Piano-roll improvements?

[pHz]

The pencil tool should be the default.
When entering a note, it should not permit you to adjust the length... instead it should permit placement. This is part of the reason Tracktion's piano roll feels weird. You sometimes you just want to click a note, and next thing you know you are changing the length of it at the same time.. which means you have to be careful not to drag the cursor sideways as you click. I think people most often are placing notes when entering, then they adjust the length.
Placing your cursor in the middle of a note, sould permit you to move the note around freely as well.
Placing the cursor at the edge of a note should permit you to adjust length. The editor should remember the length of the last note you entered, and when you drop another note, it should default to that length (that way you don't have to resize the grid to define your note lengths).
Right clicking a note should delete it.

YESYESYESYESYES

I also like the idea of eXT's step mode which I would love to see combined with and aspect of FL as well. A mode where the piano on the side disappears and in it's place are just boxes where you can write your own label. This would turn the piano roll into an instant drum editor.

excellent idea !!!

slainte rob

[valley]

a few more:

* unbundle the snap resolution from the current zoom resolution, ie a drop down box with snap grid options where the default option would be 'snap to zoom resolution'.

* The piano scrolling (ie which ovtave the piano roll is showing) should center on the note at the cursor point when the user double clicks on the clip.

* not piano roll per-se, but can there be a toggle for showing midi note data when zoomed far out. Most of the time I don't need to see it and it can look cluttered.



blue sky stuff here:

how about an option in the piano roll toolkit called something like 'show ghost' that when selected allows you to click on other clips and see them as 'ghosts' beneath the clip being edited. This could be handy for manually correcting timings between bass and drum parts for example.

this could even be extended to force note starts to pull towards the 'ghost' clip. Hand writing arp'ed grooves would be a doddle like this. Just create a template clip with thre required groove. Editing new clips whilst using that 'ghost clip' would be like using teh ultimate step editor .

[valley]

I second Mod's stuff. FL has the cleanest Piano roll I've ever used.

I'd still like to be able to hand define the note properties using text boxes below though, cos making notes that are a few ticks short of rigid 1/8ths for example requires a note to be placed and corrected before follow up notes can be added.

[pHz]

I second Mod's stuff.

you cant - i already did ...

... feel free to 3rd them though mate

slainte rob

[valley]

I second Mod's stuff.

you cant - i already did ...

Well aren't you just an eager beaver...

... feel free to 3rd them though mate

*sigh* if I must!...

[ModuLR]

WhhOOooTTT!

Seriously Jules... check out the FL piano roll, cos something about it really has a great feel to it. While Tracktion doesn't have to copy everything exactly, if it could generate that feel I think A LOT of people would be REALLY happy.

I got anothe idea... why not use a clickable mouse wheel as a toggle for some other feature. What feature I dunno, but something surely can go there. In FL, it let's you scroll both X and Y, but holding down a mouse wheel while dragging is a pain in the ass. But using it as a toggle button could be cool. Maybe make it user assignable to some toggle'able piano-roll feature.

Oh yeah, and I second and third the other ideas floating around here too!

[soma]

Yep. Mod nailed a lot of basics. And Actually the FL drum sequencer is very handy for laying down beats to edit in more detail later.

(I just want to reiterate the ability to attach vst parameters to midi clips and more specificly to attach parameters to notes.)

[hao nao]

another vote for right-click to erase -- people could ctrl-click on Macs with one-button mice

also in favor of the velocity-curve ideas in addition to the current note-by-note method

maybe a note-mode menu -- freeform paint, repeat last length, only draw 1/8, 1/4 etc.

some kind of triplet shortcut?

something like spacebar + drag to move piano roll up/down or left/right -- similar to Photoshop(!)

can't add much to the ideas already presented

[fzirp bluitno]

As an example worth keeping in mind, Cakewalk had (still has?) a feature called 'event filters' which allowed the selection of very specific MIDI data ranges for editing/processing. You could pick one or several types of MIDI events (notes, aftertouch, controllers, patches, wheel) on a menu and then use spin buttons to specify the range in each to be affected, or use a tick box to specify that the range was to be NOT affected. Once specified, the range could be transformed via operations like transposition, increment, decrement, etc; or manipulated using Cakewalk's proprietary and very useful CAL language.

fzirp

[hao nao]

I also especially agree with: ctrl-drag to duplicate, shift-drag to constrain movement horizontally or vertically

And maybe a snap-to scale/key feature. Nothing fancy, just have a mode that doesn't allow the user to enter a note in anything but the defined scale/key, which can be toggled on/off.

maybe rows that are in-key/scale/mode could be colored, with the root and fifth emphasized with two other colors -- which reminds me that generally I like white piano-rolls with light gray for the rows of the black keys -- something like highlight = yellow, root = fluoro green and fifth = orange -- better make those user-customizable

Maybe a chord-entry template. Storm has a circle-of-fifths thing that works nicely, Maybe you can select the chords you want, and then the tool could 'paste' it into a bar. Then you could add to or alter the chord without it being tied to the template, so it could work differently than Storm's interpretation.

some kind of chord assistant would be great

how about this:
-- place the root note of a chord
-- some shortcut turns the note into a "chord object"
-- a popup lets you pick what kind of chord (maybe variations up to 9ths)
-- something else lets you cycle through inversions
-- ghost notes represent the other notes of the chord
-- maybe arpeggiation and humanizing options
-- a shortcut to atomize the chord object into individual notes for manual editing

[AD80]

I'm late to the party . Looks like everybody's mentioned all the stuff I would add. Keep up the good work .

[Rudy]

not quite the piano-roll but MIDI-Clpi related:

please provide the same Options for MIDI Clips as they are for Audio Clips (transpose, loop)

[Ixox]

Jules, i spent 1 year getting used with your weird/not so good piano roll.
And now that i can do almost all what i want very quickly you'll change it !!!

OK... good luck..

I think this was one of my first posts in the Tracktion forum:
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17213

I also dig out this one:
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17984
which is rather interesting...

Jules, you work so soon on V2.
So no automation improvement in V1. No tooltips above the automation points in V1...

[soma]

not quite the piano-roll but MIDI-Clpi related:

please provide the same Options for MIDI Clips as they are for Audio Clips (transpose, loop)

And drop filter on.


-As a general workflow improvement to keep in mind. I really want a way to compose fast without a mouse or a midi keyboard. I know alot of people love trackers because they can quickly navigate and edit without moving their hands from the QWERTY keyboard.

[pHz]

-As a general workflow improvement to keep in mind. I really want a way to compose fast without a mouse or a midi keyboard. I know alot of people love trackers because they can quickly navigate and edit without moving their hands from the QWERTY keyboard.

adapting the massiva / energyXT step-sequencer model would allow this - it is VERY fast to compose patterns this way

(i often find myself unconsciously trying to use this method in tracktion still and all that happens is manic resizing of the clip ive selected !!! )

slainte rob