Waveform 8.2.0 available, Not Beta

[tonedef71]

Always-on-top windows are not always a good idea in a DAW. A plug-in like Kontakt 5, which likes to pop up dialog confirmation windows (e.g. "Are you sure you want to reset this multi?") that are modal, can effectively freeze up a DAW. While the modal dialog window is active, the always-on-top window cannot be moved or minimized; if the always-on-top window has obscured the plug-in's modal dialog window, it will prevent the user from being able to acknowledge and dismiss the modal dialog window. If the user cannot somehow bring the modal dialog window in front of the always-on-top window, the only recourse he/she has is to forcibly kill the DAW process. No fun!

Yes, this is precisely why modal dialogs in plugins are evil and should never be used.
In the host, we have to set the plugin windows to always on top however, otherwise they constantly fall behind the main UI which makes them very difficult to use.

I agree -- modal dialog windows in software that is hosted within other software is especially bad practice. That said, this ongoing problem is an unfortunate reality: many plug-ins, including popular ones such as Kontakt 5, do throw up modal dialog windows. The modal dialog windows must not be allowed to be obscured by a plugin's UI window.

Is there a z-order value that is one unit away from the value for absolute top that can instead be set for the plugin-editor windows (e.g. maxvalue - 1, or minvalue + 1)?

Can the main UI window be given a z-order value that places it much further away from the absolute top?

As a compromise, what about providing an option in the DAW that allows the user to decide for his/herself whether or not he/she wants the always-on-top functionality enabled for the plugin-editor windows? That way, users who know that they do not have any plug-ins installed which throw up modal dialog windows can have the option enabled, whereas folks who have plugins like Kontakt 5 installed can opt to disable the always-on-top functionality for plugin windows.

Forcibly killing an unresponsive Tracktion/Waveform DAW should not be considered an acceptable solution to this real problem.

[gesslr]

Always-on-top windows are not always a good idea in a DAW. A plug-in like Kontakt 5, which likes to pop up dialog confirmation windows (e.g. "Are you sure you want to reset this multi?") that are modal, can effectively freeze up a DAW. While the modal dialog window is active, the always-on-top window cannot be moved or minimized; if the always-on-top window has obscured the plug-in's modal dialog window, it will prevent the user from being able to acknowledge and dismiss the modal dialog window. If the user cannot somehow bring the modal dialog window in front of the always-on-top window, the only recourse he/she has is to forcibly kill the DAW process. No fun!

Gawd yes. I hate it when this happens.

[Hermu]

Always-on-top windows are not always a good idea in a DAW. A plug-in like Kontakt 5, which likes to pop up dialog confirmation windows (e.g. "Are you sure you want to reset this multi?") that are modal, can effectively freeze up a DAW. While the modal dialog window is active, the always-on-top window cannot be moved or minimized; if the always-on-top window has obscured the plug-in's modal dialog window, it will prevent the user from being able to acknowledge and dismiss the modal dialog window. If the user cannot somehow bring the modal dialog window in front of the always-on-top window, the only recourse he/she has is to forcibly kill the DAW process. No fun!

Gawd yes. I hate it when this happens.

why??
but it means, always last open is on top ...

[Hermu]

Always-on-top windows are not always a good idea in a DAW. A plug-in like Kontakt 5, which likes to pop up dialog confirmation windows (e.g. "Are you sure you want to reset this multi?") that are modal, can effectively freeze up a DAW. While the modal dialog window is active, the always-on-top window cannot be moved or minimized; if the always-on-top window has obscured the plug-in's modal dialog window, it will prevent the user from being able to acknowledge and dismiss the modal dialog window. If the user cannot somehow bring the modal dialog window in front of the always-on-top window, the only recourse he/she has is to forcibly kill the DAW process. No fun!

Gawd yes. I hate it when this happens.

why??
because olways on top means, always last open is on top ...

[tonedef71]

why??
because olways on top means, always last open is on top ...

