A handy little feature, that would allow you to insert markers into the pattern sequence, to visually indicate different parts of the song. Or in my case, different songs in the multi-part song file.
Here's a suggestion mock-up of how it could look like:
(http://www.futurecrew.com/skaven/share/OpenMPT/SequenceMarkers.png)
By right-clicking the Sequence editor, you would get an "Insert Marker" command. The marker name would be editable. The markers would be placed "between" patterns. This seems more logical to me, as it visually marks the beginning of a pattern.
By right-clicking the marker tag, you could select "Delete", "Rename", "Delete All Markers" and "Anchor to Sequence (red) / Anchor to Patterns (blue)". The difference between the aforementioned two would be, that a marker anchored to the Sequence would retain its absolute position in the sequenxe, whereas a marker anchored to the patterns would shift and move as patterns are inserted or deleted.
Markers could be moved by dragging.
Floating the mouse cursor above a marker tag would show its Position in the sequence (both in decimal and hex). This would be helpful when entering Bxx commands.
+1 for this feature! :)
I already know you can give patterns a name, but I practically don't use that ability, because you must click a pattern in order to see it, but making labels that are always visible would be very handy.
And maybe if its being implemented, it can be like regions, not just markers. But say: region starts at order 3, ends at order 7, named: blah, etc...
This is an absolutely fantastic idea - I would love to see this implemented. Although LP's idea of defining "ranges" is nice, I think that for the moment, the simple ability to have permanently-visible labels is more than good enough. :)
sounds like a good idea :)
nice to meet you Skaven, btw :)
Yep, a nice entrance, Skaven. Welcome.
Support ++
A well-argumented proposition. The two kinds of Anchors is a clever observation.
2 LPChip
I think there's a different function involved if you talk about naming 'ranges'.
These markers could be compared with the 'cues' in a wav-editor. A range is the region between two markers.
Especially the combination of the Anchor thing with the (in another request) mentioned copying or moving of a selection of patterns in the list, this range naming easily could end up in a mess.
Cheers, Jojo & Sam_Zen. :)
One thing that some people might also like, would be that when the user exports the song to a .wav, these markers would also be included in the .wav as markers. The .wav format also supports markers in its metadata.
that's a really nice idea. wavelab can read those markes for examples, i can imagine that this would be useful for further processing. it would be extra cool to have this kind of markers as a pattern effect which would also be written into the final wav file so they could be used for syncing in demos! :D but i suppose this is faaaar away...
Holy crap!!! Skaven, are you real, man? Your "Legacy of Rust" is one of the reasons I'm still kickin'! :D
I know, I'm totally OT here. Had to shout :)
:lol:
Well, cheers. :) Yes I'm real (at least trying to be). Glad ya enjoyed LoR!
+1 nice idea!
Always taking comments by Nahkranoth seriously, OT or not, so I checked the work.
Checked some other tracks too. Very nice work. The tonal content maybe a bit conservative, but very powerful productions.
Thank you for your comments, comrade. *bows*
Now... *ahem* ... could people get equally excited about the new .ITP functionality I proposed in that other thread? :)
Lol Skaven, the excitement it's mainly meant for you ;), not entirely to the thread itself :D If you would do an introduction thread, i could imagine that that it would have about the same effect.
There are more than a few people whom "You are one of the reasons they are still kickin'", your deep influence will haunt them in their musical world till the very end of their days... and even more, muhahaha. (insert evil laugh soundfont here)
I am more than sure that both feature request (as any of course) where checked by the VIP and they will implement them to the tracker as soon their time gives it.
Speak for yourself, will ya? :P I don't care for skaven, this feature is FTW! :P
j/k Skaven, I do also care for you :)
Quote from: "LPChip"Speak for yourself, will ya? :P I don't care for skaven, this feature is FTW! :P
Moreso, FTWWTF!!!
And to clarify my undoubtedly stupid shout to Skaven:
It was impossible to me to make more or less realistic guitar tracks at the time. And something was stopping me from using Slayer VSTi until I heard Skaven's "LoR", which was a demo for this VSTi.
Glad this post made you laugh, psishock :D
Um... I hate to usher, but how high is this on your to do -list?
