You may remember this post viewtopic.php?p=1913033#p1908733
where I first introduced it. I've been busy with life and looking at possible solutions a little more integrated with FL and haven't worked on it much.
Well, I took it off of the shelf to make a mock up for this post viewtopic.php?p=1945675#p1945675 and decided to clean it up a little
So here it is. Available for anyone to use, test, etc.
So I've got a Zip file below, and then an overview of all the features. At the bottom, please do take a look at the known bugs so you can work around them if you want to... and as a bonus at the very bottom is a list potential future plans for this and more. Some decent logic-ing too haha. Let's get into it, shall we?
Here's the download: *Updated*
It should work out of the Box. In the Master Folder, I suggest you create new shortcuts for the things that say "Do Not Move" at the end
("Launch Artiwrapper" exe, "Note Color Palettes" Folder Shortcut, and "user" Folder Shortcut) Moving them will break the shortcut link.
Those should be the only folders you may frequent and of course if you find you want to use this, a shortcut elsewhere would be nice haha.
When you Open the program, it should show up in the task bar, but you will also see an icon for it the the task bar tray near the time.
To use it, simply open the program and leave it in the background. Keep using FL normally, with a few extra shortcuts. It's in the task bar so you can return to it like any other program using alt+tab or clicking on it. You can change/trigger those shortcuts, or utilize the expression map alternative on it. Otherwise, more settings and customization are provided in text files in the user folder.
Feature Overview
All shortcuts can be disabled by clicking on the shortcut combination/letter and replacing it with 'nothing' or a blank space...
By the way, in these demo graphics you can see what keys I'm pressing. That was part of recording and is not a feature hahaha. Okay...
Listed:
Basic Shortcuts: (4) - Quick Main Snap, - Toggle Main Snap, - Color Selector (PR), - Rename-Presets key
- Quick main snap has a way to configure it in case of a bug/issue
Conveniences:
- Crosshair - for Piano Roll, Event editor, and playlist
- To Aid with Basic Shortcuts
- Arrow Scroller (for scrolling through options without moving your cursor)
- Pop-Up to Mouse (brings pop ups to your cursor so you can remain working in the same area)
Major Feature:
Articulation Bars - An (overlay) expression map alternative that provides visual aid for controls the rely on the event editor for midi automations
Obligatory:
- shortcuts are remap-able
- There is a reload / close program shortcut
- There is a hand that allow you to quickly resize the interface
Quick Main Snap -
This is just a customizable shortcut to automatically open Main Snap. Quick Main Snap Configure-
Sometimes, when FL updates, when you open a few new projects, or when you change the layout of the toolbar, quickmainsnap doesn't work and instead
opens the playlist or something.
The solution is to reconfigure it... I might change how it works or something but for now, you just click the number and use the arrow keys to 'find it'
from the highlighted elements at the top.
Then hit enter.
Toggle main snap really just does what 'backspace' normally does... I preferred to have it mapped to something related to 'q' as well
Crosshair - The crosshair is part of the overlay... it can attach to the Piano Roll, playlist, or eventeditor. Pretty self explanatory. Articulation Bars - The art. Bars provide a useful graphic over the MIDI Event editor. You can use the mousewheel or a series of cursor-locking/snapping
shortcuts to navigate through the visual zones.
This helps to more accurately place automations that control patches or setting by range (rather than exact points) Overlay Toggle - the program often can't detect when windows like the piano roll or playlist are closed/minimized or are behind a plugin interface...
So there's a shortcut to turn of the whole overlay at once Shift Rename Toggle - Toggles whether the shortcuts for quickly accessing 'renaming' presets exist. Shift + F2 or Shift + Right Click Summon Note Color Selector - opens the Note Color Selector with a shortcut.* Arrow Scroller and Popup to Mouse:
These are features that affect the Quick Main Snap Selector, Renaming Presets selector, and Note Color Selector as they are all pop ups.
The demo will show off note colors, since the most feature potential lies there.
Arrow Scroller - Treats the scroll wheel as if arrow keys are being used so that the mouse's position on the screen will not be disturbed.
Great for anyone using a mouse. Popup to Mouse - Open the popup at the position of the mouse so that the users general work area is unchanged.
Great for anyone without a mouse, using a trackpad. Arrow scroller and popup to mouse at the same time - this allows the popup windows to follow the mouse and uses the arrow scroller
to simultaneously navigate through the options... my personal favorite.
