Yet another noob's first impressions and suggestions

[stubbsonic]

What a great app! Hands-down the most flexible compositional app on iOS. My current obsession is exploring new rhythms; polyrhythms, unusual tuplets, etc. And MTS allows a great degree of power in this regard.

I tried to understand the app pretty well before making these suggestions, but it is possible I overlooked something. Hard to say if any of these suggestions would be of any interest to anyone but me. These are mostly related to MIDI functions. I also think some of these could help set MTS apart from the competition. Here goes:

1. When a note is being dragged, it would be very helpful to display the start-time and duration in the data field at the bottom. Currently, pitch and volume are displayed, however, velocity might be more useful than volume.

2. When dragging a group of notes, perhaps show the start-time, duration & pitch of the first/lowest note of a group.

3. When the end of a note is being dragged, display the end time and note duration in beats|ticks.

4. Add release velocity to the controllers list. Not a big priority, but my main external synth can read this, and I use it to modulate release times.

5. When dragging the velocity sliders, it would be helpful to show the value on the bottom of the screen.

6. Break out the MIDI NOTES EDITOR into a menu of functions:

A. ADJUST VELOCITY: (with 3 options, each with radio buttons)
Scale (1% - 200%)
Limit to Range (From 0-127 to 1-127)
Add/Subtract a fixed value

B. VELOCITY CURVE (if done well, this could entirely replace #1)
Provide a little input/output curve
which could act as a compressor

C. RAMP VELOCITIES
Gradually ramps up velocities in time range selected
FIXED: From X to Y (two fixed values)
PERCENT: From X% to Y%

D. TRANSPOSE:
Simple interval up/down
Scale remap (constrain to scale and up/down x steps)
(allow custom scales)

E. QUANTIZE
A simple quantize with basic note values.

F. SHIFT
A simple shift function, moves notes by some number of ticks.

G. ADVANCED QUANTIZE (has three stages)
PRE-QUANTIZE SHIFT
QUANTIZE TO X:Y (X notes per Y beats)
X = 1-16 and Y = 1-16
(alternatively, could have a grid based on X|Y unit where
it is simply X beats and Y ticks.)
That will allow ANY kind of note value & triplet I would ever need.
POST-QUANTIZE SHIFT

H. CHANGE DURATION:
1. ADJUST: just add or subtract beats|ticks from notes
2. SCALE by 1-1000% ?

7. GRID SNAP
A long press of the SNAP button brings up brings up a note value menu:
1/1, 1/2, 1/2., 1/4, 1/4., 1/8, 1/8., 1/8t, 1/16, 1/16t
You could grey out any divisions that are not available
at the current zoom level. I added dotted notes, because if I am in
6/8, 9/8, 12/8, it is useful to snap to dotted quarters.

8. In setting tempo, it might be useful to set a unit per beat:
Quarter = 120 BPM, Eighth = 240 BPM, Dotted-Quarter = 80 BPM, etc.

9. Sometimes when I'm dragging a note to a different pitch, I'd like to keep the horizontal time the same.
A "relative grid" mode might be useful for this. Or perhaps there could be a special smart drag option
in preferences that will allow notes to be dragged either horizontally OR vertically, but not both
simultaneously (i.e., no diagonal movement). Perhaps this could be invoked with a long press on the note?

10. Perhaps a long press on the ADD NOTE mode button could lock it as an option.

[Support]

Thanks for the suggestions!

1. When a note is being dragged, it would be very helpful to display the start-time and duration in the data field at the bottom. Currently, pitch and volume are displayed, however, velocity might be more useful than volume.

'volume' actually is velocity. MultitrackStudio used to say 'volume' instead of velocity consistently. I've come to my senses some time ago , but this one was overlooked apparently. I've changed it now. Thanks!


Giel Bremmers

[stubbsonic]

Thanks for replying, Giel.

Yea, I think of ALL those somewhat ambitious requests, I think one that would be relatively easy and most helpful would be that #1, to show the selected note's start time & duration (or end time) in that data display-- especially the start-time. As I'm dragging a note, it would be essential to know that I've let go right where I want it in time.

I also like the idea of "Smart Dragging" which interprets up/down drags and locks the timing of the note down-- and interprets sideways drags by preventing any vertical movement. That would make lots of MIDI note moving pretty elegant.

[A.I.R.Studio]

This is already possible in the Midi Note editor. Simply tap the note and tap edit. There you can see the not info. Here you can move it's note position, duration and note number all without touching the note. This is why this feature is here. It is for the finest adjustment possible without messing with the screen or thinking about the grid. Once you apply the change the note will adjust to your newest setting. Undo if your not satisfied with the change. Cheers~~_/)~~~*

[stubbsonic]

Thanks, A.I.R.

The method you suggested seems like it would work for some cases where I want to change pitches without changing the time position.

However, I don't really find it very efficient for moving notes horizontally (or both vertically and horizontally). For rhythm, I have to tap in the field, back-space over the old value, type in the new value (without necessarily being able to see the note). The ability to drag the value in that window/field (which is not available for position or duration) might be a little bit better, but I'd really MUCH rather drag the note or note-end, and see it change while I'm dragging it. This would be way quicker and more easy to see what I'm doing.

But thanks again for your suggestion! I didn't realize that window looked different when only one note is selected.