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The Midisoft Studio Demonstration Program Copyright 1987, Midisoft Corporation Box 1000; Bellevue WA 98009; (206) 827-0750 Midisoft Studio Retail Price: $99 What is Midisoft Studio? Note: To use this program, you need an Atari ST Computer, at least one musical instrument that has MIDI sockets, and the cables to connect these together. Your MIDI instrument can be the low-end Casio CZ101 or Yamaha DX100, or any combination of the myriads of MIDI synthesizers available. Midisoft Studio is the first in a series of programs from Midisoft Corporation that will allow you to enhance and extend your musical creativity with MIDI musical instruments. Midisoft Studio will record what is played on a MIDI keyboard or other instrument with a MIDI connector, allow editing and processing of the recorded musical information, and replay the music through the MIDI instrument. The recorded MIDI information may be saved and reloaded with a floppy or a hard disk. Music may also be input via a powerful step record feature, allowing perfect recording of even the most difficult musical passage. This program is designed to serve the needs of the professional musician, as well as the home musician who desires comprehensive musical software at a low cost. We encourage you to compare the features and usability of this product against the expensive sequencers available--you'll be pleasantly surprised with what Midisoft Studio offers. Midisoft Studio can record over 70,000 notes on the 1040ST and over 30,000 notes on the 520ST computer. All sixteen MIDI channels are supported and are reassignable during playback for each of up to 32 active tracks. Midisoft Studio will record all MIDI information: velocity, aftertouch, pitchbend, and program change; transmit and receive MIDI start, stop, and continue commands, and even MIDI song pointer commands. THIS DEMONSTRATION DISK shows the entire program, except: (1) It does not let you save your music to disk, and (2) It does not let you use the program for more than 20 minutes at a time. To buy a working version with a comprehensive manual, ask your local Atari dealer, or order directly from Midisoft for $99 by writing to PO Box 1000; Bellevue WA 98009; or calling (206) 827-0750. Getting Connected Your Atari ST computer has a built-in MIDI interface. There are two 5-pin circular connectors on the rear of the computer that are labeled "Midi In" and "Midi Out." There should be two similar connectors on your MIDI instrument. Two standard MIDI cables are required. Connect one cable from the MIDI Out connector on the MIDI instrument to the "Midi In" connector on the ST computer. Connect the other cable from the "Midi Out" connector on the ST computer to the MIDI In connector on the MIDI instrument. Loading the Program Place the Midisoft Studio Demo disk in Drive A of your ST computer and press the reset button on the computer. Place the mouse cursor on the STUDIO.PRG icon and double-click the left button. An introductory message will appear on the screen. Click the left mouse button on the "OK" box to access the Midisoft Studio main window. Loading and Playing a Song Move the mouse cursor to the menu labeled "File" at the top of the screen. The menu will 'drop down' with several selections. Select the "Load" item with a single click of the left mouse button. A "File Selector" will appear listing all of the files present on the disk. Select one of the demo songs provided by first clicking the left mouse button on the desired song file and then clicking on the "OK" box. Before playing the song, make sure that your MIDI instrument is set up to receive on MIDI channel 1 (or that it is in OMNI mode). Consult your owners manual for details on your particular instrument. Now, play the song by selecting the "PLAY" box (using the left mouse button) on Midisoft Studio. How to Record To record your own keyboard playing with Midisoft Studio, first erase the current song in memory by selecting the "Abandon" command under the "File" menu. Enable the metronome (click on the "speaker" icon) if desired, and begin recording by clicking on the "RECORD" button. Recording is ended by clicking on the "STOP" button. Using "REWIND" while recording will erase the current track and let you start again. The track length will display the length of the recorded track in measures. Using Fast Forward The fast forward has two functions: (1) When used by itself, it moves the tape counter forward as in a normal tape recorder, (2) if used while Playing music, it allows cueing within a song by speeding up the tempo of the song being played. Fast forward is enabled by placing the mouse cursor on the Fast Forward button and holding down the left mouse button. The Fast Forward button will highlight, indicating that fast forward is active. Fast forward during PLAY is ended with another click on the Fast Forward button or with the Stop button. Using Rewind The rewind function may be used at any time (except during recording) by holding the left mouse button on the Rewind button. This will move the tape counter toward the beginning. Using the right mouse button on REWIND will do an instantaneous rewind to the beginning of the song and set the counter to 1| 1| 1. Using Pause The pause function is activated by single-clicking the left mouse button on the Pause button, thus highlighting the button. Pause is disabled with another click on the Pause button. While paused, music may be played from that point with the Play button. Recording cannot occur when paused. If the song is paused while a note is being sustained, the note will not be terminated (you may continue to hear the note, depending