MIDI and piano roll

Instrument tracks hold MIDI clips and send their notes to a VST® 3 instrument.

Create an instrument track

1. Open the Mixer and choose Instrument.
2. Select the empty instrument input slot.
3. Search for a VST 3 instrument and choose a supported audio mode.
4. Double-click the instrument lane in the arrangement to create a MIDI clip.

Double-click the instrument slot later to open the plug-in's editor.

Import MIDI

Open the right-side Media Browser, choose MIDI, and select a Standard MIDI File. The import dialog lists its sequences and note counts. Imported MIDI also remains available as a reusable project asset.

For each sequence:

• choose New Instrument track and optionally assign a VST 3 instrument; or
• choose an existing Instrument track; or
• choose Ignore.

Choose whether to keep the current project Tempo Track or import the file's tempo map. Keeping project tempo places the MIDI at the playhead. Importing tempo starts at tick zero and replaces the existing tempo map.

You can also drag a MIDI asset or operating-system MIDI file into the arrangement. Dropping on an Instrument track opens mapping with that track preselected. Dropping on blank arrangement space defaults to a new Instrument track. Audio tracks reject MIDI drops and explain the valid target.

Open the piano roll

Select a MIDI clip, then choose Piano Roll in the top bar. The lower dock shows the editable clips, note grid, inspector, and optional velocity lane.

Editing tools

• Select moves, resizes, and edits existing notes.
• Draw adds notes.
• Erase removes notes.
• Snap constrains note positions and lengths to the selected musical grid.
• Quantize moves selected note starts to the current snap grid.

The inspector edits pitch, start tick, duration, channel, velocity, and release velocity for the current selection. Drag bars in the velocity lane for a visual way to shape dynamics.

Snap choices include straight and triplet values from whole notes through 64th notes. Off retains integer tick precision without snapping to a note division.

Useful note-editing keys

Standard edit commands—cut, copy, paste, select all, undo, and redo—apply to the active editor. The piano roll also supports keyboard-driven duplication, octave transposition, and quantization; command hints in the editor reflect the current selection and tool.