Clip Binning of Automation lanes

Automation already has a pretty hefty list of features, and being able to use the smart tool to a decent extent to modulate and modify automation nodes in Sonar makes production pretty swift, but on constant occasion (at least for me and a few others I know) being able to quickly manipulate a set of nodes outside of cut, copy & paste (or using Edit > Special commands) things get a bit slow-paced and long-winded.
 
The feature I would like to suggest would be to create a "clip" system for the automation lanes.  If we can treat automation data by choosing an option to "create clip" at any time thereby "binning" that set of automation nodes, it would be much easier to then treat that automation data like any audio or midi clip and subject it to clip-looping, or ctrl+left click and drag either end for time scaling as with audio and midi clips (and perhaps implement a vertical scaling and centering subset for this).

Conceptual experience walkthrough:

1. Automation record pass is done (or manually placed on timeline), nodes are now on the timeline. 
2. Left-click and drag to highlight the portion of the timeline grid (and nodes) you want to create a clip bin over.
3. Right-click and select "create automation clip".  If highlighting across multiple automation lanes, a clip will be created in each lane.
4. Node information is now relative to the clip metadata.  Can "loop", move, cut, copy, and paste like regular clips.  Can even move from one lane to another.
5. Individual nodes are still fully editable, can delete and add nodes within clips, and:
   1. Option A:  all instances within that contiguous looped clip update in real-time.  *NOTE: looped midi clips do not operate in this fashion.* (See Relative Data Purposes item 2 below for reasoning)
   2. Option B: In same fashion that looped midi clips operate, can drag out onto the timeline, and individual nodes still operate independently.  This option will provide a more uniform experience so that working with midi and automation behave as expected, but could offer an additional tool (see Further development considerations item 3 below)

Relative data purposes:

• When treating automation data as a loopable clip, the curve type of the last node should dictate the lead-in to the beginning node of the next clip so as to create a contiguous performance.
• Recurring data could potentially save overhead on project file-sizes when dealing with automation-heavy projects, since only the clip-bin information needs to be created, all duplicates of the clip are instancing the original.

Further development considerations:

• The smart tool has quite a bit of handy features that simply haven't extended as fully into automation data manipulation as it has with midi and/or audio.  For example, the pattern tool is wonderful but doesn't extend into working with automation the way that it does with midi.  Perhaps by implementing clip-binning for automation, this feature set could become more well-rounded to include automation data manipulation.
• Horizontal + vertical scaling smart tool functions:  The smart tools lack "scaling" options, and while those options could be incredibly handy for editing and modifying midi, they would be equally as powerful for editing automation.  If scaling tools are developed, please make sure they work for both midi AND automation.
• Another option for updating Smart tools would be to allow a CTRL+double click option or ALT+double click option that automatically selects all nodes at the same value across the timeline in that automation lane / OR being able to "highlight" a vertical portion of the automation's scale on the lane metering just before the timeline.  The idea is to create a more uniform experience that emulates working with Midi (for example, when in Piano Roll View [PRV] simply left-clicking on one of the keys on the left-hand side of the window will highlight ALL notes across all clips in the timeline within that midi track).  This should further speed up editing envelopes across multiple nodes.  Furthermore, being able to hold CTRL while selecting an envelope type to set across multiple nodes would also speed things considerably and provide a uniform experience with how the rest of Sonar operates.

 

Core Behavior update:

• Not sure how much of the core code would have to be changed in order to change the way automation curves work, but perhaps starting by expanding the pre-set options for the types of curves beyond the typical slopes we have now.
  Ideally, if we could treat each node with individual start and end "handles" or "anchors" much like Adobe Illustrator, we would then be able to individually "weight" the curve leaving one node and approaching another.  I'm curious if these vectors would add more processing overhead to calculating set automation values that must then be translated into the plugin/processor receiving the data or if it would add any level of fidelity, but if we're adding two more vectors to every node the question would then become whether we can be more efficient with less nodes needed on the automation lane to create detailed sculpts for sound design or if overall that will still end up eating more resources.

 

Soulburned
...create a "clip" system for the automation lanes.  If we can treat automation data by choosing an option to "create clip" at any time thereby "binning" that set of automation nodes, it would be much easier to then treat that automation data like any audio or midi clip and subject it to clip-looping, or ctrl+left click and drag either end for time scaling as with audio and midi clips...

Great. I like the idea. This could speed up envelope editing considerably.

Nice idea.  Well thought out presentation.

So I've been thinking about an alternative approach to my experience walkthrough above that may solve some UX issues that come to mind.
 

Theoretical issues

Firstly,  the way the UI logic works with automation lanes, the smart tool would make it difficult to simply select a region of the timeline grid on 1 or multiple lanes without having to find JUST the right spot.  Adding another "hit zone flag" to make the Clip-Binning feature feasible would have to take a percentage of space away from the other hit zones, OR the cursor would have to be far enough away from a node or automation curve to resume it's regular function - which could make it even more difficult to get the grid starting point you want to highlight just right (even with snap settings' "magnet" set to it's highest level).
 

Alternative Solution

Change the core state of Sonar to create clips for every lane by default.  An obvious change like this should be advertised well before the change is implemented so users can be aware. Clip binning being a new default method of working with automation data and lanes.
 

Experience Walkthrough

1. OPTION 1:  Any write passes will automatically get "binned".  Any manual placement of nodes in an automation lane will create a clip at least the length of the current quantize zoom level (if you're using smart grid, ie: 1/16th note).  Users will have to manually drag out the clip beginning or end points in order to continue manually placing nodes within the clip.
2. OPTION 2: Any write passes will automatically get "binned", but in order to manually place nodes in automation lanes where no clip exists, the user must first create a new clip. 
   1. The differences between option 1 and option 2 are minimal, but equally important for workflow.  It may be possible to offer a "preference" for users to choose which method they prefer to work with.
3. Users can change the length of the clip at any time since the default state of the clip should behave like a traditional clip that is not groove-enabled.  The user can right-click on the clip at any time to "enable groove-clip" as per the rest of Sonar core experience.
4. [Preferences] Users can have the preference of automation clip creation always being strictly to-the-grid.  
   1. Set to OFF: If it's set to OFF, the clip will start exactly where the first node is placed (may be handy for those doing sound design or work to picture and using another time display format that isn't the musical grid).
   2. Set to ON: This means even if you're not using Snap-to-grid, the automation nodes being manually placed on the timeline can be wherever in terms of timing, but the clip itself will start at beginning of the measure or beat upon the user's selection. 
      1. Additional sub-preferences if set to ON: Set clip start to nearest beginning; measure, bar, beat ,etc..
5. A write pass will create a clip after playback has stopped, encompassing the complete pass from beginning to end. 
6. IF using the DRAW tools, the clip will "bin" the series of nodes created within the "drag" as soon as the user let's go of left-click.
7. Users can select / highlight clips within the same lane and "bounce" to concatenate (combine) them into a single clip just as the bounce feature works with audio and midi clips.