Comments by kissysellout
Initially I was loving this device as it's been able to replace 3-4 other devices I had in my template which were only capable of controlling one specific feature out of the multiple features that are covered here.
I have had no CPU issues, crashes or other bugs pop-up so far which is very impressive and also very much appreciated from my point of view. The ability to control send volumes without ever having to unhide the send knobs is a bit of a game-changer for mixing quite honestly!
However, there's only one issue I have - and unfortunately it's a big one which I see pop-up over and over again with various Max4Live devices - the Undo History.
Whenever I change tracks the last task I have done in the DAW vanishes in the undo history. "Undo Change" instead ominously appears as the only undo option. Being unable to (easily) recover an undo step when I drop a clip in the wrong place or accidentally delete something is just too important to sacrifice in favour of using this handy device. If there is any way you can solve this issue, I'd be eternally grateful?
I know it's possible to solve as "Track Flow" had the same problem but the developer fixed it in the updates, plus "Clip Gain", which I used previous to purchasing this device, also doesn't swamp the undo history with arbitrary "Undo Change" steps.
Hoping you can help?
I have had no CPU issues, crashes or other bugs pop-up so far which is very impressive and also very much appreciated from my point of view. The ability to control send volumes without ever having to unhide the send knobs is a bit of a game-changer for mixing quite honestly!
However, there's only one issue I have - and unfortunately it's a big one which I see pop-up over and over again with various Max4Live devices - the Undo History.
Whenever I change tracks the last task I have done in the DAW vanishes in the undo history. "Undo Change" instead ominously appears as the only undo option. Being unable to (easily) recover an undo step when I drop a clip in the wrong place or accidentally delete something is just too important to sacrifice in favour of using this handy device. If there is any way you can solve this issue, I'd be eternally grateful?
I know it's possible to solve as "Track Flow" had the same problem but the developer fixed it in the updates, plus "Clip Gain", which I used previous to purchasing this device, also doesn't swamp the undo history with arbitrary "Undo Change" steps.
Hoping you can help?
Dude!? I truly am BEYOND IMPRESSED?!?!
You've solved everything!? ...EVERY. THING.
Listen, I possess thousands of VST plug-ins and hundreds of Max4Live devices, but it's honestly rare for me to commend an audio plug-in as much as I am here - this is probably the best M4L plug-in I've ever found... by quite a wide margin!
It's not just the functionality either, these devices seem to use less than 1% of my CPU resources (when using the MIDI version, ofcourse), and even that is just a guess, because I haven't noticed any rise in my CPU usage whatsoever - and I have 45 (FORTY-FIVE!?!) of these devices pre-loaded in my Ableton mixing template?! Even my M4L VU meter uses more CPU than this?!
I mean, it was a bit of tough pill to swallow knowing that - since you uploaded version 1.2 and version 1.3 the same day - I've had to re-map and program all 45 of my template devices twice today lol - but I'm so happy I found this plug-in that I really couldn't care less haha
Anyway, big respect for putting so much effort and attention to detail into this device, it's absolutely superb : )
You've solved everything!? ...EVERY. THING.
Listen, I possess thousands of VST plug-ins and hundreds of Max4Live devices, but it's honestly rare for me to commend an audio plug-in as much as I am here - this is probably the best M4L plug-in I've ever found... by quite a wide margin!
It's not just the functionality either, these devices seem to use less than 1% of my CPU resources (when using the MIDI version, ofcourse), and even that is just a guess, because I haven't noticed any rise in my CPU usage whatsoever - and I have 45 (FORTY-FIVE!?!) of these devices pre-loaded in my Ableton mixing template?! Even my M4L VU meter uses more CPU than this?!
I mean, it was a bit of tough pill to swallow knowing that - since you uploaded version 1.2 and version 1.3 the same day - I've had to re-map and program all 45 of my template devices twice today lol - but I'm so happy I found this plug-in that I really couldn't care less haha
Anyway, big respect for putting so much effort and attention to detail into this device, it's absolutely superb : )
Yup, just checking in to update my feedback for you mate - and again, BRAVO! You have indeed totally solved the undo history problem.
The only other feature I would comment on is the "Hi!" text auto-fill setting you have included.
