A new “level” could be introduced in addition to tracks and columns. So we have:
“track groups” - “tracks” - “columns”
This would open up a lot of possibilities.
One of them could be a button for hiding/showing all tracks (except maybe the first track) in a certain “track group”. [See the topic “Track Hiding” in this forum.]
So one could for instance make the track group Drums or Orchestral or Effects (or whatever) containing x number of individual tracks…
Then it would be much more easy to handle a song containing… say 70 tracks with 130 columns (as one of mine do). And it would improve the general view of even small songs.
Here are some of the advantages/possibilities that come to mind:
1 The general view would be improved. “Track groups” could be individuated by different colors.
2 If one wants to work on the… Drums in a song, everything else could quickly be muted.
3 One could practically suspend “dubious” parts of a song. In fact one could make a track group called Recycle Bin - a place for ideas that are: weird/not yet fully developed/good but not…/probably to be deleted but… When a song is nearly finished, one could re-activate this track group and find out what to delete and what to use.
4 DSPs could be assigned to “track groups”.
5 More options in “Select Section & Content Mask”.
6 Render “track groups” to wav.
Yet this idea doesn’t necessarily have to be that (meaning: 4-6) evolved to serve a purpose.
The merits of an improved general view of a song and the ability to hide/show tracks groups would be enough (and very good) for me.
…But people suggesting that this is “overkill” surely have a strong case.
Sorry if something like this has been suggested elsewhere.
The “I<I” in the end of “Track Group00” is the hide button. When a track group is hidden, the arrow is reversed.
That’s a good idea.
As it is now “Track DSPs” are exclusively related to tracks. The DSPs you see/can edit depend on which track (e.g. not columns) the cursor is. So DSPs can only be edited on “track level” (this is where and why the Send Tracks come into play). An idea could be to automatically have a “send track” in the beginning of each Track Group dealing with the conjoined output of all individual tracks in that group (and telling us where one track group starts and another ends). It would look something like this:
[u]
The color thing…
One way would be to color all the pattern data or the background of a “Track Group”. Either way it would probably look pretty awful… or what?
My “vision” is that the framework of a track group is given a certain color. Then we could have thicker lines around the borders of a track group.
The background of “Track Group00” (see above) could have a same color. So the track group “Drums” would be reprensented black on blue.
In “Color Settings” the new element “Track Groups” could be added, and in the box to the right we would find "Track Group"00-10.
When opening a new song all 8 tracks should be inside a track group (called “Track Group00” as a standard). Adding tracks when the cursor is in a track group expands this track group. Then we would need a new button: “Add Track Group”.
Sorry for stating the obvious.
Btw another good thing about this is that renoise would be easier to use/more intuitive. New users would probably like it.
EDIT: Of course we would also need a function for moving tracks to another track group.
Another good thing: Shortcuts (some shift/alt/Ctrl-combination + 0-9) for jumping to the first track of a track group.
Uffe, the “framecolor” is also as i imagined it, very unintrusive. In the hide department Im leaning more towards splajns “zoom” feature, almost as fast, but better overview.
Yes Splajn’s idea is good - especially if it is as easy to implement as one is induced to believe.
It gives better overview in the sense “you can see more”. But the track group hide function gives a better overview in the sense “you can see what you want” and especially in the sense “you forget about what you don’t want”.
In the long run the zoomed_ out_pattern_view… oh, don’t know how to put this but… where’s the intimacy with the sweet sweet data
Well, maybe the two ideas are complementary?
OK, what I want is an option to practically exclude certain parts of a song (while focusing on others) for some period of time and then return to them later on. My working method is pretty chaotic and lebensraum-demanding. This feauture would be a great “simplifier” for me.
If the specific track_group_output_tracks are made another good thing about the track_group_hide_function could be: easier production.(Personally I tend to get lost in complex “Send Track” systems).
One could shrink an entire song to… say 5 ultra slim track_group_output_tracks (Drums, Strings, Effects, Basses, Guitar) and then make overall DSP settings for each, switching back and forth between the track_group_output_tracks adjusting the sound… and feel… in control…?
But why not even make the groups nestable. Groups within groups.
Perhaps overkill but if they will make it one day its something to consider.
Colors are much qicker to see than reading names.
Its also probably quicker to color something than to name it.
I would love to be able to color tracks.
I would also want to have a small hide/show trackgroups pannel where you can chose which groups to view quickly.
So that you can view the drums next to the strings.
This could probably be done from the mixer.
My idea is only a complementary thing.
And I still don’t see why they don’t implement it when it should be quite easy?
Ofcourse nothing is super easy.
just load the samples, add them with your mixer and break to da bone!
It would be very great to add tracks to groups, so you can still control the track’s DSP effects, but control the master volume on the track group.
look at this picture:
If this would be possible, it is very easy to use 1 slider on your mixer, and fade the volume of all drums to the monitors. You have more control, and a better overview of what yo are doing.
I think it would make using renoise much easier in terms of navigation. My only real criticism of tracking is, that the tracks get out of control in terms of visuals VERY quickly. We NEED some sort of colour coding and grouping like this. It would be really really good to see this implemented.
Even if you dont get the ability to add an effect to a paricular group, I wouldnt mind. Just the visual side of this and the way it allows you to organise a track would be enough for me! Any extra actual control would just be a bonus
Good idea, I’d like to see the colour coding and stuff +8.
But… you can do something very similar with Send Channels already.
eg. I usually build the rhythm section on 3 or 4 tracks, and send them all in varying proportions to a compressor on a Send track. Then to control the vol of the whole drum section, just fade the send track up and down… innit.
