Editing MIDI - muting individual notes

[richford]

As far as I can tell so far this basic feature seems not to be available, but as it is so basic maybe I'm just missing something so I thought I'd ask!

If I have played in a MIDI line and want to mess around with the line in the MIDI edit domain I might want to change velocities, move notes around and also perhaps want to silence some of them, just temporarily - I might decide that the note I've muted I actually want to un-mute.. etc..
It's a way of working I've been used to for a long time but I can't figure out how to do that small thing - mute a note or notes on the piano-roll so that I can un-mute them again at will.

[Shooshie]

You're right. It's not there.

To mute a note in a MIDI track, for me the easiest way is to drag it (in the Tracks Overview Window) to another track, a "scratch track" which is not play-enabled. You can drag it back later if you want to. Select the notes in the MIDI Graphic Edit Window, then switch to the Tracks Overview and grab one of the selections you see (sometimes they're hard to see until you get used to this), and drag it up or down to another track. It will retain its position in time and only change tracks, providing that you don't drag it across a bar line.

There are other ways. That's just how I've always done it. Sorry about the lack of a MIDI Mute. You get used to it.

Shooshie

[wvandyck]

If you're not concerned at the moment whether or not the note(s) appear as notion, then another way is to create a window set consisting of the MIDI Editor and a side bar with the Event Information tab. Select the note you want to mute, then drag the velocity down to 1 (as far as it goes). The color velocity shading is lighter as a visual cue.

When you want to identify the note(s) with no velocity, select a few notes and looks at the velocity points at the bottom of the MIDI Editor.

Then again, the scratch track is the better option as you'll have a clear visual on what's going.

[rickorick]

You can mute 1 note by clicking on it and using the mute region command, you have to turn
on automation for that track. Also cut will take a group of notes out but it doesn't paste
them back in the same place so maybe someone here will know why they don't paste back
in the same place, but cut would work pretty well as long as you don't forget and cut something else but as long as the notes are on the clipboard you can paste them back
in the track just not where they were.

[Tritonemusic]

You can also select the note(s) you want to play by Shift-Clicking them, then pressing Option-Spacebar. That will play only the select notes.

[wvandyck]

Also cut will take a group of notes out but it doesn't paste
them back in the same place ..

Don't cut, but drag the note from one track to the scratch track directly below. It retains it's position when dragged either out of or back into the source track.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Still, muting MIDI notes is long overdue and would seem a relatively simple thing to include.

[Shooshie]

Still, muting MIDI notes is long overdue and would seem a relatively simple thing to include.

Amen, Brother!

[Dan Worley]

Still, muting MIDI notes is long overdue and would seem a relatively simple thing to include.

Amen, Brother!

Amen to that amen.

Get on with it already. There's no longer a dead horse to beat. The corpse has rotted away.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Get on with it already. There's no longer a dead horse to beat. The corpse has rotted away.

There are always options....

[Michael Canavan]

I'm of the opinion that there are reasons programming wise beyond what we know why muting MIDI notes and why a track can't just respond to a high and low note so you could for instance split a controller keyboard between two or more instruments. I also think these two MIDI related improvements will happen, and in the same upgrade.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Wouldn't setting the velocity to zero accomplish this?

[Shooshie]

Wouldn't setting the velocity to zero accomplish this?

For a few notes, maybe, but not if you want to preserve the phrasing of a really well-rendered line and the voicing of piano chords, and such. I mean... yeah, it WOULD accomplish it. But un-muting it would be kinda disastrous!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I was thinking along the lines of DP allowing the velocity to be set at zero and remembering the original velocity. You can't set a zero velocity in the app as is.

[bayswater]

Volume is not always controlled by velocity. And don't some synths treat a note with zero velocity as a note off?