Idea for managing velocity, dynamic, and pedal data in an easy way.

[ryanpmcguire]

Please see this image for an easy to understand explanation of this idea. In my version of Helio, I have already changed note velocities to be less obtrusive and to look more like they do in FL studio. However, I have been frustrated by the way midi CC data is handled. I think my idea is an improvement over existing piano roll systems. Though, only for basic editing such as velocity, CC, and pedal data.

Making this feature would require cooperation between us (I would require your expertise on JUCE and the existing structure of Helio to do the background work, the rest I can manage myself)

An example of how my version already looks:

[peterrudenko]

Thank you for bringing it up, CC automation tracks definitely do need more love: now the are too tiny for convenient editing, and glitchy sometimes.

The most straightforward improvement would be to make the bottom panel of the piano roll (the "volume editor") able to switch between note velocities and any of the automation tracks added to the project; and also make existing automation editors more convenient, e.g. "drawing CC curve with click-and-drag", as you've mentioned.

This is the part I was planning to start working on someday, at least it relies on features which are mostly already implemented.

switching between editing both would be hell, so since we're likely only using CC#1

We're likely to be using any of them, all CCs from 0 to 101 should be available. How to make switching between them less frustrating is a good question though.

Not sure if I understand the part with the note with "tail curve" and the very first illustration - do you mean some sort of MPE automation? Or, if not, why the curve should be tied to any specific note? What am I missing?

[ryanpmcguire]

I would like you to imagine dragging your mouse left to right to sweep through a series of notes. Now, imagine that if for just one note you could wiggle your mouse up and down as you dragged in order to draw a “pitch bend” line. The line could control microtones or be a more precise and delayed vibrato. The line would be represented as coming off the head of the note and heading up or down. Now apply the same thinking to other CC’s such as dynamics. Clearly, there would be an issue when moving notes, since now the cc data would be in the same spot while the note has moved. Therefore my idea is to “attach” certain kinds of cc data to particular notes. In the case for when multiple notes are playing at once an average would be taken. For the sake of simplicity, the decision to include cc data in a track’s notes would be explicit, and not automatic. A note would by default produce no data stream, only producing one if anything was changed from the default for that particular note or the user selected a certain CC to include with note data.

this way, a user can comfortably shift notes around without having to worry about displacing them from the associated CC events. The notes themselves produce the cc data. Hence the tail in the drawings.

the more I type the more I realize this wouldn’t be terribly difficult for me to implement under current circumstances.