I am not sure why, but when a plug-in window is set to "always-on top", it often obscures its own pop-up modal dialog notifications; perhaps the modal pop-ups do not get assigned the top most z-order level priority.

[chico.co.uk]

Always-on-top windows are not always a good idea in a DAW. A plug-in like Kontakt 5, which likes to pop up dialog confirmation windows (e.g. "Are you sure you want to reset this multi?") that are modal, can effectively freeze up a DAW. While the modal dialog window is active, the always-on-top window cannot be moved or minimized; if the always-on-top window has obscured the plug-in's modal dialog window, it will prevent the user from being able to acknowledge and dismiss the modal dialog window. If the user cannot somehow bring the modal dialog window in front of the always-on-top window, the only recourse he/she has is to forcibly kill the DAW process. No fun!

Gawd yes. I hate it when this happens.

why??
because olways on top means, always last open is on top ...

No it doesn't.

[bungle]

Wheres the changelog, i cant be bothered going through all that email and picture garbage to download a demo if it just has a couple bug fixes.
Previous customer, has account, logged in, tries to download demo "Please fill out all this crap" FAIL !!!!!

[chico.co.uk]

Curiously, I can't be bothered posting a link to the release notes.

[dRowAudio]

Wheres the changelog, i cant be bothered going through all that email and picture garbage to download a demo if it just has a couple bug fixes.
Previous customer, has account, logged in, tries to download demo "Please fill out all this crap" FAIL !!!!!

The release notes are in the same place as always, available from the "notes" link from the downloads section of your account: https://marketplace.tracktion.com/shop/ ... notes/?v=8

There's only about 5 fields you need to fill out but I'll ask our web master if this can be improved for those already with accounts.

[bungle]

Wheres the changelog, i cant be bothered going through all that email and picture garbage to download a demo if it just has a couple bug fixes.
Previous customer, has account, logged in, tries to download demo "Please fill out all this crap" FAIL !!!!!

The release notes are in the same place as always, available from the "notes" link from the downloads section of your account: https://marketplace.tracktion.com/shop/ ... notes/?v=8

There's only about 5 fields you need to fill out but I'll ask our web master if this can be improved for those already with accounts.

I assume you just make the software, advice time, sack the web developer, the site is terrible.
It isn't in downloads, I don't own Waveform, I own a previous version, so the notes are for that, not Waveform.
Every time i go to try the demo or indeed i have gone to purchase a few times, the website is so terrible i just gave up, this is 2017, and a poor website reflects upon my trust of the company.

And normally when software says "A new version is available" it does not redirect you to a site that wants you to re enter your details again, it just starts the download.

[jabe]

I have T7 but not Waveform. I logged in, but didn't have to fill in any extra stuff. It put me into the MarketPlace, which wasn't where the release notes were going to be, and there didn't seem to be any obvious way to get to Waveform itself. Most of the menu headers from the home page had disappeared. Still, once I'd logged in, I only had to click on the above link and it took me to the Waveform release notes.

[netsvetaev]

Since T7 I have a bug or just strange behavior: if I change plugin parameters or just track's volume when playing, then they not saving. So I can change them only when playback stopped. Is that normal?

[netsvetaev]

Also a small interface bug (or feature, huh?): when showing a plugin's gui, plugin window is on top but off focus. And even after I click on it, I have focus on plugin at the outputs panel. So after that if I press, for example, "delete", it will delete plugin itself, not something in plugin's window.

[rhydermike]

Just a quick note to confirm that I have had the "crashing black windows" problem with VSTs on Linux too with 8.20.0, but I've only just noticed it as I'd been away from music for a while. My setup is Xubuntu 64 bit. Going back to 8.16.0 seems to have fixed the problem. Best of luck fixing this for the next upgrade.

[dRowAudio]

We're hopefully getting a new beta up soon with some changes for the Linux plugin windowing.
I think this should bring consistency between platforms but it's unearthed another problem with some of our plugins on Linux so that they open too small. We're looking in to this but a fix will need to be issued for the plugins themselves, it appears to be a timing issue with window size messages through the X11 RPC message protocol for info.