Music Composer

Tempo and lanes

Under the notes are lanes for the score, the tempo, the sustain pedal, pitch bend, vibrato, tremolo and expression. Right-click an empty part of the canvas: Lanes shows or hides the lanes the piece has, and Add starts a pitch bend, vibrato, tremolo or expression lane. Each viewfinder keeps its own choice. Every lane but the score belongs to the interpretation, so each interpretation can shape its tempo differently.

Score

The Score lane, off until you turn it on in the Lanes menu, with the score lane button in the top bar or with ⇧S, writes the notes out as a score under the roll, each note under its own place in time. It shows the piece's scores; turned on in a piece with none, it saves the suggested score first, leaving out percussion parts. A section that loops is written out in every pass, as the roll shows it; the pages write it once, between repeat signs. Zoom in to read it larger. On a phone, the button in the top corner shows or hides it and fits the view to it, in a piece that has a score.

  • It's written from the composition, so an interpretation's nudges and tempo don't move it, and an ornament shows as its symbol over the written note.
  • Rhythms recorded or dragged off the grid are tidied for writing only. The notes themselves don't move.
  • Each note is spelt for the key it's in. To write it another way, as D♭ rather than C♯, choose its Spelling in Properties; a note moved to another pitch is spelt for the key again.
  • Percussion parts aren't written yet.
  • Each bar of the score stands on its bar of the roll; a crowded bar spaces its notes more tightly.
  • Click a note in the score to select and hear it, or drag across the lane to select every note the rectangle touches. ⇧ adds to the selection.
  • Notes three ledger lines or more off a staff are written an octave nearer, under an 8va or 8vb line. A line only ever covers one voice: where another voice on the staff plays, it breaks, so held bass notes under off-beat chords get a mark each. Set this in the Scores window's Parts tab (Auto, 8va only or Off).

The Scores window lays the score out on pages. Turn pages with ← and → or Page Up and Page Down anywhere in the window, which are what most page-turner pedals send. With the page itself focused, Space and Enter turn forward too.

Notes on the page select as they do in the lane: click one, or drag a rectangle across several. Click an ornament's symbol to select the ornament. Click the paper between notes to put the cursor there, so playback starts from it. Pinch or ⌘-scroll to zoom the page, and scroll, Space-drag or middle-drag to move it. After you click in the page, ⌘= and ⌘- zoom it and ⌘0 fits it to the window, until you click somewhere else.

A piece can have several scores, listed down the window's left side. Each card's switch puts that score in the score lane, turning the lane on if it's hidden; the lane stacks them in the list's order; drag a card by its handle to reorder. Right-click a card to duplicate or delete it. Until you make one, the window shows a suggested score, and changing any of its settings saves it. A new score starts from that suggestion, or blank, with every part on a staff of its own.

Open PDF opens the score as a PDF in a new tab; Download PDF saves it.

On the right are the open score's settings. Design sets the page: the subheading is the composition's subtitle until you write one, bar numbers go over each line's first bar unless you choose every bar or none, a section the composition plays twice is printed once between repeat signs unless you choose Written out, and Scale sets the staff's size (100% is a 6.4 mm staff). Pixels Han and Pixels Han Mono are offered as text fonts for scores only. Parts sets which parts are written and their staves. With Custom staves, set each staff's clef or leave it on Auto to switch clefs as the music moves; pin a part to one staff and its notes stay there, changing clef as needed.

Tempo

The tempo lane starts from the interpretation's BPM. On top of it you can add spans, rebases, ramps and changes to single beats.

Spans

A span plays a stretch of the piece faster or slower. The quickest way to make one starts from the notes: select them, then press ⌘. for faster or ⌘, for slower, and the span covers exactly their stretch. With nothing selected, it starts at the cursor.

In the lane itself:

  • drag up or down over a note to speed up or slow down its stretch, or over a span to change it;
  • drag left or right to mark out a stretch, then press ↑ or ↓ to give it a tempo;
  • click a span to select it, and drag the knobs at its ends to resize it;
  • double-click a point or a span to remove it, putting back the plain tempo.

C cuts a span in two.

Rebases, ramps and beats

  • A rebase sets a new tempo from that point on: ⇧-drag in the lane.
  • A ramp changes the tempo gradually: R adds a ramp point at the cursor. ⌥-click a ramp point to give it handles that curve the ramp; double-click a handle to straighten it again.
  • ⌘-drag changes the tempo of a single beat.

Right-click in the lane for the rest.

The Speed control on the transport changes how fast you listen, not the tempo of the piece.