Zynewave's Forum Page

1280 x1024

And yours?

1600×1200, but I think the majority of users have 1280×1024 resolution displays.

IIRC you said in compact mode one will not be able to drag re order tracks.

” The new compact mode offers an option to reduce this space. What you loose is e.g. the ability to freely drag effect tracks horizontally to a specific group level. You’ll need to use the group panel for these kinds of edit actions.”

You can still reorder tracks by dragging vertically. What I wrote was that dragging HORIZONTALLY will not set the group level.

Level meter:
The “Level” parameter from the “Drums” track does not show up in the GP in your first screen shot…why? It is not hidden in the arranger so why is it hidden in the GP?

Because it is not part of the branch that is shown in the group panel. I first selected the level track under “Drums Bridge Loop” to make that branch appear in the group panel, and then selected the master track. This is how the group panel has always worked.

zMaster on the Master out:
Ready or work in progress?

It’s a fake, just for illustration.

I do think some of the GP changes are a step forward, however Frits I really do think that simply giving us the ZGrid would have saved you a huge amount of development time.

Going into details about this would be too exhaustive, but rest assured that these changes to the track layout provides a better solution than zGrid, on all accounts. Some examples: My screenshot shows only one plugin in each of the three chains. So placing a zGrid plugin in each chain would not result in fewer tracks. Instead using a zGrid instance would add an additional layer of plugin assignment. First you assign the zGrid instance to the track, and then you assign the desired plugins in the zGrid editor. The concept of a chainer IMO only has benefits for complex serial/parallel routings of multiple plugins. Simple serial chains of plugins are much easier managed with the channel strip templates I mentioned in my previous post.

Another major drawback with the zGrid/chainer approach concerns automation. Since zGrid would be a VST plugin, it is not possible to dynamically expose the VST parameters of each configured plugin within zGrid to Podium. To automate plugins within a zGrid instance you would need to use the zGrid editor to assign the desired VST fx parameters to a set of generic parameters that zGrid supports. These generic parameters can then be automated in Podium, but the parameter objects would then not have the actual VST parameter names.

So if one has parameter tracks for a Guitar Instrument track, various FX parameters (automated delay, another for a filter) all of these will appear below other tracks at the bottom?

No. They will appear immediately below the guitar track. Imagine if you created an automation track for the zPEQ in the screenshot. In the modular mode this will be shown as a child track of the zPEQ track, i.e. above the “drums bridge loop 1” audio track. In compact mode all automation tracks within the “chain” is displayed below the audio track. The automation track for the zPEQ would then be shown as e.g. “1 Freq (zPEQ)” with the controlled effect in parentheses. Acousmod recently posted a topic where he requested a possibility to have all effect automation tracks displayed below the source track, so that the source audio file is shown as backdrop in the curve editor.

I’ve edited my original post to show a screenshot of how the arrangement looks with the current 1.94 release. One thing that has annoyed me for a long time, is the large space occupied by the group bars to the left of the track lanes. With just a few sends and fx plugins you soon get a huge number of bars. The new compact mode offers an option to reduce this space. What you loose is e.g. the ability to freely drag effect tracks horizontally to a specific group level. You’ll need to use the group panel for these kinds of edit actions.

On the other hand, I find that many newcomers to Podium often is lost in the editing flexibility of the track hierarchy. The compact mode will also offer simpler menu commands for arranging tracks in groups etc. and put some restraints on what can be done. E.g. the “increase/decrease group level” commands will not be available in compact mode, as these commands if misused can mess up the hierarchy.

Note that all the existing hierarchic routing possibilites are still achievable in compact mode. I’m just trying to simplify the UI.