You've also got access to the FL studio manual on their site. That's probably the quickest way to check out your "competition" anyway.Yeah, I should take another look. I used to use Fruity Loops when I was a Windows user, and I used FL Studio for a little while too after it came out. I can try out FL Studio again to get some ideas, but I would not be able to learn some of the really useful features unless I use FL Studio for a very long period of time (For example, the middle-click movement in the piano roll)
Drag and drop in general is very nice, so I hope it'll be an option wherever it's possible.Yeah, good idea. One thing I've considered is that each Generator automatically gets a dedicated mixer channel. And as you point out Mixer Tabs/Groups can make this more manageable. I'll keep you Drag-n-Drop idea in mind.
To elaborate a little on that idea. Imagine you have an empty step sequencer set to pattern 1. Then you drag a generator from the browser into the step sequencer. Automatically, the generator is added to the "active generators" list in the browser, and creates it's own mixer channel. When you switch to pattern 2, the generator disappears. If you want to use the same generator(same mixer track and everything) again for pattern 2, you'll have to drag it from the "active generators" list in the browser.
In short, have each pattern only contain the generators it's actually using.
This might be a little inconvenient maybe, (compared to the FL studio approach) but we won't know before testing it of course. Still, it's more logical IMO.
And now some new ideas.
Using external generators:
Having simple midi out plugins, with "sub plugins" for each channel. (The main plugin creates a midi port in jack, and the sub plugins acts as generators) Sounds weird, but it seems more logical IMO than choosing the midi channel within the piano roll as in done in FL studio.
Incorporate the pattern grid from seq24:
First, imagine seq24. Then imagine seq24 with the browser from FL studio, and a step sequencer where each different patterns does not contain all generators. Let's say you want to create a simple tune with lead, bass, pad, and drums.
You find a lead synth in the browser, drag it to pattern 1, do the same for the other generators, (Bass synth -> pattern 2, pad synth -> pattern 3, ) and then drag all the drum samples you need to pattern 4.
Then you open pattern 3 in the step sequencer (right click menu in pattern grid?) edit the piano roll for the pad and create some basic chord progression. In pattern 4 , create a basic drumbeat just like you would in fl studio. Then you start looping, which should work just like in seq24 in the pattern grid. Selected patterns play over and over again.
open pattern 1, record a melody while looping
open pattern 2, add some bass...
And we're done!
Personally I love the seq24 approach, where you create a few simple"riffs" first in the pattern grid, (by looping a few long patterns) and then add details and arrange it in the song editor later.
After all, it's just about displaying the patterns in a grid. It shouldn't be to difficult. Can't say for sure though, since I'm no programmer.
Features I would like for the eventual pattern grid:
* Zooming with ctrl+mouse wheel, and moving around with mouse wheel pressed.
* Moving patterns around freely, so that they can be rearranged later
* Cloning patterns with ctrl+drag
* Information about the pattern shows up when hovering above it with the pointer. Like length, and a list of all used generators.
* This one is a bit difficult to explain, but imagine you have created a long pattern, and you want to create a new one consisting of only the the first notes. Then you should be able to show the pattern in a hovering window as if it was an audio clip, select the part you want (imagine selecting the first half of an audio clip) and ctrl+drag it into a free spot on the pattern grid.
Automation:
Actually I really like the ctrl+drag option in LMMS. To bad it seems the synth's must be integrated for it to work. Anyway, in fl studio if you want to automate vsti's, you find the vsti in the "current project" folder in the browser. There you can access midi-cc messages and parameters to automate. (right click -> create automation clip) Would be nice to have something similar in LMMS if the ctrl+drag option won't work.
step sequencer:
Maybe add a mixer track to the left, like the one in ardour? You select a generator within the pattern, and the mixer channel assigned to it appears within the step sequencer.
