Ok, so here's again something I've been thinking about lately. And which, again, may or may not lead to things eventually actually getting done... ;)
See, there's currently a sort of inconsistency in the paradigms of the different tracks. Instrument-, bb- and sampletracks all work with a "per-track" paradigm: each track is connected to one thing (one instrument, one bb-track, one sampletrack-fx-chain). Whereas automation tracks work with a "per-pattern" paradigm, where each automation pattern can individually be connected to different models. I'm starting to think it would be a better idea to have automations also work in a "per-track" paradigm. So that you'd connect a track to a knob, and then all patterns on that track would always automate that knob. Pros: + consistency with other track types + clarity: you'll know that a track connected to eg. "volume" only ever has patterns that automate "volume" + ease of use: when you'd connect a track to a knob, you could then just add new automations on the track with one click of the mouse. Compare to current situation: you either have to clone an existing pattern (and maybe clear it if you want to do a totally different curve) or hunt down the knob you want to automate again and drag it to the new pattern + most people use automation tracks in this way anyway, I think (see: clarity) Cons: - this might cause in some cases a need for more tracks in the project (I don't see it as a big issue though, because again: clarity, most of the time it's better to use a per-track system anyway) - backwards compat might be a bit tricky to implement (should be doable though) This could also mean that we could discard the idea of a tempo track: If we make it so that each model can only be connected to one track, then it'll effectively mean that a tempo track could just be a normal automation track connected to tempo. There's also convenient features that could be implemented if automation tracks worked in a per-track way: something which Tobiasz (Unfa) suggested once is that we could draw the state of the automation as a line between the patterns so that you could always see the automation, and it could even be made so that the automation would be set at the right value when playing from mid-song, eliminating the need to "burn in" automations. This can only be done if automations work per-track, though. Opinions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slashdot TV. Video for Nerds. Stuff that Matters. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=160591471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ LMMS-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/lmms-devel
