Double track length to avoid tracks de-syncing

It sure would be nice if the user could hold shift while turning the knob for track length, and it would double/quadruple (clockwise) or half/quarter (counterclockwise) the track length. When playing live it can be very frustrating to do this by stepping through all the other values which inevitably leads to tracks being off-sync.

What is the problem?

Currently when the user wants double or half the length of a track, they have to step through all the Track Length values which has a high risk of going out of sync with other tracks

What do you want to achieve?

It would be nice if there was an option to restrict the manipulation of the Track Length to equal divisions/multiplications of the current length.

One suggestion would be that if the user holds down the Shift button while changing the Track Length value, it would cause the track to double or 1/2 it’s size.
Example; Track is currently 8 steps. The user hold Shift and turns the knob to the right which would result in a track length of 16 steps. Likewise a turning to the left would result in a track length of 4.

Are there any workarounds?

You can press Shift and extend the Step Pages to 16, 32, 48 or 64 steps - but this is only for lengthening. Shortening tracks from 16 to 8 or 4 (or more likely from 64 or 32 to 16) is not supported unless I am mistaken.

Any links to related discussions?

Any references to other products?

The closest thing is the Frap Tool’s USTA. This is an eurorack sequencer that allows the user to independently set a step length for each stage of the sequence based on a clock input. It has a function that if the user holds down a modifier key, and increase the length of a stage, it will remove a step from the next stage in order to keep the track at a consistent length. Equally if the modifier is held and a step is removed from a stage, it will add a step to the next available stage.
It’s not a perfect example to the user request, but it does show a functionality in a sequencer to keep a track consistent in it’s relative length.

11 Likes

Hey @a.radder thanks so much for your wish! This is such a great idea!

I’ve moved your post to the Draft wishes as this is the first place to start when you have an idea that you would like to see implemented. I’ve also added the template and did my best to take your proposal and rephrase it using the Best Practices for Writing a Good Feature Request that is used for submitting potential wishes. I invite you to edit/reword and/or add in any other information you may have.

In the future, if you have another idea you’d like to propose I invite you to start a new topic in the Draft wishes section where the template will automatically be provided to you.

Finally feel free to ask any questions or bounce around ideas if you’d like. I’m here to help and guide you however I can.

All the best!

2 Likes

Thank you very much!

With pleasure. I really like this idea!

I added some thoughts to the “Related Discussion” field. It’s not the best example, but I think it could help drive the idea of a functionality that changes a tracks length and has a solution to keep it relative to what is happening on a more global/song level.

1 Like

Great idea. I’m ready to vote for this :slight_smile:

@3xm @a.radder there is easy and very quick use case to achieve this: just press Shift and extend the Step Pages to 16, 32, 48 or 64 steps which allows you to quickly double, triple or quadruple the track length without de-syncing. Let me know if this fulfils your wish :wink:

5 Likes

I hadn’t realized that! But- that’s just part of the wish. To be able to halve/quarter a longer sequence would also be included in what I’m looking for. This does help a lot though. Thanks @miropoly - I added it to workarounds.

1 Like

@here Thanks for your wish. It’s now ready for voting :slight_smile:

1 Like