Okay, I bought and registered Audio Codex and now I'm getting deeper into it- and finding a few problems (I think). Please help me out.
I'm using Audio Codex to play backing tracks from a Powerbook G4 while I play guitar and sing. AC allows me to use the Effects Chain and Mix controls on NON-global to individually tweak each backing track and try to keep some kind of consistency in volumes, tone, etc and make up for years of different systems and software I've used to create these tracks- some 110 in all. So far, it's kind of working.
So I have a single Playlist in alphabetical order that includes all my 110 tracks and many of them have small tweaks. Now, when I want to re-arrange my tracks into the order I'm actually performing them two things happen. When I click and drag a track up or down in the order and release the mouse, the track disappears from the list completely and is replaced by another track of no relevance whatsoever from the playlist- I can't figure out what parameters, if any, AC is using to choose and slot this unwanted/unselected track in there. The only way I can re-establish the lost track in the playlist is to replace it using a Finder Window (drag and drop) and that UNWANTED track is the put back where it came from alphabetically, but as a DUPLICATE. There are now TWO instances of that unwanted track.
Which brings me to the main question. How can I create new Playlists (e.g. a "loud" list, a "soft" list, a "restaurant" list) using my original Playlist with all my Effects Chain tweaks included? In other words, if I simply try to make a new Playlist using drag-and-drop from a Finder window I'm not including my Effects Chains and Mix Control settings for each individual track. If I try to re-arrange my original list I strike the problem above- it's unworkable and there doesn't appear to be any kind of Save AS function anyway.
And, by the way, when I first open my original playlist the tracks are not displayed in alphabetical order any more. This is easily fixed. but again I can't figure out what parameters AC is using to arrange the list in this order. If I knew, maybe it would answer some of the other problems, too.

Hope this is making sense,

Cheers, Graeme.

Hi Graeme,

Thanks for your feedback and bug report. We have reproduced your problem, and we have determined the cause. Unfortunately we can confirm that there is a bug in version 1.43 which enables drag and drop rearranging of sorted playlists. This creates logical inconsistencies, as a list can either be sorted or manually ordered but not both.

Once you have both sorted and reordered a list, it is irretrievably corrupted. To restore the default sort order, you must recreate the playlist. This will show the actual internal sort order which is determined based on the order the tracks were added to their parent playlist.

One workaround would be to create a new empty playlist and drag the tracks from your broken playlist to the new one. This will preserve the effects and settings you have applied. We suggest you do not click on a column header (at least in version 1.43) to apply sorting once you have done this, to avoid re-triggering the problem.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused, we are now prioritising an interim version 1.44 to fix this problem.

Your other question appears to be a feature request, and a good one. Expect to see a Clone Playlist command in AudioCodex version 1.50.

This post was last modified: 12-02-2008 05:49 PM by alex.

Thanks Alex, at least it's a bug and not something my end! Dragging tracks from my broken playlist to a new one? Hmm... I thought I tried that and it didn't work, but then again I was getting confused. That would work as long as I drag them across in the order I want to play them? I'll try again and let you know.

Cheers, Graeme.

This post was last modified: 12-02-2008 06:52 PM by alex.

Hi Graeme, let us know how you get on with the new playlist. I forgot to mention that this will only work for the uncorrupted tracks, that is ones that have never been dragged after the sorting was applied.
I have filed a bug on this at http://www.machinecodex.com/support/?q=known_bugs
Thanks again, and stay tuned for the fix in the near future.

This post was last modified: 12-02-2008 06:56 PM by alex.

Hi Alex, yes I can create that new Playlist by dragging tracks from my "master" list to new lists. It's a kind of "problem solved" for me as long as I do drag them into the list in the order I need.
Another question though. I was trying to get more exact in my volumes and downloaded a Sonalksis Free G meter plug-in... I justed wanted more accurate metering. But adding it to my Effects Chain after a Multiband compressor I simply get a second instance of the compressor even though the Chain says it's supposed to be the FreeG interface being displayed.
Any clues on this? Or advice on how I can get some better metering some other way?

Cheers, Graeme.

This post was last modified: 12-03-2008 05:31 PM by alex.

Hi Graeme,

The AudioUnit parameter Inspector should display the interface for whichever node / row is selected (ie highlighted) in the FxChain list; you can also change which Fx Unit is selected / displayed using the 'Node' popup button at the top left corner of the AudioUnit Inspector window itself when the window is open.

If this isn't the problem then it may be the AU you mentioned itself, I'll see if I can download it and give it a try, it's not one I'm familiar with yet.

Cheers,

Mantis

Hi Graeme,

I have just downloaded and tried out FreeG, and it seems to be an excellent monitoring solution. It can confirm that it appears to work fine for me here, so please get back to me if you are still having problems.

Kind regards,

Thanks guys, yes well... originally I had trouble getting any effects to be loaded, but that problem went away. Now the FreeG works fine, too.
I think it's just me. I'm not thinking the interface through clearly, before I decide something isn't working.
Trouble is, now I want my compressor to be global keeping a lid on things, but the FreeG plug-in non-global because it gives me finer volume control. Can't be done, right? And probably too hard to write into the program- the choice of making individual plug-ins either global or not in the FX chain. Can I ask for a second FX chain?

Cheers, Graeme

This post was last modified: 12-03-2008 08:10 PM by alex.

Hi Graeme,

Your request for per FX Global mode is certainly possible to implement; the main problem would be in devising a clear user interface for such a feature. As your experience testifies, our interface as it stands is perhaps not as clear as it could be. Adding this feature is not likely to make it easier for users to understand without some considerable rethinking on our part.

It is our goal to make AudioCodex as feature complete, and as usable, as possible, and your request definitely has merit. As we refine and improve the FX Chain in the next few versions, we will do our best to take your idea into account.

Cheers,

Hi Graeme,

Just a quick post to advise that in AudioCodex 1.47 (released 07.12.2008) we have fixed the issue you encountered WRT drag&drop rearranging of AudioCodex playlists; if a list is sorted the app will no longer permit drag-rearranging; you can unsort a list at any time by clicking on the index ( first) column header in any of the list views. As well as this change, we have updated our custom table headers so that they now display a proper sort indicator and also shade the active sorting column header.

We also added a 'Clone Playlist' item to the Source-lists contextual menu; this function takes the current playlist you are viewing and makes a unique copy of the list as an AudioCodex playlist; the new copy will only contain the tracks that are actually displayed at the time the Clone is made, in the order they are currently sorted or arranged.

Cheers,

Mantis

Mark Hill
MachineCodex Software