Song and Mixer view/mode related requests
I've written a love letter to the developers via Twitter, but of course there are some things I would change about BM3, even though I've decided to go all in with the app, particularly about the Song and Mixer view/modes.
Markers. Please add Marker functionality to Song view/mode. I know that BM3's strength is in the sampling and sampler, but with a few minor tweaks it could also be an even more powerful audio multitracker. Markers have been "on the list" for Cubasis for FOUR YEARS and Auria only allows a total of 4 markers that cannot be labeled. BM3 can do better. I'll leave it to Intua to figure out the best way to implement the feature (Marker track?) but it would make navigation so much easier.
Resizing of audio files. Apologies in advance if I am missing something (which is entirely possible given BM3's...quirks...and my relative lack of time spent with it), but I cannot figure out how to resize audio files in Song view/mode. I'm not talking about time-stretching, or anything fancy. Say, for example, you have a 20 bar audio file where the sound comes in at bar 14, it could be nice to "hide" the silence in the audio file for the first 14 bars without having to trim the sample/edit the audio file. I've only been able to shorten audio files at the back end, not the front. Seems like an odd omission.
Auto punch-in/punch-out recording. Not sure if that's what it's called, but it's the feature that enables you to set start and end bars/beats/time divisions for starting and ending recording. So, for example, if you wanted to record a 2 bar pattern to an audio track, you could you select bars 1-4 to record two passes of the pattern. (Bounce pattern, or something similar, has different applications).
Bounce pattern. Hey! Bounce or export pattern also sounds like a great idea!
Add record toggles to Mixer view. Please add record toggles to mixer view. It's inconvenient to have to switch back to track view to enable record on a particular channel. It's available with a long press of the channel/track title, but it would be nice to have at the bottom, next to mute/solo/mon. Just one click.
Ok, now please tell me how wrong I am and that these features either already exist or are unnecessary because of a work around.
M
Comments
Yes. Exactly. Thank you for confirming it doesn't exist. I'll stop looking.![:) :)](https://intua.net/forums/resources/emoji/smile.png)
Let me see if I can better explain item 3, the punch in and punch out scenario. Let's say that I want to record the audio of a 2 bar sequence (from Bar 3 to Bar 5) that's playing Bank A. As you suggest, I set up an audio track to record the output of Bank A internally. To get a precisely cut 2 bar audio loop, I have to be very quick with the Stop button. Or, I could set the punch in point at bar 3 and the punch out point at bar 5 and get my 2 bar loop. BM3 would only record during those two bars (Bars 3 and 4). Without this function, I have to hit the stop button when I want to stop recording, then go trim the audio file I just recorded to get rid of the extra amount recorded at the end because I wasn't able to hit Stop soon enough. (Which is what happened to me this morning). Trimming that bit at the end just adds an extra step to the process.
I know that punch in and punch out is also used by a lot of musicians to rerecord portions of their performances. Even though I can't play anything for crap these days, the feature would still be useful to me.![:) :)](https://intua.net/forums/resources/emoji/smile.png)
Does that make more sense? I used to use this all the time in Cubase, and maybe Ableton?, when I used pattern based hardware.
Yes, it's a good work around for now. And a really welcome feature. It's part of what sets BM3 apart, IMO. The flexibility and ability to record and route internally.
Thanks in general for your response! I'm glad that most of the things I've written either make sense or have been requested by other users.
Stumbled across a work around for lack of markers: use a dummy bank and some dummy patterns (with text labels!) to help with navigation.
Also thought of a couple of additional improvements for Song view:
Folders for tracks (to help keep things organized)
The ability to change track order, or rearrange tracks in whatever order I want. If it's possible to do this already, please teach me how. I've tried several different things and nothing seems to work.
Still really enjoying digging in and finding new things to like (mostly) about this app. Thanks, Intua!