I don’t know if this is the place for this, but i think this could be of great value.
To give a bit of context i’ve owned several nord products over the years and, in my stage 3 i discovered the best text input system i’ve seen in a synth other than a touchscreen (and i’m faster with this then my modx touchscreen).
The main idea is one encoder and four(altough you could use just two) contextual buttons.
Hi, our lovely @riban has already implemented such a thing, even if it’s not quiet the same system as in your Nord synth. But it’s really usuable : by using the touchscreen if your display is Big enough or by using encoders on a small display.
It’s on the features/stepseq branch of zynthian-ui. (Choose that branch within the webconf utility and update your zynthian)
You will have a more powerfull sequencer as the one from the master branch and the ability to name your songs …
But keep in mind : this is not stable branch, it could break something. If I remember, stepsequencer file format and file location are not compatible between master and dev branch, correct me if I am wrong). You will better test it on a separate sd card.
For more infos look at the long thread about stepseq, around june the 22th.
Of course, this feature opens a bunch of use case …
People keep reminding me of stuff I have done! The keyboard input in zynseq is two dimensional with one encoder moving horizontally and another moving vertically on a qwerty keyboard. Some enhancements are desirable like offering different keyboard layouts. We are working on merging the zynsyq branch soon at which point we can start using the keyboard to edit other parameters in Zynthian. I agree we should be able to do as much as possible within the device without needing to resort to webconf.
Interesting idea, the thing i find with the 1 dimensional system in the nord keyboards is that muscle memory kicks in really quick because letters are fixed and only one knob is turning, and i think this also addresses the different layouts problem since you only need different lists rather than actual layouts, wich i guess would be easier to add. I don’t really have acces to my sd card in my zynthian yet easily so i don’t think i’ll be testing stuff until i do, but i would like to give it a shot
I did consider a one dimensional list but ended up with this, partly because it provides a good touchscreen experience. I also considered an A-Z rather than QWERTY layout. When we get this out in the wild we can review actual user experience and change to better meet our needs. Keep the suggestions coming.
I agree with @Pastitas that one dimensional, one knob operation on an alphabetically ordered list is such a “natural” thing that you can operate it on autopilot just like that. But touchscreen is an entirely different beast which benefits from the QWERTY layout, for similar experience. Maybe we can have both?
Actually maybe the 2d could be, like you said, alphabetically ordered, and if you scroll only te “horizontal” or X knob it just automatically goes to the next row after the first one (this could be optional, maybe configurable), like if it was only 1 dimension, but you also get the option of using the second encoder, so we get the best of both worldls, like @pmatilai said.
i also think QWERTY makes more sense in a bigger touchscreen situation, as you cannot type like you are used to anyway in such a small screen
That is how it works! If your scroll horizontally beyond the end of a row you move to the first character of the next row. If you scroll horizontally beyond the end of the last key you get back to the beginning. I was a little uncertain of this behaviour when I coded it so need to get user feedback. We could have different keyboard layouts that a user could chose from webconf including A-Z, QWERTY, Dvorak, etc.
Oh. The description about two encoders being used for moving horizontally and vertically did sound like you need the second encoder for moving between rows. I should know better than to comment without actually trying it myself though (been through a similar case just last week, parts reversed, can be really frustrating), sorry about that.
Sounds like best of both worlds then, especially if the layout is made changeable
oh, nice then seems like the only thing left to implement is the layouts. Lately i don’t have much time but i am starting to test some fixes for issues that are on the zynthian repos, i’ll se if i get the time to look at this myself
I think it would be advantageous and not get in the way very much that if one connects a computer keyboard to the Zynthian, and a text input screen is selected, that most keys could be used as one would expect from a computer keyboard (i.e. input the character they stand for, backspace working as backspace, and arrows moving around).
Enter could submit the text input, Escape could cancel.
Multiline text is not supported now anyway iirc, so the Enter key does not have to output a new line anyway.
Currently all keys are bound to do their global thing. For me, this was confusing, but understandable, but a tad annoying.
Might need keyboard layout selection though. Can’t remember whether that’s already in webconf.
[Edit:] some people attach just a numpad keyboard. In that case, this may not be what people want, esp. the arrow keys behaviour.
It great when an old thread is revisited and we are reminded of stuff we have forgotten to do… It is a reminder of why raising feature requests is such a good idea!
It may be useful to add different keyboard layouts. I wonder whether that be best selected in webconf? Otherwise we are giving over some screen space for a layout-switching button.
I too have experienced the slight irk that @niels describes when entering text with the onscreen keyboard when I have a perfectly good, tactile keyboard at my fingertips. I haven’t retained that memory long enough after the event to remember to add a feature request. The closest is an issue that the enter key doesn’t trigger the on-screen enter.