on the particular voice or patch on your MIDI instrument). The "All Notes Off" command (under the MIDI menu) will terminate any notes that are left on while paused. Using Stop The Stop button is used to stop playing or fast forwarding. Unlike the Pause button, the Stop button will turn all sustained notes off. Multitrack Recording Concepts Midisoft Studio is designed to operate like a multitrack audio tape recorder. There are thirty-two total tracks that may be recorded or played. Multitrack recording allows compositions to be built in independently-recorded layers. Since each track is separately recorded, each may be edited or re-recorded without affecting the other tracks. Tracks may be combined together into a single track. Tracks and Channels It is important to distinguish the difference between tracks and MIDI channels. A channel identifies the MIDI instrument involved, and a track is a single layer in the multi-layered representation of Midisoft Studio music. It is normal to be sending several tracks through a single channel (and thus a single instrument). The MIDI interface provides the capability for supporting up to sixteen channels of communication. Midisoft Studio allows up to thirty two tracks to be played simultaneously. Each track is assigned to one of the sixteen MIDI channels. The "File" Menu The File menu provides four selections: "Save", "Load", "Abandon", and "Quit". Selecting the "Quit" item will allow the user to exit the program and return to the Desktop. The "Save" and "Load" operations will display a disk file selector dialog from which the user selects or enters a filename for the save or load operation. The "Abandon" operation will abandon current work, erasing all recorded tracks and track descriptions (this does not change what is on disk, however), and restore the maximum amount of available memory for recording. Note: The "Save" function is not available on this demonstration version of Midisoft Studio. The "Setup" Menu The Setup menu is used to set up the basic operation of the program. Among numerous other features, the selections include "Beat", "MIDI Clock", and "Auto-rewind". The "Beat" item displays a dialog allowing the user to select the number of beats per measure and the number of lead-in measures. The number of beats per measure will affect both the metronome (placement of strong and weak beats) and the meas|beat|tick count that is displayed on the main screen. "MIDI Clock" allows the user to select from internal or external timing sources. Most often the clock will be internal. "Auto-rewind", if enabled, will cause the program to rewind to the beginning of the song when playing or recording is stopped. The "Edit" Menu The Edit menu provides access to all of the editing functions of Midisoft Studio. These functions each prompt with dialogs and include selections for "Erase Track", "Move Track", "Copy Track", "Combine Tracks", "Insert", "Delete", "Paste", "Erase", "Transpose", "Time Correction", and "Step Record". The "MIDI" Menu The MIDI menu contains special commands to be sent directly to the MIDI instruments. These commands are "System Reset", "All Notes Off", and "Tune Request". The "System Reset" should be used with caution; it prompts with a dialog to verify the request before performing the reset. The "All Notes Off" command turns off any spurious notes left on. "Tune Request" will send a special MIDI command requesting that the instrument tune itself. This command is primarily for analog synthesizers. Check the owner's manual for your particular instrument to see if it will respond to the "System Reset" or "Tune Request" commands. The Main Window Under the heading Track Number appear the numbers one through twelve, and a single up-arrow and a pair of up-arrows, along with a single down-arrow and a pair of down-arrows. The digits display the numbers of the tracks that are currently being displayed in the window. The single arrows will scroll the display up or down by one track. The double arrows will scroll the dis up or down by one screen (twelve tracks). Directly to the right of each track number is a TRACK PROTECT selector. When track protection is disabled, the selector appears as a small dot. Clicking the left mouse button on the selector will enable track protection and a 'P' will appear indicating that the track is protected. A protected track cannot be erased (except by the Abandon command), edited, or time corrected. DESCRIPTION provides a 24-character edit field for each track in which you may optionally enter a description for the track. To enter a track description, first open the field for editing by single-clicking the left mouse button over the track description area for the desired track. A cursor appearing as a thin vertical line will be displayed. The description field may be cleared with the Escape 'Esc' key, and text may be entered from the ST keyboard. The cursor may be positioned within the entered text with the right-arrow and left-arrow cursor control keys on the ST. When the desired track description text has been entered, close the edit field by either single-clicking the left mouse button on the field or by striking the Return key. TRACK MODE displays the current mode of each displayed track. The possible modes are CLEAN, RECORD, PLAY, SOLO, and OFF. A CLEAN track is one with no music recorded on it, although it may have a description entered in the track description field. The mode may be changed from CLEAN to RECORD by single-clicking the left mouse button on the track mode display for that particular track. Only CLEAN tracks may be put in RECORD mode and only one track may be in RECORD mode at any one time. After a track