General Usage Questions

freendeed wrote on 10/24/2002, 7:03 AM
First, let me say I don't burn a lot of CD's partly because I don't have a program I like so some of these questions may seem ignorant, but:

1) I want to be able to adjust the overall volume of each individual track. I see the volume envelope but it's global and adding nodes for each track is awkward especially given the fact there is a "Gain" envelope (and also the volume envelope's nodes are useless if you change the track order after they are set). But it's not really a gain envelope, it's a trim envelope. For it to be gain you'd have to have the ability to use positive values (>0 db) as well as negative. Is there anyway to set the "gain" above 0db? (There must not be since 0db is at the very top of the track). I think the best way to implement this (and I think this will cure a lot of the other per-clip volume envelope requests too) is have 0db gain be about 1/3 away from the top leaving room for positive gain changes. This is how it works in Sonar. I realize you could push the master faders up but this means you'd have to lower all the other tracks whose levels need no gain. I don't ever recall having to lower that many tracks to make them match the others but almost always need to raise the volume of a track or two. Is there anyway to do this or ask SF to implement this?

2) Why is there no way to rearrange track order by dragging around their order in the track view or playlist view? Depending on zoom level and the length of a track (and it's name) this can be awkward doing it on the timeline. It would just seem so natural to be able to do it in the track/playlist view too. Also, a history just for the playlist would be nice for saving/recalling different sequences.

3) Dragging a track on the timeline while viewing the playlist causes the playlist's start/end times to update dynamically as you move the track so you can see just where you are but in the tracklist view they (position and end points) only update after letting go of the mouse button. Is this normal or is there a reason for this?

4) Why do some clips "lock" to their CD track label and others don't? By lock I mean when you slide the clip around the CD track label moves with it and vice versa. This only happens on some tracks when the CD track is "wider" (both to the left and right) of the clip. Meaning say a clip with a start time of 20:00:00 and an end time of 25:00:00 but a CD track with a start of 18:30:00 and an end time of 26:45:00. Sliding the CD track will move both it and the clip but sliding the clip will only move the clip and not the CD track. This only happens on some tracks and only when the difference in start/end times is sufficiently "large" enough to cause the problem. Any other time moving either the clip or the CD track will move both.


5) After putting all my tracks on the timeline in the sequence I wanted I noticed some had too much blank time at the front of the clip and some too much at the end. Since I had already painstakingly ordered them I just zoomed in and slip-edited each clip's beginning/end. Then I realized this only changed the clip to the right length (with no "dead air") but each CD track label was still at the original start/end length and I had to drag all their heads/tails to match the clips, etc. Is there no way to lock the clip and it's CD track label so slipping one edits them both or at least a command to generate a new CD track label of the same position/length of the clip? And after that a command to "compact" all the tracks (having them all slide together i.e. delete the 'holes') with the default gap between each would be extra nice.


Thanks.

Comments

SonyDennis wrote on 10/24/2002, 1:12 PM
1) overall volume of each individual track.
Even though the event ASR envelopes are trim-only, if you normalize the event first (context menu, switches, normalize), it works out pretty well because you'd only want to trim events that have data at -0.1dbFS.

2) Why is there no way to rearrange track order by dragging around their order in the track view or playlist view?
You will be able to do this in the final version and Track List re-ordering should be working in the build 59 beta. Click on a row header to select the row, then click again and drag it up or down to change the order.

3) ...start/end times updated dynamically
Normal operation.

4) clips "locking" to their CD track label
There's a set of rules each way that cover most of the cases where you'd want events and tracks to lock. We're still polishing the rules since the addition of the second audio layer complicated things. If there is a specific case that doesn't work that you think should work, please let us know about it (perhaps send the .cdp file to cdarchbeta@sonicfoundry.com)

5) locking during trim
Good idea, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to do anything in this release.

a command to "compact" all the tracks (having them all slide together i.e. delete the 'holes') with the default gap between each would be extra nice.
Also being considered, but no promises.

///d@