The interesting thing about the new version is that the “PRE” will now be something more “intelligent”. It will allow detecting the notes to be played with the mouse on the roll: detecting the note, the track, the note column and the instrument taking advantage of the colors, and of course its volume/velocity value.
IMO the biggest feature in the tool that I’m looking forward to. This would immensely bridge the gap between piano roll and tracker sequencers in a medium happy like space that I wouldn’t imagine years ago.
I did not want to announce this new news here yet. But I’m working on a video tutorial for the PRE. Probably will be about 8 videos, about 14 minutes each, within the YouTube platform.
The language is Spanish and the subtitle is in Spanish (correctly corrected). Therefore, composers who want the English language can configure automatic translation into English. All explanations should be perfectly understood.
The first two videotutorials are now available here:
1.Piano Roll Editor (PRE). Basic notions. How to start?
2.Piano Roll Editor (PRE). Navigation. How to move?
To be continue…
When the whole collection of the PRE video tutorials are there, I will link them in the first comment of this thread.
I hope that the Spanish language is not a barrier. Enjoy it!
One thing I notice with PRE is I can’t control the vol/pan/delay on on rows where there’s no note is present. I sometimes use the Ixx and Oxx to finely adjust the volume for fade in/fade outs. If I do mark up a vol/pan/delay column with no notes on a row through the tracker interface, it does show up on the PRE. Would it be possible to incorporate something like this?
Yes. This particular scenario was the first one that I added for next version 4.0 (this version is scheduled for April). When you hide the roll, and only the Lower Virtual Piano appears, to the right appear 3 slicers for Volume, Panning and Delay, which are used to directly edit the selected row at the cursor position. Then you can edit these 3 values where there are no notes.
You can see a small demonstration in the 10th minute of the following video (I still have not translated the text subtitles correctly):
Look well when the roll disappears, and only the Lower Virtual Piano appears…
Version 4 of the PRE is almost ready for this month of April.
This version brings more improvements than the previous version, both in terms of functionality and new options and capabilities.
Some add-ons are:
-New “note monitor” inside the lower virtual piano (compact mode). And the option of “sort notes”.
-VPD sliders to manipulate the selected row of notes (volume, panning and delay parameters).
-The already announced FX module to edit effects parameters.
-Improvements in the selection of the range of lines, and the treatment of the internal clipboard.
-New MBxx and MLxx commands to control the metronome from the patterns.
-Time calculator panel, to easily set the compass, LPB, number of measures per pattern and number of lines per pattern, to apply in the selected pattern or in a selection of several patterns.
-New panel to show the list of keyboard commands. Now it will be possible to export them in a text file to print on paper.
The news is many more… I have also tried to include some requests from users who have supported this project.
As usual, when I’m ready for its release I’ll post it in comment 1 of this thread.
Raul, i really support your effort and work. Thus i do not find piano roll interesting in tracker realm.
I really enjoy reading your detailed explanations from above.
Keep up the good work!
In the development of the PRE is not only involved in the “Piano Roll” itself. PRE has many more things that are not the piano roll. Maybe this matter goes unnoticed. For non-lovers of a piano roll, it’s still worth it. I could enumerate a very long list of additional things that PRE is capable of, that do not depend on the piano roll. The version 4 has greatly improved some things. When it comes out, users should see it as no a “piano roll”, but rather as a multi-tool. On the other hand, any composer can use the Piano Roll only visually, composing the song from the pattern editor. That is, even without editing from the PRE, you get advantages.
I have added some things at the last minute for this new version, among them the randomization of notes (with area selection, line jump and range between notes), the Chord Builder has the possibility of associating chords to each key of your MIDI piano (a very good feature), record notes directly on up to 2,3 or 4 tracks from the same instrument (for live recording). And I do not forget about the effects panel (FX module), which helps a lot to manipulate effects parameters directly in the pattern editor.
