I just upgraded (from T6) to Waveform this week and am really positively surprised. Tracktion was what got me here in 2003 but all these years I never considered it very likely that I might return to using Tracktion one day.
And now that Tracktion/Waveform all of a sudden has a real mixer and a real MIDI-Editor that day is here, it appears.
Overall I always really liked Jules' apprach and Waveform has become a rather mature application in the meantime. It is full of useful features, without being in any danger of becoming anywhere nears as cluttered as e.g. Reaper and (to a lesser degree) Sonar have become.
That being said, I think there's still some minor things where I think some small tweaks could greatly improve Waveform.
What I came across so far:
- Why can't I tag Folder and Submix tracks?
- when I un-tick "Show Only Tagged Tracks" nothing at all seems to happen upon selecting Tags. Why does that not hide these selected tags instead?
- this would be especially useful/important, since otherwise hiding tracks always affects both the mixer and the timeline/sequencer
,so currently there is no simple way to e.g. hide send-tracks for the main-view while still showing them in the mixer. The only way is to select all other tags, but then I lose the functionality to quickly select/show only one or two tags and I MUST tag EVERY track for this to work.
- (this is of lesser importance) why can't I fully maximize the mixer unless it is in a seperate tab?
(having it in a sperate tab is not useful to me, since I am used toquickly switching to and from the mixer by simply htting "m" (which otherwise now works flawlessly in Waveform, except that it can't use all the available screenspace and always insist on visually cluttering up the top above it with stuff I neither need nor want to see.
- (this is of course also of lesser importance) why can't I fully maximize the MIDI-editor? When I manually resize the window (for lack of a maximize function), there's a few pixels on the side left.
- renaming tracks could really use some improvement. I can't simply double-click on the name in order to rename it. I can't simply right-click the track to access ist menu and select the respective function. I first have to select the track and onyl then can right-click it. That is already a little cumbersome and in the ways of a smooth workflow when having to rename (say) ten tracks in a row, BUT what is imo worse is that if I made a Little typo, I have to retype the whole name instead of being able to correct what I have written already.
- Optional Mute/Solo buttons on the track-headers. Since Waveform now has got a proper mixer I actually have no use for the Outputs Panel anymore (and what a joy that is). However that means there's no quick and simple way of muting/soloing tracks anymore. I either Need to open the mixer or the Output Panel to have access to this basic functionality.
That's it for the moment.
Minor Niggles
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- KVRAF
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Ah, I just realized that I can easily rename tracks in the mixer - that is good enough for me, so scratch that from my list.
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- KVRist
- 228 posts since 2 Feb, 2015
I agree it needs folder tagging.
The "Show only tagged tracks" turns the tagging system on and off. If it's unticked tags have no effect. I personally find Waveforms tagging system to be better than the track view system of other daws. If you tag your tracks properly, navigating even large projects is very fast. Give tracks multiple tags. An aux could have aux, guitar and vocal tags for instance, and then if you control click the tag guitar it will show all guitar tracks and any aux,s they feed. At the moment there is a bug where the mixer doesn't respond to tag changes unless you open and close it and this needs sorting out, but navigating the mixer using tags is also very fast. You have to get in to the habit of tagging tracks as you create them.
I also agree the mixer needs to be unpinable like the midi editor. Not sure what you mean by the "few pixels" thing. Is that really noticable.
You rename multiple tracks in the control panel. Any number can be renamed instantly.
The arrange view could do with seperate mute/solo's as you say, however I don't mind opening and closing the mixer as it's very fast. You can also solo and mute multiple tracks in the control panel. Track grouping would also be useful and particularly the ability to group faders.
The dev's should concentrate on polishing Waveform from now on as it's overall functionality is very powerful. It just needs refining a bit and then it will be even better.
The "Show only tagged tracks" turns the tagging system on and off. If it's unticked tags have no effect. I personally find Waveforms tagging system to be better than the track view system of other daws. If you tag your tracks properly, navigating even large projects is very fast. Give tracks multiple tags. An aux could have aux, guitar and vocal tags for instance, and then if you control click the tag guitar it will show all guitar tracks and any aux,s they feed. At the moment there is a bug where the mixer doesn't respond to tag changes unless you open and close it and this needs sorting out, but navigating the mixer using tags is also very fast. You have to get in to the habit of tagging tracks as you create them.
