Bigger interface for Waveform and Loops in Player view

yblanco

I love the option to create audio regions and then be able to loop or skip in Players view. This is very useful. What I find though is that this function takes a very small portion of the Players view where priority is given to Lyrics or PDF and is hard to hit the right spot while performing.

Would it be possible to have the option to keep the waveform as it is but to add a panel just below it with the created region as large buttons to easily touch and perform the desired action? Just giving away the top portion of the lyrics/pdf panel? The 'Loop current region' button serves this purpose but this could be improved by adding a button per created zone. I was using Trax (iPad only) before moving to Stage Traxx and I think this could be a great improvement to players view IMHO.

Again thanks for listening
Yon

Damir

yblanco i mentioned this in early stages of development, when on stage i dont stare at the waveform but i do need to clearly see all loops segments and their names and i need to be able to confidently hit the appropriate loop no matter how large or small the loop , i need a definite size button,
I suggested making the loop buttons in relationship of how many loops you use , the more loops the smaller the buttons , but apparently people want to see a useless waveform instead.
I rather have a large button to clearly hit , and if its a 10second audio segment the indicator moves through the button relatively fast, and if its a 1 minute audio loop segment the position indicator mover relatively slowly through the same size button, if you have less loops the buttons a larger , so the interface becomes easy to change loops no matter what length the loops are, this to me is a lot more important as i dont really use the waveform to tell me anything i have my lyrics screen and the loop segments to easily see whats going on and there is always the digital counter to tell me how long to go before the end , to manouvre through the song you do the same thing as now just drag the pointer through the loops but why not just touch the loop segment and jump to that section,
I see no great purpose in the waveform beeing there , technically it has no real purpose once you are on stage performing .
But thats just my opinion after using ST3 for a while now.
Cheers Damir

yblanco

Damir I agree with you Damir. I don't mind the waveform with the progressing bar taking a bit of screen space but definitely we can use buttons for the section loops made (with names as you said), big enough so we can tap on them to loop, tap any loop to jump once the current one finishes to change the flow of the song etc.

I don't want to keep comparing but the Trax implementation is nicely done for this.

And this doesn't have to be the 'default' players view but something people can enable on demand.

Anyway it will a nice to have feature. Stage Traxx is very close to perfection !

Damir

yblanco I agree with you Damir. I don't mind the waveform with the progressing bar taking a bit of screen space but definitely we can use buttons for the section loops made (with names as you said), big enough so we can tap on them to loop, tap any loop to jump once the current one finishes to change the flow of the song etc.

For on stage I would be happy with a narrow slider above the loop buttons where it moves through the whole song as is now to indicate where you are , and the large loop buttons below this evenly sized depending of number of loops used and a progressive song indication within this button like an hour glass effect to indicate where you are within the loop , this then would give us ability to use short intro/end points loops which are impossible to use now unless you use a remote, which sometimes is to slow to use as you run out of time to fiddle.
I don’t see any value in the waveform behind the loops , your volume editing and loop creation should have happened at home not on stage , on stage you need fast and easy song manipulation of loops by finger or foot.
Looking forward to V4 although I am reasonably happy with V3 it is still miles better than any other options.

peter

This is something to consider in the new interface design for version 4.

yblanco

peter Thanks so much Peter. Looking forward to it

yblanco

Of course the idea is not to do exactly what others do but you can see some screenshots of this implementation here

https://thetraxapp.com/

Of course this App does just that (loops and backing tracks) and nothing else hence it takes the whole screen for the loop buttons which is not what we are after

peter

This is not in any way a layout I would like to have. The focus of Stage Traxx will always be the lyrics display.

Damir

peter This is not in any way a layout I would like to have. The focus of Stage Traxx will always be the lyrics display.

