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Open a clip in Focus Mode

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Move between clips

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Which page do you need

  • Piano Roll: draw, mark, move and stamp the notes of a MIDI clip.
  • Pitch Snap and Reference Track: keep notes in the scale or on the chord, and see another track’s notes behind the roll.
  • Audio Clips: play an audio clip’s slices from the keyboard, set its gain, cut it at a slice.
  • Automation Clips: points, shapes, bends, the LFO and step recording on one curve.
  • Dynamics Mode: draw clip gain and note velocity as steps, on the timeline or in the roll.

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Good to know

  • Use Focus Mode when a clip needs more than moving or trimming: notes, slices or a curve.
  • Other tracks shrink to a 24 pt row above and below the focused one instead of disappearing.
  • Leaving restores the view. Zoom, scroll position and every track height come back as they were. If you entered from Compact, you return to Compact.
  • Escape first undoes the smaller thing. With notes, points or a region marked, the first press only clears the mark; with the clip picker open or a stamp armed, it closes or disarms that. The next press leaves Focus Mode.
  • ⌥↑ leaves only when nothing is marked. With notes marked it moves them up instead.
  • Each clip type opens its own editor: a MIDI clip the piano roll, an audio clip a slice band, an automation clip the curve editor.
  • ⌥↓ is the Focus rung of the timeline’s zoom ladder, and ⌥↑ steps back one rung at a time. A MIDI clip has one more rung, the piano roll at full window height. The whole ladder: Zoom and Navigate.
  • ⌥↓ runs Command Palette → Enter Focus Mode, for audio, MIDI and automation clips alike. ⌥↑ is Exit Focus Mode.
  • Tab and ⇧Tab are Focus Next Clip and Focus Previous Clip. The editor jumps to that clip and the view follows it.
  • Every clip on the focused track carries a thin header strip. Press in the strip to drag the clip; press below it to edit.
  • Clicking another clip on the focused track switches to it; a click on another track leaves Focus Mode.
  • The focus bar floats centered at the top of the window, just below the toolbar. What it holds depends on the clip type; each editor’s page lists its own controls. Every bar ends with an Exit Focus Mode button (Esc).
  • The bar starts with the clip picker, a shade swatch with a badge counting the clips linked together. It switches clips, unlinks one, or links identical clips: Linked Clips.
Every key inside the editors: Focus Mode Shortcuts.
Last modified on October 22, 2026