Topic: Preview: Compact track layout

Beta 17:

The “move track” submenus previously found in the group panel menus are moved to the track context menus. The group menus now only contain the track shortcuts. Also added an option to hide the group menu buttons in the inspector View menu.

Added a menu button at the bottom of the track list. This will help new users which may not know that you can right click to get this menu. The menu has been extended with a submenu for “New Track in Group” (if there are any group tracks in the arrangement). Using the old “New Track” command or double-clicking below the last track header will now create the track directly under the master, and not under the last group track.

I’ll reply to the questions in the previous posts tomorrow.

@Conquistador wrote:

B16
1. Right click loss:
In Expanded (Advanced) mode you cannot add an effect by right clicking. Is this an oversight or deliberate? I ask because it seems very odd to lose functionality going to Expanded mode from the simpler Compact mode. Expanded mode is of course supposed to provide more flexibility and more features exposed to a user, not less. One can of course add an effect to track by right clicking in Compact mode.

So far “expanded” mode is more like “classic” mode, meaning it works like in previous releases. I’m still considering what to do with the expanded mode. Perhaps the new compact UI will be used in expanded mode as well, and expanded mode will thus be an extension of compact mode with less restrictions on track management.

2. Strange plugin issues:
Podium clearly knows the difference between an effect and an instrument mapping but…I can access my Effects (and instruments) from the “Instrument” command and my Instruments (and Effects) from the “Effects” command.

Are you sure? The “Instruments” menu (previously named “Source”) contains all mappings that produce audio, meaning bus returns appear in this menu as well. The “Effects” menu contains mappings that take audio as input. Some instruments may accept audio input, and will thus appear in the effects menu as well.

You can insert as many effect tracks as you like, this blank “lane” track or blank mapping holder will still be there. My question is….is it really necessary? Apologies in advance if I have totally misunderstood the obvious here. 🙂

Apology accepted :P. The line you outlined is not an empty track. It’s the popup line for the lane track. The popup menu is the same as the right click menu on the lane track header. The line serves the dual purpose of displaying what is assigned to the lane track (i.e. instrument and input) as well as a left-click shortcut for displaying the popup menu you also get when right-clicking on the header.

@kingtubby wrote:

@kingtubby wrote:

When right-clicking in an empty space in the track-headers area and selecting ‘new track’, the new track always appears as a child to the track above it. It’s OK in expanded mode as you can change it’s position in the hierarchy, but in compact mode it doesn’t appear possible to move it around or delete it.

As a supplementary to this, in beta17 all newly created tracks appear like this:

As I said before, in compact mode it doesn’t appear possible to change the track level so that it feeds in to the master.

Mart.

This is because your master track is not defined to be a group track. I’m guessing you have used an old arrangement and converted it to compact mode. If you create a new arrangement Podium will add a “Master” group track to the audio output track. Having this separate master group track also makes it possible to add effects to the master chain.

@swindus wrote:

One thing I have found/don’t understand:

When I create a new track and check the option ‘Use as group track’ there is no way to add a track to this group track via drag and drop. First I need to create a child track from the track menu in the group track and after that it is possible to add tracks via drag and drop.

Fixed in the new beta 18. Also fixed a couple of bugs related to the “move track” menu function.

Tomorrow I’ll do further testing, and if I don’t find any new problems, I’ll probably release 1.95 this weekend.

Those that are trying the beta, please check that there are no problems with loading and playing your old projects.

@Conquistador wrote:

Hi Frits, any progress on the mappings issue I brought up a few posts earlier in this thread…?

“I can definitely access a GEQ Overtone mapping and a Compressive Pro mapping (both free plugs to download and test) from my Instrument list in B17…”

I get the same result in B18.

Perhaps the fact that both plugs appear to need the “New insert Mapping” command (IMO Podium really needs an automatic process to do this like other hosts) to work properly in Podium, might have something to do with these mappings being accessible in the “Instrument” list. Just guessing.

If they are sidechaining/global plugins, then there is no problem. The problem may be with the “Instrument” menu name. I’ve renamed it back to “Source” to hopefully avoid the confusion. One of the plugin mappings is the “return” from the plugin, so therefore it should be assigned as the bottom source in a track chain.

@estwing wrote:

in compact mode,to speed up selecting the input source would it be possible to have a couple of user definable slots (either audio or midi) under inputs.
currently recording bass and guitar I am frequently assigning a particular audio input to various tracks, I have to right click,scroll input,scroll to audio,scroll to analog input 4, then left click to select.
It would be good to make this a faster operation if the particular input could be listed in the first menu.
thanks, mart.

The “Input” submenu reflects the device object hierarchy. You can rearrange the inputs in the device list on the start page. If you combine all MIDI and audio inputs into one folder instead of two separate folders you’ll get rid of the input submenus. You can also move the inputs you use most frequently to the top of the folder.

Also note that you can move an input from track to track by dragging the input object from the track headers.