Atom | Piano Roll 2 is now available

Edward_Alexander

Finally had some time to sit down with Atom after the latest pattern overhaul update.. and wow, this is going to be all I need to compose complete songs. Clip wise or not, there’s nothing stopping me!

@blueveek I can’t say it enough; Thank you for this! ❤️❤️❤️

These pattern following, Drambo integration features are just blowing my mind... man I sure am going to miss AUM 🥲

vasilymilovidov

funny that i switched back to aum from dambo

Edward_Alexander

Yeah I don’t think I’ll be abandoning either one any time soon, but this workflow definitely is comfortable!

@vasilymilovidov said:
funny that i switched back to aum from dambo

blueveek

@MisplacedDevelopment said:

@MisplacedDevelopment said:
At first I did have a problem with not seeing what the notes on the other tracks were playing as it makes composition more difficult but you can use the layers functionality of Atom to overlay the notes from other patterns to aid with composition. You also obviously lose the MIDI preview of your data in the DAW which is a helpful thing to have but this can be worked around by appropriate naming of your DAW clips.

(Moved from other thread)

@blueveek on the above point, is it possible to add an option to show either what is playing or what is being edited when refreshing the layers list? The use case is where I jump to a different song part on the timeline and want to compose against what is currently playing in the section I have looped. At the moment I need to manually select the pattern that it is playing in the other Atom instance as the layers view only shows what you last clicked on to edit, which may be different to what is now playing. I hope that makes sense.

Yes, definitely.
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

@OscarSouth said:
@blueveek Throwing in another feature suggestion here: I'm immediately hungering for the ability to view 'the grid' in ms or samples, rather than bars/beats, for truly 'off the grid' MIDI! (although I don't actually need that for anything specific and I'm sure it'd introduce plenty of other conceptual complications to other areas of the interface)

I don't think that's actually as hard as it sounds. All midi is stored in absolute values in the engine, and converting between 'sixteenths' and 'time' should be fairly straightforward. And there's also really prior art for this in Atom – the global latency offset from the top-left clip menu, so the mechanisms are already in place.

Now, when it comes to the UX side of things, I'll have to think about what's the right way to go about it. Also, I probably won't get to this any time soon since there's other stuff taking priority for now.

@Intrepolicious said:
Finally had some time to sit down with Atom after the latest pattern overhaul update.. and wow, this is going to be all I need to compose complete songs. Clip wise or not, there’s nothing stopping me!

@blueveek I can’t say it enough; Thank you for this! ❤️❤️❤️

These pattern following, Drambo integration features are just blowing my mind... man I sure am going to miss AUM 🥲

I'm glad you're enjoying it! (this is making my day)

wim

@blueveek said:
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

That seems like it could get tough from the UI perspective. There's already a lot of scrolling with the height of the individual pattern representations. Multiply that by the number of instances and it could get a bit hard trying to find what you want. I'm sure there's a solution but just adding it as-is might get kind of cumbersome.

blueveek

@wim said:

@blueveek said:
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

That seems like it could get tough from the UI perspective. There's already a lot of scrolling with the height of the individual pattern representations. Multiply that by the number of instances and it could get a bit hard trying to find what you want. I'm sure there's a solution but just adding it as-is might get kind of cumbersome.

I’m thinking maybe folders could help?

wim

@blueveek said:

@wim said:

@blueveek said:
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

That seems like it could get tough from the UI perspective. There's already a lot of scrolling with the height of the individual pattern representations. Multiply that by the number of instances and it could get a bit hard trying to find what you want. I'm sure there's a solution but just adding it as-is might get kind of cumbersome.

I’m thinking maybe folders could help?

Folders would be good.

Another thought might be to keep a single entry, but make that one the focused pattern rather than the playing pattern. If you changed the focused pattern in another instance it would update the list and the background pattern if displayed.

vasilymilovidov

@blueveek said:

@wim said:

@blueveek said:
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

That seems like it could get tough from the UI perspective. There's already a lot of scrolling with the height of the individual pattern representations. Multiply that by the number of instances and it could get a bit hard trying to find what you want. I'm sure there's a solution but just adding it as-is might get kind of cumbersome.

I’m thinking maybe folders could help?

folders in layers, clipboard, scales and patterns would be very helpful

mbncp

@Intrepolicious said:
These pattern following, Drambo integration features are just blowing my mind...

And the best part is that you can disconnect them

xor

@blueveek

@xor said:

@blueveek said:

@xor said:
I couldn’t figure out how to get exactly 121.1 but at least 50 other, mostly integer, bpm between 40 and 300 exhibited the same behavior.

