Few Questions About Waveform

[Peter Widdicombe]

There ARE other tools you also get in the Pro version to be considered... Groove Doctor is one of those. What I really wish was available was a clear deliniation of what is in Free, Pro, etc.

Site needs a chart with things like Groove Doctor, chord companion, arpeggiator, filters, EQ's, Auto-Tune, Melodyne, included VST instruments...

[ChiroVette]

Peter Widdicombe, my sense is that the differences between the free and the Pro Version, as well as all the various packages, are going to be very important to much more sophisticated users than me.

I am hitting a little bit of a brick wall in that I am not a bass player, keyboard player or drummer, and so it is very difficult for me to add in those tracks in the so far thankfully rare instances I have needed to do so. I am lucky that I purchased a bunch of backing tracks, mostly Dead tunes, by subscribing to the creator's Patreon page for a month. Best $35.00 I ever spent, by the way. For that membership, I was able to download all the individual wave files for every track. Don't get me wrong, this content creator was NOT tailoring his content to me, since I have had decades of experience with this material. There are a ton of mistakes I have so far been mostly able to correct with some very creative use of Waveform. I also needed to re-record a bunch of the rhythm guitar tracks that weren't up to my standards. Still, they are surprisingly good quality for backing tracks, and the content creator is a big Deadhead, so mostly he did a very good job.

But there are one or two songs that had parts that I was faced with a choice. Figure out how to re-record drums, bass, and various keys for them, or scrap the song entirely.

Sorry about giving you my bio, lol, but I think it's important to specify that I seriously do not see myself ever creating or trying to reproduce songs from the ground up. Just not my wheelhouse. Even just doing a drum track for one or two of the songs has me wanting to slit my wrists and drain my blood into a tub of warm water. I just have no functional idea where to put the snare, Tom(s), high-hats, symbols, and kick. Don't get me wrong, in the couple of tunes I had to do it in (and chose not to just scrap) I was able to load up a bunch of live Dead stuff and listen for various drums in the mix to try and replicate it.

THANK GOD in one case, I only needed to fabricate like a 30 second part that was flat-out wrong and had to be re-done from the ground up. In the other case, it is a really slow song that he left out drums entirely, and the majority of what you hear (in the live versions I listened to) was high hat triplets almost throughout the song, and very, very light kick, some snare, some other symbols, and Toms. The drummers REALLY laid back on this tune, and even that took me a few hours to get right. lol Thank God the keyboard parts were there and fine, or I would have abandoned the song.

Honestly, at least for now, it is a non-starter for me to try and create entire songs, particularly jam band stuff that has a lot of circuitous, signature parts and jams.

Before I even try anything like that, I would simply contact some of the better musicians in my metaphorical Rolodex I have played with over the years, and drag them into a recording studio, where I will rent some time under the condition that I get copies of all the individual tracks. It wouldn't even need any rehearsal with these guys, because they are very good, and I don't care about it being perfect, because Tracktion has shown itself to be incredibly good at cleaning up a lot of extraneous crap in the mix. Plus I don't need to keep any vocals, since I will be re-recording all harmonies and lead vox anyway at home.

Really, all I need from them and the studio is one decent run through, and any mistakes can just be re-played after the song, and recorded, so I can cut and paste them in after deleting the mistakes in the tracks.

Like I said, Waveform has changed my life. I would never have even considered undertaking a milestone project like this if I didn't have a DAW this amazing at editing and cleaning stuff up on tracks and in the mix.

[Watchful]

Unrelated, ChiroVette, but I like any guitarist who doesn't automatically consider himself a bass player!

[ChiroVette]

Unrelated, ChiroVette, but I like any guitarist who doesn't automatically consider himself a bass player!

LMAO I hear you. Although, I will say that, as a lead guitarist, I would probably have a much, much easier time replicating bass parts on a bass than I would with drums and keys, but then I would have to borrow or purchase a bass. But, no, a bass player I am definitely not.

[Watchful]

Hah. Neither are the vast majority of guitarists!

[Peter Widdicombe]

Hah. I'm the other way around. I play bass, and it shows when I pick up a guitar. I play mostly barre chords (and play with the BACK of my fingernails instead of a pick), and when doing simple leads use 2 fingers

[ChiroVette]

Hah. Neither are the vast majority of guitarists!

I like to stay in my lane. A lot of guitarists don't understand that a bass isn't just a low register 4 string guitar with big, fat strings. There is a whole philosophy that comes with being a bass player that is completely different than playing guitar.

That said, because I am a somewhat proficient lead guitarists, if I really wanted to, I could probably sit down with a song and force myself to learn the bass parts in a song, and replicate them, but that still doesn't make me a bass player because I learned a bass line by rote and played it competently for a recording.

Hah. I'm the other way around. I play bass, and it shows when I pick up a guitar. I play mostly barre chords (and play with the BACK of my fingernails instead of a pick), and when doing simple leads use 2 fingers

That sounds brutal, particularly the fingernails part.

[ChiroVette]

Bumping this because I am having trouble with the Submix issue I spoke about with Watchful above. When I select a bunch of tracks and right click on them, I get a bunch of options, but nothing about packing them to a submix. I can, however, create a Submix Track by going to the Track Menu on the bottom, when I expand it. The problem is, When I select a bunch of tracks, by holding Alt and dragging the mouse over them, so that they are all selected, when I go to the Track menu again, the "Pack Selected Tracks to a Submix Track" is greyed out and un-selectable. If I right click on the new Submix Track I created, it un-selects the tracks so I can't pack them into the submix.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a Premium feature?

[pough]

Alt+drag doesn't select tracks, does it? It selects clips. I've never used the free version, but to do what you're wanting to do I would select a track (click on the are at the far left where it says eg. "Track 3") and Shift+click on the last track to select a bunch (or Ctrl+click to add individual tracks to your selection) and then right-click on any of the selected tracks (on the are at the far left only, not within the track lane) to get the menu.

Selected tracks get a white outline.

[ChiroVette]

Alt+drag doesn't select tracks, does it? It selects clips.

That was my mistake. I confused clips with tracks. Thanks for the answer!

[Peter Widdicombe]

Yeah, and fun facts, for those with multiple MIDI output devices, or those that have multi-timbral VST's. TRACKS have output devices. CLIPS have MIDI channel designations, and can have imbedded patch changes.