The Piano Roll Editor

The piano roll is Homecrate’s note-level MIDI editor. Open it by long-pressing any MIDI clip on the timeline (or tapping the ✏️ icon), as long as the clip contains pitched notes rather than drum-range notes (which open the Drum Step Sequencer instead).

Opening the Piano Roll

Long-press a MIDI clip on the timeline, or tap the ✏️ pencil icon on the clip.

[SCREENSHOT: Piano roll editor — full screen view]

The editor opens full-screen. It shows:

A keyboard strip on the left (C2–C6 range by default)
A note grid to the right, scrollable horizontally
Bar lines at the start of each bar (bright vertical lines)
Beat lines within each bar (dimmer vertical lines)

The Interface

[SCREENSHOT: Piano roll annotated — keyboard, note grid, header row, toolbar]

Header Row

The header shows bar numbers (B1, B2, etc.) and beat subdivisions. Tap the Save button (top-right) to commit your changes, or ✕ to close without saving.

Clip Label

Tap the label field at the top to rename the clip (e.g. “Am Verse Chords”, “Bridge Melody”).

Info Bar

Shows: number of bars · time signature · note count · a hint for how to add and remove notes.

Adding Notes

Tap any empty cell on the grid to place a note there. A note is always 1 beat long when first placed and aligned to the nearest beat.

[SCREENSHOT: Tapping an empty cell to place a note]

The cell color corresponds to the note’s pitch class (C notes are one hue, D notes another, etc.) and brightness reflects the note’s velocity.

Removing Notes

Tap a note that already exists to remove it.

[SCREENSHOT: Tapping an existing note to remove it]

Editing Note Properties (Long-Press)

Long-press any note to open the Note Edit modal, where you can adjust:

[SCREENSHOT: Note Edit modal]

Velocity

Controls how hard the note is struck (0–127). Higher velocity = louder. The slider maps 0→127 across its range.

The preview bar at the top of the modal shows the note at its current velocity and duration so you can see the effect of your changes.

Duration

Controls how long the note lasts, from 1/16th note (0.25 beats) up to 4 beats. The slider snaps to quarter-beat increments (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 beats, etc.).

Repeats

The Repeats slider lets a single note retrigger itself at a set interval, without you having to draw each hit individually. Useful for tremolo, strumming patterns, or rapid percussion.

Set Repeats to 2 or more to enable
Set Spacing to control how often it retriggers:
- 1/4 beat — quarter notes between hits
- 1/8 beat — eighth notes
- 1/16 beat — sixteenth notes
- 1/32 beat — thirty-second notes

[SCREENSHOT: Note with repeat count showing "3x" and spacing label in the cell]

Notes with repeats show a small “Nx” label inside their cell in the grid (e.g. “3x” for 3 repeats), and the spacing below it (e.g. “1/8”).

Scrolling the Grid

Scroll horizontally (swipe left/right on the note area) to move through time
Scroll vertically (swipe up/down on the full editor) to see higher or lower pitches

The keyboard strip on the left scrolls in sync with the vertical position so you always know which pitch you’re on.

Collapsed View

For clips with many notes spanning a wide pitch range, the full piano roll can feel sparse. Tap Collapse in the header to switch to a condensed view that shows only the pitch classes that contain notes.

[SCREENSHOT: Collapsed piano roll — fewer rows, only active pitch classes shown]

In collapsed view:

Each row represents a pitch class (C, D#, G, etc.) rather than a specific octave
Row height increases so the notes are easier to tap
The pitch labels on the left show the note name without octave

Tap Expand to return to the full view.

Recorded Notes vs. Grid Notes

The piano roll distinguishes between two types of notes:

Type	How it was created	Appearance
Grid notes	Tapped in by hand	Appear at exact beat positions (integer startBeat)
Recorded notes	Captured from a MIDI controller	Appear at fractional beat positions reflecting your actual playing timing

Both types look similar in the grid. Recorded notes may sit slightly off the beat grid lines, faithfully preserving your performance timing. You can delete either type by tapping it.

The toolbar at the bottom of the piano roll editor contains:

Button	Action
Copy	Copies this clip to the clipboard
Cut	Copies to clipboard and removes the clip from the timeline
Dupe	Places a duplicate of this clip immediately after the original
Delete	Removes this clip from the timeline (can be undone)

Saving Changes

Tap Save in the top-right to commit your edits and close the editor. The clip on the timeline updates immediately to reflect the new notes.

Tap ✕ to discard all changes since you opened the editor.

Changes to the note grid are not live-previewed during playback while the editor is open. Save and close to hear your edits in context.