Feature Request: better display of note names in PRV

[John Bradley]

As someone who spends a lot of time in the PRV, I feel that the note name display glossing over a crucial bit of data here.

See the highlighted line, which is a C# (or Db as the PRV insists, but that's another matter).

 

In the first image there's almost certainly enough space to stick a lower-case 'b' after the D.

In the second image, there's enough space to stick a '...' (and definitely room to stick the lower case 'b').

Not until the third image is it willing to mention the most important aspect of the note, that it's a Db and not a D. Not telling me that until there's room to also tell me what octave it's in isn't entirely helpful. I don't care what octave it is; I can already tell that from context.

 

Ideally, I'd like to see whatever the PRV prints in the note blobs clipped to the printable area within the blob. If that means the flat or the octave number is partially truncated, that's fine. Better that than it tell me something that's flat-out incorrect: the note is not a D!

Or, if clipping the text is a performance thing (seems unlikely), I'd settle for it displaying as many characters as it can fit within the blob (e.g. at least display 'Db' in image #2, rather than waiting until there's room to display the full 'Db5' within the blob. Not telling me that it's a Db, instead indicating that the string has been truncated via the '...' is of debatable utility.

 

[Jim Fogle]

@John Bradley

Well thought out presentation.  Everything you said makes sense to me.  Thanks for including the visuals.

I disagree with one comment. and that is the comment you made about displaying the octave.  Displaying the octave can help users that are not familiar with the virtual instrument they are using or just beginning to use the piano roll view (PRV).  Different instrument developers define different notes as midi middle C so it can be easy to be an octave high or low and not realize it until playback.

[John Bradley]

2 hours ago, Jim Fogle said:

@John Bradley

I disagree with one comment. and that is the comment you made about displaying the octave.  Displaying the octave can help users that are not familiar with the virtual instrument they are using or just beginning to use the piano roll view (PRV).  Different instrument developers define different notes as midi middle C so it can be easy to be an octave high or low and not realize it until playback.

Not saying they shouldn't display the octave # in the blobs as well; it's very useful information.

Just that shouldn't be an all-or-nothing proposition tied together with the accidental. In image #2 I can tell that it's a Dsomething in the 5th octave by context. Both by the existence of an E5 right above it, and also the piano keyboard (not shown) on the left edge of the PRV, which has a C5 aligned with the white octave line below the D.

[Starship Krupa]

Yes, the rule should be "display as many characters as there is room for, the note, the accidental, then the octave in order of priority."

There is never a reason to display an ellipsis, if there's room for an ellipsis, there's room for the accidental or the octave that is being truncated.

[Brian Walton]

I'd like to see bigger, more legible text options.

When you zoom in, to the PRV like this, there should be plenty of Space to make the Db 3  really stand out.