Metron's Score editor.
The Score Editor is where you can edit sequences to your heart's content. You can add and remove bars, set tempi, accellerandi and ritardandi, edit time signatures and create rhythmic patterns of almost any complexity.
The score editor consist of two parts: the score and the tools area. The score is the ribbon at the top. You can drag notes, rests and other objects to the score to define your sequences. If the score is longer than the width of your screen you can scroll it by swiping horizontally. You can also scroll during a drag by dragging an object towards the edge of the screen.
Beats, Notes and Rests
Metron bases its beats on time signatures. Each time signature has a number of beats. Beat boundaries are hinted at in the score by a faint grey frame, so that you can always see what beat you are operating on.
Although the score looks like and works much in the manner of traditional notation, there is a significant difference to observe: the sequencer is beat based, and the score will always show an entry for each beat (either the deault beat value, or a customised rhythm pattern of one or more notes/rests). So if you have, say a 3/4 beat, and you want the rhythm of a half note followed by a quarter note, you should not notate it thus in the score, but rather: place a quarter note on the first beat, a rest on the second beat, and another quarter note on the third beat.
The beats can be customized by giving them a specific volume, sound and/or color. They can also be further subdivided into rhythmic patterns. If a beat is not customized it is represented by a gray note. Default beats can not be removed from the score. Customized beats have their notes rendered in black or whatever custom color has been assigned to them. These can be removed from the score by dragging them out to the tools section. They vanish in a puff of smoke.
Notes can be added to the score by tapping them in the tools section and dragging them to the appropriate entry in the score. A blue entry cursor will show where the note will be placed. If the note is going to replace an existing note a wide cursor is shown:
If you position the new note before or behind an existing note, a thin cursor indicates where the note will be placed.
After the previous note:
Before the next note:
To replace an existing note with a note of a different value simply drag the new value on top of the value to be replaced (wide cursor).
Dots
You can add dots by dragging the dot tool to a note. Notes can have up to three dots. Dragging a dot to a note with three dots will remove all dots.
Selection
You can select notes and other elements of a score, like time signature and tempo marks, by tapping them. You can select multiple notes by tapping them quickly one after the other. Tapping a selected object will deselect it. To deselect all objects tap anywhere in the white space of the score. Selected notes and rests have a blue halo about them. Other selected objects are framed in light blue.
When you have multiple notes selected some tools will batch operate on them (the volume, color, sound and tuplet tools). To apply such a tool to selected notes, tap and hold a tool, then select the desired setting. The setting will be applied to all selected notes/rests, as appropriate.
Bars
A few tools operate on bars, to insert, duplicate, remove or set the number of times a bar is to be repeated. These tools are only enabled when a bar is selected. A bar is automatically selected when you tap anywhere within it. You cannot deselect a bar, you can only select other bars. The selected bar is indicated by a blue glow along the barline (see image above).
To insert or remove a bar, make sure a bar is selected, then tap the insert bar tool:
A sheet will appear where you can choose to insert a new empty bar or duplicate the selected bar before or after the selected bar, or to remove the selected bar (unless it is the only bar in the score).
To adjust the number of times a bar is repeated, make sure a bar is selected, then tap the bar repeat tool:
A control will appear at the bottom of the screen. Use the slider, and/or the buttons to set the repeat count (up to 200 repeats).
Time Signatures
To edit a time signature tap and hold it. After holding the tap for a second the Time Signature Editor appears:
Turn the wheels on the picker to set the desired time signature.
A time signature with beat groups has three beat types:
- Primary beat - the first beat of the time signature
- Secondary beat - the first beat of each subsequent beat grouping.
- Unstressed beat - all other beats
In addition to being played back with distinct sounds, the beats in beat groupings are also shown in the LCD with distinct colors. The default colors for the various beat types can be changed in the preferences panel. Beats whose sound, and/or color have been customized in the beat editor override the default settings.
You can create as many groups as there are beats in a time signature, but the sum of all beat groups together should not exceed the number of beats in the time signature. A customary beat group setting for a 4/4 bar is 2+2 (which may also be defined as a single 2), this creates the beat pattern: primary, unstressed, secondary, unstressed. A 5/4 bar might be 3+2, or 2+3, but you may also define 1+3+1, or other combinations if you so wish. There is great amount of freedom in defining beat groups. If you specify a single beatgroup that is shorter than the number of beats in the time signature, Metron will auto create as many groups of that size as possible during playback.
To add a time signature to a bar tap the time signature tool in the tools section, then drag the time signature to the bar. If the bar already has a time signature the new time signature will be added to it. (If you tap and hold, the Time Signature Editor will appear. You can set the time signature and return to the score view, where the time signature tool will show the time signature you defined.)
To remove a time signature from a bar drag it out of the bar to the tools section.
Tempo
Use the tempo tool to edit tempo marks:
The tempo tool shows the tempo, if available, for the current selection in the score. If no tempo can be determined, none is shown.
Each bar can set a tempo. The tempo can be set on any beat. To set a tempo in a bar, tap the tempo tool and drag the tempo to the appropriate beat in the score. To set the desired tempo, tap and hold the tempo on the tempo tool. A sheet will appear at the bottom of the screen where you can adjust the tempo. If you need to edit the tempo base, tap and hold the note in the tempo tool. A sheet will appear where you can select the appropriate tempo base.
To remove a tempo mark, drag it out of the score to the tools section.
To edit a tempo mark, select it and tap the tempo tool. Then use the control that appears at the bottom of the screen to adjust the tempo.
Tempo Variance
Use the tempo tool to edit dynamic tempo changes (accellerandi/ritardandi):
Tempo variance: adding tempo variance marks, removing tempo variance marks
Each bar can set a tempo variance. The variance can be set on any beat. To set a tempo variance in a bar, tap the tempo variance tool and drag the variance to the appropriate beat in the score (if the beat has subdivisions, it doesn't matter to which subdivision you drag it). To set the desired variance, tap and hold the tempo on the tempo variance tool. A sheet will appear at the bottom of the screen where you can adjust the variance. Tempo variance is applied to each beat, or to each bar, or to each beat until the next tempo mark, depending on the settings you choose.
To remove a tempo variance mark, drag it out of the score to the tools section.
To edit a tempo variance mark, tap the tempo variance tool. Then use the control that appears at the bottom of the screen to adjust the variance settings. Finally drag the new tempo variance tool to the appropriate beat. The existing variance will in the bar will be replaced by the new one.
Tuplets
Use the tuplet tool to set tuplets on notes and rests:
To set the desired tuplet values, tap and hold the tuplet tool. A sheet will appear where you can select the appropriate values (e.g. three 8th notes in the time of two 8th notes). AFter setting the desired values drag the tuplet tool to the note or rest you want to add it to. Conversely, you may select a number of ntoes and rests in the score, then bring up the tuplet definition sheet and select your values. When you OK the sheet, all selected notes will will receive a tuplet with the selected value.
Rhythm Pattern Templates
If you have specific rhythmic Patterns that you regularly use, you can save them as a template using the Add Rhtyhm Pattern Template tool:
The tool will ask you for a name, and save the selected beats as a rhtyhm pattern. It will allways save full beats. Any beat that has at least one selected entry will be saved to the template. You do not need to select every entry in every beat you want to add to the template.
To enter a template in the score, selected the beat at which the template will be inserted. Then tap the Rhtyhm Pattern Template tool and select the desired template:
Metron will replace as many beats as appropriate with the template's pattern. It will only replace beats up to the end of the time signature whithin which the replacement was started, even if there are more beats in the pattern and more time signatures in the bar.
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