Sorry if it has previously been discussed before - I didn’t found the thread that introduced the (simple) idea : I’m often searching for melodic lines on a MIDI keyboard linked to my desktop. I use my laptop when I got a sudden inspiration outside my home. On my laptop, I need a “virtual piano”. This one is actually located in the sample keyzone tab, but it could be nice to use it directly in the pattern editor section. It could look like that :
A virtual piano keyboard is usefull for those who want to introduce notes especially with the mouse (or performing slides, maybe pitch shifts / glides, through mid or right mouse button clicks). Also usefull for newbies that want to easily see the relationships between the C2b D6# E4 F3 A5# notes, and hits on a real instrument.
BTW it’s also usefull for all who work hidden in the darkness and to have time to search for the right note on their QWERTY keyboards.
imo this is a step in the wrong direction. I find the “virtual pianos” in reason and reaper really annoying (particularly because the ability to enter notes is tied to them being on the screen taking up space) … better to just learn the laptop keyboard layout. Pecking at a keyboard with the mouse seems like a recipe for anti-productivity.
Maybe one day I’ll start a thread in this section, asking the implementation of a “renoise virtual guitar studio controler”, where each button can be activated… with the mouse.
Sorry it’s a big piano view on the image, but it does not have to be that big. And this kind of view could be displayed only when needed.
Concerning my productivity, this kind of piano view could help to improve it, in some specific situations :
(1) melodic research phase, (2) notes slides/ notes glides/ vibratos.
Explanations.
during the melodic research phase, when I compose something melodic on my laptop, (like a lead line) I often have a tone, in my head, and I know the right key to press on a real piano keyboard (or on a MIDI master keyb.), but I don’t find instantly the right octave and the right button on the qwerty keyboard. In the end, there are too many “try & errors” what bothers me a bit. I’m used to play with long vertical black and white keys. I could use the piano view to quickly record the right note one for good.
I also think about this kind of piano view, because I often want to perform “note slides” and “note glides” in a more intuitive & natural way.
Imagine that your finger slides on keys of a real piano. You could do the same within renoise. While in “record mode” and the patterns scrolls, you click with the left mouse button on the virtual keyboard and that you drag the mouse pointer from the left to right : it could play and record faster notes in this situation. Sure you won’t be able to do it that fast on a QWERTY solution.
Imagine now that you’re building a cool lead line, but that you want to put something more human in it ; at the end of a beat you click with the mid mouse button on the virtual piano keyboard, and while recording your note, your subtle movments to the right to the left increase or decrease a vibrato.
Now at the end of a pattern for example, if you’re using the right mouse button, when your mouse pointer goes from the right to the left, it automatically generates a proportionnal pitch shift with the 0Dxx pattern commands effect. The opposite mouse movment could produce a 0Uxx pattern command effect.
I`ve just released a tool aswell that will allow you to wire in a “Virtual MIDI Piano” and get half the functionality without the input and GUI integration that has been suggested.
