Muting tracks, a proposal

Hapax
1

For performance, I really like to have clear immidiate acces to track mutes, and to have very clear feedback on what is muted.

As is, we don’t have one-button muting, and to me, the visual feedback of muted tracks is not as strong as I would like.

At first I thought I would just use the lowest pattern row (in pattern view) to use empty patterns there for muting. This way is how I like it: Direct and with excellent visual feedback. However, I soon realised, that when using song mode, this method does not work, since your muted track (using the empty pattern method) becomes unmuted everytime the song goes to the next section.

I have now been thinking a lot about how to improve the muting (according to what I like), and this is my proposal:

Make it a user option to be able to sacrifice the lowest pattern row, and instead gain a row of dedicated mute buttons. These mute buttons will have two new colours (that can be set in the palette menu), one for unmuted and one for muted. (If possible it could be nice to be able to set muted tracks, to not just a separate colour, but also blinking/not blinking.)

All current mute functions should be kept as they are, since they are still useful for muting when you are not in pattern mode. And the setting regarding muting timing (instant / timed) should apply to both ways of muting tracks.

I think this would be a great asset to intuitive live performance (in the pattern view), for those who are willing to have just seven rows of patterns.

(Have sent this to Squarp, but wanted to share it here also.)

2 Likes
2

the last thing i want to sacrifice at this point is one of only eight patterns per track. i expect to control track mutes with a Novation Launch Station XL, since it also will allow me to consolidate any MIDI CC knob assignments onto a single box

3

Not at all a surprising reaction, given the many people who think eight patterns are too few. I understand.
But for me, the norm will be more like one, two or five patterns if I go crazy.
I was considering using an external controller, but keeping my setup compact is an important factor for me, and then it struck me, that I would be having a lot of un-used pads right in front of me, where they should be, so it would be so ideal if they could be put to good use as mutes.

4

I share your feelings about muting and would also like to have an option to mute/unmute tracks with a single press. But I also think sacrificing the bottom row would be a waste.

Maybe it would be nice to switch to mute mode: shift + mute (if that isn’t a shortcut already?) and then you can just press a track number to mute/unmute it. Shift+ mute to toggle mute mode on/off. This could function in conjunction with the current way of muting tracks and it doesn’t sacrifice a row in the grid.

1 Like
5

^Yes, started to say this – make mute a toggle.

Also, aren’t the track buttons also RGB? Make muted tracks red or some other clearly visible color?

1 Like
6

But it would sacrifice one-press track selection. Which I feel is quite important to keep as a one-press thing. But perhaps a good choice to give to the user. Perhaps I would like it when performing.

And yes, the current track muting visual feedback is also something I feel could be improved in order to maximise the chance that you can see what is going on in sub-optimal lighting conditions. The buttons are small and covered with black on top, so they are not really equipped to compete with the big bright pads below. And a current non-selected track button is down at half power in order to make the selected track stand out. Perhaps give some colour to the selected track and let all be at full power?

7

That’s true. Maybe pressing the pad of a playing pattern could make it stop instead of restart from the beginning?

I think at least in pattern mode, a different color could be used for all pads in the column of a muted track to make it more obvious.

2 Likes
8

THAT is actually a really good and solid idea! Clear improvement of visuals at no “cost” as far as I can see.

3 Likes
9

And then I have an additional visual tweak of muted tracks for those who like to look at the left display in pattern mode: The black numbers in the white boxes that show track number: Invert black/white when muted.

10

this is going off topic a bit, but i really feel like all patterns in pattern mode each ought to be an assignable color to begin with… looking at a sea of yellow grid cells is not visually optimal for me. would love to be able to make it more glance-able with assigned colors.

6 Likes
11

I would much prefer if the mute button latched on/off and while it was on any of the tracks could be individually muted by pressing 1 to 16. This would also be handy for having the Master Transpose controllable in this way

6 Likes
12

Also a good idea. For some ways of working with Hapax, this would be really awesome.

13

Yeah, I’d really like each column to be able to have its own color like Push 2 and Akai Force. Right now, I find myself getting a little lost in there!

1 Like
14

In terms of UI presentation, it seems that what we’re looking for is assignable track colours, which could naturally be inherited by their patterns.

3 Likes
15

I like the way they implemented this sort of thing with the Pyramid. The track could start out with the first pattern activated or inactive by default, then a toggle on the already selected pattern would either activate it or inactivate it, depending on which state it was already in. And that activation status could be saved in sections.

It would also be nice to have multiple patterns in one track active at the same time. On the Pyramid, you could have multiple tracks for the same sequence in the song active at once, which was fun for making interesting combinations of rhythms or melodies.