Ideally I would prefer to leave the selected track's name as it was before I applied the Track Flow 1.1 change - and I have noticed that IF you erase the "track name" box manually in the session before using the device, then the device does this correctly. However, if I open my template project (which already has 34 instances of the device pre-programmed in a muted MIDI track), any Track Flow 1.1 devices that have no name written in the text box automatically replace the empty text box (and therefore the selected track's name) with "Hi!".
A way I have managed to get around this feature is to write "###--->[Destination Track Name]" in all of the Track Flow devices. For example, this means a new track named "17 MIDI" gets changed to be "017--->Synths" when I use the shortcut button. This is perfectly fine, and I often find it helpful to change the colour of the selected track to the colour of the destination bus anyway, so this method avoids confusion about where a track is routed to - but it would still be nice to have the option of not changing a track's name when using the devices pre-programmed in my template?
One more thing, I have noticed that if I group a MIDI track after creating it, and then use the "change Audio" option, I can route the MIDI track to an output bus using the same shortcut button I'd use for a new Audio Track (this saves having to create 2 x device instances for each output bus depending on whether I want to send an Audio Track or a MIDI Track). The only slight issue, is that by changing the destination of the group containing the MIDI track, the "Record" button is automatically disabled (meaning I have to re-arm the MIDI track again). I don't quite understand why this is happening, since it happens even if I erase the "Input" box on the Track Flow device or select "Off" for the Audio "change" command.
That's a very small thing though, and fixing the "Hi!" text would essentially make this device PERFECT for it's intended purpose.
Thanks for the first update, very impressed by this device, it's really incredibly useful! : )
The only other feature I would comment on is the "Hi!" text auto-fill setting you have included.
Ideally I would prefer to leave the selected track's name as it was before I applied the Track Flow 1.1 change - and I have noticed that IF you erase the "track name" box manually in the session before using the device, then the device does this correctly. However, if I open my template project (which already has 34 instances of the device pre-programmed in a muted MIDI track), any Track Flow 1.1 devices that have no name written in the text box automatically replace the empty text box (and therefore the selected track's name) with "Hi!".
A way I have managed to get around this feature is to write "###--->[Destination Track Name]" in all of the Track Flow devices. For example, this means a new track named "17 MIDI" gets changed to be "017--->Synths" when I use the shortcut button. This is perfectly fine, and I often find it helpful to change the colour of the selected track to the colour of the destination bus anyway, so this method avoids confusion about where a track is routed to - but it would still be nice to have the option of not changing a track's name when using the devices pre-programmed in my template?
One more thing, I have noticed that if I group a MIDI track after creating it, and then use the "change Audio" option, I can route the MIDI track to an output bus using the same shortcut button I'd use for a new Audio Track (this saves having to create 2 x device instances for each output bus depending on whether I want to send an Audio Track or a MIDI Track). The only slight issue, is that by changing the destination of the group containing the MIDI track, the "Record" button is automatically disabled (meaning I have to re-arm the MIDI track again). I don't quite understand why this is happening, since it happens even if I erase the "Input" box on the Track Flow device or select "Off" for the Audio "change" command.
That's a very small thing though, and fixing the "Hi!" text would essentially make this device PERFECT for it's intended purpose.
Thanks for the first update, very impressed by this device, it's really incredibly useful! : )
Furthermore, this device went from a novel idea to a powerful workflow tool when I discovered that turning the macro controls on the M4L device with your mouse does indeed change the plugin parameters, despite the device essentially being "invisible to Live" (as the manual says).
Lastly, the method comes free of any hassle about saving macro settings with the project file because the actual parameter values are always stored in the plugin itself - meaning that whether you chose to insert the device for simple visual feedback of say (previously unsupported) values (like frequency values on EQ bands, or even things like the names of modes for things like reverb types etc), OR wish to actually turn the macro controls to your liking instead of having to open the plugin GUI - the preset settings will always be correct in your VST plugins when re-opening the project.
10/10 for this then! Only feature request I would suggest would be to make the default value of "bi-polar" knobs to be the centre value (i.e. 63.5*), so that double-clicking on a knob resets to the middle instead of zero, as you can't actually type in the values on the macro VST device like you can in Live's normal macro groups.
*yup, I said 63.5 - the middle value of the generic 0-127 mappings is the centre of the 128 possible values, which is an even number, therefore [(128/2)+0.5]-1=63.5 ...in case you've ever wondered why certain macro mappings don't reset to 0 properly!