What are the 4 white dots in a MIDI track view?

[RobertWS]

I spent 40 minutes trying to find the answer but couldn't.

In MIDI tracks, what are the four white dots (circled in red) that appear, apparently at random, in MIDI tracks?

 

[msmcleod]

That's telling you that if you double click on that clip, it'll open the PRV.

You can change the default in TV Options->Click Behavior->Double Click->Midi Clips

The Optons are:
Nothing 
Clip Properties
Event List View
Staff View
Piano Roll View
Inline Piano Roll View

Long holding the left button down will show a pop-up menu to change it for individual clips.

Set it to Nothing if you don't want those to appear.

[Colin Nicholls]

That's the clip menu icon. All clips have them, it's not random.

[RobertWS]

On 11/25/2025 at 10:44 AM, msmcleod said:

That's telling you that if you double click on that clip, it'll open the PRV.

You can change the default in TV Options->Click Behavior->Double Click->Midi Clips

The Options are:
Nothing 
Clip Properties
Event List View
Staff View
Piano Roll View
Inline Piano Roll View

Long holding the left button down will show a pop-up menu to change it for individual clips.

Set it to Nothing if you don't want those to appear.

Ahhh.   But setting it to nothing does not remove them, it disables double clicking.   A single click still pops up a menu.   

Now that I know what they are...they don't bug me.

[sjoens]

If nothing else it marks the end of the clip which is handy when looking for unbounced clips in a track.

[RobertWS]

21 hours ago, sjoens said:

If nothing else it marks the end of the clip which is handy when looking for unbounced clips in a track.

I'm surprised because 'pure' midi tracks don't have the concept of clips.  Just a sequence of notes and midi commands.  It must be something CakeWalk superimposes on the track when cutting and pasting.

 

EDIT:  I found you can select all the MIDI notes in a track, select "Bounce to Clips" and the clickable icons disappear (except for the last one).  PS:  Happy Thanksgiving!

Edited 13 hours ago by RobertWS

[sjoens]

The notes disappear?  That's not good.

4 hours ago, RobertWS said:

It must be something CakeWalk superimposes on the track

Most DAWs do the same.

FWIW, Separate clips on one track can be set to open different editing views.

[RobertWS]

4 hours ago, sjoens said:

The notes disappear?  That's not good.

Most DAWs do the same.

No, I mean the little clickable icons disappear.  😀

Previously, I only worked on pure MIDI files, but Cakewalk removed some features so now I have to use their project files to work.    At the end though, I revert to a MIDI file.

 

"FWIW, Separate clips on one track can be set to open different editing views."

Yeah, I noticed the little icons changing based on the popup menu selection.

[sjoens]

I've never seen the clip icons disappear, even with Maximize Waveform selected.

[57Gregy]

20 hours ago, sjoens said:

I've never seen the clip icons disappear, even with Maximize Waveform selected.

My guess would be that they're all the way at the end of the clip, out of sight.

[David Baay]

On 11/26/2025 at 9:53 PM, RobertWS said:

No, I mean the little clickable icons disappear. 

That's because bounce to clip produces one contiguous clip with one hotspot to open the specified view. If the end of the clip is offscreen, Sonar conveniently displays it at the far right of the clips pane so you always have access to it without having to zoom or scroll.