Keep talkin' Keni and Steve.  You are giving voice to my major beef with X2--so big a beef that I'm using X1 until things change dramatically.  I love layers in X1 except for one thing:  the mute/solo buttons per layer are very small, but I get by.  Take lanes are totally buggy for all the reasons given in other threads, and they are cumbersome:  an extra mouse click to open / close the lanes that wasn't there in layers.  The fixed smallest size is also a problem for me.  If we could toggle (or re-set) between layers and lanes, it would be a dream.

Like Jlien X said, I'd wait to see if something new is coming in the near future before making a decision.
 
Obviously a few folks on this thread do not like Take Lanes at all and much prefer the older Layers.  I never thought Layers were really all that and mostly prefer Lanes... with the exception of the height restriction - I would like to see that addressed in the next version.   Both Layers and Lanes have/had odd issues, but with Layers users simply learned what they were.   Any issues with Lanes seem a bit more difficult to pin down, though I don't personally run into that many myself... fortunately.
 

There's been enough complaints about Take Lanes that I've held off even learning how they work, figuring I'd put in the time once I'd heard that they'd been fixed.  There's so much to learn that I've been busy in other parts of X2.
 
I won't be happy if I have to pay 100$ for them to be fixed in a new release.  And how confident are people that even in a new release they'll be all that great.  I'll definitely be waiting to hear from the naysayers before considering upgrading.
 
I'm still waiting for X2b and will remain optimistic until something happens.
 

My hope is that someone from the Cakewalk Bakery sees this thread and gets to understand the general consensus around take lanes.  Yes there are bugs in X2, yes it can crash at times, but I can live with all that stuff.
 
But, as a person that records multi-tracked acoustic drums, take lanes are my one big problem with X2.  If I could pay for an upgrade that would address this, I would drop the cash in a second.  I'm not one of those that feels every fix should be free.  I've had buggy appliances that I've happily paid to replace - I feel the same way about this.
 
I honestly believe layers were better than lanes.  Seems to me it went to lanes in a "me too" move.  If we had gotten Z ordering in layers rather than lanes, I would have been a happy camper.

stevec
Like Jlien X said, I'd wait to see if something new is coming in the near future before making a decision.
 
Obviously a few folks on this thread do not like Take Lanes at all and much prefer the older Layers.  I never thought Layers were really all that and mostly prefer Lanes... with the exception of the height restriction - I would like to see that addressed in the next version.   Both Layers and Lanes have/had odd issues, but with Layers users simply learned what they were.   Any issues with Lanes seem a bit more difficult to pin down, though I don't personally run into that many myself... fortunately.
 

Hi Steve...
 
what's so hard to pin down... Wait... Let's make a little list (in no particular order than they come to mind right now) some are design issues and others bugs...:
 
Can't zoom large/small enough
Waste Screen Real Estate
Easy to confuse Tracks with Lanes at times
Can't control which clips are displayed when Lanes are closed
Intermittent difficulty moving/copying clips to other Lanes/Tracks...
Too many clicks and mouse movements required to adjust zoom
 
Anyone care to add more? these are on my mind right now...
 
Layers were totally comfortable, but in need of some bug fixes and a few added tools.... Conserved space and allowed me to see all my data within the same amount of screen space whether Layers were displayed or not....
 
Now a session almost never goes by without me being disturbed at working with Lanes... <sigh>...
 
Keni
 
 

Keni

stevec
Like Jlien X said, I'd wait to see if something new is coming in the near future before making a decision.
 
Obviously a few folks on this thread do not like Take Lanes at all and much prefer the older Layers.  I never thought Layers were really all that and mostly prefer Lanes... with the exception of the height restriction - I would like to see that addressed in the next version.   Both Layers and Lanes have/had odd issues, but with Layers users simply learned what they were.   Any issues with Lanes seem a bit more difficult to pin down, though I don't personally run into that many myself... fortunately.
 

