MuTools

robenestobenz · Post by **robenestobenz** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:58 pm

DuX wrote:Oh, ghost parts are kinda virtual midi parts which behave as one - when you edit one of them, every "ghost copied" part changes, too. It's exceptionally practical so you don't have to edit all MIDI parts one by one. Speeds up things .

Cheers!

Are you using the latest version? For me, this is already implemented - parts are ghosted as you call it, and if you want to unghost them, you right click and select unroll. The terminology threw me off as well, initially. Cloning would be a better word for it IMO.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:38 pm

When you copy a sequence part by [Ctrl]+drag, you make a ghost copy.

When you copy a sequence part by [Shift][Ctrl]+drag, you make a real copy.

You can also always make a real copy aka duplicate of a sequence part by right-clicking it -> Part -> Duplicate Sequence. This also copies any sequence loop.

When you right-click a sequence part -> Part -> Unroll Loop, then a real copy is made and any sequence loop is explicitly repeated for the length of the part!

DuX · Post by **DuX** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:49 pm

I just demoed it a bit, so I couldn't grasp all the features...

my bad, apologies to the developer. Shouldn't run before I jump... or something like that

.

It's implemented the same as in EXT, yay!

Cheers!

robenestobenz · Post by **robenestobenz** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:51 pm

mutools wrote:When you copy a sequence part by [Shift][Ctrl]+drag, you make a real copy.

Is this a bug on my PC -- when I want to do this, I have to drag+shift+ctrl, which feels wrong compared to how key modifiers usually work.

Bonteburg · Post by **Bonteburg** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:53 pm

What I personally still don't get is the following idiosyncracy of MU.LAB:

I record a sequence (filter automation in this case) starting from bar 1 to 49. I want the part from 33-49 to repeat over as a loop, so I split the sequence at 33 and duplicate the resulting bit. I open it and the start and end locators inside the sequence are between 65 and 81 rather than 33 and 49 as you (or I) would expect it?

No big deal -once you get it and work around the fact that inside your sequence, what's really bar 33 is now bar 65.
Is this a GUI bug or a function of the pattern logic?

Marco

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:30 am

robenestobenz wrote:
mutools wrote:When you copy a sequence part by [Shift][Ctrl]+drag, you make a real copy.
Is this a bug on my PC -- when I want to do this, I have to drag+shift+ctrl, which feels wrong compared to how key modifiers usually work.

In fact you're right, the [shift] currently must come after the drag started because otherwise the [shift] will instruct to start a lasso selection.

As messaged earlier in this forum, i think it might be better if the [shift] to start a selection only works when not clicking on a part, i.e. when clicking in the background. That would be less confusing.

But then you can only start lasso selections by clicking in the composer background. Would that be OK?

robenestobenz · Post by **robenestobenz** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:09 am

mutools wrote:
robenestobenz wrote:
mutools wrote:When you copy a sequence part by [Shift][Ctrl]+drag, you make a real copy.
Is this a bug on my PC -- when I want to do this, I have to drag+shift+ctrl, which feels wrong compared to how key modifiers usually work.
In fact you're right, the [shift] currently must come after the drag started because otherwise the [shift] will instruct to start a lasso selection.

As messaged earlier in this forum, i think it might be better if the [shift] to start a selection only works when not clicking on a part, i.e. when clicking in the background. That would be less confusing.

But then you can only start lasso selections by clicking in the composer background. Would that be OK?

Fine for me, it's what I'm used to from most programs.

By the way, is there any way to mute a single instance of an audio/MIDI sequence at the moment?

frollo9386 · Post by **frollo9386** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:36 am

robenestobenz wrote:By the way, is there any way to mute a single instance of an audio/MIDI sequence at the moment?

you can mute a single part in the part property panel... there's a yellow button on the right of the panel just over the button to choose the colour of the part...

if you want to mute every parts that use the same sequence in one click i think it's not possible...

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:29 pm

mutools wrote:
robenestobenz wrote:
mutools wrote:When you copy a sequence part by [Shift][Ctrl]+drag, you make a real copy.
Is this a bug on my PC -- when I want to do this, I have to drag+shift+ctrl, which feels wrong compared to how key modifiers usually work.
In fact you're right, the [shift] currently must come after the drag started because otherwise the [shift] will instruct to start a lasso selection.

