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The Meter/Key View
The Meter/Key view lets you enter meter and key changes at measure boundaries.
Meter and key changes affect all tracks.
What Is Meter?
The meter—also known as the time signature—describes how to divide time into
rhythmic pulses. When you set the meter, you are specifying the number of beats
per measure and the note value of each beat. Common meters include:
• 2/4 (two beats per measure, quarter note gets a beat)
• 4/4 (four beats per measure, quarter note gets a beat)
• 3/4 (three beats per measure, quarter note gets a beat)
• 6/8 (six beats per measure, eighth note gets a beat)
The top number of a meter is the number of beats per measure, and can be from 1
through 99. The bottom number of a meter is the value of each beat; you can pick
from a list of values ranging from a whole note to a thirty-second note.
The meter affects several things in SONAR:
• Metronome accents
• How measure, beat, and tick (MBT) times are calculated and displayed
• How the Staff view is drawn
While SONAR in general allows meters to have up to 99 beats per measure, the
Staff view cannot display such measures. You will receive an error message if you
try to use the Staff view with meters exceeding its limit.
Internally, SONAR stores times as “raw” ticks or clock pulses. The timebase—the
number of pulses per quarter note (PPQ)—is adjustable, from 48 to 960 PPQ. If
you are using a timebase of 120 PPQ and the project file is in 4/4 time, then a
whole measure equals 480 ticks. See “Setting the MIDI Timing Resolution” on
page 169 for more information about the timebase.
Usually the easiest approach to working with meter changes is to set all of them
up before doing any recording. Use the Meter/Key view or the Insert-Meter/Key
Change command to add meter changes at the desired measures.
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