FR: Independent keyboard scale/transpose per track

edited December 2018 in Support

Low priority ...

It would be helpful to have the keyboard settings for scale and transpose to be linked to each track. For instance, one might want to play a bass line in A/Aeolian, a lead in A minor blues, and a slicer in chromatic, and to be able to switch between instruments without having to reset the scale.

I’m not sure what the best thing to do for the default for new instruments would be. Maybe default to the most recently changed keyboard settings for new tracks.

Thanks for listening.

Comments

  • We discussed this one during the beta. Matt erred on the side of "If a user sets Minor Blues, that's probably what they want for all keyboards". I agree that's the friendliest default setting. Perhaps the scale select screen should have a separate LOCK that means "ignore changes on other keyboards". That way, the (imo) "friendly" default remains but users have a way to override it as needed.

    If scale based Piano Roll gets to the top of the list, this whole thing will need to be reconsidered because instruments will have to have some amount of internal memory with regard to scale setting. Would be a mess otherwise!

  • edited December 2018

    @Will said:
    If scale based Piano Roll gets to the top of the list, this whole thing will need to be reconsidered because instruments will have to have some amount of internal memory with regard to scale setting. Would be a mess otherwise!

    Ya’ lost me there mate. Instruments don’t need to know anything about the piano roll. They don’t care what’s controlling them or how that’s represented outside themselves. They just receive note on/off messages, etc. Not a thing changes about how they allocate memory based on how the user interface presents the possible notes to play.

    But ... I guess we shouldn’t sidetrack the thread just because we’re nerds. ;)

  • Just to complicate the matter more, I would love a key timeline that could have keyboard settings linked to it.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:
    Just to complicate the matter more, I would love a key timeline that could have keyboard settings linked to it.

    Like automation for scale? Yeah that’d be useful for me too.

    And big +1 for scale settings per track.

  • @number37 said:

    @Will said:
    If scale based Piano Roll gets to the top of the list, this whole thing will need to be reconsidered because instruments will have to have some amount of internal memory with regard to scale setting. Would be a mess otherwise!

    Ya’ lost me there mate. Instruments don’t need to know anything about the piano roll. They don’t care what’s controlling them or how that’s represented outside themselves. They just receive note on/off messages, etc. Not a thing changes about how they allocate memory based on how the user interface presents the possible notes to play.

    But ... I guess we shouldn’t sidetrack the thread just because we’re nerds. ;)

    Sorry! Reading back, that does seem out of nowhere. It was a disconnected thought on "when might be a good time to add support for this".

    Instruments don’t need to know anything about the piano roll.

    Correct. I meant the other way around: if the piano roll were to support scale based note limiting it would presumably default to whatever the user has set for the associated instrument. Without the instrument or the track having some memory of what the user set for that instrument this will not be possible. If the piano roll defaulted to whatever the user last set for scale (how it works currently), the folded piano roll might show the wrong note lanes.

    So... in order for a scale based piano roll feature to work (or work the way I'm assuming it would), per-instrument scale setting would almost certainly have to be a part of it anyway.

  • @Will said:
    So... in order for a scale based piano roll feature to work (or work the way I'm assuming it would), per-instrument scale setting would almost certainly have to be a part of it anyway.

    Yes, you’re right. What to do with the piano roll if the scale is changed and there are off-scale notes in the display would also need to be considered. Hide them? Pop up a warning that off-scale notes will be hidden and ask if scale based piano roll should be turned off? (This is what Xequence does)

    The devil is always in the details.

  • What to do with the piano roll if the scale is changed and there are off-scale notes in the display would also need to be considered. Hide them? Pop up a warning that off-scale notes will be hidden and ask if scale based piano roll should be turned off?

    Nice to see someone considering the considerations I've already made and didn't come to a quick conclusion on :)

    I built support into the piano roll to support different scales as I knew it'd be a PITA to add retrospectively but it's currently disabled as I didn't get the time to work through these questions. It's still on my list though ...

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