How important is the piano roll to you?

[kelvyn]

Very!

[expermental]

Not a keyboard player, but making bass or leads sketches is way more faster and productive that drawing it in a Daw.

[nix808]

it's so fun to play midi guitar,
but a sequencer is a different thing altogether for me.
I sound totally different on guitar and piano roll
in guitar I use the 7 consonant notes,
on piano roll I use 5 notes

+ jazzy bits heh

[jancivil]

In regards of this thread, I wouldn't even know how to make music without the piano roll. Is there even a way?

While using the piano roll to create music is certainly valid given that you're using it and not just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, you really should explore gaining proficiency on an instrument. There's a feedback loop that develops over time between your brain and what comes out of the instrument that opens up realms you might not otherwise experience.

(Emphasis mine)

Personally I don't see any problem with "throwing stuff at piano roll and seeing what sticks". It's just as valid as "grabbing an instrument and seeing what sticks".

Of course you do.

How can you compare to something you haven't done and if this is the signal never will?
I mean you're featuring that people that proceed from the vantage point of instrumental prowess are doing as you're doing. It's not how we work, at all. My goal was to nail things the first time. This suggests knowing what one is doing. My experience was years of free improv daily with my friends. We 'd go into the studio with a formal plan but most of the composition was done on the spot. The first take. Or if I was called to help out with some material, it's first or second take or we may as well scratch it because it's getting stale, it's not viable and money is flying away uselessly if we're stalled.

You've been given good solid life advice there but you'd rather remain in "castles made of sand" as you say.

Is there even a way [to make music having no piano roll sequencing software]? You can't seriously play in all of the instruments live, can you? I mean, you could, but... how? Timing will be bad. Arrangement will be a pain.

What? I made music for 35 yrs with no piano roll software. No, I wasn't pulling off orchestra scores solo on stage LOL. And, of course, none of my scores on paper amounted to shit. I had to get a group together, which meant I came up with an idea for a show I could get people enthused over, to hear much of anything of my ideas. Once (April 1986) I wrote an underscore on a computer for a show. Someone yanked the MIDI cable setting up some lighting, the OS on a floppy, and the sequence was instantly corrupted so we improvised. It was a pain, ie., a lot of work, almost three weeks full time forming that sequence, yes. SO? Mastery of an instrument is "a pain". What's the cliche, no pain/no gain? My timing isn't bad, actually I worked my shit until I was getting an A in my performance major doing an entire Bach suite. My timing wasn't great until it was, I had to be tested against far better musicians and had to recognize and take criticism and life advice there.

People than can do have more going on than people who can't. That's life.
The latter seems to have a problem with the former, having not the first idea what they actually do.

There are things I cannot play, so I got to where I have real good chops relating those blocks to the grid and can entirely draw a performance. It's been questioned 'how do you get the emotion on a pad or with a pencil tool'. Well, when you see emotion in a movie, do you feature that 100% of the time the actor is actually experiencing the emotion, or are they maybe portraying the emotion.

Niveau 8 CODA 100% pencil tool (even wrote some error in there). Took most of a day there on my bed in med respite.
Which is to say, it can be done. Even in pain.

[Kalamata Kid]

Love the piano roll!
and
the midi event list editor as the one in Cubase.
Using Cubase Event List

[effie]

I can’t sight read piano roll, yet…
do miss having event list (Ableton user)

[gjunk]

I use piano roll for my drums but prefer to play everything else in

[TS-12]

Crucial. Must have.

[Harry_HH]

I put this thread a couple of days back - none replies, is this important pianoroll feature really out of interest anybody but me?:

Is there any improvements in the Live 11 (or 12) to the note lenght definition on the midi pianoroll?

E.g. if I have lets say in the 5/4 time signature
2 kvarter notes, 5 eight notes and 2 sixtteenth notes in one bar, easiest way to define the excact lenghts (really excact, i.e. if I move the midi file to the Musescore, the lenghts must correspond the note values).

And: how to (in one command?) define the note distancies inside a bar to same (even), e.g. in the polyrhytmic music this feature is use

[inkwarp]

It's essential. I am not a keyboard player or a drummer. MIDI editing is the one absolute requirement in a DAW for me.
FL studio is the measure that all piano rolls should go by.

[jens]

I used the piano-roll a bit more in the past, but these days I barely ever open it, occassional little changes to the drum-files I use (always recordings of real drummers) aside... but even for that I instead could use Superior Drummer itself if need be.

[Harry_HH]

The integration between ”real music writing”, i.e. notation, and the pionoroll, is lousy, especially in the Live.
Metrics, time signature changes, note lenghts, which all are core bread and butter in the music writing (note: writing), are hard to implement in the fluent way in the pianoroll.

I even purchased the Cubase pro for getting more out of the pianoroll - not much help.

Pianoroll is kind of coarse childrens playtool, in that sense.

[Logickin]

I prefer Tracker interface more than piano roll, because it have a more compact view for all the instruments and automation.

Piano rolls can do the job, but for more refined sequencing, it can be a bit cumbersome because velocity and automation are separated from the piano roll.

If you want to write a 16th note with fake ducking using velocity, you have to pick every four notes using mouse for changing a specific velocity. However, in tracker, you only need to set the step size to 4, and type the corresponding velocity value.

For me, piano roll is easy to learn, but hard to master, and vice versa for tracker because you have to understand the commands before writing something complex.

[digitalboytn]

I could probably live without a piano roll,but life might be a little more challenging without a toilet roll

[dellboy]

Never used it. I play keys and guitar and violin at a push, so everything goes in live. If I mess up (and I do) its just a matter of keep doing it until I get it right (or close enough). I admire people who have the skill, patience, and ability to lay stuff into a piano roll and end up with something that sounds awesome. I am far too impatient a person to go that route.