Continuous scrolling in MIDI piano roll view

[thesleeve]

Hi everybody,

I have managed to get auto-scrolling enabled in both the main project view and MIDI piano roll view. However, there's one missing piece that is really bugging me. Hopefully there is just a setting I'm missing somewhere...

I would really like to get smooth, continuous scrolling in the MIDI edit view. The way it currently works, when I enable auto-scrolling, the playback cursor moves from left to right across the screen, and when it reaches the right edge of the screen, it jumps ahead and shows me the next passage of MIDI events. I would like to instead have the scrolling work smoothly, with the playback cursor centered in the window and the MIDI events scrolling behind it.

I can get this to work in the project view by enabling the "Continuous Scrolling" option from the options menu, but it does not work in the MIDI edit view.

A little bit of background on why I'd like to do this... I'm working on a project right now where I'm taking some old MIDI files and re-recording some tracks using my guitar. I can actually follow the notes in the piano roll with my eyes and play along on the guitar at the same time - I've gotten quite good at sight-reading from a piano roll, as odd as that may seem. However, it's really tough without continuous scrolling, because when I reach the right side of the screen, I don't know which notes are coming next. Continuous scrolling in MIDI view would completely solve this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks very much.
TheSleeve

[nofish]

Not sure if it would do what you want, but try setting the time-base dropdown (or whatever it's called, not in front of Reaper atm, I think it's in the right lower corner in the MIDI editor) to "Project sync".

This syncs the play cursor and view of main and MIDI editor.

edit:
I was a bit wrong it seems.
See post #2 for the option I mean.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=101777

[Ollie]

That's quite a corner case, the MIDI editor would stop being an editor when everything scrolls away under your mouse cursor.

The only thing you could do is maximizing the track and opening the item in the inline editor - but that means you're not having the piano keys for orientation anymore.

[thesleeve]

nofish and Ollie, thank you both for your input!

I gave both methods a try, and it turns out that either of these approaches will solve my problem! I'll post my results here, in case anybody is interested.

1. In the piano roll editor, you can set "View" -> "Piano roll timebase" -> "Project synced". This works quite well, but the scrolling isn't perfectly smooth. It "jitters" a little bit during playback... I'm not sure why. So, this method solves my problem, but it isn't quite ideal because of the stuttering - it bothers my eyes.

2. If I open the MIDI item in the inline editor (right click an item and choose "Open items in editor" -> "Open in inline editor"), the scrolling is much smoother! This actually works out to be the better solution, I think!

Of course, for either method to work, you have to enable continuous scrolling by clicking the "View" menu and activating "Continuous Scrolling."

Thanks!
TheSleeve

[MonkeyBars]

Originally Posted by nofish

Not sure if it would do what you want, but try setting the time-base dropdown (or whatever it's called, not in front of Reaper atm, I think it's in the right lower corner in the MIDI editor) to "Project sync".

This syncs the play cursor and view of main and MIDI editor.

edit:
I was a bit wrong it seems.
See post #2 for the option I mean.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=101777

Thanks!

[GeneralMidi]

Originally Posted by thesleeve

but the scrolling isn't perfectly smooth. It "jitters" a little bit during playback... I'm not sure why.

Reviving this in 2021. The jittering when using continuous playback (syncing to project) in the midi editor is still happening. Is there any chance this could be improved? Thank you!

[Coachz]

Originally Posted by GeneralMidi

Reviving this in 2021. The jittering when using continuous playback (syncing to project) in the midi editor is still happening. Is there any chance this could be improved? Thank you!

If it was smooth it would be dreamy. As is I can't use it without getting epilepsy.

[marceloanexa]

Originally Posted by thesleeve

Hi everybody,

I have managed to get auto-scrolling enabled in both the main project view and MIDI piano roll view. However, there's one missing piece that is really bugging me. Hopefully there is just a setting I'm missing somewhere...

I would really like to get smooth, continuous scrolling in the MIDI edit view. The way it currently works, when I enable auto-scrolling, the playback cursor moves from left to right across the screen, and when it reaches the right edge of the screen, it jumps ahead and shows me the next passage of MIDI events. I would like to instead have the scrolling work smoothly, with the playback cursor centered in the window and the MIDI events scrolling behind it.

I can get this to work in the project view by enabling the "Continuous Scrolling" option from the options menu, but it does not work in the MIDI edit view.

A little bit of background on why I'd like to do this... I'm working on a project right now where I'm taking some old MIDI files and re-recording some tracks using my guitar. I can actually follow the notes in the piano roll with my eyes and play along on the guitar at the same time - I've gotten quite good at sight-reading from a piano roll, as odd as that may seem. However, it's really tough without continuous scrolling, because when I reach the right side of the screen, I don't know which notes are coming next. Continuous scrolling in MIDI view would completely solve this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks very much.
TheSleeve

AFAIK, this piano roll need a ton of fixes.
The first one is to make it open always at the item/take start, not at the end.
This is really annoying...

[djabthrash]

For those still wondering :
in order for continuous scrolling to work in the MIDI editor, you need to :

- activate "View: Continuous scrolling during playback" (only available in the arrange view) from the arrange view
- activate "Timebase: Toggle sync to arrange view" in the midi editor

NB : it seems scrolling won't work at all :
- in the arrange view : if "View: Toggle auto-view-scroll on playback" (specific to the arrange view) is off
- in the midi editor : if "View: Toggle auto-view-scroll on playback" (specific to the midi editor) is off

Which is way i encourage anyone to create the corresponding action buttons in their arrange view and midi editor toolbars.