FR: The command "Render Track" doesn't work + Locking the edit of track (write protect)

[No_Man_Land]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to render a track to a new track inside Waveform, but nothing happens! No message from the program and no response whatsoever. Both commands "Render to a new track" and "Render replacing a current track" don't work. The track is not muted - it's a bit strange - Am I missing something here?

Another issue I'm facing in Waveform is the inability of locking the position of clips prior to rendering their track or the whole edit. This is handy especially when comping a big number of guitar takes or having lots of separated clips in one track. All I want is fixing the clips in their positions without creating a group clip. Is there a way to do it? This is doable in another DAW with one button.

Thanks for the answers.

[pough]

When you render there is a dialog box that pops up. The choices made in that dialog box are VERY important. Without knowing what you have selected there, it's not really possible to help you.

De-selecting "pass through plugins" is a common way to end up with an empty render if it's a MIDI track

[Watchful]

Can you explain the clip issue you're experiencing in a bit more detail?

It sounds like you're saying the clips are changing or shifting positions prior to rendering--which is behavior I've never seen. So I'm guessing that's not it.

Can you describe what's happening?

[No_Man_Land]

When you render there is a dialog box that pops up. The choices made in that dialog box are VERY important. Without knowing what you have selected there, it's not really possible to help you.

De-selecting "pass through plugins" is a common way to end up with an empty render if it's a MIDI track

Actually it is an Audio track. The choices in the dialog box all seem logical; wave file, stereo, 44100, 16-bit, Only render marked region (ticked), Pass through plugins (ticked), Render automatically (unticked), Add render options: Add Rendered Tracks. Still nothing works after pressing the Render button, just the dialog box disappears and that's it. Supposedly I should get a newly-added rendered track, but it doesn't happen. I checked the rendered folder and nothing was found there.

[pough]

Is there a marked region? What plugins are on the track - does it render if they are disabled?

[No_Man_Land]

Can you explain the clip issue you're experiencing in a bit more detail?

It sounds like you're saying the clips are changing or shifting positions prior to rendering--which is behavior I've never seen. So I'm guessing that's not it.

Can you describe what's happening?

With pleasure. I haven't said the clips are changing their positions before I intend to render their track, so your guessing was correct, and that's not what I meant.
Actually I am speaking about a feature in Cubase. It really makes a lot of sense if Waveform has something similar or close to it. Just imagine a track with lots of clips, many complicated automation curves, many plugins, with the other variables like volume, panning, EQing...etc. Sometimes and by mistake a person may change one of these things without paying attention to it (particularly the position of clips). Now the Undo function may help, but very often it's hard to notice the change, where it happened, and just getting confused about the necessary Undo steps. By locking the editing of the track in a way that prevents abrupt or unintentional clips shifting, changing the shape of automation curves, splitting clips, lowering volume..., the user can be confident that hours of work won't be lost because of possible-small mistakes. This is completely different from freezing as everything remain the same except the ability to edit certain elements in the track itself. Guitar Pro also has something similar.

Does Waveform have it? If not, is there an alternative way to do it?

[No_Man_Land]

Is there a marked region? What plugins are on the track - does it render if they are disabled?

Yes there is a marked region, and I disabled the plugins but nothing has changed. Then...I figured it out! This track was a part of a Submix, once I unpacked it the render process worked normally. It really confused me. I don't know if it makes sense or not, and if it's right or wrong to have it like that.

[pough]

Locking a track isn't a current feature as far I as know, but it would make a good feature request.

[Watchful]

I figured it out! This track was a part of a Submix, once I unpacked it the render process worked normally. It really confused me. I don't know if it makes sense or not, and if it's right or wrong to have it like that.

Wow, glad you got this sorted out!

Another trick you can do in this situation is to bounce the track.

1. Create a new track called "bounced track."
2. Set its audio input to the submix
3. Mute any tracks in the submix you don't want included
4. Arm the new track for recording.
5. Mute the new track (optional)
6. Position the playhead at the desired point and start recording.

This will record the audio with any added effects or plugins on the track, as well as any plugins or effects on the submix itself, but *not* record any other tracks in the submix (that's step 3, above).

Now you can move that clip wherever you want. Maybe that will help. I do this a lot.

By locking the editing of the track in a way that prevents abrupt or unintentional clips shifting, changing the shape of automation curves, splitting clips, lowering volume..., the user can be confident that hours of work won't be lost because of possible-small mistakes.

Does Waveform have it? If not, is there an alternative way to do it?

Unfortunately, no--but that's a pretty good idea to basically "write protect" a track outside of freezing it. And the devs do read these posts, so that might be an easy option for them to add.

I suspect that a lot of us will start recognizing situations where we wish we had that feature! Like you suspect, freezing helps with a lot of that, but it's not intended to be a write-protect.

[No_Man_Land]

Locking a track isn't a current feature as far I as know, but it would make a good feature request.

Is there an official way to make this feature request?

[pough]

Nope. Most people make feature requests by starting a new topic here and using the prefix FR in the subject.

[No_Man_Land]

Nope. Most people make feature requests by starting a new topic here and using the prefix FR in the subject.

Does it mean I should start a new post with the "FR" in the subject again? To my knowledge it's not possible to edit the subject of this post. If the developers read all the posts here they should know about it now. I wish there is a way to know that.

[Watchful]

Go back to your very first post, click the edit icon, and you can rename the topic.

[mikoatkvr]

Is there an official way to make this feature request?

Tracktion do have a method to ask for features as well as report bugs here :-

https://tracktion.zendesk.com/

The Devs are usually quite active on here as well tho.

[Dark Lane]

Is there a marked region? What plugins are on the track - does it render if they are disabled?

Yes there is a marked region, and I disabled the plugins but nothing has changed. Then...I figured it out! This track was a part of a Submix, once I unpacked it the render process worked normally. It really confused me. I don't know if it makes sense or not, and if it's right or wrong to have it like that.

Good spot! By co-incidence I'd bumped into the same problem, as I'd made some edits to the audio tracks in my drum sub-mix and I wanted to tidy them up by merging the clips into one per track. As you say, all I got was silence! So thanks for figuring out the root cause.

To get round the problem, as there weren't too many tracks I unpacked each one, merged the clips and then put it back into the submix again. What a pain in the a**e!

I don't see why this should be a limitation as surely the signal path is through each track and then sequentially through the sub-mix track and it's plug-ins? So rendering a track within the submix folder shouldn't break anything? After all, all the tracks are part of the stereo master bus and that's not a limitation when it comes to merging clips or rendering.

Anyone from Tracktion able to explain why? I've double checked the user guide and Bills/Zane's videos and nowhere does it mention this as a limitation.