Envelope Editor View

(Click for larger views)

LFOs are awesome. Custom LFO envelopes are even more awesome, and they allow us to do some truly incredible stuff. Unfortunately, working with the LFO envelope editor can be a pain in the ass sometimes, due to its awkward small size.

My idea: let’s stop trying to cram tons of functionality into a tiny little space, and let’s instead have a full-sized editor view dedicated just to envelopes. This would give us more than enough room to comfortably fit all the editing tools in there, making the whole experience much more enjoyable, efficient, accurate, etc.

Clicking the “Edit Envelope” button on the LFO device causes this view to appear, and the LFO’s custom envelope will automatically be loaded ready for us to edit. If we need to edit another LFO, we simply do the same thing and the view will now show that LFO envelope instead. The view will remember the last envelope that was used, so that we can change views to perform other tasks in our song, and then come back to it and continue editing.

This view could potentially even replace the basic functionality of the current automation editor?

Thoughts?

+1 but keep the current editor aswell. Still good for the initial sketch and then to the max screen for finer editing.

Yeah. They can easily live in harmony together.

  • 1
    very nice idea. i like to have this too.

Basically I like this idea, but I don’t like that there’s a new tab for it only for the LFO device. It’s a bit wasting don’t you think?

Well, as I hinted in my post, I think this could easily act as the automation editor as well, and perhaps for even more things in the future. It would be really cool to have a central envelope editor that had lots of nice, rich features to improve the workflow when using envelopes.

I’m imagining a list down the left side of the screen, probably similar to the automation screen, and the list would contain all of the devices in the current song that had used an envelope. From this central location, you could then have access to edit them all in a convenient way, with powerful selection and editing tools, etc. We could enhance it with more features that people might find using, like grid snapping when drawing points, stuff like that.

I just hate working in that tiny LFO editor, and personally, even the automation editor can feel very restrictive at times. I’d really just love to have this big workspace when I’m trying to make some precise adjustments. Whenever things need to be enhanced or improved in the Renoise GUI, it’s always a question of how much space is it gonna need? Is it gonna be too big? How do we make it work without being too big and ugly, etc. Well, I think it’s silly trying to fight to fit everything into those tiny spaces when they’re clearly not designed for it. Let’s get a nice BIG dedicated work area and make it just as strong as the others like pattern editor, mixer, sample editor, etc.

Another interesting thing to note is that currently the automation editor is hiding the track dsps so we can’t see them both together. If automations were moved to this larger editor instead, we could display track dsps below simultaneously, which would be very useful I think.

the bigger the better!!

also good as automation and instrument envelopes editors.

could even be used as an (horizontally scrollable?) multipattern automation editor:

  • select more than one subsequent track in the pattern matrix
  • rightclick and choose “Edit Automation Envelope”
  • select automation from a dropdown
  • the big editor will show a single curve which spans across the various tracks

A very quick modification:

The menu/list is a total mess that I only spent a few moments on, but hopefully you kinda see where I’m going with it.

  • everything

the list on the left could also contain the sample-based instruments:

  
  
[+] Instrument 00  
[-] Instrument text  
 Volume Envelope  
 Panning Envelope  
 Pitch Envelope  
 Cutoff Envelope  
 Resonance Envelope  
  
  

instead of a “Edit Env.” button, it could maybe be feasible to allow drag&drop of any automation curve into the main area of the application in order to open the editor.

of course, a context menu entry and a “View => Automation Editor” would be welcomed

You read my mind :)

Oh well. that’s more like it! :D
+1

If it’s going to go with a list I would say only currently selected track’s automations & LFOs and currently selected instrument should be listed otherwise the list is going to get huge. Not hard to change instrument or track to change where you want to insert the envelope.

If it is going to be done by this method then a tab, rather than a button, I think makes more sense.

+1

and no rigid to point automation, you can turn on/off snap to grid

+1

+1

We could even go right out to lunch and allow LFO automation of envelope points :P … but that’ll never happen heheh

let’s play some photoshop tennis…
a main envelope/automation editor from your entire track would be cool too.

bad workout (i know - i’m being lazy), but i think you catch the idea… :)

in this case you can see the entire automation of cutoff in track 2.

We’re going to have the whole tracker going horizontally soon ;)

I like the idea as well. However, I would also include other things and expand the whole thing into a “Graphical Editor”.
In addition to envelopes it would also include notes like in a Pianoroll, sample and instrument editing.
In other words, it could be an alternative and extended display of whatever you have put into focus.

Next, this, or any other window, would have to be flexible. So you can move/dock/resize it.

You can then use this to:

  • Preview clips (note,envelope,wave)
  • Preview samples or any other part of an instrument structure
  • a PianoRoll
  • Compare/multiedit of clips
  • Edit any pattern commands graphically

You would simply have view options like:
show/hide:

  • Envelopes/Automation
  • Sample/wave
  • Notes
  • Note events
  • Instrument events
  • Track events
  • Global events

So…if you for instance wanna edit a filter cutoff on track 15 spanning over 3 patterns, and compare it to a streamed long sample on track 03, you would simply select the corresponding clips in the matrix/clip arranger, or select the tracks directly in the mixer/pattern editor and you can instantly see both the filter envelope and the long sample overlaid in the Graphical Editor.
A clever view- and selection-preset system could make repeated multi-selections in the Graphical editor work slick.

It also could have different zoom options, like autozoom. Make it easily act as an instant magnifier glass too.
Then, perhaps make it possible to have several of these Graphical windows opened at once, so you can use different zoom levels at once, or to compare even more events side by side instead of an overlaid fashion.

really dig the mock-ups