Ideas for the Roll buttons in pattern mode.

widdly

Since only the first 7 steps buttons are used for the roll, I have some ideas that I think would make it even more fun for jamming.

1.) The 8th button could be a mute-all button.  So instead of rolling, it would stop any drums triggering while pressed (in a quantised rolling way).  It would allow some cool fills when a busy pattern is playing.

2.) If a second roll speed parameter was added to the menu page, buttons 9-15 could play rolls too but at a different speed.  For example if you set the first roll to 16 and the second to 12, you could have 16th notes on 1-7 and triplets on 9-15.  That would be great for some adding some funk and it is kinda tricky to do at the moment by changing the single roll setting while playing.

nilspupils

I second the different roll speeds, they would be really useful. Perhaps you should be able to set roll speed (and voice) for each button individually.
Great would be *one* button which toggles between a 1/4th bass and a 1/8th snare roll, so you can do really interesting patterns with just one finger. One similar function exists on the Casio MT-40 and is really usefull!!

cube48

Ahh ... it seems that I should've posted my roll idea rather here then elsewhere. It's quite similar to widdly's.

What if:

• Button 8 works as modifier and when held together
  with one of the buttons 1-7 it changes the roll to nearest triplets of
  the Roll Rate value.
• Buttons 9-15 can produce rolls but on half speed of Roll Rate value and button 16 could works again as triplet modifier.
  

youkon

I'd be also interested for roll functions like rising/falling velocity with every step or rising/falling note

julian

@youkon how to implement this? UI wise and functional. Should the roll just slowly fade out while the button is pressed and then become silent untill you release it?

Using button 8 as a modifier sounds good
For buttons 9-16 I think something like a stutter effect would probably be more fun!

widdly

Stutter would be great.  I like the idea of having a way of adding and removing notes from the pattern. 

youkon

@youkon how to implement this? UI wise and functional. Should the roll just slowly fade out while the button is pressed and then become silent untill you release it?

exactly. plus the other way round. the same for note. something like +1 or +3 for every step or even +5 for faster rising. one would have to try this.

UI wise: a: it would need 4 step buttons

1. rise velo

2. fall velo

3. rise note

4. fall note

or if one had a velo and note poti, one would do this manually whilst pressing a roll

also, really interesting are the offbeat rolls like e.g.  2,4,6,8,... for 1/8 instead of 1,3,5,9,...

youkon

I must admit that I had temporarily forgotten that we have 7 instead of only one roll buttons :-)

so, I don't know how it would feel pressing two buttons at once as well as using the devision poti at the same time!

I would use the left hand for the poti, right hand forefinger or thumb for pressing the instrument roll button and at the same time and right hand little finger for rise/fall

I think it would be best to hold the rise/fall button as long as you want it to rise/fall!?

So... not really a UI solution from my side

might get complicated for the brain? :-D

borfo

A "Don't play substeps" button might be fun - Here's one way this could be implemented:

When DPS function is enabled, only the main steps in the pattern would be played, substeps would be momentarily muted for all voices.  When disabled, the substeps begin to play again.

Often you'd want this function to be tied to a momentary switch, so the function would only be enabled while the button is pressed, but It would be good to also have the ability to toggle it on and off so you don't have to hold the button down if you want to enable it for more than a second or two - one way to implement this would be: if button is held down for more than a few milliseconds, it behaves like a momentary switch and disables the function when the button is released.  If the button is pressed and released quickly, then it behaves like a toggle switch - function is enabled until the button is pressed (and released) again.

Press and hold the DPS button while pressing a voice button to toggle muting of the substeps for just that voice (Voice button LEDs indicate substep muting status for each voice when DPS button is pressed) press the voice button again while holding DPS button to unmute the substeps for that voice.

Per-voice substeps should automatically be unmuted whenever the user edits any substeps on that voice, to prevent people from being confused about why they can't hear their substep edits.

So, when the DPS button is pressed and held, substeps would be muted for all voices momentarily, until the DPS button is released - only the 16 main steps would be played.  The per-voice substep muting settings would be more permanent - voices with muted substeps stay muted even when DPS button is released, until they are unmuted by the user by pressing DPS+voice button.

ALTERNATIVELY:

The per-voice substep muting could apply only when DPS button is pressed and held, with all voices substep-muted by default.  That way, when the DPS button is pressed, only the selected voices would be substep-muted, and all substeps would resume playing when DPS button is released. 

borfo

A "general randomness" function might also be fun in performance mode:

Press and hold GR button, then press voice buttons to select which voices General Randomness will apply to.  LEDs while GR button is held indicate GR status for each voice.

While GR function is enabled, "General Randomness" is applied to every beat in each GR'd voice.  (it would be good to also have the ability to toggle this on and off so you don't have to hold the button down if you want to enable it for more than a second or two. - one way I handle stuff like this in my midi controller scripts is: if button is held down for more than a few milliseconds, it behaves like a momentary switch and disables the function when the button is released.  If the button is pressed and released quickly, then it behaves like a toggle switch - function is enabled until the button is pressed (and released) again.)

General Randomness would add a variety of probabilities to vary the sequencing of the GR-activated voices.  Things like adding global probability to all beats, adding beats, varying velocities and pitches, maybe varying some voice parameters randomly and then returning to the original settings...  These are just a few ideas - pretty much anything could be done...  The idea of GR would be to create some temporary overall variance in pattern playback, and then return to playback as programmed when the function is disabled.

GR could use the random probability number that's already generated at each main step (could additional random numbers be generated without a performance hit?  (actually, is a random number currently generated for each voice, or is the same number used for probability on all voices?))

The 8 select buttons and/or the screen/knobs could be used to set general randomness preferences while the GR button is held.

Some ideas for preferences:

Preserve first beat: Apply no GR to 1/4 notes (the four grey buttons) - always play those beats exactly as programmed.

Apply GR to substeps only:  When toggled on, GR is applied only to substeps, main steps are always played exactly as programmed.

Probability of adding substeps:  When >0, GR may add substeps (with a probability that could be set with the knobs)

Probability of adding  main steps:  Same as above, but for main steps

Probability of varying velocity, pitch, certain voice parameters, etc.

Probability of varying probability of playing every note (with increased effect for notes that already have probabilities <127)

etc., etc.

borfo

I'd also like to see an option to immediately switch to a new pattern - Shift+pattern button is already taken, but maybe one of the step buttons in performance mode could be an instant switch modifier - ie: step mod button + pattern button switches to that pattern immediately.

Might also be fun to have a temporary switch button that switches to the current step in another pattern immediately on press, then back to the original pattern on release.

borfo

Another point on the step/roll buttons in pattern mode (and in other modes, too...)  The copy/clear button doesn't have a function in combination with the step buttons, so it could act as a modifier (like a second shift button) when pressed in combination with the step buttons, which would give the UI four combinations for each of the step buttons in each mode: (1) step button alone; (2) shift+step; (3) copy+step; and (4) shift+copy+step.

edit: Actually, I guess the way clear is implemented now, shift+copy is out, since you would likely unintentionally clear patterns/tracks/whatever every once in a while.  That's another argument in favour of a slightly different clear implementation though, maybe.

tsv

I'd also like to see an option to immediately switch to a new pattern - Shift+pattern button is already taken, but maybe one of the step buttons in performance mode could be an instant switch modifier - ie: step mod button + pattern button switches to that pattern immediately.

Might also be fun to have a temporary switch button that switches to the current step in another pattern immediately on press, then back to the original pattern on release.

+1 for these switching pattern options! 

Thanks!