The Load Snapshot Screen

We now start up on the load snapshot page which is good!

The page itself is not so good.
We obviously load the default snapshot, but, We don’t actually tell a completely innocent user what the default snapshot actually contains.

What are you going to hear when you press a key? This screen doesn’t tell you.

And there is an object inconsistency. The default Snapshot is exactly that. A Snapshot, but the other items in the list are banks, and the distinction is not obvious. Again new user confusion.

So selecting a bank . . .

we get to the place where you can actually Load a snapshot!

and now we can actually load a snapshot.

Suggestions.
1/ Dump the default snapshot simply allocate one from the webconf as a once selectable checkbox against each snapshot, and display the details of that
or:
2/ Leave the default as the last set up loaded . . . (crashes…?)

Change the name of the first load snapshot screen to select bank and display the name in the Title bar of the selected bank.

or possibly loose the concepts of banks for snapshots completely …? Are people going to just want a few snapshots generally and if they are going to structure them into banks is that, perhaps, a concept to introduce off the main snapshot line as an extra feature?

Also when you are in the start up screen you don’t have the volume control allocated to the top left knob. That way at least you have someway of turning down what you play on the keyboard without having to dig around in the interface.
That would make it much more friendly when people start it up.

1 Like

We need the banks, because you want to load them using midi change bank/program commands.
I like the idea of removing the default snapshot and replace it with “load last used snapshot”.
In the webconf you have one checkbox that disables this autoload snapshot feature.

Do we need the banks to be an upfront feature? Could not the basic zynth deal with 0-127 via program(me… The last time I’ll do it… :grin:) change and allow the banks to be introduced as a subset of that functionality?

I use the banks to group the gigs or bands and don’t want to miss it

1 Like

No I fully agree now. IT’s not something to get rid of but make the assumption that everything in the a new Zynth is in bank MSB (0/1) LSB (0/1) until the user specifically starts operating in other banks.

I wouldn’t suggest any change in structure at the webconf end (other than handling the new default model) but at the Zynth GUI end move bank selection out to a sub menu. It would probably reduce the number of overall key presses for most users, and I suspect anyone that was using Banks would tend to work in a specific one for most of the time as well. Even if the next session they were involved with would be in a completely different Bank.

1 Like

I also think that snapshot bank selection could be “hidden” initially from Zynthian UI, working on bank 0 by default. When user creates more banks from webconf tool, the bank selection should be re-enabled. On this way, most of users will be more comfortable (not everybody needs a 2 level storage for snapshots) and UX will be improved, specially for newcomers. At same time, more advanced users will conserve all the functionality when they need it.

Also, the webconf tool don’t need to be modified for this. I think only Zynthian-UI should be modified.

In the other hand, i’m thinking about the “default” snapshot feature and the best way of implementing it … what about a bold click while booting for loading last status?

Regards,

2 Likes

I think the initial hidden bank idea is good.

The bold click is kind of obscure, and not very useful if you always want to start with whatever you were last doing - maybe you should be able to configure what happens at startup.
I think the last configuration should be able to be loaded by default - not requiring any click.

1 Like

Hi @zynthianers!

I’ve implemented the simplified “bankless” mode for snapshots. It works like that:

If no bank dirs or only one, Zynthian-UI hides all the bank-related stuff and you save and load the snapshots from the first bank. If you create a second bank from the webconf, then the UI will enable the multi-bank mode.

You can check it in the new development branch, “fxchain-control”. Like this:

    cd /zynthian/zynthian-ui
    git checkout .
    git fetch origin fxchain-control
    git checkout fxchain-control
    /zynthian/zynthian-sys/scripts/update_zynthian.sh
    reboot

Enjoy!

2 Likes

I just commited this on the development tree:

The option should be available very soon in the webconf …

Enjoy!

Mr @mheidt did it:

Thanks a lot!!

In the fxchain-control branch.

Looking at the Layer screen I’m up to about 10 or so layers ( needs them drums …)

As I’m also playing MIDI files ( I’ve dumped 200 or so into the Samples Directory :smiley: )

I’m tending to what REALLY quick access to the volume control ESPECIALLY Overall volume. (Remember I’m running against a HifiBerry Amp2 :smiley: )

Could we add an Overall Volume at the top of the layer list that is modified by the Encoder CH Encoder ?

Better still as the layer is selected below the overall volume you can adjust the individual volumes on the SAME encoder.
Indeed that concept could be extended right across the zynth empire so the Ch encode is EITHER overall volume ( any screen that is general i.e. Admin, Midi recorder, Load snapshot etc) OR a selected layer volume ( layer and parameter screens)

You also have a bit of screen space between left to right half way and the logo which could indicate individual layer vol somehow. (it’s so easy to suggest when you ain’t writing the code :smiley: )

Really useful in MIDI playback situations when you can effectively mix the MIDI channels using overall volume and individual layers.

Mental Note: Think About all This :wink: