Feature Request - Track Folders or Trees

[DrFord]

So I am printing Rtas effects using Aux and busses, and it dawns on me that I wish each new track could be nested somehow into the original track, sortof like the way playlists now spill out.

A useful example might be that you create a Drum Sub bus, and then everything you "nest" using a simple drag and drop functionality, is indented, colored, and listed in the Track window tabbed, indented, and grouped accordingly.

Another really cool thing would be "Smart Objects" like inside photoshop. You basically highlight a set of layers and it turns it into a photoshop file inside the photshop file. Double click and you can edit the object in a separate window.

What if we had smart regions? Regions that could hold several states of audio, like layers of plug in printing, and live as a sub mix inside the current region, which are all editable if you double click on the region.

Just my thoughts... back to editing drums.

[Electrox]

Do you mean like Logic which has folders they can put tracks into?

[DrFord]

dunno I don't use logic, but I think the region states was cubase inspired

[Matts]

These feature requests are some of the best I've come across.

Following this kind of a path, we slowly end up with a modern DAW - a tool that makes things possible, instead of blocking our ideas and our inspiration.

I stand behind these requests wholeheartedly.

-matts

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by DrFord

What if we had smart regions? Regions that could hold several states of audio, like layers of plug in printing, and live as a sub mix inside the current region, which are all editable if you double click on the region.

Protools kind of has this. Right click and use the region list... Also Cmd+Opt+G, Cmd+Opt+U, Cmd+Opt+R can do some similar "smart" region type stuff.

[Matts]

Originally Posted by O.G. Killa

Protools kind of has this. Right click and use the region list... Also Cmd+Opt+G, Cmd+Opt+U, Cmd+Opt+R can do some similar "smart" region type stuff.

These existing features are for sure kind of nice, but in my opinion hardly comparable to the features that I believe the original poster had in mind - and what I myself would like to have access to.

Being able to drag a whole session directly into to the timeline of another session is another approach that I'd like to see.

(Or the other way around: dragging a selection of tracks and/or regions from a session to create a new independent session.)


Or make it possible to envoke a temporary "mode" by pressing a modifier key while executing an edit command:

Working in slip mode but holding down (for instance) the control key, a Cut would in effect behave as if you had been in shuffle mode.


Features like these would expand your possibilities and enchance your workflow in a way that would help you go where you really want to go without losing focus.

-matts

[D'Animation]

+1

Sounds like it would be a great idea if I'm reading you right - just like you can 'hide' or 'spill' vca's on an ICON/Custom faders but visually within the edit window? in my case substitute sfx for drums but same idea...

I use memory locations with track show/hide info etc as a work-around but this would make things more seamless.

Can't see them going for the 'drag session to timeline' type features when you can do similar stuff with import session data - albeit in a clunky fashion especially if your track naming is a bit lax...but I agree, it would lead to less breaks in creative flow
D

[John_Toolbox]

I would love to see this. I use track folders all the time in Logic for my midi sequences, it would be really nice to do the same with audio in pro tools. In fact you might even get me to go back to sequencing in Pro Tools if this and a few other Logic midi features were possible. My work around for now is to group the tracks and show/hide them, that way I can work on one section at a time without all the edit/mix window clutter.

[DrFord]

I'm just glad you guys didn't say my ideas sucked.

The truth is that I was actually in the process of 3 days worth of editing guitars to drums, which were not recorded to a click... on the first track of 6.... for about 20% of what the actual time should cost, and was thinking these simple things would make my life so much easier....

Not as much as convincing the drummer he was REQUIRED to record to a click. I honestly won't make that mistake again unless its Travis Barker.