Groups vs. Folders

[tooold]

Tried checking around to see if this specifically had cropped up, couldn't find anything.

Does anyone who is/was a heavy group user have any thoughts about folders?Obviously, folders have the advantage of organizing tracks. Beyond that, though... in terms of editing, soloing, arming for record, input monitoring, etc., is there any noticeable improvement? Other than organisation, do folders do anything that groups didn't do?

I liked using groups with keyboard command focus. It sped up editing and automating, but with three liabilities, mostly my responsibility.

1. Forgetting to disable a group and discovering that the edits you thought you were making to one track were made on all tracks in the group. The reverse also could bite you.

2. Having more than 26 groups. They would tend to accumulate over time, and, once you exceeded 26, keyboard focus wouldn't work on the overflow.

3. Solo safe on aux returns. Mostly set and forget, but every now and then, it would cause momentary head scratching as to why something was/was not playing.

I'm just trying to get an idea of what to expect when I'm trying out Folders, and maybe how best to use them. Ideally, I'd use one or the other. I've installed 2020.5 (with a backup to 2019.6), but I'm sick as a dog right now (not COVID, thankfully) so am wiped out, and nothing hands-on yet. Hope to do some investigation on my own in a few days.

Thanks

Myles

[midnightrambler]

Disappointed no one's replied to this, as I was looking forward to seeing if there were any hidden insights or gems.

As a complete aside, I'd really like a "strictly temporary" form of group - e.g. ganging a few faders together for some riding. The number of times I have to create and then modify a "temp" group for a simple action like this...

[ejinbc]

M

I think you nailed it. After playing around with Folder tracks for a while I realized Folder Tracks are kind of just GUIs on Groups - they behave very similarly. For example, I have stopped using Folders because the (i) during recording you can't open or close a folder (like not changing Group views while recording) and, (ii) when you collapse / expand a folder track it clears the monitoring & recording status of the tracks in the folder (just like Groups).

I really wanted to like Folder Tracks (we pay for the updates) but I think the Group functionality is actually better implemented and quicker with keyboard shortcuts as you suggest. This is why I suggested a sticky for Folder Track feature requests. Avid forgot to add the features part of Folder tracks :)

Not being able to change views while recording is a showstopper for Folder Tracks for me right now. BUT, I do find 2020.5 pretty stable and quick YMMV.

E

[JFreak]

Only difference is you can have nested folders (folder inside a folder) so if you are a real heavy user that should make things a lot easier and logical.

[TOM@METRO]

I find Folder Tracks very convenient for the most part. They get a lot of use here. I can see though, how this could be a personal choice based on what feels comfortable to the individual.

[tooold]

Thanks, this is all very helpful. I need to get my hands on and see which feels better. It's always a bit of a challenge to change workflow, particularly if it feels like there's only one reason to do it. I do work with a lot of large sessions, so the simple housekeeping part of folders sounds great. As we all know, moving around sessions, being able to go where you want without wasting time, and then do what you want to do (not what you *thought* you were doing ) is paramount.

Myles

[originalscottyg]

Originally Posted by ejinbc

Not being able to change views while recording is a showstopper for Folder Tracks for me right now. BUT, I do find 2020.5 pretty stable and quick YMMV.

I just came across this when making a new template for post. I first noticed that the Basic Folder that I keep my print tracks in would disarm the print tracks when closing the folder. Fair enough. I can live with keeping the Print Track folder open when laying back. But then I noticed that all opening and closing of folders is disabled when the transport is in record, either by clicking the folder icon, or by shift-F. BUT, then I noticed that folder open/close via the Control app seems to be working during record. I am thinking that this is a bug, somehow. Hopefully, the bug is that it DOESN'T work from inside the DAW and not that it DOES work from the app.

I think I'll start a separate thread about this...