The Piano Roll

The Piano roll is a great feature that some DAWs (digital audio workstations) or recording software programs seem to neglect. While they tout their audio recording capability, when it comes to MIDI recording and sound manipulation, they can sometimes fall short. Modern artists have not just the desire but the need for a tool that reliably captures their music and lets them edit and manipulate it to their heart’s content. That is what the Piano roll is all about (see Figure 3.65).

Figure 3.65. Some piano chords played in the Piano roll.

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The Piano roll takes its name from an earlier music-reproduction technology—an actual roll of paper with holes in it. The roll would be loaded into a player piano and scrolled past a pneumatic switching mechanism. The holes would trigger the mechanism to play the correct notes. While originally a mechanical and slightly cumbersome technology, the Piano roll concept provides a useful visual metaphor for modern MIDI sequencers and editors.

While the old Piano roll had a set value (that is, once the holes were created in the paper, they could not be altered), today’s tools are much more dynamic and flexible. Not only can the notes themselves be moved, chopped, re-pitched, and stretched, the instruments can be changed and manipulated. The Piano roll is basically a grid with an X-axis (left to right) and a Y-axis (up and down), where the X-axis represents time (the composition starts on the left and ends on the right) and the Y-axis represents the pitch of the notes to be played (the higher the note is placed on the Y-axis, the higher the note’s pitch will be). Sometimes multiple instruments will be represented within one Piano roll, and the note’s position on the Y-axis will determine which instrument is played—for example, A#3 might represent a drum kick, while C3 would be a snare hit. We’ll talk more about note manipulation later in this section, but right now let’s take a closer look at the Piano roll itself.

The first thing you notice when opening the Piano roll is the keyboard running down its left-hand side (see Figure 3.66). Although this can represent percussive instruments, it’s best to think of it as a typical piano keyboard, with lower-pitched notes at the bottom and higher-pitched notes at the top. Notes that you place on the grid will trigger notes on the virtual keyboard to the left, and you can actually see the animation of the keys responding to these notes.

Figure 3.66. The graphic representation of a keyboard in the Piano roll.

Below the grid where the notes are placed is the event editor, where you can alter many parameters of the event, such as panning, velocity, and cutoff frequency. I use the term event in reference to the blocks placed on the Piano roll because all blocks do not always represent pitched notes; they sometimes represent notes slides or single instrument sounds, which we will discuss later in this chapter, in the “Note Color and Portamento” section. Similar to the Piano roll grid, the event editor’s horizontal axis represents time, but the function of the vertical axis can vary based on which event parameter you have chosen to control. Figure 3.67 shows the event editor in action, where the highest position on the vertical axis is panning the event to the right, and the lowest position on the vertical axis is panning the event to the left. The tails appearing after notes represent the length of the note, which makes it easier to identify tightly grouped notes.

Figure 3.67. Panning using the event editor.

The Piano Roll Menus

The Piano roll has a serious set of menus that allow maximum manipulation and creativity for your generators and samples. It is important to go through these and understand what they do, because the Piano roll is the core of music making in FL Studio, and as I mentioned before, when you know where to find an option, the ideas pour onto your musical canvas without effort. We will start by looking at the corner button of the Piano roll, where you will find the greatest number of options (see Figure 3.68).

Figure 3.68. The main Piano roll menu.

File

Many times when creating a groove in the Piano roll, I imagine the melody in a different song or as the basis of a new project altogether. A great idea can get lost if you like it, but it doesn’t fit the song, and the notes are changed…it’s gone. Open Score and Save Score As address thisproblem by allowing you to save the current Piano roll by itself and then open it in another project (see Figure 3.69). If you have a MIDI file that you need to bring into the project, Import MIDI File will bring up a dialog box that allows you to choose the tracks and channels you wish to import. The Import MIDI dialog box will also give you the option to combine new incoming MIDI with the MIDI notes already on the Piano roll by selecting Blend with Existing Data. I suggest leaving Realign Events highlighted, because it will place your incoming MIDI at the start of the Piano roll. Only turn this off when you need the MIDI to begin at a certain point in the Piano roll. Export as MIDI File will turn that current Piano roll into a MIDI file, and if you need to paste MIDI data from any sequencer, choose Paste from MIDI Clipboard.

Figure 3.69. The File menu in the Piano roll.

