[Ardour-Users] a few thoughts

[Adriano Petrosillo]

Oh, I forgot about this:

> This doesn't discount the remote possibility that the grandparent poster
> has come across a whole new way of mixing, that uses more than eight
> busses, and that blows away everything that has gone before.
>
> I bet you haven't, though.

I'll skip the part about using more than eight busses (I've already stated
that eight busses are more than overkill for 99.9% of real-life mixing
assignments).

I'd like to point out that my suggestions came out after having mixed my
band's album. I experimented with large numbers of tracks and overdubs (I
tried the "Steve Albini" way of recording - having a large number of
microphones and mixing them in later - hm, maybe it's because I don't have
his rooms, or his microphones, or his preamps, but, although I carefully
positioned them avoiding differences in distances from mics to source, and
even after aligning tracks to avoid phase cancellations, I generally ended
up scrapping more than half the tracks :D ), and in the end, this was the
result:

http://www.labibliotecadeserta.com/player/epepep/

http://labibliotecadeserta.bandcamp.com/

Not too happy about it, mixing was REALLY rushed, but, having practically
lived in front of a PC for 2 months without ever pausing, I came to
understand what I like and what I don't.

OTOH:

I don't like having to open countless plugin GUIs, getting mixed up about
tracks and buses.
I don't like using plugins with no feedback at all (or very little
feedback).
I don't like super-fancy plugin interfaces... and if you read carefully,
you'll see that I *NEVER* say I want garish, over-the-top plugin GUIs with
fake russian script or valves which light up when you activate processing,
but I'd like to have real-life interfaces, with real-life meters, real-life
LEDs and whatever, which I only want to access when FINE-TUNING parameters.

I'd like being able to have a mixer panel where to route MY preferred
parameters of MY favourite plugins in tracks in MY projects so that, if I
want to boost highs while listening to the song, I don't have to open the
GUI, clutter the screen with additional windows, maybe crash the DAW
because some plugins are a bit too touchy, etc. (but only with Reaper, use
them with Nuendo and they run "smoothly as", as they would say in Britain).
I like having tracks that can also behave like buses and not having a real
distinction between the two (but I suppose this is a design choice, in
Ardour... fair enough).
I like being able to check for phasing instantly clicking a mono-stereo
button on the master track.
I like being able to route tracks directly from the mixer without having to
use special interfaces (which I'd open only to check routings).
I like being able to reamp tracks just as easily. (Another example of
routing, I know).
I like being able to give colours not only to the items or the waves in the
tracks, but to the actual "panels" of the tracks.
I like being able to choose between various modes of visualization in the
mixer panel, collapsing and simplifying tracks I don't need to constantly
check (but still keeping them in).
I like having MIDI tools in Reaper which allow you to apply swing settings
and humanising.

etc.

Anyway, what really saddens me is that people like Al Thompson, genuinely
(I hope) misunderstand what I'm trying to say, because if he thinks I want
to force the whole community to have MY own workflow he is totally wrong,
and if he cared to better evaluate my proposal, he'd understand that I'm
actually advocating for making MORE kinds of workflow possible, in Reaper:
specifically, my idea of a 3-band eq track template with pots and colours
was just AN EXAMPLE of what could be done, and again, it would be a track
template *I* would use in MY projects, and in my vision, he would be able
to use a template editor to make HIS OWN track templates, using HIS
FAVOURITE PLUGINS and routing each knob to HIS preferred parameters, and
having them all exposed as user-friendly and easy to read knobs on a mixer
interface... or he could even choose NOT to use them and keep on using the
classic Ardour interface with a simple fader and meter on each track.

HOW am I actually forcing anyone to use my workflow?

But most of all, why all this noise for a FRIGGING interface customisation
idea? :D Not change, mind you, just the possibility of having tracks that
look like mixer channels instead of the usual. What's the big deal?! :D
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