Sometimes I have an instrument I would like to cut off earlier than the song resolution allows, so if note and cutoff are back to back:
C-4
[OFF]
it still makes the note too long. I wouldn’t want to change the whole song resolution because then it feels like the whole other song is in a too high resolution and it slows down my work. Is there a way to add a negative delay or something to the note off? Is the only way to add a delay to both of them and move them up a notch? (which only works if the pattern is not too crowded and I’m not playing a legato instrument, and they’re not on the top two lines)
Sometimes I wish there would be a local resolution increase function to use with temporary need of a higher resolution where a retrigger isn’t enough
You can cut a note at tick resolution with the C0x command in the effects column, or the Cx command in volume or panning column. With the x being the number of ticks to cut after, i.e. at 12 Ticks per line (TPL), cutting after half a line would be “C6”
Up the LPB (lines per beat) in your song, and expand all patterns to get more resolution. I think you can automate the LPB, so you could have passages with less resolution, and then passages where the resolution is higher. For example, in one pattern use the “ZL08” command on the master in the first line, to use a speed of LPB 8, and then in another pattern you use “ZL10” on another line to set an LPB value of 16 for that pattern. You can also make little parts of a pattern run faster than other parts, but then thing start getting wonky, and you have to take care how much lines the pattern has.
This won’t work if the note is triggered on the very first line, but will work if you place the note on the line before you want it to trigger and delay the note by adding a delay column with CTRL+Shift+D and entering FF in that column. Then place the note off where you would have placed the note and use the delay timing to select where you want it cut off - you have 256 values to select from. Otherwise no.
perhaps through a workaround like automation (or set up a gate)? For example; automating the volume slider through drawing an envelope? Make sure it isn’t snapping to beats or lines and you are zoomed in.
I’m finding the “simple piano roll” tool (the fl style one) absolutely essential for tweaking note lengths & off grid positioning. Amazing tool, feels native.
Cx works differently from Cxy, so even though it’s not in the Sample Commands section I can see how someone might assume it only applies to samples. I’ll clear this up in the manual.
A negative delay would be nice indeed but that’s not what OP is asking about, he just want the OFF command to come earlier than a line tick and you can use Cx in the volume and panning column on the note row itself to do that.
A negative delay would also help if I could use it with the off command to make it earlier. I got shorter notes using Cx (Cxy didn’t do anything), but where does the note take the volume information if the Cx is taking the space?