Feature Request

[Matt Hartman]

Nothing that you should attack right now, but how about a simple piano roll?

Within the GUI you can select which channel is affected by input. On playback and in-reverse, you will see what notes are being played via hilighted keys on the GUI piano roll.

Let me know if this is possible, I'll design the GUI that you can chop up and designate functions for ASAP.

I have a better understanding in mind's eye about music looking at a piano roll rather than a computer keyboard, which doesn't exactly translate in a very logical way.

Something to tinker with...

[BooT-SectoR-ViruZ]

go use fruity  

[Sam_Zen]

rather than a computer keyboard, which doesn't exactly translate in a very logical way

Neither do the positions of the valves on a saxophone. It is just a matter of learning to get used to it.

As I understand it, the concept piano roll consists of a horizontal representation of a score, the classical paper-thing. Imo the vertical representation of a tracker-pattern is much more fitted to the monitor-environment.
In that way one can read on one line/row which events are taking place at the same moment.

[Matt Hartman]

As I understand it, the concept piano roll consists of a horizontal representation of a score, the classical paper-thing. Imo the vertical representation of a tracker-pattern is much more fitted to the monitor-environment. In that way one can read on one line/row which events are taking place at the same moment.

I understand and I agree. Yet at the same time I schooled myself on learning music through the voice of piano. Over the years, I've also picked up other instruments, recently flute, which is in strark contrast to the technics of a piano. Of course, the knowledge of music never changes.

I guess what I'm saying is I obviously feel more free with my music, visualizing it via a traditional piano layout.

It's not even a matter of me not being able to translate my musical knowledge and experience into the computer or vise versa. Like a piano, a tracker is still yet another vise to tap into your own musical river.

Yet, I have noticed my more complex music is flowing from input based off a standard piano format. Point and case, in this format you can visualize all of the musical compontents that makeup various parts in a song, for instance, bass, chord and melody in a very effective and concise way. It's literally all laid out clearly.

Whereas a flute for example, you have to blow a different way to reach various octaves to produce higher or lower notes. If you were to just look at a basic wooden flute, one might only see 6 holes, which could hinder some folks I suspect.

Don't mistake my request for an exchange of the devises on traditional notation, which is horiztonally left to right. I never could make much practical use of that format.

I really do like the vertical way that a tracker inserts it's data.  Certain keys represent certain notes, you have visual spaces to represent quarter, half, whole notes, etc. and you only have to draft that in one column, instead of multiple clefs. This is the way it should have been from the start. Whoever invented the tracker layout of inserting data should seriously get a tremendous award, it truly changes and simplifies things in the world of composing music.

Overall, it's not really a huge request, something that could be added down the line. In the meantime, I'll manage just fine.

[Sam_Zen]

2Matt Hartman
Nice attitude. And an intriguing question you oppose here : Who invented this format in the first place ?
As far as I know, it started on the Amiga. My first work with this format happened on DOS-XT-machines using FastTracker by the swedish Triton.
I like to add the notion here, that a lot af requested features depends on the way one 'steps in' into the tracker-world.
For example, I started with electronic soundworks using modular voltage-controlled synths (analog), so a classical notation on a piano-roll was scarcely relevant in the first place. Later the pc with the tracker was introduced.
I embraced this format very quickly above MIDI, because of the unrestricted nature of the instruments involved.
Using samples instead of a soundbank, or external, expensive, keyboards or sound-modules.
So my entrance into this is from the 'electronic' reality, not from the 'musical' reality.

[LPChip]

Let me enlighten that its not a simple addition. Picture yourself the following: Where should the piano roll be inserted, and how will it work? You can't obviously have more than one channel on your screen, and it probably has a scroll bar. Okay, for notes this is an idea. How do we add effects to it?

If you ask me, it requires way more modification than it will add value to the program too. In fact, I think it will degrade the program. Newer people will obviously start working with the piano roll, but will fail to use the normal notation which leads to fast and good music production. A tracker is a powerfull program because you can put much information on one screen without loosing overview.

[residentgrey]

It could just be an optional window that pops up on command just for one channel, I was in fact thinking this exact thing, since i was also messing with midi before this,

[rewbs]

For a while now I have been meaning to generalise the visual parameter editor to cater for the volume and note column. This would provide the most basic (& odd) piano roll. I personally have no plans or motivations to do anything more than that piano-roll wise.