Modplug as a DAW?

[Destroid]

OpenMPT is one of my favourite things ever to make music in. If I could, I'd use it to make full on tracks with guitar and synth recordings in it. The problem with this of course ios taht like all trackers, it doesn't support audio.

I was thinking of getting back into Programming(my Comp Sci degree has to mean something), getting some guys together and making some tweaks to OpenMPT so it can be used as a DAW.

Basically, what needs to be done is to have streaming audio that can start form any position. I always have time matching up the timing of a guitar track to the tracker, mostly because I can't set it "before" the start of the current pattern, I have to go to the last. Of course then I have to play from the last pattern, which is annoying. If I could have a streaming audio channel, going through the entire module, it would be a lot easier. I don't think there's any reason why this can't be done, it just needs to be displayed vertically somehow, and the "offset" matched up to the timing of the song.

The other thing I'd do that really annoys me about OpenMPT is change the default volume of notes to 45 at the highest. It's very annoying to do dynamics when every note is by default at maximum volume/velocity.

I'd like to get some feedback with this and how I'd go about doing it.

[psishock]

That is a trouble with every tracker, not only with ompt. You just cant read any point of your desired wav that way, because how the system works. You can do some workarounds about it however, the offset effect is your friend, you can put a note in every row, and offset them to have seamless play. This way you could start your song anywhere you want and the sample will pick up from that point. Only that it's limited to the effects maximum value, so you still can't use huge length samples.

About the note volume default level, well i don't see what is the trouble here, you can set the default volume for every sound in the instrument panel very easily, also you can set channel volume for every channel.

[Destroid]

That sounds like a good workaround - but wouldn't it be easier if this was hard-coded into OpenMPT as an automatic function somehow? That was the maximum offset value would be irrelevant.

[Saga Musix]

problem is that modules don't have to be in chronological order, i.e. if you start playback at sequence number 5, row 32, you don't know anything about the history of playback - as you can jump around in your mods a lot.

[g]

One could always assume the history based on the current position of the orderlist.

[Saga Musix]

which can screw up songs a lot.

[g]

Of course there would have to be restrictions to the samples, which wouldn't matter that much. For recorded vocals it could be great, for looped instruments with a lot of effects in the previous patterns it cold be disastrous.

Another related feature could be the ability to split samples based on a set pattern length. This combined with a "render pattern/song to sample" could be awesome for a cheap way to freeze parts.

[Louigi Verona]

Why not use DAW instead of making MPT into DAW?

[psishock]

Another related feature could be the ability to split samples based on a set pattern length. This combined with a "render pattern/song to sample" could be awesome for a cheap way to freeze parts.

You have this feature on Renoise for some time, but it's not near as effective as you think, right because of the first problem that Destroid stated. I'm usually end up using the unrendered form on every channel, it's a lot more comfortable and effective. The whole tracker system is not designed to work with looong rendered samples, or recorded sessions from live instruments for instance (you can eventually import and work with them anyway, but you'll be handicapped and mostly feel crippled), there are number of DAWs that are exactly designed for this kind of tasks.

[Saga Musix]

AFAIK Schismtracker has a very interesting feature here: portions of a pattern can be written down just as a single note and trigger a megasample, but you still have access to the notes that are behind this rendered megasample.

[g]

Why not use DAW instead of making MPT into DAW?

1) I think you'd get exactly the same reply, but the other way round, if you asked a developer of a DAW to add a tracker interface. An example would be the FL Studio developers with the argument that FL Studio already has a step sequencer.

2) There are no DAWs with a tracker interface.

3) Don't fear change Louigi. Even if OpenMPT2 would be a Cubase Clone (which it won't, because let's face it there will never be an MPT2. Would make more sense to start something new from scratch and call it something else.) nobody will force anyone to upgrade to the latest version. Ever.

4) I don't see the point of not requesting features just because they might not be aligned with everyone's opinion about what a tracker is. Sometimes thinking outside of the box can lead to good things.

[g]

AFAIK Schismtracker has a very interesting feature here: portions of a pattern can be written down just as a single note and trigger a megasample, but you still have access to the notes that are behind this rendered megasample.

I think that sounds overly complicated... Some sort of playlist (like Buzz) would make more sense.

IIRC NiceTracker could stream long samples from disk, and a tracker called Soundtracker (don't remember version number, but it wasn't the Obarski version) could do the pattern -> sample thing (very useful when you only had four channels)

[g]

I'm usually end up using the unrendered form on every channel, it's a lot more comfortable and effective.

Well of course, freezing is meant to free up the CPU when it can't handle the load... So if you don't have snaps, crackles and pops there's no reason why you should use it. I haven't tried that feature in Renoise tho, so I can't really comment on it...

The whole tracker system is not designed to work with looong rendered samples, or recorded sessions from live instruments for instance (you can eventually import and work with them anyway, but you'll be handicapped and mostly feel crippled), there are number of DAWs that are exactly designed for this kind of tasks.

I'm sure there are several ways to implement long samples in a tracker without it being crippled.

[maleek]

This outside of the box thinking is exiting. I wouldn't mind the opportunity to combine the excellent tracker interface with a more DAW like approach every now and then.

[Louigi Verona]

Adding an audio track should be possible. In a DAW you also have "tracker" like piano rolls with midi data which also don't have "history" and you can have audio tracks. I do not see any problems in implementing this. And it is a good idea.