Blip Support / Suggestions Thread

[PTV]

Great! tried it and it's perfect. Thanks again:)

[RunBeerRun]

Mmmm... Not updated yet in the DC page.

Still no news on the DC page it seems, but the version on my web site is the new one:

www.nicolasfournel.com

Cool, good to resize the sucker.

[visa tapani]

There's one really annoying thing that forces me to ctrl+alt+del quit the program all the time: The kit editor sometimes opens so that it's top border is outside of my window range. Since that's the only place where it can be dragged or closed(!), I have to restart to access the main screen again. Sorry I haven't tested the new version to see if this is fixed.

Also, it's pretty easy to accidentally select for example your whole "samples" folder when opening a folder in the kit editor, and needless to say, the processing that follows takes ages (ie. ctrl+alt+del time again). It would be great to be able to stop/cancel that operation.

Okay, aside from the annoyances this is a really fun tool. However, I think playability of the 'tempo' control should be increased. IMO if it ticks away with a constant tempo it gets tiring really fast, no matter what kind of pattern you have. To be able to draw in really interesting gestures, it would be fantastic if the tempo would be automatable (ie, a small tempo automation lane at the bottom for example).

Another thing that makes the pattern's tiring really fast is the unchanging envelope. It would be great to have an additional parameter to change the attack length of each sample (or for example filter cutoff), although I realize that the RGB paradigm maps naturally to only 3 parameters. Maybe if you could select in setup or somewhere different alternatives for what the 3 colors map for, so that you could select for example: red - volume, green: attack time, blue: filter cutoff.

Okay, maybe those are too grandiose plans, just thinking out loud...

[PTV]

There's one really annoying thing that forces me to ctrl+alt+del quit the program all the time: The kit editor sometimes opens so that it's top border is outside of my window range. Since that's the only place where it can be dragged or closed(!), I have to restart to access the main screen again. Sorry I haven't tested the new version to see if this is fixed.

In the mean time you can press Esc - it will close it's window and go back to the main screen.

edit: on the new version the kit editor is perfect sized

[NickSonic]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, vista tapani.

There's one really annoying thing that forces me to ctrl+alt+del quit the program all the time: The kit editor sometimes opens so that it's top border is outside of my window range. Since that's the only place where it can be dragged or closed(!), I have to restart to access the main screen again. Sorry I haven't tested the new version to see if this is fixed.

As PTV mentionned, you will not have this problem with the version on my web site (www.nicolasfournel.com). It seems tuz didn't upload it on KVR yet.

Okay, aside from the annoyances this is a really fun tool. However, I think playability of the 'tempo' control should be increased. IMO if it ticks away with a constant tempo it gets tiring really fast, no matter what kind of pattern you have. To be able to draw in really interesting gestures, it would be fantastic if the tempo would be automatable (ie, a small tempo automation lane at the bottom for example).
.

In the meantime, the tempo can currently be controlled from your favorite sequencer or control surface by MIDI control changes (you select that in the settings window).

Another thing that makes the pattern's tiring really fast is the unchanging envelope. It would be great to have an additional parameter to change the attack length of each sample (or for example filter cutoff), although I realize that the RGB paradigm maps naturally to only 3 parameters. Maybe if you could select in setup or somewhere different alternatives for what the 3 colors map for, so that you could select for example: red - volume, green: attack time, blue: filter cutoff.

Using the color filter / mapping / offset functions in realtime makes the pattern a lot more alive. Simply moving the whole grid or rearranging the rows or columns makes some crazy changes too. You can also do a lot of things in real-time like shift only one row or one column etc... Some things are only detailled in the .pdf documentation though.
I thought about having a sort of matrix to choose couples of color component / audio parameters. But for the moment I'm leaning towards adding an alternate layer / grid, which would be driving effect parameters,etc.. You would just switch between the 2 grids quickly with a button or a key, and you would benefit from all the graphic editing functions of Blip. By MIDI you could even move one grid in a direction, while the other goes another way etc...

Okay, maybe those are too grandiose plans, just thinking out loud...

It's great to get some feedback, and I'm definitely planning on releasing other versions of Blip so all the suggestions are very welcome.

[.jon]

Top 3 stuff, but this is interesting also outside the contest. Lovely program that will keep me experimenting for a long time - thanks. I haven't stumbled on a finer realisation of visual composition.

I had a non-repeatable crash with the line tool.

[NickSonic]

Thanks for the feedback, .jon. I'm finishing a 1.02 version which fixes a bug with very short sounds (and allows to load a default kit), but I didn't get any problems with the line yet. Maybe in conjunction with something else...