Delete notes in the Piano Roll Editor

You can delete notes from MIDI regions, and delete notes meeting certain criteria.

Delete one or more notes

Do one of the following:

  • Select the notes, then press Delete.

  • Select the notes, then click one of the selected notes with the Eraser tool.

  • Select the Eraser tool, then click the notes you want to delete.

    Figure. Deleting note in Piano Roll Editor with Eraser tool.

Delete similar or equal events

  1. Select one of the notes you want to delete.

  2. Choose Edit > Select > Select Similar Events or Edit > Select > Select Equal Events (notes of the same pitch, for example) from the Piano Roll Editor menu bar, then delete the selected events by pressing Delete.

You can also delete events by choosing Edit > Delete MIDI Events from the Piano Roll Editor menu bar, then choosing an option from the submenu.

Delete doubled events

  • Choose Edit > Delete MIDI Events > Duplicates from the Piano Roll Editor menu bar, or use the Delete Duplicated Events key command (D).

Any events occurring twice or more at the same position (and pitch) are deleted, allowing one to remain. This is true regardless of whether the duplicates have different velocity, aftertouch, or controller values. Events on different MIDI channels are not considered duplicates.

The “same time position” includes two notes that are output simultaneously because of the current quantization setting.

Delete events inside or outside the locators

  1. Set the left and right locator positions.

  2. Choose one of the following from the Piano Roll Editor menu bar:

    • Functions > Delete MIDI Events > Inside Locators

    • Functions > Delete MIDI Events > Outside Locators

When copying events or reducing the length of MIDI regions, events can sometimes end up outside the limits of a MIDI region. These technically still belong to the MIDI region, although they won’t be played or heard.

Delete events outside the MIDI region

  • Choose Edit > Delete MIDI Events > Outside Region Borders from the Piano Roll Editor menu bar.

Delete unselected events within the selection

  • Choose Edit > Delete MIDI Events > Unselected Within Selection from the Piano Roll Editor menu bar.

All unselected notes between the start of the first selected note and the end of the last selected note are deleted.

Delete all selected events and select the next one

  1. Select the event you want to delete.

  2. Use the Delete and Select Next Region/Event key command.