I want to have a line with a handle for curve… Very simple in usage, just like in Bitwig or Cubase. No need for predefined presets, never won’t fit to the individual case.
Also I want the API to finally provide proper graphics drawing, a.k.a. line drawing, curve drawing, bitmap layering. Also I wan the API to provide proper custom storage in a song for tool data, within a bin-encoded node in the song xml. No nasty workarounds anymore or saving alongside using another file.
I wish everything was integrated, to be able to create new envelopes very easily. But I also believe that if there are different control buttons for certain things, you can create envelopes with some symmetry, almost impossible to build adding points one by one.In addition, a tool or the automation editor itself could insert a new predefined curve from the selected line. And if it also allows you to control the height of the selected points or a group of points from the selected line to the end of the pattern, you can control, for example, all the values> 0.5 or <0.5 or the line points or odd or all, and that implies up / down buttons, left / right.
If it is possible to manipulate the envelopes in this way, very good curves can be created for specific parameters. In addition, it is possible to create a curve, place another from the different lines later, within the same pattern.
However, the automation editor, apart from being basic when it comes to control tools, has certain limitations, for example:
- The most serious, from my point of view, is that there is no tooltip at each point, indicating the time and the value. It’s something so basic and information so useful that I’m surprised it’s not implemented.
- It is not possible to use a curve and a straight line within the same pattern (or it is all curves or it is all straight, or points).
- It is not possible to insert 2 points in the same time (same vertical divisor), (for example, the first instant of a pattern line). It is necessary to insert two points, one at time 1, and the second at time 1’010, I think. That makes the control of the curves more complicated, but in the end it is filled with too many points.Always an envelope must be defined with the minimum number of points.
- Something “strange” also occurs at the last point of the pattern, which ends with a time of x.999. This means that you always have to fight between the final time of the first pattern and the initial time of the next pattern, putting together two points, but in most cases you will have a jump or cut in the automation.
- Inserting specific control buttons (and its functions) under the hood of the automation editor is not complicated, without needing to change the base of the API. But it is more complicated to want to draw a line defined by 2 points, and then have a handle where to grab the line and draw it to turn it into a curve. That implies a change in the GUI too.
- And the weak point remains in wanting to create curves that encompass several patterns.Although it is possible to generate curves that occupy several consecutive patterns, it is a complicated task, because each pattern has its envelope, its container of points.
With some tools made with LUA, it is possible to alleviate all this.However, it is common for available tools related to automation, contain errors or do not work well,and with the documentation available for the automation editor, it is more complicated to control the _observables, so it’s more complicated to coordinate Renoise with the tool, rather than the other way around.For example, remove an envelope from the automation editor and have the tool react.