Feature Request: Play active midi independently

[CubeOfCheese]

I would like to hear what I am composing with midi. I hit the space bar to play it, but that plays whatever is in the arrangement. I would like to play what is in the bottom panel by itself so I can get it right before adding it into the arrangement.

I'm still trying to figure out the intended workflow. The confusion comes from composing a pattern that is not necessarily in the arrangement. Many daws only allow you to create a pattern by placing it in the arrangement, so there's no confusion on how to play the pattern. Here on the other hand, I can create and edit a pattern that is not in the arrangement, and therefore there is no way for me to hear it - which is odd.

[YuriSizov]

Hey, that's an interesting point! I would say that the intended workflow still involves adding patterns you're composing to the arrangement. Having them around when you remove them from the arrangement (or before you add them) is mostly a convenience thing.

But I agree that sometimes you want to isolate the pattern as you work on it, and that is not currently possible to do in a straightforward way. What I plan to add is a way to mute individual tracks/channels in the arrangement, so you can focus on those parts in isolation, or in combination with specific other parts.

I think this will solve your issue nicely without introducing extra playback options which might lead to more confusion in turn.

[CubeOfCheese]

Having them around when you remove them from the arrangement (or before you add them) is mostly a convenience thing.

But having a clip around before adding it to the arrangement seems to be the only way to create a clip, right?

This is the workflow that I'm using and finding it confusing/odd:

1. create a pattern
2. Arrangement > Add new
3. Make the new pattern
4. Can't hear what the pattern sounds like. Can't play the pattern. Now is the point where I guess you're suggesting I just have to put it into the arrangement somewhere to hear if I've made the pattern sound right.

I have thought more into why I got confused by the workflow and have detailed my findings below:

This is a little deeper, but I think part of what adds to the confusion here is what the app presents to the user when it first opens. It opens to the File tab, where you can see the sequencer, but not the arrangement. So as I draw pattern, I see notes and I see a cursor so it looks like audio is coming from that bottom panel sequencer. But this is kindof a false assumption. In reality, the audio comes from the top Arrangement panel (most of the time) *[1]. Only after switching to the Arrangement panel is it revealed that the new project was seeded with a clip in the arrangement.
So as I create a second pattern, I expect it to behave like the first one, emitting audio from the bottom panel. Again this expectation is predicated on a false assumption, though I would argue, a reasonable assumption. But the second pattern does not behave like the first one because it does not automatically get added to the arrangement.

I understand why you are seeding new projects with a clip in the arrangement, but as I have explained here, I fear it implies UX patterns that are inaccurate.

One solution would be to open to the Arrangement tab instead of File. This makes it much clearer where the audio is actually coming from. The cost of this solution is it doesn't look as pretty as the File tab with the title and everything, but it is more utilitarian this way.

Another solution is to not seed the Arrangement with a clip. But this would mean the bottom panel would be blank to start, so a little more difficult for a new user to get started. I think this is a worse solution than the former.

In conclusion, I believe there are some UX issues with regards to where the user is intended to expect audio to come from based on how they are presented with the interface and its varying abilities to produce audio. Additionally, the intended workflow is not made clear. The inclusion of a seed clip without showing it in the arrangement actually makes the intended workflow harder to discover.

I like this app and am actually interested in possibly contributing if you're open to that. I hope that my explanations make sense. I'm happy to explain further anything that was unclear.

*[1] Adding onto this, the bottom panel does indeed produce sound. As I click to make new midi notes while the track is paused, it plays the sound of the note. So I hear each individual note as I create them in the bottom panel, but then can't hear them together.

[YuriSizov]

But having a clip around before adding it to the arrangement seems to be the only way to create a clip, right?

It's not the only way, you can also create patterns by making variations directly on the arrangement grid. But the pattern list is probably where you do that more often. It's also what the tutorial built into the app teaches you first.

I believe there are some UX issues

I can see your point. I believe that the expected flow is the same that the app explains in the tutorial: you create a new pattern, place it on the arrangement grid, and then start placing notes. Overall, the expectation is that you already know where the pattern goes before you start compositing it. I think it makes sense. Your initial thought in this process is "okay, what's comes next" or "okay, what goes along with it", it's not detached from the composition at large.

As you mention, when you place notes while paused, you hear them. But when the playback is on, you don't. Because the expectation is that you're going to be playing the part of the arrangement that you're working on, and you don't want random sounds when it's not their time. It all revolves around the arrangement.

I like this app and am actually interested in possibly contributing if you're open to that.

Of course I am, that's why the project is open source!

But I'm not sure yet what you want to contribute with regards to this problem. I believe introducing a separate way to play back the current pattern only adds to the confusion, as now you have two competing ways to trigger the playback. It'd be either unclear which is active, or we'd have to introduce more visual feedback to separate them — either option works against the simplicity that we try to achieve with Bosca.

If you have a concrete proposal for a solution, I'd be interested to learn it! For now, though, I think that keeping things around the arrangement is a better option. Current setup actually leads you to solve the problem because there is only one solution: you see the playing head moving in the arrangement, but your pattern is not activating; you can figure out from that that you need to place the pattern on the arrangement first. And with the ability to mute individual tracks it'll be easier to listen to patterns in isolation without breaking up that workflow.