As messaged earlier in this forum, i think it might be better if the [shift] to start a selection only works when not clicking on a part, i.e. when clicking in the background. That would be less confusing.

But then you can only start lasso selections by clicking in the composer background. Would that be OK?

Solution is much more simple of course:

When [Shift] and [Control] are down when you click, the next MU.LAB will do a copy-duplicate, not a lasso-select.

robenestobenz · Post by **robenestobenz** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:40 pm

Great news, cheers Jo. It may seem like a small thing, but accumulated over the time using the program these little conveniences when performing operations really improve the experience.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:29 am

I absolutely agree!

These kind of details are very important.

And it's definitly the intention to continue making MU.LAB as smooth as possible.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:30 am

MU.LAB 2.03 has been released.

What's changed:

Tuned: [Shift]+[Control]+drag parts always does copy-duplicate parts, i.e. the [Shift] does not first cause a lasso selection when [Control] is also down.
Tuned: Voice In/Out don't show up anymore in MPA and MUX "Add Plugin" list
Fixed: In certain modular patch situations (e.g. when using the Stereo Splitter and pan its outputs), there could be a crash
Fixed: (Un)Muting multiple tracks at once didn't work anymore

If you already have installed MU.LAB 2.0x, just drag-drop the new application file in the below zips into your current mulab folder:

OSX: http://www.mutools.com/mulab/mulab-203-patch-osx.z ip
WIN: http://www.mutools.com/mulab/mulab-203-patch-win.z ip

Also the complete packages on the MUTOOLS download page are updated.

maranite · Post by **maranite** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:21 pm

I recently downloaded and installed MU.LAB to see whether it would be a better bet than FL Studio for a casual musician like myself. The promise of a cleaner user interface, and a 32-bit audio engine all sounded quite tastey.

First impressions led to dissappointment rather quickly. The user interface, while beautifully uncluttered, is not intuitive and doesn't conform to broadly adopted standards, meaning that simple things like opening files and getting help require some "figuring out". I expect that if you spend several hours with your nose in a manual, it all becomes clear... but then that's not what I want from a creativity application: I want it to be easy to learn & use, and not get in the way of creativity. Hence the title of this post - like a nun in stilletos, it doesn't help if the UI is pretty, when you aren't able to get any results. Cakewalk, Cubase and FL Studio may have heaps of menus... but at least they're easy to drive, and I don't have to right click all over the window to inspect pop-up menus to find what I'm looking for.

Not to give up too quickly, I decided to load up Absynth 4 and see how well MU.LAB works as a VSTi host. It crashed upon scanning the VstPlugins folder. I tried again. It crashed again.

...I uninstalled. Problem solved.

Would I buy the unlimited version? I think not.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:29 pm

maranite wrote:The user interface, while beautifully uncluttered, is not intuitive and doesn't conform to broadly adopted standards, meaning that simple things like opening files and getting help require some "figuring out".

Can you please go into detail and tell what aspects you found difficult?

Opening files = File menu at top left. Is that difficult?
Getting help = Help menu at top left. Is that difficult?

These are not critical/sarcastic questions, at the contrary, i want to understand the difficulties you encountered so MU.LAB can be improved where possible.

I expect that if you spend several hours with your nose in a manual, it all becomes clear... but then that's not what I want from a creativity application: I it to be easy to learn & use.

The MU.LAB docs are very basic because it's the intention the make MU.LAB as self-explanatory as possible.

Not to give up too quickly, I decided to load up Absynth 4 and see how well MU.LAB works as a VSTi host. It crashed upon scanning the VstPlugins folder. I tried again. It crashed again.

If there is a crash while scanning vst plugins, next time you do a vst scan, MU.LAB should alert which vst caused a crash.

Didn't you get such message?

robenestobenz · Post by **robenestobenz** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:56 pm

Is there any plan for MIDI notes to reflect velocity? I.e, in many sequencers, they get lighter/more translucent if the velocity is low and darker/more opaque if the velocity is high.

I often tune the velocity of my MIDI data, because I'm not a very good keyboard / drum pad player, and it's a good tool to pick out offending notes at a glance.

MuTools

KVR Audio

MU.LAB 2.0 Release