So, I’ve working on a patch based around a step sequencer and, it’s really not working for me, so I started looking at timelines instead then I realized what I’d really been searching for was closer to a cubase timeline specifically the early 80′s cubase which was popular on the atari ;)

Imo the old cubase was actually a very intuitive gui to use and had some great features, one of my favorite being the “repeat pattern blocks” feature which made sequencing really fast, In case (showing my age here) maybe this stuff was before your time here’s a video showing the basics features.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPXAVGizQSY

I’m hoping to patch together something with the same retro look of this legendary early daw, perhaps something with those pattern blocks and tracks built in to a timeline with a cursor and piano-roll for each track etc, (pretty simple) don’t forget that back in the day computers couldn’t record audio so there were no fancy waveforms to look at, only . . . . patterns blocks and score.

so can this be done? . . . or something similar? I know the gui would be easy. . . . well look at it lol.

on the plus side, there are a lot of cubase (like) objects that fit the bill well enough, the playbar for example would be a piece of cake. so too will the fonts and gui stuff, my plan is to use pictsliders containing png images as track lanes/pattern blocks and work from there.

I was just pondering the [Itable] I’ll look at the [lcd] as well.

thanks man.

I’ll post any successful patches I can get up and running (for any Atari fans out there) ;)

Devo, if LCD could do the black/white inversion on the cursor that would be cool ;) it looks great for gui stuff.

I want to try and get that effect too if I can. . on the timeline and the mouse.

it’s well worth a shot in my book. so long as it runs efficiently enough to allow decent playback from max. . . compatibility with midiyoke might be a problem.

steem engine looks like a good alternative for windows users who don’t want to run a whole Daw just for the sake of a little midi. In terms of efficiency on win 7 there’s virtually no impact on cpu at all, it’s somewhere around %2!!

I tested steem and cubase v 2.01 with a maxpatch the midi was a breeze to set up and seems very stable so far though ideally cubase needs to be synced with timecode (from) max if possible for rendering operations.

http://filter24.org/seq24/shots.html

Thanks man.

hit me but from a certain point it´s like the more graphic you use the worse the music becomes.

I’ve also found often that in a lot of other apps simple tasks (that might only require numeric entry like you mentioned) are often overcomplicated. there are in many plugins and daw systems too many hidden workarounds and out of date features hidden under busy graphics, which actually makes writing music less intuitive and less fun.

Good use of graphics can work really well though, but I’m sure if colors can effect your “mood” then a gui could influence the “mood” of your music too as well as how frustrated you are by the end of a session with it lol, (not naming any names) .