MIDI Tape Recorder plugin beta test (sample accurate, MPE, open source)

rs2000

@GeertBevin said:

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:
Actually, never mind, seems like I just overlooked that flag

And I know you’re clearly busy, but everyone should have Loopy (week free trial)

I just thought some more about this, I'm not sure it's a good idea to auto record in the plug-in when the host records, that would make it really easy to accidentally record over existing tracks when actually recording in the host itself. So I think I'm just going to keep this as is for now.

+1

steve99

@GeertBevin said:

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:
Actually, never mind, seems like I just overlooked that flag

And I know you’re clearly busy, but everyone should have Loopy (week free trial)

I just thought some more about this, I'm not sure it's a good idea to auto record in the plug-in when the host records, that would make it really easy to accidentally record over existing tracks when actually recording in the host itself. So I think I'm just going to keep this as is for now.

I think I meant more of a count-in, 1 bar or so, but I realise now I can give myself that time when recording and then just adjust the loop points. At the moment does ‘record’ sync to the next beat after pressing the button or is it completely free running?

Anyway, Just been playing in AUM and I found I can achieve what I want to do (synced loops) by making an empty loop and then using the punch in / punch out across the whole loop whilst the host is playing back.*

Sounding good too with a SWAM cello and Hammerhead rhythm - it seems I’m much better with happy accidents testing stuff out rather than when I’m actually trying to make music

Good stuff, bought you a beer (so long as it’s not too expensive where you live). Cheers.

*EDIT and that was just for the first loop - after that recording to the other tracks follows the loop anyway.

GeertBevin

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:
Actually, never mind, seems like I just overlooked that flag

And I know you’re clearly busy, but everyone should have Loopy (week free trial)

I just thought some more about this, I'm not sure it's a good idea to auto record in the plug-in when the host records, that would make it really easy to accidentally record over existing tracks when actually recording in the host itself. So I think I'm just going to keep this as is for now.

I think I meant more of a count-in, 1 bar or so, but I realise now I can give myself that time when recording and then just adjust the loop points. At the moment does ‘record’ sync to the next beat after pressing the button or is it completely free running?

Anyway, Just been playing in AUM and I found I can achieve what I want to do (synced loops) by making an empty loop and then using the punch in / punch out across the whole loop whilst the host is playing back. Sounding good too with a SWAM cello and Hammerhead rhythm - it seems I’m much better with happy accidents testing stuff out rather than when I’m actually trying to make music

Good stuff, bought you a beer (so long as it’s not too expensive where you live). Cheers.

Recording starts whenever you record arm and a track is record enable, but as you noticed, you can use punch in/out to automate this. In a next version I'll make it possible to create the length by not having to record an empty track first, so that should be more convenient then.

Thanks so much for the donation!

steve99

@GeertBevin said:

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:
Actually, never mind, seems like I just overlooked that flag

And I know you’re clearly busy, but everyone should have Loopy (week free trial)

I just thought some more about this, I'm not sure it's a good idea to auto record in the plug-in when the host records, that would make it really easy to accidentally record over existing tracks when actually recording in the host itself. So I think I'm just going to keep this as is for now.

I think I meant more of a count-in, 1 bar or so, but I realise now I can give myself that time when recording and then just adjust the loop points. At the moment does ‘record’ sync to the next beat after pressing the button or is it completely free running?

Anyway, Just been playing in AUM and I found I can achieve what I want to do (synced loops) by making an empty loop and then using the punch in / punch out across the whole loop whilst the host is playing back. Sounding good too with a SWAM cello and Hammerhead rhythm - it seems I’m much better with happy accidents testing stuff out rather than when I’m actually trying to make music

Good stuff, bought you a beer (so long as it’s not too expensive where you live). Cheers.

Recording starts whenever you record arm and a track is record enable, but as you noticed, you can use punch in/out to automate this. In a next version I'll make it possible to create the length by not having to record an empty track first, so that should be more convenient then.

Thanks so much for the donation!

Excellent. Never has there been a better time to self-isolate, if I could just get the rest of the family to isolate elsewhere….

GeertBevin

MIDI Tape Recorder v0.90 build 9 is now available on TestFlight with the following changes:

• By popular request, the UI now resizes vertically.
• Changed how repeat and record behave, repeat will now always loop as opposed to trying to figure out when to repeat based on track activity. To start looping while recording the first track, record with repeat disabled and when enabling repeat the recording now stops and looping happens immediately.
• Added optional tooltip display when using any of the buttons.
• UI tweaks that add background blur and transparency to popup view.
• Update playhead position when host changes position, even when play isn't active.
• Minor tweaks for iOS 12 support.

rs2000

Thank you @GeertBevin!

