Suggestions for improving MTS

Discuss working with MultitrackStudio.
Post Reply
steve64
Posts: 62
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:09 am

Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by steve64 »

Personally I found MTS strangely underrated in the DAW market.
I tried most "popular" DAWs, but at the end I still prefer MTS.

Said that, I would like to suggest some little improvements to Giel that would be very important for daily usage
(at least in my case) without changing the overall "philosophy" of MTS.

1) Best user interface to define the cycling zone (look at Garageband/Logic Pro or even Bitwig Studio)
As composer, I rely on cycling a lot and current mechanism is really uncomfortable.
Moreover, the cycling zone (if defined) should be saved in the .hdr file to be restored when loading the song

2) Possibility of muting/unmuting selected MIDI notes

3) Quick switch from main screen between (at least) two output devices. The goal is to easily switch between
headphones and speaker monitors without opening a dialog window, change settings, etc.
Maybe it could be something like the current Studio > Audio Output Control menu but targeting the choice
of the overall device not single audio channels.

4) Keep in the .hdr file the user-selected state of most other settings, especially: the visualization of chords
for each track, the zoom level, the state of Snap and Bars, which tracks are open or closed.
The goal is to recover the song state left on closing when reloaded later.

5) Some kind of plugin organizer inside the "VST(i) and AU(i) Plugins" submenus

At lower priority, some minor look and feel improvements would also help MTS to compete better, in particular:

6) Wider selection of colors for tracks

7) Just a a bit of 3D / shadowing in the top bar buttons and items, I mean something like the top panel of Logic Pro X / Garageband
sinbad
Posts: 594
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:01 pm

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by sinbad »

And a wider track name window...
Routing the output of one track to the input of another (send output track1 to track 3 / receive track1 in track3. for example)
Ability to open plugins from different tracks simultaneously.
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by Support »

Thanks for the suggestions.
steve64 wrote:Best user interface to define the cycling zone (look at Garageband/Logic Pro or even Bitwig Studio)
As composer, I rely on cycling a lot and current mechanism is really uncomfortable.
How exactly would you like cycling to work?
Note that you can click the transport counter and use the 'Set Cycle Start' / 'Set Cycle End' option. You can start cycling transport by keeping the C key down when you click the start button.


Giel Bremmers
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by Support »

sinbad wrote:Routing the output of one track to the input of another (send output track1 / receive track1 in track3. for example)
What would you like to do with that?


Giel Bremmers
cidbil
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:20 am

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by cidbil »

Note that you can click the transport counter and use the 'Set Cycle Start' / 'Set Cycle End' option. You can start cycling transport by keeping the C key down when you click the start button.
Wow, didn't realize that.....great!!
sinbad
Posts: 594
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:01 pm

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by sinbad »

A good TIP OF THE WEEK Giel :mrgreen:
Support
Posts: 1717
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:17 pm

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by Support »

cidbil wrote:
Note that you can click the transport counter and use the 'Set Cycle Start' / 'Set Cycle End' option. You can start cycling transport by keeping the C key down when you click the start button.
Wow, didn't realize that.....great!!
It was added in the 8.1 release. You can also start cycling by pressing C+Space.


Giel Bremmers
steve64
Posts: 62
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:09 am

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by steve64 »

Support wrote:Thanks for the suggestions.
steve64 wrote:Best user interface to define the cycling zone (look at Garageband/Logic Pro or even Bitwig Studio)
As composer, I rely on cycling a lot and current mechanism is really uncomfortable.
How exactly would you like cycling to work?
Note that you can click the transport counter and use the 'Set Cycle Start' / 'Set Cycle End' option. You can start cycling transport by keeping the C key down when you click the start button.

Giel Bremmers
Hi Giel, I'm aware of the commands inside transport counter. From a functional point of view they're enough of course, but when compared to the great interactivity and simplicity of the "yellow looping bar" in Garageband/Logic Pro X you can see a big space for improvement.
That solution is "just" a bar on the timeline that can be moved, sized and turned on/off (all with the mouse only). When you start playback, if the looping bar is enabled (yellow), then it is used for cycling. No special action also to schoose between normal playback and looped one. It could require some effort to implement, depending on the software framework you are using, but in my opinion would be a real plus.
djchris73
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:43 am

Re: Suggestions for improving MTS

Post by djchris73 »

Support wrote:Thanks for the suggestions.
steve64 wrote:Best user interface to define the cycling zone (look at Garageband/Logic Pro or even Bitwig Studio)
As composer, I rely on cycling a lot and current mechanism is really uncomfortable.
How exactly would you like cycling to work?
Note that you can click the transport counter and use the 'Set Cycle Start' / 'Set Cycle End' option. You can start cycling transport by keeping the C key down when you click the start button.
Giel Bremmers
Geil, I love MTS! But I agree with steve64. Cycle is weird for me.

So as to not upset people who are happy with Cycle, please make a new function called LOOP.

Make LOOP work EXACTLY how F6 does now.

While we're at it, how about a CUT, PASTE, REPEAT, DELETE functions for MIDI controllers? :)
Post Reply