Since this confused you, it's worth thinking about a more intuitive grid indication. Just want to avoid having the green grid there all the time.
Less highlighted green?
If a menu reaches out of screen estate, you can scroll items with the mouse wheel.
If you meant that as a workaround, it's nonsense because you can't see what you're selecting.
Follow Container will unlikely come back. While it was visually interesting, jumping into an arbitrary container that happens to get the next priority during playback is practically useless once you begin nesting containers. A confusing flicker fest.
Strongly disagree with this point. Just make it track/slot/instrument dependent: the playback should follow figures only anyway, so I don't see the problem in following the active figure for the selected instrument. Easy, obvious, and clear. Perfect for a piece with one or few instruments, and good enough for orchestra: you can follow a flute for the entirety of the piece, and if you want to change to the cellos, you just click the cellos.
With a lot of options what to show/hide in a window layout, some parts will inevitably be clipped. We won't introduce frames and scrollbars around every part however. Responsive layout is a science unto itself. Spending time on an entirely new layout engine is currently not a priority. Increasing window size should do it for the time being.
New users won't be able to find buttons until they realize that things are clipped (which is not always obvious when they're clipped at a "neutral" point, i.e. no text clipped). Happened to me that I wasn't new to the software, to ask myself "where the hell is the HyperEdit button??"
At least have a clear indication of what is happening: in other software programs you can visually see that because there's a vertical separator or something.
@dezashibi I can see the missing icons is a bad problem but I am also using Windows 11 pro and I don't get that issue (yet). My display resolution is 2560 x 1440. Are there any tests you want me to do on my system to see if I can get the problem to occur?
Thank you for letting me know about that, hmmm can you use the latest insider build to see if that's the problem or not otherwise it might be the problem with other dependencies regarding to their versions
The icons are provided by the fonts "Font Awesome 6 Pro" and "Synfire Symbols". These are bundled with Synfire in a folder next to the program and loaded as private fonts only by Synfire. Your issue may point to something in your registry is referencing the first font in a place where it doesn't exist (anymore). It is widely used by web applications. The second font is custom made.
You might be able to fix this, simply by installing these two fonts globally (double-click them, as far as I remember) and then uninstall them again. That might remove any remnants of them in the registry.
Follow Container might be useful if it follows only the selected instrument and selected parameter and ignores everything else (exactly what Parameter Trace is visualizing). It's a challenge to implement (the user may switch selections at any time during a running playback), but it would at least provide consistent information.
Good points regarding clipping. I'll check if there's a way to indicate clipping in the GUI w/o introducing a layer of frames.
OP updated for 2.0.4 except notation export stuff.
It's a challenge to implement (the user may switch selections at any time during a running playback), but it would at least provide consistent information.
If the user changes selection to instrument B, then the playback can simply switch to follow instrument B.
Good that you're considering this feature, because it would be very useful, for example you play the piece without touching anything and then you stop at a given point, and you can immediately edit the figure where you've stopped.
I'd prefer an option to follow the playhead in the 'output' view and be able to double click, control click, or some other way to select a parameter (including figure) and have it jump to the container that was active for the selected parameter at that time(maybe after pausing).
The feature wouldn't prevent selection. As the cursor is moving, the idea is that you can select anything and the playback view will update to reflect your selection.
What you're suggesting with the output view may be more complicated to do.
I'd just like to see more made of the output view, with paramter 'boxes' lighing up as each parameter has an effect on the output. At any point in time there are certain parameters that result in whats being heard, a parameter present at that time comes from only 1 container but other active parameters might be from different containers. Being able to see that for instance a transpose parameter was 'playing' at the point you didnt like and being able to jump to that container at that point in time to view the potentially offending transpose values, maybe with a button to return to the overview, I would find very very useful. With the senario you suggested you would be watching which container has the active figure but be blissfully unaware that another container was changing the notes played due to some other parameter. You would have to go through each container at that point in time to see the paramter that created the offending notes.
Edited to add, sorry for wasting everyones time if this is already implemented in version 2, I'm still on version 1.
Sure would be useful, but more complex to program.
Anyway I would also like to have a vertical alignment between figures and parameters with the the Output view shown at the bottom (or vice versa).
For me, this grid button means basically "custom grid".
I agree that it is a bit confusing.