has been recorded on, the mode is automatically changed to PLAY. Single-clicking the left mouse button on the track mode display changes the mode alternately between PLAY and OFF. Single-clicking the right mouse button on the track mode changes the mode to SOLO, which temporarily turns all the other tracks off until that mode is clicked again. Midisoft Studio allows the track mode to be changed between PLAY, SOLO, and OFF while the tracks are being played. MIDI CHAN displays the MIDI channel that each track is transmitted to. MIDI channels usually represent different MIDI instruments, although a single instrument may simultaneously use more than one channel. Read the owner's manual for your particular instrument to determine its capabilities for different MIDI channels. One way to use the multi-channel capability of MIDI would be to assign each of two or more instruments to different MIDI channels. Then the recorded information for each instrument may be maintained on separate tracks. MIDI channel is applicable to playback operations only; during record operation, Midisoft Studio records from all MIDI channels. To change a MIDI channel, single-click the left mouse button on the MIDI channel display for the track to be changed. The display will become highlighted, indicating that the field is open for editing. The current entry may be cleared with the Escape (Esc) key and the new channel number is entered with the ST keyboard. Valid entries are the numbers one through sixteen only. When the correct channel number is entered, close the edit field with another single click on the same display field. When the field is closed, the highlight will disappear. If a valid MIDI channel number has been entered, that track will be 'patched' to the indicated MIDI channel. If an invalid entry has been made, no change will be made. Remember, the actual channel change does not occur until the edit field is closed. Midisoft Studio allows the MIDI channel to be changed during playback. TRACK LENGTH displays the length of each recorded track in measures. Changing the beats per measure set-up under the Setup menu will change the track length. In the upper right corner of the main window is a horizontal bar graph displaying the amount of remaining FREE MEMORY. This quantity is displayed as a percentage of the total amount of free memory available when Midisoft Studio was loaded. On the right side of the main window is a box containing EDIT MARKS. Edit marks are used by the 'region edit' fuctions to indicate beginning and ending points of a part of a track of recorded music. See "Setting Edit Marks" for details on their use. The COUNT is displayed in a box below the editing marks. The count indicates the current position within the song and is displayed in measures, beats, and ticks. The count may be changed when Midisoft Studio is stopped (not playing or recording). When the count is changed, playing or recording will begin from the new count. To change the count, single-click the left mouse button over either the measure, beat, or tick fields in the count display. The selected field will be highlighted, indicating that it is open for editing. The count may then be incremented or decremented with the up-arrow and down-arrow in the count display. The count may also be changed by typing in the desired value. The 'Esc' key will clear the highlighted count field. When the desired value has been entered, the count field must be closed by another single-click of the left mouse button, or with the 'Return' key. The TEMPO is displayed in a box below the count. The tempo is increased/decreased by placing the cursor on the up-arrow/down-arrow and pressing the left mouse button. A single button click will change the tempo by one beat per minute. Holding the mouse button down will continue to change the tempo until the button is released. A new tempo value may be directly entered by opening the tempo field with a single click of the left mouse button on the displayed tempo value. The tempo field will highlight and can be cleared with the 'Esc' key. The new tempo value is then entered with the ST keyboard. When the edit field is closed by another click of the left mouse button or the Return key, the tempo is set to the entered value. The tempo range is from 30 to 480 beats per minute. The tempo may be changed while playing. Editing Recorded Music Midisoft Studio provides straightforward editing functions that in combination provide a powerful mechanism for manipulating your music. Two levels of editing are provided: track editing and region editing. Track editing works on whole tracks with functions like "ERASE TRACK", "MOVE TRACK", "COPY TRACK", "COMBINE TRACKS", and "TIME CORRECT". Region editing operates on user-defined regions within tracks with "INSERT", "DELETE", "PASTE", "TRANSPOSE" and "ERASE". The regions are defined by setting 'marks' that indicate the beginning and ending points of a region. Track Editing Functions ERASE TRACK removes all of the recorded MIDI music from a given track. The track data is not recoverable (unless previously copied to another track). The track description information and the MIDI channel assignment are not affected by this operation. MOVE TRACK moves all of the information associated with a specified track to a different track. This includes the track description and the MIDI channel assignment as well as the MIDI music. The source track is erased after this operation. This command is valuable in rearranging a number of tracks, and in transferring active and inactive tracks. COPY TRACK copies all of the information associated with a given track to another track. COPY TRACK differs from MOVE TRACK