Automated Pad Color Scheme by Name

edited January 2018 in Feature Requests

Hi BeatMaker-Team,

As i‘m working heavily with color coding on my Pads i would love to see a feature, were i can for example define the color of a pad automatically applying to it by name in the settings panel. For example i am giving my „kicks“ always a red. If the name of the sample goes by „kick“ then apply red color to it. If it starts with „808“ apply an orange color. If there would be like a drumpad template where i can hookup names with colors and they would apply automatically when i‘m Loading a new bank that would be awesome. Maybe it would be helpful to give the possibility to write more strings f.e. „Snare“,“SN_“, „sn_“,... This way you could add names later to your templates.

I hope i could describe my point ;-)

Thanks in advance and keep up the good work.

Best Regards
Sedat

Comments

  • edited January 2018

    My templates are fairly straightforward: bass drums go on the bottom left corner, next are snares, then hats, one level up are the percs and toms followed by cymbals and effects. Every pad layout Is the same making banks and patterns almost interchangeable and the colours are there just for flair.

    Maybe you might want to rethink your "colour coding" idea for something a little more straightforward and simple?

  • Well my Templates follows the same. The only difference is the color. But your approach could be automated too. So if there is lets say a template where i can write the following:

    1. Bass Drum = red
    2. Snare = Blue
    3. Hats = Green
      ...
      ...
      ...

    Then you would have an Auto-Layout.

    But yes. That‘s just my way to do it.

    Happy producing.

    Best Regards
    Sedat

  • @El_Sed said:
    Well my Templates follows the same. The only difference is the color. But your approach could be automated too. So if there is lets say a template where i can write the following:

    1. Bass Drum = red
    2. Snare = Blue
    3. Hats = Green
      ...
      ...
      ...

    Then you would have an Auto-Layout.

    But yes. That‘s just my way to do it.

    Happy producing.

    Best Regards
    Sedat

    Create a project, throw some samples down where you think you might want kicks hats snares. Color them. Delete the sample layers of each pad, save the project. Auto layout template with no samples. Does this help?

  • Create a project, throw some samples down where you think you might want kicks hats snares. Color them. Delete the sample layers of each pad, save the project. Auto layout template with no samples. Does this help?

    Boom. Nice idea. Not the automated route. But could save time potentially. The only thing is, what if the number of samples not fit the template you saved. But yes it is a nice workaround. Thank you!

  • The initial idea came (and i wrote the same to NI for Maschine Software) as i want to organize my drumsets. There is a big library with lets say 100 folders and everyone has 16 samples in it which are nicely named. Everytime i load the bank i have to reorder and colour my banks. So therefor the approach as i mentioned above:

    1. Bass Drum = red
    2. Snare = Blue
    3. Hats = Green
      ...

    It could be in the preferences and only active if you set it up this way.
    You don‘t have to use it if you are fine with how things are type of approach.

    Best regards
    Sedat

  • edited January 2018

    @El_Sed said:

    Create a project, throw some samples down where you think you might want kicks hats snares. Color them. Delete the sample layers of each pad, save the project. Auto layout template with no samples. Does this help?

    Boom. Nice idea. Not the automated route. But could save time potentially. The only thing is, what if the number of samples not fit the template you saved. But yes it is a nice workaround. Thank you!

    If you are considering using more than 128 samples per category, BM3 has a total of 16 bank groups each including 8 banks. That’s 128 banks. Each bank can house 128 pads for a total of 16,384 independent pads across all potential banks. I would suggest using multiple banks to do what you are wanting to do. You can also save as many banks as you want independently of the project if that makes sense.

  • edited January 2018

    The secret to the empty pad method if you wish for the color to not change is to load your samples onto pads using load methods (existing/new layer). This will override the banks default coloring. So don’t use replace sample with this trick. The other way you could do this is house your categories of sample type per bank. Bank has only kicks, all pads will have color of bank. Bank with snares, has pad coloring of bank color.

  • edited January 2018

    The thing is...I don’t think any DAW can automate colors based on your samples. No daw understands what your sample is (Kick, Hat, Synth, Guitar Pluck)

    To further elaborate, how is the DAW suppose to know the difference between names such as kick, Kck, K, K1, AwesomeBoomDrum. Sounds like string hell. Lol.

  • @mefisme said:
    The secret to the empty pad method if you wish for the color to not change is to load your samples onto pads using load methods (existing/new layer). This will override the banks default coloring. So don’t use replace sample with this trick. The other way you could do this is house your categories of sample type per bank. Bank has only kicks, all pads will have color of bank. Bank with snares, has pad coloring of bank color.

    Wow, nice idea too!

  • To further elaborate, how is the DAW suppose to know the difference between names such as kick, Kck, K, K1, AwesomeBoomDrum. Sounds like string hell. Lol.

    Well, it could be string heaven too ;-)
    I would give the user the ability to edit names like i said before.
    It could go:

    1. Kick, Kck, K, K1 = red
    2. Snare, Snr, SN, S1 = Blue
    3. .....

    The name strings should be editable so that every user can fit it needs. And it shouldn‘t do it every time at starting the software. I guess it should be like:

    1. Name the folder to scan for automatic reordering and coloring
    2. Click the folder
    3. Prepare the Template like above (1.kick=red,...)
    4. Let it scan and do the job
    5. Save the changes. (But give to option to reset everything).
  • @El_Sed said:

    To further elaborate, how is the DAW suppose to know the difference between names such as kick, Kck, K, K1, AwesomeBoomDrum. Sounds like string hell. Lol.

    Well, it could be string heaven too ;-)
    I would give the user the ability to edit names like i said before.
    It could go:

    1. Kick, Kck, K, K1 = red
    2. Snare, Snr, SN, S1 = Blue
    3. .....

    The name strings should be editable so that every user can fit it needs. And it shouldn‘t do it every time at starting the software. I guess it should be like:

    1. Name the folder to scan for automatic reordering and coloring
    2. Click the folder
    3. Prepare the Template like above (1.kick=red,...)
    4. Let it scan and do the job
    5. Save the changes. (But give to option to reset everything).

    Wonder how that would tax performance to BM3 overall. Are you saying like an editable string file database. Like in XML or something? Or directly in BM3? I mean this sounds like an interesting idea in theory. Kinda advanced for the general user though and does conflict with a few problems with iOS 11 specifically.

  • Yes i think it should get stored as an xml file. It shouldn‘t be handled in realtime and therefore cost any performance. If so, forget this feature ;-)

  • FYI Reaper can do this, auto coloring via track names, I helped get it all fully working and showing people how to use it.
    Never used it once in practice, just always found it easier to color as i go lol.

  • @5pinlink said:
    FYI Reaper can do this, auto coloring via track names, I helped get it all fully working and showing people how to use it.
    Never used it once in practice, just always found it easier to color as i go lol.

    Well I think it would be beneficial for people like me, coming from a different setup with their own samplepacks doing something like an initial BM3 Setup. If you carry over lets say 100 or 200+ Packs to BM3 it would be really nice. Much nicer would be a combination with the auto coloring by name and the possibility to drag a Sample Pack with lets say 16 samples on a bank and boom every sample is nicely laid out on the pads colored like in the setup i described above. Just dreamin a little... ;-)

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