Hi Steve...
 
what's so hard to pin down... Wait... Let's make a little list (in no particular order than they come to mind right now) some are design issues and others bugs...:
 
Can't zoom large/small enough
Waste Screen Real Estate
Easy to confuse Tracks with Lanes at times
Can't control which clips are displayed when Lanes are closed
Intermittent difficulty moving/copying clips to other Lanes/Tracks...
Too many clicks and mouse movements required to adjust zoom
 
Anyone care to add more? these are on my mind right now...
 
Layers were totally comfortable, but in need of some bug fixes and a few added tools.... Conserved space and allowed me to see all my data within the same amount of screen space whether Layers were displayed or not....
 
Now a session almost never goes by without me being disturbed at working with Lanes... <sigh>...
 
Keni
 
 

Right, most of those are design choices, and not actual "bugs".   For layers, it would be like the miniscule solo/mute buttons or the inability to expand their height to a usable level when a lot of takes existed.   On the other hand, the crapshoot layer rebuild command would be more inline with the move/copy for lanes.
 
I do think that lanes are not completely baked yet, but can't agree that layers were totally comfortable...  obviously for me, as it's a preference thing.  That's why I chime in on many of these threads with the hope that lanes will improve for those that need it.  Because I just don't see CW reverting to older technology.
 

I don't see it as older tech.... More design choice...
 
Design or bug, they are far harder for me to work with than Layers were....
 
I'm hoping they add an option to display lanes within the track area.... That and "fixing" the zoom issues along with actual bugs (i.e. moving/copying issue) and I could probably live with them...
 
Keni
 

I had several projects get really messed up with the take lanes bugs.  It seems to me that if you approach them in a disciplined way.  Not trying to do things while the transport is running, using the solo buttons as intended, etc, it works.  There are clearly some sequences that get things all fouled up.  But I have standardized my work flow with take lanes.  One of the things is to make sure when I am done sorting through my takes, I bounce it all into one clip and delete all the extraneous take lanes.  I have done a bunch of stuff with take lanes the last 2 days, including punching in, and I have not stumbled across any of these bugs.
 
There is a safe path through the system to avoid the minefields, and I guess I found that path.
 
That doesn't excuse the vendor leaving such a critical set of bugs outstanding for 9 months.  That is really below average.

wow!! I'm pretty much a newbie and was posting some issues I'm coming up against in the "Getting Started" forum on Lane Takes and now in this forum I see they are a complete mess!!!
 
This is what I posted in the getting started forum (like I said i'm really new to this and thought take lanes is a great idea, apparently not so)..
 
But if what I'm seeing is a bug then please tell me as I am beginning to get a headache over this..
 
(Can't seem to link a URL - how do you post URL's in this forum?)

Take-Lanes-m2880993.aspx
 
PS Sorry to overtake this thread, just don't think its worth starting up a new thread for this unless you know its something new..
 
 
 

JimmyBoy
 I see they are a complete mess!!!

I wonder if some people are using this feature in ways Cake didn't foresee.  I would certainly not call this "a complete mess".  I use take lanes daily and haven't had any problems for a few weeks.  I know there are bugs lurking out there. but I have adopted a work flow that evidently doesn't cross those bugs' path.
 
If it weren't for the fact that I know there are latent bugs out there (latent to me, not so latent for others), I would call this feature "good" or "very good".  I am laying down a series of songs that are practice aids, so I am not taking the time to make the recordings absolutely perfect.  What I do is build the accompaniment in MIDI and then come through and record the practice melody playing a trombone into an audio track.
 
I have gotten into the mode of automatically do 4 complete trombone takes in a row.  The first one is a warm-up, as the instrument will vary in pitch during that take.  The other three I hope are each about 90% usable.
 
Step 2: I go through with the erase tool, keeping only the best take of each musical line.  That leaves me with fragments that make up one complete melody line.  I bounce that to one clip and delete all the  empty take lanes, then collapse the track so I am no longer dealing in take lanes at all.
 
Step 3: I go back and listen.  There will invariably be a few measures I want to re-do, so I use the erase tool right in the track (not in a take lane,) and then punch in to fix that. 
 
Step 4: Then I once again bounce everything to one clip.
 
When I do it this way, I have zero problems.