Gotcha, thanks! I'll have a look.

Here’s a new version that uses a cc trigger (track 1) rather than a lfo (track 2). I was wondering if it was a cc timing issue but, no.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nbo9sdbzcn0a7g4/Atom Test 2.drproject?dl=0

I just tried using notes rather than cc to change the pattern. When I first started it up it was working until I switched Drambo patterns then it started messing up. I foolishly restarted Drambo and now using notes is rock solid but cc in this same project lags on the first beat.

Here’s my latest project. Track 5 uses notes to switch patterns. Tracks 1 and 2 use a free-running lfo and switch it through various ccs. Track 3 passes a gate through the various ccs. Track 5 is most like 3 in terms of triggering but generates notes rather than ccs.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dxxswbb8d8ygps1/Atom Test 3.drproject?dl=0

xor

@blueveek speaking of the patterns and layers button what is going on here? Every time I press the layer button the layers panel gets bigger or smaller. Same with the pattern button. Hopefully something “just” got corrupted because I can’t make heads or tails of this...

[edit: after switching back to Drambo it’s working ok fine again]

xor

(Now that the ui glitches have gone away)

@blueveek said:
Yes, definitely.
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

What is showing in the layers panel? I have 7 patterns in this instance and the layers panel shows the same clip 4 times?

xor

@blueveek said:

@wim said:

@blueveek said:
I actually think the layers list should show all patterns from all instances, not just the currently playing pattern.

That seems like it could get tough from the UI perspective. There's already a lot of scrolling with the height of the individual pattern representations. Multiply that by the number of instances and it could get a bit hard trying to find what you want. I'm sure there's a solution but just adding it as-is might get kind of cumbersome.

I’m thinking maybe folders could help?

I was going to ask for some folder support to group related patterns together. In my case there would be one folder per Drambo pattern. For layers I’d like to choose patterns from the “same” folder in other tracks/instances as well as from other takes/variations in the same folder as this clip.

xor

@blueveek @tk32 if the +/- buttons for pattern length go away is there any way to bring them back? I’ve closed/reopened the ui and restarted Drambo. Other instances in the project are fine.

It’s track 3 in this project: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eev397n1kdw8kaq/Cantchangelength.drproject?dl=0

Edward_Alexander

@xor said:
@blueveek @tk32 if the +/- buttons for pattern length go away is there any way to bring them back? I’ve closed/reopened the ui and restarted Drambo. Other instances in the project are fine.

That just made me remember wrestling with the slider in Atom 1.

But yes, curious about this too, as I’ve had mine disappear as well.

tk32

Close all open panels (such as the advanced launch panel) and the +/- buttons should reappear.

Edward_Alexander

@mbncp said:

@Intrepolicious said:
These pattern following, Drambo integration features are just blowing my mind...

And the best part is that you can disconnect them

“Disconnect” them? I think I know what you mean, but please explain?

xor

@tk32 said:
Close all open panels (such as the advanced launch panel) and the +/- buttons should reappear.

Thanks, that did it. I might have figured that out but I’m doubtful. Guess I’d expected them to float at the top of the visible grid rather than be fixed and hidden. I also discovered the reload ui command which does it also.

xor

@blueveek noticed a little workflow bummer inside Drambo. If you insert a new Drambo pattern before an existing one adding new blank patterns in Atom is a bit of a pain. Some things that could help:

• have a way for Drambo to notify you and just take care of it automatically
• allow adding patterns before or after a selected pattern
• allow moving patterns
• allow cross-instance pattern management like add new blank pattern before the first in all instances or move the last pattern up one I all instances

Also, as I was doing this I would just mechanically duplicate and clear the patterns. Then when I went back sometimes I would want a duplicate of the existing pattern. Honestly simply duplicating again never occurred to me so I was copying/pasting which, although doable, seemed more cumbersome. Also I realized that gee, what happens if I edit one of those patterns, will I remember to change both copies? Perhaps a way to symlink patterns so they remain in sync across the life of the project?

MisplacedDevelopment

@xor said:
@blueveek @tk32 if the +/- buttons for pattern length go away is there any way to bring them back? I’ve closed/reopened the ui and restarted Drambo. Other instances in the project are fine.

It’s track 3 in this project: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eev397n1kdw8kaq/Cantchangelength.drproject?dl=0

I hit this yesterday a few times and thought it was a bug. I realised though as @tk32 said that you need to make sure all panels are closed. This includes the grid panel that you have open in that capture and also the “move” panel which got me later on after I thought I had figured out what was causing it.

mbncp

@Intrepolicious said:

@mbncp said:

@Intrepolicious said:
These pattern following, Drambo integration features are just blowing my mind...

