Topic: Preview 2.34: Minor consistency updates

@Wii wrote:

You can rename your template files and organize them in subfolders. If you move template files into subfolders then these will appear as submenus within the Project option and Devices menus on the project start page.

I think the word “option” should be erased. And, Devices? will be a new menu there?

I’m reading my way through the getting started chapter, and I feel it desperately needs updated screenshots that actually show the things described (track toolbar, + track button, track menu button, + effect button, etc.) and don’t irritate new users with things that look differently than what they’re expecting. Us users could help out with updating all the pictures throughout, I guess, if we agree on some standards. It will still result in some minor inconsistencies like different device names, though. :-k

Something that struck me is the top button on the new project page – of course we’re used to it, but I think it actually has a high potential of causing confusion or making the user uncertain of the correct choice. Since it seems only relevant to plug-ins (audio I/O is configured separately anyway), here’s a suggestion for an alternative: 😉
Put two of those little check buttons below the plug-in database button, reading “Mono/Stereo Plugins” and “Surround Plugins.”
The top button could still be used for an option to “create from template…”

If the “new default arrangement” is not configurable in any way (I don’t think it is), why not call it a blank or empty arrangement instead. Might be more descriptive than default.

A little correction: “The layout and edit options of an editor are defined by an editor profile.”

After inserting an effect, you’ll notice that the new effect appears below the + button. This brings us to an important principle in Podium: The signal flow follows the visual layout of the track hierarchy. Audio starts at the bottom of the track hierarchy and flows up through the effect chain on the track, continuing up through effect chains on group tracks and the master track, until it arrives at the master output at the top of the master track.

(As far as I can tell there’s no introduction to group tracks, so I’d add something along these lines here. Feel free to rewrite or scrap it!)
Let’s create a group track to illustrate this. Add a new track using the method you’re most comfortable with, and enable “Use as group track” in the track properties dialog before clicking OK. You can move any of the other tracks you’ve already created into the group by dragging them onto the group track’s header in the tracklist (Or why not in the mixer? Nudge, nudge. :wink:).
All signals produced on tracks inside a group will flow up through the group track, thereby being affected by its level and pan settings, as well as any effects inserted on the group track.
Tracks placed inside of groups are termed child tracks. The view of all of a group’s child tracks can be collapsed by clicking the collapse button in the top left corner on group track header, and expanded again in the same way.

Next, let’s add a mixer bus. A bus allows you to extract audio from one or more tracks using a bus send, and then inject the mixed bus output to one or more tracks using a bus return.

@Zynewave wrote:

I haven’t yet announced that the getting started chapter is updated, because the screenshots still need to be updated.

Oh, my bad. The text looks pretty up-to-date already, and the first picture was updated as well, so I thought it was finished.

You mean like it was before my last redesign of the page? 😥
I moved the stereo/surround option from the plugin options up to the overall project option, because it also selects whether audio surround I/O mappings should be created. This applies also if the plugin option is disabled. There is a hint about this in the “project option” popup help.

Ah, you’re right, it applies to I/O too. I had all but four outputs disabled, so that means no surround mappings. 🙄
This could be another idea for a future competition: list 5 things that confused the heck out of you at first! 😆

You’re welcome to add this if you like. This will mean that the section will wrap around on a new page. I tried to keep the text in each section short enough to fit on one page.

Well, if the idea is that the Guide is actually supposed to be a community-aided effort (apart from translations), then I’ll certainly go over some chapters and try to help out.
I assumed that it was meant as read-only, as to not get a mix of writing styles and possible misinformation in it, creating more work for you in the end (having to double-check everything).
Case in point, I wouldn’t have known that the sections were to fit on one page each.
There’re also a few weird page breaks in the current PDF – how do you create it? Print to PDF from your browser?

Frits, in the project chapter, fourth paragraph:

Device mappings, device definitions, presets and parameters are objects that define your audio and MIDI interfaces, mixer busses, external devices and software plugins. You use these device objects to interact with the devices in the arrangement editor.

Maybe you should add “ReWire devices”.