in that the source track is not erased. This command is useful for making backup copies of tracks before editing, combining or time correcting. COMBINE TRACKS combines the MIDI music from one track with the music with another track. The resulting combination is put in the second track. The source track is erased by this operation. The original information and music in the destination track is not recoverable (unless previously copied to another track). COMBINE TRACKS is a valuable tool in building compositions or sequences from layers that are patched to the same MIDI channel or instrument and in increasing the number of available active tracks. Time Correction Time correction is an edit function that is used to 'snap' the recorded notes into perfect timing relationships. The smallest allowed note duration can be changed, providing different resolutions of time correction. For example, if a track was time corrected to a resolution of eighth notes, all notes smaller than an eighth note would be changed to eighth notes and any note larger than an eighth note would would be changed to a note duration is the nearest multiple of eighth notes. Time correction also applies to the note location (the time that a note begins). The note locations are time corrected to the nearest multiple of the specified resolution. Time correction makes edits to the track data that are not recoverable. It is recommended that a track be duplicated "TRACK COPY" onto an extra track before experimenting with time correction. The resolution of time correction is specified in terms of note values. The resolution value ranges from a sixty-fourth note triplet to a whole note. Resolution is selected by clicking the left mouse button on the note picture for the desired value. The selected note icon will become highlighted. To select a triplet value, click the left mouse button on the triplet picture. The mode of time correction is specified by two yes/no selections for Change Note Location and Change Note Duration. Enabling Change Note Location will allow the starting time of each note to be shifted to the nearest time that is an integral multiple of the resolution value. For instance, if there was an eighth note that was trailing the beat by a thirty-second note, time correcting the location with eighth note resolution would move the note right on the beat. Enabling Change Note Duration will allow the duration of each note to be changed so that it is an integral multiple of the resolution value. For example, time correcting the duration of a note that was slightly longer than an eighth note to eighth note resolution would change the duration of the note to be exactly equal to one eighth note. Time correcting the duration of a note to a resolution that is larger than the note duration (e.g. time correcting an eighth note to a quarter note) will lengthen the duration of the note to the value of time correct resolution. Change Note Location and Change Note Duration may be independently enabled to provide three different modes of time correction. Region Edit Functions Setting Edit Marks All of the region edit operations operate on a region specified by beginning and ending marks. Each mark represents a specific time within the track, specified in terms of measures, beats, and ticks. The number of beats per measure is set through the SETUP menu. Ticks are sub-divisions of a beat. There are 96 ticks per beat. Edit marks may be set when playing tracks by placing the cursor on either the measure, beat, or tick field of the the desired mark display on the main screen and single-clicking the left mouse button. If the cursor is in the measure field, the mark is set to the nearest measure, if in the beat field, or tick field, the mark is set to the nearest beat or tick. The marks will automatically appear in the begin and end fields on the region edit screens. There are three marks that may be set. The first two marks are used to define the beginning and ending points of an edit region and the third one marks a single insert or paste point. Editing marks are not associated with any particular track; they only specify a particular time within the song. Editing marks may also be changed via any of the region edit dialog screens (Transpose, Insert, Paste, Delete, Erase). This is accomplished by single-clicking the left mouse button on either the measure, beat, or tick portion of the mark display for the particular edit mark to be changed. This will open that field for editing, which is indicated by a cursor appearing as a thin vertical line. The field may be cleared with the Escape (Esc) key and the desired values entered. There are three fields that make up one edit mark. These are labeled meas, beat, and tick. Any or all of these fields may be changed as described above. Tracks for SOURCE or DESTINATION regions may be selected from the Main Window by clicking on the leftmost track number with the left or right mouse button correspondingly. When all of the marks are set as desired, the edit is initiated with the appropriate button (INSERT, PASTE, DELETE, ERASE, TRANSPOSE) and the program verifies that the edit marks are valid. If there is an invalid entry in an edit mark, an appropriate error message appears and the edit does not occur. STEP PLAY is a way of setting precise Edit Marks. Music may be stepped one MIDI Event at a time by single-clicking the right mouse button while on the PLAY button. A MIDI Event includes "Note On," "Note Off," and "Program Change" and you will immediately hear which note has been turned on or off. One common way of using STEP PLAY would be in correcting a mistake as follows: Say that there was an extra note in the music