MIDI editor auto-zoom bugs

snooks · 08-22-2016, 12:03 PM

Auto-zoom is okay if all items are 4 or 8 bars or so, but having the editor(s) auto-zoom whether it's a 100 bars or 1/2 bar is a bug.

What's also a bug is a user having to constantly do unnecessary zooming. Opening a 100 bar item, adjusting zoom so that's it's nice, then opening a 1 bar item, adjusting zoom so it's nice and then returning to the original item via the Track List and have it at the zoom level set for the 1 bar item counts imo.

When changing items/tracks via the Track List, it's almost predictable in that the auto-zoom (and auto-scroll) only happens when the new item cannot be viewed within the current MIDI editor view. Not so with pooled/ghost MIDI clips where the view moves and zooms when it should not have to. This inconsistency is also a bug.

Having an option to disable auto-zooming would cure all of these bugs, apart from the last one where an option to auto scroll only when touching an item in the Track List and not a track would work.

mccrabney · 08-22-2016, 12:53 PM

to add to the zooming issues, I've found that "Zoom to content" doesn't zoom to the actual content, it zooms to the entire item length... which is useless if the item only has midi data in the first quarter... and the right edge was automatically extended because the track was record armed in overdub mode while you recorded stuff on another track...

snooks · 08-22-2016, 02:34 PM

Yes, that looks like unexpected behaviour too. The thing is that the foundations of the MIDI editor are pretty solid, with some of the note entry stuff actually even being taxed by Steinberg for the mighty 'base. It's just the rough edges that need polished.

The rest of Reaper is too good and flexible and generally zippy to jump ship, but I've been using Live with a production partner as well as tinkering with Cubase and not having the zoomathon is like having a shiatsu head massage.

mccrabney · 08-22-2016, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snooks

Yes, that looks like unexpected behaviour too. The thing is that the foundations of the MIDI editor are pretty solid

i love the midi editor. especially after exploring more deeply certain mouse modifiers and ReaPack scripts.

for what it's worth my zoom workflow is this - 8 channels of midi have their own tracks, set to record overdub any midi they hear. from the main screen, i can enter the midi editor on any of these tracks - a script checks at play cursor to see if there's an existing midi item. if it's there, it opens it (if not, it creates one and opens it).

upon opening the item, it checks for midi data within the item and zooms horizontally to fit. then it sets all other track midi to become visible in the midi editor. then, it hides unused notes based on all notes used in all midi items across the track! finally, it zooms vertically to the selected notes.

or something like that, in a slightly different order. anyway, you end up viewing a neatly zoomed and folded display of the midi contained in the item under the play cursor. this is ideal for viewing and editing notes entered by midi hardware (due to the hiding of unused notes, not so much for manual mouse entering).

juliansader · 08-23-2016, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snooks

Having an option to disable auto-zooming would cure all of these bugs, apart from the last one where an option to auto scroll only when touching an item in the Track List and not a track would work.

Indeed.

(I hope Schwa sees your new signature.)

snooks · 08-23-2016, 03:34 PM

Schwa is all-seeing anyway, the signature is to gather support from us minions.

snooks · 08-24-2016, 02:35 PM

I'm thinking of gradually turning the signature into capital letters. That'll show em!!

snooks · 08-24-2016, 02:45 PM

Mwuh huh huh huh huh!

juliansader · 08-24-2016, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snooks

I'm thinking of gradually turning the signature into capital letters. That'll show em!!

The MIDI FR in my own signature is even a pretty pink but, alas, it hasn't gained much attention.

If yours gets implemented, I'm making mine capital letters too!

snooks · 08-25-2016, 06:19 AM

Yes, I think the danger is that the pastel palette in your signature is too relaxing to look at. I've just gone straight to DEFCON 1 with mine now. It's a tad impolite in terms of netiquette, but needs must.

I see this was first requested back in 2011 and it's obvious that it's an easy fix since the bug was intentionally added to the notation view. It really does suck the joy out of the one ME per project setting.

snooks · 08-26-2016, 02:20 PM

Signature v1.1: Blue Steel

snooks · 08-30-2016, 07:55 AM

Signature v1.2: The Grasshopper Lies Heavy

snooks · 08-30-2016, 07:56 AM

On a more serious note, I'd settle for API control of zoom setting.

snooks · 09-08-2016, 02:59 AM

There are bazillions of zoom-related threads, feature requests etc from over the years. It would be nice to draw a line under them - a no auto-zooming option plus API access would sort them all out.

juliansader · 09-13-2016, 06:10 AM

If I understand correctly, the problem raises its head when
1) The user is currently zoomed in to time position X to Y in the MIDI editor.
2) The user then switches the active take to an item that does not cover positions X to Y.
3) The newly active item is automatically viewed at "Zoom to content".

Perhaps we don't even need a new option (there are so many already): Simply replace the current "Auto zoom to content" with "Restore last-used zoom level for item". I doubt that anyone would miss or prefer zooming to content.

In the thread Reaper MIDI zoom issues and why these are such a problem, ELP mentioned that REAPER already stores the last-used zoom setting for each item. So the new zoom behavior should not be too difficult to implement, I think.

snooks · 09-13-2016, 09:05 AM

Thanks very much for the input. Yes, that's the main issue in a nutshell.... I'd like to think that nobody would miss it, but there's one user that requested this behaviour for the notation view, where it was implemented - much to my dismay. On a positive note, at least it provided consistency.

Restoring the previous used zoom per item/track wouldn't be ideal because it would still involve zooming different tracks. The way it works just now is that the last used zoom level is changed to zoom to fit if the item is out of view, so just changing it to the zoom level of the current item instead would be standard.

juliansader · 09-13-2016, 10:37 AM

EDIT: I moved the post to the other thread, Reaper MIDI zoom issues and why these are such a problem.

snooks · 09-13-2016, 01:53 PM

No worries, that's my brief campaign over anyway.

<insert picture of Morgan Freeman going through the motions at final parole hearing>

lolilol1975 · 11-03-2016, 05:02 AM

Bump for the zoom issues. Needs to be fixed.

snooks · 11-04-2016, 02:28 PM

Cheers, yeah the Track List auto-zoom stuff needs fixed. I'm not holding my breath though. The notation editor has been compromised by this issue, which is a crying shame because it's otherwise an excellent piece of work.

Example of bad behaviour.... small item, one note. Auto-zoom zooms in, destroying current view, to almost the whole item. Sometimes except the note, so just a blank area! It also doesn't auto-vertical scroll, so you can't see the blank area anyway. It basically just wrecks the current view.

MikComposer · 11-04-2016, 05:57 PM

Don't know if this was mentioned but recently, on long pieces of music, when opening midi item in the editor, while on playback, it moves edit cursor 3 times the length of the item further, and zooms out to cover the area from start of the item to a little bit after the edit cursor.