Sample Track Recording Stage One

[Reflexe]

recording.mov

This is the first stage of the Sample Track Recording feature and was intended to only work on one backend (SDL) with no fancy features like looping and visualization.
It has been tested very quickly on my setup with a monitor interface.

Note: the changes are from #4994.

[LmmsBot]

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Linux

• Linux (AppImage): lmms-1.2.0-rc6.1231+gb2f3a1f86-linux-x86_64.AppImage (build link)

Windows

• Windows 64-bit: lmms-1.2.0-rc6.1231+gb2f3a1f86-mingw-win64.exe (build link)
• Windows 32-bit: lmms-1.2.0-rc6.1231+gb2f3a1f86-mingw-win32.exe (build link)
• Windows 32-bit: lmms-1.3.0-alpha-msvc2017-win32.exe (build link)
• Windows 64-bit: lmms-1.3.0-alpha-msvc2017-win64.exe (build link)

macOS

• macOS : lmms-1.2.0-rc6.1231+gb2f3a1f86-mac10.14.dmg (build link)

🤖

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[IanCaio]

I'm still going to review this with more care when I get home, but decided to take a peak at it from my phone and did a first pass review just for fixing code style (stuff like explicit blocks for one line ifs, spacing, camelCase variable names). Added all as suggestions if you'd like to just batch commit them.

Is there any reason you decided to use a braced-init-list instead of the expression-init-list for those new members?

[PhysSong]

My initial comments:

• If I remember correctly, we concluded to remove shouldApplyMasterGain from pushInputFrames before.
• I think it's okay to add more backends in this PR.

[Reflexe]

@PhysSong You are right. I forgot to remove it before pushing.
Hopefully will do it after work (in about 12h).
About other backends: I think we can first merge this, and then add pulseaudio and jack one by one. That will make testing more focused and wilp make review much easier.

[enp2s0]

Fully agree with doing backends 1-by-1. SDL is a good start since it's available everywhere and is the default, so recording will work ootb for most users.

[sebageek]

I compiled and ran this PR today on Linux and it seemed to work pretty well for me. Used the SDL backend (with pipewire), recorded a bit of Guitar music.
I had to search a bit for "how to actually record something", but after I found out that I could arm painted tracks for being recorded everything became clear. Maybe the o rec symbol could be accompanied by painting the track background orange/red so I know I'll record over it on the next run.

Things that worked for me:

• saving and loading (without saving resources) - sample tracks were there on load
• recording, cutting, moving, duplicating sampletracks

Things that did not work for me:

1. Using the "Record samples from audio-device" button - It does nothing for me.
   No recording or anything will happen. I can only record audio using the "record while playing song / BB-Track" button. Am I holding it wrong?

2. saving "with resources" (click in save dialog) breaks the saving process
   Directories will be created, but save will be aborted. The error seen on the console is as follows:

QFile::copy: Empty or null file name
ERROR: Failed to copy resource

I think lmms tries to save the sample track, but it has no associated file name. See DataFile::copyResources() in ./src/core/DataFile.cpp.

Another feature that would be really nice is if I had a way to save the sample track I recorded with lmms (maybe I decide I need it as an extra wav/mp3/something or want to post-process it somewhere else).

All in all: A big plus from my side! Looking forward to seeing this feature integrated in lmms once it's done!

[Reflexe]

@sebageek Thanks for the feedback. I will look into both. In any case. feel free to open an issue about being able to save individual Samples (if there isn't one open already).

• The second issue was very simple, I will open another PR for the fix.

• The first issue, however, IDK really know how to solve because I don't really know what is the meaning of the button (Maybe we better just remove it?) I have no idea what could it mean. The only thing I could think about is to play the song like every other track has been muted (e.g. only record w/o playing anything). But that will require some heavy modifications of the recording code I am not sure are in scope for this PR. CC: @PhysSong . @Umcaruje ?

[sebageek]

Hey @Reflexe, nice to hear that it was helpful && that the second issue is easy to fix! I also opened #6022 for the feature request.

