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Post by Colin Comard (Delay) on Nov 20, 2008 20:21:52 GMT -6
same here. I've run into several songs where the lowest note is that A.
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Post by RehdBlob on Nov 21, 2008 0:24:04 GMT -6
Hmm I'm thinking you should add the low A as a normal note. Yeah, but if we do that, songs will be really annoying when a low G comes up.
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Post by brianLED on Nov 21, 2008 1:02:14 GMT -6
*gives Rehdblob a cookie*
Wow. This looks quite impressive. A couple of features I would like that haven't been mentioned yet, in order of priority:
1. Make. It. Idiot-Proof. Please. There is nothing worse than making a song only to find out that you haven't saved it. Or, the converse of that, to make a song, and save it over a new song. Or, the other converse of that, to make a new song and save it over an existing song. All three of these have been done many times before. Having lots of "Hey! Okay to overwrite?" dialogs would really help.
2. A Copy/Paste Tool would come in handy. Many songs have patterns of notes (percussion, melody, etc.) that are repeated constantly throughout the song, yet those who are not text file-literate have to keep making the same group of measures over and over. Being able to copy/paste, say, an individual instrumental selection, or perhaps entire measures, would really come in handy. I mean, if Guitar Hero World Tour's stupid feature can have that, why can't we?
3. In lieu of the copy/paste thing, the ability to highlight individual instrumental groups would be enormously handy. In particular, a Delete feature so we can easily edit out mistakes and try something else, and, especially a Replace feature. Many times I'd think, "Oh, wouldn't that sound better if the flower part was say a swan?" So then I'd have to go delete all the flowers I made so far and replace them with swans only to hear that and think "Nah, swans are too noisy. I like flowers better anyway." Normally I would have the foresight to have saved back to when the flowers were still intact; otherwise I'd then have to go through the entire piece, delete all the swans, and put flowers in their place. Total amount of progress made: 0%. An easier way to delete/replace would be much more convenient indeed. However, bear in mind that copy/pasting, deleting, and replacing would ideally be made idiot-proof as well.
The concept of making a new software along the lines of Composer seems to me unfathomably difficult; I would have no idea where to begin to undertake such a task. Because of this, I don't know whether any of these ideas would be considered within the realm of possibility. I know only the realm of the ideal, and the inclusion of these three features would make Composing enormously easier and even more enjoyable. So, I hope you consider them. Keep up the good work!
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Post by blueheat127 on Nov 21, 2008 6:18:54 GMT -6
I was hoping maybe a wider range of notes.. Maybe a four-octave range?
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Post by Ford Prefect on Nov 21, 2008 6:21:34 GMT -6
theEvilGrimace: Changing the standard volume of chords is a good idea, I haven't thought of that. As for now, there are 16 different volume levels. I can spread the volume range they cover, but that would make volume increasement / decreasement less smooth. I guess I'll have to find a compromise between volume range and volume level difference. As for "Checkpoints": I'd call them bookmarks, and they would be rather easy to do. I consider realizing this after the basic features are ready. @tojso: No, there won't be an arranger feature. I think this is not really needed as one song can have infinite length. Of course, if you have a speed change in your song, you may want to have this feature, but in my opinion the effort is not worth the benefit. Colin Comard (Delay): Whoa, this is a request that would be nice to have but difficult to code. I'll put it on my low priority list. Espeon: I thought about having a low A too. RehdBlob is only partial right with his critism on that point, because there are more songs with A as tonic than with G (I don't have any source for that except my personal experience, though). Perhaps I'll add a low A, let's see if I got enough space for it . brianLED: Song saving will be like saving a document in Notepad, or Office, or any other standard software. That means: Saving option is in the menu bar, you will select the location of the song file by yourself, and you will be prompted to overwrite an existing song. And I theoretically can store the current song every 5 minutes as backup if the application crashes or whatever. But I have an even better idea: I think I'll store the last, let's say, 50 changes, every one as complete temporarily stored song. This will work as backup and as well as an undo feature (yeah I know, it's kind of a brute-forced undo, but a *real* undo feature would be a lot harder to do, and we all have enough space on our hard disc drives anyway). Copypasting is one of the things that are simply too difficult to do. I mean, I need a method to mark chords, perhaps only one instrument, then I probably have to make it possible to mark more chords than there are on one screen. The process itself would be easy to do, but it would be a very hard piece of work for the GUI. BUT: I will store songs in xml-format. This will be a lot easier to edit than the MPC format. It may not be a user-friendly way, but it's better than nothing. Instrument highlighting is also a feature that would need a lot of work on the GUI. But I can do it this way: If you use the rubber, you will only delete the currently selected instrument. With right click, you will delete the topmost instrument. I think that's about what you want to have. (btw: I can differ between a right click and a ctrl-click on MacOSX) Replacing a whole instrument with another is a feature that would be rather easy. If I implement measure numbers, I could even make it possible to replace the instrument only in a specified range of measures. I'll put this on the nice-to-have feature list. To all: Be aware that most of the features you request probably won't be implemented in the initial release, because I want the basic system to be working before I implement advanced stuff. But as I said, I have a lot of time during the christmas holidays...
