Before last post
These examples are exactly what I was trying to demonstrate a little bit back in this thread [link] (whoa 2 years ago… time flies!), but the images were not that worked through although the idea got through I think.
Maybe the 3x Zoom isn’t that intuitive for accurate editing but may give some satisfactory overview temporarily… Depending on the project.
Anyway, I agree that pattern boundaries aren’t necessary but more about this later in this post.
Last post
Interesting, but maybe I’m missing the point. Because, aside from a total overview, I would probably have a hard time to input notes with that kind of zoom out. But yes, just for the sake of zooming I’d agree. However, maybe a better Pattern Matrix would solve some kind of issues here…
Wouldn’t some kind of continuous timeline, not based on patterns, in the Pattern Matrix be a more natural solution? That’s how most DAWs works; Clips on a timeline. The “Blocks” in the Pattern Matrix is basically the same thing, just a bit butterfingered in current form. Also, you may want to switch to horizontal mode to get a better overview of the timeline though.
So, the Blocks / Clips could instead determine the lengths of the tracked stuff. Meaning, Renoise could be Pattern Matrix-based rather than Pattern Editor-based. I was recently talking about this in another topic, actually [link].
With this approach you could focus & select the areas where there actually are note information in your song. Moreover, no need to input the kick-notes more than once and/or copy & paste blocks - just loop a small block. Additional blocks are needed only when you want to do modifications like drum-fills etc.
Another example, if I just want to edit the bass to match the kick I just select the corresponding blocks. Which could be a relief if there are other tracks in between, because I don’t need to see them (not to mention, all the areas in the tracks where there are no actual notes!). Also, in this hypothetical case, all the drum tracks are grouped, which makes sense on its own to not move tracks around.
Anyway, tried to compile the ideas in a picture down below. I may have gotten off the track a bit regarding the zoom-in discussion though, so I save that for another post. But well, just imagine zoom in & out for both the PM and the PE. Oh, and this is in hexadecimal btw.