Play 1.6.0 and Play Plus 1.2.0 Live Finger Drumming Mode Beta

Beta
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22

This.

1 Like
23

Is it possible to finger drum synth notes?

24

Love this feature!

25

just read that its not possible to record into a new track … will this be possible in the future ? and please dont say that i can write a wish bout that …. i think without the possibility to record what you play its just a funny toy feature ( dont mean this in a bad way)

7 Likes
26

I think similar about Perform Mode. We should be able to record it as a next Track/Pattern

27

Some thoughts after a first exploratory session:

  • There is no 4 track or 4x4 limitation. I you so wish, you can set the 8 audio tracks and the 8 midi tracks to “Pads”, fill them with samples and notes, and trigger all of them when and how you please. Or take just one entire track enabling all the pads there… Up to you.
  • Audio tracks still have the limitation of one sample sounding at the time. This means that if you finger-drum on a typical area of 4x4 pads, you have e.g. kick and hat on the same track and then you tap both pads at once, whichever comes after will choke the previous.
    • One way to handle this is to “turn” your 4x4 90 degrees, so the typical row kick-snare-closedhat-openhat is now in four different tracks. Then you fill the second “row” with second kick, rimshot, etc… This should reduce the probability of having to hit two pads from the same track at the same time. This won’t work either if you are Spinscott but I guess nobody expects to play live drum&bass with the tiny pads.
    • Another workaround is to keep practicing and find rhythms that don’t choke your samples when you don’t want to. As they say, restrictions increase creativity. :wink:
  • I bet the limitation is the same for MIDI notes but it is simply way harder to hit two pads at the exact same time, so in general you can play with a regular 4x4 area and expect all the audios to sound on your DAW or wherever you are sending the MIDI notes.
  • In my experience, finger-drumming at a regular speed will cause the occasional pad to be missed. This is probably due to understandable hardware limitations. You can take it as “probability”, a feature that will add that personal flavor to your performances. :wink: I mean, at least in my case it’s just an occasional pad missed. Going slower or using this feature as a clip launcher works reliably.
  • There is a Bug on the first note playing, indeed.
  • The fact that you can keep using the “Non-Pads” tracks as usual is very cool! Just add a track for bass, another one for long harmonic sustained pads, and you can use the rest to play drums live and/or a lead.

Again, this won’t replace a dedicated finger-drumming device like an MPC, Machine, Launchpad… But it can spare you one of these if all you want is a bunch of pads to trigger a precise collection of samples or MIDI notes live, starting with a very affordable price of one track.

In my case, I wanted this feature to send MIDI notes to a drum machine in my DAW. I would have been happy with a 4x4 area, and the flexibility to enable these pads however I wish just opens more possibilities.

Very good value added to the Play & Play+! Thank you very much.

3 Likes
28

I’m not sure I understand, can the finger drumming mode be recorded on a track?

29

I’m wondering same as you :thinking:

30

I don’t think so.

31

This would be underwhelming.

Being able to layer rhythmic or melodic events in the heat of the moment would add greatly to the creative potential.

It’s what I miss the most, I use it mainly to create random fill for other tools.

It would be awesome to be able to sketch ideas in a more spontaneous way than programming sequences.

2 Likes
32

It would be great to be able to record in selected tracks the performance. Please! :slight_smile:

5 Likes
34

Exactly!

Or else, it is only good for live performance.

Same could be said on not being able to record Performance Mode.

And in my opinion, Play is most useful as an idea sketch pad.

I hope Polyend looked at it the same way.

2 Likes
35

Yes indeed please consider this option.

I have no idea how complicated it would be to implement, but it would open up the potential of the instrument in may ways.

2 Likes
36

+1 as well for this!

1 Like
37

+1 for recording!!!

1 Like
38

This beta doesn’t work for me. It crashes my original play each time I turn it off and back on and it gets stuck on logo screen, making me have to delete my workspace folder from the sd card each time to be able to use it. This needs fixed ASAP please.

I hope a fix is coming soon for this issue @Mitch ?

I went back to 1.5 for now.

39

The fix is actually included in the 1.5 that you have (it’s the last mention in the fixes here, but hasn’t been pushed to the beta. Of course you don’t see the benefits of the fix because 1.5 doesn’t include the feature from the beta, but it does mean that it’s fixed on the main branch and when the beta goes offical, it should no longer be an issue :slight_smile:

1 Like
40

To be honest they should have included the fix in the beta. How are we supposed to use and test and report issues with the open beta if we can’t even use the machine without doing work arounds lol.

1 Like
41

I totally get your frustration, especially being the Play currently doesn’t have direct USB data function from the unit.
With that said, there is a workaround, and as annoying as it can be, Betas generally exist to improve the main branch and are not really meant to be incremented upon. Hotfixes can happen, but again having a workaround probably makes it a bit less of a priority.

Finally, as it’s the holiday seasons things are going to slow down for a bit as I would imagine.

I’m curious; After starting a new project, and then deleting the workfolder, if you save that project as a template to start future projects, does it still have the issue?