Piano Roll Editing

Maybe this is dumb, but I am not clear on the piano roll tools.
 
1-In older version, if I hovered the mouse over the end of a note, the cursor changed to a two-sided arrow and I could drag the note to make it longer or shorter.  I used this quite a bit for strumming effects where notes start at different ticks but all cut off together.  Also, sometimes two notes of the same pitch would overlap each other or have gaps between them so I would drag the edges to create a perfect legato—something that is hard to see in the staff view.  I don't know how to do this now.
 
2-Don't laugh—well, go ahead since I won't know—but when I hover over a note the cursor keeps changing to weird shape that looks like a dropper or something—kind of a square with a pointer coming out of it.  It erases notes when I click, even though it does not look like the razor blade tool.  What is this thing?
 
The basic things I need to do in piano roll are stretch or shrink note duration by dragging the edges, move them up or down to different pitches, erase them, or right click to fix properties.
 
Not the biggest issue in the world, but ideas would be welcome.  Thanks!

Thanks, Stickman.  I find the help/manual organization a bit odd and Cakewalk has a tendency towards cryptic comments.  That said, I'm sure I will figure it out.

Best regards, Konrad

Section "Working with MIDI Notes" in the Tools chapter.  Starts on p. 461.

I was playing around in the PRV last night, and after a while, it did all start to make sense and upon reflection, seems quite intuitive.

Different, but not difficult.

Here's what I've found.  First, choose the smart tool, it does work well.  It's pretty darn "smart", actually.

You must click inside the roll first in order to free up your smart tool from macro editing.  Once you're inside the roll and can edit individual notes, you must learn exactly how the tool works.  It's very intuitive, as someone else said, imo.  Click the sides and stretch or shorten it, or grab the top and increase or decrease velocity (volume) by sliding "up" or "down".  The tool changes automatically depending on the positioning of the pointer on the note.  There are moments when you might want to choose the exact tool you want to do extensive work with.  But, for the most part, the "smart tool" does much of what you'll need when inside piano roll view.  Just my .02.

Good luck.

DBerriman


Put me down in the group that loves the smart tool.

+1.  Put me down in that group as well.