Your MT Studio wishlist

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:48 pm

sinbad wrote:
edit- Is there any way of editing while the transport is running? seems not

Good grief, no.

I don't know of any multitracking program that allows such, either.

I personally prefer punchins, redoing whole tracks and comping to editing anyway. Save the editing for times when nothing else will work.

--Mac

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:09 pm

Mac, I agree with you in principle, get your track right in the first place. However there was a neat feature in ntrack whereby it was possible to have multiple track automation curves on the screen simultaniously. It was also possible to edit these curves while the song was running, ie. move the volume up or down, or adjust the send or return level. This is cool for mixing. I just took that for granted, unfortunately ntrack crashed too often on my setup, which is why I am using MTS at the moment.
I like the specs on the EMU you mentioned, I wish I had heard about that earlier. That looks like a really good deal, do you use the sonar with it or MTS ?

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:58 pm

I no longer use Sonar, last version I had of it was the very first issue. Too many bells and whistles make too many things happen unexpectedly or hard to get to work, just like ntrack I guess. I do understand that many of those problems have been worked out in Sonar, but I didn't like the sound of the audio in Cakewalk, which was much the same in Sonar, matter of personal taste I guess.

I'm liking MTS more and more but it hasn't become the only program I use here, still have to pick from one of a few others depending on the project. I think that will always be the case, no one program is going to be able to do everything the way each person wants to see it work, or even be there as a feature at all. Heck I still keep an old version of Cakewalk Pro 9 around for the mature midi engine it has, also run Powertracks Pro, Protools on the Mac, a few others. Using several different recording programs ain't for everybody. That in and of itself can be foreboding. Sometimes I find myself trying to find something that exists in program A in program B and it takes a bit for me to figure out that you can't do that from here. :slap forehead:

MTS has proven to be an exceptional audio recording program for me so far, I've only been a user for a few months, if I had a wishlist it would include better Midi Notation options, "clean" notation with a sight readable chart would be very good for me, but since there are so few chart readers these days I'm not clamouring for Geils to go to all that trouble to make what is probably a fractional minority of users happy. Rather than try to make any developer add things to a program I just keep on loading different programs to do different tasks, hopefully finding the one that does that certain task best for me at the time.

Neat features that do not work are not features.

--Mac

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:26 pm

I agree that no one programme can cover everybody's wishes and still be easy to use. I liked the intuitive user interface of ntrack, but the problems were too many on my system. Although I still haven't got the hang of the volume envelopes for track comping, amid a few other things, I must admit that MTS sounds great. I never thought that software could make so much difference in the "normal" price bracket, but I can get a lush acoustic guitar sound with mts that I couldn't with cubase, tracktion or ntrack, and I wasn't even trying too hard. Now if only I could get the drum part right....

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:05 pm

What I would like is a way of saving the content of a multi effect box with all the parameters to be able to use at a later date.
Example: If you have an EQ, Reverb, Echo, Distortion, Guit-Amp all set up perfectly for that killer sound in a multi effect box, then just save box to file XXXX.multi and bingo, you have an instantly recallable preset for your signature sound in the next project.

Saz · Post by **Saz** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:19 pm

sinbad wrote:What I would like is a way of saving the content of a multi effect box with all the parameters to be able to use at a later date.
Example: If you have an EQ, Reverb, Echo, Distortion, Guit-Amp all set up perfectly for that killer sound in a multi effect box, then just save box to file XXXX.multi and bingo, you have an instantly recallable preset for your signature sound in the next project.

Hey sinbad, you can do that - at least with ProPlus.

From the help file...

The Multi Effect can also be used for making effect presets consisting of more than one effect (for instance a 'vocal channel' consisting of EQ, Compressor and Deesser).

Look for "effect presets" on the "shelf".

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:36 pm

Saz thanks again for your help. I didn't notice the little green arrow at the bottom of the shelf.

Maybe we need a new user manual

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:53 pm

I would like to see a tempo indicator on the top bar so that I don't have to go looking in the edit section.

tmon · Post by **tmon** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:32 am

mcairenius asked for step entry, and speaking as a non-keyboardist, that's something I could use as well. I would also vote for looping functionality. Also more keyboard commands, such as CTRL-Z for undo.

Seems like most agree that we would want features that would provide for increased productivity/efficiency but not at the expense of program stability and performance....

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:43 pm

This is what happened to ntrack.

The camel that was a horse designed by a committee, as Mark Twain is purported to have said.

I vote for added features only if they can be implemented without cluttering things up and ESPECIALLY only if they do not impair functionality of the program.

--Mac

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:50 pm

hear hear

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:36 pm

I would like to see MTS compatable with jamstix. There are some issues with transport start/stop commands at the moment. When the js screen is on top the keyboard shortcuts don't always work. I'm sure that constructing an interface with jamstix wouldn't compromise the stability of MTS, and it would make life much easier for dummies like me if things worked straight out of the box.

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 5:51 pm

sinbad wrote: I'm sure that constructing an interface with jamstix wouldn't compromise the stability of MTS,

I see you have little to no experience writing code...

Sometimes changing what appears to be the tiniest little thing can have big unexpected consequences in the programming world.

Just one of those things, it is difficult to second guess the impact of a code change on a program until you try it.

But another person recently tried out MTS with Jamstix, (Richlum?) and found the same problem, said he uses Jamstix so much that for him right now MTS was not a viable option.

I'm sure Geils listened when that happened, and is listening to you, too.

Who knows what the future holds, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, if you simply must use Jamstix, perhaps you should look towards another platform so you can get work done.

And now you know pretty much why I have to use several different recording/sequencing softwares here. I don't use Jamstix, but the same kind of situation can apply to many other things in this game -- GUI, Midi implementations, editing peculiarities or simply that program A doesn't work and play well with hardware B make this a reality.

--Mac

sinbad · Post by **sinbad** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:27 pm

mac
I'm not a programmer in the classical sense but I have enough experience with code to appreciate what you mean. What I meant was a "properly" designed interface as opposed to a quick fix to keep customers happy. That is what happened to n-track, whereby it is in good company, microsoft has made it their trademark.

If software programmes are properly interfaced then they will not have a negative effect on each other. Having said that, the devil is in the detail

but I'm sure Giel will do the right thing.