MultitrackStudio User Forum

Is there a way of forcing individual controller data points to snap to the current grid? I thought I might find a “to grid” button or something in the dot editor window like there is in the note editor. The use case here is to send timed control values to external plugins to trigger events on beat boundaries.

I had not noticed the dot editor before today and it is a really useful thing to have in order to make precise changes and is missing in every other DAW I have used.

That's currently not possible.

It has been asked for before. Snapping controllers doesn't seem very useful to me, but it looks like that's just me


Giel Bremmers

It was one of my requests in the past... Snapping pitchbend values on note-ons could be very useful for microtonality for example.

Thanks Giel. Can’t believe I’m still finding cool little new things like the dot editor after using MTS for almost a year now.

Colrik wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 3:27 pm microtonality

Do you do that for a few notes only, or do you set up full scales?


Giel Bremmers

Thanks again for implementing this feature, I have been using it to good effect to precisely send AU automation. I noticed one issue whereby if you have a square shape with dots going say 0 -> 1 -> 1 -> 0 and the second “1” dot is at the same x axis as the second “0” dot but more than half way to the next grid snap point and you snap it to the grid then it ends up ahead of the second zero dot below it on the grid. I then can no longer select the second “0” dot and need to remove the other dots to get to it. Hope that makes sense.

Edit: this also applies in the opposite direction. In the example above, if the first “1” dot is selected and is less than halfway to the next grid line and is snapped back to the previous one then its x position becomes less than the first “0” dot, which is logically before it in the automation.

The controller editors can't handle multiple dots at the exact same time. Specifically, it's not possible to select a single dot if there are more dots at the same time position.

To work around this the Dot Editor moves any existing dots at the new time position by a very small amount, so the dot you're editing still has a unique time position. AFAICS this works fine if there are two dots fighting for the same time position. It can fall flat if you try to have 3 (or more) dots at the same time position.


Giel Bremmers

Thanks, Giel, for the 'snap to grid' feature.
It serves my purpose perfectly well for pb value on note-ons.
... and the new colours are fine.