Toolbar Options

Each editor (including the timeline) has a toolbar at the top with various options to ease editing.

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Timeline toolbar

Snapping and Grid Options

This menu button allows adjusting snapping and grid display options.

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Snap/Grid options

Each option is explained below.

Position Snap

Turn snapping on or off.

Adaptive Snap

Automatically adjust snapping behavior to the current zoom level, based on the selected note type.

Snap to

Note size/length to snap to. This is only visible if Adaptive Snap is turned off.

Note Type
Normal

Snap to the selected (or automatically determined) note length.

Triplet

Snap to 2/3rds of the selected note length.

Dotted

Snap to 3/2nds (1.5 times) the selected note length.

Keep Offset

When snapping, keep the offset of objects from the nearest snap point on their left.

Default Object Length

The length to use when creating new objects. The following options are available.

Link to Snap

Use the same note length as the snap length above.

Last Object

Use the length of the last created object.

Custom

Specify a custom length.

Quantization

Objects can be quantized to specified positions by using the Quantize and Quick-Quantize actions.

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Quantize

Clicking the Quantize button will open up a popup that will let you specify the settings to quantize the current selection with.

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Quantize to

Select the note length and type to quantize to.

Adjust

Select if you want to quantize the start positions, the end positions (on objects that have length), or both.

Amount

Select the amount to quantize by. 100% will quantize to the given options fully, while 0% will perform no quantization.

Swing

Select a swing amount.

Randomization

This will randomize the resulting positions by the given amount of ticks, and is useful for adding a “human feel” to quantized events.

Clicking Quantize will perform the quantization and save the settings for quick quantization with Quick-Quantize.

Quick-Quantize

This will perform quantization based on the last known settings.

Playhead Tracking

Zrythm includes functionality for forcing the playhead to remain inside the visibile area during playback.

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Playhead tracking controls

Scroll when Playhead Reaches Edge

Automatically scroll the visible area when the playhead moves outside it

Follow Playhead

Keep the visible area centered at the position of the playhead

Zooming

The timeline and each editor include horizontal (and sometimes vertical) zooming functionality.

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Zoom buttons

Zoom In

Zoom in at the location of the playhead

Zoom Out

Zoom out

Original Size

Zoom back to the default zoom level

Best Fit

Zoom in or out as much as required to show all of the events in the arranger

Event Viewers

Clicking the Toggle Event Viewer button will display an event viewer (or list editor) that shows all events in the corresponding editor as a list.

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Timeline event viewer

Sorting

Columns in the header row can be clicked to sort the events in ascending or descending order.

Editing

Some values can be changed by clicking in the corresponding field to enter edit mode, then pressing Enter when done.

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Edit mode

Object Selection

The object selection in the event viewer is linked to the arranger. This means that selecting objects inside the event viewer will also select them inside the arranger and vice-versa.

Timeline Controls

The following controls are only available in the timeline toolbar.

Range Operations

Range actions are performed on the selected range.

Insert Silence

Insert empty space at the selected range and push all events in the range forward.

Remove Range

Remove all objects inside the selected range and move events after the range backwards.

Object Merging

Clicking this button will merge the selected regions. This button is deactivated when merging the currently selected regions is not possible.

The shortcut for object merging is Control-j.

Piano Roll Controls

The following controls are only available in the piano roll (MIDI editor).

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Piano roll toolbar

Chord/Scale Highlighting

The highlighting option can be used to highlight notes corresponding to the scale, chord, or both at ther start position.

The position of the playhead will determine highlighting of the piano roll keys on the left side of the piano roll.

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Scale and chord highlighting

Separate colors are used, in order of priority based on the following:

  • The note is the current chord’s (if any) bass note

  • The note is both inside the current chord (if any) and the current scale (if any)

  • The note is inside the current chord (if any)

  • The note is inside the current scale (if any)

  • The note is neither in the current chord or scale, or there is no current chord or scale

See also

See the Chord Track, Chord Editor and Chord Pad for details.

MIDI Functions

MIDI functions are logic that can be applied to transform the selected MIDI notes. The following functions are available.

Crescendo

Gradually increase the velocities of the selected notes from low to high. Used to create a climax.

Flam

Create additional MIDI notes right after the start position of each selected note. This is usually used on snares.

Flip

Reverse/flip the selected notes horizontally or vertically.

Legato

Connect all selected notes so that they play smoothly.

Portato

Similar to legato, but leaves some space between the notes.

Staccato

Make the selected notes short and punctuated.

Strum Up/Down

Shift the position and velocity of notes that start at the same position (chords) to simulate strumming, like when playing guitar.

Todo

Add illustrations.

In the future, it will be possible to implement custom functions using user scripts.

Ghost Notes

By default, Zrythm will only display MIDI notes in the selected region. Clicking the mask buton will ghost (display with less opacity) MIDI notes from other regions in the same track.

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Ghosted notes on the right

Clicking on a ghosted note will automatically switch the active/selected region to the clicked MIDI note’s parent region.

Automation Editor Controls

Automation Functions

Automation functions are logic that can be applied to transform the selected automation points/curves. The following functions are available.

Flip

Reverse/flip the selected automation horizontally or vertically.

Audio Editor Controls

Audio Functions

Audio functions are logic that can be applied to transform the selected audio part. The following functions are available.

Invert

Invert the polarity of the audio.

Normalize Peak

Normalize the audio so that its peak is 0dB.

Linear Fade In

Fade the audio from silence to full amplitude.

Linear Fade Out

Fade the audio from full amplitude to silence.

Nudge

Shift the audio by 1 sample backward or forward.

Reverse

Reverse the audio (play back backwards).

External Program

Run an external program (such as Audacity) to edit the audio.

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Edit the selected audio in an external app

The selected program will be run with the path to a temporary file as an argument. Normally, the application will open that file, otherwise you will have to open it manually.

Hint

You can select and copy the path in the dialog.

Once you’ve made your changes to the file, close the external app and press OK. Zrythm will then apply your changes to the selected audio part.

Important

The length of the audio must stay exactly the same, otherwise this operation will fail.