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SuperDisk / hUGETracker

The music composition suite for the Nintendo Game Boy
https://superdisk.github.io/hUGETracker/
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I'd appreciate a pianoroll mode like in GB Studio. #162

Open darkhog opened 2 months ago

darkhog commented 2 months ago

It would be neat to have a pianoroll mode like in GB Studio. It's way easier and more fun to do songs that way, however I don't want to open GB Studio just to make some tunes. I'd appreciate a pianoroll interface in the Huge Tracker proper.

SuperDisk commented 1 month ago

I considered this at one point but I don't know if it's worth the effort. The piano roll interface is, in my opinion, only useful when onboarding people who've never used trackers before, since ultimately you'll need to switch to the tracker interface if you want to take full advantage of the hardware. For GB Studio it makes sense because it's where a lot of people get first introduced to composing for an old sound chip, but in hUGETracker I don't think it would add much value. And of course you can always just pop open GB Studio to use the piano roll even if you're not making a game with it.

I'll leave this open for now since I'm kind of considering exploring the idea anyway, but I don't think it will happen any time soon, sorry :(

darkhog commented 1 month ago

Think of it this way: The more people you could get using the software, the more popular it will get meaning it would get used in more games. Many people want to make chiptunes, but the trackers scare them away. I know, because I am such a person. Plus it's easier to "get" how long each note takes in a pianoroll as opposed to a tracker. not to mention it's even possible to visualize tracker effects automation. The problem with making authentic chiptunes is that there are too many trackers for that and too few (none?) that support modern workflows. You can get something that sounds like an old chiptune in something like LMMS or Ardour, but it won't be 100% authentic as those programs don't enforce the limits.