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Re:Zrythm: A highly automated and intuitive digital audio wo... by emsy on Sunday December 05, 2021 @03:24PM (#29452806)
Trackers are just vertical piano rolls with all tracks visible concurrently. Piano rolls are is better, I’d argue, when working with audio clips and automation.
Re:Zrythm: A highly automated and intuitive digital audio wo... by pierrec on Sunday December 05, 2021 @06:39PM (#29454475)
I use and like both, but I'd say they're quite different.

With trackers, you're editing a series of events. Events can be notes, parameter changes, or commands such as "reverse this sample's playing direction now" or "move the playhead for this sample to exactly 50%". Those are common tasks when making electronic beats.

With pianorolls, everything has to be represented as a note or an automation curve. The examples I gave above become difficult to represent properly, and are often done with plugin-specific keyswitches or velocity switches. You end up with a D sharp that actually means "change to sample number 2", that kind of thing. I don't really see how it's better for working with audio clips.