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Keep notes in the scale

Open a MIDI clip with ⌥↓ and click the note-shaped Pitch Snap chip in the focus bar. Choose Scale, then draw or drag a note: it lands on a row of the project’s key.

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Snap notes to the chord

Click the Pitch Snap chip and choose Chord, then drag notes or mark them and press ↑ / ↓. Each step is the next tone of the chord under the note.

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Turn the snap off

Choose Off in the chip’s menu, or run Command Palette → Pitch Snap… and pick Off. Notes land on any semitone.

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Write against another track

Click the Reference track chip (two stacked layers) and pick a track, such as the bass while you write the chords. Its notes appear dimmed behind the roll, in that track’s color.

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Good to know

  • Scale is the default. It lets a note land only on rows of the project’s key and scale, set in Tempo, Key and Meter. It does not look at what other tracks play.
  • Chord uses the chord track: the chord in force where the note lands. There are fewer rows than in a scale, so one step up or down is the next chord tone. The piano roll lights each chord’s tones, chord by chord, instead of the scale’s.
  • Snap shapes the gesture, not the notes already written. Switching modes never moves a note; it changes where the next draw, drag or arrow press can land.
  • A placed pattern keeps its own setting. It arrives with Pitch Snap Off, so dragging one of its notes does not pull it into the key; the chip edits that pattern’s setting and Follow Session hands it back to the session-wide one. A stamped shape follows the session. Details: Patterns.
  • The reference track is never edited. Its notes cannot be clicked, and it stays chosen as you move between clips.
  • A drawn note rounds to the nearest allowed row, and so do the hover ghost and a stamp’s root.
  • A dragged selection moves by steps. The note under the pointer rounds to an allowed row, and every marked note moves by the same number of steps of the rows allowed where it lands: C–E–G up one step in C major becomes D–F–A. A selection across two chords resolves each note against its own chord.
  • ↑ / ↓ move marked notes by one step of the allowed rows: the next scale degree under Scale, the next chord tone under Chord, a semitone under Off. Fn↑ / Fn↓ are always an octave. Changing the chip mid-nudge re-applies the presses so far under the new mode.
  • Chord needs chords to follow. The menu and the palette offer it only while the project has a chord track with chords.
  • If the chords go away while Chord is chosen, or the open clip sits where no chord runs, Chord stays selected but behaves like Off. The chip shows a slashed note, and its tooltip says nothing runs under the clip. A beat with no chord falls back to semitones, and so does Scale in a project without a scale.
  • The chip shows the mode at a glance: a grey, struck-through note for Off, a note in the clip’s color for Scale, a white note on a filled chip for Chord.
  • The session-wide setting lasts until you quit; it is not saved with the project. A pattern’s own setting is saved, is shared by its linked clips, and travels through copies and splits. Changing it is one undo step (Pitch Snap).
  • Pitch Snap… is in the Command Palette’s Clips group, with no default shortcut. With no piano roll open it reads No Piano Roll Open.
  • The reference menu lists every visible track with MIDI clips, except the one you are editing; tracks inside a collapsed group are left out. With no such track the chip is hidden. Pick the chosen track again, or None, to put it away.
  • Reference notes keep their own timing and their track’s groove, and are not cut at the edges of the open clip. The choice is for this session only and has no palette command.
Last modified on October 22, 2026