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Adding Notes

The piano roll is NoteHound’s main transcription canvas. Notes appear as horizontal bars arranged by pitch (vertical axis) and time (horizontal axis). A section strip (20pt) at the top mirrors the waveform sections with coloured blocks.

Piano roll editor

Pen Tool

Select the Pen tool from the piano roll toolbar to enter note-placement mode.

  • Tap an empty cell on the grid to place a note at that pitch and time
  • The note snaps to the current grid quantization setting
  • The note’s duration matches the current grid quantization (e.g. 1/8 grid = eighth-note duration)
  • Double-tap an existing note to delete it immediately
  • Drag the resize handle on the right edge of a selected note to extend or shorten its duration

As soon as you place a note, NoteHound plays it back through the selected synth instrument so you can immediately hear whether it’s the right pitch.

Moving Notes

Once a note is placed, you can reposition it:

  • Long-press (0.5s) and drag a selected note to move all selected notes freely in pitch and time
  • The synth plays a chord during the drag, and a live note name indicator shows the current pitch as you drag vertically
  • Horizontal drag changes time; vertical drag changes pitch

Note Appearance

  • Normal notes: Orange rounded rectangles (85% opacity, 3pt corner radius)
  • Selected notes: Solid orange with white border (1.5pt), orange glow, and a resize handle on the right edge (10pt wide, white at 50% opacity, with two grip lines)
  • Imported notes: Teal-tinted rectangles to distinguish from manually created notes
  • Ghost notes (during move/resize): Semi-transparent with dashed white border, showing the original position

Toolbar

The piano roll toolbar (above the grid) contains:

  • Tool selector (Pen / Select / Eraser)
  • Grid quantization (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32)
  • Undo / Redo
  • Select All (visible in Select mode)
  • Delete (trash icon, red)
  • Quantize (“Q” button)
  • BPM display
  • TAP tempo
  • Copy / Paste (notes)
  • Transpose (-1, +1, and more options: -12 octave down, -7 fifth down, +7 fifth up, +12 octave up)
  • Live Note Name indicator

Linked Views

Every note you add in the piano roll is reflected instantly across the other views:

  • The keyboard highlights the corresponding keys
  • The fretboard shows the note on the strings

This makes it easy to visualize any note in multiple musical contexts simultaneously.

Tip: Use Grid Quantization to control how notes snap to the beat, and Selection Tools to edit existing notes.