Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Share what you’d like to see added to Ableton Live.
ohryan
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Sep 01, 2019 9:16 pm

Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by ohryan » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:02 pm

here is (what I think) is an amazing reddit post asking people who have switched between FL and Ableton to describe their experiences with the two, what they missed, what they like etc. https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/ ... bleton_or/

It seems that a lot of people agree that the Piano Roll in Fruity Loops has a much better User Experience. I believe if Ableton put time into matching this experience, it might not just convert FL users, but keep many. The piano roll is such a vital part of a DAW and the song writing process that I see no reason for a software like Ableton to really make it the best available.

if you open that thread and cmd f search piano roll, it seems that every person to bring it up favors the FL piano roll.

this post isn't for a single feature, but a plea to look over the piano roll as a whole and make changes necessary to equal or better the top piano rolls on the market. I love ableton to death and don't see a reason why such a great company and software shouldn't also have the best piano roll.

here's a post from a user in the thread as an example:

"it's extremely ergonomical. left click adds note, right click deletes, scroll wheel moves and zooms. lengthening/shortening/slicing notes are quick processes. editing velocity or other parameters is instantaneous. when you click a note, FL remembers that note length for subsequent note entry. these seem like all very simple things but they all add up and really change the game when you aren't often relying on switching tools, selecting notes, or going through right-click context menus. changing it in Ableton would be a big revamp of how Ableton actually works

FL also offers a ton of tools specific to the piano rool beyond simple quantizing and randomization, such as: instant chord stamps, slice dividing by rhythm, and even arpeggiations. for example if i draw out a C major triad, i could turn that into a 1/16th note arpeggio with one hot key. and since it actually chopped up the MIDI notes, i can rearrange the order into any other pattern I want. I could also have each 16th note play twice, making it a 32nd note stutter per note, with just another hot key. to do something like that in ableton would take a ton of selecting, copy and pasting, and hell even resampling Ableton's Arpeggiator device to get the MIDI data out. this is just one example where FL Studio's piano roll just seems to understand the things that you'd want to do with editing MIDI and lets do you it very fast. not even Ableton's pencil tool is comparable

for the record, i'm an ableton main, but still prefer FL's piano roll"


the point of this post is not to ask for an immediate overhaul of the piano role, but mainly and more importantly, to bring attention to it as a whole and the voices and criticism of its users. If this gains enough traction, the next step would be to outline a set of features that are desired, rank their priority, and design a method of development and construction

thank you :)
Last edited by ohryan on Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:05 pm, edited 3 times in total.

gbert
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2018 6:02 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by gbert » Tue Oct 22, 2019 5:38 am

Well stated. And that thread shows very consistent feedback from customers.

njassal
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 6:20 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by njassal » Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:44 pm

As I commented in the reddit post, piano roll is my most used feature and the only I reason I keep switching between live and FL. If only live developers could listen to our plea and update the piano roll, I would definitely not look right and left after that.

bakosgj
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:05 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by bakosgj » Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:07 pm

Seems like this should be a quick decision for the devs. There's like 99% support for it in that reddit thread and on here.

yuhp
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:48 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by yuhp » Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:49 pm

I would also love for this to happen! seems like an easy choice

musicjoe
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:59 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by musicjoe » Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:00 pm

It would be so great to have these feature's in Ableton Live, especially stuff like this "i could turn that into a 1/16th note arpeggio with one hot key. and since it actually chopped up the MIDI notes, i can rearrange the order into any other pattern I want. I could also have each 16th note play twice, making it a 32nd note stutter per note, with just another hot key."

Euforium
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:59 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by Euforium » Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:01 pm

Agreed 100%. While I have gotten accustomed to working with Ableton's piano roll, FL's is by far smoother and more efficient. I hope to see an update with something similar. Not necessarily the same as FL's, as even that can be innovated upon, but you get the point. The piano roll in Ableton just feels neglected compared to the rest of the DAW.

pottering
Posts: 1802
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:41 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by pottering » Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:29 pm

People are forgetting about MIDI 2.0.

It will bring big changes for MIDI in hardware and software.

So probably any big Live's Piano Roll changes will come only after MIDI 2.0 is released.

That's what Ableton is preparing for, not copying competitors (which most audio devs seem to avoid, I mean, note how the other DAWs don't copy FL's piano roll either, and, with one exception, all other devs copied Live's Session View only in part or making some big modifications).
♥♥♥

Risca
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:25 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by Risca » Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:35 pm

I agree with everything in this thread. I hope something comes from this. Fingers crossed.

hereissj
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2019 12:07 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by hereissj » Wed Oct 23, 2019 12:09 am

Yes to this. When I moved to Abelton I was shocked at some of the features it didn't have. NO SPLIT NOTE TOOL?!?!

The Phat Conductor
Posts: 1768
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:30 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by The Phat Conductor » Wed Oct 23, 2019 1:49 am

yes please! upgrades!
ill gates aka the phat conductor
producer, performer + ableton/music teacher

http://www.illgates.com

Cuffrox
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:10 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by Cuffrox » Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:14 am

This might actually get me to give Ableton a proper chance. I "try" Ableton a lot, but coming from FL my workflow which is heavily centered around the piano roll, and I find Ableton's such a downgrade that I end up not even giving the DAW a chance. It kind of upsets me because I know Ableton has a metric ton of amazing features, but they're all overshadowed by the bad piano roll.

JacobSchner
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2019 3:14 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by JacobSchner » Wed Oct 23, 2019 3:15 am

This would be super legit!

hailthekid
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 3:39 am

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by hailthekid » Wed Oct 23, 2019 5:37 am

Please product managers ! We need this !!!!

its_alias
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:43 pm

Re: Upgrade Piano Roll to match FL's for a better User Experience

Post by its_alias » Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:45 pm

Definitely having this as an option would be amazing! More customization as far as shortcuts and keystrokes and controls are def needed.

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