[Qmidiarp-devel] Proof QMidiArp is stable and some feedback after a 32 minute live session

[Louigi V. <lou...@gm...>]

Hey guys!
Yesterday I showed you a small tune which was of not so good sound quality
and pretty short, this time I recorded another live session, 32 minutes
long.
Made with QMidiArp, which was commanding Zyn, several soundfonts and Phaser
Tempo automation in one of the Rakarracks.

The phasers you hear, however, are not QMidiArp, but Rakarracks internal
LFOs. Because the speed of QMidiArp was 120, it was difficult to achieve
slow LFOs.
All in all, I had around 7 sequencers open and 2 LFOs but one I did not use.
Performance was robust, only at one time when I added the seventh sequencer
it glitched,
you can hear it at 24:28 into the tune.

The tune is more dynamic than the previous attempt and towards the end it is
really rocking. Everything done on the fly, nothing prewritten.

http://www.disc-shelf.com/var_files/Patterns.ogg



Some feedback I would like to supply.

The Good stuff.

1. I really like the dot on the keyboard which shows where you are when you
are dragging the note. The ability to mute/unmute the note fast is very
useful.
2. Volume control is a great thing - nice to be able to gradually fade
things in and out.
3. After the fixes QMidiArp did not crash on me.

Stuff to Improve.

1. It would be nice to have new modules being added in muted state,
otherwise you end up with a burst of sound and then the default sequence
playing on channel 1. I was able to work around it by not having anything on
channel 1.
2. Sliders sometimes behave weirdly. One time I had note length be inverted,
so making it longer in reality made it shorter and vice versa. This happened
in one sequencer while others were okay. Volume knobs and transpose buttons
would not always change settings until you press on the slider or sort of
fixate it - moving it might not change anything. Maybe it is a delay, I did
not get exactly.
3. Piano roll in general is great and you get used to it, but zooming in
would still be nice, notes are very narrow. While it is ok at home, I wonder
if it is convenient on stage. My idea was that you can have wider keys of
pianoroll and instead of taking up space with a side slider, have the slider
below along with volume and transpose and let it move piano roll up and
down. But this has to be tested, whether this is comfortable in a live
situation. Another way is a Ctrl+Middle mouse standard zooming in/out.
4. Once when I added a new sequencer, I muted it and then switched it to an
appropriate channel. Then in QSynth I chose a preset I want to use. Although
the sequence was muted, it started to play something absolutely out of tune.
You can hear that on the recording at 3:10. I don't remember whether at that
point the sequencer itself was muted or just all the notes were muted, I
think it was both. I had to unset a preset in QSynth and then choose it
again and then it worked. Did not have that issue again during the session.

Hope this is useful!


-- 
Louigi Verona
http://www.louigiverona.ru/