I've been writing and recording again, which means my DB activity has spiked a little bit. As a result, I've noticed a few things that I may have missed before. I may have missed a discussion about these things, or they may have been changed already. Not sure.
The following are observations and are, by no means critique of the app.
1) I notice that the inspector is now the only way to insert bars. There is no longer the ability to insert multiple bars. If I want to add 16 bars, I have to click "insert bar" 16 times. Why would I want to insert 16 blank bars?... see below...
2) Copied bars do not want to paste into new sections. In order to paste copied bars, I first have to provide the correct number of blank bars to paste into. Since I can't add multiples in a single operation (see above) it is an awkward GUI point.
3) When making a selection that reaches to the end of the section, DB has a tendency to want to "wrap around" to the top. This is frustrating, since great care must be taken to end your selection at precisely the right point. I think DB should know that I've reached the end of the bar and should stop selecting no matter how far I continue to move my mouse.
I got a lot done this weekend. I hope to share another song with you all fairly soon.
----------------------------------- Mike Carlyle Wilbraham, Massachusetts USA
On 04/07/2005 23:42, Michael Carlyle wrote:
- Copied bars do not want to paste into new sections. In order to paste
copied bars, I first have to provide the correct number of blank bars to paste into. Since I can't add multiples in a single operation (see above) it is an awkward GUI point.
I noticed points 1 and 3 also, but especially point 2. I think DB should mimic the kind copy and paste behavior normally found in word processors and spreadsheets and such.
If you've got, say, a bar in the clipboard, and there's just a "cursor" (the blinking red line thing) in the editor, your copied stuff should be inserted at the point. Units of whole bars should be treated as units; with 1 or more whole bars in the clipboard and 1 or more whole bars selected, a paste should replace X number of selected whole bars with Y number of whole bars. Same with beats: if you copy three beats, and then select 3 beats, a paste should replace them directly. I realize there's an issue when the number of units in your clipboard doesn't match the number of units selected, but here DB could just ask if you want to paste as many units of clipboard as fit into the selected space, or whether extra space should be inserted to accomodate the extra units in the clipboard.
This stuff has been debated at various points in the past, no? Can't remember what got said then ....
I also had some trouble copying and pasting from the section menu. Sometimes it would let be highlight a section name, copy it, and then duplicate it with the same name by pasting -- but sometimes not. I couldn't figure out the circumstances which affect this working or not.
When working out the basics of a drum part in DB, I do a *lot* of making basic sections and then copying them to tweak them around -- I suspect that's true of many users! -- so having copy'n'paste'n'replace-or-not working smoothly and "invisibly" would be great :)
Cheers, Carl
Michael Carlyle wrote at 6:42 PM (-0400) on 7/4/05:
- I notice that the inspector is now the only way to insert bars.
There is no longer the ability to insert multiple bars. If I want to add 16 bars, I have to click "insert bar" 16 times. Why would I want to insert 16 blank bars?... see below...
This was addressed in 1E10; hold the option key while doing the Insert Bars and you will be prompted to enter a number of bars.
- Copied bars do not want to paste into new sections. In order to
paste copied bars, I first have to provide the correct number of blank bars to paste into. Since I can't add multiples in a single operation (see above) it is an awkward GUI point.
I'm going to try and improve this copy/paste stuff with regard to beats and bars and stuff soon, pursuant to the various discussion that's gone on here. So stay tuned and be patient but keep the criticism coming.
- When making a selection that reaches to the end of the section, DB
has a tendency to want to "wrap around" to the top. This is frustrating, since great care must be taken to end your selection at precisely the right point.
Thanks for pointing this out; now fixed for the next build!
-b
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Ben Kennedy -
Carl Edlund Anderson -
Michael Carlyle