Thanks also for supporting the bunch of (still great) devices that can't go above iOS 12 👍🏼👍🏼

GeertBevin

@rs2000 said:
Thank you @GeertBevin!

Thanks also for supporting the bunch of (still great) devices that can't go above iOS 12 👍🏼👍🏼

I keep my iPad Air 1 around for this very reason 🙂

oat_phipps

This thing is an underrated an essential tool for hashing out parts quickly. I already use it so much, it immediately became a huge part of my recording/practicing process.

GeertBevin

@oat_phipps said:
This thing is an underrated an essential tool for hashing out parts quickly. I already use it so much, it immediately became a huge part of my recording/practicing process.

Thank you, that means a lot to me and exactly the reason why I made it!

Skyblazer

I'm really happy with it too. I think I'll probably use it in every project.

NeuM

Can’t wait til this is available after the testing. I no longer beta test because of a really bad iOS error which caused havoc with me (from another developer’s app), so I look forward to the polished final product.

GeertBevin

@Skyblazer said:
I'm really happy with it too. I think I'll probably use it in every project.

Awesome! Thank you!

GeertBevin

@NeuM said:
Can’t wait til this is available after the testing. I no longer beta test because of a really bad iOS error which caused havoc with me (from another developer’s app), so I look forward to the polished final product.

I'm planning to finish up one last feature today (trimming the recorded midi) and then get it ready for App Store submission. Thanks for the interest!

steve99

@Skyblazer said:
I'm really happy with it too. I think I'll probably use it in every project.

+1 This fits in perfectly for me, up to now I find I end up having only occasional and dedicated MPE sessions, now I can bring everything together and mash it all up in one

GeertBevin

@steve99 said:

@Skyblazer said:
I'm really happy with it too. I think I'll probably use it in every project.

+1 This fits in perfectly for me, up to now I find I end up having only occasional and dedicated MPE sessions, now I can bring everything together and mash it all up in one

That's exactly the intent I have for this plugin, so it's really nice to hear!

steve99

Hi again @GeertBevin - I’ve just made myself an empty 16 bar (first) loop in AUM and successfully saved it as an AUM preset to open in subsequent instances.

Can you enable preset saving within the plugin? If so, perhaps it would also be handy to have a few presets with different length empty first loops? I appreciate it might be confusing having to punch-in/out on that empty loop when you don’t need to on the subsequent loops, but for me recording from a cold start isn’t easy, much better to come in when everything’s rolling. Of course, I understand this isn’t just for people who want to loop short clips, but I reckon we are legion

GeertBevin

@steve99 said:
Hi again @GeertBevin - I’ve just made myself an empty 16 bar (first) loop in AUM and successfully saved it as an AUM preset to open in subsequent instances.

Can you enable preset saving within the plugin? If so, perhaps it would also be handy to have a few presets with different length empty first loops? I appreciate it might be confusing having to punch-in/out on that empty loop when you don’t need to on the subsequent loops, but for me recording from a cold start isn’t easy, much better to come in when everything’s rolling. Of course, I understand this isn’t just for people who want to loop short clips, but I reckon we are legion

Thanks for that suggestion, I'll look into it.

FYI the next beta will allow you to simply drag to the right on an empty recording to set a length without having to record that length. So this particular flow should be much easier.

In any case, preset saving inside the plugin is definitely a good idea!

ruggedsmooth

Excited for this
Thank you for your work @GeertBevin !

j_liljedahl

@GeertBevin said:
Actually, never mind, seems like I just overlooked that flag

I think the fact that the host is recording doesn't necessarily mean the user wants some particular recording-able plugin to record? In AUM you can't even start the transport-record unless at least one channel is rec-armed.

[EDIT: never mind, I saw you realized this a few replies down ]

However, a user can enable record in your plugin while host is stopped and rewound, and it will of course start recording when user starts play in the host. And it could be nice to be able to start recording at the next beat or bar if the transport is already rolling when user taps rec in your plugin. On the other hand, that could also be solved with grid-snapping trimming after recording.

GeertBevin

I think I have a release candidate ready, I plan to submit the final version to the App Store soon.

