wishlist for O.S after 1.02

[gseher]

The exact step button value in PAGE MODE

Good ideas this new O.S 1.02
Octopus is a really good sequencer
But i think it’s really shame that in PAGE MODE, when we turn VEL, PIT,…. and push a STEP button we can’t know the level (or/and the note) of this STEP (by exemple on the inner or external circle…)

Regards.

Arnaud

[gseher]

Good Idea !!

[gseher]

Hello,

on my side, there is something that I still have problems to figure out.
I understand from the manual that you can have notes played legato if the length is set to the max.
After some email discussion with Gabriel, I understood that there were valid reasons that legato is implemented in the following manner:
– if length is set to max, then no NOTE OFF is sent for the current step. However a NOTE ON is sent on the following step.

It is my understanding that a polyphonic synthesizer would see its polyphony eaten up rapidly depending on the voice allocation. For a mono synth, it would be a bit simpler but possibly with a retrigger of some envelopes.

One of my goals being simply to be able to create long pads, I would have expected that there is a way that two or more steps are tied together (i.e. no NOTE OFF nor NOT ON between two steps) so that I do not have to resort using different track speeds, effectively reducing track resolution.
Possibly, we could get that ‘tie’ feature in a future revision of the OS.

Please forgive me if there are some misunderstandings on my side but that is how I see things at the moment.
Your feedback is welcome.

Regards,
Xavier

PS: another thing I asked to Gabriel is if the Octopus could implement a kind of a ‘Panic’ button. That would basically mean a button or a combination of key presses that would lead the Octopus to send an ALL NOTES OFF and an ALL SOUNDS OFF messages on all channels of both MIDI outputs.

[Administrator]

Hi Xavier,

the "all notes off" (cc 123) as you suggested will come into effect by pressing stop when the sequencer is both stopped and master. Watch the space.
Also, anyone pros/cons/preferences for an "all controllers off" (cc 121) tirade to go with that?

The legato thing is more involved.
Especially when you say you want two or more steps with no note off or on in-between them. Problem is, in MIDI a note is defined by at least its note on message – so by that token you would have no way to trigger later notes – well, unless you were pitch bending, I guess.
That may get messy and unprecise (since pitch bend interpretation on the synth is adjustable and not hard-defined), but maybe that’s the way to go?

Gabriel

[gseher]

gseher wrote:

Quote:

Problem is, in MIDI a note is defined by at least its note on message – so by that token you would have no way to trigger later notes – well, unless you were pitch bending, I guess.
That may get messy and unprecise (since pitch bend interpretation on the synth is adjustable and not hard-defined), but maybe that’s the way to go?

Yes I understand what you mean. I forgot to precise that I was meaning a fixed-pitch note. As if I was pressing a key on a keyboard for a long time. Pitch bending can happen while the voice is sounding as would any other CC. Hope this helps.

As far as the "panic" feature goes, probably the "all controllers off" message is welcome. I was wondering what setting a controller off was actually meaning and I discovered that it is a reset to default values for some controllers, which I think is a very welcome thing in case something goes wrong. Thanks for enhancing, Gabriel !

Xavier

[Administrator]

Xab wrote:

Quote:

Yes I understand what you mean. I forgot to precise that I was meaning a fixed-pitch note. As if I was pressing a key on a keyboard for a long time. Pitch bending can happen while the voice is sounding as would any other CC. Hope this helps.

OK – I also forgot to mention that pitch bend will of course bend the whole channel, not only that one note.
What I still wonder about is – if you want to have notes that long, why are you concerned with losing resolution (slowing down the track tempo)?
After all, you are saying you need 1/192 resolution for notes longer than 4 bars.
Is that really the case?

After all, step lengths are defined in units of 1/16ths up to effectively 16/16ths.
A way around this could be to have the length increase over-linearly after passing a certain threshold, such as 8/16th for example.. That means, a mapping similar to the following:

Length value Played length
1 to 8/16 1 to 8/16th
9/16 10/16
10/16 12/16
11/16 16/16
12/16 32/16
13/16 40/16
14/16 48/16
15/16 64/16

As you see, here again you lose resolution, but this time in terms of the length, not the startpoint. So it all boils down to what you are after..

