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A feature request - ghostnotes in the piano roll
24 December, 2018 - 09:03 — Devil999
As far as I understand it's hard to implement simultaneous editing of multiple midi tracks in Qtractor's piano roll, but there's an easier solution, namely showing ghostnotes of other tracks in the main track, and it seems much easier to accomplish, correct me if I'm wrong? It would be great to have ghostnotes like in FL, for example.
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re. A feature request - ghostnotes in the piano roll
hi, I remember a few years ago someone was already doing some sort of this feature, over the Linux Musicians forum, it even reached to show a screenshot of sorts but i don't really know if it was a mockup or if it was for real... found it: Re: Editing several MIDI tracks at the same place ...
maybe you can add and ask there for its status?
cheers
re: hi, I remember a few years ago someone was already doing
No. What I suggest is much simpler, just visible greyed-out notes from another tracks.
This confuses me as "ghost
This confuses me as "ghost notes" are just notes with lower velocities.
re. This confuses me as "ghost
Yes you have a point but I think that what is asked here is about "ghost" being notes from other track(s) serving as visual guides displayed in the background, possibly in a dimmed or transparent color; as said originally, the idea is allegedly borrowed from FLStudio and not from any music theory compendium ;)
cheers
ok so like, "ghost tracks"...
ok so like, "ghost tracks"... I see. Maybe that's interesting or maybe not as I could see that becoming a potential complex thing. How would you specify what track and what degree of contents from that track? Maybe now you want more tracks... circle back to the same questions. Just thinking aloud. I wonder if more mileage would be had by simply allowing the piano roll to select from a menu of tracks instead. Like a pulldown menu to the left of "Note On" that contained a list of all tracks. If used and a track selected, change the view to display that data. Just a thought...
re. "ghost tracks"...
yes, if and when doable, the "ghost track" selection would be done via the pull-down/pop-up menu, which I think is like the way it's done on FLStudio.
cheers
re: the "ghost track" selection
Again, that's not quite what I was talking about. Why not just show greyed-out notes of all other tracks simultaneously, like FL always did? It's much more basic than selecting tracks via a menu.
re: the "ghost track" selection
because there may be too many other tracks? :)
cheers
re: because there may be too many other tracks?
well, FL folks seem to be content with it. Anyway, I agree that ghost track selection is a better idea for Qtractor.
Actually, the reason greyed
Actually, the reason greyed out notes are pretty much a waste of time goes far beyond how sloppy and chaotic things get when you consider the number and selection of tracks to be "ghosted". The point is, greyed out notes wouldn't be edited. Once you get into the question of "how do I go ahead and actually enable 1 or more of those ghost tracks so I can make changes, that's when you realize how limited and inefficient this approach is. That's why it would be better to just provide a quicker way to access another track. All that's needed would be a simple pull-down menu displaying track names (sorted by track number).
re. A feature request - ghostnotes in the piano roll
Good news!
The View > Ghost Track menu is now for real on the MIDI clip editor (aka. piano-roll) -- in git head of branch 'xghost' only.
You can now select any the existing MIDI tracks and respective clips that will show in the background as ghost, dimmed semi-transparent events. See below an example screenshot where "Track 1" is shown as ghost to "Track 2".
Enjoy && Cheers!
[UPDATE:] the 'xghost' branch has been just merged today into 'master', cf. qtractor-0.9.7.9git.3a9b96.
re: The View > Ghost Track menu is now for real
Thank you very much, rncbc! I'm glad that you regard users with care and amazed at how quickly you implement practical feature requests!
Funny how some people can't communicate their requests to proprietary daw developers for years, it's like common users are a nuisance to them.
re: The View > Ghost Track menu is now for real
wholly thanks
well, tbh. I also took several years to make it through reality: the earliest request on this iirc. was informally proposed (face-to-face) during lac2013@IEM-Graz, one year later in this somewhat related LM forum thread which I've already linked above and reinstated again f2f on lac20152JGU-Mainz...
yes, i do listen to user's requests, eventually :) but as the old saying goes: it's too many (feature) requests, too little (spare) time ;)
cheers
This is probably good (for
This is probably good (for someone?) but I'd like to see things go even further and be able to switch to another track quickly from within PR itself. That way, the user doesn't have to leave PR only to end up there again after taking action in the arranger view. A pulldown menu showing available tracks to switch focus to would look great on the same toolbar where "Chromatic" is displayed.
As always, thanks for the continued work and support.
re. This is probably good (...)
the problem is that the qtractor PR (piano-roll) is a MIDI *clip* editor, not quite a track one. The subject being edited is, and has been since long ago, the MIDI clip, which one MIDI track may have several even overlapping each other.
the ghost track will serve as visual guides perhaps and only. sorry :)
cheers
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