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Turn it on and off

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Draw levels on the timeline

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Paint across a part

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Set a chord’s level

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Draw velocities in the piano roll

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Work from the keyboard

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Good to know

  • An audio clip shows its clip gain, one step per slice when its sample has transient markers inside the clip. Every onset in a MIDI clip shows its velocity, as a line with a fill under it, like an automation clip.
  • In the mode a click edits levels and nothing else. Clips cannot be moved, resized, split or faded by accident. Transport, scrolling, zoom, track headers, undo and the Command Palette keep working.
  • A stroke is one undo step, however many clips it touched: Paint Clip Gain, Paint Slice Gain or Paint Velocity in the Edit menu. You hear it from the next pass after you let go. Escape while the mouse is still down cancels the stroke and writes nothing.
  • A chord is one step, and the voicing keeps its balance. To balance single voices, use the piano roll.
  • Painting a linked audio clip unlinks it first, so the accent lands only where you drew it. The sample stays on the track. Notes in linked MIDI clips change in every copy, as any note edit does.
  • More ways in and out. Run Dynamics Mode On/Off from the Command Palette (⌘K, group Clips), or click the × on the Dynamics Mode pill in the top right. The toolbar button lights up and the edit cursor goes away while the mode is on; leaving brings the clips back as they were.
  • A pattern stamp and the mode exclude each other. Arming a stamp leaves the mode, and switching the mode on disarms a stamp. Opening or creating another project leaves the mode too.
  • Double-click a step to reset it: 0 dB for audio, the clip’s own level for a slice, velocity 100 for MIDI. In the mode, a double-click on the timeline resets a step instead of opening the clip.
  • ⌘ drags at a tenth of the speed. A stroke stays on the track it started on.
  • A readout shows the value while you draw: the gain in dB for an audio clip, the slice’s own level and the total for a slice (Slice −3.0 dB · −9.0 dB), the velocity for a single note, and the range for a chord (Chord · 3 notes · 84–110).
  • Audio steps run from −36 dB to +24 dB, with 0 dB at 60 % of the height. Dragging never mutes a clip. MIDI steps run from velocity 1 to 127.
  • A slice step sets that slice’s own level and leaves the clip gain alone. The step shows the two together.
  • The piano roll is for single notes and voices against each other. You can also open a clip’s piano roll first and turn the mode on there. The notes become steps, filled up to their velocity, and the rest of the arrangement keeps showing its steps around the roll.
  • Editing in the roll is relative, because a note is one row high and height means pitch there. A drag moves velocity 1 step per point, a fifth of that with ⌘. When the note is marked, every marked note moves with it.
  • A sweep in the roll moves each note whose start you pass by how far you have risen or fallen at that moment. Rising to the right gives a crescendo relative to what was played, and a chord’s voices keep their differences. With notes marked, only marked notes change.
  • Double-click a note in the roll to reset it to velocity 100, every marked note when it is marked. A click alone changes nothing.
  • In the roll the fills move as you drag, a readout shows the note’s velocity, and letting go writes one Paint Velocity undo step. Notes cannot be moved, resized or drawn while the mode is on. Arrows and number keys keep their usual piano-roll meaning.
  • The keys work while the timeline has keyboard focus. The first arrow picks a step: the first step of a selected clip, otherwise the step under the playhead on the top track that has one. Moving selects what you land on (the clip for an audio step, the notes of a MIDI step), and the readout shows its value after every key.
  • The number keys act as on any selection. On audio they set clip gain relative to the clip’s peak, as on the timeline (Clip Gain). On a slice they set its level against the clip, and the key left of 1 mutes that hit. On MIDI the step’s loudest note goes to that velocity and the others keep their distance.
  • Repeated presses on one step are one undo step. While recording, the number keys lay down notes as usual.
  • To apply a whole accent or phrasing shape in one go, use Humanize.
Last modified on October 22, 2026