The new way to place notes.

Discuss working with MultitrackStudio for iPad
uncle808us
Posts: 448
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 2:35 am

The new way to place notes.

Post by uncle808us »

I don't like the way the new note placeing gadget works you can't choose a staff line to place the note very easily and you have to drag every time for a new note. Maybe I just don't get it but the old way seems more accurate and faster and not so frustrating.if you were placing notes then it just stayed on placing notes now it's back and forth dragging and so on. Bring back the easier way. Thanks
Support
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Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Support »

uncle808us wrote:you can't choose a staff line to place the note very easily and you have to drag every time for a new note.
I think it's best to zoom in vertically if you're about to enter a lot of notes in the score editor.


Giel Bremmers
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by stubbsonic »

I agree with uncle808us. As I'm getting used to the new way of selecting, I'm finding that inserting new notes is the most tedious. I get that there is a certain elegance to not having mode buttons. But touching, holding, dragging down (then imagine having to move the note if it's not where you want it ... just feels like three long steps to do something that should be a little more immediate.
Support
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Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Support »

stubbsonic wrote:I agree with uncle808us. As I'm getting used to the new way of selecting, I'm finding that inserting new notes is the most tedious. I get that there is a certain elegance to not having mode buttons. But touching, holding, dragging down (then imagine having to move the note if it's not where you want it ... just feels like three long steps to do something that should be a little more immediate.
Do you use the score or pianoroll editors?


Giel Bremmers
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by stubbsonic »

I mostly use the piano roll editor.
Littlewoodg
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:43 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Littlewoodg »

I like the new way very much. Fewer touches, much more elegant...took a few days for the new workflow to gel (and worth the time)
Just my opinion
uncle808us
Posts: 448
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 2:35 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by uncle808us »

I have stopped using the app just because of the tediousness of this new way of entering. So we must agree to disagree. I need it to stay on enter notes not be re-picking my choice each time it is a PITA!
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by stubbsonic »

Littlewoodg wrote:I like the new way very much. Fewer touches, much more elegant...took a few days for the new workflow to gel (and worth the time)
Just my opinion
It is few touches, but for note adding it is longer touches for each one-- which isn't entirely cost-free.
Support
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Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Support »

stubbsonic wrote:It is few touches, but for note adding it is longer touches for each one-- which isn't entirely cost-free.
You can reduce the hold time in the Studio-->Preferences pane though. It's quite long by default, in order to match the time Apple uses. You can make it faster if you like.

Giel Bremmers
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by stubbsonic »

Support wrote:
stubbsonic wrote:It is few touches, but for note adding it is longer touches for each one-- which isn't entirely cost-free.
You can reduce the hold time in the Studio-->Preferences pane though. It's quite long by default, in order to match the time Apple uses. You can make it faster if you like.
But that might introduce other problems like unintended instantiation of that selection mode.
Parry
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:21 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Parry »

I have to agree with the topic-starter. The new way to enter notes is doubtlessly elegant in some way but not very practical for placing a note onto a certain grid-field in one step. While swiping upwards I nearly always seem to slip a bit into the wrong direction and the note lands on a field I don't want it to be. So it gets more or less like a lottery-game to place an event onto the right position within the first attempt.

Perhaps it is a thing one has to get used to and since I'm wandering from one DAW to the other, cause I get with no one the straight forward feel of working with a desktop-sequencer, it maybe is just my first, short impression, which didn't pleased me.

Anyways - my thinking is, dedicated buttons for the most common actions for placing and removing notes are more convenient and precise.

If this new dragging-method has it's fans, maybe it could be a compromise to make it optional to reactivate the old style.
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by stubbsonic »

That might complicate things, code wise, but having a "pencil" tool mode to drop notes in would be nice.

PREFERENCE: Show/Hide Pencil Tool Mode button

When Pencil Tool Mode is on, then tapping puts a note or controller on the track. Dragging horizontally changes the note length, dragging vertically changes the pitch. Velocity would have to be handled in a separate step, though I suppose it could be adjusted by adding a 2nd tap and the 2nd finger can adjust the velocity before releasing both fingers.
Support
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Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Support »

Parry wrote:While swiping upwards I nearly always seem to slip a bit into the wrong direction and the note lands on a field I don't want it to be.
That's a feature actually ;-)

Adding a note goes like this:
- press until the mode selector appears
- move your finger down until you see the new note
- move your finger left or right until the note appears exactly where you want it to be
- release the finger


Giel Bremmers
Parry
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:21 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by Parry »

Many thanks for the info!

I've just tried it and it works out pretty good this way. Before I've just swiped up and released the finger immediately. Now I don't know exactly which type of input I would prefer in the long run.

I like MTS a lot cause it has a damn good midi-editor. What I still am missing is a "real" mixer-page and a somewhat more visual way of arranging the song - somewhat with parts, like in cubase.

To my taste cubase set somewhat like a gold-standard for midi-editing and song-arranging on the desktop.

I would love to see the the strong editing-tools of MTS in the piano-roll combined with a mixer-page and a more "visual" song-editor with parts which I could create and move, resize and so on within the timeline. But not directly by touching them, but like it has been realized in the midi-editor, with handles.

That would make it much more fast and precise to work with parts, that are larger than the actual screen and cause of this not fully visible. The handles for the parts would been despite of that always visible and this way it would not be necessary to zoom out until the handles on the part are visible - just like in the midi editor. I can't resist to mention again Nanostudio, where the handles worked for events and parts of the song in the same way. That made a wonderful fluid workflow - somewhat like cubase, optimized for the touchscreen. This way screen-size doesn't really matter - it works on small devices, like phones as good as on the ipad.

One thing which I'm also missing is support for the apple pencil. It is the only app on my iPad Pro which does not react on the pencil in any way. The pencil is a fine tool for editing small events.

One last thing on my wishlist would be a gridsize, that is fully user-adjustable. On the large iPad Pro Screen the grid could be much finer as MTS allows currently.

Many wishes - I know - and in the end it's all a matter of taste.

edit: Sorry for being partly off topic with this post.


edit2: I know that the things about a more "visible" song editor and parts and so on, I've mentioned are contrary to the current paradigm of MTS - at least I guess they are. Please take my wishes only as an expression of my personal taste and thinking about what an ideal DAW on iOS should work like. I appreciate your hard work on MTS very much and also the constant updates.
Support wrote:
Parry wrote:While swiping upwards I nearly always seem to slip a bit into the wrong direction and the note lands on a field I don't want it to be.
That's a feature actually ;-)

Adding a note goes like this:
- press until the mode selector appears
- move your finger down until you see the new note
- move your finger left or right until the note appears exactly where you want it to be
- release the finger


Giel Bremmers
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: The new way to place notes.

Post by stubbsonic »

Some of us (for example, coming from DP) prefer this linear-composition workflow, and don't need to think of musical phrases or loops as blocks-- at least not as the main way of working.

I do see the value of working with modular blocks of music-- and it can be tricky to bridge those two ways of working. I had posted a suggestion in another thread about a MIDI phrase palette (similar idea to a sample pad palette) where you could put short MIDI recordings on a multi-pad array, then trigger each pad from a sequencer track. There could be ways that the tempo is controlled either by sequence, or scaled, or keeping its own original tempo. The GUI could display each pads on/off duration as a block that can be dragged around.
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