ZynewaveThose that haven’t tried the beta versions can get an idea of the note map feature from the new YouTube video I’ve just uploaded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8t7uRAFn-E
I’ll probably make another note map video using the drum map editor as example.
Comments are welcome.
Zynewave@thcilnnahoj wrote:
Is it not sufficient that the width of the box increases when you zoom out vertically?
Well, that’s not very obvious now, is it? 🙂
Have you turned off popup help? [-X
Quote: “Widen the clickable frame of note events so that the frame width is minimum the same size as the zoomed line height. This makes it easier to click and edit short duration events.”
Something that seems to have fallen under the table, or maybe was never mentioned, is the possibility of reordering keys in the drum map. For example, the standard GM mapping has hi-hat strokes and tom-toms on alternating keys (probably because it’s easier to play?). If you don’t use an actual keyboard to play drums, though, you might want to have all of one instrument’s articulations placed next to each other in the drum map. Maybe in a future update? O:)
Yes, distant future.
Anyways, try the new beta 14:
The events no longer change height according to velocity in the piano roll mode.
There is a new “Highlight line when mouse cursor is on timeline” option in the notes region dialog.
Fixed a bug with displaced piano keys when notes have been disabled.
And more adjustments to the pencil tool on events: When the event is thinner than 16 pixels, then the resize handles are removed from the bottom half of the event. This means it is easier to move the event, and the event can still be resized by pointing to the side edges on the upper half of the event. Perhaps it sounds confusing, but I think it works alright.
Furthermore, I’ve added a resize area on the upper edge of note events, for dragging velocity. I’ve done this because I plan to remove the “drag velocity or size” Alt+Click option. This never works reliably for me, as I probably 1/3 of the time accidentally drag a pixel in the wrong direction of what I really want.
Zynewave@thcilnnahoj wrote:
First things first… the rounded edges and velocity-height relationship are a matter of taste, I guess – not exactly my favorite change ever. Have to see if I can warm up to it… 😉
The benefit of the rounded edges, is that it’s easier to discern start and end of individual events, if you have a series of joining 16th notes for example.
The note row highlighting – besides that it isn’t consistently bright on white and black rows – doesn’t really serve much purpose, and will most of the time clutter the view, in my opinion. I can see the use when hovering over the keyboard, so you get an indication of which notes would be selected.
Notes themselves are highlighted as well, but just barely noticable. So I wonder why at all, especially since you seemed to step away from highlighting individual elements since the new group panel.
The note highlighting could be made more clear I guess. You have event highlighting in the tracks region as well, so that was what I tried to immitate. I’ll probably add it to the curve editor eventually. It can be helpful if you’re trying to hit a small note event within a series of joining notes.
Lastly, I think I’d prefer an extra button instead of a menu entry for toggling between piano roll and drum map, for the reason that it’d be more immediately noticable.
I’ll consider it. All the buttons that are currently in the side panel are all editor mode buttons. All the commands in the menu will affect the note map properties in the track.
Edit: Umm, I must also say that, while the ‘wide event’ mode is a good idea, it doesn’t work as well as Liquid showed in FL Studio (for the purpose of selecting short notes). It still only leaves 1 px to select a really short note, while the resize handles are at least 4 px wide…
Just an observation. I usually don’t use the pencil tool myself. 😉
Is it not sufficient that the width of the box increases when you zoom out vertically? Even if I implemented the “outside” resize handles, I still think the wide box has its uses. You can be zoomed so far out that even quarter notes will be so thin that it’s difficult to click them. And then there are the ultra-short click events you can get if you import some drum loop MIDI files. This wide event option was meant as a replacement for the previous snap grid minimum size that was used in the old drum map editor. Or the Triangle/Diamond shape options you have in some other hosts.
Zynewave@Trancit wrote:
But I think you are not a happy bunny about my idea, aren´t you?? 8)
I agree with LiquidProj3ct, that there are more basic things in Podium that needs to be dealt with before experimenting with new features, like the one you’re describing.
ZynewaveBeta 13 is up. A little later than I estimated, but I ended up doing a complete overhaul of the piano roll and drum map editing. This wasn’t on my original plan for 2.31, but I’m glad it’s done. I’m pleased with the face-lift. 🙂
This beta will change the editor setup in the Podium.ini file, so if you plan to go back to a previous release, please first take a backup of your Podium.ini file. Otherwise you will need to use the “restore default editor profiles” command when going back to 2.30.
There are too many changes to list them all, but the major one is:
The old “drum kit” preset option is now gone, and so is the old drum map editor. There is now a “Notes” region which combines the old piano roll and drum map regions.
