I made an automated recording tool, could something like this become a built-in feature?

I'm putting this here because I think it's cool. I included a Picture and Video.

The idea: Now that Drambo has a count-in feature before record, it can be used for easier RE- Recording, and working on compositional ideas for long tracks.

After recording, if you don't what to keep it: Press the Play button to stop recording.... Hit UNDO to clear the track.... Press the Play button again, and after the count-in.... Record it again.

Using the Midi Route AU from MidiTools (for loop-back). I used some modules to build a "script" to send CC's to the PLAY and the UNDO Buttons automating the above described process. I used a Trigger Module placed on the recording track to activate the "script"... Video below.

Might something like this be a useful built-in feature? Thoughts ???


The Modules for the "script":



Video demonstrating how fast and easy Re-Record can work using a single press of the Trigger Button:



Comments

  • Thank you for preparing this @horsetrainer!

    What is the advantage over just hitting UNDO while the pattern is still recording in a loop?

    Cycle recording is like using count-in and have the metronome enabled anyway.

  • The advantage is really for recording longer tracks of 16 bars or more.

    Imagine you're working on a 32 bar track and mess up the recording somewhere near the beginning. Like you said, you can hit UNDO and just wait for the loop to return to the first bar before trying again. But that could require some long waiting.

    Using the "one touch re-record" button instantly starts the recording from the first bar without the wait.

    I prefer the faster recording because I can experiment with many ideas in rapid succession before committing to completing a finished idea on a long track.

    It was while I was experimenting with this method that I discovered the recording bug that I earlier posted in the "Known Issues" forum. I posted a video of the sequencer glitch in that forum. But that glitch occurs much more frequently when the track is set to 16 bars or more. It glitches the same whether I push the buttons manualy or use the script.

    Giku is working on fixing that recording glitch.


    I plan on using this as my main recording method in Drambo for now on. I posted it here to share the concept in case anyone likes to work out compositions with speed as I do. I think it would make a cool built-in feature, but I can also see drawbacks if people enable it and end up accidentally wiping their tracks.

    But the general purpose of a count-in in as a traditional track recording feature. Is for begining recording from the start of a track like it's used in a standard daw.

    If I could wish, I'd wish for the ability to enter record-loop section start and end points onto Drambo tracks. That way I could write a long evolving 32 Bar project on track 1. Then introduce accompaniments on other tracks that could be more easily be recorded to specific sections of the long track. The isolated section record looping would only be active for recording purposes. So you could imagine when composing a section this way, the content of the other tracks would also repeat as you record. That would make composing sophisticated ideas in Drambo very intuitive.

    The same could be done using the Drambo song mode, but you would literally have to pre-plan the lengths in your song chain for the periodic accompaniments. That tends to make the creation of one long evolving track much more complex. If I had to work that way I'd compose the long evolving track using Atom, then bounce it over into Drambo once the short periodic accompaniment segments are finished.....

    But now say you want to make a change to one of your accompaniments lengths in drambo and write something different into it. That will mess up your long track.

    So with the current Drambo sequencer, if you want to write inspirationally composed stuff you're best off using long tracks without song mode. But without any ability to punch in a short section into another track using loop markers, you're forced to wait for that section of the song to be reached so you can play it in.

    Another solution would be to use Atom synced to Drambo's clock, and write the accompaniment part into Atom, and then use Atom to record it into Drambo track at the correct time in the long track.

    Sorry for rambling on about this, but my ideal workflow (in general) would be the fastest I could get stuff on a track with the ability to rapidly do multiple takes on any section for the purpose of testing multiple ideas in succession.

    Just ideas RS, not specifically intended as feature requests, just mentioning it to see what other think. :)

  • @Horsetrainer

    If I could wish, I'd wish for the ability to enter record-loop section start and end points onto Drambo tracks. That way I could write a long evolving 32 Bar project on track 1. Then introduce accompaniments on other tracks that could be more easily be recorded to specific sections of the long track. The isolated section record looping would only be active for recording purposes. So you could imagine when composing a section this way, the content of the other tracks would also repeat as you record. That would make composing sophisticated ideas in Drambo very intuitive.

