thcilnnahojI’m afraid there’s currently nothing that can be done… My old laptop has the same problem, and DPI or font size settings don’t affect Podium. Frits said he’d take a look at custom fonts someday – it’d go well together with the button size setting. 😉
thcilnnahojHmm, I think that was a different issue, actually. I don’t think it has to do with automation values resetting…
The problem here is that no automation is read when playback is not active, which means that the values that are set for Podium mixer parameters via automation are ignored.
This is a hindrance when you have, e.g., a drum track with send level automation that keeps the level at -inf, and only raises it once or twice during a song. Since you can only decrease the level and send level with automation, this seems like the only way to do it, unfortunately…
So now you can’t preview the drum sounds in stopped mode without hearing the return track, even when the edit cursor is at a position where send level should be turned off.
You could probably control the level of the effect on the send track, but not all plug-ins allow this, and it makes level/send level automation a little less useful, all in all. 🙁
thcilnnahojI’ll put guide stuff here until the next preview arrives…
I managed to finally rework the sequence events chapter, though there actually wasn’t that much new info to add. The time-stretching section looks a bit meager, but I don’t quite know what else is important to say about it.
Two things:
– You can actually do most things that the select and pencil tools are meant for (resizing, editing fades, copying events…). I thought it might be a little confusing, though, so I left the text just mentioning the select and pencil tools.
– I didn’t add anything about how fades, time-stretching, etc. are totally unrelated to phantom copy stuff. Do you think it’s easy enough to grasp the phantom copy concept (I would assume most sequencers have something similar), or should it be explicitly mentioned that it only affects events at the arrangement editor level?
Oh, and the image upload window made Google Chrome crash. 😆 Never happened with good old Firefox 2.
Are there any more chapters that need urgent updating? Otherwise I’d like to start on a bounce chapter as soon as I find some more time. Unless Frits wants to keep it for himself. 😉
thcilnnahojReally? 😆 Then I didn’t check it properly the first time around.
When the fader is set post-effects, the automate parameter submenu in the track context menu will always show parameters of the first effect track, no matter on which effect it actually is. That’s why I suggested additional submenus.
When it’s set pre-effects, and only then, you get parameters of the source track (I’m talking about tracks without source or input mappings, it always worked fine with those). If you didn’t know about it, it might even be a good-natured bug. 🙂
This answers my original question. However, if you enable pre-effects level automation first, switch the fader to post-effects, and then try to also enable level automation on the first effect track (or from the track context menu as usual), Podium thinks its the exact same parameter again and the pre-effects level parameter turns red… It works if you create post-effects level automation first.
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
Also, shouldn’t scrolling up on a pan control move it left instead of right…? After all, the highest (top) value in pan curve sequences and on pan parameter faders is 100% L.
There are pros and cons of both methods. The reason I chose down to be left, is because it then matches how you adjust horizontal gain and send sliders. I think it would be weird that using the wheel over a pan slider would make the knob move in the opposite direction than gain/send sliders. Perhaps it is the pan parameter that should have L/R swapped :-k
Ah, I didn’t think about that… Swapping left and right now will take some getting used to, but if it’s for the sake of consistency, I’m OK with it.
As for the mouse-wheel… how about a few little configuration options with which you could enable/disable wheel support on faders and such, and let the user choose the step size? There’s also the possibility to add some acceleration that would increase the step size.
Um, sorry about that. 😉
@Zynewave wrote:
Lately it feels like that for every feature I implement, two new requests are added to the list.
thcilnnahojI noticed a problem with changing time signatures… When you enable snap, the grid shifts, and not like it should! 😮 The weird thing is that it doesn’t happen at any point on the timeline… I haven’t found out what exactly causes it.
Here’s a video with a simple example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyjVoR6GrMQ (this is after restoring the default setup, I only changed the gridline color)
thcilnnahojDon’t know when this was fixed, but thanks!
Pre-effect level automation will only be created if the fader is set pre-effects first, though (or by creating it from the source selector right-click menu).
