This is great! A decent rhythm program that combines ease of use and advanced creative control is long overdue. Cheers, mate! I haven't been able to spend a good long spell with this yet, but a few points do come to mind off the bat which go towards 'ease of use'. I think some are variants of what has been said before, but what the hell....
1) Some sort of roll function. I haven't been able to get drums or cymbals in quick succession to sound 'right'. Along the same lines, what about a flan (I think that is what it is called - a quick double hit at the beginning of a roll) function? Would some sort of accent feature be possible, similar to that on the BOSS DR-5? Apart from the mechanical quality of quickly-repeated hits, the lack of variation in the intensity of the hits is another give-away that the sound is not 'live'.
2) A cut-off for open hi-hats/rides/crashes so that they don't bleed into the next hit. Maybe also a pedal hi-hat as that seems to be one way of choking an open sound?
3) Volume control. Multiple samples per instrument are a pain to produce, but is there a way of incorporating them into a slider function for the individual instruments? Once the export to AIFF function comes along, volume can be altered after importing a file for each instrument into a sequencer, but this won't address the issue of the variations in sound - and it would be rather laborious. On the same topic, what about a volume swell/decrease function applicable to all instruments over a given period of beats? The ability to draw the increase/decrease with the mouse would be great.
4) Given that one of the features of db is the ability to edit sounds, would a web-based library of user sounds be possible? This might reduce the burden of programming by allowing users access to sound variations which mimic a certain function of the software - ie. accents, etc. That said, I admit to not knowing exactly what is possible with the drum editor. This idea comes from the page that Johnson has for J-Station user patches.
5) Not exactly 'ease of use', but... panning - so that the instruments can be placed anywhere in a stereo field to replicate the spread of a drum kit.
Keep up the good work and thanks again for giving us the chance to offer comments on a very good program!
Cheers, Pascal
Thanks for the ideas and comments Pascal. :D
You know what's wild, I received in the (postal) mail today a Japanese computer mag in which Doggiebox is included on the CD. Crazy, I wish I knew how to read Japanese!
beginning of a roll) function? Would some sort of accent feature be possible, similar to that on the BOSS DR-5? Apart from the mechanical quality of quickly-repeated hits, the lack of variation in the intensity of the hits is another give-away that the sound is not 'live'.
Yes, others have pondered similarly... I think something like this is in order. Will have to think about how to achieve it and implement it. More ideas/details from anyone welcome.
- A cut-off for open hi-hats/rides/crashes so that they don't bleed into
the next hit.
Ya, this is on the list too. Due to some of the technical issues involved with how I'm maintaining the internal model and compositing sounds together, this may not happen for another build or two, but it will eventually!
- Volume control. Multiple samples per instrument are a pain to produce,
but is there a way of incorporating them into a slider function for the individual instruments?
Yes, on the todo list, probably in the form of a control-click slider, what do you think?
On the same topic, what about a volume swell/decrease function applicable to all instruments over a given period of beats? The ability to draw the increase/decrease with the mouse would be great.
Interesting, this ties in with some grander plans I have in mind too...
- Given that one of the features of db is the ability to edit sounds, would
a web-based library of user sounds be possible?
Yeah... I've been thinking about that. I think access to such a library will be a benefit for registered users when the time comes. It's a great idea, and I think interfacing with a web-based library for sharing songs and samples would be really cool.
- Not exactly 'ease of use', but... panning - so that the instruments can
be placed anywhere in a stereo field to replicate the spread of a drum kit.
Yep! I have this already working in my current development build; look for it soon. :) Next build will HOPEFULLY be released the end of next week, depending how much other workload I have after this weekend.
Keep up the good work and thanks again for giving us the chance to offer comments on a very good program!
Thank you for contributing!
-ben
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Ben Kennedy -
Pascal Barras