Splitting Chords in the Piano Roll Editor

The following functions divide chords horizontally (by pitch), making the Piano Roll Editor the ideal place to perform chord-splitting tasks.

To select the top or bottom note of one or more selected chords
Do one of the following:
  • Choose Functions > Note Events > Select Highest Notes to select the highest notes in the chords.

  • Choose Functions > Note Events > Select Lowest Notes to select the lowest notes in the chord(s).

    The latter command may be perfect for separating a walking bass line in a piano region, for example. Once separated, the lowest notes can be cut and pasted into a new region, which is played on a track assigned to an EXS24 mkII Upright Bass instrument channel.

Note: Select Highest Notes and Select Lowest Notes are purely selection commands, which can be used in conjunction with any of the editing commands, such as Cut, to move a voice into another MIDI region, as per the example above.

To assign individual note pitches to different MIDI channels
  1. Select the note pitch(es) you want to affect by clicking the Piano Roll keyboard.

    • Shift-click to select multiple noncontiguous pitches.

    • Drag across the keyboard to select a range of contiguous pitches.

  2. Choose Functions > Note Events > Voices to Channels.

Logic Pro assigns MIDI channel numbers (in ascending order) to individual note pitches in the selected MIDI region. The highest note pitch in each chord is assigned as MIDI channel 1, the next note down in each chord channel 2, and so on.

Note: Use of these commands results in changes to the MIDI region, which will contain information spread across multiple MIDI channels, following the operation.

Regions split in this way allow you to create a new MIDI region for each note by using the Region > Split/Demix > Demix by Event Channel menu option in the Arrange window.

Each region created from this process can then be assigned to a different track (and channel), allowing different instruments to be assigned for each voice.

For more information on the Functions > Note Events > Assign Channels Based on Score Split command, see Using a Split Point.