Articulation Bars Navigational Features
Articulation lock - 'a' key - Can 'lock' the vertical axis of the articulation for the user to freely scroll through bars...
or can be used to 'lock' the cursor to a point halfway across the bar (to aid with accuracy... the same point
that it scrolls to) and a point can be 'clicked in' (when hovering the mouse over the bars beforehand).
When 'a' is released, the cursor returns to its original position, free to use normally.
- Of course, this only works while Articulation bars are visible
- Up/Down arrow keys can also be used in place of the scroll wheel
Articulation 'Snap' / Toggle Lock - 's' Key - After the 'a' key locks the vertical axis, 's' can 'snap' or 'lock' the cursor to a point
halfway across the bar similarly to how 'a' does when it is triggered while hovering over the bars
- 's' can also 'unlock' itself from and 'relock' itself to this position mentioned above...
so this frees the mouse after both scrolling / locking
- 's' can be used to 'snap' the 'vertical axis lock' to the beginning of a note from the middle or end,
by being tapped, while 'a' is pressed.
The cursor must be hovering over a note (you will see the for arrow-headed "move note" cursor) for this to work.
Great for simulating note properties in edit events.
- This requires the color palette your Piano Roll is using to have a high enough contrast
from the Piano Roll grid to work.
The 'Default High Contrast.ncp' in '...\Resources\FL Resources\Note Color Palettes\' is an example that works.
- Each color bar has its own tolerance settings in case you find that your note color palette
works well with this feature when you tighten/ease up on the tolerance
Articulation 'Dextral Unlock' - 'd' Key ' - After the 'a' or 's' key (or one of these + scroll wheel) locks the cursor to a bar,
the 'd' key can be used to lock the horizontal axis (for side to side movement),
and 'S' will return vertical movement if needed...
it's easier to scroll after returning to vertical than to try to hover
Articulation Bar:
Switching Bars!!! - To switch patches, while the 'a' key is held down the arrow keys can browse through the Bar sets that are currently loaded in.
By default 'c'[for left] and 'v'[for right] [customizable] are also
able to do this so that the user can perform this action with a single hand...
- This is great for orchestral users who have unified libraries (same for multi patches) that they want to use CC automation
to switch articulations with
- in My example, I've shown how I can have one 'bar set' for all of Cinematic Studio patches. This will help out when copy/ pasting.
- also works best (in my opinion) when using Patcher to automate the channels through personal event / routing methods...
this really helps with copy/ paste - If you have a template you use all the time, you may want to create a 'Loadout Set' to load all of your ArtBars at once
in Order to match your template. Here's how they load up...
Here's how you remap a shortcut key:
And just so you can see what Reload and the Killswitch do:
Last but not least, Quick resizing:
- While you can resize the window, maximize it, and restore it to its previous state, most people will probably have a couple of places/sizes they'll like this program to be
- Right/Left clicking gives you two options for place/size. You can edit this in the main settings file '...\Resources\User\UserMainSettings.ini'
- if you hold, the same size will be applied but it will now follow your mouse around the screen
KNOWN BUGS / BROKEN THINGS
___________________________________________________
- Quick Main Snap Shortcut will sometimes not work upon starting FL studio up. But that's why the Configure to was made.
- When minimizing/closing the piano roll or selecting a plugin from the channel rack, the overlay does not disappear and/or covers it up. Unfortunately it needs to be manually turned off by turning of the whole overlay,
or whichever features (artbar, crosshair) you're using
Overlay issues:
- When the piano roll or event editor is made 'too skinny' [shrinking the width, horizontally] the articulation bars will not sync/follow the piano roll if you move it, or change the height
- If using detached windows, the Piano Roll, Playlist, and Event Editor need to be detached for the overlay to work.... And the hotkey buttons will need to be used 2x [twice] to turn them on
- Because every time you use a new detached window, the first time you press it, the overlay attaches itself to that new window, and then it may show/hide elements of the overlay the second press
- If you have the overlay on while your PC screen goes to sleep, your screen may appear white upon waking up... clicking anywhere in FL, or reloading this program should do the trick
Articulation Bar Issues:
- Multiple Monitors - IF FL Studio is spanning across different sized resolution monitors and the Piano Roll/ Ev. Editor is not on the MAIN monitor,
articulation bars will not scroll/lock properly
- When using 'a' and then moving the mouse down to the bars, it will sometimes 'lock' to the top bar without the user having pressed 's.'
