Feature Requests: Tim's Top 10

[Tim Fischer]

I must say I'm really happy with LOR II. Tracks alone make it well worth the upgrade. The beat wizard is my second-favorite feature, I think... And the fact that you can move timings around without destroying your earlier work has to be right up there...

But of course I"m never satisfied . Here are my top-10 feature requests for a future version of LOR II. Many of these are pretty small (at least in concept). Some are larger. Not really in any particular order:

1. 
   
   1. 
      
   2. A “play from current selection” which goes to end of sequence. I've wanted this since LOR 1.0
      
   3. A “start at” for the tapper wizard, in case you don’t want to tap the entire thing. Another thing that I've been looking for since 1.0.
      
   4. Related to #2, the “start at” values for the beat, tapper, etc. wizards should be pre-filled to be the left of the current selection.
      
   5. Global channel configurations, so you don’t have to import them into every sequence.
      
   6. Need a way to work with multiple channel groups: drag & drop, copy to another track, etc.
      
   7. I like the new fade/intensity palettes BUT they need to be much smaller. There’s a lot of extra space in them currently, and when you have a lot of channels, you need all the real-estate for sequencing. I can’t afford to keep the current palettes open since they’re too big.
      
   8. More control of subroutine timing – variable speeds, sync points, etc. I haven't really played with subroutines yet, but it is my understanding that timing right now is "absolute" which would be limiting for me.
      
   9. A “fade from” and “fade to” tool. This tool would look at the value of the previous (to the left) cell, and fade from that value down or up to the specified value. If more than one cell is selected vertically, each fade should start at the proper previous value, even if they differ. This would save me a ton of time.
      
   10. Chase Wizard/MegaTree Wizard. Dan alluded to this at PLUS 2005. I’d like to see them in a future version.
       
   11. Maybe I’m missing this in LOR II, but I know it wasn’t in LOR I: There needs to be a way to say “insert timings every 0.x seconds”. Basically, the settings that are available when you open a new track or sequence should be available as a tool at any time.
       

Honorable Mentions:

These items aren’t in my top-10, but they are close:

1. 
   
2. X-10 channels that don’t turn off at the end of every sequence—leave things in the state they were at at the end of the sequence.
   
3. LOR PDK: I’m still holding out hope for this J I’d like to both control LOR hardware from my own software, and also control my own hardware from LOR software.
   
4. Daughtercard (or similar) to convert legacy CTB-08 controllers to be firmware-downloadable. I’d pay a “per card” fee for this one…
   
5. Add fade/intensity information to the "tool tip" (yellow pop-up information that comes up when you hover over a cell)

I'm sure I'm missing something else I'd like to have. If I think of any more I'll add them to this thread.



Thanks again for a great product and being responsive to your users!

-Tim

1. 
   
   1. 
      

[pixeldigger]

One of your "honorable mentions" is my #1

I would like the SDK and the ability to control homemade hardware.
Like the plugins for Vixen!

Using 595's , Renards, Parallel 12s, LEDTRICKS, ect in concert with my LOR would be great.

Once the DIYers buy the software, they will be more likely to buy soem hardware sometime too.

[Robin]

I too have talked about some of those items. Especially the group channel move would be great.

Honestly, even with my current problem I only have one complaint and that is the channel skip while sequencing. It just annoys the you know what out of me.

[cenote]

Just thought of one, and this was the fastest page I could to find before I lost the thought.....How about the ability to "hide" channels durring programing to make screen more friendly. Or be able to drag channels in other orders and not effect Config.

[Robin]

You can drag channels now and not mess with the config. But doubt that you will be able to import channel config with tracks. The nature of the tracks means you will have different items in different tracks for different songs. That was discussed in the BETA and I can understand why.

I do think the speed function slows down a little too much after the 1/4 speed.

[Duke]

Dragging or reordering channels affect the configuration?
Last time I checked in LORII when I reordered the channel it still had it's original configuration.

FEATURE REQUEST:

The ability to arm a single or group of tracks to record a tap or click on the playback grid while the song is playing back.
Much like arming track/s for recording in audio and midi software. :-)

NEXT:

This sounds really weird but could work.
A 32 band graphic equalizer wizard.
Set up to 32 tracks to record an event within a certain frequency. Play the song and have the wiz record 32 tracks and set timings simultaneously.
OK, I'm going back into my spaceship for some rest.

[Tim Fischer]

Duke wrote:

This sounds really weird but could work.
A 32 band graphic equalizer wizard.
Set up to 32 tracks to record an event within a certain frequency. Play the song and have the wiz record 32 tracks and set timings simultaneously.
OK, I'm going back into my spaceship for some rest.

I shouldn't shoot down others' feature requests, but I'm not sure how good lights blinking to frequencies would actually look. On the one hand, it would make for very quick programming. On the other hand, even with the current VU wizard, I'm not sure I like the finished result. It looks like a VU meter, so the feature is successful... but I won't be sure until the display is in action that I will like my mini-trees doing that effect. With a graphic EQ, it would be even more "random" looking. I've seen displays run off of a 4-channel color organ and the effect isn't all that great...

