1. What Is Piano Roll?
The piano roll is the drum screen's melodic editor. When the step grid is for percussion (kick, snare, hat — on/off hits), the piano roll is for pitched sounds (basslines, synth melodies, chord stabs). Each note has a pitch (vertical position), a start time (horizontal position), and a length (how wide the note bar is).
Switch between the step grid and piano roll using the editor mode toggle. The same 16 tracks exist in both views — tracks 1-8 might be drum patterns while tracks 9-16 are piano roll melodies, or you can use any combination.
2. The Piano Roll Grid
Vertical axis (pitch). The piano-key strip on the left shows which note each row represents. Like a real piano, the pattern repeats every octave. Higher rows = higher pitches.
Horizontal axis (time). Beats and bars. The grid lines show beat divisions based on your time signature. A note bar starts at its left edge and extends right for its duration.
Note bars. Coloured rectangles. The colour matches the track colour. The width = note length. Drag vertically to change pitch, horizontally to change timing. Drag the right edge to change duration.
3. Tools — Draw, Erase, Select
Draw tool. Tap anywhere on the grid to place a note. The pitch snaps to the nearest row. The duration comes from the note-length chip you've selected (1/16 is good for basslines, 1/4 or 1/2 for pads). Hold and drag to draw a note at a custom length.
Erase tool. Tap a note to remove it. Swipe to erase multiple notes at once.
Select tool. Tap a note to select it (highlighted). Tap another to add to the selection. Drag a rectangle around multiple notes to select them all at once. Once selected, you can: delete, duplicate, nudge left/right (micro-timing), nudge up/down (transpose by semitone), or open the note editor.
Your most-used tools are DRAW and SELECT. Draw to sketch ideas, then switch to Select to refine timing, pitch, and velocity. Keep ERASE handy for quick fixes — you can also long-press a note and pick "Delete" from the context menu.
4. Scale Lock
Scale lock constrains every note you draw to a specific scale. Pick a scale and every note automatically snaps to the nearest valid pitch.
Available scales: Chromatic (no restriction — all 12 notes), Major (happy, bright), Minor (sad, dark), Dorian (jazzy minor), Pentatonic Major (five-note major — bluesy and safe), Pentatonic Minor (five-note minor — classic solo scale).
With scale lock on, you literally cannot play a wrong note. It's the musical equivalent of painting by numbers — perfect for beginners or for fast sketching without theory knowledge.
5. Ghost Notes
Ghost notes from other tracks appear faintly on the piano roll. When you're writing a bassline on track 9 and your kick/snare pattern is on tracks 1-2, you'll see ghost markers showing where the drums hit. This lets you align your bass notes to the kick pattern — the foundation of groove.
In the phone mockup above, the faint white note bars represent drum hits from other tracks. The coloured bars are the active track's notes. Use ghost notes as a visual guide — lock your bass to the kick and your snare to the chord stabs for a tight arrangement.
6. Per-Note Editing
When a note is selected (SELECT tool + tap), a panel opens with these controls:
Pitch. Semitone and octave shift. Transpose a note up 7 semitones for a perfect fifth harmony.
Duration. Change from a 16th note to an 8th note, or drag the duration to any custom length.
Velocity. How hard the note hits. 100 = full volume with bright tone. 40 = soft hit with darker tone. Use velocity to add dynamics — a bassline where every fourth note is louder has a pulse.
Synth-specific parameters. If the track uses a synth voice (not a sample instrument), each note gets extra controls:
- Accent: boosts the note for emphasis.
- Ghost: plays the note softly for texture.
- Glide: slides into the note from the previous pitch.
- Filter shape: opens or closes the filter on this specific note.
- Vibrato: adds pitch wobble.
- Probability: chance the note plays (100% = always, 50% = coin flip).
- Bend up/down: pitch bend on just this note.
7. Note Operations
Select multiple notes and apply these operations from the tools panel:
Quantize. Snaps all selected notes to the nearest grid position. Fixes sloppy timing after you've recorded or drawn.
Humanize. Adds subtle random timing variations to selected notes. Makes quantized melodies sound like a human played them. Different presets for different instruments.
Transpose. Shift all selected notes up or down. +12 = one octave up. +7 = a fifth up. Use this to find the right register for your instrument.
Duplicate. Copy selected notes and paste them starting at the next bar. Build a 4-bar phrase from a 1-bar idea.
Delete. Remove selected notes.
Arpeggiate. Take a chord (stacked notes) and spread them out over time — each note plays one after another instead of all at once. Classic synth arpeggio effect.
Legato. Extend each note to reach the start of the next note. Creates a smooth, connected feel — no gaps between notes.
Draw a C major triad (C, E, G) as three stacked notes all at the same position. Select them, tap Arpeggiate, pick 1/16 rate. Instantly transforms a static chord into a rolling synthwave arpeggio.
8. Synth Presets on Tracks
Each piano roll track can load a synth preset. Tap the instrument menu on the track rail to browse factory presets or your own saved voices. The track then plays through the Essynth engine — the same synthesizer that powers the Essynth screen. You get the full synth sound (oscillators, filters, effects) but driven by the piano roll pattern rather than a keyboard.
When you load a sample instrument instead of a synth, the notes trigger real recorded samples at different pitches. This works for instruments like piano, strings, bass, and guitar.
9. Track Rail in Piano Roll
The track rail on the left functions mostly the same as in the step grid: mute, solo, volume fader, instrument picker, and long-press for the full track assign sheet.
Add track. The '+' button reveals the next available track (up to 16 total). Tracks can be a mix of drum grid and piano roll — they share the same 16 slots.
Polyphonic toggle. When on, the track can play multiple notes simultaneously (chords). When off (monophonic), only one note plays at a time — the previous note cuts off. Mono is essential for basslines with glide.
10. Suggestions to Try
- Create a simple 808 bass pattern: set track to a sine-wave synth preset. Turn on scale lock (Minor Pentatonic). Draw one note per bar on the root note. Add a short glide to every third note. Instant trap bassline.
- Write a chord progression in piano roll. Draw C-E-G (C major) as three stacked notes lasting one bar each. Duplicate the bar, then move the notes to F-A-C. Duplicate again, move to G-B-D. Now you have a I-IV-V progression.
- Take a drum pattern on tracks 1-4 (kick, snare, hats, percussion). Add a piano roll track with a bass preset. With ghost notes visible, align bass notes to kick hits. The groove immediately tightens.
- Use the arpeggiate tool on a chord. Draw a C major triad (C, E, G) as a single chord event. Select it, tap Arpeggiate, choose 1/16 rate. Now it's a rolling arpeggio — classic synthwave.
- Draw a melody with probability on each note. Set the first four notes to 100%, then make the next four notes 50% each. Every loop, the second half of the melody varies — some notes play, some don't. It stays fresh without changing the pattern.