Hey guys. If I zoom out and draw in notes, it will show as 1 step but it will print as 2 steps. If I shorten it to half it will return to “1” step. Is this supposed to be like this, or am I missing out on that note length scales to the zoom? Thanks!
Yep, note length is relative to your current zoom level. So “1” just means “1 square on the grid as you see it”.
1 Like
yes thats normal … it confused me already at the pyramid
also something to be aware of , as caught me out 
(Ive raised this with squarp, as an area were can possibly have a bit more UI feedback)
the pads/display are ‘rounding’…
so, if you enter a note as 9 steps at zoom /2 , and come out to zoom / 1
pads will show 4 steps, and holding will also show 4 … but its really 4.5
there’s no ‘feedback’ that its a bit longer…
the only thing you see, which confused me… is on the right display, you might see notes overlapping, whereas on the pads they don’t !
in fairness, if your programming steps, this is unlikely to happen (or you already did it deliberately) ,
but if you record live… its pretty common (well if you are a bit tardy/play legato as I have a tendency )
why does it matter?
for a poly synth, not really… for mono, or cv/gate it can be pretty important.
what is also important, is that if you alter the note length, it’ll keep that ‘fraction’, similarly if you copy n’ paste it around… you’ll end up with that fraction…
is this a bug?
NO… in fact its very much what is should do, and is intended to do…
however, I think really the UI could just inform you a little better.
e.g. Ive suggested that perhaps when you hold the note, it puts a little + sign next to it, to indicated its slightly longer than its saying.
(its not always 0.5, e.g. you could zoom in and make a note 1/64 longer… so display fractions is not really viable)
I did think about the the pads extending a bit, but actually that would just create more “noise” than useful.
Ive also said im not sure if inc/dec should keep the fraction… but a bit undecided on that one.
how do you get rid of the fraction?
not too bad, reset the length (to 1) without note selected, set the length you need… then hold note(s) and reset to default. seems like a faff, but in fairness… its pretty quick given the note selection tools we have.
anyway, just something to be careful of , particularly if you are playing in live.
( as I said, Ive already raised this all with Squarp, so perhaps can be ‘fine tuned’ a bit in the future)
3 Likes
I also think this is pretty confusing. I’d love an option to just set a note length (in 1/16th notes) independent of the zoom level.
At least it should properly show the exact length, not a rounded value.
Send a feature request
I’d be surprised if it changes though … it’s the same on the pyramid.
I get why it might be confusing at first, but once you get used to it, it’s really part of the whole workflow - then it’s natural and actually more powerful than having fixed values.
2 Likes
Yeah, I’ll have to send a feature request for this as well.
I don’t really think in terms of grid units, I think in terms of music, and I don’t think about music differently when I’m zoomed in or zoomed out. I just want to place a sixteenth note, or an eight note, or a quarter note, or whatever. So, having the meaning of those values change between when I’m zoomed out or zoomed in feels a bit confusing, and having to do math in my head to figure out how long 1 actually is at a given zoom level seems like it will become tiresome.
But I understand why the length works that way.
Maybe Hapax could show both the number, which is relative to the size of a grid unit, as well as the effective note length, eg. 16th, dotted 16th, 8th, dotted 8th, quarter, etc, so we can have both 
4 Likes
Very well said, I feel the exact same
Email them!
when u are playing really fast, (the max is 16000 bpm) u have a i dont know 2048th note…
i like it how it is…
1 Like
This is bizarre and stupid and still hasn’t been fixed?
It’s neither bizarre nor stupid – it’s a step sequencer.
As such, a “step” is (and indeed should be) relative to the resolution of the sequencer, at any given zoom level, be it straight time or triplets.
As a musician who also does a lot of live sequencing, I personally don’t find it difficult at all to think in terms of steps vs notes. That is ultimately how we count music after all.
I’ve had the Hapax onstage with me since week one…
I find it a joy to use, and have yet to be confused by this.
That said, perhaps a reasonable solution would be to simply have a Global Setting allowing the user to choose whether the note ‘Length’ parameter displays notes or steps. Showing both at once (as suggested up-thread), however, would be cluttered and redundant, in my opinion.
Cheers!
What you are saying makes no sense whatsoever in fact you argument is contradictory.
Firstly.
steps do not magically disappear when i zoom out. They are still there. The notes are still starting and stopping on steps even if i cant see them because ive zoomed out. The only thing that has changed is the resolution. Number of steps has not changed.
Secondly.
User has specified they want a note length of say 4 steps.
4 steps long is 4 steps no matter what zoom level. Im zooming out because i have a long pattern and want to add more of those 4 step notes.
But as soon as i touch zoom the Hapax, without any notice to the user, changes the user set default note step length to a meaningless number of 1. Its value now, non musically, determined by zoom level.
Fourthly,
(Proving your argument contradictory).
So i put default note length back to 4 steps. But no, because im zoomed out to 50% that 4 steps note is twice as long as the other 4 step notes i have in the sequence.
So I now change the default note length to 2 “steps” great I am now entering more of my 4 step notes.
And to prove that steps have not magically disappeared once i revert to 100% zoom level. Those 2 step notes turn into 4 step notes!!!. AMAZING !!! But the secret is …
They were allways 4 step notes all along…
Objectivity lolz. How about some basic logic instead.
Ps now try the above exercise with notes that are 3 steps long (or music in 3/4 6/8 ts) now zoom out and see how far you get.
If there are actually users / devs who think note step length should be correlated to zoom level (still totally dumb idea imo). But if there are then at least the default note step length should change along with zoom according to what the user set at no zoom.
Eg if im at 50% zoom then my default note length should be divided by 2 automatically. 25% by ÷4 , 100% back to actual…
But again what if my default note length is 3.
Anyway ….
So what you are saying is, that 4 8th notes are twice as long as 4 16th notes and that a quarter note is 4 steps long on 16th note resolution, but only 2 steps at 8th note resolution. The problem with automatically changing the step length relative to the zoom would be if you set 4 steps at default zoom and you go to 8x or higher, your 4 steps would be 32 now, which seems super impractical.
“4 steps long is 4 steps no matter what zoom level.”
No 4 steps is 4 steps at your current zoom level. 1 step is 1 button of your 16x8 matrix at your current zoom level, zooming out never lets your steps disappear it just wont show you the exact position and length of the step at some point its just the limitation of a 16x8 matrix.
2 Likes
I’m afraid you’re just confused about the difference between the length of musical notes versus what a “step” represents at a given resolution on the grid.
They are not always one and the same.
Cheers!
1 Like
Im afraid you are just confused about what i am asking for but thats ok. I cant fix everything.
I assure you, neither myself nor the others in this thread who have responded to you are confused about what you’re asking for.
The fact remains, whether your criticism is ill-informed or just misguided, either way, what you’ve observed (and evidently disagreed with) is precisely how step sequencers are supposed to work.
And if there was something fundamentally wrong with the Hapax in this regard, we’d all be on board with your request; but there simply isn’t.
So, you can bark at me all you want.
Cheers!
are you actually trying to drive people away from this forum because you’re doing a great job.