Tracktion User Survey / Waveform 13.5 feature requests

[SMSomething]

Thanks for the opportunity to give feedback, I missed it last year.

FRs:
- Each track having a built in channel strip with high/low cuts, eq, compression, gating applied at the beginning/end of current fx chain... available via actions panel.
- Option for automation write mode to record to separate automation lanes, instead of everything into the clip where it can't be seen.
- On/off note chance option in arpeggiator, for more random/generative MIDI.
- Pinning tracks, submixes, and folders to top/bottom of arranger, or left/right in mixer.
- 2 octave qwerty keyboard, (Z,S,X,D,C... for first octave, Q,2,W,3.... for second octave).
- More splitting options for audio like transient splitting, left/right splitting, mid-side splitting, available via sends to returns. After sending, the full signal is passed.
- Vertical master meter on left or right side (toggling visibility, similar to actions/browser panels).
- A convolution reverb plugin.
- Pitch detection for samples in the file browser.
- Probability for note on/off using midi clips (not just step clips).
- Option for mouse middle mouse button to grab and drag arranger canvas (horizontal and vertical scrolling).

Great list.

[Greenstorm33]

Mixer fader and pan undo/redo is a pretty critical one for me. Also just keep up the good work on the bugfixes and improvements to weird behaviors

[JordiTR]

Wow, nice opportunity for requesting most desired features. Maybe they are not "minor" but since we have that opportunity I woud like to share my ideas.

Obviously everybody is asking things probably related with the type of music each one works on, and I agree on many of them. I see a lot of good ideas.

But I want to add some ideas related with composing/writing music:

• Import Scaler 2 chord progression into chords track. I've seen this feature on the last Logic 11 and since Scaler drags midi to the arranger window, I don't know how difficult is to drag this info to the chords track and define the progression. That way we could use other Waveform features to create leads, bass and other tracks.

• Better drums sequencing, more drum patters on more styles.

• Improved MIDI pattern handling, with MIDI transformation tools like on the last Ableton version (just mentioned as an example).

• MIDI key switch articulations (taken from the survey form).

• Dinamic EQ, Pultec-like EQ (ideally both combined on the 8 bands EQ ??).

• Spectral audio analysis showing keyboard notes not frequencies.

• MuseScore export: would be great to have better notation abilities, like exporting easily to an open source notation software without having to manualy assign different midi channel number to every track.

Thanks and keep your good work !

[nowgad]

Once I asked: do you want to look at my idea, which was implemented only very uselessly)) so: this is what the whole idea looked like. This is a modified version of the built-in 8-way EQ. There is a description of all this, an algorithm of operation, etc.,. I hope that this will be implemented sometime

add: no other daw has this, and by adding the Collision function, which will indicate competing frequencies on different tracks, no AI will be needed Adding eq to groups, the equalizer/track pinning function will allow you to quickly set up the equalizer, this will make work easier, reduce the number of third-party plugins, because with existing tools it will be possible to automate equalizers, in general there will be a lot of advantages.

Add2. The survey asked: what plugins, modulators, etc. would you like? There is one plugin called TugSpect by Tugrulakyuz - this is one of the most interesting and useful new plugins, which is also free, so it would be interesting to have something like this both as a plugin and as a modulator.

[Watchful]

Would anyone be interested in a "Safe Mode," where you could open a project with all plugins disabled? Might be an easy way to rescue a project after a plugin goes bad.

[dysjoint]

Would anyone be interested in a "Safe Mode," where you could open a project with all plugins disabled? Might be an easy way to rescue a project after a plugin goes bad.

Yes, I recently bought every single old wip/project up to W12, using T6 as an in between to consolidate files. I often had to race to get to the audio engine switched off before things crashed. A safe mode like you describe is a brilliant idea to have built into the program as standard, even if unchecking 'run audio engine when stopped' is a stopgap solution, I'd still vote for a safe mode as well.

