Rulers and Grid
Rulers
Function
The maquette editor has two rulers :
- the horizontal ruler, or abscissas axis, measures time in milliseconds
- the vertical ruler, or ordinates axis, measures space with an arbitrary unit.
—|—
Zoom
The scale of each ruler can be increased or decreased manually to zoom in or out, vertically and/or horizontally in the maquette.
To modify the scale of a ruler :
-
click on a ruler to view the double-arrow cursor
-
keep pressing while scroling the mouse.
To zoom in scroll the mouse upwards or rightwards. To zoom out, scroll it downwards or leftwards.
Grid
Displaying and Resolution
To display the grid of the maquette editor, press g .The grid’s resolution
is calculated automatically, according to the zoom scale.
Quantization and Snap to Grid Option
The quantization allows to snap boxes to the grid when they are moved manually. The quantization of the ordinates axis can be defined with positive integers.
-
To specify a quantization :
-
double click on the vertical ruler.
-
enter a number of steps in the ” Y Step” frame.
-
-
To activate the quantization, select the
Magneticoption. Boxes will snap to the closest vertical step.
—|—
The Metric Ruler : Rhythmic Parameters of the Maquette
The metric ruler displays measures and beats. It can be shown at the top of the maquette editor.
To display the metric ruler :
-
Ctrl/ right click in the maquette -
choose
Show / Hide Metric Ruler.
—|—
The metric ruler has three parameters :
- tempo
- meter
- a metric quantization applying to objects.
To define the musical parameters of the maquette, double click on the metric ruler.
-
To define a tempo :
-
click successively on the quarter note
icon to choose a unit. -
enter a tempo in the ” Tempo” frame.
-
-
To define a metric pattern, enter a list of one or more measures in the Metric frame according to the usual conventions.
-
To specify pattern repetitions, use the ` Loop Measure / Last Measure` option :
- The
Loop Measureoption allows to repeat the meter pattern defined above. - The
Repeat Last Measureoption allows to apply the last metric value of the pattern to the following measures
- The
Note that complex or irregular meter changes, which cannot be expressed by a single pattern, require a thorough expression, measure by measure…
—|—
Snap to Metrics
The ” Maximum Subdivision” frame takes a metric quantization unit.
- The reference unit of this subdivision[1] ** is always equal to the whole note
**, no matter which time signature has been chosen.
For instance, “64” represents a 64th note subdivision, that is :
.
-
Values must be integers.
-
Any subdivision of the whole note, - other values than powers of 2 - are accepted by OM.
For instance, “12” represents a triplet’s fourth note subdivision, that is :
.
Here, we defined the following pattern : ((6 8) (3 8) (3 4) (6 4)) and chose the “Repeat Last Measure” option.
Grid and Metric Ruler
The grid fits the measure unit of the metric ruler.
Memento : Subdivisions
= 1; 
= 2; =
4; 
= 8; 
= 16;
= 32; 
= 64…
References :
- Subdivisions of the Whole Note
Memento :
= 1, = 2, =
4, = 8, = 16,
= 32, = 64
Contents :
- OpenMusic Documentation
- OM User Manual
- OpenMusic QuickStart