> ## 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.
# MIDI Capture
> Keeps every note you play on a track, even when you are not recording. Press ⇧C and it becomes a clip.
## Commit a capture
Select the track, or focus one of its clips, and play your MIDI controller or Musical Typing. Press `⇧C` (Command Palette → **Commit MIDI Capture**), and a clip named **Capture** plus the time of day appears on the track.
## Add to an existing clip
Play over bars a clip on the track already covers and press `⇧C`: the notes go into that clip. Play the next idea over the same bars and press `⇧C` again, and the clip holds both.
## Capture over a loop
Turn the loop on with `⌘L` and press `Space`. Play the part on every pass, and when a pass is right, stop and press `⇧C`: that pass is kept.
## Capture slices on a sample track
Select a sample track with slices and play the letter keys. Press `⇧C`, and every hit becomes its own one-shot slice clip at the beat you played it.
## Clear the buffer
Press `⌘K` and run **Clear MIDI Capture Buffer** before a take you want on its own. The buffer empties on every track.
## Good to know
* **Capture runs whenever record mode is off.** Gridshift writes what you play into a buffer for the track it is going to: the selected track, or in [Focus Mode](/edit/focus-mode.md) the focused clip's track.
* **Instrument tracks capture notes, sample tracks capture slice triggers.** Notes come from a hardware controller and from [Musical Typing](/work-fast/play-with-the-keyboard.md); slice triggers from the letter keys.
* **The buffer keeps everything played since the last commit or clear.** That is why you clear it before a take you want on its own.
* **Over a loop, the last pass you played in wins** and every pass before it is dropped. To keep layers from several passes, commit after each one.
* **[Record Quantize](/record/record-midi.md) applies to `⇧C` too.** It moves starts only; lengths stay as played.
> **Details**
>
> * **Musical Typing only plays, and so only captures, on an instrument track with an instrument loaded.**
> * **The buffer holds up to 16,384 events per track.** A note is two, its press and its release. When it is full the oldest events are overwritten.
> * **Switching projects or deleting the track discards the buffer.**
> * **A new capture clip covers whole bars**, from the bar of the first note to the end of the bar of the last one. Double-click it, or press `⌥↓` with it selected, to see the notes in Focus Mode.
> * **With the transport stopped, the take starts at the playhead.** The notes keep the spacing you played them with, measured by the clock at the project tempo. During playback, each note lands on the beat where you played it.
> * **Two notes on the same pitch never overlap.** The later one cuts the earlier one short. A key still held when you press `⇧C` commits as a very short note.
> * **`⌘Z` removes the clip again** (undo name **Commit Captured Performance**). The commit has already emptied the buffer, so the notes do not go back into it; redo brings the clip back.
> * **With nothing in the buffer, `⇧C` does nothing.** With no playable track selected, Gridshift says *No track selected for MIDI capture commit*.
> * **A capture joins a clip that covers the bar where it starts.** The clip's own notes stay, a captured note on the same pitch as an existing one cuts it where they overlap, and the clip grows to fit, up to the next clip on the track.
> * **A pass is a take, so earlier passes count as rehearsals of the same bars.** The whole pass wins, not each pitch: a layer played two passes ago is dropped too.
> * **Passes with nothing played do not count**, so you can leave the transport running and commit a few passes later. Press `⇧C` halfway through a new pass you started playing into, and that half pass is the take.
> * **The kept pass is placed inside the loop region**, at the beats you played it.
> * **A hit just before the loop point counts as the next downbeat**, up to a 32nd note early (at most 100 ms). A note still held at the loop point stops there.
> * **The loop is measured as it was while you played**, even if you move or resize it before committing.
> * **Slice hits keep the level you played them with.** Clips they overlap on the track are trimmed. Over a loop, only the last pass with slice hits is kept, as with notes.
> * **A start that Record Quantize would push past the loop end goes to the loop start instead.**
> **Keys**
>
> | Action | Shortcut |
> | - | - |
> | Commit MIDI Capture | `⇧C` |
> | Clear MIDI Capture Buffer | Command Palette |
> | Set Record Quantize | Command Palette |
> | Loop On/Off | `⌘L` |
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