[dysjoint]

Once I asked: do you want to look at my idea, which was implemented only very uselessly)) so: this is what the whole idea looked like. This is a modified version of the built-in 8-way EQ. There is a description of all this, an algorithm of operation, etc.,. I hope that this will be implemented sometime

This looks so good, not just for eq, but for the meters as well. Hell, a display that showed the properties panel display for the selected plugin all down the side like this would be awesome.

[dysjoint]

We have the option for big meters for inputs, could we get the same for outputs, with a shortcut to activate. It would be very useful when quickly levelling submixes/folders/buses while still staying on the arranger view and also leaving the bottom control panel free to use for plugins.

[PeriP3ri]

Biggest issue for me right now is sluggish GUI performance with big projects, mainly when I am using many plugins and tracks in a single edit, and the tracks are zoomed/scaled where I can see most them at once (lag starts to happen when 15+ tracks are on screen usually). It seems that when more plugin buttons are on the screen at once, the framerate of the program starts to drop, and actions like moving and copying clips become very delayed and stuttery. After closing the outputs panel or zooming in, these issues go away. With the clip launcher section, in a new project with 8 empty tracks, opening the mixer panel with the clip launcher view also makes the GUI sluggish. I've also noticed that the level meters contribute to this same kind of lag during playback when they are actively monitoring input, as it becomes less laggy once they are no longer peak holding. This issue happens on both "Software" and "OpenGL" rendering modes.

I haven't seen this issue mentioned anywhere on the internet though, so maybe it is a hardware or software issue on my side, but I haven't had this issue with other DAWs.

[nowgad]

Yes, it is. If you contact support, they write to you that this is a problem on the side of the plugin and the system. Just for fun, take the auburn sounds Lens and open fx23 Psyscope Pro, the friezes begin. On the other hand, open the latest versions of vdh Spectral Compressor and you will not be able to increase/decrease the plugin interface: the plugin window remains in place, and inside this window the plugin changes in size, and black areas remain.
Another problem that was recently identified on one resource: “Waveform has a big problem, which makes you not want to use it. It wildly litters the system not only with service information, but also with every change in the “stretch marker” or when squeezing and stretching sound, it leaves a copy of the fragment with every action. It turns out to be an unimaginable garbage dump. You also need to know where to look for it.”

[talby]

Hmmm. What service information litters where? And where to look for an an unimaginable garbage dump? Sorry, but I have absolutly no idea what is referred to here.
The only idea coming to my mind which could maybe be related to finding fragments found left in the system after changes is, that this might simply be the result of having in SETTINGS - General - Editing for "Number of Undo levels" chosen a very high number.

[ndrw9138]

Just one more request from me. Multi-out tracks getting names from it's instrument. I believe some plugins provide names for their outputs. i.e. some drum plugins output track 1 as "Kick", track 2 as "Snare", track 3 as "hats", etc. If those were provided to the multi-out tracks in Waveform, that would be nice. The ability to select which multi-outs to use instead of just adding them all, would also be nice to have too.

[ndrw9138]

To elaborate, the multi-outs could be a menu that doesn't dismiss after clicking each output. And maybe controversial, the multi-out tracks could be packed into a submix by default. The screenshot shows the output names supplied by the MDrummer plugin.

Multi-Out Idea (compressed).jpg

[Maarid]

guys, I've already come across this crap several times, you can make a regular button or effect on the sample, as it is more convenient for you, swap channels. In some places, a simple function is just not enough to anger.

[ndrw9138]

Is this thread still active/relevant?

A way to distinguish which parts of the UI are in focus would be nice. Zooming in the midi editor can sometimes zoom the arranger, when both are on screen. As far I can tell, there's no visual cues to distinguish which zone will receive a zoom keyboard shortcut, or which areas are active when working.

Edit:
Two ways I can think of would be white boxes around the active area/zone (similar to cubase), or each area/zone receives keyboard shortcuts depending on where the mouse cursor is.