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Old 09-19-2017, 12:48 PM   #1
inarisound
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Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Los Angeles
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Default Reaper Midi Editor: Visual & Functional Improvements

Hello the best community in music industry!
After I started using 5.50 I was shocked how badass our devs are for implementing some of the great concepts that don't exist in any other DAWs

Now if our guys can improve Midi Editor behavior then I can die peacefully !
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More specifically I am talking about small but really crucial things that could possibly help us, composers, to save our time and invest it in creativity.

I've been using lots of DAWs before I settled with Reaper and in my opinion one of the best Midi Editors that I saw was in Ableton.

Why? Because of the smart Zooming in/out feature.

In a lot of instances when we work with Midi editor we switch between bars/grids and in Reaper it's simply not "smart" enough... feels clumsy.


So let me state some possible improvements and return to Zoom in/out later.


1) I would really love to see a good "supported" version of "collapse notes" aka hide unused notes.

While we do have action named "Hide unused Note rows (off)" it is not perfect or what you would expect.

Even if you have show note name turned on it will not show note names while using that action/view. Same goes with piano Roll.... it will just disappear.
So all you can do is guess what note it is (unless you hover) or memorize what colors what notes are. (witch I think is not very practical)


Example: BEFORE/AFTER
Before:



After:




2) It would be a really nice touch to separate two bars with a slightly darker coloring. (So even bars would be a bit darker then odd bars) // it could be also implemented in arrangement view //

It really dose help to know where you are in the song/composition, even though it sounds funny =P


Example: BEFORE/AFTER




3) When you stretch a note without using "Snap to grid" it is hard to tell if you got it on the grid or not....
It would be nice touch if end or beginning of the note (depending in witch direction it is starched) would change the color once it lines up with the grid
// by that I mean just the very end or beginning of the note will change color, not the entire note changing color!//

Example with beginning of the note lining up with the grid and end of the note:



/// you can't see my mouse starching the note because when you take screenshots with mouse action it just removes mouse cursor ////


4) It's is really hard to draw pitchbend if you try using it without extra plugins or tricks in Midi Editor.
This is how it looks to draw automation for any parameters now:


This is how I would love to see it:




To be fair this request has been going around in different forms and shapes for a log time...(ref: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=38227
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=25368 )
but unfortunately it never got fulfilled due to not active posts.... but I would really love to see it being implemented in future because it would make pitchband and other parameter automation much more intuitive.



5) And potentially the most powerful improvement should be in the Zoom in/out aria aka notes alignment/display.

Before stating my suggestions I want to say...It is REALLY hard to do it right, but if you will do it, it would be the most rewarding thing in the universe. So if someone who used other DAWs or just have good ideas and can chip in on it....it would be much appreciated.

/////////////////////////

Unfortunately placement of notes is really hard to get right but it needs to be addressed because in a lot of cases when I zoom out and change the grid from 16 to 32 it would simply stay on 16.... and it would cause a lot of confusion (not anymore... cuz I got used to that.... but it still is frustrating)


Same goes with notes and how they are displayed it is really hard to find this balance.... they are ether too small to see/adjust or too big and take too much space on the screen.


The way Ableton solved that problem by making a "fixed vertical and horizontal placement"

So you can change vertical and horizontal view but withing the limit.



Maybe we can make something like that? where you can't change view too much but it would be optimized and every time you change grid and zoom out you will still see correct grid lines?


It is defiantly not a one day job.... and really hard topic. I am sure there would be lots of people who got used to the workflow and would criticize my suggestion but I just wanted to throw the ideas out there.


As I've mentioned 5.50 just blew my mind with great features.... so I hope Reaper team/devs may look into one of my worst nightmares here "Midi Editor"

Last edited by inarisound; 09-21-2017 at 01:46 AM.
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