[Piano Roll] Improvements to make the workflow faster
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:55 pm
Hi all,
So I’m a long time FL Studio User (I’ve been using it since v6). I’ve also Live Lite that I use for audio editing stuff. I switched to Mac recently and I’ve been demoing Live 10. I really like it so far. I’m really thinking about buying it since I found my workflow to be much more efficient with it. However, for ONE thing I find Live a lot slower than FL Studio : it's its piano roll…
First, I don’t like the Draw Mode as it is, I never use it. Mainly because :
1) You can only use LEFT CLICK.
2) When I click on a MIDI note : it shortens it, or it deletes the note. I don't like that you can ADD and REMOVE notes just with left click. One should be Left click, the other Right click.
3) When I click to add a MIDI note, it’s never at the length i want it to be. I don’t like the fact that EACH note length is based on the grid size.
4) You can’t MOVE MIDI notes.
5) If I want to select some MIDI notes, I have to quit Draw Mode.
The way I can see those improved (I’m on Mac, sorry if I get shortcut keys mixed up!) :
First, I would « remove » the Draw Mode INSIDE the MIDI note editor (= whether Draw Mode is ON or OFF would make no difference when working inside the piano roll). This mode would just be used for envelopes/automations.
1) - Left Click : to add a note
AND
- Right Click : to remove the notes
- What about the context menu then ? On Mac you can have access to it with CTRL-Click. On Windows… hm, yes, I need you guys to figure out this one with me.
- Add a « Paint Mode On/Off Switch » button : add multiple notes as you drag in lines
2) - When you click on a MIDI note, it just selects it. That’s it. You’d still be able to increase/decrease its length when the cursor is on the edges of the note.
While you are still dragging the note, hit Cmd(Alt on win?) to bypass snapping
3) - When you simply Left Click to add a note : it would add a note to the length of the previous one you added. Like in FL Studio, This one would make things so much faster!
AND
- Shift+Left Click to add a MIDI note with its length based on the grid size
4) - Left click+Drag : to move the MIDI note wherever you want.
5) - Alt+Drag (Ctrl+Drag on win?) : to select Notes.
- Shift+Alt+Click or Drag : to append to your selection.
some other features I'd like to see :
- Add a slice note Mode button : place your mouse where you want over a MIDI note and Left click to divide it.
- If you want to consolidate notes : select the two/+ notes and press Cmd+J
- Scale highlighting : just like in FL, you choose a scale root, and a scale type and the notes from that particular scale are highlighted.
The way it is on FL : http://i.imgur.com/8kJ9BHr.png // http://i.imgur.com/9gHDz6E.png
What do you think of these ideas ? How would you improve the piano roll experience ?
So I’m a long time FL Studio User (I’ve been using it since v6). I’ve also Live Lite that I use for audio editing stuff. I switched to Mac recently and I’ve been demoing Live 10. I really like it so far. I’m really thinking about buying it since I found my workflow to be much more efficient with it. However, for ONE thing I find Live a lot slower than FL Studio : it's its piano roll…
First, I don’t like the Draw Mode as it is, I never use it. Mainly because :
1) You can only use LEFT CLICK.
2) When I click on a MIDI note : it shortens it, or it deletes the note. I don't like that you can ADD and REMOVE notes just with left click. One should be Left click, the other Right click.
3) When I click to add a MIDI note, it’s never at the length i want it to be. I don’t like the fact that EACH note length is based on the grid size.
4) You can’t MOVE MIDI notes.
5) If I want to select some MIDI notes, I have to quit Draw Mode.
The way I can see those improved (I’m on Mac, sorry if I get shortcut keys mixed up!) :
First, I would « remove » the Draw Mode INSIDE the MIDI note editor (= whether Draw Mode is ON or OFF would make no difference when working inside the piano roll). This mode would just be used for envelopes/automations.
1) - Left Click : to add a note
AND
- Right Click : to remove the notes
- What about the context menu then ? On Mac you can have access to it with CTRL-Click. On Windows… hm, yes, I need you guys to figure out this one with me.
- Add a « Paint Mode On/Off Switch » button : add multiple notes as you drag in lines
2) - When you click on a MIDI note, it just selects it. That’s it. You’d still be able to increase/decrease its length when the cursor is on the edges of the note.
While you are still dragging the note, hit Cmd(Alt on win?) to bypass snapping
3) - When you simply Left Click to add a note : it would add a note to the length of the previous one you added. Like in FL Studio, This one would make things so much faster!
AND
- Shift+Left Click to add a MIDI note with its length based on the grid size
4) - Left click+Drag : to move the MIDI note wherever you want.
5) - Alt+Drag (Ctrl+Drag on win?) : to select Notes.
- Shift+Alt+Click or Drag : to append to your selection.
some other features I'd like to see :
- Add a slice note Mode button : place your mouse where you want over a MIDI note and Left click to divide it.
- If you want to consolidate notes : select the two/+ notes and press Cmd+J
- Scale highlighting : just like in FL, you choose a scale root, and a scale type and the notes from that particular scale are highlighted.
The way it is on FL : http://i.imgur.com/8kJ9BHr.png // http://i.imgur.com/9gHDz6E.png
What do you think of these ideas ? How would you improve the piano roll experience ?
