Buggy clip-fx?
 

Hi,

I normally avoid clip-fx for various reasons but on a project I was recently confronted with a collaborator's tracks containing them. I noticed that for some reason the copy/paste feature for them seem very inconsistent.

Sometimes the copy clip-fx function in the right-click menu is greyed out and sometimes not when having selected a clip. Is there a reason why this is?

I can't for the life of me find out why. It seems like it only works on straight mono tracks?

Any clip-fx experts around who can explain what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

Frank.

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

I've noticed that, sometimes I have to go to the Clip FX panel and use the menu there. Have no idea why.

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

Ok thanks. So I guess the problem is not in my chair but rather in ProTools which is good to know.

I'll stay away from clip fx in the future. I found that with clip effects in the session it gets much more bloated. Everything takes longer to load and sessions take for ever to close as well.

Unfortunately there's no "coalesce clip fx to channel strips" since the parameters seem to be incompatible as well so there's no way back once you've got them in your session.

Frank.

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

I haven't noticed a performance loss, I use a lot of clip fx. But my projects overall are not very complicated.

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

I use clip fx all the time and haven't noticed any issues regarding copy/pasting, though I exclusively use the menu from the alt+6 window (which programmed on my mouse for quick access).
Performance is also no issue here.

The only issue I have is when I change a parameter the first time it doesn't play back right away. I have to 'touch' or change the parameter again in order to hear it.

It might get messy selecting multiple clips where each had a different clip fx starting point. The alt+6 window will only show one of them but applies the parameter you change to all of the selected clips (leaving the untouched parameters intact).

What parameters are incompatible by the way? It seems to me they all match the channel strip? All besides the 'fx chain order' and I think the output trim, or am I missing something?

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

It's odd and I can only speak for 2019.12 as I've almost never used the clip fx before but the copy menu being greyed out I see all the time. Also the keyboard shortcut for copy clip-fx won't work in that case, however the copy menu inside the clip fx parameter window will work. It's randomly inconsistent and quite annoying. So maybe that is a 19.12 thing, not sure. Could be a new bug but I can't compare to earlier behaviour.

What I meant about the parameters not matching is that I haven't found a way to copy/paste clip EQs over to the AAX channel strip when you want to use them as a time based EQ. Very strange because you can recall saved Channel Strip AAX presets from disk. Why no copy/paste? I also wish there was a compare button that is a real before/after compare and not just a button that recalls the factory default. The undo/redo essentially becoming the "suspend preview" equivalent.

And I also miss a visual indicator for active clip effects when zoomed out. I also wish the compressor had a level (gain reduction meter) meter.

F.

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

And the waveform changing to reflect the updated EQ would be great too - like clip gain.

Low end can smash a waveform display.

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

Clip effects don't work on clip groups. That's the only time I've seen the clip window controls greyed out. Could that be what's happening?

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

I've experienced the copy/paste shortcuts (Ctr-Opt-Cmd-C & Cmd-V) to be hit or miss sometimes. Repeated attempts to copy paste settings would fail, pasting whatever else is on the clipboard instead. But I've never seen the copy/paste menu items (in the Clip FX window drop-down menu) greyed out. This is across a variety of Pro Tools versions since ClipFX came out. Early on there were major bugs with EQ bands just not working at all or being non-adjustable upon revisiting them. I think they were still fine-tuning the code that locked non-Ultimate users out (HD at that time).

Re: Buggy clip-fx?
 

Yes that's exactly my experience as well. copy/paste works or doesn't work for no apparent reason and it's not connected to clip groups. The only way to copy/paste reliably is to use the drop down menu which isn't great ergonomics.

F.