More MIDI Tracks 16 perhaps?

Wishlist Archive
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What is the problem?

Currently, Play has 8 midi tracks, which may be limiting for some users.

Although different midi channels can be assigned to different steps within the same track, and thereby somewhat extend the possibilities offered by a track limited to one midi channel, it is not the same as having 16 dedicated midi tracks, each with its own dedicated mute/solo/var/select controls and dedicated parameters like play mode, pattern length, etc. Those parameters make ‘squeezing’ multiple tracks into a single track a less than ideal workaround, as many of the performative features are lost. Furthermore, the tracks must not overlap as, while a track can be assigned to many midi channels, a pad can only be assigned to a single channel.

What do you want to achieve?

Make 16 midi tracks available (doubling the currently available number of MIDI tracks).

This could be implemented in different ways. Below there are some suggestions.

Ideally, the additional MIDI channels would be accessed via a new, third page, which would exist in addition to the current sample and MIDI pages. This new page could be accessed as a third destination when using the Shift-Patterns button combination and be identified by a third color, tonally related to the current color used when accessing the MIDI page (a sightly different purple or a blue?).

If having two pages of MIDI channels in addition to the current sample page is problematic, then perhaps a project-level setting could be introduced in order to allow the user to switch between a mode with one sample sample page and one MIDI page and a mode with two MIDI pages. Although the project would not be able to make use of any samples when in the two MIDI page mode, this would greatly enhance the usefulness of the Play device for those who use it solely as a MIDI sequencer.

In addition, a new page on which all 16 MIDI tracks are accessible simultaneously, without switching, might be added in order to facilitate performance. Such a page could be a sort of performance page, rendered like this :

  • The first row of the Play grid (first 16 pads) : Mute for each of the 16 tracks
  • The second row of the Play grid (first 16 pads) : Solo for each of the 16 tracks
  • The third row of the Play grid (first 16 pads) : Variations for each of the 16 tracks
  • The fourth row of the Play grid (first 16 pads) : Selection of each of the 16 tracks
  • The 5th to 8th rows : performance values for upcoming midi performance mode or selection of the first 4 variations of a track if variation pad is activated.

That leaves 8 rows of 4 pads at the right of Play grid (the ones used to mute/solo/var/select), which could store more performance values or control the sample tracks if 16 midi + samples 8 is possible.

Are there any workarounds?

No

Any links to related discussions?

Any references to other products?

2

As far as I remember, nobody has requested explicitly more MIDI tracks and I can’t recall Polyend a hard limitation on 8 MIDI channels (although it is hard to follow everything). I remember two wishes related to getting more wiggle room in the MIDI/Synth mode:

I have expressed my opinion that 8 MIDI notes at the same time is more than enough, but who am I. :slight_smile: Note that the limitation is 8 simultaneous MIDI notes, not 8 MIDI tracks, since each track can contain notes pointing to different MIDI channels.

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I hear you re. notes vs tracks, but it is actually more tracks that I am seeking.

It would definitely help me to be able to have more than 8 simultaneous notes at certain times, but the use of the tracks as an organizational element is pretty important to me.

Although I sometimes combine notes on different MIDI channels within the same horizontal row, this usually happens as a final step after working through a number of ideas and coming to a ‘final’ decision. There is always the potential for such a combination to not work because of simultaneous notes between the tracks I am hoping to combine.

I really love selecting all notes on a given row and applying changes to them as a group and I think the Play would benefit from making more rows possible for that sort of work, but I suppose a ‘who am I’ applies here as well.

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Ok, do you want us to move this topic to Draft wishes ?

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That would be great, thanks!

6

Ok, done. Please check the guidelines and edit your post to adapt it to the template.

I’m very curious to see what will come out of this wish. Thank you for taking the initiative.

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Very interested in having 16 midi tracks to be able to use Play as the main sequencer in a setup. I updated the wish and made a proposal to be able to have a page to control all 16 midi tracks simultaneously. Hopefully that goes in the direction of the wish, please feel free to edit. !

9

Hi, sorry about the delayed response but I was rather swamped by my 9 to 5 this week!

That is very much what I had in mind, although I had not considered the page giving simultaneous access to all 16 of the MIDI tracks. I can see that as being useful but, for me, I don’t see it as being absolutely required and I wouldn’t want it to get in the way of implementing the additional 8 tracks. If the procedure to switch between the two 8 channel MIDI banks is as straightforward as the one currently in place to switch between the Audio and MIDI pages, I could live with that.

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10

No worries. What matters is that the identification of the problem and the wish are clear, and here they are. If the Polyend team accepts this draft for the Wishlist, and if they eventually choose it for implementation, they will look at the suggestions, maybe have their own suggestions, and decide on their preferred approach.

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@cross Thanks for your contribution. Unfortunately, the wish doesn’t fit our current product design direction. :slight_smile:

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