All these details have nothing to do with the piano roll. They are separate things, all integrated into the PRE and intimately linked to Renoise.
New version 4.0 of Piano Roll Editor just published! Read the first comment for more information. To know all the news, display the list of the new version in “Update History”.
To update the tool to the latest version for all those users who have their Personalized Use License of Full Version, please follow this steps:
Uninstall the old version of PRE.
Install the latest version of PRE.
Reinstall your Personalized Use License.
Other considerations:
Remember to backup your custom chord banks, before reinstalling the tool, so you do not lose them.
For the rest of users, they can try the free Demo Version.
Thanks for the support and enjoy it!
PRE4 brings a lot of news and is much better than previous versions. Please, always use the latest version available!
If you are interested in the Full Version of PRE and in supporting the developer, get your Personalized Use License!
Hello Raul!
After testing your great tool PRE I can say HURRAY!, we finally have a nice ability to see notes in piano roll editor. I can see so much effort and work behind it (I am C++ and C# developer for more than 20 years). I always like Fruity Studio piano roll editor and wish to have it in Renoise. I would like to support you and buy your tool. Let me have some question for you from my point of view as a user and as a developer. I don´t know LUA and Renoise API.
Why do you need to refresh the piano editor after some amount of time? Doesn´t Renoise support events/messages in LUA API? Is it always needed to refresh all boxes?
I understand the idea of vertical PRE to be more similar to a tracker soul and because of clarity. But the classic horizontal PRE would be nice. Is it a main or big problem to implement it too?
Are you thinking to support a scroll mouse button as Renoise does?
Is it possible to implement a way to edit more notes on the same row without needs to choose color and column? I mean just clicking more notes and not worry about the history of notes. Select the note can be for example using right click?
Is it possible to implement a way to “stick” your editor to a track to have note lines on the same level?
Thank you.
By the way, you have a nice home studio. It looks you have Technics amplifier as me.
If you know the C code, the LUA code is very similar, since it is based mostly on C. The Renoise API is another story. It’s LUA code that you should know how it works, how to interpret it. But if you know how to program in C with great experience, it will not take an afternoon to know how to build tools.
Yes, the Renoise API has “notifiers” and “_observables” that allow most changes to be followed. However, the graphic section of the GUI (“ViewBuilder”) has certain limitations (programmers can not do everything).
PRE uses a mesh of 512 x (1+120) slots to display the notes (the roll). The same mesh is used for all song patterns. Then, the tool is updated automatically when necessary. In certain cases, it involves updating several slots at the same time, because the tool needs to clean the previous state of the slots of another pattern, or of another note column, etc. That is, there is no direct relationship between the X lines of the Y pattern and the lines that show their notes in the PRE. It is a single mesh for everything, and only updates the visible parts.
In addition, PRE when it is “ON” is working at all times with a multitude of notifiers (_observables) API, in addition to some timers depending on the display mode used.
Any programmer that can make a “vertical GUI” is capable of making a “horizontal GUI”. Separately, two separate tools would be relatively simple. Practically it would be the same design, but what is vertical would be horizontal and vice versa.
But that the same GUI has both options (vertical or horizontal) is somewhat cumbersome, and harder to maintain (more code).
This poses certain problems. First, the current Renoise GUI works pixel by pixel, as does the API (the window tools). The API does not have advanced options for text sources, such as flipping the text font 90º vertically counterclockwise, or changing the font size, let alone its color. Some objects are “complicated” to control graphically and the API does not allow to differentiate between right button, left button and middle mouse button in most objects (yes some special control for sliding bars and little else). This greatly limits direct control, such as the implementation of a selection area, which involves combining a keyboard command plus a mouse click (CTRL or ALT + click). In addition, the current API does not have “released” detection for the keys of the USB alphanumeric keyboard. Oh my God, whaaaat? That is, the programmer has his hands tied, is quite limited in terms of graphic creativity.
