New tool (3.4.3): Piano Roll Studio v6.2 build 562 (September 2023)

Piano Roll Studio 4.0 has been published!

I am pleased to announce the release of version 4.0.475 of Piano Roll Studio. This new version is considered the most extensive and includes the most changes since version 1.0.

All new features are listed in the Update History (first comment on this thread). There are many changes, with more than 70 new features. It is highly recommended that you update to the latest version. Before mentioning a few, I would like to comment that the vast majority of requests and improvements that yourselves have sent me by private message have been addressed and updated for this version 4.0. As always, this version has been tested. However, if you notice any unwanted behavior, please PM me and I’ll take care of it.

Some of the most relevant changes, additions and improvements are the following:

  • New ruler. The ruler has been reworked, with more Horizontal Zoom, and more controls, including control for vertical dividers.
  • Major complete redesign of the grid. Perhaps the most important change that comes close to the perfect design that is possible with the current API. The grid has been reprogrammed obtaining several advantages over the previous version, both in terms of appearance and performance. This represents a very significant leap forward for the PRS and avoids previous problems. Now the entire grid can be customized from the Themes section, with dividers for the beats of the measure, and separation blocks to mark what each measure occupies. This greatly facilitates locating the desired cell to deposit note blocks and navigating between beats.
  • Improved grid performance. The grid redesign now allows you to use any UI scaling interchangeably, getting the same performance regardless of this value. This has radically changed. It is also possible to use the Tooltips without any problem. The only thing strictly necessary for good graphics performance is to disable textures (“None” value) in the selected color theme in Renoise. This is an API issue, which doesn’t play well with textures in tools of this caliber.
  • New RGB Themes panel for the PRS. Also included are more RGB customization options and more predefined customizable themes.
  • The grid now allows the wheel to navigate between patterns. Jumping from one pattern to another is now lightning fast, as is navigating between lines or between beats.
  • Better workflow on certain consecutive operations. For example, you can now copy (operation 1) and paste (operation 2) without releasing SHIFT. operations of this style.
  • Added the ability to select and drag the selection. It is now possible to mark a permanent selection and move it (translate and transpose at the same time) within each pattern, between patterns, or even between tracks. This is especially useful for moving groups of notes in relatively short steps.
  • Another highlight is the handling of existing chords. Now the PRS detects any already written chords (notes placed consecutively on the same line) so that they can be edited together, as if they were a single note from the starting note. Straight up, the PRS is the best tool out there for creating or manipulating chords from the mouse.
  • Concept of “broom car” applied in the quick trace for certain operations, such as deleting note blocks in the grid or quickly adding curves in the Parameter Editor. The rapid movement of the mouse can “jump” some line at random, not detecting its passage. Residual functions and linear interpolation between points are applied to avoid undeleted data or jumps between quantity bars.
  • 8 New clipboards, new mouse-combination key commands, new operation functions such as compacting patterns, and new added double-click to execute certain operations.
  • Analysis and representation of note blocks of the previous pattern, current pattern and following pattern, allowing the detection of note blocks of the previous pattern inclusive.
  • Double click on an empty area of ​​the grid to play or stop the pattern. SHIFT CTRL ALT + double click to select a line and play from it. So the wheel and double click are much more useful now.
  • It is necessary to remember that the great majority of operations with the mouse are of direct execution, even between them. This involves using keyboard commands like [CTRL] + Click or [CTRL ALT] + Click and dragging or the like directly, without needing to access a control bar to change a switch. Insert, move, stretch or delete a note block or several directly, with the fastest possible workflow on mouse movement (avoid making strokes by needing to change any switches or avoid triangulating).

All news is in the Update History. On the other hand, some novelties and new operations are described in the User’s Manual.
The mouse and keyboard commands panel has also been improved to make it easier to learn all the controls.

Enjoy the Piano Roll Studio!

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hi
i want to buy this asap
but i am too stupid to figure out how to send you a pm
please send me one asap
thanks!

1 Like

Hi @L13, how are you?

Apparently when the user is new to the forums he can’t send a PM. I will send you a PM with all the details.

Thank you very much for your interest in Piano Roll Studio!

