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Forum: Wishes and new features

Topic: Some more wishes... :p

This topic is old and might contain outdated or incorrect information.

1) Refresh the available effects/transitions dynamically, or use a command for that.
Currently VDJ builds a list with the available effects/transitions/e.t.c. when it's starting. I'm trying out several VST effects these days and a command to refresh the available effects list without exiting VDJ first could be very handy...

2) Give us an option to exclude auto-played tracks (from playlist) from playcount increasement.
In several gigs I show up early, setup my equipment and leave Autoplay to play for some time before I start my show. By doing this I have messed up my playcount counters and I need them to function properly in order to use them in filter folders. I don't need VDJ to tell me that my most popular song is "Savage Garden - To the moon and back" because I play it every night on my "Autoplay" playlist. However I do need VDJ to tell me which are my most played tracks on the last 60 days...

3) Virtual Folders VS. Playlists
It's an old debate, I know. I would like however to have the ability to NEST Virtual Folders. Currently I use Playlists because once you put 5 playlists on a folder and set the folder as a favorite, the playlists are nested inside the folder.

4) Keep the focus of the selected track ON SCREEN at ALL times. Remember the focus position of all folders.
I tend to use my mouse to scroll on big lists, but when you change sort order, perform a search, or change the currently selected "folder" the focus goes out of screen. It would be much more easier if the focus remained on screen. Also, it would be much more helpfull to remember the selected track when browsing between folders. When you're in the middle of a 200 tracks list and change it to find a specific track on another folder, is a real pain to go back to where you used to be on the previous folder.

5) Give us a command to send a track that's already loaded on a player to the playlist OR the waitlist.
Several times when I have a track loaded and ready to play I change my mind at the last moment and I want to play another track before the currently loaded. Right now I have to load the new track and search again for the previous loaded track to reload it, or send it on the waitlist. BTW: The auto-save unplayed tracks option does not do the job because:
a) Several times the track gets marked as played when I'm actually previewing/cue-ing it
b) Several times I load tracks, preview them and then I decide NOT to play them.

6) Give us an option to set the auto-video crossfader position when both tracks are playing.
When you mix two videos together and you have the auto-video crossfader on, VDJ sets the video crossfader on about 25-30% of the new track VS. 75-70% of the old track. I would like to be able to customize this value as it's not always the best value with all the transition effects.
Another cool feature would be to give a range on the crossfader to bounce. I mean something like this: Give the video crossfader a range of 25% <-> 75%. Then when both videos are playing the video-crossfader should go back and forth from 25% to 75% between the two decks until one of them stops. If we could also set a speed on this "auto-bounce" that would be awesome.

7) Master Output Sound Effects
Yes, you can use any VST effect you wish on each player, but I wish to be able to set a few VST to affect both decks (or master output)
For instance if you want to use a "master" EQ on your system right now you have to load the VST twice (once for each deck) and be very carefull with your effect commands not to unload it and leave it active all the time. For this kind of effects (not necesseraly EQ's) it would be nice if we had a "master" or "both decks" section to apply sound effects.

8) Adjust the beatgrid offset without opening the "Edit BPM" window. Add 1/8 of the beat too.
Most of the time I open the "Edit BPM" window only in order to adjust the beatgrid. It would be nice if we could have these commands available to add on a skin of our own or bind them on a controller. I know that there is a command for this already, but AFAIK it does not support BPM values. (E.g. Move forward a quarter of the beat) Also, I would like to see an "One eighth (1/8)" of the beat buttons on the Edit BPM window. A lot of the times the beatgrid is off by 1/8th of the beat (especially in RNB/RAP songs). Right now the only way to move the beatgrid on the right spot is to move it manually by the slider. Adding "1/8th" buttons would make it much more easier.

9) For Skins: Give us the ability to set the current playing position on the CGB Waves.
Right now the "playing" position is always on the center of the window area the user specifies as CGB. Personnaly I don't care much for the waveform that already has been played (I'm not a scratch guy). I do care however for what's up to come. It would be very nice (for users like me) if we could set the current playing position of the CGB to let's say 1/3rd of the wave CGB. This way we would be able to see more waveform "in the future" of the song and less "in the past" that it doesn't really matters to us.

10) A possible improvement of smart play:
I don't really like how smart play is acting right now and I don't use it, but I might use a "smart play" of this type:
a) It would snap only on the primary beats of the beatgrid
b) If the user hits play too early it would wait for the playing song's primary beat to snap and start playing
c) If the user hits play too "late" then it should either "move" the song a bit forward so that the cue-point snaps on the playing song's primary beat and start playing (if the user is not late by more of 1/8th of the beat) or either wait for the next primary beat and start playing.
Generally speaking I'm not a big fan of automation like this I'm describing here. However there are some cases (especially when I mix too fast between songs) that it might be a helpfull tool to have (and use wisely)


I have several other things in mind, but more or less they have been dicussed allready...

Thank you for your time!
 