Regarding the first issue: The record button apparently dates back to a stub implementation in 2008 and is only now appearing as it checks if the current audio backend is implementing capturing. So, how about using this button for its original intention? It could just allow the user to record samples without any other track playing (essentially the same as the two record buttons in the piano roll). On the other hand while I could imagine this functionality useful.. if this is not needed I'd opt for removing the button.

[PhysSong]

I think you should remove applyMasterGainToInputBuffer function as well, it's not used anymore after the removal of shouldApplyMasterGain.

[firewall1110]

I have compiled this branch ...
Is real recording implemented or stage 1 means some preparations for this?

I am about to PR that fix Issue #4668 , but also changes some things how capture works in goal to enable input capture callback only if needed. Also see my questions on Discord ...
Let's collaborate!

[firewall1110]

Now recording is working if merge this branch over my capture branch:

RecordingStageOne.mp4

Is this correct?

[Reflexe]

Rebased on master, remove apply master gain related changes.
Left to apply styling issues. Will do it shortly.

[JGHFunRun]

I think at some point we should switch from set/clear record to a proper record button but that's for the future IG

[JGHFunRun]

@LmmsBot

[Mayravixx]

Tried doing this today, sadly it isn't working for me on Arch. When I place down a sample section then right click it, I get no "set/clear record" option at all. Would be really simple if I could grab the exe's in some way but none of the .exe's can be downloaded, same story with the appimage file.

2021-09-21.17-07-36.mp4

[DomClark]

@Mayravixx That version doesn't contain the code from this PR - it's instead the latest master version (see the commit hash in the title bar - 8a9a2fa).

[messmerd]

It seems to work without major issues.

However, there appears to be quite a bit of latency. Here's me tapping on my mic on each quarter note of the metronome (120 BPM) starting at the 2nd measure:

Is there anything that can be done about this?

The audio was also recorded in the left channel only rather than upmixed to stereo which might be more desirable.

[michaelgregorius]

@messmerd, what are your audio settings? What latency is set there.

Also, to reduce any human latency: can you please try to record the metronome sound itself coming from the speakers?

[Rossmaxx]

I tried to reproduce a crash but couldn't. I used to get a crash before but strangely it disappeared. Can anyone check if recording still crashes?

[Rossmaxx]

If i get a confirmation, I'll merge in 2 days unless someone objects

[tresf]

As @StakeoutPunch observed and reported on Discord, this feature has a blocker:

While I doubt I have any right to block a PR, I think that storing the recorded data in the project file as base64 is not an appropriate implementation.

Some workarounds have been proposed:

• Prompt user where to store file after a recording has been made
  --OR--
• Automatically store recorded samples in samples directory
  --OR--
• Implement "portable" project file format

Each come with some major drawbacks (usability, portability/clutter, effort, respectively).

[PhysSong]

Implement "portable" project file format

Possibly related: #5735, #3981.

[michaelgregorius]

Some workarounds have been proposed:

* Prompt user where to store file after a recording has been made--OR--

* Automatically store recorded samples in `samples` directory--OR--

* Implement "portable" project file format

Each come with some major drawbacks (usability, portability/clutter, effort, respectively).

Prompting users after each recording would be very cumbersome and should be optional if it is implemented.

REAPER stores recordings in a global, configurable folder if there is no saved project yet. The file names contain date and time and other things to make them unique. These files are kept until they are explicitly deleted.

It is possible to configure the behavior of REAPER, i.e. you can configure where recordings are stored for projects that have already been saved. This way it is possible to have every recording in the project folder from the get-go.

Most other DAWs provide several options with regards to working with files, e.g. audio files/samples, MIDI clips, etc:

• References to files: if you pull in a file from anywhere in the file system it's only referenced. It stays at its original location and the data is streamed from that location.
• Project consolidation: this is an action that users can choose. Files that are outside of a project folder are copied/moved to a location inside the project folder.
• Portable project: this would collect all assets wherever they are located and put them into some kind of archive format, e.g. zip up everything.

[firewall1110]

This #5990 and (Fix hang on exit with SDL2 audio backend) #6070
May be have hidden conflict:
now audio call back is always active, but after #6070 must be activated before recording (and turned off after)