MU.LAB 3.1 test

[Jake Jackson]

Folks, I've only used the previous version about 20 times over the past year or so, but that may be an advantage, since I can see it as a fairly new user might. And seeing it that way, I must say that setting it up to do something simple like record a single vst seems, to me, extremely difficult. The problems, for me:

1. The old way of selecting what kind of track is recorded is gone--there's no choice of a sequencer or an audio track. (What happened to that? How do you select what kind of track is being created?)

2. There are too many areas, accessed by going to different areas of the interface, to go to do simple things: To do the most basic thing, play and record a vst or audio file, the user must go to:

A. The rack at the bottom to select the vst.
B. The rack to the left to select it as the source of the recorded sound.
C. The Edit menu to select Recording options and select the source of the recording. (Shouldn't this be automatic when you arm the track?)
D. Possibly go back to the Edit menu to select Edit midi input focuses. (Shouldn't this be automatic when one arms the track? If not, what does arming the track do?)
E. Go back to the Edit menu to select the "Modular area." Once in that area, things can get confusing--what must be added as a source? Think of a new user, here: some of the options include the vsti's that may have already been loaded into a track. Does one have to add these again as modules? If not, why are they listed there?

3. Some of the most necessary areas are hidden, as though there was an intention to make recording difficult: I can't imagine anyone finding the Modular area without reading the manual. (It's on the Edit menu, for one thing. True in the old version, too.)

Please understand that I do see that the many options involved give the user a lot of control, but I just can't imagine anyone downloading Mulab right now, and quickly figuring out how to record themselves playing their new thumb-piano vsti. Not sure of the solution, exactly, unless the setups could be combined in a single dialog box called something along the lines of "Record a track."

[janamdo]

1. The old way of selecting what kind of track is recorded is gone--there's no choice of a sequencer or an audio track. (What happened to that? How do you select what kind of track is being created?)

Choose for audio and/or Midi events to record and prepare your track for this type of recording=> richtclick on the knobs

Suppose you sing something in your mic hanging in front of you and at the same time you play a pianosong as VSTi
-record audio
-record events

Perhaps its is better that the standard startup session shows 4 vsti track and two audiotracks ..so that is at once clear that they exist
The new user can use this as example..userfriendlyness .. be commercial


i told this more ..it must be easy, because it must be simple at first sight
The principle is : from easy to difficult

[sorohanro]

How do I turn off the auto quantize ?
I know I knew it some time ago but I forgot
I want to turn off the auto quantizing but I still want to have the "snap to grid" in note editor.

[liquidsound]

It would be helpful for the newly to MuLab and also for other to have a tool tip showing the original name (Type) of the renamed Module in the deep editor. An extra touch...

<EDIT>
I see that if I choose to List All Inputs from a connected module it gives me the names in order of input and it can be sufficient but is not as intuitive to a newcomer.

[Simon Posford]

Please jo can u answer to my question?
How did you skin the level meter?

[MuTools]

1. The old way of selecting what kind of track is recorded is gone--there's no choice of a sequencer or an audio track. (What happened to that? How do you select what kind of track is being created?)

Huh? There never was such difference in MU.LAB.

2. There are too many areas, accessed by going to different areas of the interface, to go to do simple things: To do the most basic thing, play and record a vst or audio file, the user must go to:

A. The rack at the bottom to select the vst.
B. The rack to the left to select it as the source of the recorded sound.
C. The Edit menu to select Recording options and select the source of the recording. (Shouldn't this be automatic when you arm the track?)
D. Possibly go back to the Edit menu to select Edit midi input focuses. (Shouldn't this be automatic when one arms the track? If not, what does arming the track do?)
E. Go back to the Edit menu to select the "Modular area." Once in that area, things can get confusing--what must be added as a source? Think of a new user, here: some of the options include the vsti's that may have already been loaded into a track. Does one have to add these again as modules? If not, why are they listed there?

3. Some of the most necessary areas are hidden, as though there was an intention to make recording difficult: I can't imagine anyone finding the Modular area without reading the manual. (It's on the Edit menu, for one thing. True in the old version, too.)

Please understand that I do see that the many options involved give the user a lot of control, but I just can't imagine anyone downloading Mulab right now, and quickly figuring out how to record themselves playing their new thumb-piano vsti. Not sure of the solution, exactly, unless the setups could be combined in a single dialog box called something along the lines of "Record a track."

