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Further development, minor issues
Hello Rui (I hope that name is spelled right)
first of all, I must say, that this is an awesome piece of software. In my opinion it is the first serious MIDI sequencer for Linux and it doesn't really deserve alpha stage. ;)
Nevermind, there are some minor issues, that break the artisict flow whilst making music, maybe these suggestions help to make Qtractor an outstanding tool:
The first and most annoying thing is the movement of the markers. If the left mouse is being clicked, the first loop marker moves instead of the marker indicating the current song position (the red thing). It would be much mure intuitive if the actual song position could be set by clicking with the left mouse.
While arranging music one is often listening to small parts of the song, and a good positioning of the play marker is absolutely essential.
Second, a stop button is missing. To push the play button, while it is in playing state is a bit misleading. Often I need to stop the song immediately to examine a part or something. Therefore a stop button would make things easier.
If one clicks the stop button again and the song is already stopped, the play marker should jump to the beginning of the song.
The zoom function is alittle bit quirky. It should zoom centered around the current player position.
And now for two questions:
Do you plan a loop function similar to Cakewalk Sonar or logic, like you could mark some part and loop it, until it reaches the next part on the same track? This feature speeds up arrangement a lot.
How many developers are currently developing for Qtractor and is it possible to join the development team? Although I am a Java guy, I have some solid C++ background and am really interested in the development of qtractor.
Greetings
Matthias
Re: issues, that break the artisict flow
The existing way for you to change current play-head position with a mouse-click is with SHIFT-left-click on the top time-ruler or on any empty track view area. Left or right-clicking does affect the edit head and tail (blue lines) which targets editing and selection primarily.
Having another button for stopping transport is not an option on this side of the view at least. However, it is supported on MMC enabled control surfaces. There you have a plain nice STOP button, usually :)
FWIW, the play button is default mapped to SPACE keyboard shortcut, so it might be an alternate solution, perhaps?
As a matter of fact, I am the only and current developer of this pet/hobby project of mine, but there has been some outsider contributions to some whole code parts all the time, now, then and always will.
You're welcome to propose source code patches, always, any time :)
Cheers
> Having another button for
> Having another button for stopping transport is not an option on this side of the view at least. However, it is supported on MMC enabled control surfaces.
> There you have a plain nice STOP button, usually :)
Can you explain this? Maybe my english is too bad.
I've recently added a stop button just for my convenience in a few minutes. (see www.pueski.de/transport.png)
The only difference is, that is is not a toggle button and affects the sequencer only when
m_pSession->isPlaying();
gives true.
> You're welcome to propose source code patches, always, any time :)
Ok, then I'm in. Would you mind if I implement the looping function mentioned in my first post?
Greetings
Matthias
Re: Having another button for stop
Most MIDI controllers that implement MMC do have a STOP button exactly as you ask. Is just that I don't find it as useful as a single toggle PLAY/STOP button might do the same.
Ok. It was never a question of how difficult it is to implement it. It's more like a question of taste and/or screen real-estate of course--the latter bothers me as all the touch/netbook/tablet/xphone craze keeps haunting me to the stretch and demanding to shrink it all to the limit, adding to insult that buttons must have uh, a touchable size :) oh my :))
NTL, care to post your patch?
On the looping function, may you also (re)try to explain with some detail what's the matter? I don't quite follow you in that part you say until it reaches the next part on the same track. Which part? Which track? Qtractor loop points apply to all tracks, vertically in the time-line. When set and play-head enters the loop range it will keep looping inside. Maybe one of us is missing the vision or something and I'm afraid it is me ;)
Cheers
NTL, care to post your
NTL, care to post your patch?
The only problem is that I have already changed the grid behaviour so that its visibilty is toggleable. Thus the patch would
contain the grid changes also. Would it be suitable for you, if I send you a patch file created from a diff of the original files and my changes?
On the looping function...
See this screenshot:
http://pueski.de/qtractor_loop.png
Track six contains a looped part, which is grayed out. Since the hihats part repeats 9 times you only place the first
and the last part and set the first to loop. This is exactly how Logic Audio behaves. The Cakewalk Sonar function is very similar.
This way you can create sort of range for the hihats being played.
Does this help to clarify my idea?
Greetings
Matthias
Re: care to post your patch?
NP. Just tell that there's another new option/feature included in the patch which may be of course in the form of a
svn diffordiff -u. Don't forget that you're also adding a new image file (is ittransportStop.png?)Re. looping function
Well, I think I do understand the idea. My question is why don't you take Edit/Paste Repeat... to somehow emulate that? I'm sure it's quite different in terms of work flow but I think the result might be at least, more or less equivalent. Or am I completely off target?
Cheers
Re: care to post your patch?
you may find on todays svn trunk (qtractor 0.4.7.28+) that the transport-stop button and the main grid visibility options have already slipped in.
i'm sorry for somewhat being shameless and stepping on your toes, so to speak :) -- anyhow, the original sparkling idea is still yours and i should/must thank you for bringing it up
please, try && tell
Re: care to post your patch?
i'm sorry for somewhat being shameless and stepping on your toes
No problem, this is your project, and I was actually a bit slow, since I had much work this week.
I created a patch yesterday before yor last post, but could not really test it, had not much time, thus be careful if you try it anyway.
http://pueski.de/qtractor.tar.gz
The differences between my an your version are:
-the grid toggle checkbox is directly located below "View->Statusbar"
-If playing is already stopped, a click on the stop button sets the play marker to the beginning, (I am used to this behaviour from Logic audio, so this
is just for my convenience.)
I am not using Paste Repeat, as you asked, because it it not that what I want. The loop function as i described makes it possible
to arrange the song easily. You can "define" ranges for each loop very fast and if everything is good you can convert the loop ranges to real
objects, which can be moved, deleted and so on.
I'll try to build a quick prototype on weekend, to give you an idea about that.
thank you for bringing it up
Not for that, I think this is the most promising linux sequencer project at the moment. It deserves being supported. ;)
Greetings
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