Decided to write an actual cue: Observations and questions about T7

[gesslr]

Hi folks,

I decided that the only way to really grok T7 is to write an actual cue with it. I'm writing 1:30 sec of music for a pitch for a commercial. I need to turn this in by next Friday.

Here are things I've noted thus far as bugs, head scratchers, or just plain questions. There are also a few out-and-out feature requests (designated with [FR]. I had planned to post these after I was done, but if there is a work around for any of these, PLEASE post as it would be helpful.

1) Is there anyway to mute midi clips or individual notes (not tracks)? The work around I am using at the moment is to change the midi channel of the clip to something that is not being used, but that's a bit of a pain if you want to prototype ideas at the clip level quickly. (Answered in thread)

2) [FR] Is it possible in the next release to have the color/hue/shade of the plugin submenu that pops up in the plugin selector vary slightly from the main plugin selection menu? For example when I choose Native Instruments, then get the list of NI plugins, can that list of NI plugins be in a slightly different shade so I can differentiate it from the main list easier? (Hope that makes sense.) (Discussed in thread)

3) Someone mentioned this earlier, but editing note velocity when it is coincident with the beginning of a midi clip is almost impossible. My work around is to grab the notes, move them slightly, edit the velocities, then move them back. Less than ideal. (Discussed in thread)

4) I have noticed that if a midi clip and midi note starts at the exact same time, the midi note is sometimes/often ignored or fires inconsistently. My work around is to start the midi clip a 1/16th before the midi note to "catch" the start. As I use markers to delineate hit points, this means my midi clips always have to start ahead of the markers/hit points to ensure consistent playback. Not a great workflow, and not a problem I have in other DAWs. (Discussed in thread)

I will post more here as I move through the project, but if anyone has encountered similar or knows of workarounds or if I am just plain doing something wrong, please let me know.

Thanks.

Additional questions (added 17 March)

5) [?] Is it possible to turn off automation on a track? Not delete it, just turn it off for a particular track?

6) [?] Is there a midi event list anywhere?

7) [?] Can render clips be set to the project sample rate by default? I do most of my work at 48/24 and whenever I want to render a clip, Kontakt throws a dialogue box asking to be restarted because the render settings seem to be set at a default of 44.1/16 and this differs from the project rate.

8.) [FR] Can edit descriptions in the settings tab include the sample rate of the projects/edit? Yes, we could add that in the descriptions manually, but would it be difficult to just grab that info and display it as part of the info shown automatically?

9.) [FR] Is there anyway to organize the picture-based plugin chooser? (Discussed in original thread)

10) [FR] When you render a clip, can the dialogue/options window have a drop down list of existing tracks in the edit as possible destinations? Extra points if only those tracks with audio assets on them are listed.

[whyterabbyt]

1) Is there anyway to mute midi clips or individual notes (not tracks)? The work around I am using at the moment is to change the midi channel of the clip to something that is not being used, but that's a bit of a pain if you want to prototype ideas at the clip level quickly.

Yeah, a clip-level Mute toggle would be handy.

[jradiacom]

to mute clip - click the speaker icon below the midi channel assignment in the control area

[dRowAudio]

Hi gesslr, thanks for the feedback. I'll do my best to answer:

1) Is there anyway to mute midi clips or individual notes (not tracks)? The work around I am using at the moment is to change the midi channel of the clip to something that is not being used, but that's a bit of a pain if you want to prototype ideas at the clip level quickly.

There's no way to mute notes at the moment but you can mute a whole clip with the speaker icon in the clip properties. The clip will go grey when you do this.

2) Is it possible in the next release to have the color/hue/shade of the plugin submenu that pops up in the plugin selector vary slightly from the main plugin selection menu? For example when I choose Native Instruments, then get the list of NI plugins, can that list of NI plugins be in a slightly different shade so I can differentiate it from the main list easier? (Hope that makes sense.)

I doubt we'll add this as it's a fairly unusual request. Most pop-up menus use the same colour for the backgrounds. Surely the different amount of text and size of the menus is a good enough differentiator?
Alternatively you can use the side 'Search' panel to browse plugins. For example just type "native instruments" to see all NI plugs.

3) Someone mentioned this earlier, but editing note velocity when it is coincident with the beginning of a midi clip is almost impossible. My work around is to grab the notes, move them slightly, edit the velocities, then move them back. Less than ideal.

I think this may be a slight confusion of the MIDI tools. If you use the 'select', arrow tool you should be able to edit the velocity handle just fine.
The pencil tool is actually for drawing multiple velocities at once. E.g. hold the mouse down in the velocity editor and then drag across a number of notes. The velocities will snap to where the pencil crossed the note. You'll see this works with the first note if you drag from the right to the left over it.
I do agree the tolerance could be adjusted slightly though so it behaves more like the select tool on single notes.

4) I have noticed that if a midi clip and midi note starts at the exact same time, the midi note is sometimes/often ignored or fires inconsistently. My work around is to start the midi clip a 1/16th before the midi note to "catch" the start. As I use markers to delineate hit points, this means my midi clips always have to start ahead of the markers/hit points to ensure consistent playback. Not a great workflow, and not a problem I have in other DAWs.

I've not seen this. Perhaps if you can create a minimal example (i.e. fresh Edit, one clip, one plugin) we can see what might be causing it? Notes should play no matter where you press play from, even in the middle of a note.


Hope that helps!

[whyterabbyt]

to mute clip - click the speaker icon below the midi channel assignment in the control area

Yeah, but it makes more sense ergonomically to have it as a button on the clip, same as the looping toggle button.

[gesslr]

to mute clip - click the speaker icon below the midi channel assignment in the control area

Yeah, but it makes more sense ergonomically to have it as a button on the clip, same as the looping toggle button.

Thanks. The speaker icon is helpful indeed.

Being able to mute/unmute clips from the arrange page as above would be really helpful ....

[gesslr]

Hi gesslr, thanks for the feedback. I'll do my best to answer:

2) Is it possible in the next release to have the color/hue/shade of the plugin submenu that pops up in the plugin selector vary slightly from the main plugin selection menu? For example when I choose Native Instruments, then get the list of NI plugins, can that list of NI plugins be in a slightly different shade so I can differentiate it from the main list easier? (Hope that makes sense.)

I doubt we'll add this as it's a fairly unusual request. Most pop-up menus use the same colour for the backgrounds. Surely the different amount of text and size of the menus is a good enough differentiator?
Alternatively you can use the side 'Search' panel to browse plugins. For example just type "native instruments" to see all NI plugs.

Take a look at this screen shot I uploaded. I don't really see a difference in text size and size. (The shadow effect is more prominent here than on the screen probably because of the jpg compression.) The text lines up pretty spot on.

submenu-jpg.jpg

Mind you this isn't a huge deal. But if there were a way to differentiate it somehow, it would be helpful.

3) Someone mentioned this earlier, but editing note velocity when it is coincident with the beginning of a midi clip is almost impossible. My work around is to grab the notes, move them slightly, edit the velocities, then move them back. Less than ideal.

I think this may be a slight confusion of the MIDI tools. If you use the 'select', arrow tool you should be able to edit the velocity handle just fine.
The pencil tool is actually for drawing multiple velocities at once. E.g. hold the mouse down in the velocity editor and then drag across a number of notes. The velocities will snap to where the pencil crossed the note. You'll see this works with the first note if you drag from the right to the left over it.
I do agree the tolerance could be adjusted slightly though so it behaves more like the select tool on single notes.

4) I have noticed that if a midi clip and midi note starts at the exact same time, the midi note is sometimes/often ignored or fires inconsistently. My work around is to start the midi clip a 1/16th before the midi note to "catch" the start. As I use markers to delineate hit points, this means my midi clips always have to start ahead of the markers/hit points to ensure consistent playback. Not a great workflow, and not a problem I have in other DAWs.

I've not seen this. Perhaps if you can create a minimal example (i.e. fresh Edit, one clip, one plugin) we can see what might be causing it? Notes should play no matter where you press play from, even in the middle of a note.

OK. I'll try to put something together later today and send it your way.

Hope that helps!

It does! Thank you.

I've added a few things to the original post.

[nitex]

8.) Is there anyway to organize the picture-based plugin chooser?

Kind of, after having sorted my plugins into custom groups with the "Custom menu editor" in the plugin settings tab, the visual plugin finder keeps the new order too. You have to change also the setting "Plugin Selector" to "Custom popup menu".

[chico.co.uk]

to mute clip - click the speaker icon below the midi channel assignment in the control area

Yeah, but it makes more sense ergonomically to have it as a button on the clip, same as the looping toggle button.

Thanks. The speaker icon is helpful indeed.

Being able to mute/unmute clips from the arrange page as above would be really helpful ....

There's a keyboard shortcut for Mute Clip. By default it's Shift + _ but you could change it to whatever you like, if you use it a lot.