When a piece of music is notated, it is not represented as one long stream, but with a series of divisions called bars or measures, which neatly fit the rhythm or meter of the music.

You can select whether Songtrix uses the term bar or measure throughout the workspace (except in the How Music Works tutorials, where bar is always used).

Bars provide a convenient way to refer to location within a piece of music, for example "the chorus starts at bar 33".  Bars are usually numbered starting with 1 for the first bar.

In Songtrix, there can also be pickup bars which use lower case roman numerals (i and ii).

Time Signatures

Bars can vary in size, depending on their time signature.  The time signature above is 4/4, which tells us the bar is based on a 4-beat rhythm, and each beat is represented with a quarter note (solid head and stem, but no flags).

Songtrix offers great flexibility in song timing, with many available time signatures, which can change at each bar if you wish.  You can select the time signature when you first create a new song and when you insert bars into the song.

Quarter Notes

Quarter notes are a standard unit of measurement for musical timing.  For many time signatures, such as 3/4 and 4/4, a quarter note is the same as a beat.

However this is not always the case.  Time signatures such as 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 have a beat length that is only half of a quarter note (ie.  an eighth note), whereas time signatures such as 2/2 and 3/2 have a beat length of two quarter notes (ie.  a half note). 

In Songtrix, you will encounter the Quarter Note (Qtn) used in event timing as Tpq (Ticks Per Qtn) or for other time divisions such as grid lines (eg.  Qtn/6).  It is also used to measure tempo.

Musical Tempo

Tempo is the overall speed at which a piece of music is played.  It is measured in quarter notes per minute (qpm).  This may or may not be the same as beats per minute, depending on the time signature.

Songtrix maintains a master tempo setting for the song, which is visible on the mixer panel.  But you can also vary tempo throughout the song, by placing a tempo change event wherever needed.

Tempo is indicated with a quarter note symbol as shown below (for 102 qpm).