Sometimes I need to export a looping wave, and this requires me to disk-write the tails of all the instruments (fadeouts, delays, reverbs), then cut and mix them to the start of the sample. If a Marker was inserted to the .wav file at the end of the song (marked in the Sequence by me, of course), it would make this process quite easy.
Could also give an "Insert Marker between each pattern" checkbox option in the Wav Export menu? On wav export, it would then automatically put a marker between each pattern, and in an ideal case it could also add the pattern number and name in the Marker name (.wav metadata supports named markers and regions).
Quote from: "LPChip"I already know you can give patterns a name, but I practically don't use that ability, because you must click a pattern in order to see it,
I find it very useful and use it a lot. The pattern names are also visible in the Tree View's Sequence folder, making them very easy to browse.
At least it wasn't on my todo list yet, and I guess neither on Relabs'.
For situations like the one you described, I "usually" (well, that really doesn't happen too often) just calculate the length of one pattern in samples, stick the last pattern in front of all other patterns and remove it from the WAV again. But I guess that's a bit beside the point...
Automatically inserting markers in exported WAV files sounds quite interesting, though! I might look into that.
Quote from: "Skaven"I find it very useful and use it a lot. The pattern names are also visible in the Tree View's Sequence folder, making them very easy to browse.
Heh, I think there are not too many people who value the treeview that much and have helped improving it. :)
Quote from: "Jojo"just calculate the length of one pattern in samples, stick the last pattern in front of all other patterns and remove it from the WAV again.
Oh, um, I'm not mathematically inclined... how do you do that? Especially if the pattern uses "groove quantization" (changing speed or tempo every second row), or does some other tricks with the tempo in the middle of a pattern.
QuoteAutomatically inserting markers in exported WAV files sounds quite interesting, though! I might look into that.
It may take a bit of research to find out how to write markers into .wav metadata, but they're very useful. Many sample editors (like Sound Forge and Wavosaur) also allow you to insert markers to .wavs.
QuoteHeh, I think there are not too many people who value the treeview that much and have helped improving it. :)
Well, I just hope the improvements you've made have been useful to someone else than me, too. :oops:
Quote from: "Skaven"Oh, um, I'm not mathematically inclined... how do you do that? Especially if the pattern uses "groove quantization" (changing speed or tempo every second row), or does some other tricks with the tempo in the middle of a pattern.
Hehe. I've chosen a fairly trivial way for that. :lol: I usually first render a sequence of x patterns and divide the number of samples that are in the output by x to get the length of a pattern. That works well enough for the rare cases where I really need it. :)
QuoteIt may take a bit of research to find out how to write markers into .wav metadata, but they're very useful. Many sample editors (like Sound Forge and Wavosaur) also allow you to insert markers to .wavs.
OpenMPT can already store convential loop markers when saving samples from the sample tab, so I guess it shouldn't be much more work to sneak "normal" markers into the WAV export code. :D
QuoteWell, I just hope the improvements you've made have been useful to someone else than me, too. :oops:
Well, at least I tend to use some of them every now and then. :)
Ok, here's something to try out... :)
http://sagagames.de/stuff/mptrack.exe
Let me know how this works for you. This should add sample-exact markers at each pattern transition when rendering to WAV. The feature cannot be disabled yet, that will be added later if anyone thinks it's necessary. I suppose that I could also add names for the markers if it's necessary (something like "Order 1, Pattern 13: SomePatternName"). If we ever get the original request (sequence markers) into OpenMPT (which might take a "bit" longer, since it's a bit tricker to implement :) ), those marker names could also be added of course.
Edit: I have just tried the new position markers on a pattern animation by Jakim, it looks quite crazy... :lol:
(http://sagagames.de/ithumb/thumbs/markers1322jx10.jpg) (http://sagagames.de/ithumb/show/markers1322jx10.png)
Sorry for the delay... got caught up in stuff. But I just tested it, and this is already really helpful with exporting stuff. Expecially if you want to make a "tail wrap loop" to the pattern. Awesome. Thanks! ^_^
If people don't want the markers there, most sample editors allow you to delete them all with a single command. But I think most people will actually find this useful.
(didn't someone even request a command to add markers within a single pattern, with special commands?)