First, maybe it's not needed, but let me clarify that the gray vertical lines are the scheme grid (the metric, 4/4, 3/4, etc.), while the green vertical lines are the "Grid", similar to selecting a note duration in MuseScore.
That said, regarding the confusion, it actually makes sense that there is just one "Grid", and it defaults to whatever number you click in the default/standard numbers selector (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.). When you want to make a custom grid, you simply add a snapshot to the parameter (which is consistent with how Synfire works), so the grid (the same one as before!) is now customized. And this is also why in the drop-down menu of the grid, you find options, e.g. activating or deactivating the vertical green lines, that work for "both grids", the default and the custom one, because... there's actually only one grid.
Once understood the idea behind the Grid, I think the confusing part turns out to be that when a "default/standard" number is clicked, you don't get any information in the Grid parameter button: that's why I somewhere else suggested making it a dimmed yellow LED, to make clear what's going on. As soon as you add a snapshot to the Grid, it will become a brightly lit green LED, and it would be clear that you've customized the grid by creating a snapshot.
So, the Grid's LED must never be completely off/gray.
Such simple solution will completely fix the confusion, IMHO.
Thu, 2022-05-19 - 11:35 Permalink
Hello Tested on windows 11 pro
interface issue, no icon is displayed
Thu, 2022-05-19 - 14:32 Permalink
Less highlighted green?
If you meant that as a workaround, it's nonsense because you can't see what you're selecting.
Strongly disagree with this point. Just make it track/slot/instrument dependent: the playback should follow figures only anyway, so I don't see the problem in following the active figure for the selected instrument. Easy, obvious, and clear. Perfect for a piece with one or few instruments, and good enough for orchestra: you can follow a flute for the entirety of the piece, and if you want to change to the cellos, you just click the cellos.
New users won't be able to find buttons until they realize that things are clipped (which is not always obvious when they're clipped at a "neutral" point, i.e. no text clipped). Happened to me that I wasn't new to the software, to ask myself "where the hell is the HyperEdit button??"
At least have a clear indication of what is happening: in other software programs you can visually see that because there's a vertical separator or something.
I see.
Thu, 2022-05-19 - 14:20 Permalink
@dezashibi Are you using the latest version of Synfire (2.0.3 Build #2)? Because what you're showing was an old bug that I thought was fixed.
Thu, 2022-05-19 - 14:34 Permalink
@scriabiner
Yes I just upgraded today and downloaded latest version 2.0.3 build 2 and unfortunately it was like that
Thu, 2022-05-19 - 14:40 Permalink
> New users won't be able to find buttons until they realize that things are clipped
I noticed that with a reduced screen resolution, some controls further down (of factories in that case) where simply "gone".
Fri, 2022-05-20 - 09:57 Permalink
updated to 2.0.4 still the user interface has problem on windows 11 pro
Fri, 2022-05-20 - 21:50 Permalink
@dezashibi I can see the missing icons is a bad problem but I am also using Windows 11 pro and I don't get that issue (yet). My display resolution is 2560 x 1440. Are there any tests you want me to do on my system to see if I can get the problem to occur?
Fri, 2022-05-20 - 22:35 Permalink
Thank you for letting me know about that, hmmm can you use the latest insider build to see if that's the problem or not otherwise it might be the problem with other dependencies regarding to their versions
Sat, 2022-05-21 - 10:39 Permalink
I don't see the same issue as Dezashibi using Windows Pro 11 with Synfire 2.0.4 build #2.
Sat, 2022-05-21 - 11:19 Permalink
Is there any dependencies that I can check to see if the version I have is wrong or something?
Sat, 2022-05-21 - 12:42 Permalink
Sorry I can't help, Dezashibi. Sounds like something you may need to contact "support at cognitone" about.
Sat, 2022-05-21 - 20:13 Permalink
The icons are provided by the fonts "Font Awesome 6 Pro" and "Synfire Symbols". These are bundled with Synfire in a folder next to the program and loaded as private fonts only by Synfire. Your issue may point to something in your registry is referencing the first font in a place where it doesn't exist (anymore). It is widely used by web applications. The second font is custom made.
You might be able to fix this, simply by installing these two fonts globally (double-click them, as far as I remember) and then uninstall them again. That might remove any remnants of them in the registry.
Sat, 2022-05-21 - 20:18 Permalink
Follow Container might be useful if it follows only the selected instrument and selected parameter and ignores everything else (exactly what Parameter Trace is visualizing). It's a challenge to implement (the user may switch selections at any time during a running playback), but it would at least provide consistent information.
