Skip to content

Lemon wiki

Piano roll

The piano roll is where you write melodies, chords and anything else a row of steps can’t show. It edits one instrument in the current pattern. Press F7 to show or hide it.

The piano roll: lemon-coloured notes on a grid beside a keyboard, with a lane of velocity lines under them

Write some notes

Section titled “Write some notes”
  1. Select an instrument in the instrument rack, then press F7.
  2. Click the grid to place a note. It lands on the snap and takes the length of the last note you touched.
  3. Drag a note to move it, and drag its right edge to change its length. Shift+drag makes a copy.
  4. Right-click a note to delete it.
  5. Press Space to hear it, with the toolbar’s switch on PAT.

Click a key on the keyboard at the left to hear it. To edit another instrument, click its name in the window’s title bar. Shift+K moves to the next one. The other instruments’ notes in the pattern show dimly behind yours, and Other instruments’ notes (Alt+V) turns that off.

The tools

Section titled “The tools”

The buttons in the title bar, or their letters while the computer keyboard isn’t playing notes.

Tool Key What it does
Draw P Click to place a note, drag to move or resize
Paint B Drag to lay notes along one row
Delete D Click or swipe to delete
Mute T Click or swipe to mute and unmute. Muted notes stay but don’t play
Slice C Drag a line to cut the notes it crosses
Select E Drag a box. Ctrl adds to the selection
Zoom Z Drag a box to zoom. Right-click zooms out and back
Playback Y Drag to hear the notes under the line

Holding the right button deletes in most tools. The magnet button sets the snap, and right-clicking it sets the length of the next notes. Hold Alt while you click or drag to ignore the snap.

Paint and add, Note properties, Scale and chord helpers and note colours are greyed out: they aren’t available yet.

Velocity and control lanes

Section titled “Velocity and control lanes”

The panel under the grid shows one value at a time. Click Control to pick it:

  • Note properties: velocity, pan, release, filter cutoff, filter resonance, fine pitch and repeat. Click or drag to set a note’s value. If notes are selected, only they change.
  • Channel controls: the instrument’s panning, volume and pitch, drawn over time. Left-drag draws and right-drag erases.

Drag the bar above the panel to resize it, and double-click the bar to hide or show the panel.

Commands

Section titled “Commands”

The Piano roll tools button in the title bar lists these, with their keys. They work on the selected notes, or on all of the instrument’s notes in the pattern when nothing is selected.

Command Key What it does
Quick quantize Ctrl+Q Snaps starts and lengths. Shift+Q snaps starts only
Quantize… Alt+Q The same with a template, sensitivity and levels
Quick legato Ctrl+L Stretches each note to the next one
Quick chop, Chop… Ctrl+U, Alt+U Cuts notes into repeats, by the snap or by a rhythm you choose
Glue Ctrl+G Joins touching notes of the same key
Discard lengths Shift+D Shortens notes to the snap
Strum… Alt+S Spreads the notes of a chord in time
Arpeggiate… Alt+A Turns held chords into a pattern of single notes
Flam… Alt+F Adds a quick extra hit before each note
Thin out notes Alt+W Takes away some of the notes in each beat or bar, and can stretch the rest to fill the gaps
Limit… Alt+K Keeps notes inside a key, a scale or a range, and transposes
Flip… Alt+Y Mirrors notes in pitch or time
Randomize… Alt+R Writes a new melody from a key or scale, or randomizes levels
Scale levels… Alt+X Scales the values in the current lane
LFO… Alt+O Writes a sine, triangle or square wave into the current lane

The commands with dots open a small window. Your notes change as you turn its controls: Accept keeps what you hear, as one undo step. Closing the window puts the notes back.

Import MIDI

Section titled “Import MIDI”
  • Piano roll tools ▸ Import MIDI file… brings a file into this instrument, replacing its notes or blending with them.
  • FILE ▸ Import ▸ MIDI file…, or a .mid file dropped on the window, opens the Import MIDI data form. Pick the tracks and channels, and which instrument plays them. Tick Start new project or add the file to this one. Realign events removes silence before the first note.

To write a file, see Exporting audio.

Good to know

Section titled “Good to know”
  • Ctrl+A selects all and Ctrl+B duplicates to the right. Shift+arrows move the selection, and Ctrl+Up or Down moves it an octave.
  • Ctrl+wheel zooms time, and Ctrl+middle-drag makes the keys taller or shorter.
  • Drag in the ruler to set where the pattern starts playing. Right-drag to make a time selection, which playback loops.
  • Step edit (Ctrl+E): with playback stopped, the notes you play are written one step at a time.
  • TOOLS ▸ Chord progression tool… asks for a line of chords, such as C G Am F or I V vi IV, and writes one chord per bar.
Section titled “Related”