Mixcraft 7 suggestions?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi. I'm in MC6 v.204. Yes, I do use the ""Mix down selection" function alot. What I'm refering to is when the audio or midi clips have vst effects on them, like reverbs, delays etc. Or when the instruments (like pads) have long decays. Mixcraft then cuts off the audio before it is silent when mixing down. My workaround for this has been to add empty midi blocks or audio clips with the volume all the way down after the parts I'm actually mixing down. These are included in the mixdown, thus giving enough time for the reverbs and delays to fade out completely.Jan

You should update to build 217 and see if it affects the problem.

[Super Fata]

An analysing EQ, multiband style with visual representation of the sound.

Do you mean something like this?

Para EQ.jpg

- A chord folder function (You type the notes you want in the piano roll, group select them and push a "fold" button, which makes all other notes "disapear" from the piano roll. Very practical!)
- Same function with presets of scales.

Unfamiliar based on description, but these sound like interesting tools, could you give an example or link to a more complete description?

Yes, a graphical EQ makes spotting problem areas a breeze!
Ableton Live has this fold function. Other DAWS have them, but in more intricate and complicated ways, which kind of takes away from the point of it. In your piano roll window you tap the notes you want (like a chord), mark them all, push the fold-button and all other notes than the selected vanish.

[Super Fata]

Hi. I'm in MC6 v.204. Yes, I do use the ""Mix down selection" function alot. What I'm refering to is when the audio or midi clips have vst effects on them, like reverbs, delays etc. Or when the instruments (like pads) have long decays. Mixcraft then cuts off the audio before it is silent when mixing down. My workaround for this has been to add empty midi blocks or audio clips with the volume all the way down after the parts I'm actually mixing down. These are included in the mixdown, thus giving enough time for the reverbs and delays to fade out completely.Jan

You should update to build 217 and see if it affects the problem.

I will. And I'll let you know.

[Super Fata]

Would anybody else like to see the ability to view and edit multiple automation at the same time for a given track?

Right now, it seems you can only view one automation lane at a time for any given track. At least I haven't figured out a way to turn on multiple lanes.

There are times I'd like to reference one automation lane while modifying another.

I'm imagining the user selects the down arrow on the automation lane... Currently, the active automation lanes are listed at the top of the list. I'm imagining the user holds the control key and selects the lanes they want to view, and a check mark appears next to the visible automation lanes.

It would also be useful, then, to be able to drag automation lanes within the track to reorder them.

And of course I would want the software to remember what the configuration is when I collapse and expand the automation lane view.

Oh yes, very useful feature! Automation lanes should have the ability to be seen in groups of our choice (visible/invisible, like mute/solo) and collapsed

[trebbassman]

I have a small comment.....maybe a toggle switch with the mixer such as F12....quick-keys are helpful and I haven't noticed a quick-key for switching between mixer and recording screen. I don't use dual screens, so I have to toggle between them.

another useful feature like some DAWs or recording interface is just being able to move the transport control where wanted or moving the master fader all the way to the left or the right or even on the top of the screen....

thanks I look forward to upgrading to MC7 when it rolls out.

Trebbassman

[FlyingsCool]

Re: gain trim facility

Recording onto a digital medium (24bits) no longer requires the input signal to be as hot as possible due to practical absence of noise. You can record with quite conservative levels.

Unfortunately, there may be little to be seen in the clip. Zooming the clip height may help only partially.
A gain trim function akin to a console´s gain trim would greatly help. This would boost the input to a sensical height.

Indeed an even better solution would be, if any clip volume automation would be immediately visible by accordingly adjusting the clip´s waveform.
This would be a great visual indicator to gauge the signal action range and the like.

-helmut

As I have said previously, I second everything Helmut suggests....

I do have a question here, I'm assuming that you are not actually boosting the gain on the track, only changing the gain limits of the display for the track in question?

[mick]

Composing by piano roll is not my thing (it is too fiddly) but the one item that would make so much difference is a step by step input. Select a note value by clicking the note symbol or by using my earlier suggestion -no 4 is a quarter note, 5 is a half note and so on, then play/input the note or chord using either the musical typing or a midi keyboard and that's it. The next note/chord inputs the same way and so step by step the composition comes together. I can confirm from experience that this is a much easier way than trying to keep up with the recording tempo or inserting notes one by one with the mouse.
Also, displaying piano roll notes in a mutitrack view and using the track colour as a means of knowing what track notes are being edited against another would be a valuable feature.

