Alright... this is probably just something that needs to be done manually one at a time but I am checking just in case I am missing something.
 
Problem: A pile of tracks that need the same effect inserted on all of them (in this case GR5 and I'd like to have a specific preset loaded but that's a little ahead of what this is about). These effects will also have to be kept consistent as tweaks occur (and linking VSTs is not possible).
 
So I can't just select all the tracks, hold Ctrl and insert the effect into the bin. Just doesn't work. Maybe there is a trick. If so I would like to know the trick.
 
One workaround. I can insert multiple FX Chain modules into selected tracks at once BUT they are empty AND they show up at the bottom. I don't want them at the bottom (I also tried moving the module while holding Ctrl with the tracks selected and only the currently "active" track registers the move).
 
Anyway... I've always done this the long way around and manually (like Ctrl dragging things from bin to bin). Since I am dealing with sooooo many tracks in this project I was really hoping to find a bulk insert method (and ideally a bulk replace method as I tweak stuff... I already know you can't link effects in the bin which sucks and I posted an FR about it a while back).
 
My preliminary tests today are really pointing to what I thought. I'm going to have to do this track by track. I may be able to work out some way of using Track Templates or PC Presets (which would ignore the FX Bin I think so I would absolutley have to use an FX Chain).
 
The question is... how does everyone handle this type of thing? I doubt there is any one answer so just toss 'em out. Anything helps.
 
And no... I can't rely on busses for these types of effects because they need to be on the tracks themselves for individual tweaks.
 
Also Track Templates at this point are gonna suck because the tracks are all already set up to a certain point so doing that would, I think, make me have to do a bunch of crap over and I would just have to repeat it every time I made a change.
 
Just want to insert an effect, or series of effects, across multiple tracks at once (and preferably with presets already loaded which may not even be remotely possible because how do you open a plug to a preset? Ugh).
 
Yeah... just looking to save some time and make things easier. This unfortunately does not seem to be one of the easier things to do in Sonar.
 
Cheers and thanks.
 
 

Hi Beepster...

Just thinking...

Have you tried creating one PC setup and saving it, then group loading the PC setup?

...just a thought.

Hi Beeps,
I don't think there is a way to do it other than manually one at a time. That's how I have always done it anyway....well, I add one other step: grumbling that there really ought to be a be a better way to to this.
 
Dean

FWIW, I timed how long it took to ctrl-drag an effect into 24 tracks in Console view, and it was 30 seconds. I just don't see that as a big deal given how rarely I need to do something like that, but I guess others feel differently.

Anderton
FWIW, I timed how long it took to ctrl-drag an effect into 24 tracks in Console view, and it was 30 seconds. I just don't see that as a big deal given how rarely I need to do something like that, but I guess others feel differently.

I don't think this is the point.
 
When I'm in a creative place, I don't want my flow slowed down for 30 seconds having to do something that should take me 2. This can be done easily in Pro Tools. I don't think its asking for the moon to ask for it, and other things people have been asking for in Sonar. The DAW should get out of the way of creativity.
 
Moving multiple tracks at once is a common request where response has been "It only takes thirty seconds".
 
I'd love to see an update where these small but significant workflow issues are addressed. Just because one person doesn't care doesn't mean there aren't one hundred who do.
 
 

Added to the requested features forum. Please vote up if you'd like to see this.
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Copy-an-effect-to-multiple-FX-bins-at-one-time-m3268937.aspx

Hi Beep, just one (probably stupid) thought!
 
If you want all of these Fx to be the same and also to receive the same tweaks (making them all identical), why not just bus one instance via sends?
 
Need coffee.........

PilotGav

Anderton
FWIW, I timed how long it took to ctrl-drag an effect into 24 tracks in Console view, and it was 30 seconds. I just don't see that as a big deal given how rarely I need to do something like that, but I guess others feel differently.

I don't think this is the point.
 
When I'm in a creative place, I don't want my flow slowed down for 30 seconds having to do something that should take me 2. This can be done easily in Pro Tools. I don't think its asking for the moon to ask for it, and other things people have been asking for in Sonar. The DAW should get out of the way of creativity.
 