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Hi Raul - Please contact me too. I’m interested in obtaining a license for piano roll and SMC and supporting the project(s). Thx !!

Hi @R_D, how are you?

Look at your inbox. I have sent you a new PM. In it you have all the details. Thank you for contacting!

Hello,
Is it possible for your to PM me ? Thanks.

Hi @titobal, welcome to the Renoise Forums!
Yes, I have sent you a new PM. In it you have all the details. Thank you for your interest!

VIDEO TUTORIAL SERIES - Piano Roll Studio for Renoise: 11.- Transcription of notes from Renoise to score with Musescore

In this video I use the Piano Roll Studio as a Renoise support program, to transcribe notes to the musical score in Musescore.
For this I use a simple piano melody. In the development of the video, three main problems are described when viewing only Renoise:

  1. First issue, the note pitch: The notes are not sorted by pitch in the tracker (the pitch of the notes). This is more complicated if we use the live recording. The notes are stacked from top to bottom and in no pitch order horizontally (in different note columns). Besides, since there are many notes in the track, it is difficult to decipher the note and octave of each line. It is necessary to read very carefully.

  2. Second issue, the note position: Renoise does not have bar divisions in the pattern editor (line markers), and therefore it is also difficult to locate the beats for each bar. In short, it is very difficult to locate the position of a random note in each pattern.

  3. Third issue, the note duration. This would be the most difficult problem to solve. It is about deciphering the duration of each note to transcribe it into its corresponding rhythmic figure.

These three problems are easily solved by simply viewing the Piano Roll Studio! Thanks to the note blocks (number of cells) and the vertical divider bars (Measure and beats), it is very easy to write in the Musescore score (the pitch of the note, the rhythmic figure and its position in the score. The position it depends on the measure number and the number of the beat in that measure.

Finally, before writing in the musical score, it is necessary to study the used measure (LPB value and Beats per Bar value) and synchronize the BPM value between Renoise and Musescore.

In short, also use the Piano Roll Studio to easily write in musical score, like in Musescore!

1 Like

Good news for the Piano Roll Studio

Due to the great demand from many PRS users to include Vertical Zoom for the grid, I have good news. Soon we will have this feature included, accompanying of course the Horizontal Zoom.

The Vertical Zoom will have 8 steps, and basically reduces the size that the window can occupy practically in half in the zoom of minimum size.

The following image shows a beta version of the Piano Roll Studio comparing the difference in the sizes of the minimum and maximum Vertical Zoom.

For reference, on a 1080 pixel tall Full HD screen, the PRS can display just over 10 octaves without using the bottom panel of the FX Parameter Editor.

I must admit that the unified programming of the Horizontal Zoom and Vertical Zoom, keeping 100% functionality of the tool, has been the most complex thing that I have programmed with the Renoise API so far…

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Here I show a couple of screenshots of my latest work with the Piano Roll Studio. Finally, the Vertical Zoom will have the same range of steps as the Horizontal Zoom, from -12 to +12. This implies 25 horizontal sizes and 25 vertical sizes and their possible combinations.

Vertical Zoom -12 and Horizontal Zoom -12. Show 10 octaves and 128 lines (image in real size):

Vertical Zoom +12 and Horizontal Zoom -12. Show 1 octave and 128 lines (image in real size):
image

Thanks to the configurable size of the entire grid, it is now possible to adapt the PRS window to any monitor, adjusting to the millimeter the number of octaves or notes to display on the left piano. For example, the PRS can display 10 octaves (zoomed down) on a 1080 pixel high Full HD monitor or 4 octaves (zoomed up) on a 1440 pixel high UWQHD monitor.

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Hi Raul. Lot of hard work. Impressive. Please send me info how to buy PRS.

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Thank you so much! You now have all the information in a PM. Check your forum inbox.
Apparently people new to the forums can’t send private messages until they interact a bit with the community.

Enjoy PRS! Very soon there will be surprises!

2 Likes

Piano Roll Studio 5.0 has been published!

I am pleased to announce the release of version 5.0.495 of Piano Roll Studio. This new version brings an important and special feature that many PRS users have asked me for privately. Thanks for the patience!

All new features are listed in the Update History (first comment on this thread).

