Keep plugin GUIs on top-?

I can only make 64bit plug-ins hide behind the Console view when the view is undocked. If the view is docked, all the plug-ins stay on top of the Console view.

 What if you move the dock to the second screen and dock the console view ?

joeb1cannoli
 What if you move the dock to the second screen and dock the console view ?

Thanks for the suggestion, Joeb - But if I did that, all my tabbed views would also be on that screen wouldn't they?  My work flow is to have my first screen split with some Track View at the top, PRV taking up most of the screen at the bottom, and the Console taking the entire second screen.  I've worked that way for several years.
 
Maybe there's a different approach I can take with plugins - I mean, I can't believe I'm the only person annoyed with this change in behavior.  Maybe someone has a solution that makes the plugins stay on top the way they should?  Having the plugins float in front of the Tracks is OK, but not ideal.
 
Randy B.

scookHonestly I have done my best to not remember pre-X series SONAR. Most of the UI has changed and trying to make X3 work like SONAR 8.5 is not a good idea IMHO.

hehehe, I see.  But in my opinion, this particular issue is obviously a step backwards, Scook.  Of course plugin GUIs should stay available for tweaking until dismissed, wherever you have them displayed.  The way they behave now is just bad programming.  What do you do, just click over and over to get a plugin open again-?
 
Randy B.

I have never found the console view very useful and don't undock views.

Thanks for your replies, Scook and John.  I seem to have a talent for bringing things up that either don't bother anyone else, or don't even happen to them. 

scookI have never found the console view very useful and don't undock views.

I've used two monitors for so long now, I wouldn't want to go back, and using multiple monitors is all about undocking and moving views around so you can spread out.  Like John said in his reply, I just Gotta have that overview of the whole project, seeing at a glance what the relative levels are, popping back and forth between various sliders as I record automation.  I wouldn't know how to work with just the TV where you don't have that all-in-one grasp on a project.  And when I briefly had to work with one monitor again awhile back, I thought I'd go mad with the non-stop clicking and dragging I had to do.  Yikes.

John...I don't recall pre X series FX not being able to go behind a window...

That's exactly the opposite of what I want, John.  The plugins dive behind the Console window all the time, as soon as you touch anything in the Console.  I want the plugin GUIs to stay in place, there in view.  I don't want them to keep disappearing.
 
In 8.5 and every version before that, when you double clicked a plugin to get at its controls, it would float above the Console as long as you wanted.  It wouldn't disappear from view until you purposely closed it.  That way, you could go back between the controls in the plugin and in the Console with ease - they could be just inches apart.  That's what I'm talking about.  That's why my work around is to have the plugins float above the TV on my first screen, because they don't disappear over there when you touch something else in the project.  It's not a perfect solution, because now I have to move completely back and forth between the two screens to grab a plugin knob, then grab a Console knob, and so on.  

John...It was 32 bit plugins running under Bitbridge that would/will not go behind a window. This has been true ever since 64 bit Sonar was released. Benistat was the one with his Sonar Plus that added the ability to 32 bit bitbridged plugins to be behind other windows.

--!! Now that's really funny - You mean, Benistat purposely made them hide.  wow - that's so-- counter intuitive to me.  Why would I want my plugins to keep disappearing when I want to work with them-?

One of my other quirks is that I still mostly work in 32 bit.  But you're saying the plugins hide in 64 bit also, so I guess that doesn't make a difference.

Well, I still have to ask - What do you when you want to go back and forth between working in a plugin and in the Console?  You just keep clicking open the plugin again-?  Kind of in the category of all this endless clicking we have to do now just to access what we want to edit in a track?

Randy
 

rbowser
...My work flow is to have my first screen split with some Track View at the top, PRV taking up most of the screen at the bottom, and the Console taking the entire second screen...

But do you really need both CV and PRV to be present in every screenset?

You may have your CV at full screen. I don't. I can have the CV with on my other monitor and not hve it taking up the full screen and still see the full channel strips top to bottom. This leaves plenty of room for showing plugins GUIs. At least enough to be able to bring them forward when needed. 
 

 

JohnYou may have your CV at full screen. I don't. I can have the CV with on my other monitor and not have it taking up the full screen and still see the full channel strips top to bottom...

AH - Good one.  Yes, I've always just let it pop in and fill up the full screen.  With all that wasted space at the top of the Console, there's room for what you do - I just tried it, works great.  Thanks for explaining, John.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk...8.5 does exactly the same thing...If you want the effects windows always on top of the console you have to deactivate the floating window state on the console...

