What are User Funstions anyway?

[playcomics]

Has anyone figured out what the User Functions are that I can set to a Midi key? I can't find any information on this option anywhere.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Click on the blank space under User Function - and there's a whole raft of Transport, Track, (8 categories?) with typically a dozen things (stop, start, record, rewind, mute track...).

Is this Waveform 11 or 12? User functions are new to 12.

[jabe]

The third thread on the forum is called Compilation of Working Macros. It has user functions in it and discussions about how to make them and difficulties encountered.

[playcomics]

The third thread on the forum is called Compilation of Working Macros. It has user functions in it and discussions about how to make them and difficulties encountered.

That might be my issue with finding anything, I was specifically looking for Use lr Functions and didn't know Macros were the same thing.

[jabe]

The third thread on the forum is called Compilation of Working Macros. It has user functions in it and discussions about how to make them and difficulties encountered.

That might be my issue with finding anything, I was specifically looking for Use lr Functions and didn't know Macros were the same thing.

I might have jumped the gun here - Peter suggests they're new, and macros are not new. I also only just spotted that the user functions relate to MIDI input.

[Peter Widdicombe]

The USER FUNCTIONS on custom controllers appear to have been introduced in 12; they aren't present in 11.

I'm still not sure how to use them. My GUESS is:
1. Create a Macro and name it User Function {01 thru 20}
2. In the custom controller, select the key you'd like to assign it to, and then the same way you'd
normally map Play/Record/Stop/Rewind/Track/etc, you have a NEW set for User Function 1 thru 20.

However, either this doesn't work, or my simple macro titled "User Function 20" doesn't work. It DOES, however, recognize the keystroke, as I simply tested with the high C on the controller, which now is recognized as a controller function (which doesn't work...) rather than a playable key. If I reassign that to simply "Transport->Play" it does do that.

[playcomics]

Hmmmm, big mystery then. Think it's something not fully developed? A placeholder they thought people wouldn't notice?

[9CrowsInATrenchCoat]

Does anyone have any update on this? It's been close to 2 years and this post is the only reference to the "User Functions" that I can find anywhere.

[pough]

I'd try to help but so far I haven't been able to find any user functions and the one screenshot in this thread is so tightly cropped that it's no help at all.

EDIT: Found it. User Functions are options in the custom control surface mappings in Settings -> Control Surfaces

[Peter Widdicombe]

Big list of tracktion functions in the "show API" index, but nothing on retrieving tempo - although you can SET it...
void insertGlobalChange (string globalType: 'tempo'|'timeSig'|'pitch')

Interesting ones in there - not well documented. Tracktion.speechToText()

[pough]

Big list of tracktion functions...

I think maybe you meant to post that in a different thread about macros...

Anyways, I managed to get something to work. it looks like the user functions refer to the buttons on the quick actions panel. If you show the quick actions panel, User Function 1 will be the first button in the panel shown, User Function 2 the second button, etc.

[Peter Widdicombe]

I kinda figured the user functions and macros were pretty much the same thing. It seems you can actually ASSIGN them as part of a custom controller, but they don't actually do anything. Possibly defining a macro could do the job instead. Interestingly, you CAN have user functions activated by a mapped key, presumably like a macro; they just don't actually work.

I was looking for something to do more than just a single quick action when a button or slider on a custom controller was moved; by tying together multiple system functions into a user function - like when the appropriate button is hit:
- assign focus to the corresponding track for the visual cue
- if already on the track, toggle armed state on or off

Still pretty simplistic, but once THAT is working then it becomes "easier" to do more complex things.

[pough]

I kinda figured the user functions and macros were pretty much the same thing. It seems you can actually ASSIGN them as part of a custom controller, but they don't actually do anything. Possibly defining a macro could do the job instead. Interestingly, you CAN have user functions activated by a mapped key, presumably like a macro; they just don't actually work.

What do you mean by "don't actually do anything" and "don't actually work"?

[pough]

Interesting ones in there - not well documented. Tracktion.speechToText()

After pfaffing about pointlessly trying to figure out how to use that function in a macro*, I eventually realized that the function was in the list of things that could be assigned to a keyboard shortcut. Once I did that I was able to select an audio clip in an Edit and hit the keyboard shortcut.

Something flashed briefly on my screen and apart from that, nothing seemed to happen. I checked the logfile and of course it said absolutely nothing. But when I tried on a very long audio clip I was able to see that a dialog comes up with a progress bar. It briefly shows 0% progress and then disappears.

I guess it's just not working, at least on Windows 10 running Waveform 13.1.2.

* The documentation is so awful for scripting that you really need to make a ton of guesses and no matter what I guessed, I was wrong.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Sorry, a little confusing there.

User function 20 defined, with action Tracktion.startPlayback();
Assigned as a hotkey to <ctrl><shift>u.
Works as expected.

Also assigned in custom controller, with NoteOn[C6]. C6 now doesn't sound, as it has been mapped "to perform other functions", in this case user function 20. However, it doesn't start play.

If NoteOn[c6] is assigned DIRECTLY through the same mechanism, only to Transport/Play through the same mechanism, it does now start or stop playback.

It appears the custom controller can only invoke individual canned functions, or user functions 1-20. Macros may not be callable in this context.