that needed removing. Do a regular PLAY until you hear the bad note, back the music a measure by clicking on the down-arrow in the COUNT window, and STEP PLAY until you hear the bad note. Click on the TICK field of SOURCE BEGIN and SOURCE END in the EDIT MARKS box. Then do an ERASE... of that region of one note for the desired track. INSERT takes a specified region from a source track and inserts it at a designated location within a destination track. Any music in the destination track occuring after the insert location is moved to occur after the inserted music. The destination track will be changed, while the source track will remain unchanged. PASTE takes a given region from a source track and pastes it to a specified location within a destination track. Any music on the destination track that is overlayed by the pasted region will be erased. The destination track will be changed, while the source track will remain unchanged. DELETE removes a specified region from a track. The music following the delete region is shifted so that it follows the music preceding the deleted region. ERASE all removes a specified region from a track. The timing of the erased region, however, is unchanged. This is analagous to replacing notes with rests. Step Recording Step recording provides a means for recording difficult passages of music that the user prefers not to play directly on the keyboard in real-time. Step recorded tracks may be played, edited, and combined with other tracks that were recorded in real-time. The Midisoft Studio step recorder uses both the ST computer keyboard and a MIDI keyboard to enter notes and rests. Before a note is entered, its duration (i.e., quarter note vs. half note) can be selected by using the Note Size selectors. The size of note is changed by single-clicking the right or left mouse button on the picture of the note. By clicking the left mouse button, the note value is halved (a quarter note is changed to an eighth note and so on). Likewise clicking the right mouse button will double the note value (a quarter note is change to a half note). The note on the screen will change to represent the active note length. If the note is to be dotted or is a triplet, those boxes may also be highlighted by clicking with the left mouse button. Bizarre note lengths may be entered by setting them directly with the SIZE numbers on the top of that window. It is often useful to change the duration of the actual sound relative to the duration of the note. Specifically, a note can become staccato (short sound duration compared to the note length) or legato (long sound duration) by clicking on the bar graph where you want the duration. This sound duration can be changed to anywhere from zero or very short sound duration, to 100% duration. The arrow keys on either side of the graph may also be clicked to change the duration by single percentage points. Whenever the sound duration is changed, the exact percentage is displayed above the graph. To enter notes or rests, the step recorder must be enabled with a single click of the left mouse button on the RECORD ON button. First the proper note size is selected as described above. Then, notes are entered from the MIDI keyboard and are assigned a duration equal to the note size. Note that the COUNT display will increment by the selected duration value when the note is entered. An optional short beep will also be emitted from the ST to signify that the note was recorded. The note is not entered until all of the keys on the MIDI keyboard are released. If more than one key is played before the previous ones have been released, the notes will be entered as a chord. To enter a rest, first select the proper duration, then single-click the left mouse button on the button labeled REST (or simply hit the space bar on the computer). Note that the COUNT will be incremented by the selected duration value. The UNDO function will erase the last note or rest that was step-recorded and back the counter up to the appropriate position. To undo, click the left mouse button on the button labeled UNDO. Only one "Undo" is allowed at a particular instance. Each note that is played on a MIDI instrument has an associated attack (note-on) and release (note-off) velocity. The attack velocity determines the loudness of the note that is played (the higher the velocity number, the louder the note is). The release velocity determines how quick the note is turned off after the key is released. Midisoft Studio allows the user to choose whether to record the velocity information as transmitted by the MIDI instrument, or to ignore the transmitted velocity and record the velocity as indicated on the step record screen. If Record Velocity is on, the velocity transmitted by the MIDI instrument is recorded. Each time a step is entered, the velocity displays on the screen are updated with the transmitted velocity information. If Record Velocity is off, the attack and release velocities specified on the step record screen are substituted for the transmitted values and recorded. Velocity values range from 1 to 127. Many instruments do not transmit or respond to velocity information. These instruments will generally transmit a velocity value of 64. Some instruments do not transmit velocity information, but will respond to velocity information. An example of such instruments are the Yamaha RX11 and RX21 drum machines. Step recording with Velocity Record off will allow 127 different volume levels for each note on these instruments. The step recorded music is saved when the step record dialog is exited. To exit, single-click the left mouse button on the EXIT button. A Sample Recording Session With