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Post by Ford Prefect on Nov 21, 2008 9:18:32 GMT -6
Here's a new screenshot. Changelog: - New colors from Levus implemented - Resized the window to 720 * 540 (old dimensions: 640 * 480) - Added a line for low A notes - standard volume is half the full volume - Increased the space between chords to add sharps and flats Seems like I have a lot of space now for the toolbar at the bottom. I think I'll make the scrollbar as long as the window, to make scrolling in long songs easier.
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Post by Guru on Nov 21, 2008 12:06:13 GMT -6
Looking brilliant, you keep at this now, yar?
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Espeon
Plane
Pizza Castle
Spiral Knights is the sheeeit
Posts: 951
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Post by Espeon on Nov 21, 2008 14:28:10 GMT -6
YESH! YESH!
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Post by brianLED on Nov 21, 2008 16:14:01 GMT -6
Wow, it looks sharp. Again, keep up the good work. It's nice to have someone who actually knows where the community's interests lie.
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Post by Colin Comard (Delay) on Nov 21, 2008 18:02:06 GMT -6
I would suggest: -A larger pitch range Ok, that wasn't the full quote, but the whole point that made mario paint composer vids so popular was the limitations. If you gve it too big of a range, whats the point? Why not just use Noteworthy Composer or Anvil Studio?
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Post by blueheat127 on Nov 21, 2008 18:03:40 GMT -6
I would suggest: -A larger pitch range Ok, that wasn't the full quote, but the whole point that made mario paint composer vids so popular was the limitations. If you gve it too big of a range, whats the point? Why not just use Noteworthy Composer or Anvil Studio? Because none of those things start with an 'M'.
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Post by Guru on Nov 21, 2008 18:07:52 GMT -6
I would suggest: -A larger pitch range Ok, that wasn't the full quote, but the whole point that made mario paint composer vids so popular was the limitations. If you gve it too big of a range, whats the point? Why not just use Noteworthy Composer or Anvil Studio? I do agree. The limitations make Mario Paint Composer what it is. You can only stretch them so far. But hey. Stretching them will be a laugh, right???
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Post by blueheat127 on Nov 21, 2008 18:12:19 GMT -6
Ok, that wasn't the full quote, but the whole point that made mario paint composer vids so popular was the limitations. If you gve it too big of a range, whats the point? Why not just use Noteworthy Composer or Anvil Studio? I do agree. The limitations make Mario Paint Composer what it is. You can only stretch them so far. But hey. Stretching them will be a laugh, right??? Either that or it will go horribly wrong and everyone will hate it. But hey, no pressure.
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Post by Colin Comard (Delay) on Nov 21, 2008 18:12:26 GMT -6
Ok, that wasn't the full quote, but the whole point that made mario paint composer vids so popular was the limitations. If you gve it too big of a range, whats the point? Why not just use Noteworthy Composer or Anvil Studio? Because none of those things start with an 'M'. Well can you, in your 8,993 cookie wisdom, give me a more valid reason?
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Post by blueheat127 on Nov 21, 2008 18:13:16 GMT -6
Because none of those things start with an 'M'. Well can you, in your 8,993 cookie wisdom, give me a more valid reason? MPC is more fun, and more limited, plus there is a little bouncing mario ^^
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Post by Guru on Nov 21, 2008 18:14:20 GMT -6
Well can you, in your 8,993 cookie wisdom, give me a more valid reason? MPC is more fun, and more limited, plus there is a little bouncing mario ^^ At this rate, it won't be quite so limited in the future...
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Post by Colin Comard (Delay) on Nov 21, 2008 18:16:26 GMT -6
yeah i think three octaves for a, b, and c is enough
EDIT: but hey, it's all up to Ford
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Cat
Plane
Zoroark fanatic
Posts: 973
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Post by Cat on Nov 21, 2008 19:01:32 GMT -6
This is coming along very nicely Ford! I REALLY can't wait to see it finished.
I'm also going to sticky this because...does an admin need a reason?
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Post by RehdBlob on Nov 21, 2008 20:01:20 GMT -6
This still owns my version, which didn't get much further than image editing... Anyone want me to post the image edit sometime, though?
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Post by Weraslolreee on Nov 22, 2008 0:24:09 GMT -6
You should consider adding more instruments, maybe...
Goombas Koopas Feathers Bob-ombs 1-ups Small Mario I'm sure there are more possibilities. Keep up the great work!
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