Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Discuss working with MultitrackStudio for iPad
StormJH1
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2014 3:30 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by StormJH1 »

Interesting. I figured there were legacy reasons as to the why it is how it is. MTS is becoming my go-to MIDI sequencer anyway, just by virtue of the fact that it's already in the DAW where my audio is eventually going to end up. So, my only gripe about the MIDI grid is that it makes it a little harder than other sequencers to add and delete notes. Yes, it prevents false notes, but those are less of a big deal of you can double-tap to delete, or simply throw a bunch on the grid and move them into place anyway. Just my perspective, others may like it just fine the way it is.

The only reason we nitpick like we do is that this stuff is just so convenient to have in one place that I WANT to use it. It doesn't need to have the "best" MIDI sequencer, or chord controller, or sampler, or SoundFont player, etc. As long as all of those apps are pretty good, the reality is that MTS is the one getting used, as opposed to opening up a specialized app for each of those functions.

I try to explain that to people constantly about MTS, but it's not something that's obvious from screenshots and feature lists - you need use it in workflow to understand why it works so well!
carnbot
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 1:51 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by carnbot »

Feature requests to add unless someone already has ;)

Multi audio output, to record tracks out to desktop DAW through audio interfaces like iCA4+ (edit: just seen this has been answered in another thread)

midi sync slave, so that an external app can drive MTS clock. I use this feature quite a lot in other apps but currently it seems impossible to drive MTS from another app.

Thanks!
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by Support »

carnbot wrote:midi sync slave, so that an external app can drive MTS clock. I use this feature quite a lot in other apps but currently it seems impossible to drive MTS from another app.
It's on the request list. It's not exactly a no-brainer though: all audio channels would have to be resampled in order to be able to stay in sync with the incoming MIDI clock.


Giel Bremmers
thus
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2015 2:31 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by thus »

Please make Punch and SOS features work with External and Virtual MIDI instruments the same way they do with audio and built-in instruments. Specifically, send existing MIDI data from the track being recorded to these instruments.

Thanks for your consideration. In my opinion, this feels more like a bug than a new feature, in the sense that it is unexpected and frustrating for the user who has no idea why Punch and SOS aren't working. I hope it can be prioritized as such.
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by Support »

thus wrote:Please make Punch and SOS features work with External and Virtual MIDI instruments the same way they do with audio and built-in instruments. Specifically, send existing MIDI data from the track being recorded to these instruments.
The issue has been on to todo list since 2006, so I guess it's time to look into it :roll:

It's far from trivial though. An (invisible) copy of the instrument is used internally to play back the existing parts. This is not possible with external gear or iOS apps.


Giel Bremmers
legsmechanical
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:44 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by legsmechanical »

New user. I can't believe I'm just now finding this app. Bought the upgrade immediately. So happy to have a tool like this! It's going to change my live set considerably.

I have some feature suggestions:

1) Global pitch-shift that affects audio and midi just like the tempo editor does. I am using this with a live band, and the ability to transpose all of our backing tracks with a single function would be very helpful.

2) Global show/hide track button. Sometimes I want to see what's going on in detail on every track. If I want to do that, I have to push on each track label to open it up, then do the same to collapse them when I need to get back to mixing. I simple show/hide track button somewhere on the interface that worked on all tracks would make this much quicker.

3) Overdub recording for non-MTS midi instruments with monitoring of existing data (Midi SOS). It seems to me that there doesn't need to be another shadow version of the instrument playing. All that we really need is for existing note data to transmit at the same time as we input new ones. This is how almost every midi sequencer works in overdub mode. Sure, it could cause problems with polyphony, etc. on some instruments, but those are problems have arisen with midi sequencers since the dawn of time. I think people are accustomed to dealing with that on the instrument receiving the data rather than expecting the unit transmitting it to work out the problem.

Again, really digging this app. And can't wait to see what further development brings.
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by Support »

Thanks for the requests.
legsmechanical wrote:1) Global pitch-shift that affects audio and midi just like the tempo editor does. I am using this with a live band, and the ability to transpose all of our backing tracks with a single function would be very helpful.
Maybe you can use a Transposer effect in the Master section? Only the 'External MIDI Instrument' and 'Virtual MIDI Apps' aren't affected by this.

Giel Bremmers
carnbot
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 1:51 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by carnbot »

Hi,

I want to add a couple of feature requests:

live audiobus mixing: Unless I'm not doing it right at the moment this isn't possible.

I have for example four different audiobus apps going to different tracks. Armed them with record, when playing the inputs there is a signal in each track but the volume controls don't change the levels of the inputs. It would be great to be able to mix live and also add effects in MTS live to the signal.

plus even better to also add controls to Audiobus remote :)
And then send multiple outputs to my IConnect4+ ;)


midi learn: Please consider adding this too for all the main track controls, so useful.

