New Idea: Part Property Panel

[muzycian]

Hi,

I've been thinking about replacing the Player Panel by a Part Property Panel cfr this picture:



The idea behind this is that:

-> currently, the Player Panel is not very functional for a audio file part
the new Part Property Panel is also functional for an audio file part: AudioFile and MixerStrip
are immediately accessible

-> some of the very used functions like "Change Player" etc... are now hidden in a context menu
while the PPP brings such things more to the front

-> the midi input player would always be the player of the last selected sequence part
so if you select an audio file part, then the midi input player doesn't change
(note that this means you need at least a sequence part to define a player for midi input; hope this is ok)

-> as you see, the main menu has moved to the top left. that is for 2 reasons:
1) it's a more conform place
2) the Part Property Panel can vary in size to the right, depending on the part type

What do you think about this idea?

[DaveL60]

Seems like a reasonably good idea. The "need at least [one] sequence part" is, at worst, a minor inconvenience, mostly when you're first starting a project, but doesn't seem like a real problem to me. I'm a little fuzzy on what the "Part Parms" are doing, at least with the example you posted.

Guess the house work is going well, if you've got time to think about stuff like this.

DaveL

[pljones]

I think that will make a lot of people find LUNA a lot easier to get to grips with, Jo -- it's much more visual than the current interface. I generally end up with a part per player just so I can quickly click the part to switch players, already, so that's not a problem.

(Of course, we'd all like audio parts to work in some way as the MIDI Input player but I guess we can wait... )

[muzycian]

Seems like a reasonably good idea. The "need at least [one] sequence part" is, at worst, a minor inconvenience, mostly when you're first starting a project, but doesn't seem like a real problem to me.

When doing "New Session", LUNA could default to at least 1 selected part, so you immediately start.

I'm a little fuzzy on what the "Part Parms" are doing, at least with the example you posted.

Currently there are no such extra part parameters yet, but i'm thinking about adding "Transpose", "Velocity" (and more, but that's for later).

Guess the house work is going well, if you've got time to think about stuff like this.

Truth is that i had to undergo some surgery last friday, on my right knee, because of a sports accident. So i'm immobile at the moment. But that's only for the weekend...

[muzycian]

I think that will make a lot of people find LUNA a lot easier to get to grips with, Jo -- it's much more visual than the current interface.

Yes, i hope so, that's definitely the intention of it.

(Of course, we'd all like audio parts to work in some way as the MIDI Input player but I guess we can wait... )

In LUNA, audio files will not be played as samples.

Audio files are streamed from disk. Samples will be played from RAM. To me, it's a natural difference.

I'm also looking forward to the coming of an integrated synth/sampler

But that's not yet close, even the very first building block is still to be build.

[pljones]

Audio files are streamed from disk. Samples will be played from RAM. To me, it's a natural difference.

It depends whether you see the sequencer as a static tool to be set up, or as an instrument to be played. I think Muzys had really become an instrument in itself. It's why I keep going on about making sure MIDI can control every aspect of the program.

Just today I thought: I could work around the K2 bug if I could write a sequence that could control the "Start recording" button in Voxengo Recorder, as well as mute the final audio out, then toggle them both back at the end. Unfortunately, VxRecorder doesn't have automation for the start button and LUNA doesn't have automation for the final Mute button on the mixer strip. Oh well!

And tempo changes... if the Tempo was "just another" target for automation, supporting tempo changes would be trivial.

Hope the surgery went well and you recover quickly!