stop-time midi keyboard composition in one region

[benevolentgoose]

Hi,

 

I'd like to be able to compose midi data from the keyboard in piano roll while playback is stopped so that way I can play the chords instead of drawing in every individual note, but am having a couple minor difficulties and would also appreciate any tips/suggestions on the best way to go about setting up this kind of composition.

 

First, every time I want to move the cursor I find I have to toggle record off to move the cursor to the next beat, and then when I toggle record back on and play a chord at the next point in time logic creates a new region for that chord rather than putting all of the chords in the same piano roll window (even though I have "merge selected regions" chosen in project settings). Is there a way to do this all in one region for easier composition or do I have to merge the side by side regions manually every time I add a chord? Also I wanted to ask if it's possible to set a default note length for when playing in stop time like this, and also if there is a way to set up a shortcut key (or one built in) to move the cursor to the next beat, or for loop based composition to move the selected cycle a beat forward (but keep the overall cycle the same length)?

 

Thanks,

sky