Zynewave@Conquistador wrote:
I have to say though if was a Cubase or Logic user I would have a better idea as to how to use these features but please explain in more detail…
…would these solo options allow me to automatically solo a corresponding midi mapping for a Stylus audio output track? If so how would I use these features to do it?
Or putting it another way would it solve the first problem listed in the A case for a reduction thread?
Selecting the “automatic solo” mode for a track means that the track will be soloed once ANY other track is soloed, so I don’t think that will be useful in your example with a multi-out plugin. To be able to solo a set of tracks with related mappings, place them all under a group track and solo/mute the group track.
Zynewave@Technophobia wrote:
Is there no way of having separate mouse activation areas that will just bring up Menu options for that particular feature ?
e.g. right click on the Pan Dial/Fader and a pop up menu with the option to change it to a Fader/Dial, Pan Law etc appears. Change it for one Pan, changes for all. Click on a Meter brings up a pop up for the option of which K meter you would like (once selected, all meters adhere to the selection). I’m not sure everybody knows which specific type of K meter they want at project setup and trying to change that later is more obscured than it should be.Don’t get me wrong Frits, I really appreciate the ideas you have and are implementing :D. I just can’t help but feel that the program is now getting so complex and options are buried in way to deep on menus that list all manner of things I am not interested in for the button/dial etc I am trying to change function of.
As UncleAge mentioned, it’s not easy to walk the fine line between “more features/less UI”.
One thing I need to consider when implementing customization of e.g. the mixer is to present it in a way that the actual customization options does not make the mixer appear more complex. That’s why I prefer to put the most typical “set and forget” settings into dialogs, and not have them as options in a range of different context menus.
The global options examples you mention (“fader/dial”, “pan law”, “K-Meter scale”) are options that most users would set only once when creating a new arrangement. Thus I prefer that you don’t see these options when you work with the controls and menus on the mixer and the rest of the immediately visible UI.
You mention that you would like different context menus for various controls on the mixer. Personally I like the fact that I can right-click anywhere on the mixer strip to get the track menu. If there were different context menus, I would need to pay more attention when right-clicking.
Zynewave@Conquistador wrote:
b. Mixer Grid is not visible by default. But an “Advanced” button could be added just below the Latency button on the left side of the mixer in your screenshot. That would activate it.
You can hide what you call “mixer grid” with the “Chain” button on the mixer.
Zynewave@Conquistador wrote:
a.The small font option is quite odd IMO. It is barely legible. Thankfully there is an option to change it back to the default size. Have you now changed the default size to the smaller font?
I’ve changed the default back to the normal font size, to keep the consistency with the overall UI. The smaller font option was a FR. Even though it may be harder to read for some people, it allows for longer track and mapping names on the strips.
b. Even the send dials are now smaller than those from 2.03. Again why so much effort into reducing the size of text and other aspects?
They are the same size as the dials in the inspector group panel. If you select the new “show send dial on separate line” option then the send dials will appear as in previous Podium versions.
ZynewaveBeta3 is now available.
Besides the features already discussed, there are some new nice things in this beta:
• Added “automatic solo” track option. Tracks that have this option enabled will be soloed automatically when solo is activated on other tracks. The mode can be toggled by Shift+Alt+Clicking solo buttons or by pressing Shift+Alt+S. When creating a new arrangement the bus return group track will be set to automatic solo mode.
• Added “Solo”, “Automatic Solo”, “Mute”, “Record” and “Bounce” options to the properties submenu of the track context menu.
The “automatic solo” mode is what is otherwise known as “Solo Defeat” in Cubase and “Solo Safe” in Logic. When soloing a track, it is now no longer necessary to also solo the bus return section if you want to listen to the soloed track with bus send processing.
Please note that this beta still does not save the new options to the project file.
Zynewave@swindus wrote:
@kingtubby wrote:
@Technophobia wrote:
Where, exactly, are the options for removing the arrows and for making the Pan dials into faders ?
It’s not just you, I can’t find it either. Is it supposed to be in the ‘Mixer Region Properties’?
This is not available in the Beta from the VIP forum, just in the latest Beta on Frits machine. 😉
I was about to write that I may not have been clear in my last post, where I wrote that the screenshot showed things implemented since beta2. Beta3 will hopefully be uploaded later today.
ZynewaveFor those that don’t have time to try the beta, here’s a screenshot showing some of the mixer UI changes.
New since the latest beta2 is an option to show pan faders instead of dials, and an option to remove the hierarchy/signal flow arrows. Once you’re familiar with the Podium bottom up signal flow, you can remove the arrows to gain some valuable screen space.
Comments/suggestions will be appreciated.
ZynewaveBeta2 is uploaded. I still need to implement some things and do major testing, so you will most likely notice bugs in this beta. To those that do try it, I will appreciate your comments on the changes to the mixer UI.
While working on the fader/meter features, one thing lead to another, and I ended up doing major revisions to the mixer UI. Some of the features in the mixer dates back to before the compact mode was implemented, so I’ve cleaned out some features and added some new ones that I’ve been thinking about for a long time:
• Changed the design of the mixer headers. The track name is now written at the top of the strip and not on the header.
• Added “small font” and “show send mapping and dial on same line” options to the mixer region properties.
• Added “Bypass” and “Editor” options to the column of mixer control buttons. Deselecting either of these will hide the buttons from the track headers and instead indicate bypass and editor state with a colored frame drawn around the device controls.
• Added mouse action settings to the mixer region properties dialog. Actions can be specified for click, shift+click, ctrl+click, alt+click, middle-click, right-click and double-click.