Edit

The Edit menu, shown in Figure 3.70, begins with the familiar edit functions we typically see; however, the key is to remember that this menu is for the notes (blocks on the Piano roll) and their parameters (velocity, panning, modulation, pitch, and note release). Transpose moves selected notes vertically, while Shift moves notes horizontally on the Piano roll, and the Discard Lengths option (Shift+D) will cut all of your notes to the minimum grid setting, which by default will be set to Main. If you need shorter notes, change the Snap setting for that Piano roll before selecting Discard Lengths. Change Color (Alt+C) will change the selected note(s) to the color that is displayed in the upper-left corner of the Piano roll beneath the Snap to Grid button, and if no note is selected, it will affect all notes. If you have the default green selected, highlight a note that is green and then select Change Color—nothing will happen because the note is changed into the same color.

Figure 3.70. The Edit menu in the Piano roll.

We are familiar with Mute and Unmute, but Insert Space may not be as common of a function and will literally create a space between points (notes). The distance created will be the timeline selection, and the notes involved will be the highlighted ones. As you can see in Figure 3.72, the notes have had space inserted between them (whereas there is no space between them in Figure 3.71). The space inserted pushes the notes to the right, leaving the notes prior to the selection in place.

Figure 3.71. Notes prior to inserting space.

Figure 3.72. Notice that the notes maintain their distance relative to each other horizontally, and both have moved the amount of the timeline selection.

Delete Space, on the other hand, will delete notes in the selection and bring the notes that are to the right of the selection over to the left to match up with the start point of the timeline insertion. Insert Current Controller Value will allow you to paste automation data, as shown in the difference between Figure 3.73 and Figure 3.74, where the current parameter value (panning) in Figure 3.73 was pasted to the beginning of the selection in Figure 3.74. This only happens when a parameter is changed (such as turning the Pan knob to the left) and you want to paste that setting to the event editor in the Piano roll. This will only work with selections that are event editable, such as panning, volume, and pitch. Turn into Automation Clip will create a clip that you can place on the Playlist.

Figure 3.73. Panning automation for a portion of the notes.

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Figure 3.74. Automation pasted at the front of the event editor based on the timeline selection.

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Tools

The Tools menu of the Piano roll (see Figure 3.75) gives you instruments for designing and altering your sound. Many of the options here allow you to break free of writer’s block and create chords with no prior musical knowledge!

Figure 3.75. The Tools menu in the Piano roll.

The first option that comes up in the Tools menu is the Riff Machine, which we discussed earlier, followed by Quick Legato, which will perform a short version of Articulate (see Figure 3.76). Articulate is great for changing up note length to create a more human sound to the notes played.

Figure 3.76. You can see the Articulation dialog box, where, from the Option drop-down, you can select from Legato, Portato, and Staccato. This runs from long notes (legato) to short notes (staccato), and the lengths are affected by the Multiply knob, while the Variation knob controls differences of length.

Quick Quantize (Ctrl+Q) will snap your selected notes to the positions closest to the current Snap setting. When open, the Quantize window (Alt+Q) (see Figure 3.77) will allow a wider range of options for aligning your notes.

Figure 3.77. In the Quantize box, you can specify start times, note duration, and end times when performing quantization. The folder icon will allow you to import preset quantization settings.

Quick Chop (Ctrl+U) will cut selected notes on the Piano roll into pieces based on your Snap settings, which can be great if long notes are not creating the sound you want. Select them and chop away to see what you can come up with! Similar to the previous tools, the full Chop window (see Figure 3.78) will open to reveal more options specifying how you want to cut the notes.

Figure 3.78. The Chopper can have presets loaded from the icon or manually set using the knobs. Absolute Pattern means that the notes will be cut on the grid, but when turned off, it will cause notes to chop based on their own starting points.

The Arpeggiator (see Figure 3.79) is similar to Chop but will allow you to specify a range of notation and can even stretch or compress the selected area.

Figure 3.79. The Arpeggiator gives you options for creating a melody based on certain patterns, note range, and individual note length. Try turning the Gate knob to create notes that stop playing more abruptly.

Strum (see Figure 3.80) is an ingenious tool that can vary the note start point and velocity to create a real strumming sound. When a guitarist plays a chord, the strings do not play at the exact same time, and this tool replicates that. Combining this tool with chord placement of notes when using a guitar generator can yield some impressively realistic results.

Figure 3.80. The Strum option will allow you to manipulate when the note starts to play, along with how strong that note is played.