Some details. It is very difficult to create a tool with zoom. The icons are fixed PNG image format (older than MS-DOS), which you have to build one by one. 99% of the icons I created them myself. Some of the icons also have horientación. It would be necessary to duplicate them… If the tool uses zoom, it would be very complicated to program with the available API. It involves working with layers, fattening the entire code.
By previously studying the concept of the tool before building it, it is easier to construct it vertically than horizontally, and also to follow the coherence with Renoise, which is also vertical.
The current API does not allow to differentiate between the left, middle or right button of the mouse. It is a detail that I have requested to @taktik myself.
The tool has keyboard commands to switch between columns quickly. But you can not enter a note next to another without changing the note column.
But PRE has several ways to enter notes. You can use the mouse (the notes sound). You can use the USB alphanumeric keyboard (the notes will not sound because the API, at the moment, does not have a “release”). You can use a MIDI keyboard and / or a MIDI pad, correctly mapped, where you can enter several notes at once (the notes sound).
You can also use the Chord Builder, a work of art in itself. You can enter several notes at once with a single click, shoot chords or groups of notes, even with live recording, distributing groups of notes on several tracks at the same time. Chord Builder is an integrated part of the PRE. Chor Builder could not work directly with Renoise given its complexity (variety of options), it needs the PRE.
In addition, PRE has a section on advanced operations. For example, you try the “Random Notes” panel. You can be creative even when your head is blocked.
I do not know if I have correctly understood this question… PRE has the “joystick central switch”. With it you can change the selection between a column of notes or all columns of notes to cut-copy-paste.
In addition, PRE has the “block edition”. For example, build a block of about 16 lines. It will be very easy to clone it down with the tools included in the top bar.
…
Yes! I have a Technics team (EH760) that works wonders. The best purchase I have made many years ago. I also use it as a second Hi-Fi listener. Now they do not manufacture equipment like that anymore.
The image you have seen is a bit old. My little home studio has improved a bit, but I have everything I need to do music. Nowadays with a controller keyboard and a good DAW you can do everything, and if you have Renoise + PRE, then much better.
If you are interested in supporting the developer for the PRE, I will send you a PM with information on how to do it. Any idea is welcome. I have been adding requests from some users and PRE continues to develop. There will be more updates in the future. Of course, there will be a new version compatible with the new Renoise version when @taktik updates it. I understand that the API will receive “certain improvements”.
Thank you Raul! You are so fast with your reply. My customers will be glad to have my replies as fast as I have yours. Now I know more about PRE background thanks to you! It looks like we have challenge @taktik to support more things in Renoise API.
Regarding my last question, my english is not great and I will try to explain more in the future after testing your tool more. Provide me please with the details about payment.
My Technics is SH-EH550 and older than yours but yeah, great purchase. I still like it but CD player doesn’t work now and what I always hate, it doesn’t have a battery or bigger condenser so when power is off for a second I lost all settings including clock…
My CD changer also failed me (the laser did not read the CDs correctly). A couple of months ago, I purchased the complete second-hand module on eBay (SL-EH760). There are people who sell parts of these second-hand Technics equipment. With a little investment you can leave your Technics team “almost new” again.
The day my Technics team dies, I will feel very bad . I’m very fond of him.
Do not take it “literally” 4tey. I mean that the use of fixed image icons is very old, be it JPG, BMP, PNG or GIF. They are fixed pixel images. But if you want to put exact dates to things …
New mini-panel to follow the player’s position with jump of lines.
This is another way to follow the playback of the song. It can also be used to mark the bars. In addition, it allows a clearer reading of the notes in the fast reproductions.
I have a Technics team (EH760) that works wonders. The best purchase I have made many years ago. I also use it as a second Hi-Fi listener. Now they do not manufacture equipment like that anymore.
You are so fast with your reply. My customers will be glad to have my replies as fast as I have yours. 
. I’m very fond of him.