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

I do. I have been using two displays going back many years. Therefore I often place the CV and plugin's GUIs on the second screen. 
 
I know what you mean about the CV not being all that useful. I do somewhat useful for checking out the various levels against one another. I also like it for seeing an overview of the mix. What sends are used, what FX and what PC is on. Now I have two wide screen monitors and it does help to have this ability. 
 
I wouldn't want to mix without them. 

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
 

If you place them with a little bit showing when hidden its easy to bring them forward. In Windows you can set your mouse to activate a window by just moving your mouse pointer over it. Look up X mouse. 
 
Example try to have a cascade of them with just the title showing doing this will make them always available.
 
 

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?

JohnIf you place them with a little bit showing when hidden its easy to bring them forward. In Windows you can set your mouse to activate a window by just moving your mouse pointer over it. Look up X mouse...

I don't understand what you mean, John.  If I have plugins open, they disappear when I click anything on the Console.  There's no way to "place them with a little bit showing."-- They're either in front or instantly moved to the back.  I have to double click a plugin's icon to make it temporarily forward again.

I use Wiz Mouse which works at least something like X mouse - Any window is instantly scrollable when the cursor is over it, without needing to click to give the window focus.

Kev999...But do you really need both CV and PRV to be present in every screenset?...

I haven't found screensets to be useful to me yet.  They take so long to load, and I'm not getting the point of them yet.  I set some up, but I find myself using the same configuration all the time because it works for me.  Everything I need is on the one screenset.  I don't want to stop, open up a view focusing on one work area or the other, and then stop and re-load another screenset to keep working.  Dragging view borders around is much faster and more efficient for me.  At least, that's the way it's worked for me so far.  
 
I don't really need the Console open from the very start of a project, but with two screens, I just have the view below open all the time.



THAT is what I'm talking about.  I have a plugin open where I wish it could be - Right there in the Console View.  Can't do that now - I have to move it over to the left screen, and it's not nearly as slick and fast to work with.  It's also out of the way in front of the Console, but it gets in the way in front of my Track/PRV/Tempo combo.

Randy
 
 
 

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. 
 

 

8.5 does exactly the same thing. If you have 2 floating windows and you click one of them it will come to the foreground. The console view is floating by default so if you click it it will come to the foreground of all floating windows like plugin windows.
The only time a floating window stays on top of all others is when the other windows are NOT floating windows (i.e. they are MDI windows). If you want the effects windows always on top of the console you have to deactivate the floating window state on the console. Click the system menu for the console and choose "disable floating"

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

I'm glad it is working for you 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.