Flam (see Figure 3.81) adds a short note that is just before the selected notes in the Piano roll to create a quick double-hit similar to two drum sticks hitting a snare one after the other. The Claw Machine (see Figure 3.82) can turn an otherwise simple beat into a complex or abstract groove that may be exactly what you are looking for.

Figure 3.81. The notes placed before the selected notes with the Flam tool are great for creating a snare drum flam.

Figure 3.82. The Claw Machine gives you options for taking out notes when a beat needs to be changed up or may be too busy. Period will determine the period of time that the Claw Machine will perform changes, and Trash Every will determine how often notes are dropped within the chosen period.

The Limiter (see Figure 3.83) will keep the notes within certain pitch boundaries (for example, C#3–D5) set in the Limit options window. Flip is a quick option when you just want to flip the notes on the Piano roll horizontally or vertically. Randomize (see Figure 3.84) will bring up options to scatter your notes based on the settings you plug in.

Figure 3.83. Limit keeps the notes in a certain range and can also keep them within a certain key. This can be excellent for keeping your melodies sounding good without fear of sour notes.

Figure 3.84. Randomize can contain a certain note scale and range, but it goes beyond that by allowing you to increase the number of notes in a section as well as randomize automation parameters, such as volume and panning.

The Scale Levels option will bring up a window allowing you to change the amplitude of your note. This can come in handy when a generator changes sound or response, much like the tone of a piano key differs when pressed firmly versus softly. If the sound you want is not there, try opening this option and adjusting the knobs for more tension on the notes or where the note is played loudest.

The LFO window (see Figure 3.85) will only open when you are working with the event editor (the area beneath the notes in the Piano roll), and the visual wave drawn will affect the parameter chosen. In Figure 3.85, the panning climbs to the right then slopes to the left. By altering the speed, the panning will happen more quickly and can bring needed life to a song.

Figure 3.85. The LFO window can be a great aid in getting automation to line up just right.

View

The View options, shown in Figure 3.86, are fairly simple, and as you might guess, they only affect the appearance of the Piano roll. Grid Color will change the background color of the Piano roll, but there is no quick undo, and you will need to select the default color again to get it back, so use caution. Invert Grid, as discussed before, will reverse dark lines and light lines on the grid, and the Swap Panels option will place the Piano roll notes below the event editor window.

Figure 3.86. The Piano roll View options.

Helpers

View Note Helpers, shown in Figure 3.87, has been very useful to me when I am placing note by note because I am unable to play the notes that I am thinking of live. In many programs you must first move the mouse and watch what note it is on to tell you where you are about to place a note. With note helpers turned on, the grid will turn light gray for the ivory piano keys and dark gray for the ebony keys all the way across the grid.

Figure 3.87. The Piano roll Helpers section.

Detect Scale will determine the scale notes you have selected (or the entire Piano roll, if nothing is selected), but a few notes must be placed for this to take effect. The View Length in Note Properties option means that the length of the note will be shown in the event editor. This helps you get an overview of which notes are automated where, because rather than stacked dots, the lines show which note is at each point in the event editor (see Figure 3.88).

Figure 3.88. With View Length in Note Properties checked, you are able to see the tails of the notes in the lower event editor.

Ghost Channels will bring up the Piano rolls of all other channels in the selected pattern and display them in a translucent color for reference. You can’t edit these ghost channels; instead, they are there to show you a visual representation of where other channels are playing in the Piano roll. Let’s say you have two channels using the Piano roll in a pattern. One is a hi-hat, and the other is a kick drum sound, and you want to spice up the timing of your hi-hat. If you have it in your head that you want to have hi-hat notes immediately before and after the drum kick sound, it helps to actually see where the drum kicks are happening rather than using trial and error to move the hi-hat notes around. By selecting ghost channels, these kick notes appear in the Piano roll of the hi-hat. This works in reverse, too, so the hi-hat notes will appear in the drum kick Piano roll.

Additional Options

Moving farther along down the Piano roll Main menu (refer to Figure 3.68), we have already gone over Snap settings, but it is good to take note that these are the Snap settings specifically for the Piano roll unless Main is selected (default). The selection options are familiar, and great quick keys to keep in mind are Ctrl+Enter for Select Time around Selection, which will automatically place a timeline selection around the notes you have selected. This is useful for looping a section to hear it quickly and to go through multiple sections using the same time spacing (moving the timeline but keeping the length of the timeline selection), use the quick keys Ctrl+Right Arrow or Ctrl+Left Arrow to move the timeline in those directions. Group allows you to group specific notes that you select, but it will only be active if global grouping is selected in the recording panel.

