[Octal-dev] suggested features

[Guenter Seethaler]

Hi to all!

I compose music with trackers since the AMIGA time.
Now I'm using folloing software on Win98:
BUZZ 
ImpulseTracker 2.14 
Cubase V3.553
WaveLab V2.0

Each of this programms have their advantages/dissadvantages.
What i want is a mixture of all these programms. 
Since i didn't found one, i started to write by myself in Delphi4.
The main design is pretty close to that of OCTAL.  

So far i have the output, two machines(Drum, Bass), the mixers and one track for
each channel running. 
And there is a Development GUI for editing the track-notes and changing the
machineparameters and mixer Volume/Pan.
(if anyone wants the source/binary feel free to contact me:
address@hidden -- running just on WIN9x)


After playing with this little tool there is one conclusion: The
machine interface is the most importend module of the hole thing.
Some ideas:

VARIABLE MACHINE PARAMETERS:
think of an volume/pan/frequency...  envelope.
it would be fine for the user to add/delete points to the envelope at runtime.
so we need some sort of variable parameter.
this is also usefull for a sine-wave-generator with  "over waves" -
(sorry my english is not the best, but i guess you now what i mean).

-------------------------------------------------------------------

VIRTUAL MACHINES:
the user can connect some machines and create a new machine of this
set.
this virtual machine acts like a normal machine. plus it also can be
used in other virtual machines. 
For Example:    

                VIRTUAL MACHINE 
             ------------------------
             |  sine-wave-generator |
             |          |           |
             |    Volume envelope   |
             |          |           |
             |       filter         |
             ------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------

MIXDOWN MACHINES TRACKS PATTERNS :
Softwaresynthesis consumes lots of cpu-power. (i have 166Mhz Pentium).
So there is always a compromise between 
the number of Machines and the Quality of them.
To work around these problems we can mixdown tracks, patterns and
sequences to waves. 

The Sequence Editor:
I think of an editor you now from MIDI-sequencers. But instead of this
unuseable note editor, we use a tracker interface.
 
This leads me to the idea of using an event triggerd synthesizer. The
advantage of this: you can have an midi-interface. But i don't know
yet how to realize that.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------

WIDGETSTYPES: 
MULTISWITCH: this thing has 2 to n states. each state has a text-description to 
know the actual state.
Example: Filter: LOW MID HIGH 

------------------------------------------------------------------- 


Thats for now (got to go home),  but there is a lot more to discuss.


happy hacking 
   Magus