Feature requests

[como baila]

That should be easy to implement, como. I had Attila implement all the "fill with" shortcuts (Q, M, N, etc), and other one-stroke stuff for the 2.5 update.

And, Chris, would you think generally useful to others as well?

[como baila]

Pardon if this is a duplicate suggestion!

Mute Phrase:I'd like to see an over riding mute function for a phrase in the inspector.

With respect to 'call and answer' compositional devices, it is very useful to try different combinations of instrument voicings and musical passage juxtapositions. While RC is very flexible in moving phrases from place to place within a track and from track to track, I often finding myself wanting to just silence a single phrase in a track without having to remove it and any parameters I've adjusted.

I would like to be able to mute a phrase in place through an option on the phrase inspector.

[tonedef71]

A few small feature requests...

[1] Save Composition should give some feedback to provide reassurance that changes to the current composition were indeed saved.

When I save changes to an existing composition, I do not get any feedback.


Were there any changes to be saved? It would be nice to get some reassurance that the file was saved.

[2] Delete phrase should prompt for confirmation before deleting the phrase

It is too easy to accidentally delete a phrase (e.g. due to a slip of the mouse pointer, or simply a momentary lapse of judgement).


A confirmation prompt along the lines of "Do you really want to delete 'My Cool Bass Phrase'?" would give someone another chance to prevent a catastrophe.

I suppose this feature could be turned on and off in the RC global settings tab for people who do not like to be prompted about things.

[tonedef71]

Maybe it could be removed from the phrase browser to avoid confusion.

Perhaps that would be best, to avoid confusion. So if I understand correctly, the Line generator is different from the other generators in how it is invoked in the Composition window?

[tonedef71]

if this is already suggested count me in if not i got an idea
how about 1 location for all those user creations
Phrases ..of course
+ Progressions
+ Idea Tool presets
+ Instrument Presets
+ Chord presets
+ Project Templates

so basically for everything that created/collected by the user
would be in to that one location.

I (and probably others) have requested that all of the user created content to be easily accessible as text files which are always exported by RC and then re-imported on start-up (after the stock factory content has been loaded). Hopefully, the processing of all the user created content (some of which did not exist already as text files previously) will not add too much more time to the start-up process; the importing of user created content has to be done carefully, lest content that has already been loaded gets loaded an additional time and bloats the internal database with duplicates.

I guess there is enough user created content in RC now that it is most convenient for it to be stored on the file system all in one location; the way to specify this location would probably be just a re-purposing of the existing "Directories Settings" option:

[tonedef71]

In light of Tony 'Tondef's' fantastic suggestions

Thanks!

I would love to see a single key switch command that would at one go close all of the programs dependent windows, i.e., browsers and inspectors, etc., and restore just the main gui.

I find that I've often opened four of five and it's annoying to have to go and close them all one at a time. I'd like a convenient fresh start by closing them all.

Hopefully I will be proved ignorant and someone will tell me RC can already do this ... and how?

Cool. Would it work like the "Show Desktop" feature of most operating systems?

[tonedef71]

I find myself working with the Phrase Editor a lot now, and I have come up with a few new requests:

[1] Support in the Phrase Editor for saving and working with phrases that are not a whole number of beats (i.e. the phrase ends with a fractional portion of a beat)

The Generic Editor allows one to generate a phrase that is not a whole number of beats.

However, as soon as you bring up the generated phrase in the Phrase Editor, the phrase is automatically expanded to the nearest whole number of beats.


I want the Phrase Editor to support editing and saving of a phrase with an incomplete number of beats because I often want to create phrases like this which I can then chain together in the composition to fit within a proper bar count. For example, I might create a phrase in 4:4 meter that is 14 eighth-note triplets in length that repeats itself 6 times to fill out 7 bars (28 beats) in the composition. Right now, I cannot create, edit, or save a phrase that is exactly the length of 14 eighth-note triplets (4 + 2/3 beats).

[2] Support for performing permutation type transformations (Inversion, Retrogradation, and Retrograde Inversion) on a block of contiguous notes within the Phrase Editor

I know there exists a Phrase Variation called "Mirror Horizontally" (which is essentially the same effect as "Retrogradation"), and there has been a request for a "Mirror Vertically" Phrase Variation (which is essentially the same effect as "Inversion"). There could also be a Phrase Variation called "Mirror Both Horizontally and Vertically" (which is essentially the same effect as "Retrograde Inversion"). What I want to be able to do is perform this sort of phrase manipulation instantly within the Phrase Editor on all the notes in the phrase being edited or on just a contiguous selection of notes, and I want to be able to do it as often as I like with different combinations of transforms and note selections. You can gradually morph a phrase in interesting ways.

Here is a more detailed explanation of what I am thinking of. The user can highlight and select a contiguous block of notes to transform, so a partial block of notes can be selected for transformation anywhere in the phrase. [NOTE: Although it is doable to perform a transformation on selected notes that are cut off from other selected notes by notes that not part of the selection, I think it is probably more complex to implement, so that is why I stress that selection must be a contiguous, such that a bounding rectangle could be drawn around the entire selection of notes.] The note transformation happens "in place" within the imaginary rectangular boundary of the selected notes. In chromatic mode, this imaginary rectangular boundary does not shift at all after the transformation has been performed. In scalar mode, the automatic shift of the transformed notes to conform to the chosen scale (key and mode) could result in the imaginary rectangular boundary of the selected notes to change its size dimensions.