Thanks for considering Giel :)
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by Support »

carnbot wrote:live audiobus mixing
You need the engage the 'Mon' button, located near the top of the screen. This makes the signal go through MultitrackStudio. If it's 'off' the audiobus signal is routed straight to the audio device output, just because it would be weird to have audiobus apps which aren't audible. On the other hand, being able to monitor an app without engaging the 'Mon' button is rather confusing too, of course ;-)


Giel Bremmers
carnbot
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 1:51 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by carnbot »

That's great, thanks Giel I missed that.

Is there a way of having the send effects and Master effects work in this mode?

Plus any plan in the future to assign midi learnable cc controls for the mixer controls so you can mix with a hardware controller?

thanks,
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by Support »

carnbot wrote:Is there a way of having the send effects and Master effects work in this mode?
No. It works this way in order to provide the most reliable low-latency audio possible. People ask for this every now and then, but I don't think it will change in the near future.
carnbot wrote:Plus any plan in the future to assign midi learnable cc controls for the mixer controls so you can mix with a hardware controller?
It will probably be added at some point, but there are more important things to do first.


Giel Bremmers
carnbot
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 1:51 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by carnbot »

Hi,

MTS is such a productive iPad app, I love it the more I use it. I have been getting deeper into making compositions on it over the summer and have found a few more things which could help workflow. I know it's an ongoing project and I'm sure you have a long list of things to be added but I hope you can consider these too (I'm sure some are already on the list):

"cut" option (not just copy and paste)

Track editor:
  • When you make a selection on a wave form (or midi notes) you get an option to change the colour of it. it then keeps the same colour when you duplicate/copy&paste it or change the colour again. Helpful for marking out changes and different sounds on the same track. You can then quickly see where parts are repeated and other details useful for composition.

    For this feature more colours to choose from would be needed than current option.

    Ability to copy from one Audio track and choose to merge this data over another track when pasting (like a mixdown instead of overwriting)
Song Editor:
  • Track names on the left, difficult to read them currently.

    Ability to add named markers at the top to delineate sections (press and hold could open pop-up written notes)
    Areas in between markers can be assigned a background colour to see sections globally. This background colour is also shown in the track view. Maybe this doesn't have to be a background colour but coloured dots or bars, but something similar. These features would be great for composing as I find it's easy to get a bit lost.

    Markers and sections added in the song editor also appear on the track editor timeline too, at the bottom (see illustration)

    Ability to copy/cut and paste and move around individual selections in the song editor would be great too (I mean same track operations and track to track)

    Ability to simplify waveform graphic representations in selectable iterations to speed up redraw (on both track and song editor). Redraw can get quite slow (am on Air2) I guess this is for stability, which obviously is more important but a way of speeding up redraw would be useful.
Midi tracks:
  • Humanise options

    option to lengthen and shorten groups of notes to a certain length

    bigger zoom pop up box when moving and editing lengths of notes etc (definable size in settings)
General:
  • When you start MTS please have dialogue box option to either start a blank song or load previous song.
    Currently it loads previous song (and all IAA instruments) which if you just want to start a different track or load a different track slows things down a lot. This option could also be enabled in settings.

    Also please allow access to MTS song data via iTunes so you can backup songs. Since iOS 8.2 you cant get access so cant backup, this makes me a little nervous when a project gets quite big, I know you can export but this would be really useful to backup a lot of songs quickly.

    Ability to save a number of snapshots for songs.

    plus other things I've seen mentioned like duplicating tracks and a pastebin section where you can have audio and midi parts away from the song timeline but still in the project.
Below are some quick refs I made for the song editor and track editor requests by way of a quick illustration. Don't mean it to be exactly like that but you know what I mean :)

Thanks for looking and considering! (Sorry for the long post)

Image[/URL]
Image[/URL]
carnbot
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 1:51 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by carnbot »

Hi,

I have another request to add to my suggestions...(sorry for all the requests!)

It would be great to be able to disengage/engage the midi clock send when live recording other apps.

Sometimes this is really useful as when recording other apps slaved to MTS clock when you stop the clock you still get some nice reverb/delay and other effects happening and tailing off. These can't currently be captured when recording. Perhaps there could be a clock send icon at the bottom panel which could engage and disengage the clock send, then you could capture these parts more easily.

This would also be very useful and fun for live jamming with other apps... :)

I know there's workarounds for this but I like the workflow of using the MTS clock.

many thanks
uncle808us
Posts: 448
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 2:35 am

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by uncle808us »

- chord and lyrics editor (with chord track and lyrics prompter)
Would be my vote!!!
The ability to save MTS songs without going thru iTunes! Dropbox, Box, Copy cloud apps. Any where besides being wired to iTunes.
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Future development (MTS users please chime in!)

Post by Support »

I'll look into this and other threads in a day or two. I'm very busy at the moment.


Giel Bremmers
Post Reply