How to nudge Midi notes an Octave up or down using different keys?

[Shaan]

I am using a smaller keyboard these days which doesn't have the numeric keypads like the fuller keyboard has, how can I nudge Midi notes an octave up or down without using the transpose dialog box? 

I set the key binding for regular nudge up and down to square brackets  [   ]   (See picture below), but I cannot find entries for the Octave up and down under the Keyboard Shortcuts > Function List to bind to a different keys. 

z

 

I tried pressing  my new key bindings with the combination of Control Key ( Ctrl + [  and Ctrl + ] )  to see if it behaves like the Numpad 2 and 8 with the Control key which nudge them an octave up or down on a fuller keyboard, but it doesn't.

How do I set this up to nudge an octave up or down using different keys? 

 

[Igor]

3 hours ago, Shaan said:

How do I set this up to nudge an octave up or down using different keys?

I have never checked before, but now I looked among the available hotkey combinations, and apparently this function is not provided for hotkeys. In addition, to shift notes by an octave (by any interval) up or down, not the "Nudge" you specified is used, but another function - "Transpose", for opening this window there is a hotkey that you can assign at your discretion. And already in this window, you can very quickly transpose notes by an octave (or several octaves) up or down, clicking on the "+" or "-" icon with the RIGHT mouse button.

[Promidi]

Write two CAL scripts, one to do the octave up, the other to do the octave down.  Then assign keybindings to those CAL scripts.

[Astraios]

5 hours ago, Promidi said:

Write two CAL scripts, one to do the octave up, the other to do the octave down.  Then assign keybindings to those CAL scripts.

I also prefer ProMIDI's method...

This is how the CAL works...

 

 

Edited September 7 by Astraios

[tparker24]

Another method:

Select the tracks/notes you wish to transpose, then in the Event Inspector module (in the Control Bar), click on the Pitch field, and enter +12 or -12, for example.

[Astraios]

On 9/6/2025 at 5:11 PM, Shaan said:

... how can I nudge Midi notes an octave up or down without using the transpose dialog box? 

This "Transpose" window dates back to prehistoric times when dinosaurs used DAWs... 🧐

[sjoens]

Easiest way to change octaves on the fly is the Key+ slider in Inspector.  Simply hover mouse and scroll wheel one click up or down for full octave, Shift+wheel for 1 semitone.

Doesn't actually move the notes but acts like it does.

Edited September 7 by sjoens

[Promidi]

51 minutes ago, sjoens said:

Easiest way to change octaves on the fly is the Key+ slider in Inspector

That is definitely not easier than just selecting the notes and then just pressing a shortcut key.

The op wanted to just press keys to chance octaves, which is what the mapped CAL script offers.

[Amberwolf]

2 hours ago, sjoens said:

Easiest way to change octaves on the fly is the Key+ slider in Inspector.  Simply hover mouse and scroll wheel one click up or down for full octave, Shift+wheel for 1 semitone.

Doesn't actually move the notes but acts like it does.

However, this affects the *entire track*, and doesn't enable editing individual notes or clips by shifting their note. 

[Bristol_Jonesey]

10 hours ago, Astraios said:

This "Transpose" window dates back to prehistoric times when dinosaurs used DAWs... 🧐

It's still perfectly adequate and does the job efficiently and consistently.

[Xoo]

12 minutes ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

It's still perfectly adequate and does the job efficiently and consistently.

I find this too: bind (say) Ctrl-T to the process, so it's select (always needed), Ctrl-T, 12, hit enter.

Pretty quick.

[Astraios]

2 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

It's still perfectly adequate and does the job efficiently and consistently.

Yes, but I find the display a bit too small, and sometimes it takes patience to find the right lucky number with the arrows 😁. If you don't have good eyeglasses, tough luck, the numbers are that small. Unless you enter 12 with the keyboard (and don't forget the minus sign, otherwise...). The transpose window would offer enough space for a preset octave, like 1 octave+ or one octave -.  It's too much fiddling around for me.

With the Touch Portal "Shortcut Manager," it's just a fingertip... (faster isn't possible) Don't need a PC keyboard for my shortcuts anymore.

Touch Portal as a Shortcut Manager

 

2019 FeedbackLoop:

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/645-transpose/#comment-4698

 

Edited September 8 by Astraios

[Astraios]

2 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

It's still perfectly adequate and does the job efficiently and consistently.

"Perfectly" ?

[Bristol_Jonesey]

3 hours ago, Astraios said:

"Perfectly" ?

Yes, perfectly. what else would you expect it to do, other than transpose notes?

[sjoens]

20 hours ago, Promidi said:

That is definitely not easier than just selecting the notes and then just pressing a shortcut key.

Unless you're changing the whole clip.  OP didn't specify some or all notes, so I was just throwing out a general alternative.

Then again, if I need to make a CAL script there's no contest because, along with maybe 99.9% of users, I have no clue how,  so for selected notes I just hold Shift while dragging them up or sown.

FWIW, I tried Astraios' CAL script above exactly as written and got a syntax error: "Event.Kind".

[Promidi]

43 minutes ago, sjoens said:

Unless you're changing the whole clip.  OP didn't specify some or all notes, so I was just throwing out a general alternative.

Then again, if I need to make a CAL script there's no contest because, along with maybe 99.9% of users, I have no clue how,  so for selected notes I just hold Shift while dragging them up or sown.

FWIW, I tried Astraios' CAL script above exactly as written and got a syntax error: "Event.Kind".

I have used CAL scripts on entire MIDI clips from the track view and this still works.

I have a Studioware panel that has a transpose function (among heaps of other functions) that I use all the time on whole MIDI clips - even multiple clips spread across multiple tracks.

Astraios' CAL script would work as written.  My guess is that, like I have done from time to time, you might have made a mistake when typing the code (easy to do).

You are right about 99.9% of users having no clue how to write CAL scripts (or that they are even a thing) .  But then again, there are forums like these.

[sjoens]

3 hours ago, Promidi said:

My guess is that, like I have done from time to time, you might have made a mistake when typing the code (easy to do).

Very possible so I'll triple check it later.

[Astraios]

3 hours ago, sjoens said:

Very possible so I'll triple check it later.

 

copy and paste...

;; Octave Down.cal
;;
;; This is a sample CAL program that implements an editing command to
;; raise notes down one octave.
;;
(do
 (forEachEvent
  (if (== Event.Kind NOTE)
   (do
    (-= Note.Key 12)
   )
  )
 )
)

 

;; Octave Up.cal
;;
;; This is a sample CAL program that implements an editing command to
;; raise notes up one octave.
;;
(do
 (forEachEvent
  (if (== Event.Kind NOTE)
   (do
    (+= Note.Key 12)
   )
  )
 )
)

 

 

Edited September 9 by Astraios

[sjoens]

Thanks!  That one works.  Your screenshot coding ends with "---" which apparently threw the error.  As I said, I copied it "exactly as written".

Confusing because the error called out "Event.kind" as the culprit.

 

Making it so user can enter level of transposition -- 12, 24, 36, 48, etc. -- might be helpful rather than making one script for each one.

[Promidi]

2 minutes ago, sjoens said:

Making it so user can enter level of transposition -- 12, 24, 36, 48, etc. -- might be helpful rather than making one script for each one.

Not hard using the getInt command.

A test for producing out of range notes would be handy too....