And the best part is that you can disconnect them

“Disconnect” them? I think I know what you mean, but please explain?

It's neat that the pattern change is synced with Drambo,s pattern, but if you set the pattern trigger to Note or CC instead of PatchChange you can still trigger a clip or change it's pattern whenever you want.

mbncp

@xor said:
@blueveek noticed a little workflow bummer inside Drambo. If you insert a new Drambo pattern before an existing one adding new blank patterns in Atom is a bit of a pain. ....

Agree, it's probably easier to trigger pattern changes with a note from Drambo or another clip.
Moving, inserting Drambo patterns won't change Atom pattern associated to it.

Edit: after a few edits I’m still not sure I understand what I wrote.
To make it simple avoid using PC to change patterns.

Edward_Alexander

@mbncp said:

@Intrepolicious said:

@mbncp said:

@Intrepolicious said:
These pattern following, Drambo integration features are just blowing my mind...

And the best part is that you can disconnect them

“Disconnect” them? I think I know what you mean, but please explain?

It's neat that the pattern change is synced with Drambo,s pattern, but if you set the pattern trigger to Note or CC instead of PatchChange you can still trigger a clip or change it's pattern whenever you want.

Gotcha that’s what I thought you meant. Yes, it’s quite flexible!

Gdub

If I set the velocity of say 4 notes, I adjust the bar at the bottom, then click the bake button
Go back and click on the individual notes, the velocity seems to stay the same even thou I have set it differently for each note
Am I doing something wrong ? It most probably is me ?
This is on my iPhone 11 latest iOS
Thanks
AS I wanted to use velocity to change patterns, but not working for me

Frank303

Missed the upgrade at discount price
Will get it once there will be income again!

blueveek

@Gdub said:
If I set the velocity of say 4 notes, I adjust the bar at the bottom, then click the bake button
Go back and click on the individual notes, the velocity seems to stay the same even thou I have set it differently for each note
Am I doing something wrong ? It most probably is me ?
This is on my iPhone 11 latest iOS
Thanks
AS I wanted to use velocity to change patterns, but not working for me

That velocity slider represents a new non-destructive operation that changes the velocity offset. Once you've baked, the slider resets to 0. If you've baked some changes beforehand, the values will be preserved.

If you want to see the exact velocity values, use the "Velocity Value" style available from the "Set Style" panel, under the top-left hamburger menu. Exact velocity values will be shown with each note.

ALB

I just received a Launchpad MK3 and it’s very easy to use with Atom2 in AUM. One question: In Session on LP if two clips in Atom2 are already playing in the same lane in AUM, the Launchpad shows them both as playing. If I stop one clip on LP, I can’t get that same clip to start playing without stopping the other. It seems as though when LP is acting as the controller, it is one clip per lane on LP, but when AUM is acting as the controller, two or more clips show as playing on LP. Is this right? Or is there actually a way to have LP play two or more clips per lane?

blueveek

@ALB said:
I just received a Launchpad MK3 and it’s very easy to use with Atom2 in AUM. One question: In Session on LP if two clips in Atom2 are already playing in the same lane in AUM, the Launchpad shows them both as playing. If I stop one clip on LP, I can’t get that same clip to start playing without stopping the other. It seems as though when LP is acting as the controller, it is one clip per lane on LP, but when AUM is acting as the controller, two or more clips show as playing on LP. Is this right? Or is there actually a way to have LP play two or more clips per lane?

Open the advanced launch settings by long-pressing the Launch button, and set Choke Mode to OFF (for each clip you want this behavior).

Gdub

@blueveek
Thanks
I didn’t know there was so many options, on the phone I needed to scroll, as could only see default and sausage
I am gonna have to use this more on the iPad, you keep adding things😁
Thanks again

ALB

@blueveek said:

@ALB said:
I just received a Launchpad MK3 and it’s very easy to use with Atom2 in AUM. One question: In Session on LP if two clips in Atom2 are already playing in the same lane in AUM, the Launchpad shows them both as playing. If I stop one clip on LP, I can’t get that same clip to start playing without stopping the other. It seems as though when LP is acting as the controller, it is one clip per lane on LP, but when AUM is acting as the controller, two or more clips show as playing on LP. Is this right? Or is there actually a way to have LP play two or more clips per lane?

Open the advanced launch settings by long-pressing the Launch button, and set Choke Mode to OFF (for each clip you want this behavior).

Thank so much! Great app! This greatly expands my use.