-Tim

[lkcubsrule]

Tim...your top ten hit almost all of mine! I want the "play from this time on" feature...and the "global" channel configs. That would be a huge time saver.

[Denny]

Tim's No. 1 request is also mine. That alone, would save me groups of time in sequencing. I also asked for that last year, back in LOR I.

Denny

[Duke]

Tim, your right about the color organ effect. It would need to be tweaked afterwards but could prove to be interesting.

How about "track merge" as a feature?
That would be beneficial for midi files as an option to recording individual notes on different tracks (unless I overlooked this somewhere)
Another midi feature would be having the ability for LOR software to have "midi out" capabilities.
I have a HUGE library of midi files that I use with my Korg Oasis keyboard and it would be awesome to have LOR software driving it for the audio output. It would sound much better than any PC midi sounds due to the synth's wave samples. MUCH more realistic!

[bob]

Tim Fischer wrote:

1. Maybe I’m missing this in LOR II, but I know it wasn’t in LOR I: There needs to be a way to say “insert timings every 0.x seconds”. Basically, the settings that are available when you open a new track or sequence should be available as a tool at any time.


You probably know this alread, but just in case: There's "insert multiple timings", which gives the same results, albeit in a perhaps less straightforward manner.

I agree that it would be nicer to be able to specify by time rather than by count.

[Mark McCauley]

Tim's #1 would be great as well as the ability to "hide" channels while they're not needed.

It would also be nice if the editor would remember the Channel & Time Zoom In/Out settings. I prefer a little narrower columns and rows to get more on the screen.

I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the new version but the ease-of-use editor features are great. Thanks, Dan and crew!

Mark

[Push Eject]

A “play from current selection” which goes to end of sequence.

I use an audio editing program called Pro Tools all day at work and I find myself wanting to translate its commands to the Sequence Editor.

This specific request could be handled like this:
- do away with the "Play range" menu item
- playback should always happen from your current spot in the time line
- we already have the "home" key to take us to the top of the sequence for playing from start
- use the space bar to start and stop playback
- if a range is selected playback should start at its beginning and stop at its end

So click somewhere in the time line and hit the space bar to start playing from there and hit the space bar again to stop.

This behavior makes sense to me... what do you guys think?

Along the same lines, I would love a "mute" and "solo" button for each channel.

Charlie

[cenote]

Push Eject wrote:

A “play from current selection” which goes to end of sequence.

This specific request could be handled like this:
- do away with the "Play range" menu item
- playback should always happen from your current spot in the time line
- we already have the "home" key to take us to the top of the sequence for playing from start
- use the space bar to start and stop playback
- if a range is selected playback should start at its beginning and stop at its end


This behavior makes sense to me... what do you guys think?

Charlie

Makes sense to me
Chuck N

[MattCole]

Push Eject wrote:

A “play from current selection” which goes to end of sequence.

This specific request could be handled like this:
- do away with the "Play range" menu item
- playback should always happen from your current spot in the time line
- we already have the "home" key to take us to the top of the sequence for playing from start
- use the space bar to start and stop playback
- if a range is selected playback should start at its beginning and stop at its end

So click somewhere in the time line and hit the space bar to start playing from there and hit the space bar again to stop.

Coming from a video editing background, I agree completly. The back and forth to the play selection/screen/whole sequence is driving me batty (not that I'm not already there).

[Shubb]

A “play from current selection” which goes to end of sequence.

And have the "Play Ranges" on the tool bar. Not in a drop down menu.
One click for:

1. Play Full Sequence.
2. Play Visible Screen
3. Play Current Selection to End.

Or, at least a "pause" button to make a quick change and then continue playing.
(I don't want to seem greedy)

[Push Eject]

Shubb wrote:

And have the "Play Ranges" on the tool bar. Not in a drop down menu.

Shubb, what do you think of my idea of getting rid of the "Play Ranges" altogether?

Charlie

[Tim Fischer]

Push Eject wrote:

- if a range is selected playback should start at its beginning and stop at its end

One wrinkle to this is that something is always selected in LOR. The last cell you clicked something in becomes selected...

-Tim

[Tim Fischer]

bob wrote:

You probably know this alread, but just in case: There's "insert multiple timings", which gives the same results, albeit in a perhaps less straightforward manner.

I agree that it would be nicer to be able to specify by time rather than by count.

Yeah -- in fact I think that feature was added as a direct result of my request way back when... I do like it but would like to specify by time as welll...

-Tim

[Push Eject]

Tim Fischer wrote:

Push Eject wrote:

- if a range is selected playback should start at its beginning and stop at its end

One wrinkle to this is that something is always selected in LOR. The last cell you clicked something in becomes selected...

-Tim

Good point. Okay, then a range is defined as two or more timings.

Charlie