Proposal for an alternate sequence editor (earlier suggestions taken into account)

[emji_herara]

As the title mentions I'd like make a proposal for a different sequence editor to replace the current one.

THE PROBLEM

Removing and adding notes within the piano roll of the bb is just not fun with it's touch gestures.
- If you want to be precise when adding notes you need to do pinch gesture several times to get to a zoom level where you don't screw up. And then out again to go to another part of the sequence and then zoom in again.
- Even with loads of zooming I find it all to easy to accidentally add a note when I want to remove one or vice versa
- Since scrolling through the sequence is also done by touch it easily gets in the way by accidentally scrolling to another part when you wanted to add/remove notes.

PREVIOUS IDEA FROM OTHER USERS

A more like TR-style sequencer. Possibly as seen in fxbox.
Now I love sequencing in that style. However: while it works great for drums it's very hard to use for melodies/slices. That means with such a sequencer you'd still not solve the problems you have above when wanting to edit/create melodies.

MY PROPOSAL


To keep touch gestures in the editor solely for scrolling or zooming through the sequence. In my version of the sequence editor you have two modes within the editor.

1) Edit mode: the already existing mode for selecting notes, moving and/or extending them. Imagine the little + and - icons grayed out in that mode.
2) Input mode: once the pen icon is pressed you toggle this mode and a yellow cursor window appears. + - become white and the pen icon gets a blue background. You can then input and remove notes with the + and - buttons.
Similar as in pads view the left top and bottom encoders can be used to go move the cursor window left& right and up & down respectively. Top right enc extends the cursor from one to two or more cells for creating longer notes similar as extending notes in edit mode.

This mode I imagine not only to be much more precise for note input/removal. It also adds possibilities for future extensions that many bb users have been asking for such as:
- copy & pasting part of a sequence (copying whatever is in your cursor window, pasting wherever your cursor starts)
- add notes via midi step by step without the sequencer running (when record button is toggled, but not play?). Possibly with automatic forwarding to the next step after input.
- tie notes (all notes within the cursor window)
- undo within seq editor.


Above functions could all be added to the edit menu in the top bar.

Thanks and glad to hear your responses.

[emji_herara]

Any feedback on this? Curious what the bb-community thinks of this feature.

[byrdinbbylon]

I like your idea a lot. It makes sense to avoid the fat fingering while trying to add or delete notes directly on the grid. It would be cool when entering a note to also be able to set things like velocity, length, mute % etc., so maybe after entering the note, if you click to the Edit or Event tab, that same note stays selected to tweak those until you move selection to a different note.

Good job including a screen shot for a visual. I appreciate the thought you put into it.

[emji_herara]

Today while editing a sequence I thought of another feature that such an editor would make possible.
A "Select" command accessible from the edit menu.
Once executed everything within the cursor window turns pink and you can extend or shift around multiple notes!
One can dream...

[pieter3d]

This would be a big step forwards imo, especially the copy pasting. The current sequencer is just too slow and uninspiring for me, to the point where I don't use it at all. I would personally prefer some sort of algorithmic sequencer, the interface is much more suitable for just a few controls imo. If I want a huge piano roll style sequencer, a DAW or even a tablet/ipad app does that much better. The BB's screen is just too small for this imo.

Oh well, I guess I'm the minority.

[soundsorange]

I’d love more sophistication and usability in the sequencer. Algorithmic sequencing would be great! Eg a Euclidean pattern generator capable of generating multiple patterns for different notes or pads within a single sequence of arbitrary length.