Good points regarding clipping. I'll check if there's a way to indicate clipping in the GUI w/o introducing a layer of frames.
Sun, 2022-05-22 - 05:52 Permalink
Thanks Andre, I can confirm that installing fonts manually solved the problem
Tue, 2022-05-24 - 18:27 Permalink
OP updated for 2.0.4 except notation export stuff.
If the user changes selection to instrument B, then the playback can simply switch to follow instrument B.
Good that you're considering this feature, because it would be very useful, for example you play the piece without touching anything and then you stop at a given point, and you can immediately edit the figure where you've stopped.
Tue, 2022-05-24 - 18:39 Permalink
I'd prefer an option to follow the playhead in the 'output' view and be able to double click, control click, or some other way to select a parameter (including figure) and have it jump to the container that was active for the selected parameter at that time(maybe after pausing).
.
Tue, 2022-05-24 - 18:49 Permalink
The feature wouldn't prevent selection. As the cursor is moving, the idea is that you can select anything and the playback view will update to reflect your selection.
What you're suggesting with the output view may be more complicated to do.
Tue, 2022-05-24 - 19:30 Permalink
I'd just like to see more made of the output view, with paramter 'boxes' lighing up as each parameter has an effect on the output. At any point in time there are certain parameters that result in whats being heard, a parameter present at that time comes from only 1 container but other active parameters might be from different containers. Being able to see that for instance a transpose parameter was 'playing' at the point you didnt like and being able to jump to that container at that point in time to view the potentially offending transpose values, maybe with a button to return to the overview, I would find very very useful. With the senario you suggested you would be watching which container has the active figure but be blissfully unaware that another container was changing the notes played due to some other parameter. You would have to go through each container at that point in time to see the paramter that created the offending notes.
Edited to add, sorry for wasting everyones time if this is already implemented in version 2, I'm still on version 1.
Tue, 2022-05-24 - 19:35 Permalink
Sure would be useful, but more complex to program.
Anyway I would also like to have a vertical alignment between figures and parameters with the the Output view shown at the bottom (or vice versa).
Right now it is not aligned.
Tue, 2022-05-24 - 20:52 Permalink
Updated for version 2.0.4 Build #2.
Fri, 2022-06-10 - 18:52 Permalink
I agree that it is a bit confusing.
First, maybe it's not needed, but let me clarify that the gray vertical lines are the scheme grid (the metric, 4/4, 3/4, etc.), while the green vertical lines are the "Grid", similar to selecting a note duration in MuseScore.
That said, regarding the confusion, it actually makes sense that there is just one "Grid", and it defaults to whatever number you click in the default/standard numbers selector (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.). When you want to make a custom grid, you simply add a snapshot to the parameter (which is consistent with how Synfire works), so the grid (the same one as before!) is now customized. And this is also why in the drop-down menu of the grid, you find options, e.g. activating or deactivating the vertical green lines, that work for "both grids", the default and the custom one, because... there's actually only one grid.
Once understood the idea behind the Grid, I think the confusing part turns out to be that when a "default/standard" number is clicked, you don't get any information in the Grid parameter button: that's why I somewhere else suggested making it a dimmed yellow LED, to make clear what's going on. As soon as you add a snapshot to the Grid, it will become a brightly lit green LED, and it would be clear that you've customized the grid by creating a snapshot.
So, the Grid's LED must never be completely off/gray.
Such simple solution will completely fix the confusion, IMHO.
Fri, 2022-06-10 - 18:53 Permalink
Updated for 2.0.5 Build #3, with a sum up about notation export issues.
Tue, 2022-06-28 - 20:58 Permalink
Updated for 2.0.6 b#3...
Mon, 2022-07-18 - 01:00 Permalink
Updated for 2.0.7 Build #2.
Tue, 2022-07-19 - 17:22 Permalink
Updated for patch 2022/07/19.
Thu, 2022-07-28 - 22:40 Permalink
Updated for 2.0.7 Build #5
Sat, 2022-10-01 - 19:23 Permalink
Updated for 2.0.9
Updated again, I missed the fact that the zoom in seems to behave well now.
Thu, 2022-10-20 - 14:36 Permalink
Updated for 2.0.10.
09/10 Updated for 2.0.10 Build #17.
20/10 Updated.