Anyone else any thoughts on this?
G.

[gseher]

Probably I need to think a bit more about my needs. I was thinking that on a 16 steps bar, I could be willing to have notes that last 4 or 5 steps while in other parts of the track, I would take advantage of the normal resolution. I think it is all related to the visual aspect of it and how I currently work with the Octopus.
I will leave this request on hold at the moment on my side and think about it while actually experimenting with the Octopus.
Regards,
Xavier

Post edited by: Xab, at: 2007/07/06 15:40

[gseher]

gseher wrote:

Quote:

Hi Xavier,

the "all notes off" (cc 123) as you suggested will come into effect by pressing stop when the sequencer is both stopped and master. Watch the space.
Also, anyone pros/cons/preferences for an "all controllers off" (cc 121) tirade to go with that?

The legato thing is more involved.
Especially when you say you want two or more steps with no note off or on in-between them. Problem is, in MIDI a note is defined by at least its note on message – so by that token you would have no way to trigger later notes – well, unless you were pitch bending, I guess.
That may get messy and unprecise (since pitch bend interpretation on the synth is adjustable and not hard-defined), but maybe that’s the way to go?

Gabriel

I’m hard pressed to think of an example, but the ‘all controllers off’ triggers some old memory that this may not always produce the desired result. Any chance that this could be optional in some fashion?

[gseher]

>>the ‘all controllers off’ triggers some old memory that this may not always produce the desired result. Any chance that this could be optional in some fashion?<<

are you sure you’re not thinking of "all controllers zero"? if the function simply stops any active controllers from transmitting & leaves the controlled device parked where it was, then it would be left to the user to restore normality by re-loading his patch.

but if you send an "all controllers.." message with a value, then some devices will do mad things. I have many modules here that react badly to controller values being sent to zero because the affected parameter actually has 63/64 as it’s "zero" & uses 0-127 in a bipolar fashion.

the yamaha qy70 sends a "set to zero" message on cc66 whenever a pattern is started. I have no idea why- maybe it’s a general midi or XG thing, but it means I can’t use the qy70 with my supernova mk1 unless I shut off osc-3 in every patch.

does anyone else think this is a can of worms?

d.

[gseher]

Hello,

I think there might be a misunderstanding there.
I read here:
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tech/midispec/ctloff.htm
that the "All Controllers Off" message resets controllers to some default values.
That may probably be different than zero for some of the controllers. It also is different from leaving the controller value where it is.
In the link I posted above, those which are reset to zero seem to make sense.
Maybe we should come up with a list of targeted controllers if we think that the link above does list too much or too few controllers.
Duncan, probably the "can of worms" expression there is a good one
Regards,
Xavier

[Administrator]

To avoid misunderstandings: the "all controllers off" is a message, conveyed by using CC 121.
While the trigger is well-defined (CC 121) the implementation is up to the device manufacturer, so that each device can react meaningfully to the message.
Therefore, we are not talking about sending a zero value for each of the 127 CCs on a given channel. Hope this helps to clarify a bit.

[gseher]

DUMP/ RECEIVE ALL DATA by Sysex of the Octopus

I would like to Dump/Receive by Sysex the GLOBAL state (All steps, All Pages, All Levels, All Parameters) from Octopus ?

(Grid is only for parameters, not for pages and steps)

Thanks

[gseher]

The grid-track mode bug that I reported ages ago still has to fixed I believe – the issue with chained tracks not working properly in grid-track mode i.e. they are treated separately in grid-track so weird stuff happens when swapping between modes… I haven’t loaded 1.02 but as far as I know this hasn’t been fixed yet? Please don’t let it get left off the list!

[gseher]

Hello

my wish :

More than 16 pages by song and many clusters together…

[Author]

Posts