If no notes are highlighted as selected, then the note range to transform is the entire phrase.

Using push buttons to apply the transformations would be quicker, but I used drop-down menus in my mock-ups because I thought that they would require less screen real estate.

By the way, there are other types of phrase transformations that might be achievable within the Phrase Editor. Other transformations are mentioned here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformation_(music)

Mock-up screenshots:

[como baila]

A few small feature requests...

[1] Save Composition should give some feedback to provide reassurance that changes to the current composition were indeed saved.

When I save changes to an existing composition, I do not get any feedback.


Were there any changes to be saved? It would be nice to get some reassurance that the file was saved.

[2] Delete phrase should prompt for confirmation before deleting the phrase

It is too easy to accidentally delete a phrase (e.g. due to a slip of the mouse pointer, or simply a momentary lapse of judgement).


A confirmation prompt along the lines of "Do you really want to delete 'My Cool Bass Phrase'?" would give someone another chance to prevent a catastrophe.

I suppose this feature could be turned on and off in the RC global settings tab for people who do not like to be prompted about things.

+1 amd +1 ... agree fully.

[como baila]

In light of Tony 'Tondef's' fantastic suggestions

Thanks!

I would love to see a single key switch command that would at one go close all of the programs dependent windows, i.e., browsers and inspectors, etc., and restore just the main gui.

I find that I've often opened four of five and it's annoying to have to go and close them all one at a time. I'd like a convenient fresh start by closing them all.

Hopefully I will be proved ignorant and someone will tell me RC can already do this ... and how?

Cool. Would it work like the "Show Desktop" feature of most operating systems?

Yes ... same idea. It can seem trivial on the surface, but a few seconds spent targeting the close 'x' on several windows can feel frustrating when you have an idea in mind you want to execute.

[themixtape]

Absolutely agree about the prompt to save, and especially remove/preview-- I've deleted stuff on accident that I definitely did NOT want to delete, when clicking "preview"

[como baila]

[2] Support for performing permutation type transformations (Inversion, Retrogradation, and Retrograde Inversion) on a block of contiguous notes within the Phrase Editor

I know there exists a Phrase Variation called "Mirror Horizontally" (which is essentially the same effect as "Retrogradation"), and there has been a request for a "Mirror Vertically" Phrase Variation (which is essentially the same effect as "Inversion"). There could also be a Phrase Variation called "Mirror Both Horizontally and Vertically" (which is essentially the same effect as "Retrograde Inversion"). What I want to be able to do is perform this sort of phrase manipulation instantly within the Phrase Editor on all the notes in the phrase being edited or on just a contiguous selection of notes, and I want to be able to do it as often as I like with different combinations of transforms and note selections. You can gradually morph a phrase in interesting ways.

+1

I think these type of 'in place' transformations are also ideal for key switching short cuts. Since the visual changes immediately provide feedback of execution, there is not really any need for opening an inspector.

Tony, I appreciate not only the self-evident utility of your feature requests, but the clarity with which you explain them and propose ways to integrate them into the program.

[yellukhan]

Absolutely agree about the prompt to save, and especially remove/preview-- I've deleted stuff on accident that I definitely did NOT want to delete, when clicking "preview"

yep +1
must be hidden in the more/less menu i guess.

also i would love to use "Mute Phrase" as como baila suggested.

[musicdevelopments]

Thank you for all of your help!
These are implemented now:

- variations can be muted
- 'collapsed' state preserved in the variation list when adding or deleting variations
- Rests variation uses 1/8th beat increments
- Pressing Esc closes all open browser and inspector windows
- Save Composition (or pressing 'S') provides visual feedback about the success of the save operation
- Confirmation window opened when deleting phrases

More to come but only when known bugs are fixed.

Tony, I appreciate not only the self-evident utility of your feature requests, but the clarity with which you explain them and propose ways to integrate them into the program.

Tony is a software engineer, that is why
Yes, I am amazed how many details, screenshots and explanation he provides. I am very grateful for that.

Thanks!
Attila

PS: going back to fix issues in the VST plug-in...

[como baila]

Thank you for all of your help!
These are implemented now:

<snip>

- Pressing Esc closes all open browser and inspector windows

I thought 'Esc' was the midi panic control?

Tony, I appreciate not only the self-evident utility of your feature requests, but the clarity with which you explain them and propose ways to integrate them into the program.

Tony is a software engineer, that is why
Yes, I am amazed how many details, screenshots and explanation he provides. I am very grateful for that.

Thanks!
Attila

PS: going back to fix issues in the VST plug-in...

That explains a lot. It is great to have him here, but only because we have a brilliant developer who is always listening to the feedback.

Thanks for these great additions to this amazing program.

[musicdevelopments]

Right, 'Esc' was the midi panic button. It seemed a natural choice for closing all floating panels over the workspace. But we can change it, I am open for suggestions if you got used to using Esc. You can still right-click on the STOP button for midi panic.

The best would be to be able to fully customize the keyboard shortcuts.

In the long term (not for v2.6) docking the browser panels at the left or right side will be implemented.

Thanks!
Attila