How to glue two MIDI notes together in the MIDI Editor?

[MDesigner]

Let's say I have two notes on a track that are exactly the same pitch but there's a break in between them. I've looked through the manual but couldn't find a function that would allow me to just select those two notes and hit a key to have them merge into a single note. The closest thing I could find was some sort of "heal" operation that uses the clipboard, which isn't what I'm looking for. Is there something else?

[Dan Worley]

Edit: I didn't catch on that he needed it to work with a gap between the two notes, so in that case, Heal Separation will not work.

End Edit.

Heal Separation is the answer, as far as I know. I don't know what you mean by it using the clipboard and it not being what you want. It does exactly what you said you wanted it to do.

[MDesigner]

No, heal only merges notes that overlap or meet. I'm talking about notes that have a gap between them.

[Dan Worley]

Hmm, if they're the same note, touching or overlapping, and both selected, and you hit Edit > Heal Separation (Option-H), they should become one note. Not sure why it's not working for you. Maybe relaunch DP.

[Dan Worley]

No, heal only merges notes that overlap or meet. I'm talking about notes that have a gap between them.

Oh, I see. I did not catch that in your first post. Sorry. I don't know a way.

[MDesigner]

I suppose the workaround is to drag the first note to overlap the second, then heal.

[Dan Worley]

I suppose the workaround is to drag the first note to overlap the second, then heal.

Yeah, that's what I come up with, too. It's not bad. We'll see if anyone has a better solution.

[Shooshie]

By the time you have selected them and found a command to join them, I could have deleted one and dragged the end of the first to the location of the end of the 2nd.

I mean... some things are just not that hard to do, right?

Or am I missing the point? I edit vast expanses of MIDI all the time, and I'd say I'm pretty fast at it. That was my bread & butter for many years before digital audio became the butter to MIDI's bread. So, forgive me for not seeing what may be an important point if I only came to it in the right perspective. But in my ignorant state, I only see two notes where there should be one, and by the time I type the next word, one would be gone and the other in its place.

Shoosh

[Shooshie]

By the way, if you'll indulge me for a few minutes, let me show you how I'd do that. I'd drag the first note over the 2nd one until the endpoints matched, then SHIFT-DRAG over them both, and hit DELETE. Three seconds would be a relaxed and generous pace. I've probably done it in less than 2.

But what if you have these figures scattered throughout a sequence? Dozens of them? Even hundreds? Perhaps it's a thematic feature on the 4th beat of every other bar. You and/or your producer have changed your mind(s) and decided not to do a dotted 8th/16th, but just another quarter note. You want to remove the 16th and extend the 8ths. Surrounding notes make the process of selecting them tedious. You don't want to have to select them more than once.

• Use the Search command's time grid function, possibly intersected with note range (if they're all the same notes, or all in the bass, etc.) to select all the dotted 8th/16th dyads in the whole sequence. Hold that selection with the SHIFT key so that a stray click doesn't lose it. Chances are you have a saved search with those parameters so that you don't have to create it again. (but it's not hard to create after you become familiar with Search) Save that search if you haven't already.

• Now, you notice that all the notes in the passage have velocities in the range of, say, 40 to 90. So, you CONTROL-SHIFT-DRAG the dyads' velocities down to about 15, out of the range of the others.

• Now, using Search, again, you select within the current selection with the 16th's range turned off the grid. You're left with the 8ths. Hit your function key to bring up the Change Duration dialog. Add 120 to the durations of all your 8ths. (Or 128, 140... whatever they need)

• Now, SHIFT-DRAG over all those velocity tics you brought down proportionally to 15. Your 8ths are deselected, and your 16ths are selected. Hit delete. You may have to zoom out your edit window to drag over the entire song at the level of 15 velocity. (120 would probably have worked work, too)

• DRAG over the 8ths' velocity tics, and proportionately raise them back up to their original velocity. (you did remember that number, didn't you?)

You've changed a couple dozen of them in a very short time. Maybe a heal command would be faster? Maybe not. Maybe the Search command would eliminate the need for the dragging of velocities and selecting in that way. Whatever... This is just an example I made up off the top of my head, based on thousands I've done in real life, and I've added the Search command to the workflow since it was added in December, 1997. It sure speeds up many processes. But the main trick here, really, is just manipulating selections, making it possible to get what you want, when you want it, without having to manually click through a dense field of notes, and especially without having to do it twice. Search is great. But the bit about negative selection (SHIFT-DRAG) where you select change what is selected in one quick pass, should be part of your main workflow. There are just so many situations in which it's indispensable. And when notes are dense, velocities can be used to differentiate for quick selection. Just change them and put them back later.

It was tricks like these that made me able to keep up with whatever was going on around me in the heat of production. I didn't always have to tell the others to wait while I click on all these little specks a few times. Sometimes... but not always.

Shooshie

[MDesigner]

Ahh, nice trick!! (using shift-drag to select one while deselecting the other) Clever. I'll use that from now on!

As for the rest, a bit overcomplicated for what I need to do, at least for the moment. Though that search feature is pretty incredible! One thing I didn't quite get: you said ctrl-shift-drag to change note velocities? In which window? That doesn't seem to work for me.

[Shooshie]

Ahh, nice trick!! (using shift-drag to select one while deselecting the other) Clever. I'll use that from now on!

As for the rest, a bit overcomplicated for what I need to do, at least for the moment. Though that search feature is pretty incredible! One thing I didn't quite get: you said ctrl-shift-drag to change note velocities? In which window? That doesn't seem to work for me.

Should work in all editing windows. CONTROL-DRAG is a proportional drag, rather than linear. The problem with it is that it works not only vertically, but horizontally, so you have to use SHIFT to constrain it to one or the other. Of course, it's not really a problem, but a feature; SHIFT is merely required to choose which feature you get. You don't want to raise or lower velocities and find that you've also extended your selected notes past the end of the sequence!

When you use the CONTROL key, the cursor becomes a cross-hair gunsight when centered on an eligible object. So, select a line of MIDI notes, center the crosshair on one of the velocity tics, then (with the SHIFT key also) raise or lower the velocity. All the other velocities change with it, but the proportions between their values are preserved.

A proportional drag downward, followed by a linear drag back up to original levels is a quick method of compressing velocities.

Try again... you'll find that it works anywhere you find Velocity tics. Or Controller Points.

The Control Key has many uses in DP, all of them excellent shortcuts or features!

Shooshie

[cbergm7210]

I routinely use the Duration command, choosing "Move releases to closest attack", then use the Heal command. Select both notes, option D, then option H.

[Shooshie]

I routinely use the Duration command, choosing "Move releases to closest attack", then use the Heal command. Select both notes, option D, then option H.

That's probably a lot faster. I'll admit: we didn't have the heal command when I learned all this stuff, so I was already set in my ways. My "workarounds" seem complicated on paper... er... forums, but they go fast. It's just a matter of what you're familiar with, I guess.

Shoosh

[cbergm7210]

I routinely use the Duration command, choosing "Move releases to closest attack", then use the Heal command. Select both notes, option D, then option H.

That's probably a lot faster. I'll admit: we didn't have the heal command when I learned all this stuff, so I was already set in my ways. My "workarounds" seem complicated on paper... er... forums, but they go fast. It's just a matter of what you're familiar with, I guess.

Shoosh

We love your "workarounds", brother. Keep 'em comin'.

[stubbsonic]

What does Option-D do? Is that the duration command? It doesn't seem to be active on my rig.