Useful shortcuts in MusE

MusE has a number of keyboard shortcuts for various uses, let’s go through the ones applicable to each editor. Note that most shortcuts can be changed in the settings.

Arranger shortcuts

Mixer shortcuts

First of, it can happen that focus is stuck in a widget and the keyboard shortcuts seems not working, before giving up try hitting the ESC key. In the case of the mixer this should revert focus to the mixer-window.

Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts:

CTRL+ALT LEFT, CTRL+ALT RIGHT are used for switching which track is currently selected, a yellow outline will be displayed on the currently selected track.

By CTRL+clicking on a track label it is also possible to select several tracks.

While a track is selected use the following shortcuts:

META+M will toggle the mute state of selcted track(s)

META+N will toggle the solo state of selected track(s)

ALT+LEFT, ALT+RIGHT will change the panning of selected track(s)

ALT+UP, ALT+DOWN will change the volume of selected track(s)

MIDI editor shortcuts

In the midi editors Pianoroll and Drumeditor there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that might be hard to understand their usefulness without some explanation.

Edit toolbar

So, without further ado let’s first list the shortcuts commonly available in the midi and drum editors.

Edit toolbar shortcuts:

• A - Pointer tool Allows to select and move already existing notes with the mouse
• D - Draw tool Draw new notes by clicking on the canvas or resize existing notes
• E - Eraser tool Delete notes by clicking on them
• F - Line draw tool Can be used to manipulate values in the controller view at the bottom by drawing lines over several notes to create ramps.

• U - Cursor tool Only available in the drum editor, see the following chapter about drum editing using cursor.

• P - Pan tool Scroll view vertically (not very useful in this day and age, scrollwheel or mouse pad scrolling is recommended)

Snap shortcuts:

• 1 - Snap grid 1
• 2 - Snap grid 2
• 3 - Snap grid 4
• 4 - Snap grid 8
• 5 - Snap grid 16
• 6 - Snap grid 32
• 7 - Snap grid 64
• , and . - Toggle dotted snap
• T - Toggle triplets

Drum editing using shortcuts

The drum editor in MusE supports a keyboard based editing mode dubbed CURSOR Mode. CURSOR Mode is somewhat a relative to trackers but still applied to a common drum matrix editor. Basically it enables drum editing without using the mouse.

To get into CURSOR Mode press U or click on the [] tool icon.

In CURSOR Mode the following relevant shortcuts are available:

• Arrow keys - move cursor
• 9 - cursor step down The number of steps to jump between added notes
• 0 - cursor step up - "" -
• V - add note with LV1 velocity (usually lowest)
• B - add note with LV2 velocity (next lowest)
• N - add note with LV3 velocity (next higher)
• M - add note with LV4 velocity (highest)
• DELETE key - remove note

Step by step example, making a four by four beat:

1. First create a drum part that is four bars long and open it.
2. U to enter cursor mode
3. 3 to set set snap grid to 4 snaps per bar
4. Press 0 until cursor step is 4
5. Navigate with the arrow keys to the first beat of the kick drum
6. Press N four times to place 4 kick drums each spaced four steps apart
7. Navigate to the third beat of the snare drum
8. Press N four times to place 4 snare drums each spaced four steps apart
9. Navigate to first beat of the hihat 10.Press on 9 until cursor step is 1 11.Press B 16 times to add hihat on all beats

The result should look something like the following:

----------1---2---3---4---5---6
    Kickdrum: x---x---x---x---
    Snare:    --x---x---x---x-
    Hihat     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx