SD3 Feature request – Grooves audition via MIDI input

[Brian McCully]

I would like to make a suggestion that I haven’t found yet on the forum or elsewhere for a SD3 feature enhancement for using GROOVES via MIDI NOTE triggering. i.e. not just the mouse for auditioning GROOVES.
It seems that it might be easy to create/program/whip up with minimal modifications to the current SD3 interface, and it will be really cool and a very creative tool to replace (my) current method of auditioning and capturing live groove recording from any given Groove list.
So currently SD3 (and EZD3) only allows for MOUSE triggering while auditioning grooves.
And SD3 allows for MIDI out.
I like to ‘play’ the GROOVE list – live – to emulate playing grooves and fills. A lot of pointing and clicking in real time. I re-size the View>Scale to 70% to maximize the number of GROOVES in any given list and then just trigger them quasi-randomly, while capturing the output. It’s like triggering a monophonic loop box.
BECAUSE – I don’t personally care to use the drag and drop and re-size methods for creating grooves with fills. It’s really t e d i o u s. not a creativity enhancement method by a long shot.
Instead my typical approach is to find a groove I like, and selecting any number of groove folders (with the command key, if at that level), I load the current favorite GROOVE into the MIDI Drop Zone, and then when I play back I just mouse onto some of the list Grooves below it, for fills at any given appropriate fill time, and then jump back to the main 100% groove for the most of the jam.
I record this output to a MIDI track and then edit it up for use. this is much of a free-er organically created jam than would be the surgical method that is drag and drop for fills. Using 65% or 90% or any % ‘Matching’ of all different sorts of grooves comes up with some nice changes, that are not something that I have to go randomize or swing or quantize. They are all in the ballpark, typically – of the 100% groove and if they aren’t – just edit it out.
So – What if SD3 allowed for a MIDI NOTE input (starting from a low C) to trigger (monophonically, like the mouse currently does) each GROOVE that is in the current list – to play back in sync as it does currently – from either live triggering (midi keyboard) or from a(nother) midi sequence? This would allow for easily editable timing changes of fill starts, or …whatever was in the list to be triggered however and whenever.
To implement this – simple interface suggestions:
1) Allow MIDI note triggering – whereas in this GROOVE TRIG mode SD3 would not trigger Kit notes or articulations – just GROOVES.
2) the GUI could be a column-ized vertical keyboard (to show this mode, similar display to the MIDI note per articulation keyboard graphic) – as 1 note per listed GROOVE. The top note would be like C1 for the top listed groove, the notes below C#1, D1, D#1 etc trigger the other listed GROOVES, to some max if desired. The column could be placed to the left of the ‘star’ and ‘Matching’ columns (or whatever is curently displayed).
So – press a note on your MIDI keyboard and it triggers the Groove and as well, possibly the keyboard column would highlight that currently played note. Shift-space or a mouse click on STOP would stop playback.
Additional ideas –

<li dir=”ltr”>add a ‘latch/unlatch’ function where ‘latch’ = by default once you start a groove, it plays and must be click stopped or spacebar’d. like it is now with the mouse. whereas ‘not latched’ would be to toggle the GROOVE for as long as the MIDI note is held.
<li dir=”ltr”>use a modwheel CC to change the GROOVE velocity. this could/would add to realtime dynamics

I think I’ve relayed this idea as well as I could. It would be so much better and more powerful than just using the mouse to perform this function. Thanks, Toontrack!

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