About Sequence Editing

The Song Composer and all Sequence editors, ie. the Key Editor, the Grafix Editor and the List Editor, use some common guidelines.

Some of the below guidelines are relevant to both the Song Composer and the Sequence editors, and some of them are for the Sequence editors only.

Positioning & Sizing


Use the scrollbars at the right and bottom of the editors to position and size the edit window.

You can also use the Arrow Keys and the Mouse Wheel to scroll and zoom the edit window :
Arrows up/down/left/right scroll in the appropriate direction, and while holding [Shift], scrolling goes faster. While holding [Control], the Arrow Keys zoom in/out, and while holding [Shift] meanwhile, zooming is more extreme.

The Mouse Wheel has the same behaviour as the Arrow Keys, just use [Alternate] for horizontal actions. So the combination of the Mouse Wheel and [Shift], [Control] and [Alternate] let you scroll/zoom in any direction.

You can also zoom in on sections of an edit window by using the Magnifying Glass tool :

The Magnifying Glass works horizontal/vertical depending on the rectangle you specify.
If this rectangle is more horizontal, the Magnifying Glass is zooming horizontally;
If this rectangle is more vertical, the Magnifying Glass is zooming vertically.

Wanna zoom out ? It is very easy to return to an overview situation by pressing the [Home] key, or by clicking the zoom button at the crosspoint of the scrollbars :

Or you can zoom in on a selection of Events by [Shift]+clicking that zoom button.

Note that there are also zoom functions in The Edit menu, to which you can assign a FastKey, if you want.



The Time Bar


The Time Bar is the small area above an editor where you can see the measures.

This is what can be done :



Mouse ToolBox


The MouseToolBox is always shown, and you can select tools by just clicking on them.

You can drag the MouseToolBox to anywhere on the screen by clicking on it outside the tools section, thus by clicking, for example, at the side.

If you maximize or minimize an editor (by clicking its title bar), the MouseToolBox will keep its relative position.

Another interesting feature is that if you right-click/command-click in the editor, the MouseToolBox is quickly moved under your mousepointer for fast selection of another tool, whereafter it jumps back to it's original location.

In this case i.e. when pulling the toolbox via a right-click/command-click, you can also use these keys for fast tool selection :

You can also speedup tool selection via these 3 FastKeys functions :

Select Arrow/Pencil ToolSelects the arrow or pencil tool
Select Gum/Glass ToolSelects the gum or glass tool
Switch Tool Hand Muzys gives you two Tool Hands, each of which can select and hold a tool.

Here is the concept :

Imagine that you have two hands in each of which you can hold a tool. After you started Muzys, the left hand is your working hand and you can use it to select for example the tool. So now you can work with the .

Now you can press your Switch Tool Hand FastKey.

From now on you're working with your right hand, and you can select for example the . So now you can work with the . Now, when you call "Switch Tool Hands" again, you'll see the again, since the is still in your left tool hand. And so you can continue working with the .

So, with your two Tool Hands, you can work with two tools and quickly switch between them.

To use these functions, you must assign a FastKey to them via the System menu:FastKeys.



Monitoring an Event


Everywhere in the Sequence editors, you can use the [Tab] key to monitor the current selected Event.

Also when you're updating a value,for example a velocity, you can use [Tab] to monitor the current value.

Very handy !



Editing when multiple Events are selected


In many cases, when editing an existing Event while more than one Event is selected, Muzys will ask you whether the edit must be applied to all selected Events :

Of course, for the ease of use, you can always use the [A], [R], [P] and [Escape] keys to make your choice, as explained in "Messages/Questions".



Deleting


Use [Delete], [Backspace] or the Gum to delete objects.



Keep / Undo Edit Session


When you enter one of the Sequence editors, you start an 'Edit Session' on a Sequence. The Edit Session continues until you go outside one of these editors.

When you press [Return] or doubleclick with the arrow on the editors' background, you will return to the Composer, keeping all changes you've made to the edited Sequence.

But when you press [Esc], you will return to the Composer, undoing all changes you've made to the edited Sequence, within this Edit Session. Thus undoing all changes made since the moment you entered one of the Sequence editors.

This is very handy when you want to try out an edit, but decide to keep the previous version of the Sequence. So then you just have to press [Esc]. Or go to Edit menu:Undo Edit Session, which has the same effect.



A Sequence's default editor


Muzys automatically remembers what editor you explicitly chose last for a sequence. Then a doubleclick will bring you to that editor.

So if you want sequence X to open in the Grafix Editor, just select that part/sequence, and use the "Grafix Editor" button to go to that editor.

And from now on, you can just doubleclick that sequence to go to the Grafix Editor.

If you ever want to change the "default editor" for a sequence, just explicitly choose another editor. Muzys automatically remembers your last choice.



Edited/Viewed/Selected Events

Muzys has a very simple but effective way to indicate which Events you want to edit.

When being in the editors, there are 3 levels of filtering on which Events are edited :

Edited Events are all the Events that can be edited by that editor.
For example, The Key Editor only edits Note Events, so if you have a Sequence with Note Events and Controllers together, and you are in the Key Editor, not all Events are edited !

Viewed Events are the Events you SEE in the editor.
In some cases, you may want not to see all Events of a Sequence, because for example there are too many overlapping Events and you just want to edit some of them.

In fact, you zoom in on a certain group of Events, without being disturbed by Events you don't want to see.
All non-viewed Events are still there, and are still heard, but they are not displayed.

The Eye button controls that View Selection :

The Eye button also indicates whether you are working in a View Selection.

Selected Events are the Events on which you want to perform a certain action/function.
Only viewed Events can be selected !

So, suppose you have a Sequence with 20 Note- and 80 Controller Events.

When arriving in the Key Editor :

Total : 100 Events
Edited : 20 Events
Viewed : 20 Events
Selected : 0 Events

Suppose you select 8 Notes :

Total : 100 Events
Edited : 20 Events
Viewed : 20 Events
Selected : 8 Events

Suppose you make a View Selection (via the Eye button) :

Total : 100 Events
Edited : 20 Events
Viewed : 8 Events
Selected : 0 Events

Any operation or Sequence function will work, in this last case, on all 8 viewed Events, and if you would select 3 of those 8 Events, the operation would work on those 3 Events.

Maybe, this all sounds a bit difficult but it's not.
It's just a little subsystem that is available if you need it.

By default, there is no View Selection (all edited Events are viewed), so you can forget about this, if you want.



Logical Selector

In all Composition and Sequence editors you can use the Logical Selector in the Edit menu to make a very specific selection of Events.

In fact, every Event has the following parameters : Position, Type, Player, Value 1, Value 2, and Length.
Value 1 and Value 2 are abstract terms since their content depends on the Type.
For example, for Note Events, Value 1 is the key and Value 2 is the velocity.

The Logical Selector allows you to setup some mathematical criteria, so you can easily make specific selections.
The possible operators are : All, Equal, Unequal, Lower, Higher, Inside, Outside.

Example 1 : I want to select all Note Events higher than C4

PositionAll
TypeEqualNote
PlayerAll
Value 1HigherC4
Value 2All
LengthAll

Example 2 : I want to select all Pitch Bend of Player "K2000" between positions 17.0.000 and 17.3.144.

PositionInside17.0.00017.3.144
TypeEqualPitch Bend
PlayerEqualK2000
Value 1All
Value 2All
LengthAll

Note that ...

Next : The Key Editor Table Of Contents