I’m using Renoise + Launchpad for my live setup right now, and had an idea to modify duplex so that it only shows “Group Tracks” and ignores individual tracks within the groups. This way i can create “drums”, “pads”, “percussion”, etc groups and have a manageable number of tracks to deal with on the launchpad instead of trying to navigate page after page of tracks.
My question is, does this seem like something that could be done by modifying Duplex? And if so, I’m hoping for a pointer in the right direction (where in the script should I be looking)?
My question is, does this seem like something that could be done by modifying Duplex? And if so, I’m hoping for a pointer in the right direction (where in the script should I be looking)?
Could be done, absolutely. This is something I’d like to see happen myself
But if I were to help you, are we talking about the Mixer or the Matrix? Both could use a bit of “group intelligence”
Could be implemented as a global switch that you specify in the device configuration: Matrix options > Show Groups
As usual, application options can also be made into mappings, so you could control the mode from stage - but I think that mapping isn’t really essential … it could be left unmapped by default.
Show groups:
-> Disabled = what we have now (tracks + groups)
-> Enabled = show groups instead of tracks + access to “ungroupable tracks” (master/send tracks?)
Also: when enabled, how to deal with songs that contain no groups?
We could just pretend that all track were in a single group? Or alternatively, switch to the usual track display…
Btw: I have also wanted to add support for “Sections” (you know, pattern sequence sections…)in the Matrix application for some time now
Seems related to this idea - a “slightly higher” level of control.
perhaps “show groups” simply hides grouped sub-tracks into a single track, but tracks that are not part of a group would show up as normal?
another (maybe simpler, maybe more confusing) variation of this idea could be a global option to “hide collapsed tracks” in the matrix. so any track that has been collapsed in the renoise UI would not show up in the matrix. i would still have to go in and manually collapse tracks in renoise UI, but it would give more control of which tracks end up showing up as part of the matrix.
perhaps “show groups” simply hides grouped sub-tracks into a single track, but tracks that are not part of a group would show up as normal?
That would be easy to understand: everything in the topmost level gets included.
This mode would definitely need to be “optional” - you would often want access to the sub-tracks.
another (maybe simpler, maybe more confusing) variation of this idea could be a global option to “hide collapsed tracks” in the matrix. so any track that has been collapsed in the renoise UI would not show up in the matrix. i would still have to go in and manually collapse tracks in renoise UI, but it would give more control of which tracks end up showing up as part of the matrix.
I’m not sure how well it would work in practice - imagine that you are still in the composing/ideas stage? Collapse some tracks in Renoise, that’s easy. But then you want to change some detail in the song, and now you have to expand the track again. I would only have to go back and forth like this a few times before I’d simply give up on that feature!
Alternatively, I think the Matrix could recognize some special “tokens” in the name of tracks/groups.
Imagine being able to specify the following:
HIDE = Hide this track/group and its children SKIP = Hide this track, but leave children visible
And of course, those children could contain the very same tokens for further refinement.
That would make the layout on the controller completely customizable, without forcing you to work with Renoise in any particular way.
What’s especially nice is that this mode would not even be a new Matrix mode/option/whatever - it would simply look for, and act on those track name tokens.
That would be easy to understand: everything in the topmost level gets included.
This mode would definitely need to be “optional” - you would often want access to the sub-tracks.
I’m not sure how well it would work in practice - imagine that you are still in the composing/ideas stage? Collapse some tracks in Renoise, that’s easy. But then you want to change some detail in the song, and now you have to expand the track again. I would only have to go back and forth like this a few times before I’d simply give up on that feature!
Alternatively, I think the Matrix could recognize some special “tokens” in the name of tracks/groups.
Imagine being able to specify the following:
HIDE = Hide this track/group and its children SKIP = Hide this track, but leave children visible
And of course, those children could contain the very same tokens for further refinement.
That would make the layout on the controller completely customizable, without forcing you to work with Renoise in any particular way.
What’s especially nice is that this mode would not even be a new Matrix mode/option/whatever - it would simply look for, and act on those track name tokens.
The Hide/Skip approach would definitely be the most flexible… but introduce some upkeep. for each group, i would need to go in and add “HIDE” to every subtrack (sometimes 10-15 of them), and then i’d also have the extra text crowding my renoise UI. and i’d have to maintain those namings as i add new tracks etc.
So I think i personally prefer an optional “Hide Group Children” mode, which would show only the top-most level. it has the nice side-effect of using groups in that it can be managed by drag-and-drop in renoise.
But i’m also open to whichever is easiest to implement
