Transposing a whole song in QWS

This article shows a quick way to transpose an entire MIDI song using QWS.

Transpose, in musical terms, means to change the key. Say you have a song, but the key is too high, or too low. By transposing it, you can change the key to your liking.

Assuming you have the song you want to transpose loaded in QWS, here's how to transpose it:

  1. The first thing to do is check if there are any tracks you do not want to transpose. Such tracks include drum or percussion tracks: if you transpose drum kit or percussion tracks you will get strange results, as, typically, each key in a rhythm set plays a different percussion instrument. So, if there are any tracks you do not want to transpose, press CURSOR UP or CURSOR DOWN to select the track and then press M to mute the track. When a track is muted, an exclamation symbol (!) appears to the left of the track name, in the track list.
  2. So that you can transpose all tracks together, choose the command Apply to All Tracks from the Tools menu. With this selected, most commands on the Tools menu will be applied to all tracks which are not muted.
  3. To perform the transposition, choose the Transpose command from the Tools menu, or just press T. A dialog will appear asking you to enter the number of semitones you wish to transpose.
  4. Enter the number of semitones in the dialog. Positive numbers will transpose upwards, negative numbers will transpose downwards. For example, if your song was originally in the key of C and you want it in D, enter the value 2 (there are two semitones from C to D); alternatively, if the song was originally in the key of G and you wanted it in E, enter -3.
  5. When you have entered how many semitones to transpose, choose the OK button and QWS will do the transposing.
  6. So that you don't apply another tool to all tracks by mistake, it is a good idea to choose the Apply to All Tracks command again, to turn it back off.
  7. To unmute all tracks, press CTRL+U. This will make all tracks play again.
  8. Finally, play your song in the new key to see if it is to your satisfaction. If not, repeat the procedure to transpose to another key.

 

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