The Segment Sheet appears in Track View, the Edit Segment window and the Record Segment window.  It is the canvas on which the events of the song are placed into segments.

The segment sheet shown above is for a melody segment (in Melody, Riff and Bass tracks).  It appears quite differently for rhythm segments, drum segments and lyric segments.

These differences are covered in the next few topics.  Here we look at the similarities shared by all segments sheets.

Scope Axis

Segment sheets are based a series of one or more horizontal lines on which events are placed.

There are usually many lines, and each has a different sound that events can make.  The collection of segment lines represent the scope of the track, which can be adjusted with the track setup.

To indicate the sound of each line, there is vertical scope axis on the left side of the sheet, which appears differently for each segment type.  For the melody segment (shown above) it is a piano keyboard, each key denoting the pitch of a line.

You can audition the sound of any line by clicking on the vertical axis.

You can also use the middle mouse button to audition any line you are hovering over in the sheet.

Time Axis

At the bottom of the sheet is the time axis (it can also appear at the top if you prefer).  Segments can vary in length from a single bar, to a maximum length of 999 bars.

A proportional time line runs along the axis, so equal horizontal distances represent equal time spans anywhere in the sheet, and the playback marker moves smoothly across the background.

Each bar is indicated along the time line by a large number with a box around it.  The beats of the bar are shown in between, with smaller numbers.  The first beat of each bar occurs at the bar number itself, and is not shown explicitly.

One bar in the segment is always the focus bar, and it is indicated with a bold bar number and lighter shade background.  It highlights which area of the song you are currently working on.

You can edit events in any bar, but the focus is where playback and some other commands are directed, so you may want to relocate it.

Depending on where the segment sheet appears, there are several buttons and commands that can be used for relocation, but you can also change focus bar within the sheet by clicking on a different bar number.

Sizing

The segment sheet (and the events on it) can be resized horizontally, so you can choose to see more bars, or to see less bars in more detail.

Horizontal sizing (H-Zoom) can vary from 25% to 400%.  There is also a Zoom To Width command that attempts to fit all bars of the segment exactly into the sheet.  Generally, this is only possible (or useful) for short segments of one or two bars.

When the horizontal time axis is too large to fit entirely on the sheet, a horizontal scroll bar appears at the bottom of the sheet, which lets you scroll the other bars of the segment into view.

You can also shift horizontally with a click-and-drag action over the time axis.

Melody and drum segments can be resized vertically also, so you can choose to see more segment lines, or to see less lines in more detail.

Vertical sizing (V-Zoom) can vary from 25% to 400%.  There is also a Zoom To Height command that attempts to fit all lines of the segment exactly into the sheet.

When the vertical scope axis is too large to fit entirely on the sheet, a vertical scroll bar appears at the right of the sheet, which lets you scroll into view the other lines of the segment.

Grid Lines

Between the beat lines of each bar are a series of faint vertical grid lines diving each beat into smaller time spans.  You can use these to help you place events with the correct timing.

Grid lines can be adjusted from 2 to 24 per quarter note, using the controls shown below.

Since musical notes usually occur on fractions of the beat, you can use the Snap To Grid option to ensure that the locations and durations of all events you work with are perfectly aligned on these boundaries.

This makes it easy to create and edit events whose musical timing is absolutely correct, but they may sound a little mechanical when played, since human expression actually manifests as slight variations in timing.

A solution is to create the events with Snap To Grid on, and then add variations at the end, using the Humanize function.

Selecting Events

To change the location or properties of events in segment sheets, they first need to be selected.  There are many ways provided for you to select single or groups of events.

The simplest way is to simply click on an event with the mouse.  When events are selected, they appear with selection handles on each side and corner.

Normally, when you click on a different event, the new event is selected and the selection is dropped from the original event.  However, if you are holding down the Shift key, then each new event you click on will be added to the selection instead of replacing it.

You can select a group of events close to each other on the sheet by clicking on the background and dragging a selection rectangle around them as shown.  All events fully or partially enclosed by the dotted rectangle will become selected.

You can select all events on a particular segment line by hovering over the vertical axis with the Shift key down to give you a horizontal arrow.  In the picture below, both events being pointed at will become selected when the mouse button is pressed.  The arrow can also be swept across a range of lines.

For complex requirements, you can select events with great precision using the Select Events window, which can isolate events for selection by a range of single criteria, or a combination of several.

You can use the Tab or Shift+Tab keystrokes to move the selection between the events in order.

And finally, you can use the Select All Events command (available as a button or from the right-click menu) to select every event in the segment.

Editing Events

Once events are selected, you can begin to make changes to them.  There are two main ways of doing this, which are covered in the next two topics.

Many edit operations can be performed with the mouse, keyboard and menu commands.

The event properties table on the right of the segment sheet can display and update all properties of events.