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FamiTracker
First of all let me say once again that Famitracker is a fantastic program. Because of this, I have taken the liberty of putting it through a gruelling testing (ie. I worked on a song in it), and I wrote down every issue that I came across in Notepad. As an Impulse Tracker user, some of these may be due to the fact that this is based on Fast Tracker, and they of course reflect my personal way of using tracking. I'm sure some people won't need these commands at all, but having the option there is what makes tracking such an intuitive system.
There may be things in here that are already possible/implemented but I just didn't figure them out--if so I apologize for that! Also some are already mentioned elsewhere on this forum (I see virt is complaining about the STOP button as well :D), but I didn't remove them so perhaps you can get an idea of what needs prioritizing this way as well.
Anyway, I hope you won't see this as a criticism of your program, but rather as a compliment! It's already the best dedicated tracker for NSF--let's make it even better!
famitracker notes, suggestions, bugs, etc.
[b]Playing and stopping:[/b]
1a) a dedicated stop button! (F8 in impulse tracker) This alone would make my experience with FamiTracker about 5 million times more enjoyable.
1b) an "IT-style playback" mode, in which notes you input into the tracker continue until either you input a new note, a note-off command, or press F8. (try it out in impulse tracker to see what i mean if you're unsure)
1c) Play (F5) should play the song from the first frame, not from the frame you're currently at
1d) Play Pattern (F6) should play the currently viewed pattern from the start, looping it
1e) Play from row (F7) should start playing the song from the currently selected row, and then continue down the orderlist. (one of the major functions for this button is to test how something works between two patterns on the orderlist). The current functionality (play the single row, or something) is something I hardly ever use, but it's under the button 8 in IT.
[b]Frames/orderlist:[/b]
2a) when you add a frame, it should probably have the same values as the last one. Having it all be 00 00 00 00 just means you have to press the + button a lot every time you want to add a new pattern.
2b) It would be nice to be able to use the scrollwheel and/or arrow buttons to go through frames when you're focused on it. Currently it seems like you can't actually focus on it at all, so as a workaround, perhaps when you're hovering over it with the mouse? But ideally you should be able to to tab to that window and scroll up using the arrow keys(eliminating the need to use the mouse at all).
2c) I find the "jumping" when you select a frame to be somewhat awkward. There's a lot of empty space at the right end of the screen (unless you're doing vrc6, of course, but let's assume you're not :D), could it be placed there? Then you could view all your frames without needing to scroll, unless the song is extremely long. Perhaps it could even be hidden, with an arrow button to "fold it out" so to speak.
[b]Instruments:[/b]
3a) filling in a instrument number in the tracker currently isn't behaving correctly, making it very difficult to change an instrument this way. They should behave the same way as the effects column. I'm suspecting this is a bug, not intended behavior, because I don't remember this being an issue in previous versions.
3b) when you fill in an instrument value in this way, the instrument should get selected. I normally do about 90% of my instrument switching this way, so suffice to say it would be extremely useful for me!
3c) there should be a way to mass change instruments on a selection with a keyboard command (in IT it's alt+s). Very useful for making echos and so on!
[b]New effects/stuff that I miss:[/b]
1) Note cut (SCx in IT, ECx in XM). Cuts the note after x frames, very useful for tri channel especially
2) Fine volume slide (AFx and AxF), perhaps extra fine volume slide even (AEx, AxE)
3) Set step to # (in IT this is bound to alt+1-9).
4) Currently the clear field command doesn't work on the actual values of effects. It should revert them to 00.
[b]Misc bugs:[/b]
- paste and mix currently does not seem to work at all? Maybe there's something wrong with me, but it didn't seem to work.
- When you bind commands to alt+[key], each time you press the command the computer gives a bleep, like it's an illegal key command. I just turned off the sound so it's not a huge deal, but it's probably something to look at.
- Deleting a note on the last row of a pattern also deletes the note before it.
- There's some weird selection behavior. If I can figure out what causes it I'll give a more detailed report
Of course they have a use, since the current volume slide even at its slowest is still quite fast, which makes long fade-outs or fade-ins a matter of placing volume commands by hand, which can be tedious.
The "fine" doesn't mean "more than 16 values", it simply means more granularity between threshold crossings, so you can have more controlled (read: slower) fades. Obviously differences between each volume step will be sudden, but that's part of the charm.
It irritates me a bit when people dismiss a feature suggestion when they don't understand its context, or how it might be used.
To illustrate, this is how a volume slide currently looks in one of my songs:
A01
A00
A01
A00
A01
A00
A01
A00
(and so on)
This could be replaced with:
AF2 (I'm not sure about what range would be sensible, just as an example)
Which I'm sure you'll agree looks a lot more neat. If you're unsure about any other features, do feel free to ask and I'll elaborate on their use. Extra fine, for example. Say you want the fade to end exactly at a certain point. AF2 is too slow, and AF3 is too fast. The solution would be to use an AEx command (AE5 in this case).
Good call on the volume slide issue, slash. With fine and extrafine volume slides, all that really means is slower and even slower tapering betwixt the 16 volume levels. My cover of NIN's JLUI was a b17ch to taper with volume levels alone. I don't regret doing it that way, though, as I am a control freak with my music.
I do concur, fine and extrafine volume slides just make things that much more convenient. I also like FamiTracker the way it is for now, though. Maybe in the near future (or whenever the power-that-be gets around to it) we will see it in FamiTracker - the future is open wide...
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You now process Dracula's Rib. Good luck processing it...
btw, jsr, ease of use definitely has improved in 3.0 of FT! I see you even put a slight tint effect on the metallic channel graphics which changes from gray to red. That's nifty!
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You now process Dracula's Rib. Good luck processing it...
Hi, thanks for the compliments! I'd really like to hear what you came up with when it's ready. =)
Like you said, the tracker is based mainly on the fast tracker style (at least a bit), but I'm trying to make it configurable enough so it hopefully won't be too much of a hindrance, so all these suggestions are appreciated.
1) I will add more options for play/stop. (1b, maybe this can be added as a part of the IT-style input mode?)
2a) There is a new button to duplicate the selected frame (Control+D) that inserts the same values as the selected frame. Adding a new frame (Module/insert frame) is supposed to find unused slots automatically, and increasing frame count just fills with 00. Hope this helps.
2b) It can take focus from the latest version by double clicking it, but sure I can also add a shortcut to give it focus.
2c) I've been thinking of moving that for a long time but never got around (I agree that space is not efficiently used as it is right now). I'll add it to the todo list.
3) I'll take these in account also.
New effects/stuff:
Note cut effect will be added, and I can probably add fine volume slides too.
Set step size is available as Ctrl+numpad, but I can move it to Alt.
Regarding the misc bugs, some of these are related to the new pattern code. I'm working on testing and sorting them out, but any reports related to this are of big help.
"When you bind commands to alt+[key], each time you press the command the computer gives a bleep, like it's an illegal key command. I just turned off the sound so it's not a huge deal, but it's probably something to look at."
I remember this since last time, but didn't found any solution back then. My skills in using MFC has increased somewhat so I'll give it another try. (I know MFC is filled with "features" like these)