I also agree the mixer needs to be unpinable like the midi editor. Not sure what you mean by the "few pixels" thing. Is that really noticable.
You rename multiple tracks in the control panel. Any number can be renamed instantly.
The arrange view could do with seperate mute/solo's as you say, however I don't mind opening and closing the mixer as it's very fast. You can also solo and mute multiple tracks in the control panel. Track grouping would also be useful and particularly the ability to group faders.
The dev's should concentrate on polishing Waveform from now on as it's overall functionality is very powerful. It just needs refining a bit and then it will be even better.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Yes, and that's exacly what I mean. Unticking it turns the tags into buttons that do nothing at allAGreen wrote: If it's unticked tags have no effect.
, instead of offering alternative functionality.
Having said that, toggling between Hide, Show Only and Off -state would be another good solution - perhaps the best even.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Yes, it certainly is - I simply meant that it is impossible to resize the MIDI Editor so that it takes up the full width of the screen as the maximum width is a bit narrower, which imo makes it look untidy.AGreen wrote:Not sure what you mean by the "few pixels" thing. Is that really noticable.
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- KVRist
- 228 posts since 2 Feb, 2015
The midi editor must be working differently on your system. I can resize it until there is just a very thin white border line down the right hand side.
Multiple tag functionality might be useful, but also confusing. In a large project don't you really want to see a specific set of tracks rather than hide tracks. You can always select multiple tags. That's the beauty of it, it's very flexible.
Multiple tag functionality might be useful, but also confusing. In a large project don't you really want to see a specific set of tracks rather than hide tracks. You can always select multiple tags. That's the beauty of it, it's very flexible.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Strange, now resizing worked here better too - pilot-error, it seems. 
Personally I would certainly in many cases prefer hiding over showing-only.
That is because I prefer folder-tracks over tagging to reduce normal timeline-clutter (and that is especially true since I can still arrange clips using the folder-tracks, which is a really great feature) and rather want to use the tagging to hide tracks such as sends which do not contain any Clips but are just used as mixer-channels.
Keep in mind that the mixer always is linked to the main view, so I can't just create a folder which I keep collapsed since that means it's automatically collapsed in the mixer too. Hence I might end up with (say) ten tracks that I can't easily hide from the main view/sequencer even though they don't contain any clips at all - i.e (potential áutomation aside) I do NOT EVER want to see them in the timeline view / main window.
I could at least minimize their height, but since it seems there's no way to lock the height of a track they're back in my way the next time I want to resize those tracks that actually contain clips.
Personally I would certainly in many cases prefer hiding over showing-only.
That is because I prefer folder-tracks over tagging to reduce normal timeline-clutter (and that is especially true since I can still arrange clips using the folder-tracks, which is a really great feature) and rather want to use the tagging to hide tracks such as sends which do not contain any Clips but are just used as mixer-channels.
Keep in mind that the mixer always is linked to the main view, so I can't just create a folder which I keep collapsed since that means it's automatically collapsed in the mixer too. Hence I might end up with (say) ten tracks that I can't easily hide from the main view/sequencer even though they don't contain any clips at all - i.e (potential áutomation aside) I do NOT EVER want to see them in the timeline view / main window.
I could at least minimize their height, but since it seems there's no way to lock the height of a track they're back in my way the next time I want to resize those tracks that actually contain clips.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Well, there is actually a really beautyful solution:
I forgot that tracks can have multiple tags - so I just have to create an additional tag (I called it "Timeline")
which includes all the tracks that contain clips.
The only problem that remains is, that Folders and Submixes aren't taggable, so they're still always shown.
I forgot that tracks can have multiple tags - so I just have to create an additional tag (I called it "Timeline")
which includes all the tracks that contain clips.
The only problem that remains is, that Folders and Submixes aren't taggable, so they're still always shown.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
And I can even create Tags for individual song sections (to hide tracks that aren't used for this section)
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
*sigh* Unfortunately this always affects the mixer too - at first I didn't notice because it's not happening at once but only after closing and re-opening the mixer (as is the case for otherwise hiding tracks)
Still better than nothing though, I guess.
