OK so what are the new rules governing this aspect of the application?
I’m sitting here trying to draw pitch bends. They play back as expected using my EastWest (Play) or Spitfire (Kontakt) samples, but it looks like the newest release has altered transitions between plotted points, depending on the tool used to lay down the individual points – which strikes me as logical from a programmer’s perspective (plotted point type determines whether the transition following it is step or linear), but much less intuitive for the end user.
Furthermore, graph plotting still seems buggy. For example, I’m trying to establish a linear transition from one point to the next during a pitch bend, and if I don’t draw the line such that the succeeding plot point is precisely where it needs to be (crucial for pitch bends), then I have to erase it and try again. Editing the value does no good, it’s just locked where it is when I drew it, for some reason; neither typing in the value nor clicking the up/down arrows changes it. (EDIT: The trick, apparently, is to draw a line one plot point in excess, then switch to the pencil tool and click on the penultimate point at which one desires a step transition, then proceed to effect clean-up on the graph thereafter. Unintuitive and cumbersome.)
Frankly, I still don’t know why you can’t just have a single drawing tool, and make all transitions linear, with a step defined as two different values at the same point in time. The new system requires me to take care which tool I’m using to plot points, and it often requires me to re-plot multiple points if I’m making an edit that affects the shape of an established graph. If you just have to have discrete transition types (i.e. step vs. linear), then personally, I’d much rather still see a single drawing tool, and then another button (or some other means) for defining transition type (obviously on a per-plotted point basis).
Suppose you start at 0, have two values 40 and 60 at the same point in time, and then go back to 0.
Do you want 0 → 40 followed by 60 → 0, or 0 → 60 followed by 40 → 0?
You need some more data about “the two values at the same point” to define which you want.
Also you still need an option to make “lines” exactly horizontal. Some VSTs use different values of a CC to select discrete events, and a continuous line is meaningless, or will give nonsense on playback. For example NotePerformer does this for organ stop registration, and for selecting the number of players in string sections.
Of the points at 40 and 60, whichever point was laid down by the user first is the one that follows the first (leftmost) 0. That is perfectly intuitive, and requires no expansion of the data structure used to represent graph points.
If 40 was laid down first, and the user then wishes to alter his graph such that 60 follows the leftmost 0 instead, then he has simply to switch the values of both contemporaneous points – which is still intuitive.
Making lines exactly horizontal is a piece of cake. Just two successive points of equal value at different times.
I could be wrong, but the whole thing seems terribly overly engineered. It has my software engineer’s radar buzzing.