Piano-roll: Play a stack of notes

[musikBear]

lmms need a way to play a 'stack' of notes at once - eg if the user has 'stacked' c, e & g, then lmms should play the Cmaj-chord. If the user has stacked c# g f a b# -all should be played as a 'chord' (i think you understand?)
A resonable UI could be a key-mouse-combo, alt+left-mouse is not mapped, afaik, so that would be a candidate.
Stack-Sustain should be the time left-mouse is held down on a note -eg individual note length in the stack, should not be calculated
Stacked are -all- notes on all octaves that has the -exact- same time-signature as the note that is mouse-clicked.

[Sti2nd]

I don't understand. You already have the option to make chords with one click by using the dropdown menus in LMMS.

[musikBear]

no -play- at mouse-press. not in playback. You have this feature in several other dav's. You know when you compose, you can hear how the individual notes along the piano-roll 'goes' with each other, but if you build 'stacks' (eg chords), from single notes, you will only hear the press-note in the 'chord', if you mouse-click.
FL, reason, abbleton amo, will play the -chord- in that event, so the user can hear how whole chords goes with each other, and then perhaps adjust a note in one. Does that make it understandable?
I use the word 'stack' because it does not have to be 'recognized' chords, just note-stacks.
Believe me its very powerful in composing.
It is possible to play a note stack. If the volume bar is clicked with the mouse, all notes in this pos is played simultaneous, but all notes in that stack, will also emediately get identical volume, so that option is useless. The same goes for using the panning.

[musikBear]

I will try once more, because this would be a very good feature
Look at this:

If you insert notes similar to this image, and press the tiny light-blue 'head' of the volume-bar (orange arrow), the whole chord ot note-stack will play at once. You will however also always alter the note volume (or pan).
What i propose is that if you alt+left-mouse-press any of the notes in the stack, it should result in the same event -eg the 'chord' should play.

..oops image says 'sh' that is in use -ofcause a key-combo not in use is needed

[badosu]

@musikBear It took a lot of work to understand what you were referring to, please try to communicate more clearly, it's really hard to follow up your wording. The image was what actually helped me.

That said, I understood now what you mean and I guess it's feasible. I am just awaiting output of others to see if this is desirable for more people or not.

[musikBear]

Here is a screenie showing how this feature looks in fls (alt+RMC)

For workflow reasons, a combo with LMC would be the best. It would then be possible to move the note fast and listen to the new chord.

[tresf]

Can we please refrain from taking pictures of other copyrighted work?

[waxspin]

Taking a look at this one next.

[waxspin]

@musikBear What if we did something like CTRL + ALT + LMC, since the ALT + LMC is currently mapped to dragging windows around at least under KDE (not sure about any other desktop environments or OS).

[musikBear]

Is sh+LMC not available. I dont think that has any use in piano-roll, and that would be highly intuitive, and also be easy to use for both lefthand and righthanded users. Sh+LMC would be perfect for stack playing.

[waxspin]

I believe SH+LMC should work, I'll test it a bit more as I work on it, but should be fine. However, just wondering whether this should work in any mode, or just selection mode, or something. I personally think it would be useful to be able to do this while the note draw tool is being used.

[tresf]

@musikBear The volume slider does this fine now... What is the problem?

[waxspin]

@tresf I think the improvement in workflow is that one would have faster access (less mouse moving) to the notes and could quickly hear the stack, then move a note and test again more rapidly than if one had to move down to the bottom of the piano roll. @musikBear Thoughts, or is that an adequate explanation?

[tresf]

@waxspin I see that the request is for clicking the note. I don't like this at all personally, I think it uses up a shortcut that could be used elsewhere. It also requires notes to be aligned exactly which isn't always the case (a soundfont or a synth may have a delay which forces the composer to put separate notes with the same desired attack a hair off from eachother to align properly). So my vote on this enhancement is to stay away from the note shortcuts and continue using the volume slider that is already there. (Although staying open to other opinions. 👍)

[waxspin]

@tresf @musikBear I do see the usefulness, and I think the alignment issue could be mitigated by just taking the intersection of any notes at that point in time, regardless of the attack edge aligning (since we can probably assume most of them will have some sustained volume during the duration of the note, and even if they do not, we only care about comparing them pitch-wise for testing potential chords rapidly while drawing the piano roll). All of that said, however, I do see @tresf 's point that we are using up another (rather commonly used) shortcut of SHIFT + LMC, and I do see his point about the volume slider already being there. I guess I'm not totally sold on the idea, but I'm curious @musikBear , is this a feature you use a lot in other DAWs, and if so, what shortcut do they use?

[musikBear]

@tresf

@musikBear The volume slider does this fine now... What is the problem?

if you do then the volume will (almost) always change, and you have to re-ajust the changed volume, and that is a drag! Believe me if you compose a pluck, you will LOVE to be able to play a 5 stack of notes fast and reliable, as you find the best chord, by mowing one or two of the notes, -without messing with that tiny volume-slider, and on top of that, have to re-ajust the now changed volume
I could however also see the usefulness of just letting a *right-click * on the volume-slider play the stack, but now it will delete the stack.
I can imagine several ways to implement the feature:

• very simple: have at way to lock the note-sliders. Now it would be possible to use the current functionality, and just left click the slider. Volume would not change!
  • menu could be a new item, in the leftmost toggle-box, in the vol/pan-menu
• Left or rightclick on the timebar, over the notes (also in use already, not really an option)
• Have toggle key -like numlock, to switch between single and stack play
• Have a menu-option to switch between single and stack play
  • both plays when any note in the stack is left-clicked (implementation tricky)

The way i do it now is to move the play-head manually and the i start relay on space, but that is not a good way. Playing a stack should (imo) be possible. It is in other daw
@waxspin -i only know FLs, and they use alt, which is ok, but tricky for lefthanded peeps

@tresf - i 100% hear you in respect to 'sh' being a especially valuable combo, but what feature should occupy the combo..?

perhaps stack-play

: )