How to record a VSTi?

Simple:

1) Plugin the VSTi
2) Hit record

[fceramic]

Ok I've been using Live 8 for rewire for a while but im getting sick of all the crashes, causing Record to crash as well and making OSX freeze.

I tried open Record in Mulab and all I get is a error message in Record saying the audio engine is not responding and then it crashes. Then Mulab crashes too when I try to exit.

I tried finding any documentation covering multichannel Rewire in Mulab and cant find anything. All I found was a basic tutorial basically saying "click on Reason and you're good to go".

Could you please send me a link to the document explaining how to Rewire multiple channels?

[liquidsound]

Ok I've been using Live 8 for rewire for a while but im getting sick of all the crashes, causing Record to crash as well and making OSX freeze.

I tried open Record in Mulab and all I get is a error message in Record saying the audio engine is not responding and then it crashes. Then Mulab crashes too when I try to exit.

I tried finding any documentation covering multichannel Rewire in Mulab and cant find anything. All I found was a basic tutorial basically saying "click on Reason and you're good to go".

Could you please send me a link to the document explaining how to Rewire multiple channels?

Do you mean being able to control each device in Record/Reason with its own Rack/Track/Channel in Mu.Lab?
I do that in Reason but I don't know if it's the same with Record

[MuTools]

The same beatbox in Samplitude studio program uses 16 drumtracks ..so is it possible to bring the number of key note splitter to 16 in Mulab?
Than you have a grid of 16 tracks

Forget about repeating the 12 drumsounds(tracks) in every octave for the pitch it is too little
For pitch chance : adjustment in +- 1..? octave => not via higher or lower octave anymore!
Every drumsound has same variations and also a fx sample as drumsound so 16 makes more sense
Distorsion,Cutoff,Reso, Pan, (pitch not), volume to automate

Because 16 keys are not repeatable as octave , than it is also possible to assign on every key a drumsound ( drumassigning list) to use the standard drumkit?

It will be 12 keys as it is now. I had this idea for a long time, thought a lot about it and am happy it's finally there. If you need more sounds, then simply use more than 1 drumkit. If you want to use e.g. 43 drumsounds, then use 4 such drumkits.

12 (a dozen) is a nice number of sounds for a drumkit and the advantage of not having to know where the sounds are on the keyboard (it always work thanks to the octaving thing) is too good!!

The only thing i wonder about is whether the output should be forced into a single octave C3..B3 to that wherever you play on the keyboard you always get that same drumkit. Although i personally think it's nice like it is now, i tend to think it would be psychologically/ergonomically better to wrap the output into C3..B3. Because then there is no confusion at all. So this may be tuned in the next version.

[MuTools]

i told this more ..it must be easy, because it must be simple at first sight The principle is : from easy to difficult

I agree 100% !

Thing is: It's not easy to make it easy

(especially when wanting to offer deep functionality at the same time)

[MuTools]

How do I turn off the auto quantize ?
I know I knew it some time ago but I forgot

Right-click th 'Record Events' button.

[MuTools]

It would be helpful for the newly to MuLab and also for other to have a tool tip showing the original name (Type) of the renamed Module in the deep editor. An extra touch...

I experienced the same. Added a note on the wishlist.

[MuTools]

Please jo can u answer to my question?
How did you skin the level meter?

Please have a bit of patience Simon. I try to answer posts asap but i'm not a computer myself (luckily)

I'll answer this one of the days (will try tomorrow) in the topic you already created for it.

[sorohanro]

How do I turn off the auto quantize ?
I know I knew it some time ago but I forgot

Right-click th 'Record Events' button.

Brilliant !!!
not very obvious but brilliant.
Thanx

[cytone]

The only thing i wonder about is whether the output should be forced into a single octave C3..B3 to that wherever you play on the keyboard you always get that same drumkit. Although i personally think it's nice like it is now, i tend to think it would be psychologically/ergonomically better to wrap the output into C3..B3. Because then there is no confusion at all. So this may be tuned in the next version.

I think it's a very neat solution as it is. The drum sounds might just be noises that you may want to trigger at different octaves. Another thing I tried was adding the Note Splitter into the Modular Area and then attaching each output between 4 Racks containing synths. Play a chord and each note plays on a different synth. Good fun, even though it might not get used in this way the possibility is there.