I want to be able to easily view and edit more than one measure at a time on my iPad
complete
Derek Lee
Currently, when composing or editing beats, you need to tap "edit" to edit the beat, and then you need to tap into each measure individually to edit that measure. When you've finished editing a measure, you need to go back to the beat, and then go into the next measure you want to edit.
This "back-and-forth" style of editing can be time consuming, and difficult to keep the context in mind when editing a phrase that is longer than one measure, or for phrases that cross over the. barline.
It would be helpful if there were a way to see multiple measures or edit multiple measures at one time without having to go back-and-forth between the edit beat screen and edit measure screen.
Derek Lee
complete
Included in version 3.3! 🎉
Please see the release announcement on Instagram, like and comment to support!
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4_wyRRBSd_/
Derek Lee
Some additional context on this feature:
Like all features in Beat Note, and aligned with the product development approach that I've been taking with Beat Note and want you all to become familiar with - this release is just the FIRST STEP towards creating a more enhanced iPad-focused user experience for editing.
This feature marks the very first deviation from the "core Beat Note experience" by providing a very iPad-centric solution as compared to the iPhone experience.
Building Beat Note is a time-consuming and highly involved process. I learned from previous experience that by starting with the iPad design, it made it really difficult to then adjust that design for a smaller screen size (iPhone). Therefore, with Beat Note, I specifically am starting with the iPhone screen size (more difficult) and then expanding that experience to include iPad-centric design.
There's still a lot more that can be done with this UX to take further advantage of the iPad, and I plan to continue to explore these options and include them in future releases.
For example:
- Adding the ability to add measures, duplicate measures, or delete measures: https://roadmap.beat-note.app/feature-requests/p/i-want-to-be-able-to-easily-add-duplicate-and-delete-measures-when-editing-a-mea
- As Joe Lyle suggests below, having the ability the playback and edit multiple measures at the same time: https://roadmap.beat-note.app/feature-requests/p/i-want-to-be-able-to-easily-edit-and-playback-multiple-measures-when-editing-mus
- ... and I expect all sorts of different aspects that can be further enhanced and, over time, based on your feedback, will continue to evolve beyond this initial "seed" being planted. 👍🏻
Thanks as always for your continued support!
Hinrich Nagel
Derek LeeThe new edit screen looks very good and it’s very easy and less time consuming to edit an existing beat. 👍👍👍
Derek Lee
Hinrich Nagel Awesome, I'm really glad to hear that! Thanks for the feedback, Hinrich! 🙇🏻♂️
Derek Lee
in progress
This feature is in progress for inclusion in an upcoming 3.x build. Target release date within March, 2024.
Derek Lee
Here's a mockup of an idea which would allow for:
- All measures of the beat can be accessed along the bottom of the screen. Swipe left and right to access all measures.
- The current measure being edited is shown with a yellow border.
- Simply tap on the measure you want to edit.
- This gives visibility to not only the measure currently being edited, but also the measures nearby.
Derek Lee
planned
Derek Lee
This feature was originally requested by Joe Lyle. Another user also mentioned it in their review of Beat Note on the App Store.
Joe Lyle
Derek Lee sorry I haven’t gotten back to our emails. I just wanted to attempt to articulate my request a bit better here.
If possible, it would be so helpful if in the editing window at the top of the mockup you just posted, you could scroll through all 4 measures seamlessly. That way you don’t have to click on each measure to go back and forth and can visualize patterns crossing the baseline line more easily.
Derek Lee
Joe Lyle Thanks for following up here. What a great idea to continue the conversation here so others can also share their feedback! 👍🏻
That's a good point: allowing access to all measures for editing seems like it could make it a lot easier to work with phrases that cross the barline.
Additionally, in our email thread you had mentioned wanting to be able to hear the audio for more than just the selected measure so you could hear the entire phrase that goes over the barline.
After considering this, I think the idea we were playing around with to allow you to hear the playback of more than one measure might work for this idea. Instead of just allowing playback, this approach could be used to indicate which measures are being edited and thus also being played back.
Trying to think through this some more: if a multi-measure phrase (2-4 measures) was being edited through horizontal scrolling, I think it would also be important for you to be able to clearly see which part of the phrase you're currently editing.
This means controls would be needed to choose which measure or measures are being edited (available in the editor, via scrolling) and then an additional indicator to show which part of the phrase is currently being viewed.
Please see the refined mockup below where I try to communicate this information.
I think there are other important considerations too - like understanding which measures you're editing in the scrollable view (maybe indicated with measure numbers?), and giving proper delineation between measures, etc (knowing where one ends and where one begins). I'll also need to figure out how time signatures could be managed as each measure would need to be able to indicate the time signature as there's only one button displayed now for a single measure.
While this significantly increases the complexity of the development 😅, I think it could be a valid tradeoff for the improved user experience. 🎉 Still need to think through all of the impacts here. This feels like a good start though!
What do you think? 🤔
Zak Bond
Derek Lee This is the way! This particular approach opens the door to another feature we’ve discussed, starting / ending playback from a particular partial, keeping the look and feel of the features cohesive.
Derek Lee
Zak Bond Thanks for your feedback Zak! Good eye!! I think the top/bottom slider idea is an interesting one to explore for this and also the partials one (where I initially experimented with it: https://roadmap.beat-note.app/feature-requests/p/loop-bracemultiple-measure-settings).
I think there's a lot of potential to iterate on this part of the app and I'm excited to see how it evolves!