Add to that, the automate parameter submenu in the right-click track menu always displays parameters for the first effect track, no matter where the fader is set… hmm. What would you think about having additional submenus for all effect tracks’ parameters in the track context menu parameter submenu?
This way you’d have access to all parameters in the track effect chain when the individual effect selectors are not visible.
thcilnnahoj@thcilnnahoj wrote:
It’s like there’s an extra automation point that can’t be edited at bar 1, and stopping always returns the faders to this point’s value (though not visibly, so it would probably be a bug), which would be the default value, I guess.
Err… I totally misinterpreted this when I first noticed it! The fact of the matter is that Podium doesn’t read automation at all when stopped, so the level and send level return to their normal values set by the faders.
This is actually quite irritating…
I guess one solution would be to force reading the automation data at the edit cursor when stopped, or the data at the point where playback stopped (if you haven’t yet moved the cursor). Another would be to make it possible to create positive value offsets in level and send curves, which probably would take a lot of work. 🙁
Edit: Posi, not nega… oh my. #-o
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
@thcilnnahoj wrote:
Quick question: What’s the reason the meter isn’t moved to the bounce track after bouncing? If you disable bounce playback you’ll get a pre-fader reading unless you set it manually.
If the meter is set on an effect track below the bounce track, then the displayed meter will automatically switch to the output of the bounce track when bounce is enabled. Otherwise the meter would be inactive. When you deactivate bounce playback, the meter reverts to show the output of the configured meter track. I think this behaviour is better than actually moving the assigned meter to the bounce track when enabling bounce. Or did I misunderstand what you’re saying?
Perhaps it does make more sense… If you’re only using bouncing to freeze tracks, though, you’ll get a ‘wrong’ reading when you disable bounce playback, as the fader position is moved to the bounce track, but meter position stays pre-fader.
Here’s the scenario:
– You have a track without effects that peaks at -6 dB, track gain is also set to -6 dB. The meter shows -12.
– Bounce the track. The fader position is moved to the bounce track, the meter is now set pre-fader (just not during bounce playback) and shows -12.
– If you disable bounce playback now, the track’s meter shows -6 dB.
thcilnnahojYeah, me too. 🙂 I just think it could lead to accidents for people who don’t want to use it but don’t get a choice.
Frits, have you thought about using some sort of logarithmic scale for mouse-wheel fader adjustments? You can try it on knobs in FabFilter plug-ins – I find it to be super-comfortable!
Also, shouldn’t scrolling up on a pan control move it left instead of right…? After all, the highest (top) value in pan curve sequences and on pan parameter faders is 100% L.
thcilnnahojYeah, seems I recycled a little too much of the existing text. Also, the first sentence is just weird. 😳
Here’s a quick attempt at restructuring (with the two paragraphs removed):
@Revision attempt wrote:
The track hierarchy concept applied in Podium essentially describes that the signal flow is determined by the visual track layout, making it easily apparent at all times.
Audio, MIDI, and parameter automation signals originating on tracks flow **upwards** into parent group tracks, and, depending on the signal type, thus become affected by device mappings on the group track, as well as the group track’s gain and pan settings. Group tracks can be nested, meaning groups can be placed inside another group, and due to this, group tracks can also be child tracks of another parent group track. This allows for flexible solutions to routing and grouping, with the signal flow arrows displayed at the left edge of track headers and at the top of mixer strips additionally providing visual confirmation of how tracks are routed.
**Tip**: When an instrument is assigned to a group track, all note sequences placed on its child tracks will trigger the instrument – this can be especially useful for drum samplers.
When working on an arrangement, you might want to split it up into sections such as drums, vocals, and synths for pop songs, or violins, violas, cellos, basses for classical music. You may also create sub-sections in each section. This allows mixing on different levels: sections, sub-sections or individual tracks within a section. When mixing sections, it can be useful to collapse the section group tracks, so that the individual tracks within the section are not taking up space on the screen.
