Tracktion Waveform 12 - Request New Features and Fixes

[ndrw9138]

After updating from 12.1 to 12.5, I'm experiencing a bug when starting Waveform on macOS 13. It prompts me for my password every time: "Waveform 12 (64-bit) wants to make changes. Enter your password to allow this." Whether I enter my password or just close out of the pop up, Waveform still starts up and otherwise works normally.

Tracktion support kindly sent me this:

Upon startup, Waveform looks for a couple of directories that it needs to have write access to and tries to fix these if they don't have access. These are:
~/Library/Application Support/Tracktion/Keyfiles
~/Library/Application Support/Tracktion/Waveform/Factory Presets
~/Library/Application Support/Tracktion/Waveform/Presets
Other custom preset folders you have have set in "Loop Properties"

Once this has run however, it shouldn't need to run again so I'm not sure why it's continuously asking you...
Can you find the above folders in the finder, do a "Get Info" on then and ensure "<username> (me)" has read/write access?


The issue for me was solved by changing Waveform's keyfile permissions to read/write for 'Staff & Everyone'.

[Aofsmith]

Hi everyone.

Was having a look at using at WF 12, currently using Cubase 12 but feeling a tad uninspired atm. Just wondered about a few features moving over to WF12.

1. Does WF12 have the ability to move through audio with the tab key, and landing on the next transient. I use this feature a lot when chopping audio in Cubase.

2. Currently in Cubase I can select any audio event on the arrangement, right click and send to a sampler track. Pretty useful even though I prefer to use kontakt, TAL and Serato Sample as my samplers, but it’s still a handy feature.

3. Does WF12 have a feature like ableton, a slice to midi function. Really would be great if it did, I work a lot with chopping breaks and trying to slice them and re-order them.

4. Does WF12 have a render, bounce to audio function for midi tracks?

5. I currently rely heavily on Cubase 12’s various algorithms to stretch audio events, such as tape elastique. How do you guys find WF12’s ability to stretch audio files into time.

6. If I’m browsing my Own audio samples, will WF12 attempt to preview them in sync with the project? How good a job does it do this? I find Cubase media bay to be reasonably good at this.

Anyway thanks in advance guys, I’m sure I will think of more questions, but il start just with these. Looking forward to hearing some replies.

Thanks

[lmv]

I think it's "Yes" to number 4 and 5, but I don't know about the others. You can maybe have a look at the manual:

https://www.tracktion.com/training/manuals

[dysjoint]

Rendering a midi clip in place is easy. Time stretching is fine, if you don't take it to extremes. Slicing audio manually is a one key (/) shortcut. Edge fades is a possible shortcut. Merging sliced clips to one clip is alt drag + plus keyboard shortcut.
I can't remember what it's called, lol, but you can stretch inside a clip, to position transients without slicing. (I don't really use it)
There is Groove Doctor, which I don't use, I do it manually.

Try the demo is my recommendation

[Watchful]

1. is definitely no. You can't jump from audio or MIDI event to another. You have to use the mouse.

Most of your requests are not covered in the manual; you can easily do the demo or try the free version as long as you want. I don't know that anyone here is doing some of the items you're asking about, though, which is why you're getting a bit of silence on your specific questions.

Your biggest challenge will be going from the Cubase workflow to the Waveform workflow, which is very, very different. It will take you a while before you can even attempt to try your questions.

[Aofsmith]

Cheers guys. Yeah I think it will take a big adjustment to get use to WF12’s workflow. But the videos I have seen so far, it looks really creative. I like all of the midi generation features, arps and the chord tracks seem great. Just hope over time they get the audio editing on a par with Cubase and ableton then. I’m still gonna give the trial a go though. Cheers for comments everyone

[Watchful]

Have fun and enjoy. Any questions, come on back here!

[lmv]

I know a lot of people dislike my position, but I guess there is no harm in asking.

I wish Waveform ran better on Linux/Wine.

"But there is a native version!" people will cry.

Yes, but Linux applications expire with new distros, new libc/glibc versions and who knows what the obstacle du jour will be five to ten years ahead. Windows applications never expire. I have a large number of Windows plugins that are old, some are very old, and they run. There are entire DAWs that run too.

Come on, Waveform is not far from that. Everything in Waveform for Windows runs fine on Wine including plugins, except the sound. It's very glitchy. It crackles all the time no matter how much I try to adjust the buffer size. Mulab and FL Studio run very smoothly. FL uses ASIO, Mulab can use it or not. They don't glitch. Why not fix just that and offer yet another option, an option that is very likely to last a lot longer?

BTW, I test these things with v12.1.8. The v12.5.x series won't load at all. Maybe that can be fixed too?

Well, I tried.

[Watchful]

I can't go for or against your position on Linux, as I use Windows, but...

1. I'm on v12.1.8 and have little interest going to 12.5.x based on the observations and issues people have had here. Seems like I'm just inviting in more problems. I also have a history of audio issues with v12 that aren't being addressed with later versions.

2. I used 11.5 for a while, and had very few issues with it. Certainly no audio issues; it loaded fast, worked reliably except for the rare unexplained crash (almost always when working in a plugin, so I can pretty much assume the plugin caused the problem). Had I known...I'd have stayed on 11.5.

[lmv]

I can't go for or against your position on Linux, as I use Windows, but...

1. I'm on v12.1.8 and have little interest going to 12.5.x based on the observations and issues people have had here. Seems like I'm just inviting in more problems. I also have a history of audio issues with v12 that aren't being addressed with later versions.

2. I used 11.5 for a while, and had very few issues with it. Certainly no audio issues; it loaded fast, worked reliably except for the rare unexplained crash (almost always when working in a plugin, so I can pretty much assume the plugin caused the problem). Had I known...I'd have stayed on 11.5.

I almost replied to tell you that I had no audio issues on 12.5, but I had just begun to use Waveform (again, because I've given up on it multiple times since 2015). I am giving it another go, been working on a track frequently and I must say the audio issues are definitely there. I use JACK and get a lot of xruns with Waveform, the sound crackles horribly. When that happens, I have to close Waveform, restart JACK and run Waveform again, and wait for all the plugins to be loaded again. Restarting either one alone doesn't fix it. I have to restart both, every time. Once or twice in a lifetime is OK, six or seven on a day is too much. I used Mulab (a Windows-only application) for some time one or two years ago and never had xruns with it. A plugin could bring it down occasionally, but even that was rare and it was always an incompatible plugin. Any plugin that ran once would run always, and never crash.

It's sad. I like the application, but it's always been a struggle.

[lmv]

deleted. posted in error

[Watchful]

Does resetting the audio inputs and outputs help? It usually does for me, from the settings tab. But I have to do every few minutes.

[lmv]

No, it doesn't. Once JACK is corrupt, it has to be restarted. All sound is affected, globally.
Other applications can do that to JACK, but it's extremely rare. Only Waveform does it frequently.

[Aofsmith]

Hi guys is WF12 capable of this type of trick, abletons envelope follower plugin. Seems pretty amazing.

[nowgad]

Hi

Yes maybe. But, there is a small "But!". After you send EF (or any other Waveform modifier) to another track, and after the subsequent insertion of any plug-in on that track, the EF settings (for that track) will be reset... You can't insert a plug-in and save the settings. Here is such a bug.