the new PROTOOLS (ONLY) wishlist

[tim]

ahem...

[angus]

A Software Update Engine.
At mainz we have approximately 45 LE systems, most with iloks and 5 HD systems.
the IT crowd use remote management to deploy updates.
There is no way of knowing remotely what versions of all the necessary components are installed and what needs updating.
The digidesign sites are incredibly fragmented, its basicly down to luck whether you end up finding what you need.
An integrated software updater similar to the apple / adobe / microsoft / firefox ones.

[tim]

I wish I could display the Memory Locations/Markers window sorted by creation date
so eg I could see the trail of markers I have left as I work, with last added at top of list...

[bender]

I've mentioned these before but...

Relative mute/lock- if you have 2 regions selected and one is already muted, pressing mute/unmute (Command-M) would mute one and unmute the other.

Detachable region list- I like having it open but would rather have it on my second monitor as I like the edit window to be as big as possible.

Key commands for track automation modes.

Batch track rename- ie select 8 tracks, assign a prefix (eg FX or Dial or whatever) and they automatically get numbers

Default tracks- being able to make a new audio track that already has default EQ and Comp inserted and maybe even a default i/o path.

Lockable I/O settings- so that when you open or import sessions from other systems they are forced to conform to your default I/O settings. You can kind of do this already but if you're not careful the I/O settings can get pretty messed up and confusing.

Hardly a new or original one but...




SURROUND IN LE!!! I'm sure the Neyrinck plug is great but this should just be standard really.

I can't stress this enough- ALL of the serious competition has it (apart from Logic express) and for a new user this could well be a deal breaker. I have not read or heard one reason that explains the lack of surround in LE apart from "to try to get people to buy an HD system" which, while cynical, seems pretty bang on.

[angus]

Elastic Pitch!
Elasic Time/audio is bloody brilliant, very detailed industry leading design,
but,
There is more to music than drums, slap together a bunch of pitch orientated regions and sure, they are magically automatically in time, but hopelessly out of tune!
Region based transpose parameter PLUS fine-tune are sorely needed. (or a transpose automation parameter)
Elastic audio regions also need to have the ability to follow the Key Signature Conductor Ruler so they change key with the song, just like you can do with midi.
I'm sure this is coming in V7.5 - hint hint

[angus]

oh and...
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before:
Proper delay compensation (including i/o) in LE/MP, or at least a more transparent way of knowing WTF is going on.
(i know how to display it on the tracks and I know LE is supposed to compensate up to the buffer setting - but my experience with altiverb is that the reported delay DECREASES when you use LOWER buffer settings) i'll have to do some tests to try to get to the bottom of this....

[Moofie]

Proper delay compensation (including i/o) in LE/MP

Considering the Delay Comp implementation in the HD systems is a bag of arse at best; good luck getting it nailed in the LE (and lower) rigs.

[Ray]

Considering the Delay Comp implementation in the HD systems is a bag of arse at best; good luck getting it nailed in the LE (and lower) rigs.

Hey Tom! go for positive comments! I agree with Angus, it would be great to sort it for LE as well. It really makes a difference in HD to have delay compensation. I disagree with you Tom, but only because delay compensation seems to work nicely for me in the way I use PT. But hey everyone works in a different way and if you're pushing the envelope then you may well have found a way to break it.

In my experience delay compensation is a godsend for the elimination of smeary digital audio. It's probably the best thing in PT since sliced cheese!

[spin]

Can't believe I never put this one before, it's been bugging me for ages....

Full control while scrubbing (scrubbing via the keypad that is; ctrl+1, ctrl+2, ctrl+8 etc). This would go nicely with the customisable scrub value and the scrub-audio-thru-aux busses that has been requested. And maybe stop limiting the number of tracks that can be scrubbed this way.
[Currently scrubbing disables all the controls except for space-bar. All I want to do is to be able to instantly check what things sound like at various pitches and be able to compare with/without plugins activated without stopping playback all the time. The shift+space 1/2 speed is a great feature, it'd be nice to expand the playback speed options.]

[squidsquad]

A key command to solo/unsolo selected tracks.
A key command to open the name track dialog box.

[Ray]

oh and...
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before:
Proper delay compensation ....

Angus have you tried this plugin for LE? http://www.mellowmuse.com/ATA.html

Auto Time Adjuster v1.1
Auto Time Adjuster is designed to ease workflow in ProTools LE when using plug-ins that generate significant latency. Currently to compensate for plugin latency you have to iether move individual audio tracks backwards/forwards, or use the included Time Adjuster plugin to adjust the delay of each track in turn. One plug-in change can mean a lot of tweaks in a large project.

Auto Time Adjuster v1.1 uses audio pinging to automatically calculate and compensate for insert latency on your audio and aux tracks with the click of a button. When you add or remove a plugin on a track all you need to do is click the ping button on the master ATA to calculate all current latency and synchronise your tracks, even when using hardware inserts. To understand the workflow and see the ATA in action view the overview flash videos below.

I have no idea if it works but it looks interesting anyway.

Ray

[angus]

I wish I could display the Memory Locations/Markers window sorted by creation date
so eg I could see the trail of markers I have left as I work, with last added at top of list...

Isn't that what you get if you un-tick the "sort by time" option in the wee menu?- except the new ones go to the bottom?- i could be wrong...

[tim]

no, the only two options are
- sort by time
- sort by memory location number

i want
- sort by marker creation date

[angus]

have you tried this plugin for LE? http://www.mellowmuse.com/ATA.html
Ray

thanks Ray, I haven't seen this one -looks pretty interesting, will have to do a test to check how much of a CPU penalty there is.

[angus]

no, the only two options are
- sort by time - sort by memory location number
i want - sort by marker creation date

oh i get you now, the highest mem loc # isn't always the newest