Simple Qwerty Velocity Suggestion

If this feature is turned on it allows the user to set the note velocity just by pressing the qwerty keyboard key. If the user presses and holds down the note key on the qwerty keyboard the velocity starts at 100% and decreases while the key is held. The longer the key is held the softer the note. This would make composing without a midi keyboard much easier.

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++1 I like this idea a lot.

That would be a vey strange a cool way of programming!

Iā€™d like to have some more control on midi input. But the implementation youā€™re suggesting here is very weird to me.

Why not simply have a slider to set the desired input velocity?
And next to the slider there would be a checkbox to enable variable velocity (the same that itā€™s now in the preferences). So the slider value would work only if that checkbox was empty.

It could be useful if this was a per-instrument setting, but not necessary.
But if it was not per-instrument, then at least Iā€™d prefer it to be more quickly accessible, not in the preferences like now.

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Makes much more sense. I agree with this one.

I think a better solution would be to use mouse scroll while you hold the button. just scrollu up or down to get desired velocity. =)

My suggestion is something like this :

if I press ā€œQā€ for C-4 and without letting go of the Q-key press ā€œ3ā€ too I end up with a ā€œC-4 30ā€. If I donā€™t want velocity I just dont press a number resulting in velocity of 80. this would also be handy so you could use keys 8 and 9 to (for example) set a velocity exactly half or double of the velocity of the previous note.

Only problems I can think of right now :

  1. if I want a C#4 with a velocity of 20 I would have to press 2 and 2 again ā€¦ maybe just add the velocity when I hold the key for more than 500ms or something.

  2. This would mean a huge change in the way renoise works because at the moment a note is written when I press a key, not when I release it. though I am not sure yet this would really be a problem.

  3. the biggest problem is that the old trick of filling patterns with the same note by just holding a key (keyrepeat and editstep are for that) will not work anymore because renoise canā€™t figure if I just canā€™t decide for a velocity or donā€™t want any. But maybe a checkbox to toggle this behaviour or having a modifier key for this approach would work.

A noteoff is written on release.
Bottom line the idea of holding notes to alter velocity seems to bring too much trouble, IMO.

But since you mentioned the numeric keys, these could be used as shortcuts to alter velocity. Like:
Alt+Ctrl+[1-8] to set the velocity from 10-80. But this should be optional/changeable, because I donā€™t see myself using this often.
Iā€™d probably rather change the input velocity with the mouse on a slider and enter notes with my left hand.

the reason why I would love to see this is not because of setting different volumes of notes (I rarely use this) but because almost every VST I know can use the velocity to modulate something else like decay, filter-cutoff or similar and because we now have this velocity-metadevice. I seldom use this atm because entering velocity values per hand is too much trouble and I am not capable of playing my midi-keyboard so I end up with the velocity I like. Having such a shortcut-option would really work for me.
And grabbing and moving a slider is even worse than entering a value by hand imho.

Another important feature when changing the velocity is to hear the result.
I think it would be great to have both a shortcut for increase/decrease the velocity (by a custom set value) to a note under cursor and a way to do it with the mouse (for instance the wheel or mod+wheel). You can also optional hear the changes you make.

Again this perhaps could be more useful when altering existing data. And perhaps is another feature that could favor a new separate note/clip edit mode.
As talked about before, in this mode you just have to move cursor (or mouse pointer) to a note (anywhere in between note start and note off) to alter that note.
While in normal mode you have the current way of editing (you have to go to first line of the note to alter it).

So in the current edit mode you do as you do now. But you also have shortcuts to increase/decrease velocity (could be a shortcut that trigger a preset made in advanced edit). And an option to hear the change immediately.

A bit of topic:
In the other mode (the mode talked about before where you move clips/notes/cluster of data with arrows and stoff) there you have options like using the mousewheel to change velocity (also to transpose pitch using the wheel).
This is a more ā€˜musicalā€™ edit mode where mostly alter existing data (this is also great for editing midi recordings etc), while the normal edit mode is the current more clinical and detailed number-punching mode.

In generalā€¦ the more I think of all new editing options we should have, the more I think it is inevitably to not have more then one edit mode.
We certainly do not need or want 10 of them like cubase etcā€¦ but two very logically put together edit modes could be great I think.

The solution to keep pressing the buttons is to slow. And if you make it faster you might have to wait untill you reach 100% again for it to start over.

Also as said by Pysj you want to hear the result.

Loozas solution to keep pressing seems to akward to me. Pressing and holding a chord and at the same time reaching for any of the numberkeys.

I think it should be enough with just shortcuts to increase/decrease/reset the velocity by a uservalue/speed set in the preferences.

I would like to remind that it would be nice with a auto chord entering.
notes gets entered as chords two or more different are pressed in a very tight intervall.

Would make it much easier entering chords with a midikeyboard etc.

about my suggestion : you can still hold shift to enter chords.

How about one key that captures nearest note volume as default value when entering or playing notes? And maybe a slider or digit somewhere to review or change the value.

Letā€™s open this back up.

This is a great idea Luxveritas. Not only is it good for QWERTY, but itā€™s also good for the increasingly popular single-layer touchscreens and their varieties of MIDI control apps. We should all open this thread back up for discussion.

I, myself, often take longer to create softer notes. This is especially the case when I play instruments like harps, carillons, timpani sets, guitars, thumb pianos, and other instruments that do not dampen themselves.

With a sustain pedal (or assigned key) reversed, this method of creating MIDI velocity is great for emulating instruments like those.

Thank you for suggesting it. Is there any way to make this happen yet? How CAN we convert midi duration to velocity (or other CC) in real-time?

Thank you :slight_smile:

bump!