Moving multiple tracks at once is a common request where response has been "It only takes thirty seconds".
 
I'd love to see an update where these small but significant workflow issues are addressed. Just because one person doesn't care doesn't mean there aren't one hundred who do.
 
 

I'm just wondering where in the creative process one has to add 20 tracks with the same effect or move 29 tracks around at once. I can see the need to perform these various tasks but not in connection with a moment of inspiration.

Keni
Hi Beepster...

Just thinking...

Have you tried creating one PC setup and saving it, then group loading the PC setup?

...just a thought.

Yeah, that's probably how I am going to have to approach this. Thing is I would normally use the FX Bin for this particular type of track. It's a whole pile of (dry/DI) guitar tracks that need a sim so I'm going to have to create a unique FX Chain module for this.
 
Probably something I should do for guitar anyway. I've got some ideas on using various configurations of Sonitus EQ (to reject uneeded freqs before and/or after the sim) and the Sonitus Compressor to smooth out/limit the dry track a bit before it hits the sim (which may or may not do anything useful). All still very experimental so I'll be tweaking and messing with the order and settings of the effects.
 
So based on your comment it IS indeed possible to a) select multiple tracks and b) load a specific preset into all of them? That would work and I could keep doing that as I tweak.
 
There may also be an extra unintended benefit by using the Sim in an FX Chain. I could put it at the very top of the PC signal chain which I think would be a lot more similar to how a mic'd amp would hit a hardware console. Also using the Sonitus Comps and EQs right in the FX Chain to do the initial smoothing/band rejection means I can just use the PC stuff more like a normal hardware board chain (sweetening the "amp" a little and nudging it into the mix instead of doing all the heavy duty crap in the Quad Curve and PC Compressors).
 
I'll be trying some of this today.
 
Thanks.

Anderton
FWIW, I timed how long it took to ctrl-drag an effect into 24 tracks in Console view, and it was 30 seconds. I just don't see that as a big deal given how rarely I need to do something like that, but I guess others feel differently.

Hi, Craig. Yeah, PilotGav is right... that's not really the point. I was more checking to see if I was missing something. If it's not possible then it's not possible so I gotta figure something else out. It is a little odd (and a bit of a disappointment) seeing as how we have all sorts of other Multi Track/Quick Group type options. Just seems logical that you'd be able to do a quick group and drop something in or copy on einstance across other tracks en masse. The revamped the FX Bin a bit too so seems like something that they might have thought of adding.
 
Anyway... if you saw what I was doing you would understand why just mindlessly dragging the same thing into each track over and over again is not a simple as all that.
 
Basically it's not just 24 tracks. It's a bunch of tracks all kind of subdivided into various parts so I'm going to have do stuff like copy an instance to 4 tracks and another slightly different instance to 10 tracks and another to 6 tracks and so on. It gets a little hairy to keep track of all that and I'd be doing it over and over and over again as changes are made (because I can't just link the plugins to each other so they stay in sync). I'll just be starting with the same preset to begin with then dorking around like that.
 
Also I may not want to totally replace an instance. I might want to a/b an older preset against a newer one or indeed just replace it. So that's more fiddle faddle having to be done one by one and trying to keep track of what's what.
 
Just being able to select and insert or copy makes it a little cleaner of a workflow because I can  look at what tracks need the new instance once and just drop them. Without that I have to double check each time it's being dragged into the right track, I have engage the key bindings if needed, I have to make sure it lands in the right position, I have to fiddle with track height (if I'm doing this in Track View) or console size/modules in Console View (which is a lot of scrolling around horz and vert and scanning down to the track name because the FX Bin is quite a ways away from the track name).
 
Just trying to explain why this is something I could really use and why it's not quite as simple as just copy dragging things once and forgetting it. It's a lot fiddling around and double checking stuff which really is a bit of a time waster (and unfortunately a bit annoying).
 
I've been doing it your way for years now but I've never had a track count this high (I am already at 54 tracks and I haven't even added the drums and all the crazy synth/sampler parts).
 
Anyhoo... that's my story.
 
Cheers.