Viewing and editing MIDI data

- [Instructor] After you've completed the MIDI recording, your MIDI data will appear in the Edit window as clips in the track playlist, similar to the audio clips we've been working with. MIDI clips can be viewed, arranged, and edited using many of the same methods that we've been using for audio, however, we can also edit MIDI data in ways that are not possible with audio, altering the details of the performance. Here, I'll show you some of the different ways that you can view and modify your recorded MIDI data. MIDI and instrument tracks use Clips view by default.

So that's the view that the piano track is in right now, and when we're in Clips view, we can move and edit clips by selecting them and dragging with the grabber tool the same way we would move and edit our audio clips, just placing them in a different place on the timeline. You can also use, of course, the selector tool to select a range of MIDI notes, but here we're working in Clips view so any editing we do will affect the entire clip, so for example, if I hit Delete here, I end up creating two clips as a result.

I'll undo that. In the same way, we can use the trim tool on our MIDI clips to trim off the start or end of the clip, and again, the Undo command brings it back. So that's Clips view. Now we can also switch to Notes view to get access to the individual notes within the clip if we need to make some editing. Before I switch track views here, let's just audition because there's a foul note at the beginning that I want to remove. (bright piano music) You can hear the little flub note there, so I'll switch the track into Notes view using the track view selector here at the head of the track, underneath the Solo and Mute buttons.

In Notes view, we can select and edit individual MIDI notes. I'll use the grabber tool to demonstrate. Here, by clicking on the note that I want to remove, I can select just that note and hit Delete without affecting the overall MIDI clip. In this view, I can also select an existing note with the grabber tool to transpose the note up or down, or move it forward or backward on the timeline. Additionally, I can use the trim tool in this view to shorten or extend a note by clicking and then dragging on the note's start or end.

Exactly the same that we do with audio clips, but in this case, we're affecting MIDI notes. MIDI data can also be displayed on our tracks in Velocity view, so to demonstrate, I'll use the track view selector one more time, and select Velocity view, and in this case, we see vertical lines that have diamonds at the top of them. These are what we refer to as velocity stocks and they indicate the velocity with which each individual note was played. So in this performance, some of the notes were a little more tentative than others, and I can use Velocity view to make some adjustments.

Here what we'll do is click on the velocity stocks for the notes that we want to adjust, and then by raising those velocity stocks, we can bring the intensity of those individual notes up, sort of solidify the performance a little better. Let's give that a listen. (bright piano music) - [Software] Time to evacuate. - [Instructor] All right, that's sounding a little better. At this point, I'll switch the track back into Clips view so you can see the clip hasn't been altered.

Now there's one other thing I'd like to show you here, which is the MIDI Editor window. The MIDI Editor window gives you a full screen view for editing your MIDI data, and there are two ways to access it. One is to go under the Window menu and choose MIDI Editor. The other is to simply double click on a MIDI clip with your grabber tool. The MIDI Editor window will open, where you can see and access the MIDI notes inside your clips with much greater control. This window also allows you to enable the notation display for the track, in which case, your notes will display as notation on a staff.

So those are some ways to edit and fine-tune the MIDI on your tracks in Pro Tools. Keep in mind the basic rules about what you can do in each view, and select the view that gives you the control you need. For high-level changes such as arranging MIDI clips or editing entire clips, work in Clips view. For more detailed edits involving individual note events, switch to Notes view, and to adjust the intensity of your notes, use Velocity view. You can modify MIDI performances in just about any way you can imagine in Pro Tools, but it all starts with selecting the proper view.