Multi-Track Contextualizing in the Sequencer

[JiggeryPokery]

Following up a brief discussion on the Reason 10 launch thread, viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7503845, Creativemind raised the issue about muting sections of notes. While I originally misunderstood the entire concern, it raised again the entire problem of establishing context of things like bass note or chord across multiple tracks. In response I've listed items the sequencer very much needs. These are not necessarily new, Ghost Notes is notably ancient.


Firstly, the issue Creativemind was up against.

There's currently a function called "Extract Notes to Lane" in the F8 Tools menu, it's a useful, if rarely-used item, which in one easy step cuts a range of notes and pastes them to a new Lane in the current Sequencer track, where you can can mute/solo either range, or move one of the ranges to another device track entirely. This is very useful, but it forces a user to split up the notes, when that isn't always wanted, especially since there is no ability to subsequently remerge multiple Lanes back to one (or indeed, merge clips on the same Lane (no, Join Clips is a different result )). Adjusting velocity on a range is also not viable as there is no way to restore the velocity, except for global undo, or manual recreation on up to a per-note basis.

So, underneath "Extract Notes to Lane", a new, similar option: "Mute/Solo Notes In Range". This would mute or solo Notes above, below, or within a specificied range. Velocities do not change, notes are simply output or not output based on the set range.



Two.

Ghost Notes. The long-desired ability to view another Track's clip, at the same timeline position, in the current open clip. It would look a little like how non-active notes from a previous/subsequent clip in the same track currently do when they overlap that track's active clip. Ghost Notes would need a way to distinguish from overlapped clip's note on the same track, e.g., greyed out and locked from user interaction.

The draw order is crucial here. "send to back" is the obvious one, but then a current longer note will hide the timing of shorter ghost notes. The inverse would be true of a "bring to front" ghost note draw order. So such a function would likely be best "to front", i.e., above the active clip's notes, but with a transparency. Thus it's always visible, but doesn't hinder edit. Transparency level and colour must therefore be adjustable to account for user's individual visibility requirements.



Three.

The ability to right-click any Track or Clip (at least MIDI, but audio would be useful too) and select "Open Track in New Window". That would open a new window per track with its own mini-sequencer that could be resized, and include all the use tools. It would remember the last Track Window position. It would track the main sequencer clip/playhead. Potentially you would be able to open as many track windows as you like, but I'd guess that mostly even just one window, as a compositional reference for things like bass line or current chord. It also includes "Pin to Top" icon and a drop shadow to maintain separation if placed over the Rack (which as a window it obviously need not be, but this example is set up specifically so that it is).

So, Clip and/or Track name adds the following option:

opentrackinnewwindow.png (460.64 KiB) Viewed 459 times

The entire Track is cloned to a new window, which behaves exactly as that in the main Sequencer. You can open a clip within it.

opentrackinnewwindow2.png (247.36 KiB) Viewed 459 times

And then you can open a clip on another track and compare/refer between them. Not sure if the current selected tool is reflected in both windows. It probably is.

Together, these would save a lot of users a hell of a lot of hassle switching between clips to recall the current chord to harmonise with it, instead of the current copying-chords-and-setting-them-to-zero-velocity-and-transposing-down-an-octave-type-workarounds we've endured for decades.

[esselfortium]

Agreed, these would be extremely useful and appreciated features. Good post!

[antic604]

Ghost Notes. The long-desired ability to view another Track's clip, at the same timeline position, in the current open clip. It would look a little like how non-active notes from a previous/subsequent clip in the same track currently do when they overlap that track's active clip. Ghost Notes would need a way to distinguish from overlapped clip's note on the same track, e.g., greyed out and locked from user interaction.

The draw order is crucial here. "send to back" is the obvious one, but then a current longer note will hide the timing of shorter ghost notes. The inverse would be true of a "bring to front" ghost note draw order. So such a function would likely be best "to front", i.e., above the active clip's notes, but with a transparency. Thus it's always visible, but doesn't hinder edit. Transparency level and colour must therefore be adjustable to account for user's individual visibility requirements.

Yes! This in particular is really an important music-making tool, helpful to put things into context: melodies vs. chords, chords vs. bass line, leads talking to each other, drum hits, etc. The way Bitwig does it is is really great: you just select a clip, go to the Edit view or panel, enable Layered Editing and you get a choice of tracks that can be displayed at once and you can decide - per track - if it's visible and if it's editable: