okay, here’s a quite lenghty post with appreciation and some user ideas and input : )
been spending more time with yggdrasil lately, and as I’ve said before: I absolutely love it. been an avid tracker user since 2002 or so (modplug, lsdj, famitracker, fasttracker2, lpgt, triplex, milkytracker, tfm music maker, renoise etc), and it feels like a fresh take on the concept. y mode interaction somehow enables another way of thinking for me compared to other trackers, and having individual clock, depth, jump and play direction of each track/channel individually rather than per project basis is so much fun (it’s similar to lsdj I suppose, but for some reason I feel the visualisation here more naturally opens up to playing around more with track phasing, polyrhythms etc).
one thing that I love about trackers is their speed of use. it’s possible to program in arpeggios, beats and melodies really quick using the arrow keys + the computer keyboard as a piano keyboard. while I understand yggdrasil is built upon a slightly different concept, something that I’d absolutely would love to see implemented is a keyboard-as-piano mode, where one could navigate across all tracks with the arrow keys and input notes directly into slots without having to open the editor. it would enhance the workflow tremendously.
a minor but sweet workflow enhancement would be able to use “enter” as “esc” if no change has been made inside the editor. I think being able to double tap enter after entering a new note and being back in the full track view would make sense. perhaps it could only work while “done” is being displayed in the editor.
I would also love to be able to input phenomenon commands inside the editor, so I don’t have to count X and Y on the tracker grid to find where I want to input a command. looks like there’s plenty of space under VEL in the editor for a row of PHEN : )
another thing I’d love to see implemented is being able to assign K2 and K3 to just one synth voice, rather than always controlling macros for all voices at the same time. perhaps this could be done simply by synth;rikki;enc enabling control for rikki only? or just X synth;enc
the final thing on my wishlist is quite big, but i feel it would be a very powerful and important tool: some type of track chaining/pattern matrix. I understand this would be a big thing to implement, since (I think) it would have to involve a whole other level to the whole script. as I understand it now, yggdrasil uses “tracks” both as “channel” on a mixer, and as “pattern” in most trackers (or “midi clip” in ableton live for instance). separating these two things would make it so much more powerful as a sequencer. chaining patterns together is somewhat necessary to make a longer piece or music that does not just loop, and working with a 800 row or so deep track is just no good.
patterns would not have to be locked to one track, but could be played by another synth or clade in another channel, simultaneously if one wishes. since clock and direction is also track independent, you could play the same pattern but at different speed in different tracks. it would open up a whole new world of possibilities : )
thanks for reading. back to tracking now <3
