Visual tracking

[Exhale]

I'v had an idea bouncing around my head for a few months.  Just keep an open mind because I know I haven't worked out all the kinks yet.

I am a graphic designer and therefore my whole world is visual except for tracking which is all about putting the right code in the right place and then listening to the result because I can't truely get an idea of what it's going to sound like just looking at the code.  But the truth is that certain concepts are better understood when communicated clearly though a visual referance.

I was thinking - and yes I understand that this could take a lifetime of coding - that maybe modplug could do with selectable simple visual representations of:

Effects:  I think this is where a visual graph showing (Zxx or /xx) points which are draggable (left to right{left=low right=high})

Samples: it would be nice to be able to see the samples we are working with in the song to better syncronise things

I think that an option like this should only be selectable and shouldnt replace the entire modplug system, but it would be nice if it was easily selectable for when you're in a rush and that damn drum loop sounds like it's a split second fast or in the same situation but with lots of effect changes happening all at once to find that one dud that is messing up the rest of the song.

anyways...

[Rakib]

ALT+B in the patternview gives you a visual look on the Zxx command or whatever command you were thinking about. But I agree it's not a very nice look but if you can help on ideas on how to make it better it would be apreciated.

[Exhale]

ALT+B in the patternview gives you a visual look on the Zxx command or whatever command you were thinking about. But I agree it's not a very nice look but if you can help on ideas on how to make it better it would be apreciated.

Ta for the hint - I really had no idea that there was already that option I'll have to check it out asap (my computer {this one isn't mine} is at work because I just started there and they didn't have a computer for me) and see whats already in place to give you guys a better idea of what we can do.

[Exhale]

Ok, yeah, I knew that was there, and it's the most usefull thing to be added to modplug for ages, I have been using it for ages.

but I was thinking of something that could accompany the track if you want it to...

I'll make you guys an example as soon as I get the chance.

[Exhale]

Ok, yeah, I knew that was there, and it's the most usefull thing to be added to modplug for ages, I have been using it for ages.

but I was thinking of something that could accompany the track if you want it to...

I'll make you guys an example as soon as I get the chance.

Well here are the examples I promised




The concept includes the volume effects as a separate choice

--- sorry photobucket made the pix smaller, I'll see if I can find another place to host.
Sorted that out, so now you guys can see whats going on. I was thinking we could have the name of each effect display on the topmost instance in the window and disappear on mouse over.

You would press a button to switch it on and then everywhere there is an effect it will get this facelift

A seperate button for the sample view (which will overlay the wav image with loop) and another one for the volume view (which will look the same as these)

[Exhale]

Ok, no replies, so this sounds like its difficult to do then...
a dream maybe, therefore I have decided to learn programing so that I can do it on my own if I have to. So tell me what language to learn, I'll grab the code and get it done sometime in my lifetime

btw, I'm a graphic designer exclusively, the only code I've ever worked with are html and tracking, so there's no question it's going to take years if I do this by myself. The poll is kinda saying that everyone wants this feature so...

I'll do a bit of research for the mean while, learn as much as I can about how modplug works internally, download the source and start messing around. Any and all suggestions/help will be welcome.

--

I see its C++ I need to learn... i'll just get started then lol
~haha, doubt I'll learn everything I need to know in 21 days, but I'll give it a try

[Saga Musix]

While this feature sure sounds exciting, it's not exactly trivial to implement.
And to be honest, to be able to understand and work with the OpenMPT code, I believe you need at least a few years of programming experience (not necessarily C++ experience, I didn't have that at all when I started working on OpenMPT)...

[Exhale]

While this feature sure sounds exciting, it's not exactly trivial to implement.
And to be honest, to be able to understand and work with the OpenMPT code, I believe you need at least a few years of programming experience (not necessarily C++ experience, I didn't have that at all when I started working on OpenMPT)...

Don't doubt that this feature would be a nightmare to program into modplug which is why I'm considering taking it on as my own nightmare. I've contemplated learning how to program for a long time, but I only decided yesterday that I'm going to do it now. I've got the goal of getting modplug looking spectacular because thats what I do best, and I'm going to work towards it because I believe that just because modplug is free, it doesnt have to look free~!
I will also work towards a skinning option in my programing.
I also want to make sure that, whatever the skins are that we make for modplug, it stays as free to changes from the programmers as possible.
Free, should be the new fashionable!

I love modplug, and I bet with these changes I could get EVERYONE to use it

[Saga Musix]

Well I personally hate skinned programs, and that is also one reasony why I like OpenMPT so much. It looks simple, yet it is effective. However, I think Qt offers skinning possibilies, so I would not even think a second about trying to make the current MFC code skinnable.

[Exhale]

Ok, for some reason I cannot make more posts, but since this new request would also fall under my old heading of "visual tracking" I decided to propose it here...
I don't know if any of you still use Impulse Tracker, I used to track exclusively on it, and the original reasons I refused to move to modplug were these ; it didnt sound as good ; I knew the keyboard shortcuts of IT like the back of my hand and it had taken me long enough to learn those ; and IT had visualizations... my personal favorite was the visualization that turned each note hit of each instrument in each pattern into a circle in a scale relative to amplification from left to right (a few octaves). It created an extremely visual and illuminating way to view your songs and make tweaks...
I would love to have this and other creative methods of visualizing the songs in detail.
I'll see if I can find a screenshot online if there are people who do not remember this feature of IT:
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/8LiTxEUxSHU/maxresdefault.jpg
There it is at the bottom of the screen

[Exhale]

The concept I am toying with, is this, you have a single button which changes your browsing tree on the left into a vert version of impulse trackers' dot rendering visualization, when it is open a left click will instantly change it back to your browsing tree and a right click with change the visualization to whatever you guys feel like programming in
maybe I could learn programming on something simple like a visualization within modplug instead of my prev proposal years ago
how hard do you think it would be to make something like this? I see my old examples of the other visualization system have long gone by now, so I will make some new of those and some of this other idea to give you examples sometime soon.

[LPChip]

There are VST effects that can visualize sound. In essence it could allow you to do exactly this. Yes, they are meant to view sound and be able to see where frequencies overlap so you can improve your mix better, but they can also be used for your viewing pleasure.

I bought such plugin on a discount quite a while ago but I'm sure there are more than this plugin, possibly even free.

I use https://www.meldaproduction.com/MMultiAnalyzer


Oh what do you know, they have a sale ongoing right now. 50% off the price.

Their installers have a problem with network shares, so if you use network shares, copy the installer locally first.

[Saga Musix]

Ok, for some reason I cannot make more posts

Read the forum description - the feature request and bug report forums are for archival purposes only; new requests and bug reports should be made on the issue tracker instead. Please do not put multiple requests in one topic/issue, as this makes it very difficult to track them.

[Exhale]

LPchip ~ thank you, I have quite a few very nice vst visualisations and I only have free ones, dont have one that shows exact notes per instrument and that one of yours is very nice... hmm... something I might like to get sometime. Damn that one is really good.
Sega ~ ok cool. I'll put a request in there then. thank you... I might have been there once in the past but dont remember it at all...
Btw, merry xmas guys.  : update : nope never been there before...

[Saga Musix]

Uhm... That's because there are no other bug reports or feature requests on the issue tracker that have anything to do with visualizations? The issue tracker is not connected to forum posts, you won't find this topic in the issue tracker. It's a separate database and hence all old forum reports should eventually end up there.