Still better than nothing though, I guess.
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- KVRist
- 228 posts since 2 Feb, 2015
Yes the mixer has a bug with regard to tags at the moment. It doesn't respond to changes until you close it.
I've stopped using folders because of the tagging problem. Instead I feed tracks in to another track if I need a submix bus and use a little trick with modulators to control levels if the tracks also feed aux's so that the aux level doesn't change with respect to the tracks which happens if you change the submix volume. I only use the submix for effects not volume control.
I put an extra volume control on each track, assign a modulator to each of the volume controls then set the intensity to zero and use the offset to control the levels. This creates the equivalent of a vca and allows you to control the volume of track groups.
I've stopped using folders because of the tagging problem. Instead I feed tracks in to another track if I need a submix bus and use a little trick with modulators to control levels if the tracks also feed aux's so that the aux level doesn't change with respect to the tracks which happens if you change the submix volume. I only use the submix for effects not volume control.
I put an extra volume control on each track, assign a modulator to each of the volume controls then set the intensity to zero and use the offset to control the levels. This creates the equivalent of a vca and allows you to control the volume of track groups.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Is there a way I missed to somehow lock a plugin's opened GUI to the Rack window it's residing in or to otherwise directly open the GUI of that plugin without having to open the Rack window first?
Or is there a way I missed to otherwise use multi-out plugins that to use the known Rack method?
For me it's a real showstopper when I first have to open a Rack's window whenever I want to access my Drum-Instrument of choice...
how do others approach this, how is this intended to function by the developers themselves?
Or is there a way I missed to otherwise use multi-out plugins that to use the known Rack method?
For me it's a real showstopper when I first have to open a Rack's window whenever I want to access my Drum-Instrument of choice...
how do others approach this, how is this intended to function by the developers themselves?
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- KVRAF
- 1991 posts since 12 Mar, 2004
Couple from me that would pull me back to Tracktion from Reaper.
1 be able to move a clip by clicking anywhere on it rather than the top bar of the clip, it is very cumbersome with small clips on the timeline.
2 a separate edit cursor to the play cursor, i simply cant do slicing and cutting all the time with playback stopped, that is just too 2003.
3 MIDI editor maximize but also ability to tab it ala the mixer.
4 Automation clips
I would love to simplify my life back to Tracktion, but it is just missing the mark right now.
1 be able to move a clip by clicking anywhere on it rather than the top bar of the clip, it is very cumbersome with small clips on the timeline.
2 a separate edit cursor to the play cursor, i simply cant do slicing and cutting all the time with playback stopped, that is just too 2003.
3 MIDI editor maximize but also ability to tab it ala the mixer.
4 Automation clips
I would love to simplify my life back to Tracktion, but it is just missing the mark right now.
Duh
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- KVRist
- 228 posts since 2 Feb, 2015
Right click the rack then click "Select one of the plugins in this rack".jens wrote:Is there a way I missed to somehow lock a plugin's opened GUI to the Rack window it's residing in or to otherwise directly open the GUI of that plugin without having to open the Rack window first?
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 25042 posts since 12 Jul, 2003 from West Caprazumia
Ah, thanks - I had tried that and it didn't work, but now I realized that this is just some bug as it sometimes does indeed work - if it doesn't, I first have to bring up the rack again and afterwards it will work until I manually close the window (plugin's GUI) and then it won't work until I open the rack again once.
If I don't manually close it, it will automatically disappear - if it's unlocked - as soon as I click on the Mixer, a Clip or a Track. It won't disppear e.g. when clicking on the Controls Panel.
If it has been locked, after unlocking it first won't automatically disappear, but instead I have to manually close it. I then can bring it up again
by using the function "Select one of the plugins in this rack".
It's certainly rather buggy ATM.
If I don't manually close it, it will automatically disappear - if it's unlocked - as soon as I click on the Mixer, a Clip or a Track. It won't disppear e.g. when clicking on the Controls Panel.
If it has been locked, after unlocking it first won't automatically disappear, but instead I have to manually close it. I then can bring it up again
by using the function "Select one of the plugins in this rack".
It's certainly rather buggy ATM.