The zoom options operate on the same 1 through 5 sequence, and I find myself using 5 the most because it zooms right in to what I am working on. The Chord option will bring up a list of chords that you can draw or paint directly into the Piano roll and is a valuable tool for getting your notation on point. The Target Channel option will allow you to scroll through channels available for Piano roll editing, and Target Control will allow you to scroll through the event editor options, but I suggest selecting the drop-down from the top of the Piano roll and right-clicking the empty area next to the event editor for quicker access.

The Auto Locate option will bring up the first Piano roll with data when navigating through patterns, which is great when you have a ton of channels and the Piano roll you are looking for is located 40 channels down. Auto-Smoothing will take your drawn automation and smooth it out when you release the mouse button from drawing if it was drawn with straight lines.

Center (0 on your QWERTY keyboard) is a great way to create your own scrolling when Auto-Scroll is not turned on. Every time you tap 0, the screen will center on the timeline marker, so as your song plays, you can view a part, let the timeline marker scroll offscreen, and then jump to where it is with one keystroke. Detached is for those of us working with more than one monitor and will allow the Piano roll to be placed on another window and not confine it to the single monitor space.

Piano Roll Tools

Although the tools in the Piano roll appear similar to those in the Playlist, they are slightly different because of the tool options available (see Figure 3.89). The first option is another place to conveniently change the Snap setting of the grid. Draw (P), Paint (B), Delete (D), Mute (T), Cut (C), Select (E), and Zoom to Selection (Z) are all familiar options, but in the Piano roll a Scrub tool (Y) is added for precision playback. They all operate in the same way and apply to the notes in the Piano roll. The Scrub feature can be used to hear a short part over and over without having to wait for playback or mess with the timeline selection. With this tool selected, you can click and drag your mouse over a section of the Playlist to play your project at any speed forward or backward for critical mixing.

Figure 3.89. The Piano roll tools.

Note Color and Portamento

The Slide (S) feature in the Piano roll allows easy pitch bend manipulation of notes when using FL Studio’s instrument plug-ins (see Figure 3.90). The generator playing the sound must be able to slide notes in order for this to work. The way that you get notes to slide is to first choose a note and place it on the Piano roll and then place a slide note of the same color above or below that note. The note as a whole (slides included) will play the length of the original note, and the slide note will only affect where the original note slides to and how quickly that note slides.

Figure 3.90. Slide, portamento, and note coloring.

In Figure 3.91, the middle note is the original note, while the notes above and below are both slide notes. There is only one sound that plays, but as it does, it quickly bends up from the first slide note and continues playing at that pitched-up note until it reaches the bend down note, where it will slowly bend to the drawn slide note. To bend back to the original note, a slide note must be placed on the same note position (vertically) as the original note, and it will bend back to the original.

Figure 3.91. A single note that slides up and then down.

The Portamento button will cause a short slide from a note prior to where the portamento event is set and will only work with generators that are included with FL Studio, not with third-party VST instruments. The color palette offers 16 colors for the notes to be drawn in, and each color represents a MIDI channel associated with the inserted plug-in. This is great for getting different instruments within a plug-in to play, but keep in mind that this MIDI signal stops at the plug-in, so if you want to send MIDI out to an external device, you need to use the MIDI out plug-in. The color will affect the behavior of the notes as well, such as in Figure 3.92, where I have the samesingle note with two slides but have colored only the first slide the same as the single note. In this example, the note will bend up and stay there and will not be affected by the slide down note because it is a different color. This is necessary when you only want certain notes to slide, as opposed to every note parallel to the slide note.

Figure 3.92. A single note that slides up but is unaffected by the slide down note that is a different color.

The Piano roll is easily the most versatile music-making tool in FL Studio, and I believe that most of your creating will be done in this window when using virtual instruments. Always remember that the options you choose from this window will only affect your Piano roll notes and their parameters. This is where even the tone deaf can use the help of Chord and Identify Scale options to create sonically pleasing music. The event editor is where specific parameters can be altered quickly to create volume fluctuation and traveling sound that darts from left to right. However, what if you don’t want to create volume changes, but you want to set volume levels and add effects? That is where the Mixer comes in and will typically be your last stop in the music-making process before exporting a project to audio.