Painting events with the Paint tool

Unlike the Draw tool, the Paint tool allows you to quickly paint multiple events across several tracks. This can be useful when you need to quickly add several seemingly random events to a project. The Paint tool is also best used for painting multiple one-shot events that will be evenly spaced on the grid lines.

When painting MIDI or one-shot clips, you can click the down arrow next to the Paint tool to set the length of events that will be created when you drag with the Paint tool.

1.Click the Paint Tool button () or choose Editing Tool from the Edit menu and choose Paint from the submenu. The mouse pointer displays as a brush icon.

2.Click and hold the mouse button while dragging the Paint tool randomly across the several tracks. Notice that events are painted in every grid space the Paint tool contacts.

3.Release the mouse button to stop adding events.

4.Click the Play from Start button () on the transport bar. All new events play back.

Tip: With the Paint tool selected, you can use Ctrl+click to paint an entire event for one-shot, Beatmapped, and MIDI tracks.

Inserting events at the play cursor

You can also insert events at the cursor during playback. You can use this feature to create rhythms on one-shot tracks while listening to the track you’re editing in the context of the rest of your project. When you’re done creating events, you can use the Render to New Track command (on the Edit menu) to save the rhythm to a new track, or you can copy and paste your new events across the timeline.

1.Create a time selection in the portion of the project you want to edit.

2.Select the Loop Playback button ().

3.Click the Play button ( ) to start playback.

4.Click a track header in the track list to set the focus track.

5.Press Y to add an event at the play cursor (during playback, the edit cursor remains fixed, and the play cursor follows playback). If snapping is enabled, events are created at the next snap point. You can use snapping to quantize your events.

6.Repeat step 5 as needed.

7.You can press the up and down arrow keys to change the focus track.

8.Click the Stop button () when you’re finished creating events.

9.Edit event positions as necessary.

Tip: If you're using this feature to tap rhythms with one-shot tracks, try applying a groove to adjust the timing of your rhythm.For more information, see Working with grooves on page 123.

Changing the length of events

After an event is painted on the track view, you may discover that it is too long or not long enough; however, it is easy to change the length of an event. You may find it helpful to turn snapping options on by choosing Snapping from the Options menu and choosing Enable from the submenu.

To alter an event’s length, click the Draw Tool button ( ) and drag either end of the event. When you drag the event past the end of the file, looped files repeat, but one-shot and Beatmapped tracks draw silence.

Original event

Drag the end of

...to increase its length.

 

the event...

 

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