Zynewave's Forum Page

@UncleAge wrote:

Is zGrid still on the table for development?

zGrid never got past the idea stage. It’s still on the table for a future project, but that is far away. The idea for zGrid came about because of the (back then) tedious way that serially chained effects were handled in Podium. Since then I have made several improvements to the Podium UI that has provided a better and integrated way of doing things that zGrid was supposed to be the answer to. These enhancements includes the compact track mode and track templates.

Will it help me achieve the goal above?

It would, but a parallel processing as you describe can also be set up in Podium using busses. It requires that you dedicate a bus instance for this purpose. Create an audio track with your vocal wave files, assign the bus send, enable gain on the bus send track and turn the gain to off (unless you want some dry signal going through to the mix). Now set up any number of additional tracks with the bus return as source, and assign separate effects to each track.

Have you changed your mind about providing functionality for multi-out Vsti’s?

If you mean allowing multi-out VSTis inside a zGrid instance, then the answer is no.

@Conquistador wrote:

Trim usage is a widespread and standard approach to mixing (which I am sure you know of). It is not in any way a new or somewhat niche idea. It has been around for decades. So it’s not really a case of me wanting it because I think it is something that will only help my workflow but is alien to anyone else 🙂 , but rather having a Trim (input control) and Volume fader (outptut control) *on the same track by default (or optional) is a standard set up for a track in a professional mixing evironment. It’s not a new or radical thing.

Samplitude, Cubase, Sonar e.t.c all have this set up in their mixers.

I’m familiar with the purpose of input trim controls on hardware mixer consoles. I did not realize that you were referring to trim as input gain, as that is not the purpose of the trim control on the FreeG plugin that you often refer to. The hosts you list above are more or less designed to mimic hardware mixers, so I can understand why they implement trim controls. But hardware-emulation is as you know not the focus for Podium.

Podium is exteremely flexible in that you can add gain faders anywhere (maybe still the only host that allows this) but IMO it would help to make it clearer and easier, to mimic (at least in this way) a professional mixer or console by having a Trim function (gain to control input) by default or optionally visible on a track along side the output volume fader.

I see no duplication or problem with two gain controls on a track. They serve different purposes and have done so for many years this way in various hardware and software set ups.

I probably misunderstood you. I thought you suggested adding another “Trim gain” setting to the track properties, which would be a bad idea. Your scenario could be constructed as follows: An audio track with the input assigned and gain enabled, which would be the “Trim” gain. On the last effect track in the effect chain the gain would also be enabled, which then would be the output fader. You can choose to show the mixer strip for both the input track and the last effect track, and then you have your two gain controls, with the added bonus of having meters for both the input as controlled by the trim gain, and the final track output.

Btw. You’ll be happy to learn that today I implemented:

• Meters in the mixer now show peak hold values. This can be enabled with the “show peak hold values” option in the mixer region properties dialog. Clicking the peak hold value box will reset the value. Double-clicking any peak hold value box will reset the value for all mixer strips.

@ronin wrote:

this is also a good idea but I guess there are some problems.

since you can add multiple sends wherever you want (which is an ingenious feature of podium) it would be no good idea to move all sends after the fader with the “post-fader sends” option. in this case you are modifying the signal flow. maybe you’ve wanted to have one post-fader send and one pre-fader send. so which one to use for fader/pan? what should the option do? I have no good idea on that.

the pre/post FX level/pan is simple in that way that you only have to switch between the last fx and the “data track”

Note that these commands will not shuffle the tracks. It’s just shortcuts for moving the “enable gain/pan” options and their associated values from the properties of one track to another track in the chain. So the command for setting the fader before bus sends will simply set the fader on the first effect track before the first bus send track in the chain.

After reading a bit, I’ve found that there is a third fader configuration that is widely used, namely post-fader bus sends. This is often preferred because you then maintain the wet/dry ratio of the effect on the bus when you adjust the track gain.

So the new commands I have for the track menu are:

“Set Fader After Effect Chain”
“Set Fader Before Bus Sends”
“Set Fader Before Effect Chain”

Depending on whether there are any bus sends in the chain of course. I’ve tried with descriptive menu texts instead of using the words pre- and post-fader. When reading manuals using the word “pre-fader” I’m often unsure of whether it’s the fader that is pre, or the effects that are pre.

Anyone else have opinions/suggestions for this?

@gwe wrote:

I plugged the first VST to Track 1 (32 in and 16 out). Then on the master I plugged in the other VST (16 in and 5 out).

An observation: Unless all your tracks in the arrangement are feeding 16 channels to the master chain, then it’s probably best to have the 16>5 plugin as the last plugin on the track effect chain.

I also see a 9-out. Not too sure where this came from. Our hardware is a little strange in that on the 32 output channels we only bring out signals on outputs 1 and 2 and then 8 ADAT channels on outputs 9-16. Maybe somehow the first 2 channels were considered stereo and the 8 ADAT mono giving a sum of 9 channels?

The mappings are created based on the channels you have enabled in the interfaces dialog. If you have an “Audio Out [9]” audio output mapping, then you must have had 9 consecutive channels enabled. Check if you have channel 8 or 17 enabled in the interfaces dialog.

But now I can’t seem to figure out how to a) start a project without the big crazy time-consuming scan, and then b) import VST plugins as I need them, one by one.

When you start with a new project on the start page, deselect the two “scan and import …” options before pressing the “create project” button. Afterwards you import individual plugins with the “Devices” menu on the project start page.

is it possible to timestretch waves?

Time-stretching is not supported yet. It will hopefully be implemented later this year.