Critical as in showstopper, no not really.
But there's a lot of little problems with the editing flow and a ton of grievances with the sound. I think part of the problem is the intention to keep Klystrack oldschoolier-than-thou with super low resolution settings, low-impact replay routines and small-size files. IMO it should be thought of as a music software first and not a demoscene utility.
In any case, here's my list of bugs and suggestions:
Bugs/Grievances:
- CTRL-DEL on a pattern while the song plays doesn't just delete the pattern data, it stops the song and places you back at the top of the sequence for no reason.
- Sometimes Loop From Current position just stops working and just plays the last row in a pattern in a loop instead of the whole pattern.
- Cannot copy the 64th row of a pattern in the buffer
- Sometimes the envelopes stop working properly if an instrument plays for too long and you get clicks everywhere instead of smooth fade-to-0
- Metal Sync noise is out of pitch with other oscillators and there's no fine tuning to bring it back in place, making it unusable for melodies.
- Waves (loaded or generated) are about 700 times louder than the oscillators, making them almost impossible to mix in. The volume control offered in the wave editor has two presets: way the fuck too loud at 100%, and way the fuck too loud at 25%.
- No protracker-style delete in the sequence editor constantly shifts your song's structure. (yes I know.. there's another button to do that.. but I don't see the reason why delete should act like that when backspace does pretty much the same)
- Cannot cycle around in the sequence editor, so if you're on channel 12 and you wanna go back to 1, you have to press left (or shift-tab in my case) 24 times in AHX edit mode.
- Cannot use copy/paste across channels either in the pattern or sequence editor. It would be nice to be able to select a nice block that spans more than one channel instead of copy/pasting the same block in each.
- MIDI note off messages trigger the note again so you play each note twice when using a midi controller
Suggestions I think are easy to implement:
- Extended CTR-K/CTRL-U functionalities would be appreciated, like clone all channels, or insert new patterns across all channels.
- Need zap functions to neatly delete unused patterns, or just kill all instruments, or all pattern data etc.
- Make it possible to name, and save/load FX presets
- Put KILL buttons inside the inst/wave editor interfaces instead of having them way the hell up there in the menu
- Independent noise pitch to be able to mix 'thin' noise in bass instrument. At the moment its only possible when mixing it in with a wave and it's not quite possible to get a clear oscillator (except a sine that's too loud) in the wave editor.
- Include all possible oscillator shapes in the wave generator.
- A song timer
- Highlight currently selected instrument in the patterns to quickly locate where an instrument is used.
Suggestions that I know most of the code is already there, but would definitely require more work:
- Dynamic pitch/volume adjustment in the wave editor (select target pitch/volume, and press apply)
- Filter functions in the wave editor to permanently apply filtering to a wave
Suggestions that most likely require a lot of work:
- A Live screen where the you can set up tempo-synced mutes/unmutes, loop/unloop to be able to play around with the tracks in a live environement.
- Wav export channels so people can route different instrument to different channels so you can export stuff independently and mix/master the results in a DAW.
- FM synthesis, something like Genesis-level of FM (4ops I think?) would be enough. No need to go all DX1 there.
- Distortion / Waveshaper unit in the FX section
- At least two more FX bus
- Rework the chorus because it adds a LOT of clicking noise to a sound, also separate depth mod and pitch mod.
- Proper midi support for input and output so I don't get a week of lag with my midi controller, and so people can use KT as sequencer for external machines. Maybe look into ASIO to reduce the buffer to a more usable size.
- Add separate panning positions for every tap in the reverb/delay unit
Essential you-should-listen-to-n00bstar-because-of-reasons stuff:
- Clean the code, comment it, make it run off a single codebase, and make it easier for other coders to come in and participate.
- Make a proper website to showcase the software, with a paypal button, and a community voting system on what needs to be fixed/implemented next.
I know I'm asking for a whole damn lot. But IMO this would take Klystrack out of the weird place it is right now,being mostly unheard of by most chip artists, and place it riiiiight at the top of the list for people who want a serious complete chiptracker that has the perfect balance between having all the functionalities you could want, without having it become yet another stupid semi-daw modular-ish vst-something-or-other software.
And now you know why Kometbomb probably sacrifices a kitten to the dark gods every night in the hope I die a horrible fiery death.
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. Who will join???