Beast Feature Requests

Feature Requests for Beast:

In order to help beast team to create some kind of priority please add a '+' at the end of a request if you were coming here for the same request. Thx --elta


 * What Beast needs is an easy way to edit its native 'bsewave' format. For those who don't know, bsewave is a wave format that allows mapping different samples to different frequencies, like a drum track.  The 808 kit is already available in the Sound Archive (and Stefan used it in 'Liquid Life'), but if you could create your own bsewaves, that would give everyone a way to sequence complicated drum patterns.  Perhaps a GUI like LDrum ?++


 * OK, big feature request here, but.... I'd like to see (like some other users) a drum pattern editor with each sound mappable to a synth or a .wav (ala hydrogen pattern editor, except with more than one measure. could use hydro code??). But the big part would be a "fill" feature, which would attach to each part in the song view. this would be an alternate version of the part, which can be set to automatically play every x number of adjacent repititions of the part, without directly sequencing it. There could also be multiple fills, which would play every x repitions in a specified order. This would extend the realm of beast from techno/trance to music with more complicated drum patterns (not saying it's easy to make a four on the floor beat... but to sequence?).


 * The only thing I miss in beast is playback tracking in the part editor (the vertical line that follows playback)


 * The part editor needs the ability to playback the current part (a hotkey?) +


 * What about changing the midi device (/dev/midi) in the preferences? Or maybe ALSA support?
 * it might be possible to port over the aRts midi support, which provides ALSA and OSS input and output, and synchronization with audio I/O aRts webcvs -- Stw
 * using arts is a horrible idea. look for the jack midi transport instead. -- paniq
 * the idea was not using aRts for output, but the _source code_ aRts itself uses to output to different midi drivers synchronously with audio output. -- stw


 * BSE definetly needs jack output driver. What about command-line selection of the used output driver (--alsa --oss --jack), then the software substitutes all pcm outputs with jack ones (like in ams)?
 * i second that. the alpha freebob drivers only run with jack, so i cant even run beast without jack. jack is cool anyway. do it. -- paniq
 * let me put discussion on JackSupport in a seperate topic, we already have something -- stw


 * How about having the option of switching between Tracker view and Piano Roll. I personally would rather have the standard tracker view anyday.  Its much more productive.
 * ^ There's an experimental pattern view widget in construction since version 0.6.1. --RamboKid
 * Thanks RamboKid, I discovered that the other day, but I do have a couple other related feature requests:
 * Tracker view copy and paste (so the notes will go into the same columns)
 * Note creation in tracker view should trigger that instrument on that note
 * Interpolation please
 * ^ can you please extend on "interpolation"? do you mean: for two given notes in tracker, generate the intermediate notes to produce a "slide"? --RamboKid
 * Yeah sorry, I should be more specific since interpolation applies to a lot of elements of a music synthesizer :-P. I just meant the ability to gradually shift from one value in a column to another.  In BuzzTracker you could select the beginning and ending values in any column and hit Ctrl+I and it would fill in with all the values in between them.  i.e.: set volume to 10 at the top of the pattern move down 30 rows set volume to 60, highlite the start through the stop, and interpolate auto-steps every value between 10 and 60 at 1.666 increments (you get the idea).  But this could be applied to anything.  Although, I would much rather see the Feature Request 5 spaces down ("effect automation") be put into place first as this would have much larger relavance then.


 * it would be nice to have a bsewave editor - to add, delete and change existing waves in the "edit" window for a bsewave/gslwave module - henning


 * I could make good use of a feature that let's me control external midi programs or hardware from within beast, because i like to use some other synthesizers, not only beasts internal ones - hs


 * What I would love to see implemented is
 * the Pink noise module! White noise is just not enough (could be combined with white noise)...
 * the CMT package of LADSPA plugins includes multiple pink noise plugins -wiru
 * And a Really low frequency oscillator (<50).
 * the standard oscillator works just fine for me at frequencies down to 0.1Hz, maybe even less. - psynoize


 * I have a midi keyboard and I would like to be able to play in realtime, actually the only thing I can do is to open the piano roll, click on the piano on the left (to play a note), and then I have about 4 seconds to play with the midi keyboard, after that no more sound, the status stuff in lower left return to "...Idle..." (and the record button on the main window lose his blue color). My request: midi input should trigger this just like when I click on the piano, or something like that :) -- iqbiker
 * ^ Auto-playing on MIDI events is an interesting idea... However for normal MIDI playback, you can simply create a new MIDI synthesizer instead of a song, setup your instrument with it and hit play. --RamboKid
 * Thanks a lot ! I didn't knew that, that works really well. Dammit, it'll be really usefull ! :) Anyway, what I meant was not auto-playing, but rather to be able to play the keyboard just by selecting a track on the tracklist: When you click on the piano of the piano-roll window, this makes the record button go blue, and closing the piano-roll is ok (but still just for 4 seconds), this looks like it's recording, but without playing/moving. So what I meant is that, just turn the record button blue (I don't know how to call this state) when the midi keyboard is used. If by "auto-playing" you meant "the record button going blue, but the vertical line that follows playback is not moving" on the track list window, then that's what I meant, so please let me know and/or just remove the mess I do with this message :) -- iqbiker


 * Would it be possible to add effect automation like in Acid? E.g. tracks could have certain lines, this line controls this instrument's filter's cutoff value, this controls a different instrument's amp's master volume, etc. etc... +
 * ^ I don't know Acid, can you provide any links etc... that provide more detail about the requested features? --RamboKid
 * Oops. Forgot that nobody here uses Windoze :).  Ardour effect automation would be a better example to use.
 * Coming from BuzzTracker in the WinBloze world, I got really used to the ability to do this also. Man do I miss it.  If I could get this, I would port a couple of my songs over and release 'em if you guys would like.


 * Duplicate pattern feature so that you can make two similar sounding patterns easier than doing a tedious copy and paste, then setting all the control events the same. It would be like the link feature, except it wouldn't be creating a direct link, it would be creating a pattern that is intended to differ from the original in some slight way (control event, notes, pitch, etc.).


 * I would be the happiest man in Jamaica if I could use beast on my 800x600 screen. Currently I have to move the part-ed window to get to the right scroller. - romanix
 * CVS has been fixed to make all dialogs usable at 800x600 so 0.6.3 will have it. Please report further sizing bugs to the mailing list.


 * To enable mixing tracks other than "blindly", it would be very helpful to have an audio mixer - but lets put a more elaborate idea of what this means into MixerDesign --stw


 * Distinct drum/percussion tracks, like they are in midi sequencers: there're no notes with lenghts, just drum hits.++
 * This might require special-purpose piano-roll, tracker subclasses
 * Isn't a "drum hit" represented by 2 note-on/note-off events with arbitrarily short distance between them or there's a special midi event? --tfwo


 * I'd like an ui-feature of disabling text below icons in toolbars (primarily in song editor) --tfwo


 * Would it be possible to add portameno to the synths?
 * You can already do portamento by connecting the "pitch bend" midi controller - for an example how it is done, you can see the test-string example instrument. To actually put portamento in the sequencer, you need to insert pitch bend control events in the piano roll editor. --stw
 * But shouldn't there be an easier way? E.g. monophonic synth mode? --wiru
 * Little update on this one. If you get the omins plugin package from http://www.nongnu.org/om-synth and create a monophonic MIDI synth in Beast, the omins plugins contain a note frequency slide plugin that makes easy portameno possible.  Hope this helps.  --wiru


 * Beast just won't get a viable/sustainable "community" without some comprehensive documentaion, primarily focussing on step by step tutorials. The Titanic needed lifeboats, not better chandelliers. Thanks.


 * Just found BEAST (0.6.2, the version in Ubuntu's repositories), these points are based on my first impressions
 * ^ Beast-0.6.6 is out for quite some time now, it has a bunch more features and is way more stable than the early 0.6.x versions, so a package upgrade is recommended. --RamboKid
 * I didn't find BEAST by searching Synaptic (package manager) for MIDI, sequencer or even synth because those words weren't in the description, I only found it by accident, searching for Guile. A more expansive description might help more people find it
 * ^ Thanks for the report, unfortunately we have no idea how to influence the Ubuntu Beast pacakge description. If you can provide an email address of the package maintainer or similar, that would be apprechiated. --RamboKid
 * In the Piano Roll, the quantise and note length don't have triplets or dotted notes as options
 * ^ These features are currently in the works, integration is planned for some of the upcoming releases. ---RamboKid
 * Audio tracks?
 * The ability to split/join parts in the song editor


 * I'll like to have a play/stop shortcut and a "follow" command.
 * ^ The Play/Stop keyboard shortcuts are displayed in the /Projects/ menu: Ctrl+P and Ctrl+S. Please explain what you mean by "follow command". --RamboKid


 * If BEAST could send MIDI to external Synths it would be my favourite Sequencer on Linux. Quite perfect it would be if Jack output of the Synths can be returned by a Jack-Input-Device. --Jeff


 * Just some thoughts to make the gui look a little bit cleaner. The export path should be set in a dialog(I don't need it in every "new view"). The transport could look better:) and have some more functionality, like bpm and loopmarker. I would put the chooser for which "element" of the track to work on in the menubar. I made a picture of the design would prefer, here (beast-mock2.jpg): [[File:Beast-mock2.jpg]]


 * I thing being able to select (and cut/copy/paste/move) parts in the track editor would be handy


 * The quickstart guide uses names for components that don't match what I saw on-screen. The quickstart says "StandardOsc", but the menu says "Standard Oscillator". Likewise "InstrumentInput" for "Instrument Voice Input", "BseSubIPort" for "Virtual Input" (which is displayed as "SubIPort" in the network), and "BseSubOPort" for "Virtual Output" ("SubOPort"). If the quickstard guide showed the names as given in the menus, it might make it easier to get up to speed with Beast.

For a list of already implemented features, take a look at the BeastFeatures page.