These are the latest changes in v0.9.0 build 10:

• Added support for cropping the session across all tracks.
• Added support for saving plugin user presets.
• The right crop marker can extend farther than the recording length to add time at the end.
• The right crop marker is now present on empty recordings and can be dragged to the right to set a blank duration.
• Various small tweaks to transport behaviors.
• Fix for redo not restoring previous settings and markers.
• Tweaks to popup view visuals.

yokotate

I don’t have a lot of time at the moment but I plan to test the recorder extensively during the holidays. From the little time I got with it I’m very impressed though! It’s very handy and fills one of the needs I had since starting with music production on iPad. I see myself using it a lot. Thank you for open source and thank you for releasing it at all, Geert.

steve99

@GeertBevin said:
I think I have a release candidate ready, I plan to submit the final version to the App Store soon.

These are the latest changes in v0.9.0 build 10:

• Added support for cropping the session across all tracks.
• Added support for saving plugin user presets.
• The right crop marker can extend farther than the recording length to add time at the end.
• The right crop marker is now present on empty recordings and can be dragged to the right to set a blank duration.
• Various small tweaks to transport behaviors.
• Fix for redo not restoring previous settings and markers.
• Tweaks to popup view visuals.

Sweet. I will be deliberately screwing up my recordings just for the joy of punching in and doing it again

GeertBevin

@steve99 said:

@GeertBevin said:
I think I have a release candidate ready, I plan to submit the final version to the App Store soon.

These are the latest changes in v0.9.0 build 10:

• Added support for cropping the session across all tracks.
• Added support for saving plugin user presets.
• The right crop marker can extend farther than the recording length to add time at the end.
• The right crop marker is now present on empty recordings and can be dragged to the right to set a blank duration.
• Various small tweaks to transport behaviors.
• Fix for redo not restoring previous settings and markers.
• Tweaks to popup view visuals.

Sweet. I will be deliberately screwing up my recordings just for the joy of punching in and doing it again

Lol!!!

GeertBevin

@yokotate said:
I don’t have a lot of time at the moment but I plan to test the recorder extensively during the holidays. From the little time I got with it I’m very impressed though! It’s very handy and fills one of the needs I had since starting with music production on iPad. I see myself using it a lot. Thank you for open source and thank you for releasing it at all, Geert.

Thanks so much!!!

steve99

@GeertBevin A bug I think, hope ok to post here? I make an empty 16 bar loop, with host playback running. I record arm and play in notes, but after 16 bars the playhead returns to the start of the loop while notes continue to record in additionally added bars. I can make a video if you need, but off to bed now and so far your fixing has been much quicker than my video making might be.

GeertBevin

@steve99 said:
@GeertBevin A bug I think, hope ok to post here? I make an empty 16 bar loop, with host playback running. I record arm and play in notes, but after 16 bars the playhead returns to the start of the loop while notes continue to record in additionally added bars. I can make a video if you need, but off to bed now and so far your fixing has been much quicker than my video making might be.

Is this with v0.9.0 build 10, today's release? I don't seem to be able to reproduce it.

Fingolfinzz

It’s not a necessity cos I can always go into landscape mode but being able to scroll over in portrait mode on iPhone would be a nice ease of use feature cos I can’t access the delete/import/export without going into landscape but otherwise everything else is working great so far.

GeertBevin

@Fingolfinzz said:
It’s not a necessity cos I can always go into landscape mode but being able to scroll over in portrait mode on iPhone would be a nice ease of use feature cos I can’t access the delete/import/export without going into landscape but otherwise everything else is working great so far.

Thanks for the request, at this point I feel it's too risky to introduce that since it would have to wrap the entire UI. It would also create nested scroll views, which is always awkward and source of confusing behavior. Glad everything else is working great for you!

GeertBevin

I made another release candidate and unless a major bug is found, this is what I'll submit to the App Store.

• Preliminary web page at http://uwyn.com/mtr and updated link in plugin
• Only auto scroll when actively playing tracks
• Don't turn record off when enabling repeat and the transport isn't playing
• Don't process recording when no duration has been recorded
• Don't create zero-length recording when starting transport with repeat and record on
• Fix for overdub when newly recorded last beat is empty, it would not erase the existing messages on that beat

I had a great creative session with MIDI Tape Recorder today and was able to have a lot of fun without wanting to change any code. So I think it's ready.

Here's a little excerpt

https://twitter.com/gbevin/status/1474094846109523969

Krupa

Very nice @GeertBevin