Beatscape, ready for primetime?

Please chime in on the subject. I feel like if we are vocal about this program Cakewalk might be more willing to make updates for it sooner.

I played with it for a few minutes before I got bored.
Are there intros breaks endings etc to make a useful percussion bed or is it just turn it on turn it off beat bax thing?

It sounds nice.

WSS

Hi fresh101,

I'm glad your enjoying Beatscape.

a zoom/magnify function for editing wav slices & zero crossing

Try clicking a slice in the loop editor and using the mouse wheel to scroll.

visible numeric knob values

Good suggestion, thanks.

visible numeric values for step editor

Also a good suggestion!

better file management of user wavs

We'll keep this one in mind as well.

ability to change default pad settings to match personal work flow

You could always save your own track template for this purpose.

- Brian

Thanks Brian for the response. This is one of the things that make Cakewalk so awesome.

a zoom/magnify function for editing wav slices & zero crossing

Try clicking a slice in the loop editor and using the mouse wheel to scroll.

Thanks for this one. I must have over looked it. It really adds a lot to the program for me.

I really wish Drozone had this as well.

ability to change default pad settings to match personal work flow

You could always save your own track template for this purpose.

I've tried this and also saving a presets as well but when you add a sound to the pads they go back to the default settings automatically.

If I make a preset with empty pads set to

• play mode = manual play
  
• speed = 1x
  
• sync mode = immediate
  

When you add sounds to the pads the settings switch to this by default

• play mode = auto loop
  
• speed = 1x
  
• sync mode = measure
  

So every time I add a new sound I have to change the pad modes back to my prefered settings. This can become a hassle when trying out lots of sounds.

Thanks again for the response and help. This makes me feel like you guys really care.

I really like Beatscape and with a little polish I think it could truly be a awesome and powerful tool.

ORIGINAL: fresh101

Beatscape seems like a really cool idea but it doesn't seem to be executed as well as i had hoped. Outside of the audio problems with the slice section, their are a few missing features that keep it from really shining.

• a zoom/magnify function for editing wav slices & zero crossing
  
• visible numeric knob values
  
• visible numeric values for step editor
  
• better file management of user wavs
  
• ability to change default pad settings to match personal work flow
  

Don't get me wrong it really has some cool stuff going for it but what it's missing is keeping it from becoming a go to plug for me.

Let me know what you think. I've sent a feature request for most of my list already.

Please chime in on the subject. I feel like if we are vocal about this program Cakewalk might be more willing to make updates for it sooner.

Everytime I preview a clip in Beatscape it copies the file to my C drive. Sometimes it even makes a second, slightly larger copy (as a .loop file).
Once copied to my C drive & added to the "imported" list, files dont seem to load any faster than the first time.
Is there any processing done & saved in the C drive copy for Rx2, acidised wave or plain wave files during the "import" process or are they straight copies?

Are there any plans to allow users to have the option of having all these duplicate files placed somewhere other than the boot drive (eg where the user indicated they wanted the content loaded)? I'd rather not have to rely on an undocumented registry hack to accomplish it and I'm not keen to have my OS drive cluttered up with sample data.

Are there any plans to allow users to load existing files without having them duplicated? (I have nearly 20,000 rx2 files on my sample drive I havent bothered counting waves)

When Beatscape is uninstalled does it allow the option to have all this duplicate data it created removed as well?

A couple of feature suggestions:
-Long file names are truncated in the pads, some way to display the full filename (eg mouseover tooltip or rightclick option) would be handy. I'm currently looking at 4 Beatscape pads identically labelled "134_BD_Perc..." & its a pain not knowing whats loaded where.

-All the "not the boot drive" duplicate file stuff above or the abilty to just point at existing sliced samples & use them without copying.

-It would be nice if F5 refreshed/rebuilt the Program browser in Beatscape like it does the factory & imported lists. Currently can only be rebuilt by deleting the ProgCache.lst file in win explorer.

-Some file management stuff inside Beatscape. Constantly having to use win explorer & then refresh lists in beatscape is a pain & leads to errors.

"bug"(reported): Loading a Beatscape program that contains references to files not found (becuse they've been modified/deleted in win explorer for example) crashes Beatscape (& usually Sonar) with a C++ "Assertion Failed" message

So, I just loaded it up, and I'm not seeing the boot drive file duplicate issues. It seems to be putting everything in the user data/applications/cakewalk/beatscape/etc. folder.

Like I said, I did a re-install of beatscape, and when it asked me where to put the sample data I pointed it to my overall REX directory: e:/REX. beatscape created and installed it's REX files into a sub-folder of this, but the upshot is I can use the beatscape browser to access and audition all my REX files. If I need to get a .wavs and ACID loops I can use the Sonar loop browser and copy directly into beatscape from this.

As far as the data it's importing, it all seems to be going into the expected application data directory.


Also, a note to Cakewalk: You need to add Sonar 8 to feature request form.

-All the "not the boot drive" duplicate file stuff above or the abilty to just point at existing sliced samples & use them without copying.

This kinda what i was getting at on my list when I said " better file management of user wavs "

So I agree with you. I'd rather it point to the files and have some sort of auto search option if they're moved. The copy thing seems like it could really choke up your main drive reallly fast with heavy use. Especially considering the fact that if you load the same wav twice it makes a new copy of it.