I have a slightly unwieldy way of writing my music - I work solely in the Score Editor and I input notes by mouse - but I’ve kind of got used to it over the years.
However one area has always been rather irritating. The sensitivity of the vertical axis when placing notes. It seems that a lot of time is wasted flitting between, for example, E and F# when actually I want F. I’m sure I can remember someone saying years ago that in Cubase there’s a button/key that you can hold that can reduce this sensitivity.
I work without a key signature and do prefer to have the entire chromatic range available to me (rather than snapping to a diatonic), but this bugs me a little!
So that’s my question really: Aside from actually changing the sensitivity of the mouse, or making the staves bigger, is there any way round this annoying little problem?
Do you use the option in Preferences >Scores>Editing>“Show pitch when inserting notes”?
I don’t know if it is because I am on Mac here, or because my machine might simply be slower than yours, but I can reach all semitones without problem here… especially when there is no key signature (or key = C maj anyways ). It can get a bit of a head-scratcher when there is a key signature, when you can sometimes see flats instead of sharps (or vice versa), so you have to concentrate .
It’s not so much to do with how it’s displayed - it’s just sometimes to position a note from one semitone and the next requires a movement of the mouse amounting to a thousandth of a millimetre - or so it seems!
Maybe I want a C# for example: I have the note suspended above the stave - mouse button pressed, I get to a C, I move up a fraction and get a D, I move down an even smaller fraction… and get C, I move up as small a distance possible with the mouse… and get a D! Only when I have managed an inconceivably small movement with my mouse do I manage to find that elusive semitone in between, and release the mouse button and place the note.
But not to worry, it’s not a big issue.
I think I just need to reduce my mouse sensitivity!
Do you have the score editing window zoomed to maximum?
That’s 200% on my system (control is via the downwards pointing triangle at the top over on the right). Not an editing mode I use a lot but I don’t seem to have problems when I do.
I changed how the up & down keyboard arrows work in the Score Editor so they are the same as in the Key Editor, e.g. they move the notes up and down by half-steps. It’s in Key Commands/Nudge set the arrows to Up & Down. I don’t recall what the default behavior for these keys is, but you loose it.
While this won’t actually improve your ability to initially place the note, it makes it easy to correct after it is misplaced on the staff.
). It can get a bit of a head-scratcher when there is a key signature, when you can sometimes see flats instead of sharps (or vice versa), so you have to concentrate