Dear Tracktion, please make the midi tools and functions more ergonomic

[mojkarma]

I know that the feature list for waveform 9 is done, but I'm actually not asking for new features. Instead, I'd like Tracktion to focus on what makes waveform being a great daw, that is intuitiveness. And that is especially lacking when it comes to midi editing.

Fact is actually that waveform has midiwise almost all the tools like the big daws like Cubase or Logic. But unfortunately, the functions are dispersed all around and kinda hidden and that badly influences the workflow and ergonomics.

For example, when you open the midi editor, at the bottom of the editor you see the tools for selecting notes, drawing, deleting, drawing lines or controller data. I often need some other well known tools/functions like splitting, muting or gluing notes together. The funny thing is, waveform has them all, but they are not in the toolbar, instead they are dispersed at different places. For example, to mute a note you have to click on the speaker sign next to the midi velocity window in the bottom menu. Splitting notes and gluing them together is also possible, but these functions are in a submenu of the modify notes menu. All this requires extra clicks or memorizing/creating keyboard shortcuts. Quantize is also very tedious to use. For every single quantize command we have to go into submenus to select what and how we want to quantize. There is even no possibility to create a shortcut.
The split function for some strange reason splits the note exactly in the middle of its length, not at the cursor position or where the user wants to.

Tracktion/Waveform was built around the philosophy to remove the clutter of the "old" daw's. But the midi editing in Waveform is so cluttered that I really hate to use it because it slows me down every time I use it.

I hope that Tracktion will streamline the miditools and put them together at one place (put them simply to the existing miditools): that means, mute/split/glue/quantize should also be tools, easily selectable and at the same place.

[geqfreq]

Check Run script bottom left corner... I felt the same way until i checked it out.

[mojkarma]

I just did and fail to see how this would be of any help?

What I see there is a list of shortcuts. BTW, they got really worse for the midi part. To select a midi tool with a three key combination is absolutely not ergonomic because you have to use both hands. Those shortcuts are useless. In T7 if I remember right, they were a one key combination for select, draw and erase.
The rest contains basic and advanced actions organized in folders and subfolders. Again, I don't see how this would be of any help.

For example: once you made your midi record, you probably want to quantize single notes. A dedicated quantize tool would make this process very easy and fast instead of selecting a note and then diving into menus and submenus just to find and select the desired quantize command. The same is true for other operations. Where did the guys get the idea that the user wants to split a note exactly in the middle of its length?

As I said, a couple of things are not really streamlined in this DAW. I hope they focus a little bit more on how to fasten up the process instead of just putting in new features. The more one works in certain areas, the more tedious it becomes to live with those little quirks.

[whyterabbyt]

I just did and fail to see how this would be of any help?

What I see there is a list of shortcuts.

I think he's pointing out that it shows you every predefined action and custom script that can be bound to a shortcut. Note that its not just what's already bound to shortcuts.

BTW, they got really worse for the midi part. To select a midi tool with a three key combination is absolutely not ergonomic because you have to use both hands. Those shortcuts are useless.

For anything you dont like, change the shortcuts (or add a Macro with a custom shortcut.)

From the 'Settings' page go to Keyboard Shortcuts. In the larger top panel, find the action you want to change, and if the shortcut is shown in a 'grey box' it can be reassigned. You can do that for your MIDI Tools, btw.

Note : If its not in a grey box, then all you need to do is create a Macro which does the same thing, and bind that to the key you want.
First make sure you select the blue 'Show Script Editor' toggle button on the lower right of the Keyboard shortcuts, to display the appropriate panel.

Then, to bind the functionality of, say, 'Cut' to your own single-key shortcut, find 'Cut' (its under Editing Functions), and click on that line; you'll then see the text

Code: Select all

Tracktion.cutSelected(); 

in the lower panel. Copy that text, then click on the 'Add a new macro' button, and paste the text in. (Either that or you can right-click inside the lower panel and you'll get a menu giving you a similar list of actions as you see under the 'Run script' button, with 'Cut' appearing under both 'Standard Shortcuts>Editing Functions' and 'Basic Actions>Editing'; clicking on any action in this list pastes the appropriate code into the lower panel.

The Macro will be called 'Untitled Macro' so rename it to something sane (eg 'myCut').
Now, in the top panel, under 'Macros' you'll see an entry for 'myCut' (or whatever you chose). You can now assign whatever key combination you want to that Macro.

