Reference Guide

774
Notation and Lyrics
Working with Percussion
If you want to change a Percussion Staff to a Percussion Line or vice versa, or if you want to change
another type of staff to a percussion staff, you can do so in the Staff View Layout dialog box. If you
change a track’s clef to a non-percussion clef, the percussion notation settings will be lost.
The lowest and highest lines on the Percussion clef are E5 and F6, respectively. The Percussion
Line represents E5.
By default, percussion staves are given SONAR’s default note bindings and notehead assignments.
If you want to use your own notation, or if you want to set up the appearance of a percussion line,
you need to use the Percussion Notation Key dialog box. In this dialog box, the percussion sounds
and staff positions that are bound have an asterisk near their names. When you select a bound
percussion sound, a line joins the sound to its staff position. Each percussion sound can be bound
only to a single position, but each position may be bound to several sounds. You can use different
notehead types and articulation symbols to visually distinguish the sounds.
To Assign a Percussion Staff or Line to a Track
1. Click the Staff View Layout button to open the Staff View Layout dialog box.
2. Select your percussion track from the list.
3. Select Percussion Staff or Percussion Line from the Clef drop-down list.
4. Click Percussion Settings to set up the appearance of percussion notes (see below).
5. Click Close.
SONAR changes the track’s clef to the selected percussion clef.
To Set Up a Track’s Percussion Notation Key
1. Click the Staff View Layout button to open the Staff View Layout dialog box.
2. Select your percussion track from the list.
3. Click Percussion Settings to open the Percussion Notation Key dialog box.
4. Set up the percussion notation key according to the following table:
To do this Do this
Map (bind) a percussion sound to a
line or space on the staff
Select the sound (or corresponding MIDI note) in the MIDI Note list,
select the intended position in the percussion staff in the Display As
list, then click Bind.
Set the notehead and articulation mark
for a percussion sound
Select the sound in the MIDI Note list, then select a Notehead Type
and Articulation Symbol. (Only bound sounds can be assigned a
notehead type and articulation symbol other than the default.)
Control how unbound percussion
sounds display
In the Display As list, click the pitch that you want all unbound notes
to display as. Then select a Notehead Type and Articulation
Symbol, then click the Default note button to apply your changes.
Table 158.