I’m a sample-based music producer, so this is my two cents:
Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool to control sample slice start position (end position control would be great too, but it’s not in a sample editor yet, AFAIK) with a midi controllers knob or slider?
Two buttons/pads would let to choose your slices (one button to go one slice-up, another - vice versa) and a slider or knob would adjust a slice marker’s position to the left or right accordingly.
And to go further:
It would be so easy to chop samples if we could assign cursor movement, “zoom in” and “zoom out” to sliders or a knobs and “Add marker” to a button or pad.
i dont really know how you benefit if you move cursor with controller instead of mouse.
pc keyboard is most powerfull controller for sampler, if u use shortcuts, everything u need you can remap to a numpad for example, adding slice markers, fade in or out, crossfade loop, reverse, and so on
anyway besides sampler you aso have a lot of manual work with modulation and fx tabs.
anyway idea to move start and end points with macro controlls could be pretty cool in some cases, and more macros please
It sounded like a great idea when I first thought about it but I think being able to select slice start points with a mouse would be far more accurate for myself. Perhaps for someone using a laptop without a mouse because attempting pinpoint accuracy with a touchpad is a nightmare!
Being able to play around with how far each turn of a knob will move on the sample would make it a lot more accurate though, and with another knob being able to zoom in and out of the waveform it would be pretty fun to use as well. It sounds like a great idea and maybe a great piece of feedback for the author of Renoise’s very own ‘Chop Sample’ tool - http://www.renoise.com/tools/chop-sample
also keep in mind that most midi controls only offer 7 bit of accuracy, so 128 steps - you would need lots of zooming and precision shifts to set a sample position accurately with them.
also keep in mind that most midi controls only offer 7 bit of accuracy, so 128 steps
I would hate to zoom using 128 fixed steps!!
Luckily, pretty much any modern controller comes with endless rotaries and can be made to work relatively. So in many cases, 7bit is not that big a deal.
i dont really know how you benefit if you move cursor with controller instead of mouse.
I’m talking about cursor on sample waveform editing screen (that vertical line which appears in a certain position where you click a waveform with a mouse), not a mouse cursor
1000 I used to cut up long samples this way. Just having a keyboard shortcut would be much better than using the mouse!
As for controlling start/end position with a controller, this could be done as a tool. Hmmm…
It is possible to have a keyboard short cut for that already For me it would make sense to have “Add marker” assigned to a pad only if you have all these others operations (like Zoom and Cursor movement etc) somewhere very near by, on the same controller - it would allow to have that fast and intuitive software-hardware integration based workflow, like on NI Maschine or new generation MPC’s (Studio, Ren, Touch). Otherwise - mouse and keyboard short cut works just fine.
I’m a heavy hardware MPC user, so my point on these improvements is to have ability to make all the basic sampling and sample chopping operations at my fingertips, for the sake of faster workflow.
I know that certain of these operations can be assigned to keyboard commands and the cursor can be moved with Arrow keys - I’m using all that.
But…
It’s still not that fast as to have it on dedicated pads and buttons. Keyboard keys are quite small and it gets confusing when you have more complex short cuts. After certain time of using dedicated buttons, pads and sliders you develop a muscle memory which allows you to work really fast. While a waveform editing is linear thing (from left to right), mouse cursor moves in 2-dimensional way adding some inaccuracies and unwanted movements up and down.
It’s so painfully time consuming to adjust slices in Renoise - 1) You press a key and audition one slice, then 2) You zoom out to find the right slice marker 3) You zoom in to fine-tune the marker 4) you press another key to audition another slice 5) Then you zoom out to see where the marker is 6) and you zoom in to fine-tune the marker’s position 7) and you repeat the whole process again and again for every slice you want to adjust.
Instead of being able to - 1)Zoom in and press a key to audition a slice and at the same time 2) you could fine-tune current slice marker’s position by rotating a knob (or at least Ctrl+Shift+mouse wheel)
Ah, actually I was thinking about something slightly different: being able to play the sample, and slice it up while you’re listening to it.
Adding markers as you listen is for me way, way more intuitive - even if they’re only as precise as you can enter them.
1)Zoom in and press a key to audition a slice and at the same time 2) you could fine-tune current slice marker’s position
Zooming in wouldn’t be enough, though. Or did you envision that the left-hand side of the (visible part of the) waveform was automatically acting as offset?
In any case, this can be made more ergonomic for sure.
Ah, actually I was thinking about something slightly different: being able to play the sample, and slice it up while you’re listening to it.
Adding markers as you listen is for me way, way more intuitive - even if they’re only as precise as you can enter them.
I haven’t thought about that, but I like your idea too! And it would be really great tool even if markers wouldn’t be put that precise if we could adjust slice marker’s position more easily. It would compliment each over, these two improvements.
What do you mean by “the left-hand side of the (visible part of the) waveform was automatically acting as offset”?
If that the triggered slice’s marker should appear in the waveform editor window automatically, than, yes.
If that the triggered slice’s marker should appear in the waveform editor window automatically, than, yes.
Yes, I basically was asking how you’d imagine setting the slice marker. You said “zoom in and press key to audition”, which to me sounds like a step is missing, adding the marker itself.
Not sure my idea would replaces that step completely, like you said it would more complement it.
