Song Mode - making edits to recorded songs

[fitzgibbon]

I really like the record function on song mode…the ability to craft a song through starting and stopping sequences across multiple song sections is really appealing and intuitive to me.

The problem with song mode starts once you need to edit a recorded section. These problems are well documented so I won’t go into any length on that.

I believe there is a solution that keeps the existing (simple) design of song mode…here is my suggested workflow:

1. Continue to record sections of songs using the existing design…ie set up song sections within the song page and record songs by turning sequences on and off on the sequence page

2. Within the sequence tab, add a ‘song edit’ page behind each sequence. This page shows when that sequence is turned on and off within your recorded song (ie for a short sequence that comes in two times during a song it might read: section 1, start bar 4, end bar 8; section 3, start bar 4, end bar 8

3. Make the ‘song edit’ page for each sequence editable…you can edit the section, start and end points for every instance that a sequence is turned on within the recorded song (ie I might want to change the sequence to start at bar 1 instead of 4). Maybe leverage the punch-in / punch-out design from the blackbox?

The benefit of this approach is that it keeps with the existing design (minimal update required?) and makes editing sequence start and end points within a song super simple (which addresses the main gap in functionality for song sections)

Hope this makes sense!

[langley]

I would find a version of the sequence editor for songs helpful - piano roll style. is that what the previous post means?

[sc1640]

+1 yup like it

I really like the record function on song mode…the ability to craft a song through starting and stopping sequences across multiple song sections is really appealing and intuitive to me.

The problem with song mode starts once you need to edit a recorded section. These problems are well documented so I won’t go into any length on that.

I believe there is a solution that keeps the existing (simple) design of song mode…here is my suggested workflow:

1. Continue to record sections of songs using the existing design…ie set up song sections within the song page and record songs by turning sequences on and off on the sequence page

2. Within the sequence tab, add a ‘song edit’ page behind each sequence. This page shows when that sequence is turned on and off within your recorded song (ie for a short sequence that comes in two times during a song it might read: section 1, start bar 4, end bar 8; section 3, start bar 4, end bar 8

3. Make the ‘song edit’ page for each sequence editable…you can edit the section, start and end points for every instance that a sequence is turned on within the recorded song (ie I might want to change the sequence to start at bar 1 instead of 4). Maybe leverage the punch-in / punch-out design from the blackbox?

The benefit of this approach is that it keeps with the existing design (minimal update required?) and makes editing sequence start and end points within a song super simple (which addresses the main gap in functionality for song sections)

Hope this makes sense!

[Sam.mpls]

For me, the failure of song mode really has put me on the verge of selling my BB and getting a tracker instead. I really would like to know if 1010 plans on updating song mode on the BB.

[jayneural]

Song mode needs manual editing ability for sure. Right now the Blackbox has a dedicated section and page that only lets trigger sections.

I understand there was some priority on other features and enhancements but right now the improvement of the Song section and the ability to export the stems have become the priority.

[Georges]

I like how song mode works, and how blackbox connects the dots. Also, “editing” (or rather replacing) is not that hard. The only thing that is really weird with it is that sequences which are triggered before a given section do not necessarily play back correctly (from the right spot within a clip for example) when you start playing from that song section rather than from the beginning - instead clips simply play from their beginning or are not triggered at all. So in a way, WYHINWYG vs WYHIWYG, which is a pity.

[jayneural]

Exactly the behavior you mentioned tends to confuse me in this mode.

I would prefer editing my song manually rather than through recording.

[Georges]

I’d already be content if the playhead was on the correct position when monitoring the song section. Unfortunately, the song probably only contains sequence trigger events for now, which would be simply merged when two consecutive song sections each have a trigger event for the same sequence. So it wouldn’t even know about the playhead position within that sequence.

Therefore, I assume that a song timeline would not improve this behaviour when monitoring a song section.

If you ask for a song editor, my guess is that it would behave like the sequence editor and you would lose the song sections: to monitor any part of a song you would have to play the song from its start each time, which is something I don’t like about sequence mode.

[Georges]

a revision, yes, but not a complete overhaul

[jayneural]

I think the current principles can be kept. But it needs a mode where we can manually enter the active SEQs of each section and the number of iterations the section repeats.

Also it needs to optionally progress automatically to the next section during playback by considering the number of iterations set on each section. We still need the old mode where you manually switch sections though as it’s more suited to live performances/re-arranging.

A stems + full song mixdown export ability from there would complete the feature-set in terms of creating full songs on the Blackbox. Exporting the sections to mixed-down loops corresponding to each section could also be useful for those using the BB for loop banks creation.

[-thus-]

jayneural, you make a good case

[Oddkeys]

+1 to this, pretty please!

[DovGoldman]

+1 for song mode editor.

It’s pretty bad that any change necessitates re-recording the entire section.

[Fo00odm]

+1 to song mode

[Freeways]

Another +1 to song mode.