Digital Performer MIDI Editing Windows

MIDI Editing Windows

The following is a lesson on the MIDI editing windows in Digital Performer.  This lesson is taken from Berkleemusic’s online ‘Producing Music with Digital Performer’ course, and covers the Drum Editor, Graphic Editor, and QuickScribe Editor which you can use to edit your MIDI performances.

Drum Editor

The Drum Editor is designed for editing rhythmic grooves and drum parts. It can be used as part of the Consolidated Window or as its own window. You can open the Drum Editor from the Project Menu (Shift-D) or by clicking on the Drum Tab in the Consolidated Window.

The Drum Editor presents data in a rhythmic grid. Be sure your view resolution is set to the subdivision of your music. The subdivision is the smallest rhythmic unit in the piece. For instance, if your hi-hats are playing sixteenths, set the view resolution to sixteenths. On the other hand, if the shortest value in your music is eighth notes, then an eighth note resolution will do. The Drum Editor lets you play and mute individual drum parts, edit velocities, quantize rhythms, and more.

Graphic Editor

The Graphic Editor is designed for editing MIDI tracks of pitched instruments, such as piano, strings, bass, and so on. Like the Drum Editor, the Graphic Editor can be used as part of the Consolidated Window or as its own window. You can open the Graphic Editor from the Project Menu (Shift-G) or by clicking on the MIDI Tab in the Consolidated Window.

The Graphic Editor is the window that most resembles the Sequence Editor. It utilizes a vertical piano roll and a horizontal time line. Notes are placed in this graphical space to represent pitch and timing. However, unlike the Sequence Editor, it places all MIDI data other than notes (such as pitch bend, volume, panning, etc.) in a separate area from the notes. This makes the information visually clearer and easier to edit.

QuickScribe Editor

The QuickScribe Editor is a means within Digital Performer to create scores and parts. While this can be handy when you need to print out something just before a recording session, you must remember that this also functions as an editing window. If you make a change in the QuickScribe Editor, so that the notation will appear properly, this will also change the actual MIDI data on the track.

Like previous windows, the QuickScribe Editor can be used as part of the Consolidated Window or as its own window. You can open the QuickScribe Editor from the Project Menu (Shift-Q) or by clicking on the QuickScribe Tab in the Consolidated Window.

Producing Music with Digital Performer online course at Berkleemusic

Producing Music with Digital Performer

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