbd> from the region
- context menu, after which the selected region(s) will have their own copies
- of <em>only</em> the data that they visually display on screen. The region
- will no longer be trimmable back to its original length after an Unlink
- operation, and the operation cannot be undone.
- </li>
-</ul>
projects / ardour-manual / blobdiff