Posted Wed 26 May 10 @ 6:43 am
SBDJPRO Infinity Member since 2006
PhantomDeejay wrote :
3) Virtual Folders VS. Playlists
It's an old debate, I know. I would like however to have the ability to NEST Virtual Folders. Currently I use Playlists because once you put 5 playlists on a folder and set the folder as a favorite, the playlists are nested inside the folder.


You'll be happy to know that nested folders has been requested already :)

PhantomDeejay wrote :
8) Adjust the beatgrid offset without opening the "Edit BPM" window. Add 1/8 of the beat too.
Most of the time I open the "Edit BPM" window only in order to adjust the beatgrid. It would be nice if we could have these commands available to add on a skin of our own or bind them on a controller. I know that there is a command for this already, but AFAIK it does not support BPM values. (E.g. Move forward a quarter of the beat) Also, I would like to see an "One eighth (1/8)" of the beat buttons on the Edit BPM window. A lot of the times the beatgrid is off by 1/8th of the beat (especially in RNB/RAP songs). Right now the only way to move the beatgrid on the right spot is to move it manually by the slider. Adding "1/8th" buttons would make it much more easier.


As you say you can already use VDJScript to adjust CBG positioning - IIRC you can use percentages to shift relative to the current grid. 100% would be a 4 beat shift (IE no change). 25% would be 1 beat, so adjust_cbg +3.125% should move by 1/8th beat I think.
 

Posted Wed 26 May 10 @ 9:06 am
#2) I like that idea, I play dinner music before each dance.. so playcounts on those songs is useless to me, and makes a playcount fillter kinda useless (for me).. (I only use Autoplay for the dinner music), so this idea would work perfect for me.

#3) I think that this is one of the few "new features" just about everyone can agree on.. ;-)

#4) nice idea.. one of those "little things" that makes a software user friendly.. I've since got used to it.. but I do remember my first few days using the software noticing little irritants like this..

#5) smart.. I too never use the "autosave unplayed" as I sometimes load in 2 to 3 songs to compare which one i want to play next.. (pain to go and remove them a second time..)
Where as, i really miss the OLD PCDJ feature where you can remove a song and it gets added back into the waitlist..

Oddly enough, their might even be a way to "fake" this feature?? or maybe I just saw this requested before?

#6) +1.. never even thought about.. simple change that WOULD make the auto-video crossfade MORE usefull..

#8) I already have keyboard shortcuts that adjust the CBG.. Easiest way to do it is use the "beat tap" one time to set the first downbeat, then cue back to your "starting point" and have two keys set up to slide it left or right..

#10) you can already do what your talking about by using the correct commands.. I was involved in a thread that talked about (in general) what you just said.


 

Posted Wed 26 May 10 @ 9:40 am
Couldn't agree more on nesting of virtual folders. Please, this would make things so much easier.
 

Posted Wed 02 Jun 10 @ 4:08 am
Also, for Skins AND VDJScript:
Give as the ability to write button independent commands and queries.
I mean, give us the ability to write a query for instance that will always be active watching for the active status and perform its commands...

Example on VDJScript:
deck 1 loop ? skin_pannel 'Deck1Loop' on : skin_pannel 'Deck1Idle' on


Also, for VDJScript:
Simplify the script syntax by using more standard scripting language.
Ok, I know it sounds bad, but lets give you an example:

isrepeat ? nothing : down ? loop 0.25 & sampler 12 rec & loop & sampler 12 play & sampler 12 volume 100% & level 0% : level 100% & sampler 12 stop

It would be much easier to understand if it was:

isrepeat=TRUE? ( nothing ELSE down=TRUE? (loop 0.25 AND sampler 12 rec AND loop AND sampler 12 play AND sampler 12 volume 100% AND level 0% ELSE level 100% AND sampler 12 stop))


 

Posted Sat 14 Aug 10 @ 12:41 pm
SBDJPRO Infinity Member since 2006
A lot of languages will use an implied value on a boolean check if you drop it. Not having it simply shortens the syntax which is useful when editing in a small box. Same for then (?), else (:) as well as 'and' (&).

If you really want to specify a value to compare to then you could use var_equal.

var_equal "isrepeat" 1 ? nothing : ....

If you really wanted to adopt a 'common' format then I would say go down the road of using C style expressions rather than the odd syntax you posted!
 

Posted Sat 14 Aug 10 @ 2:52 pm
I agree that the syntax is odd. I would too prefer a C++ style syntax or even a VB syle syntax.

My point was not to suggest an "odd" syntax. My point was to tell that when you try to use complex commands (like nesting several if-then-else) the current syntax does not help you very much. At least we should be able to use parentheses "(" to help user visualize it's nestings... Most times I tried to use complex (nested) "IF-THEN-ELSE" commands it was a hit and miss procedure until I was able to get it right...
 

Posted Mon 16 Aug 10 @ 7:12 am
Also, we need a few more script commands:
I would like a command to gradually increase pitch until the deck reaches the other deck's BPM.
Usually I only pitch up the songs (increase the tempo). We have a very nice utility already "pitch_reset" which will slowly DECREASE pitch back to 0. What I need is the opposite of this command!

