Sebastian Moors wrote:
> Gabriel M. Beddingfield wrote:
>> I think that the problem is that a GM-ordered kit "feels" like it's sort
>> of randomly organized... partly because it was designed with a keyboard
>> controller in mind. On the other hand, people like Hydrogen's interface
>> for editing drums because you can put "like" instruments near each other.
>>
>>
>> PROPOSAL:
>>
>> 1. Support the GM System Enable/Disable SysEx message to
>> enable/disable GM Mode.[1]
>>
>> 2. Provide a GUI button and/or status indicator to show
>> if we are in GM Mode.
>>
>> 3. In the drumkit XML file, provide an optional element after
>> <info>: <is_gm_kit>. It should be a boolean ("true", "false").
>> If true, then the <gm_instrument> tags are ignored (see below).
>> The default is false if missing or degenerate.
>>
>> 4. In the drumkit XML file, under instrument add an optional
>> element: <gm_instrument>. The element should contain an
>> integer that corresponds to the MIDI note number in the
>> GM Drum spec.[2] The default is -1 (None) if it is missing,
>> unless the kit is a GM kit. In that case, the default
>> will be <id> + 35.[4]
>>
>> 5. In the instrument editor, provide a field with the GM drum
>> sound name. It should display the _name_ (not the integer).
>> If set to "None" it should flash red and yellow and be very
>> annoying so that the user will set it and get it to stop
>> flashing. User can only assign the GM Note _once_. So if
>> it is already assigned, alert the user and make sure he
>> really wants to.
>>
>> 6. If Hydrogen is put into GM mode, it will change the MIDI
>> channel to 10 and listen only to that channel. If the
>> user overrides the channel number while in GM Mode, this
>> will be allowed and respected.
>>
>> 7. While in GM Mode, notes that come in will be mapped to
>> the correct instrument in the current drum kit. If the
>> note does not have an instrument assigned to it, then
>> the note will be dropped.[3] If <is_gm_kit> is true, then
>> the instrument offset will be assigned note_number - 35.[4]
>>
>> 8. If the drum kit, for whatever reason, has more than one
>> instrument that shares the same GM note... Hydrogen will
>> always select the last instrument (in the document order)
>> to play.
>>
>> 9. When GM Mode is turned off, Hydrogen will revert to its
>> standard behavior (instrument_offset = note_number - 35).[4]
>> It will also restore the channel setting to its previous
>> state.
>>
>> Comments? Perhaps we should extend the scheme to also allow *any*
>> note number assignment within a kit? That sounds like too much
>> flexibility though... probably leading to really confusing drum kits.
>>
> I would recommend both. We could implement a new "midi-in" property
> which controls the note value
> an instrument responds to. That would remove the dependency between the
> view (order of instruments) and the
> midi-notes. This would please everyone who uses hydrogen in a live
> setup. An important point: The GM mapping makes sense
> for instruments only.. User-defined drumset contain often things like
> samples or other non-drum objects. We should provide a handy solution
> for them
> as well, so defining the note number by hand makes sense here.
These are great ideas--I really like the idea of having a separate MIDI
note property, as that does make it possible to list similar instruments
near each other (I like having my kit in a particular order, and the GM
ordering is very much *not* it). Since my drum brain sends the GM
specified notes unless I spend a lot of time fiddling with it, I can't
have the ordering I want, and I end up with a lot of blank entries so
that the instruments line up.
> Downpoint: It is unclear what happens when a user moves an instrument in
> his list, for example from instrument id 1 to 3. At the moment this
> would alter
> the note it responds to. With a fixed mapping, this could be not the
> thing we want. But in the first time, people will wonder why it works no
> more :)
I agree that the default UI behavior shouldn't be changed--it will
really puzzle people. There could be a boolean property (which I think
is what Gabriel was proposing) that enables the MIDI note property for
the kit. That would make both cases work pretty easily--people who want
the GM MIDI map can get it by clicking a single checkbox, and everybody
who wants to change notes by reordering can do that as long as the
checkbox is unchecked.
> The second step would be the GM-Mapping, as described above. In
> combination, both features add some more complexity. We should take care
> for sane default settings so that people aren't confused a lot.
> - Sebastian
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