This how I would imagine it being:
(In the mock-up I should of made the little -+ buttons in the track display more less octaves (octave 6 is half cut off) but you get the idea.)
Nice, man.
We would need a scroll bar inside of the track, and track width would need to be expandable as well (88 independent columns to deal with).
Also, being able to switch into a magnified track-per-roll view, perhaps with a selectable vertical or horizontal orientation…it would be useful!
Well the way I see it the little ± buttons could display more or less octaves and the < > buttons could move the octaves left and right I think this is a good way to do it, I’ve worked with piano roll before and always found navigating a pain in the ass this way fits in with the tracker way of doing things a bit better.
EDIT: Also the little keyboard icon under ± could switch between tracker and pianoroll.
Honestly, the day Renoise finally HAS a PR, but it is VERTICAL ONLY, I gonna cry.
To be honest Im not even bothered about PR it does have its advantages but its just so awkward after having been used to tracking for so long, If I really needed PR I would chose the software that did it well, Tracktion is pretty good.
But to have both PR and tracker running in parallel would be better for aligning, for example beats with the tracker and bass with PR.
Yeah, I can see your point. I’m not anti vertical PR, I’m pro both!
And I’m doing as you suggest, too. Whenever I want/need PR, I’m making a sad face for half a sec, then switch to Reaper. (Which I had bought for audio streaming along Renoise in the first place.) So yes, I sure can live without a PR in Renoise, but if it had one, I’d love it both directions.
I would like to see a horizontal piano roll, but as a tabbed section. That way, those who don’t want to use the piano roll or don’t feel like using it can stick with the traditional layout, and those who want to use it can switch to that tab. Vertical just seems like it would be a bit awkward, having to scroll through all the octaves of the grid (if that’s how it was laid out).
well, i have one question to the devs…
is it coming or not? otherwise just close this thread.
AFAIK it is definitely coming or not.
It’s a definite maybe
well, i have one question to the devs…
is it coming or not? otherwise just close this thread.
The devs generally avoid confirming anything about upcoming releases, in case something goes wrong that causes them to be unable to deliver.
there’s an interesting video on youtube called
Voyetra Sequencer Plus Gold - Still usable!
i’ve used it and it was incredibly fast to use.
I’m not sure if this has been brought up yet, but I have a few thoughts on why the piano roll is so rarely seen in trackers in general, based on a project that I’m currently working on. This is all speculation of course but I’d be interested to hear your opinions … maybe a developer could elaborate some more on this point?
As I see it, there are two common approaches on how to deal with controlling devices (device as in sampler, generator, VST, etc.) and making them play different notes at different times, or at the same time (polyphony).
In a music program that is based on a “device-model” and uses MIDI messages, polyphony can be implemented by keeping track of the Note-On/Note-Off messages, their note index, and which “sub-instance” of a device currently plays which note. (For each voice in a polyphonic instrument a sub-instance of a device is created, the messages are then forwarded to this sub-instance or applied to all sub-instances.)
In a music program that is based on a “channel-model” and uses arbitrary commands on each channel, polyphony can be implemented by tracking the device and channel index - each sub-instance of a device is addressed by providing the channel index. This is why you don’t need an explicit note off command in order to play another note or why the OFF command doesn’t need to know the device that it is targeted at.
Why is a piano roll so hard to implement when you have the code-base of a tracker?
Simply because polyphony with a channel-model does not allow for a piano roll without taking special actions. You would not know to which sub-instance of a device to forward the Note-On/Note-Off message (or any other command/effect for that matter) without specifying the channel.
To put it differently, you would need a piano roll for each channel or be able to associate the notes in the piano roll to specific channels. Or you would need to compromise on the pattern editor capabilities to make it work both ways.
So the issue is not how to fit a piano roll into the tracker graphics wise, this wouldn’t be difficult at all. It’s a design limitation that would either require you to create a piano roll that is way too impractical to use (even if it looked exactly like the one from FL Studio or Ableton), or it would require quite some rewriting of the tracker-engine, if you are coming from a classic tracker code-base.
EDIT:
The only tracker that I know that seems to use a mixed approach is Jeskola Buzz, which has a device-model approach (the pattern editor columns are bound to devices, no device index anymore) with dedicated channels/tracks for each device. In this case a piano roll is possible.
Just my opinion. I would really love to see a pianoroll in Renoise. When working on complex melodies with lots of parallel notes (for example when i’m recording jazz pianists), a piano rol is just the thing i need… It is realy the only thing i am missing inside Renoise, and it needs to be horizontal. Non the less… the lack on Pianoroll, Renoise is the ultimate sequencer for me.
^ just use rewire to a master daw with audio tracks piano roll, midi routing and everything, you will never regret it.
Vertical pianoroll is brilliant and matches the orientation of the actual keys. I think all piano rolls should have been vertical from the start.
Probably not going to happen but that’s fine, I just use extra columns that are dedicated to a single note.
Why don’t we just invent a vertical piano roll?
Notes cascading down along the pattern editor on a per-instrument base would be fun.
That’d be like a vertical bar indicating note length or… some coloured filled bar indicating where the notes-off would be.
(Well, I’d just drop it all in favor of Renoise’s impecable standard editor, anyway. So forget me.)
Bump ;)Renoise crew Dying for this functionality native in Renoise.
Dreams are wonderful things. But, if you download a tracker and want a piano roll… no offense… you are just ever a small bit touched.
Yes Imho piano roll was the worst invention ever in a daw. It’s an ancient, taking gigantic amount of space and is a very confusing and inprecise way of displaying notes. It’s just not replaced in most daws because those devs have no real conceptual ideas for ages, or if they have ideas, they will only add innovation at the first revision of their product, because then they will flood their products with useless stuff from the competition until the project turns into inflexible monster of granite. Maybe a tracker view is also not the most innovative thing in the current state, but at least I can easily edit multiple voices side by side very quickly. Moving notes or changing length by mouse would be of course cool and this is the only plus in a piano roll.