Mixer Suggestions

Riff

Getting songs organized I think it would be really beneficial to add a couple of visual cues to the mixer.

The first suggestion is to use the bus color assigned to the track at the top of each track. I can understand why you might want it to still read "Bus #" but at least using the color for the bus would really make it easier to quickly see where each track is going. My eyes aren't the best anymore, and reading that tiny little bus number is a little difficult. Plus, it would be much easier to see if there's a track that hasn't been set to the proper bus yet.

The second suggestion is a visual cue on each track to show whether or not the Transpose setting is off. I really love that we can choose to not transpose individual tracks! Currently, the only way to know if I've set a track's transpose setting correctly or worse, incorrectly, (I turn it off for Click, Cues, Drums, Percussion) is by going into each individual stem. Perhaps a small notifier could be added on the mixer for each track, such as a small red triangle in the corner (Triangle for Transpose) for when the Transpose option is off.

I've mocked up what I think it could look like.

AnthonyB

Riff first suggestion is to use the bus color assigned to the track at the top of each track.

Love this. Just one more way to quickly and easily associate that when you have a consistent track and bus layout, that the correct racks are going to the correct buses.

Riff second suggestion is a visual cue on each track to show whether or not the Transpose setting is off

I like it, but I'd suggest inverting that, i.e. the indicator is the reminder that you have transpose on (in the same way a Solo or Mute button lights up when engaged - the indicator is there to remind you that you've changed something from a 'normal' or default state).

MarkGuitar

This would be awesome. I currently use Ableton and have been waiting for ST4 and multiple-tracks to switch over. Even with Ableton we (I) have had the embarrassment of me tweaking things in rehearsals and forgetting to put it back to be ready for a live gig, resulting in some awkward moments when things were playing that should not have been! (We once played the first song with the bass track on and our live bass player playing! Fair play to the bass player, he was so on it that we could barely tell there were 2 bass players!)

To be able to tweak settings in rehearsal and know that this settings will not be saved unless I specifically ask them to be would be amazing!

Riff

AnthonyB the indicator is there to remind you that you've changed something from a 'normal' or default state

The normal default state for Transpose is On, so I think an indicator showing that you've turned it Off makes more sense in this case.

I'm certainly open to anything though! A green triangle if it Transpose is on, and a red one if it's off perhaps? Just something for us to quickly see if a track is set up correctly.

AnthonyB

Riff The normal default state for Transpose is On, so I think an indicator showing that you've turned it Off makes more sense in this case.

So we need to separate song transpose setting from individual track transpose toggle.
Yes, individual track transpose toggle is on by default, but it has no effect until you change the pitch at the song level.

I'd propose that unless the pitch is changed, there would be no indicators. I.e., if Pitch is at 0, no indicators.
If pitch is engaged, I'd still put forward that logically, that there should only be an indicator when something that alters the audio is on. An indicator is there to indicate that something is enabled or changed from a default state, not the opposite.

musicadi

Riff I agree with @AnthonyB here

I think the default state is rather 0, so it would make more sense for an indicator to show when it’s not 0.

peter

Once I implement mute groups, the Tracks view needs to be extended to show which mute groups are assigned to the track. I can fit a transpose indicator in there I guess.

MusicMan81

Hey Peter, what do you think about this as an idea? Something on the lines of the Soundcraft mixer layout.

Since is a 24 in, 12 outs, FX, etc etc…. They designed something like the (multi Chanel faders) I don’t know what to call it…. You have a small banner with the options on the right, and the main view changes to show you the current layout. So if you choose inputs you can see the gain or faders of the individual tracks, if you choose the “busses” or aux sends, fax, etc etc…. The main view just show you what you need to… and also they have custom views, so if you have a larger song with multiple channels but you might tweak a few of them, or keep an eye to 8 out of 32 you can just custom choose those 8 and have them on cue and ready to see them on your custom views….

Here’s the link of the Demo in the SoundCraft UI24 web site, that you can tweak and see what I’m talking about in a better way…

https://www.soundcraft.com/ui24-software-demo/mixer.html

Also, here’s a picture of the digital mixer..

This might help have the mixer smaller, tidier and easier to handle.

PS: You need to tilt the iPad in Landscape mode, to see the mixer, the vertical view is the “more me” in ear functionality

Riff

Simply put, I want to be able to see in the mixer whether or not I've set the Transpose options on the tracks properly. Did I double tap on Transpose and now my click sounds funny? Did I accidently tap it when I set the color of the Keys track? I don't want to find out at a gig. Currently there's no way to know without clicking on every single track of the song in the song's options.

On the individual track page in the Audio tab of the Song options, everything there we can see in the mixer (name, color, solo, mute, volume, eq, pan, bus), everything except for Transpose.

AnthonyB An indicator is there to indicate that something is enabled or changed from a default state, not the opposite.

Exactly why I think the indicator should be there when Transpose is turned off; it's changed from it's default state.

MarkGuitar

Riff Exactly why I think the indicator should be there when Transpose is turned off; it's changed from it's default state.

I think your ideas are both great but I am a bit confused about the transpose thing.
Surely the important thing that should be indicated is if the pitch has been changed, regardless of whether or not transpose is turned on or off. If transpose is on but the track(s) in C is still all set in C, (no pitch change) no indicator would be shown.
But if say for example the bass track had been pitch shifted a couple of steps say, then the indicator would show on the bass track.
Is that what you mean or am I misunderstanding?

musicadi

@"MarkGuitar"# This is exactly how I would think of it too.

Transpose = 0 - no indicator
Transpose is not 0 - show an indicator

I think that’s what @Riff means, but maybe his word choice confused us, since Transpose is not a binary (on/off) variable, but rather a decimal one.

Riff

I don't want my click track to change pitch ever, nor my cues, drums, or percussion. So I turn off Transpose for those tracks.

Now in this mixer view, you can't tell that I've turned them off.

I can't tell if I accidentally turned off Transpose for the keys track. I can't tell if I didn't turn it off for the click track. You say, well look, pitch shift is at 0, so why should there be an indicator? Well 1, I can't see which tracks are setup for transpose off or on, and 2, I actually have adjusted the Master Tuning in Settings up a half step.

It sounds like y'all are in favor of a lot more indicators than I am. Fine with me. I just wanted a simple way to tell if my tracks are set up properly.

AnthonyB

Riff I completely understand what you are trying to achieve, and protect yourself from. I absolutely agree that this is something that would be a good safety feature. I've read all your responses and they just seem to indicate you haven't understood what I feel I've laid out quite logically. I feel like I'm having to explain a response to something I didn't say... So I'm just going to park it. Others seem to be equally confused by your logic on this so I'm pretty confident I'm not misunderstanding things.