A digital audio workstation organizes musical information in a visually consistent manner, such that it is easier for the user to see and to manipulate the content in a song. The organization includes a multitrack music stream, which depicts multiple adjacent streams (or “tracks”) of musical content playing in parallel; a Play Bar, which is a visual plane intersecting the music stream; and two or more data layers, which are spatially aligned with the underlying musical stream, but each of which contains a specific type of musical data which can be viewed and manipulated in isolation. This approach to visual organization of music information has some major benefits to the user. Many different kinds of musical content and transformations can be depicted in a clear and consistent manner, making it easier for the user to see and manipulate the song.