[justjaymusic]

I hope this hasn't been mentioned . . . I am a solo guitarist vocalist and recently started looking into some looping for drums, bass and pads to enhance my live shows. Is there any way you could add live looping capabilities a la Albeton, I find Albeton difficult to use coming from Mixcraft which I have been using since version 3. Something that could be used to switch between Verse, Chours, Bridge and ending loops with the use of a midi foot controller.

Thanks

Jay

[terrellhicks]

I think it would be awesome if you could drag and drop effects around in the chain.
So you move them around in the path without having to deactivate, activate, reselect
And so on.

Also it would be great if you could copy automation lanes from one track to another.
A lot of times I'll duplicate a track for panning and get burned out by manually copying
Automation data.
Another thing that would be great with automation lanes is if you could split it like you
A track, then be able to drag and drop it anywhere.

And most definatly a better vast list or a way to organize it other than renaming effects.
Sometimes trying to find a vast in the list is like looking for a strait nail in a box of bent nails.

[FlyingsCool]

Currently, there is a lot of space for buttons on the mix channels in the mixer, plus, there is space beneath the track name on the track view for another button or two., next to the picture.

This may have been asked for before (maybe even by me), but I would just like to hope it can get in there. Could we please add a "Mono" button, so you can quickly change from stereo to Mono on a track by track basis?
It would be useful to add this button to the Main Mix as well.

I know my recording producer friend does this a lot when mixing. It helps him hear frequency changes in the track as you go back and forth from stereo. (And I like to use it, too myself)

I also would like to reiterate my request for an ability to change the mode of the "solo" button, from multi to single and back.

[msavoia]

"I also would like to reiterate my request for an ability to change the mode of the "solo" button, from multi to single and back."

Seconded. Im always cumulatively soloing all the guitar tracks, and then just need to hear just one of the guitars again as a single solo...

[gypsy101]

I think it would be awesome if you could drag and drop effects around in the chain.
So you move them around in the path without having to deactivate, activate, reselect
And so on.
you can do that.arrow/click just to the left of the effect in the fx pop-up window & green arrow the selection up or down.
Also it would be great if you could copy automation lanes from one track to another.
A lot of times I'll duplicate a track for panning and get burned out by manually copying
Automation data.
Another thing that would be great with automation lanes is if you could split it like you
A track, then be able to drag and drop it anywhere.

And most definatly a better vast list or a way to organize it other than renaming effects.
Sometimes trying to find a vast in the list is like looking for a strait nail in a box of bent nails.

that's easy too. are you talking about your own saved presets or the fx themselves?
I usually put something like (for example) Acoustica Reverb: "A my main hall reverb" or "Amy lead guitar reverb" so it's @ the top of the preset list.

the other thing is to go into the vst file & delete any vst's you don't really use that often or want.
I'm sure you could use the vst ignore file but that might create problems later.

[gypsy101]

has a peak hold function been mentioned enough or @ least a delayed peak return?

too many pages in this thread now(OFC)...

[FlyingsCool]

I think it would be awesome if you could drag and drop effects around in the chain.
So you move them around in the path without having to deactivate, activate, reselect
And so on.
you can do that.arrow/click just to the left of the effect in the fx pop-up window & green arrow the selection up or down.
Also it would be great if you could copy automation lanes from one track to another.
A lot of times I'll duplicate a track for panning and get burned out by manually copying
Automation data.
Another thing that would be great with automation lanes is if you could split it like you
A track, then be able to drag and drop it anywhere.

And most definatly a better vast list or a way to organize it other than renaming effects.
Sometimes trying to find a vast in the list is like looking for a strait nail in a box of bent nails.

that's easy too. are you talking about your own saved presets or the fx themselves?
I usually put something like (for example) Acoustica Reverb: "A my main hall reverb" or "Amy lead guitar reverb" so it's @ the top of the preset list.

the other thing is to go into the vst file & delete any vst's you don't really use that often or want.
I'm sure you could use the vst ignore file but that might create problems later.

Yes, there are workarounds to some things. But it REALLY would help if we could organize our VST's in the UI. Really.

Also, yes, you can reorder fx's easily, but I don't think you can copy an automation lane, can you?
Or edit one in the context of another? He gives a good example of why you would want to do that. When you copy a track, does the automation get copied, too? As I mentioned previously, I'd love to be able to see more than one automation lane at a time.

[chibear]

This just came up via discussions in another forum. A big time saver for all those who work from a template:

A 'delete all empty tracks' button or if you want separate it into 'empty audio tracks' and 'empty virtual instrument tracks'.