Missing features in the MIDI Editor

[BirdBird]

Missing features in the MIDI Editor
There are a couple of things that the arrange view can do, but the MIDI Editor can't, even though the functionality would be needed just as much, if not more. I wanted to list some that has been bugging me down below.



1) Snap settings
The arrange view has very comprehensive snap settings.



This is what the midi editor has:


Considering how much time musicians and composers spend time in the MIDI Editor, it is very important that MIDI Editor also has these settings.
There is currently a workflow breaking problem where the MIDI notes snap to invisible grid lines.



2) Lack of scripting API
Arrange view has useful API functions for getting and manipulating zoom and scrolling, currently the API does not have an equivalent of these for the MIDI Editor. Here is some discussion on this topic from a past thread: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=213567
Having this functionality would significantly improve the MIDI Editor as it would let people write more comprehensive scripts.



3) Grid Settings
Preferences > Appearence has very useful settings for tweaking how the arrange view renders the grid.


However the MIDI Editor does not have these options, as pointed out previously, considering how much time can be spent in the MIDI Editor these settings would be needed just as much.
One very important feature in particular is "Divide arrange view vertically every X measures", this makes it significantly easier to read a timeline.
Screenshot from arrange view:




4) Marquee Zoom (Mentioned by Joe90)
Marquee Zoom is a very useful feature when working on projects that aren't just a couple of tracks.
The same is also true in the MIDI editor when dealing with MIDI parts, however the MIDI Editor does not have a Marquee Zoom mouse modifier, even though arrange view does.




Note
I tried to make sure that I didn't list any feature that already exists as "missing", please let me know so if i did!

[Vagelis]

About 3 a huge +1. It would be great if "Divide arrange view vertically every X measures" was available in midi editor.

[Joe90]

Yes, agree with all of these. Regarding the midi notes snapping to 'invisible' grid lines, this is related to midi items having their own midi tick, separate from the main grid. It causes all kinds of issues, including tiny midi notes on edits that can trigger a note on but are invisible in the midi editor (!), slightly off grid item lengths that can't be detected until zoomed in very far and cause problems when duplicating, and problems with articulation triggers. It's currently being discussed over here - https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=228591

We need a preference option - 'always align midi item ticks with project ticks'. That would be a priority for me personally.

Divide arrange view vertically is a great point.

MARQUEE ZOOM in the midi editor (I know you mentioned zoom controls, but you didn't mention this specifically).

These last two are not directly midi editor related, but they are midi related and worth mentioning I think -

A proper, working, native command to quantize midi notes in an item to grid from the arrange page, ignoring adaptive grid (i.e. always following grid setting regardless of zoom) and WITH SWING! There is literally no working action that does this (seemingly basic) task. I've tried every single one on Reapack. Swing grid breaks most of them, and the remaining few have their own set of issues.

Another midi related one - a preferences/project settings option for 'midi items always mix'. I'd prefer if midi items always mixed when overlapped, but not audio items, there is no easy way to achieve this without changing every item's mix behaviour manually, or setting all midi tracks to FIPM, which has it's own set of issues. This might be more specific to me though!

[BirdBird]

Originally Posted by Joe90

Yes, agree with all of these. Regarding the midi notes snapping to 'invisible' grid lines, this is related to midi items having their own midi tick, separate from the main grid. It causes all kinds of issues, including tiny midi notes on edits that can trigger a note on but are invisible in the midi editor (!), slightly off grid item lengths that can't be detected until zoomed in very far and cause problems when duplicating, and problems with articulation triggers. It's currently being discussed over here - https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=228591

Thanks! The problem I stated about invisible grid lines was about grid snapping not following grid visibility in the MIDI Editor mainly. But now that I think what you were mentioning is also a part of the same issue. (the issue being what you see is not what you get, or rather, in your example what you see is what you get when zoomed in real close, but not when you are at a sane zoom level, and it breaks functionality)

What you have mentioned does explain some other problems I had with duplicating notes in the MIDI Editor, where a note would sometimes go off grid for seemingly no reason when using certain actions even though it shouldn't. Nasty!

[BirdBird]

Originally Posted by Joe90

MARQUEE ZOOM in the midi editor (I know you mentioned zoom controls, but you didn't mention this specifically).

Updated the post to include Marquee Zoom

[_Stevie_]

Completely agree on all of this. Let’s get the ME on the same level as the arrange!

[vitalker]

Originally Posted by _Stevie_

Let’s get the ME on the same level as the arrange!

Make ME great again!

[Masi]

Interestingly you can set the MIDI grid to 1/4 dotted for 6/8 which you cannot do in arrange.

Anyway, for both I want custom grids for odd meters like 5/4 or 9/8 where the main sub-divisions are irregular.

Masi

[Klangfarben]

Originally Posted by vitalker

Make ME great again!

Again? Let's just make ME great lol.

Big +1 to all of these.

[kf.]

+1 to this, I was trying to set up the midi editor to have some conveniences found in other modern DAWs, quickly found out I couldn't.

[cool]

+1
Related thread: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=221142