MIDI Sequencer Design Wishlist

[bash]

As a non-keyboardist whose been around before the DAWn of DAWs, one MIDI sequencer stands out to me as fun, fast and simple (while still offering a lot of depth for those wishing to dive in). I'm referring to the ancient Atari ST MIDI programs from C-Lab called Creator and Notator (Creator with notation). Their beauty was in their elegant focus on songwriting and recorder-like pattern building.

I won't go into too much detail regarding all it's features but I believe a quick look at its four editor interfaces gives an easy understanding of it's simplicity and depth, especially for those wishing to write original compositions who may not be able to claim keyboards as their main instrument.

Below is a link to a clone/tribute/homage piece of software written for Windows called Sweet 16. I use it because the screenshots are far easier to review but essentially the same as Creator. The original Atari screenshots are quickly found via Google images if anyone wants to examine the original software's screenshots.

http://www.ronimusic.com/sweet_16.htm

That is the main screen, which is showing two important panels. On the right is the Pattern builder, such as a verse, that gives a simple track view of the elements and parts that comprise the pattern, with fast and useful adjustments reading off to the right of the track names. The left side is the Arranger window. When the Arranger is active (see depressed button above it) the pattern chain the comprises the song arrangement flows downward from the top. The original Atari program had A-B-C-D columns within the Arrange window for variations, which the Windows' "port" lacks but I think the Windows author made a good call.

If you follow the link below that main screen you will review the Track Event editor, Track Piano Roll editor and a basic MIDI mixer. Those are rather self-explanatory, except they flow downward during playback rather than the usual left-to-right of most MIDI programs, similar to the Arrange box.

As a songwriter (sometimes), and a non-keyboard player who relies on keyboards for drums, bass, pads and simple melody lines, I found this design brilliant in allowing me to input parts and remarkably get something professional sounding in short order. Building patterns was fun and intuitive, and the track controls were all I needed to satisfy my "what-if" curiosity (one track control not shown was track-specific half-time/2x/4x modification, and the loop value refers to bars, not how many times to loop the entire track, which provided for varying-duration loop nesting that really helped add some randomness to percussion parts, but I digress...).

And the Arrange box made pulling it all together into a coherent structure equally simple, fast and fun. Entire song structure could be quickly mapped out. And more importantly, quickly re-arranged. All that was missing at the time was the hardware technology to include recorded audio to follow along. Obviously we passed that limit a long time ago but I've never found another MIDI sequencer better suited for creating songs.

When I write a song, my workflow often begins with MIDI. I often start with a rough guitar rhythm track over a metronome click to create a "heart" from which everything else pivots then it's on to drum patterns, bass and pads that I flesh out next. This means I do a lot of MIDI hacking before getting back to recording the audio that I hope will contribute the human element and bring a song to life. As often is the case, each shapes the other and I will likely return to the original MIDI and tweak to fit audio. My point is, even for those of us who aren't particularly keyboard proficient we still use MIDI extensively and rely on it's simplicity to get inspiring (and fast) work done before we can return to instruments we're more accomplished on. I don't think my songwriting workflow is all that different from many other musicians out there.

Anyway, thought I'd throw this out there to perhaps give a different perspective while you make crucial choices and philosophical decisions about how to separate Auria's MIDI sequencing engine from the pack. Small tablet software interfaces share some of the traits of the old Atari systems in that screen real estate, simple and intuitive graphic design are extremely critical to promoting interaction. Lacking the design freedom of the 30" HD screens of desktop DAWs, I know app designers have to make a lot of clever compromises. Looking back on how some very creative code writers arrived at a brilliant (and somewhat legendary) bit of software written for a low-horsepower computer with a low-rez, monochrome screen may present some insights.

Thanks!

[Gerry Law]

1st post.. hello all. +1 on C-Lab notator. worked on 1meg of ram and a floppy disc..amazing. I loved the ease of programmng drums in the editor screen.. aahh memories. I could get a macbook and Logic, I suppose.

Gerry

[donovanjaymz]

What blows me away, is how in 1984, you could do way more with MIDI on a 1MB Atari ST than you can with any of these iOS MIDI apps. In 1984, the Atari could handle every kind of MIDI protocol you could throw at it, including raw SysEx editing. You could even do microtonal scale tuning with an Atari and a DX7! Is there any iOS dev alive that can understand and implement the full MIDI specifications to make a competent and complete MIDI app? I'd love to be able to do microtonal scale tuning and deep synth editing via my iPad.

[thebioguy]

MOTU Freestyle gets my vote.

Seems like it would make the perfect iPad port.

[donovanjaymz]

Maybe we should sell our iPads and buy an old Atari St on Ebay. Heck, Atari Falcons are selling for $700+ these days! There's still an active Atari Music community out there where you can download a cracked version of Atari Cubase 3.1 http://www.atarimusic.net

[bash]

A good main page screenshot from Notator that shows the original Atari layout and the individual MIDI track controls for the curious.

[donovanjaymz]

That screenshot brings back fond memories. The MIDI clock on the ST was incredibly stable. You could drive 16 tracks across multiple synths and it would never falter.