[Done 2.8] Collapsible Channel Grouping

a major +1

If every of this remarks would be positive, then I think this could be a great idea. Something like a hiearchy mixing… Like it a lot!

+1. 60 tracks are not nice to navigate.

If track folders would be a large task, adding the ability to hide/collapse each track to 16px wide (and rotate the label 90deg if possible?) would be a quick improvement. I can’t comment on the pattern matrix though because I don’t use it.

This would be good.

(rhowaldt’s first comment was really stupid btw, but ok.)

Let’s assume that track grouping is possible and that we use somehow top track colors also in the background.

Now : what about the scopes ? and what about the tracks themselves ?

How would they look like and behave ?

b SCOPES[/b]

While tracks are UNGROUPED

(1) Could we also draw scopes realtime dots/lines with the help of top track colors ? It could help.

OR

(2) Could we fill the background of the individual tracks scope views with top track colors ?

AND when some tracks are GROUPED

(3) When collapsing and grouping tracks, :

  • a “mixed” scope view of all grouped tracks using a median/color by default (front or background)?
  • multiple miniscopes views ?
  • kind of bigger “vue-meters” like in the top patten matrix tracks ?
  • blocks or points of colors that pulse ?

b Grouped Tracks Look[/b]

The problem is that we have to forget typical and detailed tracks views with notes, colomns, hex params, …
So what should be displayed vertically then ?

  • A huge vue-meter (like in some old amiga trackers ? (cool but slower GUI)
  • a kind of vertical audio-view ? (cool, but usefull for… for what ?)
  • a tetris game ? (hey nice but, … “”“” “”" )
  • multiple param’ columns globally controling / modulating all the sub-params in all the contained sub-columns ?

© Grouped Tracks Control

And in the automation tab ? In the track dsp tab ?
What kind of “control” could we give to grouped tracks ?

Should we create a specific “group automation enveloppes” for grouped tracks that would control/modulate every individual sub-automation enveloppes ? (this is not the self-mixable group idea, as proposed befor, but the possibility to “modulate” sub-params. Because ‘overwriting’ sub-parameters should produce a lack of control on a low level.

Any ideas ?

I think it should should be done the way it’s done in Reaper (and other daws?). A “group” is just a normal track, with the only difference that it has been flagged as “start of group”. The last track in the group is flagged as “end of group”. That would provide fast creation and multiple levels. No shift click marking and selecting “group these tracks”.

I doubt that I’ll ever run into the problem you have, but I like the idea that you can group tracks together, so +1 from me.

it would be a great feature to have something like this - i like that idea maybe for now this New Tool: Search For Track can help you ;)

don`t know reaper but like the idea, something like track markers so you can move fast to the “strings marker” which was set for example at track 46 where the string tracks starting i think that would be the easiest way to navigate faster maybe the track search tool can be modified that there will be a included list of “important tracks” …

I don’t use Reaper, but I think I understand the advantages of this “start < > end” concept, especially for establishing a hierarchy in “groups”.
It means that grouped track have to be visually sticked together in the pattern editor.

It would be interesting to apply this hierarchy concept to the way meta-devices behave.
In each meta-device you’ve got a destination.
For now you can choose the destination track.
Could we then choose a destination group ?
Meta-devices targetting groups instead of tracks could be able to modulate not only one parameter of a DSP (example, a reverb’s Room Size) in one defined track
but they could also propose to modulate all the same parameters of the same DSPs (all the room sizes) in lower levels of the hierarchy

I think that the way relationships are defined between these hierarchical levels could also create new levels of complexity and creativity during the composition phase.

+a lot

I’ve got the same problem with my tracks and I can’t even have such a big resolution… Mainly it’s the matrix on the left side covering most of the workspace and then there’s room left for a couple of columns. Basically what I do when I end up in this situation I render all the tracks separately and rebuild the project in Reaper where I can organize things better into folders. Not a perfect solution at all. I’d love to see such functionality in Renoise’s future releases.

One thing related to m0d’s problem that I’ve already made a suggestion about in the past is that reordering tracks in Patter Editor is quite painful when you have a huge amount of them. So the related suggestion is to enable reordering tracks in Pattern Matrix.

i am aware. funny thing is, so is yours right now. suppose you did not read through:

edit (to also add to the discussion): the points brought forward by Kurtz are very relevant. when you think about doing track grouping, you tend to think of it just like that: ‘group the tracks cuz there’s too little room on my screen’. the implications of this however are a lot more complex, as Kurtz does a good job explaining.

imo, a group track would essentially be the same thing as sending, for example, 10 tracks to a single send-track. the scopes and dsp etc would just show you a single track, albeit marked in some way as being a group-track. the pattern matrix could do the same, and both the pattern matrix and the pattern editor would need some sort of ‘expand’ button on the group-track that would allow you to collapse/uncollapse it.

I really hope this gets implemented :) I’m forever scrolling and its taking its toll on my mouse arm :)

man, you should just start making your setups minimal! :)

would be really useful if we could group tracks and collapse them

this is a feature i hope for in next renoise version

+1

I was thinking about this today (cause I’m always having +30 trakcs) and I was thinking… make tracks dsp’s possible for columns… and let the user give each column a name. simple.

Can we pleaaaase have this in the new release?
Please?

+1

This feature would improve my workflow even more - i think that after the awesome pattern matrix this should be the next step to keep a song well organized while i’m building the structure

+1 with a lot of hope :slight_smile:

Just out of curiosity, which particular memories does it bring back?

memories of chilling around a campfire with some friends, a bottle of wine and a guitar, drinking and smoking and singing and laughing and having fun.