I still need to do some testing, but I don’t plan to make more changes for 2.31. Only thing missing is to implement the saving of note map properties to the pod file.
Let me know what you think of the redesigned note editor.
Zynewave@Trancit wrote:
For me very important is that preset organizing thingy…with modularity I meant to be able to combine more than one plugin in a preset, not especially such a virtual wirering system…
Have you had time to look at the track template system yet? To me it sounds like it could solve some of your problems. It allows you to save a track with instrument and effect plugins (including presets) to a track template file. You can organize the track template files into subfolders.
Zynewave@Trancit wrote:
What about expanding the “Adjust timing” dialog with parameters for velocity, where you can change the velocities of the selection (or all) on a fixed value, random values, adding/substracting a certain amount or perhaps “compress/ expand” the velocity “dynamic”…
That would turn the existing “Adjust timing” dialog not only into a full featured “Humanizing” dialog, but would add on an easy way a very powerfull velocity tool rather than editing every velocity handle by mouse, especially because of the lack of a line tool to draw ….
I’ve been planning to add an “Adjust Velocity” dialog to the note editor edit menu. This would have all the options that you mention. Joining all the velocity options and value fields with the existing Adjust Timing dialog can make that dialog fairly big. To have the “preview” option make sense, I’d prefer that the dialog isn’t so big that it will cover much of the note editor.
Do others think it is important that you have timing and velocity adjustments in a single dialog?
ZynewaveThe current library preset system is an old design that I intend to revise in a future update. Currently a library preset can be assigned to a track, which can mess up the plugin program selection when used with global plugins. I plan to change this so that library presets are not assignable to the track, but is only used for loading the preset data into the current plugin instance.
If you have been organizing your library presets into folders, you need to ensure that the new subfolders you create are still children of the plugin device definition object.
ZynewaveZynewave@kyran wrote:
While we’re on the subject of zoom and slide shortcuts:
can you make ctrl+mousewheel zoom the time line and alt + mousewheel zoom the track heights?These modifiers currently don’t do anything and you have no idea how many times per minute I try to zoom the timeline using the mousewheel.
Use the same key shortcuts that is used to activate the mouse click zoom tools (as well as the new key shortcuts): Ctrl+Alt+wheel to zoom the timeline, and Ctrl+Shift+wheel to zoom the height. Ctrl+Shift+Alt+wheel to zoom both directions. By using these key shortcuts you even get the mouse cursor showing the corresponding zoom action.
Zynewave@LiquidProj3ct wrote:
@LiquidProj3ct wrote:
@Zynewave wrote:
A tip: If the event is so small that it only shows the resize cursors, you can override the resizing by ctrl+click+hold on the event, and then release the ctrl key to move the event.
Extending the drag handle area beyond the event border is something I will consider in the future.
Ok, I’ll remember you this in a future, thanks for the tip.
I bring this up again. I have the control key, although, it isn’t inmediate use it. And I’m suffering mangling a piano roll view with 8 bar of 1/16 notes with mouse. While mangle I need to have the full view of the clip, so zooming parts isn’t a option. The 90% of the note is to resize it and only a 10% to move it. Please could you extend the limit a bit (if there isn’t too much programming involved)? something like 2/3 points to resize in each side of the event and maybe a point outside it? I’d be really grateful
So “in the future” is about 3 weeks away? 😉
I think I have come up with an alternative solution, while working on the revised drum map editor. I’ve added a new “Square event mode” button, with the following help popup:
“Widen the clickable frame of note events to a square shape. This makes it easier to click and edit short events.”
I’ll have a new beta ready for the weekend. Please reply to that in the other preview topic.
ZynewaveA function where you can quickly zoom out all tracks is on the plan. It may not be possible to make it a smooth percentage zoom, like the current 100-200%.
Is there a need for extra-minimizing individual tracks? I’m thinking about a minimize button on each strip, similar to the minimize button at the top right corner of the track lane headers.
ZynewaveZynewaveThe minimum width of the embedded inspector/browser is limited to avoid graphic layout issues that would occur if the width was smaller. You can get smaller sizes if you open the panels in separate windows from the “Window” menu.
Zynewave@thcilnnahoj wrote:
Nitpicks: The grid color behaves slightly differently in the editors than in the arrangement view. Looks like they don’t use the exact same timeline fill color. I also don’t like the horizontal note divisions too much.
It’s the same code that paints the vertical grid lines in all editors. The grid lines are however painted with translucency (~50% for bar lines) onto the background, so if you see a difference, then it should be because the background in the editors are different.