Request: smarter "Punch in/out" workflow

[dpn]

I'm doing a lot of guitar overdubs at the time and have found out that the Punch in/out is very cumbersome in Waveform.

If you make mark in and out point where you want to make the overdub and start recording on the guitar track you will still hear the first recording from the market zone. So you have to cut the first recording out of the track, make a new track and move it to the new track (I often won't delete it because I want the best take).
This is very laborious.

Loop recording can't be used because you are not able to hear the tracks before the punch in mark. You can only get 2 bars count in with click track and I don't use click track when I record.
And you still have to cut out what you already have recorded from the track.

What I need is:

In the market Punch in/out zone the underlying clip can't be heard. Only the last recorded can be heard.
It would also be nice if the Punch recording had a loop function where you can desire to hear say 2, 4 and 8 bars before the punch in. It would also be nice to have the same facility as in Loop recording with unpack to new tracks and show takes.

Maybe Loop recording could be changed to do the job?

[Watchful]

I've experienced this, too.

I'll tell you what the solution is, but also why that won't work for you.

The solution is simple: just put the in marker a measure or two ahead of the punch in, and the out marker a measure or two behind.

This gives you a warm up before it punches in, and lets you time to finish a section before it cuts out. The problem has long existed with punch in/out recording long before DAWs were a thing, that you'd often cut off the intro and the outro. Giving yourself a little recording space ahead of and behind the section results in cleaner recordings, with nothing cut off. Then you just do a crossfade and you're done.

This also works wonders for loop recording, because then you *can* hear your run up, and you have all your various takes ready for comping.

Sounds easy, but here's the problem I have with *that*: if the measure just before you start recording has any pitch bend or modulation happening, often my punch in will keep that going. The clips overlap, and while it records okay, it's what you hear during recording that's a mess and it throws me off a lot.

As a result, I'll often create a temp track just for recording punch ins, then drag the comped or best clip out of it and pop it into the correct track when done, rather than work on the exact track. No, that's not perfect, either, unless you mute out the offending section on the original track. Sounds like this is what you're doing.

Incidentally, I'm not aware of any DAWs that handle it better, but I welcome someone correcting me on that. It's how we used to do analog hardware back in the day (well before comp tracks) and sort of learned to live with it.

[dpn]

Yes I have tried the "work around", punching in a little before and after on a new track.
but as you say it's not a solution.

I can see the the issue has been discussed before and it seems that other DAWs can handle it.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=501765

I hope the issue can be solved in an coming upgrade.

[Watchful]

I don't think what you're proposing is undoable, and in fact, I think your suggestions are the first to get into the specific mechanics of how it would work. I'd be interested in that ability, too, obviously. Let's hope Dave or Roland see your idea and add it to the list.