Questions & Answers

Automation bezier curve tension handle resolution too low, too hard to control towards top and bottom

+81 votes
1,193 views
asked Jun 21, 2016 in Editing by Scoox (16,880 points)
edited Dec 13, 2018 by Scoox

When Studio One 3 was released I was very glad to see it finally got Bezier curves for automation. Unfortunately, the "curve tension" (deformation) is very difficult to adjust precisely towards the extremes, as shown in this animated screen capture:



As you can see, the more the curve departs from a straight line, the faster it moves for the same amount of mouse travel, resulting in very coarse adjustments near the extremes.

FL Studio and Bitwig implement a variable relationship between curve tension and mouse travel, so that the more the curve departs from a straight line, the more mouse travel is required, thus keeping the precision constant:



Reaper too:



Also, I'm glad Presonus finally have given us a reliable way to straighten Bezier curves, but IMO there was no need to devote a context menu to this single function:



Simply right-clicking the handle on the curve should straighten the curve, without the need for a second click on "Straighten curve" in the menu. Unless Presonus plan to add more stuff to that menu in a future release...

If you would like this to be improved in Studio One, please up-vote this feature request, thank you!

7 Answers

+3 votes
answered Jun 22, 2016 by Skip Jones (166,690 points)
selected Dec 11, 2016 by ghasenbeck
 
Best answer

Thank you for the feature request. 

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+1 vote
answered Jul 8, 2016 by Contrust (3,380 points)
Ohh yeah, the resolution of the current steepness levels of the automation curves in S1 are pretty weak ...
+5 votes
answered Nov 23, 2016 by Scoox (16,880 points)
edited Sep 24, 2017 by Scoox

There one more problem with Bezier curves in S1, when the curve is nearly straight, it snaps to a straight segment. If I need a curve that's nearly a straight line but still have some subtle curvature, S1 won't let me achieve that because the tension handle snaps to a straight line.

In other parts of the program Ctrl+Click resets. For example, faders, pans etc, such controls don't snap to their default position unless the user Ctrl+Clicks. The same behaviour could be used for Bezier curve tension points.

This problem applies to both automation envelopes and event fade-in / fade-out. Fades and automation envelopes seem to respond differently though, currently I find automation envelopes are jerky while fade tension can be adjusted in a more controlled fashion.

+1 vote
answered Feb 15, 2018 by tvonsv (1,810 points)
I completely agree.This is particularly painful when you have fairly steep segments (i.e., a rapid change in value); I find it almost impossible to set the curve to anything else than a square without a hefty amount of zoom involved.

This makes the workflow quite slow and clunky when you need many quick changes on your automation.
+1 vote
answered Apr 2, 2018 by robertgray3 (42,610 points)
Argh, yes please! Was struggling with this just the other day!
0 votes
answered Dec 13, 2018 by Scoox (16,880 points)
I'm still on Studio One 3, has this improved in 4? Cheers
+2 votes
answered Dec 14, 2018 by Scoox (16,880 points)
One more thing, in Studio One the curve tension handle seems to respond equally to vertical and horizontal mouse movement. This sure can be handy BUT it S1 needs to stick with one, not constantly switch between the two. In other words, if the user starts swiping the mouse horizontally, Studio One should be clever enough to figure out that's the users's chosen direction, and ignore any y-axis movement. Conversely, if the user first starts swiping vertically, Studio One should ignore x-axis movement.
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