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FX View in track view + numeric looping + BPM Calculation from loop length + double counter + numeric nudge + others...

+3 votes
551 views
asked Dec 29, 2018 in Editing by mciv (1,070 points)

I come from protools background, did some testing with Studio One 3 and 4 - a couple of my remarks :

First of all, 4.1.1 doesn't fix plugin detection issue (with any nvidia drivers). I think it has something to do with pluginscanner.exe being an external thing now (I don't know why you made it this way). I hope you can do some throughout testing with different Windows 7 SP1 computers to fix that (there is not a force in this world which would make me switch to Windows 10). I don't have a clue what a music program has to do with gfx drivers (I would understand if it was about 3D rendering or something).

It would be cool if you gave an option that when you right click a clip you can adjust metronome to it's length (like formula overherehttp://mp3.deepsound.net/eng/samples_calculs.php which would be BPM=60/(LengthInSeconds/4)

I would appreciate scrolling with shift on metronome allowing 0.01 precision changes (also optional 0.0001 range for metronome wouldn't hurt).

It would be very nice to be able to have two time counters visible at the same time - bars and seconds.

Protools midi live stuff is awesome - nondestructible, allows you to test things quickly, it would be great to have it in Studio One (now it's not live, you have to click apply and check/undo/change/apply/undo/change/apply...etc etc etc...). I have mapped 1 and 2 keys to change preset and 3 and 4 to octave up/down macro but it still is destructive (also right click "transpose" could have octave number instead of semitones only - now I have to enter 12 or 24 which is tedious). Maybe just add there also live humanizing and note lenghtening / velocity math operations like in PT ( % besides + - is nice for changing dynamics).

Lack of protools style loop creation Ctrl+L with manual numeric entry "Number of loops"/"Loop length"/"Loop until End of the Session or Next Clip" is superannoying as you have to do some copying pasting counting it in mind just like sheeps before falling asleep - NOT professional... Also drag the end of clip with Shift or Ctrl could activate "create loop range" - with snapping it would be georgous (also there could be "created bars" counter visible somewhere during this).

I like protools keyboard shortcut number-determined lenghtening/shortening clip's beginning/end - great for working with samples. Now you have to make some ultra zoom and drag which isn't accurate. Similarly Alt+Shift+ArrowLeft/Right could nudge by user specified value (now you are forced to nudge bars), the same with slip with different keys.

Another thing - snap options should be visible all all the time (not a drop down menu - besides unhandiness I don't see if events/grid is activated - again in PT you see it all right away). I lack VERY much "shuffle" mode like in protools - arranging track is pain in the a**, kicks you out of flow as you have to make space earlier, move clip, fix hole and then select all clips until the end and move it back in event snap mode - dozens of clicks instead of one. Maybe dragging clip with Shift could act like "Move w/Insert" (just like Alt+D is Duplicate and Insert). Alt+Shift+Drag = Copy and Insert.

I like that you are not forced to have max 10 fx per track like in protools, anyway I miss the possibility to see all of them for all tracks in the same time (it would be cool to be able to activate "track fx view" - my visualisation here (effects could wrap in columns according to view width)

As compressor is always the last one it would be cool to be able to freeze it's position as the last, so nothing comes up after it. Maybe some right click and changing it's font to italic to signalize it?

Very important - muting track should temporarily deactivate all inserts in it so it doesn't eat cpu (and turn on back when unmuting). I see in cpu meter that muting tracks doesn't free cpu.

I didn't have time to check this - does Studio One create autoxfades automatically? In protools you can set it in options (like 10 ms) - I guess it would be proper to have this available in Song Setup in Studio One.

It would very profitable for you in long shot if you allowed optional use of 32 bits plugins (some exist only in this way, developers died and we won't ever have 64bits). jBridge works great, maybe you could incorporate this as inbuilt functionality with remark "use at your own risk" (and a checkbox to temporarily deactivate all 32 bit vsts).

2 Answers

–1 vote
answered Dec 30, 2018 by mciv (1,070 points)
Automatic tempo detection through melodyne ara would be cool.

Here is my way to make a master mix channel - I make a group track containing all tracks in song and there I put compressor, maybe final EQ etc (btw I have tested around 40 compressors and find this one the best (it's free) - I use it everywhere in 0 - 0 - 0.2 setting https://www.gvst.co.uk/gmax.htm

Undo doesn't change volume level.

When you want to zoom using top scroller you can accidentaly copy 4/4 tempo to somewhere, I think it would be better if it wasn't "touchable" there unless you press Ctrl or something.

When you are in scratchpad, locate cursor and go to beginning work on main edit area, not inside scratchpad. Also autoscroll doesn't follow current position in scratchpad when playing.

Information about "clipping occured" during exporting mixdown should be possible to turn off in Song Setup (let's say I want to ignore 0.10 db clipping and don't want to click "don't deleted" everytime).

Scrolling with mouse button inside insert\send area should scroll this area :) Now you have to click and drag there like crazy all the time. Also you cannot rename sends just like inserts (very handy feature).

When you deactivate inserts in track globally (with one click on on/off light) and later you drag a new fx into it old setup is destroyed and only the new one is on. Btw I miss a global sends on/off switch for track (that also concerns what I wrote before, that muting track doesn't turn inserts/sends off so CPU is still eaten - kind of "track/plugin freeze/deactivate" (just like in protools - grayed out/italic font) would be ok - even if I have tracks which won't be ever used, and are kept for reference, their vst-instances are loaded during file load, which is pointless).

CPU meter could have additional column with track name where particular effect is working. Also clicking on this effect could open the track with effect shown in fx view.
–1 vote
answered Dec 31, 2018 by mciv (1,070 points)
edited Dec 31, 2018 by mciv
OK, this is the tip of the scale which will make me not buy Studio One (against what they say unsolved plugin detection error with Windows 7 is the other one). As written before muting track doesn't make FX stop using CPU, you have to turn them off with global track fx turn off - when you turn it on again when the song is open, it will activate the same inserts which were on before, leaving off effects off. But when you deactivate it, save song and then open song again, turning this track fx globally activates ALL effects inside. This (along with lack of possibility to freeze tracks/effects) makes studio one completely unusable above certain amount of effects used in the song. Basically all effects ever added to the song have to be active all the time, which will kill any multicpu set at certain moment (and make song loading time lasting forever). Until you fix that it's just not possible for me to use your program.

Also FX Chains don't save Inserts+Sends, only Inserts, as it's all one entity it renders this feature useless. And like it wasn't enough, stored fx chain doesn't store effect on/off setting (loading turns on all effects) and doesn't save names of renamed effects. More things to be fixed as soon as possible in my opinion.

Why scroll mouse doesn't just zoom in/out timeline horizontally?

Looped events (that is unprecisely manually "ghost coping" events with mouse having to count sheeps in mind along the way) should be considered one event, unless you split it. For time being when you group "ghost events" (why not just call it loops? do we all make horror movie soundtracks?) and then change one note in one loop other loops aren't affected (and they were until we grouped them). I don't know if any of presonus people had anything to do with creating 1,5 h goa trance music pieces, maybe the should ask such people for betatesting because for this moment this program is unusable just because of these few nuances. Yeah, you can record a few audio tracks at the same time with a few effects per each but that's it. I can just as well use old free reaper for that.
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