• Removed the “Compact headers” mixer view option, as it has become redundant with the new mixer options.
• Updated the mixer popup-help texts.
ZynewaveA bookmark feature for often used folders is on my plan. Currently though this is a long way down the todo list.
Zynewave@Conquistador wrote:
I think I do understand but do not want to lose control of individual track faders in a chain as was possible before the current mixer Grid. For me that is all I am trying to maintain control of.
Currently we appear to have lost control of individual tracks faders. One move of the fader now and all tracks faders move accordingly. Fine if you only want to control one fader for any number of tracks in a chain.
Ah, it appears it is me that have misunderstood you all. You are talking about the fader behaviour if you show mixer strips for more than one track in a chain. That behaviour will be fixed, so that each fader will independently control the first gain/pan enabled track contained within the subchain. The current behaviour is buggy.
Zynewave@Malcolm Jacobson wrote:
Switching to the Event List crashes Podium.
I am able to successfully capture and transmit the Weiss sysex dumps using MIDI-OX. I can send you a copy of one of those files if it would help solve the bug.
Yes, please send the file.
When you recorded the SysEx in Podium, did it result in only one SysEx event or a set of consecutive SysEx events?
Zynewave@Conquistador wrote:
It does seem a bit odd though to have a response setting for RMS meters and no such setting for Peak meters. Why not have both please? They are both equally useful.
They are not related. The “RMS window” is the time period over which the RMS values are calculated. Longer periods will result in a slower responding RMS meter with less peaks. By definition a “peak meter” shows the true meter value.
I like the idea of clicking on the meter to bring up the RMS meters. But…the documentation will have to be updated and / or some sort of pop up could appear the first time a user hovers over the meters to let them know about it. The pop up could automatically be disabled after that. Otherwise a very slick feature could be somewhat hidden.
When you move the mouse over the meter the meter background is highlighted. As in the rest of the Podium UI, this indicates that the meter can be clicked.
• Setting up pre/post faders and meters is now easily done with new shortcuts. The track menu has two new submenus: “Meter” and “Fader”. These menus shows all effect tracks in the chain, allowing to set the fader or meter at any effect in the chain. The submenus also has commands for enabling gain, pan, peak meter and RMS meter for each track.
I think the other guys noticed this as well…the faders are all linked. I am really not sure why. Very strange. Linking the faders or grouping them is actually a potentially very useful feature but…I don’t think that was what you had in mind…not just yet anyway.
I cannot see any reason why the faders must be linked the way they are now. Strange.
I’m puzzled why you all misunderstand this. Perhaps I haven’t described it properly in the above quote. Clicking the fader miniature MOVES the gain/pan controls to a different position in the chain. It does not select between separate settings on each effect track. Moving the controls works for setting up pre/post fader effects and bus sends, which is how other hosts/hardware mixers implement pre/post faders. You can see how this function if you look at the group panel in the track inspector when you click the miniature fader. If you had separate gain/pan controls on each effect track, you would have a huge number of controls that were not visible in the mixer. It would be a total nightmare to try to manage that during mixing.
Possible optional mixer strip behaviour…
I would like if possible to simply click on a compacted track header and have it replace the current track strip that is visible.
So instead of this…
^EQ
^ZComp
^Filter
^Instrument (this track is visible in the mixer)You would click on the Filter compacted track header and see this…
^EQ
^ZComp
^Filter (this track is now visible in the mixer identified by the name of the track as well)
^InstrumentOne could avoid having to unhide tracks just to to see their meters with this idea. Simlar to the grid idea but I think it extends it. Just a thought.
That is the purpose of the meter selector in the miniature. You click that to see the meter of the corresponding effect. This avoids having to show the strip for the effect track.
ZynewaveI chose the classical guitar over an acoustic guitar after reading in beginner recommendations that the steel strings would be tough on the fingers for a beginner. Also a nylon stringed guitar is not as loud, which I’m sure my neighbours appreciate :wink:. If one day I become a decent guitar-player, I’ll probably get me a decent acoustic guitar.
As guitar genres goes, I’m mostly interested in folk music, where my favorites are Suzanne Vega, Joan Baez, Nick Drake, Paul Simon and such. Mostly singer/songwriters that favours finger-picking rather than strumming.
I’ve been searching the net for tabs for some of my favorite guitar-songs. Today I managed to learn the start of Nick Drakes “River Man” which goes in an interesting 5/4 rhythm. I don’t have a problem with the guitar rhythm, unless I try to sing at the same time 😆 . Lots of practise needed, but at least I’m having fun learning.
ZynewaveIn your arrangement editor: Make sure the timeline is zoomed out to max, and then switch to the “event list” editor profile. You should see all the SysEx events with more details here. Tell me how many SysEx events there are, and the min and max size of the events.
ZynewaveTo the best of my knowledge, in most hardware mixers and hosts such as protools etc., the concept of a pre/post-fader only involves the placement of effects/sends before or after the channel fader. And that is the purpose of the current fader miniature. So the way I see it, what we discuss here is how to extend the new fader feature to tap into the flexibility of the Podium engine.
@ronin wrote:
when you use the expanded mode you can see and set pan and fader for every track side by side in the mixer.
That’s also possible in compact mode.
@swindus wrote:
Another thing: the current approach, when I understand it correctly, limits the user to one pre OR post fader in the chain. The other method would allow a pre AND post fader for every plugin in the chain.
Currently yes. I’m going to try out some modifications so that you can disable the “Hide mixer strip” option on an effect track and thereby split up the miniature effect chain into two halves. You can then use the miniature on each strip to set a fader/meter in each part of the chain. Does that sound like a good idea?