1.4 beta and development thread

[GilJ]

Hi,

Here's a minor B.R. (before you send us the next beta )

Snap value display problem
1 - Load LiveSlice
2 - Clear All
3 - Select C1 (empty) Arrangement
4 - Change the track's snap value to any triplet value (I.E. 1/32T)
5 - Select another Arrangement
6 - Select the C1 Arrangement again
The tracks' snap value displays 1/16 (however the grid is in 1/32T)

Ohm, sorry to ask for the same question but it's a feature that will really help me work quicker with LiveSlice : Have you planned to include the sync F.R in the 1.4 final release? (I.E. When you start or stop your host sequencer, it starts or stops LiveSlice internal sequencer)

Thanks again

[ohm]

I feel there's room for more keyboard shortcuts too - suggestions are welcome

I'm not sure if this was suggested ealier but I would really like to be able to scroll down to lower tracks without having to use the mouse. The scroller bar in the window is sometimes hard to get at and requires a very percise mouse click. Its especially important to get to the bottom tracks quickly when you are trying to compose in a frantic brainstorming session. I run into this problem frequently because whenever new tracks are added they are out of sight if more than three are in use at one time.

I noticed alot of functions already assigned to the up and down arrows, perhaps dedicating the page up or page down buttons to this function?

1-0ne

page up and down works great - good idea - better than my original ALT+arrows idea. Surpirsingly 25 brains are often better than one, even when including my superior intelligence in the equation

[ohm]

Hi,

Here's a minor B.R. (before you send us the next beta )

Snap value display problem
1 - Load LiveSlice
2 - Clear All
3 - Select C1 (empty) Arrangement
4 - Change the track's snap value to any triplet value (I.E. 1/32T)
5 - Select another Arrangement
6 - Select the C1 Arrangement again
The tracks' snap value displays 1/16 (however the grid is in 1/32T)

Ohm, sorry to ask for the same question but it's a feature that will really help me work quicker with LiveSlice : Have you planned to include the sync F.R in the 1.4 final release? (I.E. When you start or stop your host sequencer, it starts or stops LiveSlice internal sequencer)

Thanks again

Thanks for the bug-report - I thought I fixed that bug long ago. Will fix...

I did add the "sync to seq" feature actually - it starts playing the selected arrangement as soon as the sequencer starts. You can still use midi to toggle arrangements, but you can only play one arrangement at a time. If you select an arrangement that is already playing, playback is stopped. I was wondering if perhaps I should remove that feature (stopping playback when re-triggering) because you can acheive the same by leaving one arrangement slot empty.

[soma]

Is switching patterns quantized?

no, because it's not meant to work that way - you can play more arrangements at once using several midi notes, so they just add up when triggered instead of being played exclusively.

Yes playing many at once is nice, but I'd like them all to be in sync, so I'd like to press the keys for 3 parts and have them all start on teh next quantized value. That way they will all be exactly on beat together.
Did that make sense?

[ohm]

Is switching patterns quantized?

no, because it's not meant to work that way - you can play more arrangements at once using several midi notes, so they just add up when triggered instead of being played exclusively.

Yes playing many at once is nice, but I'd like them all to be in sync, so I'd like to press the keys for 3 parts and have them all start on teh next quantized value. That way they will all be exactly on beat together.
Did that make sense?

That makes sense - same concept as Live mode in energy xt. Good idea, added to the list - it will be optional, perhaps even configurable on a pr. arrangement basis so some arrangements can be beat quantized, others bar quantized others not quantized at all.

[spuddle]

I did add the "sync to seq" feature actually - it starts playing the selected arrangement as soon as the sequencer starts. You can still use midi to toggle arrangements, but you can only play one arrangement at a time. If you select an arrangement that is already playing, playback is stopped. I was wondering if perhaps I should remove that feature (stopping playback when re-triggering) because you can acheive the same by leaving one arrangement slot empty.

Um, so this means in that mode you won't be able to play more than one arrangement at once? You sacrifice the ability to easily control many different arrangements at once for being able to simply stop and start it with the Seq?

That sounds like a step-backwards to me, or maybe I don't fully understand this new feature.

[GilJ]

Thanks Ohm for adding the 'sync' feature
Cheers,
GilJ.

[R.A.W.]

I did add the "sync to seq" feature actually - it starts playing the selected arrangement as soon as the sequencer starts. You can still use midi to toggle arrangements, but you can only play one arrangement at a time. If you select an arrangement that is already playing, playback is stopped. I was wondering if perhaps I should remove that feature (stopping playback when re-triggering) because you can acheive the same by leaving one arrangement slot empty.

Um, so this means in that mode you won't be able to play more than one arrangement at once? You sacrifice the ability to easily control many different arrangements at once for being able to simply stop and start it with the Seq?

That sounds like a step-backwards to me, or maybe I don't fully understand this new feature.

i'm with spuddle here, it could be a problem in some setups when the selected arrangement starts on host start everytime.
ok, not long till friday, but could this be made optional in the settings dialog (if it's not already)?

