Polyend Tracker/mini : Improved Song Mode Workflow

[alexandrosroussos]

What is the problem?

Current song mode of the Tracker is great but requires a few improvements to accelerate the song making and live performance workflow;

Also, the fact we can delete a pattern directly from Song mode with the “Delete” button is a bit risky, there should at least be a prompt.

What do you want to achieve?

• Ability to set a number of iterations the section will play (represented by a row in the song UI), there should be a third column on the right side of the screen allowing to set that;
• Ability to Mute/Unmute tracks from a section directly from the Song view;
• Ability to copy/paste pattern of individual tracks directly from the Song view;
• Confirmation prompt when deleting a pattern from a row (to avoid deleting parts of our pattern by accident) and/or undo/redo functions available in this view.

Are there any workarounds?

• Right now we can duplicate the sections we want to repeat manually but I find it is a bit inefficient;
• Regarding Mute/Unmute, individual track pattern copy, it is currently possible on the Pattern view;
• Regarding pattern delete, for now I’m just avoiding to use this button while in Song view.

Any links to related discussions?

Redo option in song mode

In Song mode once you have pressed Undo there is no way to Redo What is the problem? It is possible to lose work when arranging in song mode as deleting a pattern “cell” is destructive. There is an UNDO option but no REDO option so there are times when you can e.g. press Undo too many times and can lose patterns you can’t get back. What do you want to achieve? A more functional / user friendly song mode with greater safety to experiment with arrangements without fear of losing work. Are th…

Allow patterns to play in certain orders and certain times - Song Mode

What is the problem? In the Play’s Song Mode it’s only possible to play individual patterns, or chain them sequentially. This basic implementation of Song Mode misses the possibility to easily create and update song structures. What do you want to achieve? Allow patterns to be played in ANY order, not just sequentially or individually. In a true Song Mode it should be possible to play pattern 1 (x4), then pattern 2 (x2), then pattern 1 (x2), then pattern 3 (x4) etc. This would allow song stru…

Song Mode Roadmap

Hi @Polyend-Team ! With 1.7 out and quickly fixed, the general workflow has improved quite a lot, but I’m wondering what the future of the Tracker looks like from now. Especially regarding “SONG mode”, where I think the device needs the most improvement and new capabilities. A lot of whishes on the subject were posted here, some of them “declined”, and none of the remaining ones were implemented yet. About the declined ones, you said the team was going in another direction(s) with the SONG mode…

Pattern Lock / Protection

It would be useful to have a way to protect/lock a pattern from any unwanted changes, while still allowing to copy from this pattern to new patterns. What is the problem? It is a common approach to work on one or maybe a handful of patterns, that can be considered “master patterns”. Where you build out the basics structure and melodic progression of a track. You then maybe copy from these patterns to new patterns in Song Mode and start building out your track. This offers a fast approach to cr…

Any references to other products?

• 1010music Blackbox;
• Akai MPC;
• NI Maschine/+;
• Roland Verselab MV-1.

[silphyd77]

Unfortunately, muting tracks in song mode has been declined.

Declined wish

I too am longing for song mode improvements, at least some kind of answer as to where this is going.

[alexandrosroussos]

Hi, is the reason because we will tend to keep the Tracker’s resources engaged as all the patterns will still play even if muted ?

What about the other suggestions such as the number of iterations per pattern, the copy pasting of individual track patterns, undo/redo and the confirm prompt against unwanted deletion ?

Could we just remove the refused mute/unmute item from this wish and let the other changes to song mode be voted for ?

[Sandroid]

Polyend stated:

@miropoly

we decided to take design of Song mode in another direction. We are working on some workaround and improvements which might bring solution(s) to your problems, but in another way.

so until we have seen what this improvement will look like, i feel like we should wait and see where this goes, before creating further song mode wishes?

Is that ok with everyone?

[miropoly]

Just to add that we already brought few improvements to Song page in 1.7.0 release:

• Add Empty Slot in Song Mode
• Copy patterns in Song Mode
• Pattern (on pad matrix) or track (in Song page) are now marked as non-empty when containing any of the following:
  • Note
  • Instrument
  • FX1 / FX2
  • MIDI Channel or CC
  • FAD, CUT or OFF