- happens sometimes on startup or working in a different window
- to not deal with this, I suggest using the scroll wheel or up/down arrow keys to navigate which bar you're locked onto
- Or just press 'a' while the mouse is already over the desired color bar to 'lock' it
- unlocking/relocking using 's' too many times may cause it to miss/ignore key presses sometimes... hopefully you don't need to use that feature too much
- Adding more than 25 lanes to a barset (or however many bars your system can handle??) causes the lock to not trigger sometimes
- when loading in Art Bars, sometimes the 'wrong folder' will open up. (Individual bars instead of sets of VV)
- The file type is 'different' [not rly, i faked it] so try to stay true to that and pay attention to what folder you're opening from
Rare bugs: If you somehow are interrupted by another application while arrowscroller or popup to mouse is on, you may need to reload the plugin... right-clicking it in the task tray should do the trick
- otherwise try to get back to FL (using alt+tab) and hitting escape when you're back... you can also hit escape if you're not back
- be aware that trying to left-click while on another application in this instance will behave like hitting 'enter' while right-click is like 'ESCape'
FUTURE PLANS / IDEAS
_________________________________________________
To be honest the code for this is so sloppy that I'll have to completely remake to create a 'final' version
- I think I'll be able to mitigate / deal with the bugs in better ways if I code it better...
But again, this is the version I use for now... features I still might make / add
- Rename presets selector... (Rotate between different 'renaming preset' lists so that you can easily find the rename-presets for the right type of project/ genre you're working in...)
- Rename preset creator... (Adds a preset to one of your 'renaming preset' lists- +color picker? +Hidden Icons picker?)
- ArtBar Editor... (See a list of current bar count, Each item showing Ratio, Color, and Text just like the file... +color Picker? +icons?)
- Parent ArtBars... Artbar files, but ones that really show up to 16 different ArtBars depending on the color selected in the piano roll.. Mainly intended to aid BRSO Articulation Banks visually
- Saving Loadout sets from what's currently open
- Importing BRSO Articulate Presets (I'm sure people would like to not have to remake stuff when possible... and this may be a better solution for some)
Ideas for the future version (rebuild + new elements):
- Instead of having it run as a windows program, I'd try to hide it inside of a VST plugin
- not sure if I'll use JUCE because of how much easier it is to get going with external libraries and whatnot
- if I'll make fruity plugin for added compatibility with FL
- SDK isn't great/convenient help for less experienced programmers :/ Would love some sort of tutorial series, FL devs hahaha. What's the price?
- use something else entirely?
- Creating a "virtual midi device" so I can get access to more FL studio information using MIDI controller python script
- Using the channel/plugin/patch/MidiEventControl name I could allow users to automatically load/show Artbars when a certain plugin and Edit Event control is being used
- Having a dedicated Piano Roll Script
- I would then allow the use of shortcuts to change which script is triggered and trigger it
- This would be done by overwriting the script before triggering it (just like the renaming presets lists)
- not 100% sure though because the install process may be tricky
- custom shortcut/macro creator
- will allow user to record and edit steps
- suggests methods for reliability
- will allow for context sensitive macros (if piano roll is active... If mixer is active... visible... etc...)
- will allow for key latch macros/shortcuts (similar to how articulation lock works)
- while I press 'a' in the context of 'ArtBars Visible' 'in the Piano Roll'
- 's' and 'd' trigger their own separate macros
- I could also make ones like after '!q' is pressed in the playlist, the next shortcut will do 'this different' macro
- Or combine them:
- after alt '!q' is pressed, if the next shortcut is '^a,' pressing 'd,' 'f,' or 'c' while holding that will perform different tasks
- all that's needed is optional pop-up visuals to remind the user of their options (which they can define in the creator)
Pretty Lofty and idk If I'll ever get there, but the logic is mostly there. If FL makes a macro creator, it should work something like this for maximum use.
Hope you enjoy, please do leave questions n comments
Extra: Related Items from the todo forum (this partially aims to address)
- Ideas with patcher scripting + BRSO + Layer/Piano Roll VFX
- Shortcut for note color selector
- Event editor version of this (art. bars)