I think Ybanco likes what we have now its just he is suggesting the loop buttons become a standard size that are easyer to hit no matter how small or large the loops are and they are sized according to the number of loops you use . This way you can easily hit END or INTRO as they are normally very small loops and hard to hit yet are greatly needed if you are wanting to suddenly finish a song or perhaps repeat a song.
The hour glass idea is great as you can see when the end of loop is finishing , this is visually more important on stage than a waveform that has no value , a nice clear view of the name of loop is more important than a waveform in the background reducing visual clarity of the loop NAME.
A SLIGHTLY THICKER LOOP AREA so you dont miss a sudden selection or bring down the screen by mistake would also be an advantage. A simple thin volume type slider just above the loop area that moves through the whole song giving you ability to choose a point in a song and it gives you an overall idea of where you are in the song as well as acting like a safety barrier the loops buttons become a ZOOMED version of the area you are in on the above song fader position slider, this gives you very easy and relaxed feeling on stage , if you dont use backing tracks you have these facilities to use on TEXT ONLY SONGS just the same , if you dont select a timeframe of a Lyrics only song the loop area is not on screen and gives you more lyrics space, if you have chosen a timeflame , which is actually silence of a set length that has a speed just like normal stereo audio track which you can timecode the text to jump to the loop points , giving you exactly the same ability to just hit a loop button and it automatically jumps to that part of song if you choose to use play it simply scrolls through the text as normal from one loop point to the next depending on your speed setting and acts exactly like a normal stereo song without audio needed to be loaded.
I know technically what you are going to say Peter but i am pointing out what most users would benefit from and the system to behave the same in all three modes STEREO MULTITRACK AND LYRICS ONLY MODES . Once you have a clear goal in mind its most likely achieaveable.
Example, you have a song in mind to perform but you dont have time to spend to prepare it fully, but you can fudge it on an instrument and just your voice but cant remember lyrics.
You find the text on internet you create a text file , you then point this text file to ST4 , ST immediately sees this file and knows there is no such file present so it creates a new SONG that has no audio or choice if its STEREO OR MULTITRACK it just creates a BLANK TEXT SONG FILE that can only display the text and thats it nothing else, a DUMB TEXT FILE.
NOW if you choose a timeframe this song becomes a SMART LYRICS ONLY SONG , once you have given a timeframe the loop facility is enabled and presented on screen so it is basically a blank audio file with no sound that you are manipulating.
Now you simply place a timestamp on all singing parts and solo or break parts , the loop sections get created automatically for you , name and colour your loops and now you have a SMART LYRICS ONLY SONG where you can jump to any part of the text you desire you can even program chord changes in your solo and jump to that if you have other musicians with you and get instant chord progressions to help you,
If you decide later to import a backing audio of the same name of the song it simply adds the audio to this file and makes it behave exactly like stereo songs are now, this applies if you are loading a multitrack folder of the same name it knows this is now going to be a multitrack song and automatically loads all tracks within that folder in to the Lyrics only song , converts it to a MULTITRACK song and already has the lyrics for you to create new loops to suit the audio files as is now.

Now this is what i am talking about! all three ways of working are very similar to operate and work together to quickly give the user a finished product without wasting time on unnecessary steps .

Sorry Peter i got carried away again, i woke up with enthusiasm. 😂

yblanco

peter I agree Peter. By no means. I was just showing an example from this App which only does loops and nothing else. They use the whole screen to accommodate buttons. The idea will be to have similar buttons for each region of the song with names which maybe you can position at the bottom (buttons color coded for each region). Probably with fixed size and you set the max number of regions available (5 or 6 max to limit button space?).

The buttons could be at least the size of the "Next Audio region/Loop current section" buttons we have now. There are already 2 buttons dedicated to this so having maybe a max allowed of 6 (on per region) will do nicely with a shorter volume slider. In fact with this implementation you preserve the same layout you have today without taking any space from lyrics. Double click to loop a section or click any other section once so the song jumps from current section to that selected. The only limitation I see with this if for people having lots of regions (beyond 6).

I do like the color coding of the sections over the waveform; it's just interacting with them is tricky as they are small. I'd preserve the waveform and color coding for regions but do not allow interaction here but only with the buttons to be created for each section.

What you have today works nicely I have to say. The point of the suggested change is to make it easier on the player using regions to interact with them.