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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,360
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OP
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Joined: Dec 2011
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Remember how in PT10, if you had a big enough monitor, you could view all the channel faders in two rows? In the new mixer you're limited to 24 tracks, which is ok, but scrolling becomes tedious after a while.
If we could go back to two rows of 24 faders, it would be the only DAW I know of where you could see 48 tracks, 8 effects busses and 16 subgroups, all at the same time. If the transport controls could be docked in there as well, it would give the competition something to worry about.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,360
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OP
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Posts: 3,360 |
Just bumping my own thread, here, because the more I think about the mixer the more ideas I have.
Suppose we go back to having two rows of 24 faders. Not only could the mixer incorporate the transport controls, but an auto-locator based on the markers window, the big clock and also the VU meters. This would allow all the tracking and mixing to be done from the mixer in a very easy to use format.
Although BiaB is the clear leader in it's field, PowerTracks has always been underestimated in terms of performance. I feel that this mixer version would be almost unique in the field of DAWs, considering the amount of information displayed at one time without scrolling and would help to establish PT as a fully professional system.
Well, it is a wishlist...
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Jan 2002
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ROG, there's a whole community of folks being raised on the idea of folder tracks and a smaller community being raised without needing a 'mixer' view whatsoever. Honestly, do you truly need to see 48 tracks at once? You have 10 fingers to move sliders, so if you have a 10 slider control surface, do you need more to take action? It's not like you have all hands on deck with multiple engineers hand-fading/mixing a project like at a pro studio. In the DAW I use, if I get more than 10 or 12 tracks, I start asking myself what I'm trying to accomplish - usually it's multiple takes for what will end up as one part or a comp'ed part, and I will folder track those into a single group if I'm not actively mixing them, or just get the comp editing over with and hide the source tracks - in my DAW, I can shrink them down to a fairly thin line. Or perhaps I'll have a few tracks for a double-tracked electric guitar rhythm part or vocal - with those, I will folder track them - so that they only take up one space, or I'll render them through to audio and stack them on top of each other - with the DAW I use, I can set volume and pan and other automation on the 'clip' which is the terminology used to describe a distinct piece of audio file or midi part. On this song, all of the BGV's were recorded and mixed as individual tracks, then when I was happy with them, I rendered each individual BGV to it's own audio, then I dropped them on top of each other, and set their individual pan and volume for the clips. As a result, it took up about 1 cm on the screen. http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/songs/new...ute%20cover.mp3Maybe I'm missing as to what would be necessary to look at so many tracks at once, other than to dazzle? -Scott
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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Dec 2011
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OP
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Hi Scott.
In a word - flexibility.
If you're working in BiaB you can put together a good backing using RTs with just a handful of tracks, but what I'm talking about is using PowerTracks as a DAW for laying down a backing from scratch.
True, some songs are simple and can be done with five or six tracks, but a lot of things are more complex. Suppose we want oohs and aahs in three part harmony. We're going to track-up each part three times, giving us nine tracks of BVs. We may also have a sung harmony line which gives us another nine tracks. Add in the other instruments and it's easy to push the track count over twenty four and you find yourself constantly scrolling the mixer whilst you're setting a rough monitor mix to work to.
When we're mixing a track such as this, we assign things like BVs to a sub group, so we want to be able to see all the subs as well, but we still want immediate access to all the individual tracks in case we want to alter something in the sub-mix.
But even this is only part of the story. To make a production work, you often find it's the little extras which make the difference - the things which only appear once for maybe a bar. These are the things which we used to stack an one tape track and which were a nightmare to mix on an old desk with no automation. These days we put each bit on a separate track, just because we can.
I know I'm not alone in this approach to working, though I accept that it depends largely on what type of music you're recording and how you were trained.
Anyway, I hope this goes some way to explaining my wish list for PT2013.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
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Quote:
Hi Scott.
In a word - flexibility.
If you're working in BiaB you can put together a good backing using RTs with just a handful of tracks, but what I'm talking about is using PowerTracks as a DAW for laying down a backing from scratch.
True, some songs are simple and can be done with five or six tracks, but a lot of things are more complex. Suppose we want oohs and aahs in three part harmony. We're going to track-up each part three times, giving us nine tracks of BVs. We may also have a sung harmony line which gives us another nine tracks. Add in the other instruments and it's easy to push the track count over twenty four and you find yourself constantly scrolling the mixer whilst you're setting a rough monitor mix to work to.
When we're mixing a track such as this, we assign things like BVs to a sub group, so we want to be able to see all the subs as well, but we still want immediate access to all the individual tracks in case we want to alter something in the sub-mix.
But even this is only part of the story. To make a production work, you often find it's the little extras which make the difference - the things which only appear once for maybe a bar. These are the things which we used to stack an one tape track and which were a nightmare to mix on an old desk with no automation. These days we put each bit on a separate track, just because we can.
I know I'm not alone in this approach to working, though I accept that it depends largely on what type of music you're recording and how you were trained.
Anyway, I hope this goes some way to explaining my wish list for PT2013.
ROG.
Got it. I think Folder tracks would work nicely for you. But, I understand not wanting to have to fiddle opening the folder. In the DAW I use, it looks like a file explorer tree, hit the '+' button and instantly view all the tracks that are in there. Your BGV example would work this way.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,360
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OP
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Scott.
I can see what you mean about the folders and I can see where it might be useful, particularly for people who are on smaller screens, such as laptops. We're on LG47in LEDs, so we're not short on space and there's something appealing about being able to access anything with one click.
I also like to watch 48 VUs flashing away! (That would be the "dazzle" which you mentioned!)
At the end of the day, merits in both methods, I think.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio Wishlist
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Joined: Jan 2002
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"We're on LG47in LEDs"
That would be cool!
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