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[dj io]

Hi. I finally got a pocket PC so I have been trying out Milky for the first time. I've been using Renoise for a while and Impulse Tracker before that, so I'm not unfamiliar with tracking... But I don't have much experience with FT2. I have noticed some unexplainable behavior from Milky and I'm wondering if I'm just doing something wrong, or if it is supposed to do this...

My question is: When I use effect 3xx - Portamento to note. I noticed that when I use it on a series of notes it doesn't restart the playback of the sample on each line that it is being triggered. Which causes my instrument to quickly lose volume and then be inaudible after about 16 rows when I am wanting it to play throughout the whole pattern.

What gives? I'm pretty sure Renoise and IT both restart the sample playback on each line where the sample is being triggered, even if you are giving a portamento to note command.

Is there something I'm overlooking? Why is it not triggering the sample again?

The only workaround I can think of currently is to loop the sample. But the sample I'm working with is pretty long, so I don't know how on the pocket PC a fast way to set the loop points .... The only way I could figure is to hit the plus and minus buttons, which would take forever ... Probably literally 20 minutes or something.

So, second question:

Is there a faster way to set loop points on the pocket pc version?

[Saga Musix]

Uhm, the point of portamento is exactly to _not_ retrigger the sample. I can confirm that even Impulse Tracker (or any other tracker for that matter) doesn't retrigger the sample when using portamento. Moreover, in the XM format, the sample envelope is reset to the first envelope point when a note is encountered during portamento and in the IT format it is not (unless the "Compatible Gxx" flag is set), so the behaviour you're after can be achieved by using a sample without decay and apply a volume envelope on the sample instead.

[dj io]

Uhm, the point of portamento is exactly to _not_ retrigger the sample. I can confirm that even Impulse Tracker (or any other tracker for that matter) doesn't retrigger the sample when using portamento. Moreover, in the XM format, the sample envelope is reset to the first envelope point when a note is encountered during portamento and in the IT format it is not (unless the "Compatible Gxx" flag is set), so the behaviour you're after can be achieved by using a sample without decay and apply a volume envelope on the sample instead.

Thanks for the quick reply! I must have misunderstood that... And apparently I've never tried portamento with a non-looped sample. The sample already had a volume envelope but it didn't seem to help. The only thing I could come up with as a solution is cropping the sample so it made a clean loop. Changed the characteristic tone of the original instrument though.

So I still wonder is there a better way to set loop points on pocket pc?

[raina]

Tap and drag the triangles at the end of the loop marker lines.

[dj io]

Tap and drag the triangles at the end of the loop marker lines.

Awesome! Simple enough. I had tried dragging the numbers that showed the time of the loop markers, but I didn't even notice the triangles.

Thanks for all your help guys.

Now to get tracking   

[dj io]

One more stupid question ...

How do you send a note-off command with the pocket PC? I have a Fellowes Stowaway keyboard but I can't seem to find a key to give note off. So to compensate right now I have just been setting the volume to 00

[raina]

Right beside the piano keyboard, there should almost always be a button labeled Off. So that's one way. Some keys (from the manual) that might work for you include:

• The key right of LShift
• Caps-Lock
• 1
• The key below Esc

I've never used a keyboard with a Pocket PC so I'm not sure, but you might be able to use Milky's config utility to map a key to key-off if none of these work.

[dj io]

~ (tilde) works...   It's way down at the bottom next to the spacebar though since there's not even an esc key on this keyboard. WTF. (Not even with the function key) I've had to map another key to stop playback. Also the "off" key actually powers off the pocket PC, so that's not going to work   

Stupid me had already mapped ~ to "Insert line", so I didn't realize it already had a function. (Found that ~ worked while messing with the virtual keyboard).

I wish there was some way to disable the virtual keyboard though, it'd be nice to see more of the pattern editor.

But all said and done, this is a really nice piece of software on this platform. I'm really enjoying writing my first tune on it. I think I'll probably even use Milky for my next SDcompo entry   

P.S... Here's what the setup currently looks like:

[raina]

In FT2 mode Space is pause, so Esc isn't needed. And I was talking about the on-screen "Off" key but I can see how that might feel clumsy when you have a real keyboard at your disposal.

The most you can see of the patterns at a time is when you switch to the Jam page and minimize the piano keyboard with the rightmost button under it:

[dj io]

The most you can see of the patterns at a time is when you switch to the Jam page and minimize the piano keyboard with the rightmost button under it

Very cool. Thanks for the tip.

Do you know if there is any way to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between the different screens? (Main, song, ins, etc). That would make this just perfect!