Disabled tracks has the potential to be transformative to how we work. Many professional composers use VE Pro currently to handle the huge number of available instruments, but already some are switching at least partly to disabled tracks instead as a preferable, more efficient and cleaner method of working. There are some ongoing bug issues regarding restoring these tracks’ full information (midi in, quick controls etc) - 8.0.30 has improved, though not fixed these issues. Meanwhile I have a proposal for some enhancements that would really speed up the workflow further to make the most of the feature.
1. Auto-Enable on click
A preference to auto-enable any disabled track when clicking on the track in the project window.
2. Background enabling
Make the enabling happen as a background process, so work can continue uninterrupted. Some instant graphical feedback would be appreciated as this is instigated.
3. Show Disabled Tracks toggle
A specific toggle between any regular configuration with all disabled tracks visible, and enabled-tracks only. Ideally this wouldn’t be a specific workspace configuration but a separate toggle that will work with any of the existing workspaces.
Don’t hide all the information in disabled tracks. I often want to quickly check which inserts I have used on a track, which FX sends are used or where the track is routed to. Now I have to enable the track to see this information. I really see no reason to hide the information. Just make it all dark grey but don’t hide it!
On top of fixing the disable/enable bugs (ie: Quick Controls not reinstating, sometimes track MIDI Input port isn’t restored, Expression Map assignments are lost, etc. STILL IN 8.5.20) -
I’d like Visibility Agents in the project window to allow for Disabled/Enabled Tracks. ie: Making an agent that shows only enabled tracks or only disabled tracks. This would be a huge time saver.
+1. A quick way to show hidden disabled tracks too please. For orchestrators ther is often an initialization bar so hiding/revealing empty tracks does not work.
Steinberg, please look at the way Orchetrators have to work with huge templates in order to be able to work with different VST orchestration packages - VSL, PLay Kontakt. There must be better workflows… hopefully when Dorico integrates