Midisoft Studio This example will try to step you through a multitrack recording session with Midisoft Studio. It assumes some familiarity with your synthesizer, your Atari ST, and Midisoft Studio as described in this document. Since this is a demo version of Midisoft Studio, you may get timed-out during this session. With a 'real' version of the program, you will not have any time limitations. - Load Midisoft Studio as previously instructed. - Move the mouse so that the cursor is on "Setup" and brings down the drop-down menu. From there, single-click on "Beat." - We want 4/4 time, so leave the number of beats per measure at 4. We want a two measure lead-in, however, so click on the "2", and "OK" to set that value. - Make sure the metronome will be sounding by clicking on the speaker (bottom-right of screen) until lines demonstrate that sound will be emitted. - Change the TEMPO on the main window to something slow (like 60 beats/minute). This can be done by holding the mouse button down when the cursor is on the down-arrow to the left of the word "TEMPO". It can also be done by clicking on the TEMPO number and typing: 'Esc' 60 'Return'. - Move the cursor over the RECORD button and press the left mouse button. The metronome should begin on the fourth beat before the first lead-in measure. If you don't hear anything, adjust the volume control on your computer monitor. - Once you've heard two measures and one beat of metronome, begin by playing a simple melody on the synthesizer in time with the metronome. - When you are finished playing the melody, hit the STOP. - To play back, REWIND to the beginning, and select the "Play" button. - While listening, try FF and REWIND with the right mouse button to see how these features work. - Watch the COUNT, and after stopping playing with the "STOP" button, manually set the count (by opening the meas|beat|tick edit fields with the mouse button and changing the values) and play to see how to move around within the music. Remember, edit fields are cleared with the 'Esc' key. - Also, when playing back, try changing the tempo to something much faster. - We now want to add a harmony track on Track 2. - Rewind to get to the beginning of the music - Type in DESCRIPTIONS for Track 1 and 2 so you can remember which is melody and which is harmony. - Change the TEMPO so it is back to 60 beats/minute. - Select the RECORD button. Track 1 will play and any notes that you play along with Track 1 will be recorded on Track 2. - Play some harmony to fit with what you hear in Track 1. When done, hit STOP. - Play back both tracks together by selecting the PLAY button. - If you don't like the way the two tracks sound, select the "FILE" command, and "ABANDON." This will let you start fresh now that you know what you're doing. - If you don't like your harmonization and would like to try again, single-click on the "PLAY" mode designator for Track 2 so that it becomes "OFF." You now can record a second harmony onto Track 3. - Now you should have a harmony on Track 3 and a melody on Track 1. Just to clean things up, let's move Track 3 to Track 2 (you didn't like Track 2 anyway). - Select the EDIT pull-down menu, and MOVE TRACK within that. - Where it asks for "From Track" (source) number, enter 3. Put 2 as the "To Track" (destination). Click on "MOVE" when done. - Now we want to add an unobtrusive bass line to what is now a CLEAN Track 3. - Rewind (if necessary), and hit the record option. This time you will only be recording a two-measure bass line. - When done playing the first two measures, stop playing. - We want to use REGION EDITING to repeat these same two lines throughout the whole song. Select EDIT, then "COPY". Tell the dialog boxes that you want to copy from Track 3, Region 1|1|1 to 3|1|1 to Track 4 at 1|1|1, and set repeat to 2 or 3 times. - When you've completed the editing, try playing your new music. Turn Track 3 OFF (it just has the two measures that are repeated in Track 4). - As a final exercise, let's use Midisoft Studio to correct a bad phrase you have in your music. Let's say that somewhere in your melody you've made some mistakes, and you don't want to have to replay the whole melody track. - RECORD onto a new track while you are playing back the melody track. During the phrase that has mistakes, be playing that same phrase again (correct this time) on the new track. - After you've completed that phrase, click the right mouse button or a computer keyboard key. - Play the music until you start hearing the bad phrase. STOP, and back the music one measure by clicking on the down-arrow in the COUNT window. - Step Play (click the right mouse button on PLAY) until you hear the first note of the bad phrase. - In the Edit Marks window, click the TICK number of the SOURCE BEGIN. This remembers the beginning of the region. - Step Play some more until you hear the last note of the bad phrase. - In the Edit Marks window, click the TICK number of the SOURCE END. This marks the end of the region. - Now select EDIT, then "ERASE". Since you've correctly selected the edit marks, set the track number to the track that you are editing and click on the ERASE button. - Now play the music again (with both the original melody track and the track with the corrected phrase), listening to see if the bad phrase has been corrected properly. - If it sounds good, you will probably want to combine the two tracks into the melody track. To do so, select the EDIT menu, then the COMBINE TRACK item. Put the correct track numbers in to combine the track with the corrected phrase onto the original melody track. Note that this edit operation could have been completed with just one operation, a region PASTE edit.