OPINION ON TRACK LANES X2

Take lanes are a kludge.

It seems to me as if take lanes are just a nested folder with a dedicated bus that has been spliced in to the track section.




I do all that with a nested folder and a bus in SONAR 8.5... and I still have the power of layers.


Good luck.



best regards,
mike

Track lanes are poorly designed, buggy. Now I create new tracks instead and avoid track lanes whenever possible.

Ha!

Lanes were not a good idea to me before they decided to do it. There are many programs out there with some kind of lanes system and they all are extra difficulty to me... so I hoped that somehow The Bakers came up with a way to make lanes work for me.... Sadly, that didn't happen.

Not only are the design limitations incredibly cumbersome, space wasting (talk about cluttered!!!?), and buggy. It's sometimes hard to tell where design and bug start/end as there are so many issues...

Now once again I find myself wishing (more than ever) that The Bakers would re-impliment Layers and continue developing Lanes as an extra feature for those who prefer working that way. In "the old days" The Bakers would add more than we asked for. Now I find myself continually asking them to please leave the wonderful features they developed and fix them.... Adding more features is wonderful but at this stage of music/pc development we need things that work better more than we need more things...

I know that many see X's Silverlight interface as a more "uncluttered" look, but once you have a myriad of open windows in it's UI the screen is every bit as busy as it was Pre-X only less productive and less data exposed...

In the past, Cakewalk was always my choice and mybiggest reason was that it allowed me to work in what manner I choose instead of forcing a single work path. Now with each generation I find myself being forced to work in ways which are not of my choosing. If they were really better for me and adding advantage as I use them I would adapt and find in comfortable.

The fact that I am now continually uncomfortable in a DAW that has been home to me for so long is very......... frustrating?

I know they've been trying to add features that users requested and Lanes do address some of these items. But they also destroy the elegance and simplicity of Layers. So it seems to me that these two systems need to be merged, not replaced.... or toggled? Yeah, I know.... complexity of build.... But if the code was well written to apply such a scenario, then it would become better over time as well... Then a user could install the earlier environment style along with an Inspector module so that all PC Channels and such become available and Lanes could be a selected sub-module as well....

Bigger/smaller buttons for solo/mute? I just shudder at how much I've lost to have something I rarely use.

Sadly, we are now "blessed" with Lanes and can only "pray" that The Bakers find both in their' hearts and abilities to alter this difficulty and bring more peace to our worlds!

Happy Day!

?

Keni

I personally think that they came up with the Automation Lanes (which I absolutely lurve) frist and then decided to apply the same "template" to Track Lanes for a consistent look and feel

I do miss the features from Layers but I also quite like some of the new features lanes offer - the notes window, ability to re-arrange tracks, different views, and record direct to lane

Track Lanes do feel a bit like a "work in progress" and I hope a future update will combine the best of both worlds

Man, they need some work for sure but I hope all the squeaking about them doesn't get them coded out of the software. I like them better than layers for a lot of reasons (which I've blathered on about extensively in other threads so I won't bother here). 

If any Bakers read these threads please for the love of FSM don't go back to layers. Just add them as an alternative to lanes if it comes down to it. Cheers.

I agree, Karl and I certainly understand some of the complaints (I have some of my own too which follow those of others on here) but you know how it is with some folks. Old good, new bad no matter what happens. I think I'm fortunate in the sense I didn't get much time to become accustomed to layers and all their quirks. A lot of dudes seem to have all the work arounds in their routine and learning a new set of work arounds for the quirks in lanes is annoying them. However as someone coming fresh into this all and having worked with both for approximately the same amount of time each lanes are far superior. I just hope they don't get left as is.

One thing I don't think I've mentioned in other threads as something that would be very beneficial to my personal workflow is the ability to hide specific lanes. I haven't seen an option for that. Are you aware of way to do this? Cheers.

Cool. I figured if anyone knew it'd be you. I think after my current round of life chaos is sorted out I'll start trying to become more active in the feature request process. I think I've got some good ideas and as a newcomer my views on stuff might be a little more practical and unprejudiced. However they could just be a derpy nuisance but hey... nothing ventured nothing gained, roight? ;-)

I have trouble moving clips around from one lane to another sometimes... I sometimes like all my clips on one lane as I edit the track. This is a sometimes issue.

@musicroom... Yeah, any in depth editing and comping is next to useless trying to use lanes with each other. I just like them for tracking. Once that's done I've been creating a new track for each segment I'm trying to stitch into something. I do however wish I didn't have to do that. My main problem is the audio blends together all messed up and sounds like crap (crossfades, double ups, essentially anywhere you have to audible clips overlapping). I really don't know what that's all about and I didn't notice it so much in X1 but maybe my ears are more honed now. Once I get them into separate tracks it's all good but then I have to make sure everything is consistent across all the segments tracks as far as effects and levels. 

An unintended (albeit time consuming) benefit of this is however that I'm really focusing in on each segment more than I would otherwise.

So far I have been very frustrated by track lanes. I prefer layers.

I don't like the concept either, because it's tightly couple to performance, i.e. "take". I don't use X2 for performing, and I don't usually do multiple takes of anything. I like the extra granularity provided by layers, as though they're tracks within a track. I find that layers can be manipulated in isolation more easily than take lanes.

carl

Beepster


So to sum up...

Lane Tracking = WAY better

Lane anything else = meh and occasionally a slight step backward

To sum it up no, not for me anyway.
Lane tracking is not WAY better. I still prefer using Layers overall.  

I think Beepster was summing up his own thoughts, rather than everybody else's.
 
I do prefer lanes, as they suit the way I work, but I understand that this is not true for everyone.

carl

jb101

I think Beepster was summing up his own thoughts, rather than everybody else's.

So was I.

You were summing up beepsters own thoughs as well?  

This type of thing is very subjective. I've seen a lot of the more electronic based guys having the major issues with how they work which is a little funny considering all the posts I've seen accusing Cake of pandering to the bedroom DJs. Kind of why I think it might save a lot of strife if they just brought in an option to revert back to layers if one chose to.

However it may end up being a situation where some won't be able have their Cake and eat it too.

Get it? Lulzors... It's because the brand name is CAKEwalk!!

*crickets*

...

Where's Jonbouy when you need him. :-/

jb101

carl

jb101

I think Beepster was summing up his own thoughts, rather than everybody else's.

So was I.

You were summing up beepsters own thoughs as well?  

Nope.

Beepster


The sum of my thighs is two thighs.

wait...

*counting*

Yup. Two thighs.

Thoughts, thighs, thoughs, throughs, who knows..
 
Where's my spellcheck plugin when I need it?  Oh, at the top of the post window..  Ahem..  Backs slowly to the door smiling..