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Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

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Re: Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

#72
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible to simplify the interface by reducing the number of tools without necessarily removing functionality. The idea is to identify large sets of tools that can be replaced with a handful of powerful combinable tools to perform the same tasks - this is not always easy but if done well can end up not only simplifying UI but providing more powerful, intuitive tools and reducing unnecessary learning. I think Mo…

The trick is how much state you have to keep in your head. Something like Blender requires enormous state about even things like what key combinations mean in different contexts: it's a poster child for impossibly demanding state requirements. Something like the Flash pen tool is much simpler, but still absolutely requires you to maintain some state: clicking versus click-dragging, remembering not to close a shape by…

How about coding a song instead? With the right language or DSL it should be possible. Substitute a Music IDE for the DAW, maybe keep some visualizations (synced to the code of course).

I suppose musicians are more comfortable with a visual metaphor. Still the over-the-top skeuomorphism doesn't seem that efficient to me compared to just coding it.

Re: Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

#74
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just commit your ableton projects in git ?

There's a LOT of binaries involved (in the sense of large .wav files at least), and I doubt the Live file format particularly lends itself to text-based version control

The Live file format is gzipped XML. It very much lends itself to text-based version control. (I've even played around with adding such as a third party.)

Re: Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

#75
post #6
post #5

Finally a music tool with version control. I've been wishing for this to happen for so long! The first big player (Ableton etc) to integrate versioning will have a huge advantage.

Can't you just commit your ableton projects in git ?

It would be difficult because every few minor revisions they update their DRM which forces you to resave the entire project to a new location.

Re: Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

#77
As a DAW created by a single person, I must say great job. But one thing that stuck out for me most was the merging of instruments into a single visual track. As a person that designs simple DAW interfaces for a living [1], I highly recommend against that, and instead move to a more traditional instrument/track separated model.

Some back story: when we released the first version of Medly, we actually had notes on top of each other, merging the tracks into one. This turns out to be bad for both visuals (as it overcomplicates things) and for interactions. We ditched it for a more traditional format, but added a feature that let you view notes from other tracks when editing. Never regretted that decision since.

[1] http://medlylabs.com

Re: Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

#79
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the analogy is "In the music world, we have the choice between the equivalent of XCode or Visual Studio to compose - here's Atom."

"There's vim as well: http://csound.github.io/"

Csound is more analogous to GCC than it is to Vim, though. I'd say something akin to Vim would be a tracker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker

Re: Show HN: An attempt to rethink a music sequencer design

#80
post #64
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's pure data in this analogy? https://puredata.info/ A hex editor?

Well, pure data is a 'higher-level' sound programming environment, so it could be emacs.

I don't know about that. I think the visual programming aspect is the most defining trait, in which case...? I don't know any general purpose non-toy visual programming languages/interfaces. Scratch exists but likening PD to Scratch doesn't seem fair to me.
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