[Ardour-Dev] More feedback

[Juhana Sadeharju]

(I will return to replies later.)

ardour: When a region is removed from the regions window, the
list scrolls to top. Only the bottom half of the list should
scroll one line up if one region is removed.

ardour: When I grab a region in the track window, region's location
is displayed. This location text goes partially hidden beyond the
left edge of the window. The location text should always be visible,
if the window has room for it.
Note: This text could optionally show the name of the region.
The name does not have to fit to the window.
Note: The region names in the track are small. Red/blue combination
does not help. Capital letters could help too.

ardour: I have 20 samples in one track. How do I pack them tightly?
I now moved them manually.

ardour: When I grab and drag regions from the region list window
and move to track window, the pointer icon does not indicate
where the region is going to be dropped.
Note: I would find it better if the track window would start
displaying the waveform recgtangle as soon as pointer enters the
track window.
Note: Now the track window displays the name inside rectangle.
But the name was just and is still visible in the regions list
window. Even if this situation does not apply to all users,
user could chooce what to display when the grab&dragging is
in the process.

ardour: The regions in the track displays the name. How regions
"Intrumental_001" etc. will be displayed if all does not fit?
Some kind of name display algorithm could check where the
names differ.

ardour: How to move the playhead to the pointer? Some key press?
Mouse button 2?
Clearly this cannot not be a menu item. Thus, some kind of short
help would be nice. I suggest that Menu/Help/PointerOps would
drop a submenu listing all pointer related operations.
Nothing can be selected from that menu.
Note: My suggestion as an alternative to menus, or even
replacing them, is a tab window where all operations have
been typeset (TeX, html). The operation is executed by
clicking the buttons inserted in the text. Operations could
be grouped inside rectangles.
When the operation+help tab comes up from a key, the tab may
also include the pointer operations. Requires pointer warping
at exit.
(This idea surfaced when I saw Emacs's operation sheet.
Instead of being help-sheet, it could have been a functional
helpful GUI.)

ardour: Picking the playhead with pointer is difficult because
there is no large enough picking area. Suggestion: Enclose the
playhead to a slightly larger bounding box and get the pick from
it.

ardour: When the playhead has been picked, its location is
displayed within the pointer. The location display may go
out of left and right edges of the track area. The location
display should be always visible (if track area is large enough).
Note: The location display appears with playhead and with regions,
possibly the display is used elsewhere too.

ardour: The play is on. When I pick the playhead and move it, the
playing continues. But if I press left-array key, the playhead
moves and playing stops.
Suggestion: If the play is on, continue playing.

ardour: When the playhead has been picked and is being moved,
it can go out of left edge of the track area. The problem is
that it did go to location "24:" (at max) and the playhead
vanished + play button did not work.
This bug can be repeated as follows: (1) Pick the playhead,
(2) Move (with pointer) it right out of track area. (3) Then move
the  pointer quickly to far left out of the track area. (4) Slowly
bring the yellow location display to view and it should have
indicate max location.
When I tried to repeat this bug, I did not succeed. The playhead
correctly stopped to 0:00.
But, when I picked the playhead from the left side of the triangle,
the playhead stopped to 0:19. It should have stopped to 0:00 as well.

ardour: Audiofile import cannot import mp3 files. The remix
sample set which did come in mp3 format. Formats mp3 and ogg are
enough; other types can be converted offline. I examine and split
mp3/ogg songs in the editor for learning what makes them tick.
Now I have the sample set which was used to make a song: one track
will have the original song, and for the rest of the tracks
I arrange the samples to correct places. (In 3D editors, user may
place background photos for helping the modelling much the same way.)

ardour: Cannot import FLAG files!

ardour: In track area, I quickly prearrange the remix by copying
regions with ctrl + mouse button 1 and throwing the copies to
tracks. The problem: The previously throwed region is selected
and ctrl+mb1 adds to the selection. That means the previous
region and the new copy is dragged together; that is bad.
Ctrl+mb1 seems to both add to the selection and copy the region,
two operations at the same time.
If ctrl+mb1 copy, how to just add to the selection?
If ctrl+mb1 add to the selection, how to just copy?
In any case, the current behaviour for quick copying and throwing
is wrong. After every copy, I have to click on the empty track
area to reset the selection. Instead, in my copy+throw workflow,
ctrl+mb1 should reset the selection as a first thing.

ardour: Ardour vanished suddenly. I was only using mb1 to move
a region in the track area.

ardour: Ardour vanished suddenly. I was only using ctrl or shift
with mb1 in automation envelope editing in a region (in track area).

ardour: Ardour vanished suddenly. It was in middle of importing
54 samples to the region list.

ardour: Transport button "rewind" in GUI is too far away from "play".
When I use mouse only, the distance between these most used buttons
has a bad effect.
Note: When I use mouse, only my left hand is free to press keys.
Thus, keys like arrow keys are bad.
Note: I tried many shift/ctrl/alt + mouse button combinations
and noted that no operations have been associated. In mouse-only
work style, the mouse should be fully loaded with operations.
Note: Moving hand between mouse and keyboard continuously is bad
(e.g., between arrow keys and mb1 in track area).

ardour: When I create new session, for some reason I'm not able to
move to subdirectories. Thus, all session directories are now
in the home directory.

ardour: Multiple region lists. This is for organizing samples.
Note: While multiple track areas in tab windows gives multiple
region lists, will this be a useful feature as well.

ardour: In audio import dialog. When I used the import dialog
first time, I had subdirectory "drums". Later I deleted that
directory. When I used the import dialog again the "drums" is
still listed in the directory path. The file list shows the correct
situation. See screenshot
http://www.funet.fi/~kouhia/ardour-filedialog-bug.png
In this screenshot, you may see how the dialog window extends
out of my screen. Notice where the "OK" button is.

ardour: In track area, when selecting multiple regions with
the rectangle selection tool, the tracks won't scroll up
when pointer goes out of track area at bottom.
Note: Check GIMP for its rectangle selection tool.

ardour: How to play only one channel of a stereo region
in a stereo track from both master channels? When I place
stereo region to a mono track, happens what I need. But
which channel then plays? How to select which channel plays?
I need this tool to audition the samples.