[GilJ]

Ohm, while reading the posts of soma, spuddle & yourself, I have come to the following suggestion :

Could the 2 following features be 2 different options in LiveSlice :
- sync to seq
- play only 1 Arrangement at a time

In that way, if the 2 options are enabled, LiveSlice would act exactly as a virtual drum machine (for example Microtonic or Reason's Redrum) each Arrangement of LiveSlice corresponding to a 'pattern' on a classic drum machine.
We would then be able to chain the Arrangements in any order we want to build up our song

If we enable only the 'sync to seq' feature, the selected Arrangement(s), will play when we start our host and stop when the latter is stopped…

Do you think it is a cool idea &/or a good compromise guys?

Cheers,
GilJ

P.S. anyway, no panic, I think that Ohm will add this feature as an option, so it won't really bother those using LiveSlice in a more 'conventional' way... won't you Ohm?

[ohm]

Don't worry - the new "sync to transport" feature will be optional, and disabled by default. It's meant as a quick an dirty way of getting sound from LiveSlice without touching the piano roll. I originally thought it out for AudioMulch that does not offer sequencing of midi notes.

Actually I could keep the polyphony - at least as an option. Then all midi notes would toggle arrangements on / off. I'd have to create a workaround for arrangements of different durations playing in sync, but that should be simple enough. I'll look at it and see if it will be in 1.4 or 1.5.

[soma]

Are there plans to make patterns of variable length (longer shorter)? Could the length be per track AND Pattern/Global (shortest wins)?

[R.A.W.]

another FR came to mind when i made my sloppy second today for this project http://www.obscurica.com/sloppy_seconds.html

i selected several events in a track using shift + lmb and wanted to delete them with mmb but that didn't work.. well ctrl + x was the workaround. then i selected another range and wanted to shift only those selected events but instead every event in the track was shifted.
can it be implemented (not necessarily in 1.4) that every event function (clear/delete/shift/you name it) applies to all/only selected events?

and a very little issue: whenever i startup LS i get a string in the loop list "er: res not found" though it's not an error as i loaded an empty LS (missing demo loop perhaps?)
wow... i was just testing and when i switched back to eXT LS opened a dialog to search for the missing sample though i just opened a new instance in the main.

sorry, just found another one when i wanted to select a range using shift: starting with an event on the right and then shift+lmb an event on the left highlights all events except the last on the right (the one pressed first).

[GilJ]

can it be implemented (not necessarily in 1.4) that every event function (clear/delete/shift/you name it) applies to all/only selected events?

+1 (I also thought about this feature a few days ago... great minds think alike )

and a very little issue: whenever i startup LS i get a string in the loop list "er: res not found" though it's not an error as i loaded an empty LS (missing demo loop perhaps?)

I sometimes have the same problem; haven't been able to know exactly when however

[spuddle]

We would then be able to chain the Arrangements in any order we want to build up our song

You just gave me an idea for another FR:

Linear Chaining Sequence Mode

In this mode, there would be the possibility to click inbetween two arrangements and a little 'chain' icon would appear indicating those two arrangements are now tied together in linear time. This means that when you start the first arrangement (C1) playing, it would reach the end of that arrangement and then immediately switch to the next chained arrangement (C#1) and then after finishing the second arrangement, play back would jump straight back to the first arrangement (C1).

If you wanted to extend the chain, then you would just click inbetween arrangement C#1 and D1. Thus giving you a 3-arrangement chain of "C1>C#1>D1" that cycles upon reaching D1.

As extra functions, you could have a little number appear to the above right of each arrangement which you can drag up or down to set how many measures the play back is held on that arrangement before progressing to the next chained one.

Also to consider: Different icon for different types of chaining. E.g. As well as a standard linear chain, there could be a "change direction" chain, or a "jump to.." chain.

A last thing that would be nice is to have 3 seperate cycles (one for each line of chains you have on arrangement window at the moment (C1-G1, G#1-D#2, E2-B2), these can play back in 3 (maybe expand if can increase number of arrangements in the window?) polyphonic layers. Or there is the possibilty of just using all of them in one lengthy sequence.

Because diagrams explain more than in words:



Red sequence will cycle between it's '[' ']' start/end points. Note the 2 measures for 'C#1'.

Green Sequence cycles also betwen '[' and ']', however it runs at the same time as the red sequence and will start when the host sequencer 'play' button is hit.

Anyhow, seems like a lot of fun. At least it was to make the diagrams

[R.A.W.]

spuddle, GilJ, i really like the ideas, really great!

but i think i can say in ohm's name that this won't be in 1.4 which is supposed to be released in 2 days. but i guess you didn't think so anyway.

[...]you could have a little number appear[...]which you can drag up or down to set how many measures the play back is held [...]

in this case i think you meant it to be just a plain simple multiplier, didn't you?
imagine you got a 16 beats arrangement (4 bars), setting the number to 2 should play this twice (8 bars) instead of only half the arrangement (2 bars)? right?