Also, in order to create some really nasty effects we need the ability to specify "BEATS" in a lot more commands and have VDJ wait before it executes the next action. This can be done very easily with a "wait" script command that will be able to accept either beats or milliseconds:
Examples:
"set_cue 99 & reverse & wait 8 & reverse & goto_cue 99 & delete_cue 99"
"loop 4 & wait 16 & loop_half & wait 8 & loop_half & wait 4 & loop_half & wait 4 & loop_half & wait 4 & loop" <--- in this example the wait should count where the player WOULD be without the loop (in order to simplify the beat wait, otherwise it would have to count how many times it looped)

Also another cool thing would be to be able to tell VDJ to start a command ON beat, or on half beat. (Something like snap) I suppose that this can be done right now with VDJ script since we can get the actual position of the song on beats, but it's way to complicate and we lack the support of a "wait" command...

I have a few other commands in my mind too, but I have to remember them... :P
 

Posted Mon 23 Aug 10 @ 3:12 am
Make effects to work independently for each player...

I have a nice VST filter effect that I use with VDJ. The issue here is that once activated, the cut-off freq. is the same for both players. You can't do HighPass on player A and LowPass on player B :(
The only way to do this is to copy the .dll file as Original_Plugin_name_2.dll and use Original_Plugin_name for player A and Original_Plugin_name_2 on player B.

This behavior is not happening on VST plugins only, but in VDJ plugins in general....
 

Posted Wed 25 Aug 10 @ 6:44 am
+1 on deck independent effects...

Roy
 

Posted Wed 25 Aug 10 @ 9:11 am
+1

Huey
 

Posted Wed 25 Aug 10 @ 11:17 pm
A minor wish that would save me from a lot of "trouble"...

When the player ends playback, simulate a STOP command please (in other words make player go back to cue-point where it started playback).

Description:
When you load a track on a player if auto-cue is enabled the track goes to the first available cue-point and "cues"
After you start playback on a track (from any cue-point) when you press stop (or cue_stop) the track goes back to the cue-point from which playback began.
So far so good..... :)

However, when the playback reaches the end of the song it won't go back to the cue-point... :(
It will go back to the beginning of the song... :(
This behavior has made me several times to mess with my first cue-point and several times I have to re-adjust them because when the player is on the start of the song if you hit "cue_stop" to prelisten the song (for any reason) it will create (or update) cue-point1.


If this can't happen for any reason, then may I suggest an option to be able to make our cue-points "read-only" (user selectable per cue-point, not globally) ???

 

Posted Thu 26 Aug 10 @ 1:15 am
@Phantom

In theory this is already possible with the skin engine, i think - havent tested it. Just thinking out loud.

action="deck 1 songpos_remain 1ms ? cue_stop : cue_stop"

So when Deck 1 gets to 1 millisecond left it will jump back to the cue position.
 

Posted Thu 26 Aug 10 @ 11:32 am
It "seems" possible, but actually it's not for one reason only:

Where would we put this command? On a button? you have to press it in order to execute the script...
That's why I asked the for the ability to have a new section in skins and controllers that monitors stuff...

Perhaps all we need is a "timer" element that will perform commands every X ms
 

Posted Fri 27 Aug 10 @ 2:05 am
This is for the forums:

Right now people are asking help for VDJ Script commands everywhere... General forum, Skins forum, Technical support forums, Hardware support forums.. you name it.

I believe it should be nice to add a section on the forums conserning ONLY the VDJ script. I know that there's a dedicated page on the Wi-Ki about the VDJ Script, but you can't ask questions there and get help.

In other words, on the "Software Extension" forum section that we have "Virtual Dj Skins", "VirtualDj Plugins" and "Wishes and new features" we could add a forth sub-forum name "VirtualDj Script" and all the users should be forwarded on this forum to ask and get help regarding VDJ Script commands...
 

Posted Mon 06 Sep 10 @ 4:14 am
Ideally I would like each verb to have it's own page and then allow users to add comments underneath with examples of how they used it.

Many online technical reference manuals for languages have this option.

Roy
 

Posted Mon 06 Sep 10 @ 6:47 am
I just finished creating an Excel file with ALL the VDJ commands/verbs.... They are 335!!!
I don't think a sub-forum with 335 sub-sub-forums would be easy to monitor, nor the users would comply with such a structure especially when they want to create complex scripts!
 

Posted Mon 06 Sep 10 @ 7:10 am
Wouldn't see it as a "forum" more of wiki pages with comments turned on...

Roy
 

Posted Mon 06 Sep 10 @ 8:35 am
Eitherway, it's not on our hands :) If they decide to make this reality they will also decide which is the better way!

Thanks for participating on my thoughts bro!
 

Posted Mon 06 Sep 10 @ 10:06 am
JoeyKJPRO InfinityMember since 2008
I think the "Script" forum idea is a good one that will benefit a lot of people to the power of VDJ so, Good one phantomDeejay.

+++
Joey....
 

Posted Tue 07 Sep 10 @ 8:08 am


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