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Alright so I'm using a sequencer that allows you to input notes and change the values of those notes, but for the note values, there are notation symbols used, the majority are quite easy to figure out, but some of them I can't figure out and I did a bit of searching too. enter image description here

So, I already know that the 3 next to the note represents that it's a "triplet", the dot, represents the note being a "dotted" note. But there's a couple on there I don't understand.

The first two, what is that note with a slash through it? That same note has a triplet version too. The other being the third to last, and last note. Those symbols are double whole notes am I correct? One of them being a double whole note triplet? That doesn't even make sense to me.

Lastly, what would the lengths of these weird notes be in comparison to 1/16th notes?

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  • It's a Roland MC-505, the LCD display is very small (only 2 lines of info) with there already being other info present on the screen along with the notation it's pretty difficult to fit more information on there
    – Scott
    Feb 20, 2016 at 17:53

3 Answers 3

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It seems pretty clear that the note values go in order from shortest to longest. With that in mind, it's easy to clarify the confusing ones, which are likely only confusing because of limitations of the display.

If we suppose 96 MIDI pulses per quarter note, (PPQ), then here's a list in ascending length with number of pulses, starting with the shortest value in the upper-left:

  • 4p 64th note triplet
  • 6p 64th note
  • 8p 32nd note triplet
  • 12p 32nd note
  • 16p 16th note triplet
  • 20p dotted 32nd note
  • 24p 16th note
  • 32p 8th note triplet
  • 36p dotted 16th note
  • 48p 8th note
  • 64p quarter note triplet
  • 72p dotted 8th note
  • 96p quarter note
  • 128p half note triplet
  • 144p dotted quarter note
  • 192p half note
  • 256p whole note (four quarters) triplet
  • 288p dotted half note
  • 384p whole note
  • 512p breve (eight quarters) triplet
  • 576p dotted whole note
  • 768p breve

Note that a triplet is three notes in the span of two of the nominal value. For example, an eighth note triplet is three notes in the span of two eighth notes, or 2/3 of an eighth note. And of course a dotted note is 3/2 the nominal value.

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  • Is the first note a 64th? how is that?
    – Shevliaskovic
    Feb 20, 2016 at 14:14
  • There's not enough room on the display for four flags so one flag in the left is worth two on the right. One left flag plus two right flags equals four flags. It's an educated guess but nothing else makes sense. All the asker has to do is build a simple sequence to verify.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Feb 20, 2016 at 15:21
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The slash on the notes could be a tremolo (third note) :

enter image description here

Yes, the third to last and the last seem like a double whole note. They could have a triplet. All the note values can; I've never seen such an example myself though.

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enter image description here

Here is a link to the manual, it's on page 134.

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