Drumzatron SFZ Drum Machine/Sequencer

[pwesynthmaker]

When the sequencer is turned off (green off/on button near top right in graph) the pianoroll keys can be used to play each instrument individually with a separate key (preferably with keylock off). In this mode with the PC keyboard or an external midi keyboard or pad controller it can actually be played 'live' as a drumkit. Although, even with asio (Audio Streaming In/Out) latency is excessive. When the sequencer is turned on with the keylock on it will play and loop. A midi drum map uses each specific note for one instrument only. Once the sequencer is turned on it overrides the individual note to instrument assignment priority.
With the sequencer on ... visualize the graph as a 'static' pianoroll (top to bottom each bar/column) that progresses with each step to the next bar/column. What ever note is used to activate the sequencer will be the key signature of playback for the entire bar/column. The graph is detuned -4 octaves so that the bottom note is "C1". If the keyboard or sampler is detuned -3 octaves this will be to a keyboard note numbering that matches standard tuning because a midi drum map uses key 60 as "C3" instead of "C4". As you probably already know, Middle "C" for midi can range from C3-C5 by default.
And yeah ... if I put on my 4X reading glasses and look through an electron microscope ... it almost does look like it says 120 BPM! Dude ... can I borrow your oven mittens ... I wore the palms of mine out. Uh, not because of you, because of no available higher resolution for my itsy bitsy controls. Maybe in the year 2525.

[deraudrl]

Got it. I was testing the sounds using preset 2 to avoid screwing up that nice pattern in preset 1: it was set to -2 octaves rather than -3, but that was too small to read until I brought up the dropdown list to change it. Yes, size matters.

The onscreen keyboard is clearly unsuitable for any kind of actual playing (IMHO), and could be replaced by a couple of small play/pause/stop buttons, leaving the MIDI-IN available for an external keyboard/keypad and avoiding the whole transpose issue entirely. Then, rather than doubling the vertical size of the piano-roll rows, add the additional rows required to cover the missing SFZ samples. Just a thought.

[pwesynthmaker]

On the left is midi in/out switches for external controller. As you know. As stated previously and I 've always agreed ... onscreen vsti type pianorolls ... don't roll. But most musicians don't have anything else to playback with. I have a nice i2M Musicport for my Electric Guitars with Ketron SD2 Wizard and all kinds of MIDI doodads. My computers ... over 10 grand in pro licensed software. Hey! You ought to check out vArranger2 ... kinda spendy but fantastic. Also, VB Audio Voicemeeter ... Banana version is good, Potato version $$$donate. You can route audio all over the place with it. Voicemeeter really works great with FS. You probably heard of MIDI-OX and MIDI Yoke and ASIO4ALL already.

[Spogg]

Yes, my expectation, being a brand new user, was one lane for one sound on one note number that was either fixed or maybe assignable individually as a user.

I have an idea that as a developer you saw lots of possibilities which seem to have complicated and moved away from ease of use. We often fall into that trap, something that trog calls "feature creep". It's only recently that I've started making an effort to keep things as simple as possible.

If this is still a work in progress then I would beg for a simplified version which is more intuitive from the outset.

The graphical sequencer interface is brilliant and, even though I’m not qualified to judge, the Ruby code seems remarkably clever and very compact.


I hope you take my comments as constructive rather than merely critical.

Cheers

Spogg

[pwesynthmaker]

The Ruby Code is a simple adaptation of the one used for Arp in the standard FS Music Synthesizer Demo.
Each lane (column/bar) represents a 49 key pianoroll. You can add as many notes to each lane as desired to play percussion instruments simultaneously. It will play any kind of sfz soundfont as well as drums since the sound generator is a sampler. It confused me too, at first.
"Give me a ride on a bike and I'll get there ... teach me to ride a bike and I can go there at will."
"If you take the chain off a bicycle the pedals won't work."
In layman terms if described as a bicycle ...
The sequencer is the rear wheel. The spokes are the lanes. Cards hitting the spokes are the notes. The chain is the Ruby Code. The pedals are like off/on bpm control. The transposers are like gear shifts.

By comparison the Compozatron 3 is a slingshot dragster with a nitro-charged 12 cylinder Lamborghini engine.
IT was my first FS Project. To push FS to the very limit. It will run on 8 GB's of RAM, barely.

I call it the "Tim Allen Home Improvement Syndrome" ... now if I can just figure out how to add the kitchen sink and tune the 200 HP garbage disposal to "Bb" ...

[deraudrl]

If this is still a work in progress then I would beg for a simplified version which is more intuitive from the outset.
...
I hope you take my comments as constructive rather than merely critical.

What he said.

I've bounced off any number of otherwise brilliant hardware/VST/VSTi implementations because it was too hard to work around features I didn't need.

[pwesynthmaker]

I do appreciate the 'critique' ... I am now in the process of some suggested alterations. I designed a working sequencer stop/run button that requires no keylock since the pianoroll is unnecessary and actually distracting. I am enlarging the controls and fonts to at least 'default size' viewing visibility. Might take another day.

[Spogg]

Much appreciated and take your time.

By “pianoroll” do you mean the on-screen keyboard?

Cheers

Spogg

[pwesynthmaker]

Updated version of Drumzatron ... see first post for the download.

And ... yes I deleted the onscreen keyboard ... it was just a start/stop confusing distraction.