New Channel Manager idea

[Harbinger]

Ultimate Channel Manager

Not so much a request as a floating dream...

Below is my idea of the ultimate Channel Manager. It's meant to replace and make more efficient (and less confusing) the current Channel Manager, and one day, the Channel mixer section on the General Page. Yes, it will take some work, and believe me if i had Visual Studio Standard, i would try to produce this myself. Here is a mockup, and below the image is a description of the functionality.

(well now i can't get the image to show inline! for now look here -- second image)

Here are the columns (most of these functions are already found in the General page, and serve as redundant features until or if the Channel Mixer is ever removed in favor of this dialog):
1. Channel ID
2. Channel Name: The same label as would appear in the Channel Header.
3. Channel Record-Select: You can apply Record-Select either to the main instrument (1) or the alternate (split) instrument (2).
4. Mute: Toggle the Mute status of the channel.
5. Surround: Toggle the channel's Surround Stereo.
6. Volume: Set the initial channel volume.
7. Pan: Set the initial channel pan position.
8. FX: Toggle the application of the channel plugin.
9. Plugin: The plugin that will be assigned to this channel. This popup menu is not disabled if the FX box is not checked, to allow for experimenting with the channel audio.

The next 3 columns are on my wish list of the Instrument Lock request i made in this post. These would take a little longer to implement since new methods would have to be created. But here it is:
10.Instrument Lock: Toggles the channel instrument lock, which, when entering notes will only apply the assigned instrument no matter what is selected in the Pattern page's Instrument List.
11.Instrument: The instrument that will be assigned to this channel. (It should not replace the data already present in the Channel; it only affects future note entry.)
12.Tuning: The tuning to apply to the instrument. This is a redundant feature of the same function in the Instruments page, and would be very helpful to those of us who compose with scales.

The Reconfigure button uses the same functions and layout as the Reorder/Remove tab of the present Channel Manager. I like how that's implemented and it's so easy to work with.

Each page can hold 8 channels, and the "folder tabs" increase as channels are added, just like the Channel Mixer in the General page. The tabbing order (when you press tab for input focus of the controls) is across, but if you press Return with any control, it moves to the next control DOWN. (This will it easier to batch-name or batch-set.)

There are also multiple mouseclick variations when clicking on a button control:
Ctrl-click: sets the button for all channels on the page
Shift-Ctrl-click: sets it for ALL channels
Alt-click: sets it for this channel and unsets it for all others on the page
Shift-Alt-click: the same but unsets for ALL channels
Ctrl-Alt-click: sets the control for all on the page EXCEPT this channel
Shift-Ctrl-Alt-click: sets ALL channels except this one

The Volume and Pan controls could be sliders, but i figure it would take too much space, maybe unnecessarily. The increment/decrement button for these use the same Ctrl-click and Shift-Ctrl-click methods as above, but additionally, if you SHIFT-click an arrow button it will increment/decrement RELATIVE to each channel's given value. IOW, Ctrl-clicking will increment/decrement that channel's Volume/pan and set all to the same value as this channel, while Shift-clicking will add/subtract 1 towards whatever value each channel has.

I simply put this out into the aether in case someone wants to pick it up. I think this would make song setup a lot quicker, and if no one ever gets to it, who knows maybe one day i will get my hands on VS 2008. ...[begins prayers and supplications]...

Edit: Issue tracker: http://bugs.openmpt.org/view.php?id=46

[Rakib]

I'm not sure if should make a new request to continue on your request, but I would also like to have a hide/unhide channels, that could be managed  in the channel manager.
Or even better to group channels. So if you don't want to see the channels that belongs to the group; drums, it could be hidden.

[Harbinger]

Good ideas, but would require new methods and may interfere with the class structure as it is now....

Besides, i'm not making a "request," simply sharing a "floating dream."   Anything you attach to my floating dream also begins to float, as if it was never requested...

[Saga Musix]

I'm not sure if should make a new request to continue on your request, but I would also like to have a hide/unhide channels, that could be managed  in the channel manager.
Or even better to group channels. So if you don't want to see the channels that belongs to the group; drums, it could be hidden.

That would be "no biggie" if previously requested feature like sticky channels were already implemented, but at the moment it really is complicated.

[Skaven]

Sounds good.

But - just me personally - I almost never use the Channel Mixer or Channel Manager. Because one channel's polyphony is always basically 1 (save for NNA overlap), and throughout the song you may need to reserve either 3 or 4 channels for chords, one or two for the lead, etc... and if you don't name them all, you may type your notes in the wrong channels.  And then some other sub-tune may require a different number of channels.

So I just try to do all the balancing and mixing (pan, volume and FX) with Instruments instead. This way they always sound and behave the same way regardless of which channel they're played in.