> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gridshift.studio/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Dynamics Mode > Draw the level of every clip and note straight on the timeline — clip gain for audio, velocity for MIDI — by clicking, dragging or painting across them. **Dynamics Mode** turns every clip on the timeline into a level you can draw. An audio clip shows its clip gain, and every onset in a MIDI clip shows its velocity, as a line with a fill under it, like an automation clip. While the mode is on, a click in a track edits levels and nothing else: clips cannot be moved, resized, split or faded by accident while you sweep across them. Transport, scrolling, zoom, track headers, undo and the command palette keep working as usual. ## Turn it on and off Press `⌥V`, click the bars button in the toolbar, or run **Dynamics Mode On/Off** from the command palette (`⌘K`, group **Clips**). A **Dynamics Mode** pill in the top right shows the mode is on; click its `×` or press `Escape` to leave. Arming a pattern stamp leaves the mode, and switching the mode on disarms a stamp. Opening or creating another project leaves the mode too. ## Draw levels on the timeline * **Click** a step to set it to the height you clicked. * **Drag** up or down to keep setting it. Hold `⌘` for a fine drag at a tenth of the speed. * **Paint**: drag sideways and every step the pointer crosses takes the height of the pointer as it passes — a quick sweep sets a crescendo across a whole drum part. A stroke stays on the track it started on. * **Double-click** a step to reset it: 0 dB for audio, velocity 100 for MIDI. A stroke is one undo step, however many clips it touched, and 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 readout above the step shows its value: the gain in dB for an audio clip, the velocity for a single note, and the range for a chord (**Chord · 3 notes · 84–110**). ### How levels map Audio steps run from −36 dB at the bottom to +24 dB at the top, with 0 dB at 60 % of the height. Dragging never mutes a clip. MIDI steps run from velocity 1 to 127. A chord is one step. Setting it moves its loudest note to the new level and every other note by the same amount, so the voicing keeps its balance. To balance single voices, use the piano roll (below). Painting an audio clip that is [linked](/features/linked-clips) to others 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. ## Draw velocities in the piano roll The mode and the piano roll work together. Open a clip's piano roll while the mode is on, or turn the mode on in the roll: the notes themselves become steps, filled up to their velocity, and the rest of the arrangement keeps showing its steps around the roll. A note is only one row high and height means pitch there, so editing is **relative**: * **Drag** on a note to move its velocity up or down — 1 step per point, a fifth of that with `⌘`. When the note is marked, every marked note moves with it. * **Sweep** sideways and every note whose start you pass moves by how far you have risen or fallen at that moment. Rising to the right gives a crescendo relative to what was played; a chord's voices keep their differences. With notes marked, only marked notes change. * **Double-click** a note to reset it to velocity 100. A click alone changes nothing. Notes cannot be moved, resized or drawn while the mode is on. ## Work from the keyboard On the timeline, while it has keyboard focus: | Key | Action | | - | - | | `←` / `→` | Previous / next step on the track | | `↑` / `↓` | Step on the track above / below | | `1` … `9`, `0` | Set the level: 10 % … 90 %, 100 % | | `⌘↑` / `⌘↓` | Level up / down by 1 dB, or 4 velocity | | `⇧⌘↑` / `⇧⌘↓` | Level up / down by 6 dB, or 16 velocity | | `Escape` | Cancel a stroke, or leave the mode | Moving selects what you land on — the clip for an audio step, the notes of a MIDI step — so the number keys act on it as they do on any selection: on audio they set clip gain relative to the clip's peak, as everywhere else in Gridshift; 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. In the piano roll, arrows and number keys keep their usual piano-roll meaning. ## Related * [Humanize Dynamics](/features/humanize-dynamics) applies a whole accent or phrasing shape in one go. * [Clip gain and normalize](/shortcuts/timeline#clip-gain-and-normalize) — the number keys outside the mode. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.