**Tip**: You can set up **track tags** to filter or organize the tracklist further, and hide tracks you are not currently working on. See the arrangement chapter for more information on track tags.
@Original wrote:
The track hierarchy concept used in Podium may seem unusual the first time you look at an arrangement.
Signals flow **upwards** from **child tracks** into parent **group tracks**, and, depending on the signal type, thus become affected by the group track’s gain and pan settings, as well as effects on the group track. Group tracks can be nested, meaning groups can be placed inside another group, and due to this, group tracks can also be child tracks of another parent group track. This allows for flexible solutions to routing and grouping, with the signal flow still being easily apparent.
**Tip**: When an instrument is assigned to a group track, all note sequences placed on its child tracks will trigger the instrument – this can be especially useful for drum samplers.
This hierarchic organization not only defines the visual track layout, but also controls the flow of audio, MIDI, and parameter automation signals. The signal flow arrows at the left edge of track headers and at the top of mixer strips provide a visual confirmation of how tracks are routed.
The basic rule to remember about the track hierarchy is that all audio, MIDI, and parameter automation signals flow upwards from the bottom tracks of the hierarchy until finally reaching the master track at the top. The only exception to this rule are send tracks, which create a branch-off to a bus track from the exact point in the signal chain where the send mapping is placed.
When working on an arrangement, you might want to split it up into sections such as drums, vocals, and synths for pop songs, or violins, violas, cellos, basses for classical music. You may also create sub-sections in each section. This allows mixing on different levels: sections, sub-sections or individual tracks within a section. When mixing sections, it can be useful to collapse the section group tracks, so that the individual tracks within the section are not taking up space on the screen.
**Tip**: You can set up **track tags** to filter or organize the tracklist further, and hide tracks you are not currently working on. See the arrangement chapter for more information on track tags.
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
[…] I’ll have to put some of the requests that are only relevant to a small percentage of Podium users on a todo-in-the-future list.
I suspect this includes improvements to surround sound stuff… 🙁 😉
Haven’t tried beta 4 yet (but am about to), but I wonder if mouse wheel support for faders and such isn’t one of those things that should be kept purely optional.
thcilnnahojIf you delete things from a project, the project browser seems to have a problem displaying this:
Also, I’d prefer if the ‘Move bounced audio to new track’ command in the bounce menu would always create the new track directly below the one that got bounced. Objection, anyone?
thcilnnahojI had some fun with real-time bounce recording today… now I remember why I missed it. 🙂 It’s too bad you can’t record any automation on tracks that are bounce enabled, though, even when the effect to be automated comes after the bounce in the signal chain (probably due to the fact that you can’t record enable bounced tracks). It does work with the faders on parameter tracks, so perhaps something can be done? I didn’t try with a MIDI controller, just with VST editors.
More stuff that caught my eye:
– It seems the highest level you can go to in the browser is a drive’s root directory. Am I missing something or is there no other way to change drives except using the browse dialog (double-click on the folder name bar)?
– When you drop files that are numbered like 1..20 in an arrangement, they’re not ordered the way you’d expect. 10 comes after 1, 20 after 2, and so on. Even Windows gets this right nowadays. 😉
– If you uncheck “use as group track” for a track that has only one child track, the former group track is suddenly seen as an effect track… Maybe it should be impossible to uncheck this option (also for composite tracks?) when a track has child tracks.
thcilnnahoj@Zynewave wrote:
Or should it be the deactivation of the transport toolbar record button that switches to bounce playback? And what if you switched record mode on/off without recording anything?
If there’s going to be a change then I think this is the way to go. I don’t use the deactive recording mode when stopped option, but I think it’s safe to assume that you’d want all types of recording to be deactivated when you do use the option. If you didn’t record anything, then that’s that… it should be easy enough to notice the B button (any any present waveform) changed color. :-k
Quick question: What’s the reason the meter isn’t moved to the bounce track after bouncing? If you disable bounce playback you’ll get a pre-fader reading unless you set it manually.