Thanks for the reply, Noel - I've only been using X3 for a week now.  8.5 is very fresh in my mind, since I was still using it just those few days ago, and I guarantee you, I had the plugins always staying put in front of Console when I wanted them to stay there, as I've said on this thread.   I could tweak a plugin knob, tweak a level in Console, and the plugin's GUI would still be there, handy for me to work with more if I wanted, without having to click it open again.

I can't deactivate the floating window state of the console, because then I wouldn't be able to have it on my second monitor.  I don't know if there were some special settings I did to have it work that way in 8.5, but that's the way I had it, and that's why it was startling to me when I started working in X3 and my plugin GUIs kept disappearing like that.  Never happened in 8.5.  Zero doubt about that.

I'll get over it! - I'll use John's method of reducing the size of the Console, or keep clicking the plugins open again, or move them over to the 1st screen while tweaking.

Randy

scook
I have never found the console view very useful and don't undock views.

Scook, I was surprised to see this from you. I usually use one monitor unless I'm really working hard and then I carry up the bedroom TV and plug it in. Console View is not the place where I work on envelopes, so I spend more time in Track View, but...

• I will say, using 2 monitors I find problems faster than when I use one.
• Nice to see all the PCs at once.
• Useful for copying EQ settings between tracks and buses.
• Useful for adding Pro Channel modules to multiple tracks at once
• Best screen for touch
• ctrl plus click on the left most Track's PC expand button expands all to the right.
• This is the view where I tend to hide midi tracks
• Useful for watching for the PC clip indicator on all tracks at once.

Grem...Time to learn a new way!...

Rightio, Grem, that's what I'm doing. 
 
On this one particular thread topic, I still don't understand why just a week ago, when I opened a plugin's GUI in Sonar 8.5, it would stay to the front until I clicked to close it.  I saw Noel's post saying that nothing's changed, but I beg to differ since how this worked in 8.5 is still completely fresh in my mind.  GUIs stayed in front until dismissed.  Whether there was some arcane setting somewhere in Windows that I had in place to make that work, I can't say.  All I know is that I suddenly need to use a work-around for this, and all the work-arounds mentioned here make the process Slower.  It's a small thing, but it's a step backwards that makes the work flow clumsier for me.
 
Randy

I never really used Console view before the X Series. But then I discovered the magic key command - D - when I want something faster than screensets.
 
Here's what I do...
 

• Have the Track view, browser, and inspector spread across two monitors, with the dock at the bottom. Spreading the track view across two monitors lets me see the whole tune comfortably.
• Click on the Console tab, and adjust the Console splitter bar all the way to the top (or leave a sliver for the Navigator or Track View to show the current song position).
• Type D to toggle between the Console view and the Track/Inspector/Browser view. Because the Console view is in the dock, if I want a "big screen" PRV that's only a click away too.

 
This is GREAT for mixing because with one key, I can toggle back and forth between mixing and editing. By stretching the Console across two monitors, I can have the strips in "wide" view, which to me is what makes the Console useful.
 
This takes care of 85% of my mixing needs; for the other 15%, there are screensets. 
Next to Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Z, D is probably my most-used keyboard shortcut. Next would be the custom key bindings for zoom in and out horizontally.

John
It could have been a 32 bit plugin and in 64 bit Sonar it will stay on top.  

All - I mean All plugins, once clicked open, would stay in front however long I liked, until I closed.  Scout's Honor, that's the way it was.
 
Randy

John
I can say without reservation that you remember it wrong Randy. Even Noel has confirmed it.  

lol--I know you guys don't believe me.  But both you and Noel are incorrect.  I was using 8.5 just one week ago, and what I'm talking about was a standard part of my every day routine.  Click a plugin's icon, it would stay in front of the Console until I clicked it closed.  Very convenient.  You may as well think I'm not right that I put both feet on the ground in the morning before walking.  I had it that way for so many years, it's possible I had some special utility that accomplished that - I can't remember.  I'll look around for it.  Your method is fine, but looks messy to me, I would just have to get used to it.  Thanks.

Randy

By the way, I wonder why plugin GUIs stay on top when they're in front of the Track View?  But they do, the way I wish they did in Console View.  But since they stay put there in TV, it proves that it's not correct that it's just a Windows thing where whatever has focus moves to the front, blocking other windows.
 
Randy