PRS5 finally includes the long-awaited Vertical Zoom. This feature completely transforms the tool, allowing you to display the number of octaves needed or even use a very tiny window with lots of information about where all the note blocks of the current pattern are placed.

Vertical Zoom, like Horizontal Zoom, allows 24 steps, with a range of -12 to +12 (25 sizes). This implies 25x25=625 possible size combinations for the cell (for the grid, the cell is the smallest unit of area).

Vertical Zoom is controlled from the Left Piano, while Horizontal Zoom is controlled as usual from the top Ruler. In essence Zoom works by increasing or decreasing the height or width of a cell (the smallest square in the grid).

By having the vertical control along with the horizontal, it allows full control over the size of the window. This provides flexibility in strategically placing the PRS window to the left side or above the Renoise window, or forcing the PRS window to fill the entire area of a secondary image monitor and setting the number of octaves (up to 10, usually from 4 to 6) and the number of lines (up to 512, usually from 64 to 128 lines), obtaining all possible pattern information on the same surface.

image

The most surprising thing is that with the smallest possible zoom, the cells are very tiny, but even then the note blocks are still editable. Even I have been surprised by the accuracy of how the grid works to edit notes in such small areas.

On the contrary, if we use a surface with a larger zoom, it will be easier to be more precise when editing note blocks.

In short, the union of the Vertical Zoom together with the Horizontal Zoom completes the circle in this tool, being very effective both for editing note blocks, and for monitoring the notes while composing from the Renoise Pattern Editor.

You can read the rest of the new features of version 5 in the history. However, Vertical Zoom is so important to the PRS, that it ultimately transforms and drastically increases its usefulness.

Look at that work of art:
3_3_2

Finally, thank some users who are supporting this project, for insisting on requesting the Vertical Zoom! Although this feature was planned from the start, adapting the new zoom to everything else took a lot of programming work, as it also had to work in sync with the horizontal zoom and other dynamic GUI features. Thank you for the pacience!

Enjoy it!

Edit March 6, 2023: I have re-uploaded version 5.0.495 of PRS to the download server with a small fix that affects the performance of Vertical Zoom when there are many note blocks in song playback mode. This last-minute fix speeds up the Vertical Zoom magnification. If you have downloaded this version before day 7, I recommend that you download it again and reinstall the tool, deleting the previous download. I’m sorry about this situation!

4 Likes

Piano Roll Studio 5.1 has been published!

I am pleased to announce the release of version 5.1.499 of Piano Roll Studio. This new version is of maintenance and includes some new features.

All new features are listed in the Update History (first comment on this thread).

This new version 5.1 of the PRS is a post-update, usually after a major version is released, that includes bug fixes as well as some new features.

By adding Vertical Zoom, a feature that transforms much of the tool’s GUI, some issues may be left to fix, as has been the case with a selection issue. In addition, this new version has been used to add more features to the color theme. allowing, for example, to better mark the first beat of each measure, with another line color, to hide some background elements of the grid, as well as to attend to other issues related to new links to invoke or close the PRS window.

I think that I can already affirm that the Piano Roll Studio 5.1 works polished so that you can use it with complete confidence, even for professional environments!

Enjoy it!

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Hi Raul, what a magnificent tool you have created! Congratulations! I just bought Renoise and found your great tool. I joined the forum but couldn’t find a way to send you a private direct message, so I am replying to your post. I would very much lik to buy a license for PRS.

Love to hear from you.

Regards,

Patrick

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Hi Patrick, how are you?

Yeah, apparently new forum users can’t send private messages until they have some participation.

I have sent you a PM with all the details (you can reply from there).

Many thanks for everything!

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image

@hotelsinus, it looks like that screenshot is out of place here. Did you get the thread wrong?

I am not aware of such a tool de.cie-online.StepSequencer.xrmx. If you have a problem with this tool, contact the author @Cie to solve it.

It looks like you are using a 32-bit compiled tool on a 64-bit operating system:

Its fixed now…. Thanks

This is very impressive! One gripe I have with it is moving notes up and down feels clunky. It would be so easy to transpose up/down with a mouse wheel, just hover over a note and scroll. Same goes for moving notes a row up and down.

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