Why Does switching blocks create a blank space?

[Steve McNamara]

By way of example, I have two four-bar blocks and want to switch places. I grab the later one and move it to the earlier space, the earlier one moves to the right and now a new four-bar blank space is created. All the later blocks have to be grabbed and moved into that space — what is the reason for this default behavior?

It is also occurs if I take a block and move it ahead of 2 or more earlier blocks — everything shifts to the right but the blank space remains?

Thanks in advance for the explanation (and if I may ask, please read the other topic about creating a button for “original key” next to “original tempo” — I think it would be very useful and would just like to know the request gets to TT).

Steve

Topic

[Henrik Ekblom]

This is to keep the song track working in one way all the time – when you drop a MIDI file somewhere, all the following blocks (including blank spaces) are shuffled right as much as needed to fit the dragged block.
This may not be optimal in all cases, but we let consistency win to keep it simple – always move the blocks in the same way.

Regarding the Original Key button suggestion. We thought of that early in the development stage of EZkeys, but we decided to put in the menu since we figured that this will be a less used feature than the Original Tempo function. Most people can hear the difference between two different tempos, but relatively few can tell the difference between a song in A or C – for example, or atleast think that one sounds better than the other.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Steve McNamara]

@Henrik said:
This is to keep the song track working in one way all the time – when you drop a MIDI file somewhere, all the following blocks (including blank spaces) are shuffled right as much as needed to fit the dragged block.
This may not be optimal in all cases, but we let consistency win to keep it simple – always move the blocks in the same way.

Regarding the Original Key button suggestion. We thought of that early in the development stage of EZkeys, but we decided to put in the menu since we figured that this will be a less used feature than the Original Tempo function. Most people can hear the difference between two different tempos, but relatively few can tell the difference between a song in A or C – for example, or atleast think that one sounds better than the other.  

Regarding the Song Track, I can understand that an existing blank space should remain if a new block is inserted, but what I’m describing actually creates a new blank space, such that if two four-bar blocks are switched, what results is 12 bars with the new blank space created where one of the blocks used to be. A true switch would be just 8 bars long. And this default behavior actually changes the length of the Song Track, so it no longer lines up with the rest of the song. I appreciate you taking the time to respond but still do not understand why this is the default.

As for the Original Key button, good to hear it was considered, It might be a less used feature since it’s actually buried pretty deep in the menu. Having discovered it I’ve noticed what an actual sonic difference it makes to hear the MIDI in its original key. If anything, could TT at least allow the choice to use Original Key be a “sticky” in the menu — meaning if I click it and then close the program, the default to C Major has returned when I next used EZ Keys — unlike other items in the Menu, which retain their checkmark. But, first and foremost, I’m still pushing for an Original Key button. It frankly seems it wouldn’t be hard to put it right next to the Original Tempo one (from a coding perspective).

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Steve

[Henrik Ekblom]

@Steve McNamara said:
Regarding the Song Track, I can understand that an existing blank space should remain if a new block is inserted, but what I’m describing actually creates a new blank space, such that if two four-bar blocks are switched, what results is 12 bars with the new blank space created where one of the blocks used to be.

This is because the blocks doesn’t switch places. The block you drag away will leave an empty space where it use to be, and when you place it on bar 1 (for example), the rest of the blocks (including the newly created blank space) will be pushed right.

@Steve McNamara said:
If anything, could TT at least allow the choice to use Original Key be a “sticky” in the menu — meaning if I click it and then close the program, the default to C Major has returned when I next used EZ Keys — unlike other items in the Menu, which retain their checkmark.

I will have a look at this. I agree that if you always want start EZkeys with Original Key enabled, you should be able to do that!

Thanks for the feedback 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Steve McNamara]

@Henrik said:

@Steve McNamara said:
Regarding the Song Track, I can understand that an existing blank space should remain if a new block is inserted, but what I’m describing actually creates a new blank space, such that if two four-bar blocks are switched, what results is 12 bars with the new blank space created where one of the blocks used to be.

This is because the blocks doesn’t switch places. The block you drag away will leave an empty space where it use to be, and when you place it on bar 1 (for example), the rest of the blocks (including the newly created blank space) will be pushed right.

@Steve McNamara said:
If anything, could TT at least allow the choice to use Original Key be a “sticky” in the menu — meaning if I click it and then close the program, the default to C Major has returned when I next used EZ Keys — unlike other items in the Menu, which retain their checkmark.

I will have a look at this. I agree that if you always want start EZkeys with Original Key enabled, you should be able to do that!

Thanks for the feedback 🙂  

Henrik:

Thanks for taking the time to continue responding to this thread. As for the first part, about switching blocks, there are times switching is exactly what I want to do, with blocks that are the same size (it can create interesting variations within a verse, e.g.), so there is no reason to create the blank space. I sense this is not an issue at the top of TT’s priority list but hope it will reconsider the default behavior.

As for the “original key”, having discovered that sub-sub-menu item, I have found that Variations I kind of skipped over because they didn’t sound quite right (e.g., way too high in the default key of C) sound somewhat compelling in the original key. Just another feature that would put Toontrack far ahead of the competition!

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Steve

[Author]

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