I'm in the "mute" to make it right - some ideas about to improve the deluge's mute behavior
There are several suggestions for improving the mute behaviour (see below) and I'd like to build on that:
I was totally amazed first time I recorded from song to arranger mode and I overused the SHIFT+LAUNCH combination, believing it would give me the most easy way to have a varied arrangement. I switched over to arranger mode and listened to my masterpiece - it sounded good but wait, there was clearly missing something - a quick look into the manual confirmed my premonition:
Instant-launch a clip by [SHIFT] + [LAUNCH] will be placed in the arrangement as if it had been played from the start of that loop.
Okay! But why? It would be a complete gamechanger (at least to me) if mute on/off status would be recorded into arranger view.
No need for white intances then and no need for 8 different drum tracks if I'd like to skip a little snare here and a kick there. I guess the request is related to automation view or rather automation in general but perhaps there is a way to implement some of the given suggestions:
1. Has anybody a workaround to record live performance eg mutes into arranger?
http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/2579/recording-into-arranger
2. Enable mute and launch in keyboard mode?
http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/3250/muting-and-unmuting-in-keyboard-mode/p1
3. The option to mute all notes above or below a chosen note in clip view
http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/comment/13354#Comment_13354
4.1 It's impossible to immediately change the mute status with an external controller.
4.2 It would be crucially great if it was possible to switch the "default" mute behaviour = wait until next loop to change.
http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/3238/switch-default-mute-behaviour-in-song-mode/p1
5. It would be nice to have a mute mode that would represent all tracks and kit sounds each with one pad.
http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/2749/mute-mode-mixer
Comments
Deluge limitations can seem way worse than they actually are. You will have a much better time in general if you dont try to fight with it and play to its strengths.
Shift launch into arranger now would require the creation of a new clip that copys all the notes in the clip you start, starting at the point when you hit shift launch. This is because the deluge does not have a control for the start position of a clip. This is why when you shift launch into the arranger the clip starts at its beginning. I think we should have start position control like ableton, maybe in the next update where they appear to be messing with clip playback.
4.1 Assign your controller key to all the mute pads in clip mode. Would like to add a request for a "momentary mode" for kit clip mute buttons. right now they toggle.
4.2 Yeah would be nice to at least be able to midi assign shift.
Chances are we see 5% of these changes but they are fun to think about anyway cheers.
"You will have a much better time in general if you dont try to fight with it and play to its strengths" -> So true and very on point. Nevertheless I discovered two weak spots, which are really hard to ignore:
"I think we should have start position control like ableton, maybe in the next update where they appear to be messing with clip playback." -> I thought they are changing clip playpack, because they are implementing euclidian sequencing. Coming from Live and Push 2, I didn't use the start position control to much. What I really liked were the the clip trigger options.
"The work around is to use midi loopback and trigger your mutes using a midi track." -> This is something I didn't try yet, are the mutes recorded if I use an external midi device? Would be an acceptable compromise for me.
"For kits I could see mute groups as described being used." -> Yeah, you're right, this is coming from my hip hop / downbeat perspective. I mainly uses kits for my beats and barely synths. If I play a "synth instrument" it feels more natural to me to play a new pattern instead of using mutes - the exact opposite of what I do with kits or sliced samples.
"see my suggestion for a song mode overhaul" -> Yeah I've read that one (and some similar suggestions too), but I'm not finally sure, what to think about it. It's true that the Deluge's song mode isn't that useful in it's actual state, especially if you deal with a lot of tracks in a project. But I didn't like Live's "session view" neither. I know it's a key concept of Ableton Live, but it had its weaknesses too - especially if you tried to sequence a whole track in session view. Actually, this is the reason I abandonned Push and moved over to the Deluge.
Word, came from ableton too!
Main question with song/session mode specifically the launch groups is right now it is a one to many operation. One launch group can launch or stop many clips but that clip belongs to only one launch group. what would be nice is a many to many solution where one launch group launches many clips, but each clip can be a member or more than one launch group. This isn't really achievable on the deluge or ableton without using external midi mapping. best thing to do is check out some live performance videos to see how people get around and use these limits, also check out the SHAR repeat number for launch groups.
Yes, I feel you @soulguerrillero. Good points!
And if I may add:
If you could mute the audio, you could use the Deluge as a very powerful sound module and quickly switch or layer different sounds.
With the way it is now, if you learn MIDI channel 1 to an instrument, muting the associated track wont cause the deluge to stop playing the instrument.
The only workaround is to learn each track another MIDI channel and switch the channels on your controller,
but this really limits the possibilities.
I would love to open up a song, with no sequencer data but just a bunch of different instruments loaded into tracks and start playing any combination of those sounds by pushing mute/unmute track.
This would make a lot of sense if you are playing in a band and need to switch/layer sounds multiple times in a song.
If you have a controller with a few knobs or faders you can also map them to the OSC param of each layer. If the OSC value is 0 the voice will not play so you save cpu, the downside is if you want to fade in a layer you need to start it off very quiet not silent. I find this way more convenient and expressive than switching channels.
Still support your suggestion, it would be really nice to have the audio mutes from arranger mode work in song mode. Also again +1 for a momentary vs toggle mode for the mutes.