User guide

Chapter 33 Working With Notation 761
Transcribing MIDI Recordings
In this section, you’ll learn how to use the Score Editor’s display parameters to correctly
notate your performances.
Traditional music notation is only an approximate description of the musical content in
a piece. The actual performance depends heavily on the interpretation of notes by
musicians. Quarter notes, for example, are hardly ever held for exactly one beat.
The rhythmic interpretation of MIDI regions (recorded in real time, to a metronome
click) presents a similar problem, especially when you consider that Logic Express
records MIDI events at a resolution of 960 ticks per quarter note. Nobody will play a
downbeat at the exact time of the metronome click.
The Score Editor’s display parameters allow you to adjust the appearance of notation,
without changing the playback (and feel) of the original MIDI region. You can use
different display settings for each region.
As such, it’s important that you have some idea of what your printed music should look
like. This will help to determine the display settings that will best fit your music.
If you can’t seem to find the appropriate display parameters for a particular MIDI
region, divide the region with the Scissors tool. This will leave MIDI playback unaltered,
but allows you to assign different display parameters (display quantization) for each of
the shorter regions that result from the cut operation.
Even though these divided regions are separate, they adjoin each other, and will be
displayed as a continuous staff in the score.
As a general working tip, you should merge MIDI regions (or insert blank regions) to fill
the gaps between MIDI regions before altering the display settings. The Score Editor will
display nothing if no region is present, resulting in blank spaces in your score.