MuTools

Eggu · Post by **Eggu** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:57 pm

You can switch a track to solo mode in two ways:

1) right click track head, choose <solo>,
effect: track is switched to solo, but all other track speaker markers remain active (green)

2)alt left click at speaker symbol in track head,
effect: track is switched to solo, and all other track speaker markers go to inactive (black speaker symbols)

==> but there should be no difference in displaying !

What is also sometimes confusing:
When mixing <solo> an some manual <mutes> and back to unsolo,
is the result always predictable ?

Might be better to have a (or some) seperate state for solo/unsolo/inactive .

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:56 pm

Eggu wrote:You can switch a track to solo mode in two ways:

1) right click track head, choose <solo>,
effect: track is switched to solo, but all other track speaker markers remain active (green)

2)alt left click at speaker symbol in track head,
effect: track is switched to solo, and all other track speaker markers go to inactive (black speaker symbols)

==> but there should be no difference in displaying !

True, there's a little bug there. Will be fixed. Thanks for reporting!

What is also sometimes confusing:
When mixing <solo> an some manual <mutes> and back to unsolo,
is the result always predictable ?

Might be better to have a (or some) seperate state for solo/unsolo/inactive .

Separate states will be confusing too! Maybe in other cases or to other people.

That's why MU.LAB tries to keep it simple: Solo mutes all other tracks. Unsolo unmutes all other tracks. Mutes are memorized though, i.e. when track X is muted and track Y is solod then unsolod, then track X will be still muted after the unsolo of track Y.

The only thing i see which could be finetuned is that when i solo track X then unmute some tracks and then solo one of the unmuted tracks (say track Y), then there is a Unsolo in track X and an Unsolo for track Y, which maybe confusing. I think there should only be 1 Solo track.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:00 pm

I don't agree with the overall approach, I think...

As I see it, you've said you've got two lists:
* Solo'd tracks
* Muted tracks
(And same for anything else with a solo and mute settings, I guess.)

Here's what I think should happen:

When you solo a track, it gets added to the solo'd tracks list. If there's anything in that list, any other track (not in the list) is ineligible to play.

Muting a track adds to the muted tracks. These tracks are not eligible to play.

(However, to re-iterate, the two lists are separate.)

Solo'ing a muted track will not make it play.

Unmuting a solo'd track will make it play.

(I could be persuaded that any solo'd track should play regardless of its mute setting, though... I just feel this is more logical...)

Eggu · Post by **Eggu** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:42 pm

point is, that current implementation is confusing.

alt click track 1 --> solo track 1
now alt click track 2 --> solo track 2
--> now unsolo for all tracks with one more click is not possible any more!
you can fix it by dragging all speaker symbols to reactivate all tracks.

But if you do the same with the racks,
you have to reactive all racks by clicking them individually !
If you have many racks, you have a lot to click !

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:09 pm

Eggu wrote:point is, that current implementation is confusing.

alt click track 1 --> solo track 1
now alt click track 2 --> solo track 2
--> now unsolo for all tracks with one more click is not possible any more!

Which is also logical:

If you solo something, then the unsolo is supposed to step back to the previous situation.

You can fix it by dragging all speaker symbols to reactivate all tracks.
But if you do the same with the racks,
you have to reactive all racks by clicking them individually !
If you have many racks, you have a lot to click !

I think solution is to add a function "Unmute All".

Eggu · Post by **Eggu** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:16 pm

anubis2010 · Post by **anubis2010** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:52 pm

Hi

I too have always found the MULAB solo funtionality a bit odd.

It probably is more complex that this for some users but this is all I need:

1) Four tracks are playing, tracks 1,2,3,4
2) I need to solo track 1, tracks 2,3,4 go off.
3) I need to add track 2, so that tracks 1 and 2 are on and 3,4 are off.
4) and finally unmute all tracks so that 1,2,3,4 are on.

I have read the previous comments on this forum topic and hopefully my method fits in with what has already been offered.

So unmute all seems good.

anubis2010

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:14 pm

"Unmute All"

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:43 pm

I've uploaded a MU.LAB 2.6.1 test patch for Windows at:
http://www.mutools.com/mulab/patch/mula ... -patch.zip

How to install: http://www.mutools.com/mulab/mulab-upda ... -patch.txt

This patch features improved mute/solo/unsolo behaviour for tracks and racks.

Please let me know if this works well for you.

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:02 pm

Almost!

Alt on a Track makes it Solo, but most of the time it happens on the second click.

Alt Click again on another Track Mutes the Solo and makes this one Solo

NOW

Alt Click again on another Track and you get the last 2 tracks on Solo but not the new one.
And other various combinations according to the way you click around.

I know about the context menu but the Alt key has some problems still.

anubis2010 · Post by **anubis2010** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:29 am

Hi

v2.6.1

From my point of view the context menu works fine and is a huge improvement and ticks all my boxes.

I do not use the ALT system for solo/mutes, but Liquidsound is correct the ALT system is working much better but it is a bit buggy as he has already pointed out.

anubis2010

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:35 am

liquidsound wrote:Alt on a Track makes it Solo, but most of the time it happens on the second click.

Are you sure you're [Alt]+clicking the speaker icon?

Alt Click again on another Track Mutes the Solo and makes this one Solo

Yes, that's how it's intended.

Alt Click again on another Track and you get the last 2 tracks on Solo but not the new one. And other various combinations according to the way you click around. I know about the context menu but the Alt key has some problems still.

I'm not sure if i can follow.

Can you give me a step by step procedure to a situation which you think is wrong. Please make sure you [Alt]+click the speaker icon, not the track name.

anubis2010 · Post by **anubis2010** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:24 am

Hi

On closer inspection of the ALT system, it looks OK.

The ALT click seems to work like an A/B switch toggling.

ALT needs the mouse to be on the speaker icon or at least the last 4mm of the track header.

It now looks OK to me, but me being me I would use the context system.

I will let Liquidsound respond to any further issues on the ALT system.

anubis2010

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:06 pm

Here is a short video. Opens with Windows Media Player.

https://www.box.net/shared/ulb4o7p7dl

You can see toward the end is very obvious.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:06 pm

The first time you [Alt]+click a mute it does a Solo.
The second time you [Alt]+click that same mute it does an Unsolo.

Unless you would have done "Unmute All" in between, as that clears all mute and solo states.

If you right-click the mute, you see "Solo" or "Unsolo" depending on its current state.

If this is confusing, then solution will be to only allow a single solo (now MU.LAB supports multiple 'layered' solos).

If we would go for a single exclusive solo, it means that when you solo X all others will be muted and their solo state is erased.

Personally i think the current behaviour is fine.

MuTools

KVR Audio

<solo> not equal <alt rigth click speaker symbol>