[mojkarma]

Hi whyterabbyt,
thank you for that information. I will certainly take a look on how to use macros. I'm of course aware that existing shortcuts can be changed.
I'm just wondering why they changed them from one version to another.

However, I still hope that the tracktioners will streamline the workflow. Have tools spread across three different places doesn't make sense, in the same way as some half baked functions do not (namely how midi notes are split).

Just a quick add-on:
Macros? I thought that it would record a sequence of commands. Instead it requires actually the knowledge of a programming language. Definitely not user friendly.

[chico.co.uk]

Well, he's literally explained how to create a macro that does whatever it is you want to do, and map it to whatever key you want, so I'm unclear how to make that more friendly for you, the user.

[whyterabbyt]

Well, he's literally explained how to create a macro that does whatever it is you want to do, and map it to whatever key you want, so I'm unclear how to make that more friendly for you, the user.

Admittedly it'd be nice if there was some sort of macro recording or history capture.

(But then you have the issue that if what you record/capture into a macro doesnt do exactly what you want, then the only way to fix it would be to understand some of that programming stuff anyway....)

[mojkarma]

Note : If its not in a grey box, then all you need to do is create a Macro which does the same thing, and bind that to the key you want.
First make sure you select the blue 'Show Script Editor' toggle button on the lower right of the Keyboard shortcuts, to display the appropriate panel.

Then, to bind the functionality of, say, 'Cut' to your own single-key shortcut, find 'Cut' (its under Editing Functions), and click on that line; you'll then see the text

Code: Select all

Tracktion.cutSelected(); 

in the lower panel. Copy that text, then click on the 'Add a new macro' button, and paste the text in. (Either that or you can right-click inside the lower panel and you'll get a menu giving you a similar list of actions as you see under the 'Run script' button, with 'Cut' appearing under both 'Standard Shortcuts>Editing Functions' and 'Basic Actions>Editing'; clicking on any action in this list pastes the appropriate code into the lower panel.

The Macro will be called 'Untitled Macro' so rename it to something sane (eg 'myCut').
Now, in the top panel, under 'Macros' you'll see an entry for 'myCut' (or whatever you chose). You can now assign whatever key combination you want to that Macro.

The problem with your example is that it uses the "cut" function which is already in the shortcut list. The problem is, where do I get the codes for functions which are not in the list? A lot of additional commands are in the script list in the edit view window. I don't see how to get for example the code for "Toggle between full and minimal controls panel"? so that I could create a macro and bind it to a shortcut.

EDIT:
Ok, I have find it out. By right clicking there appear the new commands which are under the run script menu.

@chico.co.uk
I believe I was pretty much clear with my initial post what it is all about. It is not just how to create a certain shortcut for commands which are not listed, it is about workflow and the fact that most often used commands are spread over different places instead of being on one place.
Besides that, changing shortcuts from one version to another is really a ridiculous move. I'm having difficulties right now because I finished first my ongoing projects in T7 and now doing new projects in Waveform and suddenly half of the shortcuts don't work as intended. I'm really curious to know who's "brilliant" idea it was to mix shortcuts upside down.

[chico.co.uk]

I get what you're saying.

You can always go into the settings in Waveform, Keyboard Shortcuts page, and click the "Reset to Defaults" button, and choose "Use legacy Tracktion key-mappings".

[chico.co.uk]

Or if you've added custom shortcuts yourself, in T7, do "Save Key-Mappings" on the shortcuts page in T7, and "Load Key-Mappings" in the shortcuts page in Waveform.

[dRowAudio]

Just to clarify the reasoning behind the shortcuts change. We discussed this for a long time with Bill Edstrom and realised that the defaults needing changing for several reasons:
• The existing mappings were too diverse across OSes (using cmd/ctrl/opt etc. differently on different platforms)
• Followed little logic as they have been added over many years by different people, usually just looking for a free key
• It made it difficult for people reading Bill's book to get up and running immediately as they had to change the key mappings

As Bill had already worked out a much better set of defaults we decided to simply switch to those. This also made more sense now that the manual is free for everyone and included with the app. What kind of manual uses different default shortcuts than those that come with the app.

In order to ease the transition, if you made changes to the mappings, these should have been retained. Additionally, if you really did like the originals, as chico.co.uk says, these can be chosen from the Keyboard shortcuts menu.