Contents
The Visualiser
The visualiser is the heart of the main window: a real-time picture of everything happening inside the MIDI file, channel by channel. Above it sits the LCD bar, and below it are the info strips. Once you have watched a favourite file play out here, it is hard to go back to a plain progress bar.
The 16-channel display#
There is one row per MIDI channel, 16 in total. For each active channel you see:
- Note activity as the notes play.
- A volume bar showing the channel's current level, with a small pink tip marking the peak.
- A pan dial showing the left/right position.
- The instrument name, with the bank and program readout beneath it (
MSB,LSBandPGM). - Controller activity (such as modulation and expression).
- Mute and solo indicators when you have soloed or muted channels (set these in the Mixer, or by clicking on the channel).
Mute and solo from the visualiser#
For quick changes you do not have to open the Mixer. Each channel row has its own M (mute) and S (solo) buttons, so you can silence a channel or solo it right here with a click.
Everything else, volume, pan and the other channel values, is shown in the visualiser for reference but cannot be edited here. To actually change those, open the Mixer (⌘6), which gives you faders, pan and effect sends for every channel. New to channels, mute, and solo? See Channels, Ports & Controls.
Tip
Click a channel's VOL / PAN readout and the Mixer opens straight away, ready for editing. Click the channel's instrument icon or name instead and the Part Inspector opens focused on that channel.
Reading the strips and badges#
Below the visualiser, a set of info strips reveals the musical detail of the file as it plays:
- KEY: the song's key signature (its tonic and mode). If the file stores a key signature, PXR uses it; otherwise it works the key out from the notes.
- CHORD: the chord sounding right now, updated live as notes start and stop.
- POLY: how many notes are sounding at once across every channel, including notes still held by the sustain pedal. The bar fills as you approach your synth's voice limit and turns red once you hit it. Set that limit for external hardware in MIDI Output settings; the built-in synth uses 64 voices, or 256 with a custom SoundFont (where the meter shows the true voice count, so layered sounds and fading note tails all count).
The effects strip#
A strip under the LCD shows the global effects the file is using, so you can tell at a glance how it is set up: the active reverb, chorus, variation, and insertion (EFX) effect types, plus a small EQ display that plots each band as a dot over a 0 dB centre line, so a glance tells you what has been boosted or cut. Click any one of these to open its live effect monitor window, where every dial is explained.
Arranger Style buttons (STY)#
When you load a Yamaha arranger (XF Style) file, the KEY and CHORD strip switches to a row of arranger Style buttons (STY), mirroring the buttons on a physical arranger keyboard: three intros, four main variations (A, B, C, D), and three endings. The section currently playing lights up, and a fill flashes the main button it is heading towards until the next section begins. It is a clear, live view of how the arrangement moves through its sections as the file plays. For a whole-song overview you can click to seek, see the Yamaha XF timelines.
Format badges#
The format badges tell you the file's detected standard and the capability level being used:
- GM, GM2, GS, and XG are the four main standards PXR detects automatically. In short: General MIDI (GM) defines 128 standard instruments; GM2 extends it; Roland GS and Yamaha XG each add many more instruments and effects (XG being the largest), tied to those makers' hardware. For a fuller explanation, see MIDI & Sound Standards.
- XG MODERN appears when the file uses voices from the modern Yamaha XG range, which adds well over a thousand voices on top of the classic MU series. That is the voice set found on the Genos 2 and Genos arrangers, the Tyros series (Tyros 5, Tyros 4 and earlier), the PSR-SX and PSR-S arrangers, and the Motif, MOXF and MODX workstations.
- On XG hardware, NATIVE, BASIC, or MU100+ shows which compatibility mode is in use (see MIDI Output & Devices).
- A board badge appears for PLG daughterboard voices: PLG-DX, PLG-VL, PLG-SG, PLG-PF, PLG-AN or PLG-DR, whichever the bank belongs to.
The badge is also a menu: click it to choose a specific model, for example a particular Sound Canvas model for a GS file. PXR then respects your choice instead of auto-detecting, which is handy when a file does not name a model itself. See MIDI Output & Devices.
Note
If a voice name is followed by something like [120:0], the file asked for a sound that is not in PXR's voice library for that format (usually a vendor-specific bank from a third-party expansion). The numbers are the bank and program it requested.
Multi-port files: ports A, B, C, D#
Some files reach beyond 16 channels by spreading their tracks across multiple MIDI ports, labelled A, B, C, and D. Each port carries its own 16 channels, for up to 64 channels in total. Use the port button on the transport to switch which port's 16 channels the visualiser is showing.
View modes#
The centre of the display can show the music in a few different ways, so you can pick the look that suits you. Switch modes from Display → Visualiser:
| Mode | Shortcut | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Piano Roll | ⌘1 |
Notes scrolling on a piano-roll timeline |
| Meter Bars | ⌘B |
Animated level bars per channel |
| Show Keyboards | ⌘K |
Mini on-screen keyboards that light up as notes play |
There is also a Multi-colour Piano Roll toggle in the same menu, which colours notes per channel instead of using a single colour.
You can also switch the piano-roll colouring between Classic (a single colour) and Multicolour (a colour per channel), and pick the centre display style, in Display settings.
The LCD bar#
The retro LCD strip across the top is a nod to classic hardware, and it shows:
- Playback time (or a 16-channel meter, depending on your setting).
- Tempo (BPM) and time signature.
- A format indicator.
- Markers and, when external sync is armed, the incoming timecode.
LCD themes#
Choose the LCD colour scheme to taste in Display settings → LCD Theme:
- Auto matches the file's format (for example blue for GM, orange for GS, green for XG, dark green for MT-32).
- Fixed themes: Blue, Green, Dark Green, Orange, and Black.
You can also set the LCD Right Side to show either Time Progress or live Activity Meters.
The beat ring#
A ring around the play button pulses gently with the beat. Turn it on or off in Display settings.
Performance and frame rate#
On a slower Mac you might prefer lighter visuals, in which case set the Frame Rate in Display settings to 30 FPS. Auto runs at up to 60 FPS for the smoothest result.
Related pages#
- Speaker Visualiser & LED Bars for the animated cabinets.
- Lyrics for synced words.
- The Mixer to change what the channels are doing.