[Ardour-Dev] Ardour 2.3 released

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 12:46:30PM +0100, t_w_ at freenet.de wrote:

> Fons Adriaensen:
> 
> > * Generally it's a bit too easy to move things accidentally.
> >   There's undo of course but you quickly get tired of this.
> >   If you lock a region it can't be moved at all. Using some
> >   modifier key to enable moving a region would help. 
> 
> You mean a modifier key to move locked regions, not always
> requiring a modifier to move regions, I assume.

I'd find both quite acceptable.

> How about just a shortcut to toggle locking?

No, it requires you to mentally keep track of the state,
or waste time verifying it.
 
> > * There are two ways to have fine control on the time scale:
> >   - The first one is too zoom in up to a magnification
> >     where the screen resolution is no longer the limiting
> >     factor. But then you quickly get lost since you don't
> >     have a larger scale view. It's just not practical to
> >     work at a zoom level that provides enough resolution.
> 
> Same problem here, allthough all the zoom shortcuts do  
> help quite a bit.
> 
> Maybe this asks for 2 views, overview with selection and 
> deatil view of the selection. I see 2 main ways of doing this: 
> split canvas or some kind of overlay window. Of course 
> implementing either would be quite a task and complicate 
> the interface.

Having 2 views was one of my original solutions but I don't
think it will work very well by itself. The reason is what
I mentioned in the second part of my reply to Jesse's post
(which I forgot to copy to the list originally) : it
requires too much visual interaction. And it would indeed
be hell to implement.

> >   - the 'nudge' keys. Currently the smallest step is 10ms,
> >     and that's too much. Also it's a pain to change the 
> >     step size, and the hh:mm:ss:dd format isn't really
> >     what you need here. There are several solutions for
> >     this that would not take up more screen space than
> >     the current controls.

There are 5 things you want to control:

1  the xover point (i.e. end of the first region),
2  the relative position of the second region w.r.t the first,
3  the type and lenght of the crossover,
4  the relative amplitude of the second part,
5  listening to the edit in a context of a few seconds.

The way to use this would be to set initial values,
probably visually or by using the 'scrub', test the
edit (by listening to it) and then a loop of do { modify,
listen } until OK. The loop should not require precise
visual interaction - it would be pointless anyway at
normal zoom levels - or better even no visual interaction
at all, except maybe to select which parameter you want
to 'nudge'. The nudging itself, or listening, should
not require mouse pointing - either keyboard shortcuts
mouse clicks, or mouse wheel.

> Do you mean something like Sweep's Scrubby?

Don't know that. What you can do with on an analog tape
machine by rocking the reels manually. Like the varispeed
'shuttle' but not controlling speed but position. It's 
not so easy to implement well :-)

-- 
FA

Laboratorio di Acustica ed Elettroacustica
Parma, Italia

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