    This!!

    Your mechanism works well only if you've played sh*t at the beginning, not if you want to redo a bad chord on bar 31 of 32.

    Let me suggest a workaround until loop mode is agreed upon as a new feature to add:

    Combine "Scene Condition" and the "Jump" step component to use scenes for activating your own loop start/end points.

    @giku Bug in "Jump" step condition? It only shows values 1..16, no matter what pattern length.

  • I don't think engaging such a sophisticated concepts for obvious tasks would work. I just want to record and fix things, with 1 tap.

  • Agreed, it shouldn't be too complicated.

    What about Rec/Play looping between bar boundaries?

  • I'm thinking rather on "currently visible area".

  • So that e.g. your pattern is 128 beats long, but you see only area from 32-64. You may set looping / operations on this area with 1 tap.

  • Idea: Make the loop button 3-state: Off, Pattern, Visible area.

    Off: 2 white circular arrows

    Pattern: 2 red circular arrows

    Visible area: The short red text "bar" enclosed by the two circular arrows.

  • This will be so useful! No more waiting for the entire pattern to loop around.

  • Hold step + transport play useful for this (starts play/rec from that step). Just heads up in case anyone missed it 🏄‍♂️

    agree loopable sections would be cool too :)

  • edited February 2021

    That sounds useful. But what if a part of the track section you want to play into, falls outside the visible area. You can zoom out, but the more you zoom out, the longer you have to wait for the looping record head to come back to the beginning of the section you are playing into.

    What if you added a "swipe up" gesture to track notes?

    Swipe up on a note and a menu appears where you can assign the recording loop start note to "Start". Swipe up again on the last note in your record loop and set that note to "End". You could make the start and end notes turn a solid color as a reminder that they are set.

    To remove Loop Rec points, swipe up on the note again and select "None".

  • edited February 2021

    Worth considering in distant a future . but I can't imagine such a situation, where it would help a lot, while the priority is to have 1 tap instead of 2 (your invention - very good btw.). Would it be like I want to start recording on step 27 and end on step 87? Rather not :) Every possible window 16-32, 32-64, 64-128 works just fine.. even if I have to wait for max one bar, its still better than sophisticated area selection with 4-6 gestures.

    On the other hand... we already have this: hold step + tap play. Why you don't use it and would use something way more complicated?

  • I didn't know about the "hold step + tap play" until it was mentioned here. That will work well for inserting parts on a long track. It's nice that it works with the pre-count too.

    If you ever did decide to add the "window loop record mode" that you described. No doubt I would use it often. :)

    I'd also be happy to use that previously mentioned piano roll IAP once its available.

    Thanks.

  • Regarding the "script" I made for Re-Recording at the touch of a Trigger Button. My use for that method is primarily as a composing tool. The utility of that method becomes more apparent when using it to work out a new counter-melody to accompany an existing lead-melody.

    It's allows for a rapid succession of experiments. Once an idea starts to crystallize, the instant-repeat button allows multiple variations to be instantly auditioned... until a final version is decided.

  • @Horsetrainer TBH, I would rather use different shorter patterns for different variations. When the red Cycle icon is disabled, you can continue to record across pattern boundaries and then jump between patterns to audition what you've done. With short enough patterns, this would be just a different way of re-positioning the playback cursor live and in beat sync.

    What would be useful to have then is a pattern merge and split function to simplify the process of tedious copying and pasting.

    I think pattern merge (of selected patterns) and split (at step number X) would be a useful addition @giku.

  • ah, the idea of using the visible portion of the sequencer as a punch in recorder is very good one!

    @horsetrainer, I don't know if you're using a midi controller or not, but one thing I like to do is map the "clear" button to a midi pad and turn overdub off, so that I can quickly work out an idea without stopping and starting. This way you can alter / erase steps of the sequence in real time.

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