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LMMS / lmms

Cross-platform music production software
https://lmms.io
GNU General Public License v2.0
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Instrument Track Button #3151

Open tresf opened 7 years ago

tresf commented 7 years ago

Currently, the Song Editor and BB Editors have buttons for the following tracks:

However, the Song Editor and BB Editor do NOT have a button for

From a UI perspective, this is fragmented as Instrument Tracks don't have a dedicated toolbar button leaving the user using two separated areas for adding a new track.

This proposal is to add a quick-access toolbar button to Song Editor and BB Editor to add an Instrument Track.

screen shot 2016-12-14 at 7 14 39 pm

SirBothersome commented 7 years ago

Unless I am much mistaken, we already can do that with a simple drag and drop. uhhhhh

Was that toolbar taken out in the bleeding-edge?

Spekular commented 7 years ago

@sirbothersome that's currently the only way to do it afaik. I believe tresf's point is more about consistency.

SirBothersome commented 7 years ago

@Spekular, it's the same for adding samples though too, are we going to add a button for that? sample rack While I do agree that the setup a bit paradoxial, it's not completely unusable

Spekular commented 7 years ago

@sirbothersome the three current buttons are all track types, and instruments are track tyoes as well. Samples are added into AFP and are not a separate track type. In addition, there are far fewer instruments than samples, and instruments are only ever added in an LMMS update (as opposed to samples which can be added by users)

tresf commented 7 years ago

@Spekular, it's the same for adding samples though too, are we going to add a button for that?

Samples are not track types but rather a common file format shared between multiple instrument plugins. Instrument Plugins are a specific track type. Instrument Plugins are unique in the sense that they are the only track type capable of spawning Piano Roll segments.

A more properly worded argument would be to blindly allow the addition of blank Instrument Tracks. What is a blank instrument track? Well it can be coerced via project XML if you know what you're doing... but it leaves the instrument unusable... and no one ever wants an unusable track, hence the drop-down proposal.

the setup a bit paradoxial

I'm not sure this is a proper use of the word.

SirBothersome commented 7 years ago

I'm not sure this is a proper use of the word.

Eh, fluffycats. You got the idea

DeRobyJ commented 7 years ago

I agree. However I'm not really concerned about consistency, I agree more on the user-friendly side. I found myself replying to a couple new users asking where sounds were.

What about adding an empty instr track named "Drag&drop here" and opening the side-bar automatically? Instrument plugins bar already has instructions for drag and dropping, so I think it'd make sense.