Hi all! I finally managed to complete the feature design for the zoomable pattern editor.
And I’ve created this thread for discussion and feedback, since the design forum won’t allow that for non-group members.
I’ve made several interactive demos with Flash, demonstrating how it could work… making those was the hard part, but I felt it would be better to have a “hands-on” approach if we were to discuss what is good/bad about the idea.
So…go check it out, and come back here and share your thoughts!
I do have a few questions to ask… now that I think about it…
What’s wrong with showing the overlapping note/effect view on zoom out like aodix has?
You’re showing blocks on the zoom… is this indicative of note positions, or arranger blocks?
Presuming the aodoxish overlap isn’t being used, what will happen to notes you’ve added when zoomed in when you zoom back out… will it be visible at all that they exist? How will Renoise handle retrigs now? Note delays? Will they be shown as separate notes?
Will there be yet another level of subtick zoom?.. or is this it?
How does one go about getting in on the design forum?
Initially, the idea Aodix has to offer is really smart, but once you reach a certain level of zoom, the pattern becomes unreadable. By dividing the zoom levels into a number of discrete steps, you can make the best of each one.
Well, clips behave just like normal notes, except that they have a tinted background color (they too can be entered using the good old QWERTY). As for the example, it’s supposed to be a mixed sort of pattern, containing both clip “blocks” and normal notes, but it’s not 100% consistent: notice the tiny pixels in the fourth track at 25% zoom? They are supposed to illustrate that “normal” notes/commands are present, but the actual location doesn’t match the notes at 100% zoom. Still, the general idea is to use the cursor as a “magnifying glass”, so these notes would still be accessible.
The way I imagined it, nothing will need to change. Note delay are automatically managed at the subtick level, you can enter a note at any line and subsequently, a delay command is added when zooming out (of course, with some smart built-in logic that deals with current restrictions - now there’s something to discuss!).
You mean, word on the street about an increased timing resolution in Renoise? Yeah, I’ve heard about it as well
You don’t want to…it’s such a dull place, nobody’s around!
Yeah Danoise, big props for the hard visualizing work (like the small touches, like the different automation curves in the last pic as well)! Looks really good. Now I need to read the stuff and think about it before an in-depth comment :-).
Post 1: +100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
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Is this a sign that initial hyper-inflation has come under control?
This is one really inspiring design. I even like the piano-roll concept because you really thought about how to archieve things here. I agree, in that case “pattern zoom” makes sense AND I guess, the whole concept of trackers resides untouched which is great for “casual tracker users”
Really well done interactive flash objects. Good design ideas, too.
I consider the “clips” concept to be the most important feature to develop further. It would enhance the workflow dramatically and in so many ways. Just imagine pressing down a C-4 note on your MIDI keyboard and instantly trigger an extended instrument that plays a whole sequence/clip assigned to the C-4 note! Revolutionary.
Going off on a tangent maybe… but if root, 3rd, 5th etc could be recognised and somehow fed into a clip and applied to the same inside each instance - that would rule…
Yes, that would be optimal. A song cluttered with many clips might also eat a lot of CPU-power for the processing in real time, so there should be a way to quickly convert the “clips trigger notes” into their “regular pattern data notes”, making them static (and editable) in the pattern grid and more CPU friendly for the song playback.
