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Also: for Berlin mode, when depressing a step, can we have it so that either the [STEP] button in the mode block or the [ZOM] button available to quickly jump into that step. I keep on reaching for it and it’s not there.
Personally, I feel the new edit mode (Berlin-style) is necessary. I don’t use the other edit mode (where any step press plays that note) at present, but I can certainly conceive of uses for it (using an Octopus page to replace a conventional keyboard, which I have considered doing – performance-wise, watching someone play an Octopus is mysterious while watching someone play keyboards is familiar).
So I think they’re all necessary, but if you’re having trouble navigating, maybe we could have both edit modes but have some sort of grid-mode selection method where you can toggle which one is active. That is, on Grid, a certain button combo toggles between the two styles above for any page set to edit. That way you still have access to everything, but in page mode we reduce the number of modes to cycle through, and if you only use one of them you never have to worry about the other.
(Note I’m at work and might have used "edit" where I should have used "preview", or something. Don’t have a manual here.)
Well, I can appreciate your argument, but that’s at odds with how I would like to work. Of course, usability and majority preference is more important than my unique wishes.
With that in mind:
Let’s say I’m playing in A natural minor, and I want to change to C major. With all the same notes, the user scale functionality as you describe (force to scale) obviously does nothing. All the notes are already to diatonic to both keys.
With my method, if I had all my root notes on row 0, etc, I can then input a new key which decides exactly what the end product is; that is, a I chord before transposition can be controlled to be a I chord afterward. Conversely, if I wanted to invert a melody, I could input the notes for the transposition in reverse sequence.
By your method, a particular note might be common to both keys, and then I end up with unpredictable melodic or harmonic arrangements (because it might have been the tonic in the first key but the supertonic of the new key, and so my sequence might be suddenly putting an odd emphasis on the supertonic.)
Or, by your method, when a particular note is no longer in the new scale, you can also end up with peculiar arrangements, like it being bumped to a sixth, which might be interesting but might sound awful.
Now, less perfectly predictable things can be inspirational, and the ease of use of your method is a certain benefit. But for me, my method lets me produce some more interesting results.
What I would like to is something like this:
You set a page to participate in "input real-time transposition" (somehow). (Hold Record and tap scale?)
Those pages listen to a specific MIDI Channel/Port (fixed as channel 16 port 2 works for me, but whatever).
When MIDI notes come in on the specified channel, the Octopus listens for the note-off messages and then reassigns the pitches of all participating pages based on the note-on order, first note depressed assigned to row 0, increasing by row, and rows above notes played unaltered.
So: If I hold, say, notes 60, 63 and 67 (in that order), and then release them, upon release, all participating pages have row zero assigned a default pitch of 60, row 1 = 63, row 2 = 67 and all other rows unaltered. After that if I press note 72, row zero is assigned a new value while all other rows maintain their current values.
This way I could keep "all notes functioning as a root note" on row 0, and then preserve their melodic/harmonic function while changing keys by pressing the notes of a chord in ascending order, or reassign row 0’s harmonic/melodic function by pressing the notes down in a different order (for other variations).
Also it should only effect row default pitch, but not step offsets, so that I can transpose things in another manner if I want things to work that way.
This would be PERFECT for how I work, but I know that might not work for everyone.
I was wondering if we could have multiple steps associated with one hypertrack. If they can’t play simultaneously, i.e. if a newly encountered hyperstep resets the playback of the hypertrack, that would be fine. But I would like to play with having different hypersteps triggering the hypertrack at different pitches. Is that possible? It’s not all that important to me, just a thought.
Our answers agree. There’s different methods of MIDI timing: MIDI Clock and MIDI Time Code, and MMC (MIDI Machine Control) is a different beast entirely.
MIDI Clock is a low resolution (relative to the internal timing of any DAW), tempo-based message. It also includes start (from the beginning), stop, and continue (from where stopped) messages, as well as a certain number of pings every quarternote (24, I think) that other MIDI-clock friendly programs can count and follow. This is what I’ve had Max chasing.
MIDI Time Code gives an absolute timing reference (i.e. saying we’re thirty seconds into the song instead of MIDI Clock that just follows ticks). It’s more sophisticated, but the Octopus can’t generate (or follow) it.
The Octopus does not generate any MMC messages.
I had translated your post (MMC from Octopus) to mean, "Can you get a DAW to follow the Octopus?" Yes, you can. I don’t have a copy of ProTools, but I have had Max following the Octopus. It works. But Ripe pointed out that you didn’t ask "Can you have the Octopus generate start, stop and continue messages?" (which it can – in MIDI clock), but rather, "Does it generate MIDI Machine Control messges?" (which it does not). So he was right, I overlooked that.
Further, Ripe is pointing out that MIDI Clock is not all that precise. He’s right. I had slight irregularities between Max and the Octopus. He’s saying if you’re using a serious rig like ProTools, you probably want MIDI Time Code, which not many hardware sequencers generate.
It does send MIDI start, stop and continue messages as defined by MIDI Clock. Ripe was making the distinction between MIDI Clock and MMC, which I should have done but it slipped my notice.
Obvious question: you have the Octopus set to transmit? (The 200 button is lit orange in GRID view.)
