Adding New Notes

MIDI notes can be added a few different ways in Ardour:

Using the mouse {#add-new-notes-using-the-mouse}

Drawing notes with the mouse requires that a MIDI track exists, and a blank MIDI region has been created in this track.

In the Draw Mode new notes can be added with a click or a click-and-drag: a mouse click creates a note at the pointer location (or the nearest grid anchor if grid is enabled), and its duration is one Grid unit. A mouse drag creates the note like a click does, but allows continuously setting the duration of the note until the mouse button is released.

It’s also possible to brush notes by pressing [Shift]{.kbd}, clicking, and dragging to the right. New notes will be painted at an interval defined by global quantization ([Edit > Snap & Grid > Global Quantization]{.kbd .menu}), with the length defined in the editor toolbar (see below).

The toolbar available in the [Draw]{.dfn} mode helps drawing notes of exact length, in a certain MIDI channel, with predefined velocity:

MIDI draw toolbar{style=“width:75%”}

While the [Velocity]{.dfn} drop-down list only displays presets, you can hover it and use mouse wheel scrolling to increment the current value by 1. Scrolling above the other two drop-down lists will cycle through the presets.

The [Auto]{.dfn} option in three drop-down lists works differently in all three cases:

Length

The length will be defined by the grid snapping setting

Channel

This value will be inherited from the closest note

Velocity

The value will be an interpolation between two closest notes, the position of the newly added note relative to either of the two notes will also be taken into consideration

Using Step Entry {#add-new-notes-using-step-entry}

The Step Entry editor allows to enter a melody in sequence along time, using a virtual keyboard and specific controls. It can be a very handy and fast way to create MIDI lines, in a kind of typewriter way, all the more when using its different keyboard shortcuts.

The Step Entry window is shown by [right]{.kbd .mouse} clicking the record button in the MIDI track header and selecting [Step Entry]{.kbd .menu}. This will automatically create a MIDI region to type into at the playhead position, which will automatically expand at each step.

Using the Virtual Keyboard {#add-new-notes-using-the-virtual-keyboard}

The Virtual MIDI Keyboard — or a real MIDI keyboard plugged in as the tracks input — can be used to record MIDI, as a microphone would record audio.

It can be started by choosing the [Window > Virtual Keyboard]{.kbd .menu} menu. Exactly like for audio recording, the track(s) must be armed for recording, the main record engaged, then the transport started. As for the Step Entry, a MIDI region will be auto-generated at the playhead position, and expanded as long as the recording lasts.