Why do you like/dislike consolidated windows?

[Robert Randolph]

There's been various discussion about disabling consolidated windows with the advent of DP9.

I am one of the people that would never had considered using DP without consolidated windows. I have tried to use it without and found it really cumbersome and annoying.

So I'd like to know what people feel the benefits are to working without it. Maybe the two camps can learn some tricks and workflows from each other.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think basically people want the flexibility of having windows where and when they want to see and access them. I fought this a long time and now I'm totally hooked. Same thing happened when CDs came out. Lol.

[Robert Randolph]

I think basically people want the flexibility of having windows where and when they want to see and access them. I fought this a long time and now I'm totally hooked. Same thing happened when CDs came out. Lol.

I'm the same way, and I have no trouble accomplishing this with consolidated windows. I feel I have more control of it in fact, since I can hide whole sections at will.

For me, each screenset has a different sidebar setup with similar windows grouped into a sidebar. I can just hit a key and regain a bunch of space, or hit it again to pull up the info I want.

Actually, I've re-read your comment and I'm not even sure if you use consolidated windows or not

[apanacci]

For me , I find I have to fiddle with then all the time. When I choose pop out of con window sometimes they pop up on other windows. Great to have them but I find them a nuisance at times. Just cannot seem to shut them off all the time. They have a life of there own ! Just when you think you get rid of them......

[stubbsonic]

I never saw the advantage of having everything in one window with tabs. For me it just feels like a struggle to see what I want to see, sizing, zooming, situating, etc.

I suppose if there was a few things I wanted all in one window it might be something like chunks, soundbites, audio monitor, MIDI monitor. But not edit windows.

OTOH, lots of power users seem to like using a consolidated window. I have just never understood why. But please don't take that as an invitation to write a lot about it, I know there is plenty to read about how/why to use the consolidated window. I just mean that when I use it, it only annoys me. Perhaps I'm just a creature of habit.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Well, fwiw, I use CW but still use key commands to select the window and PPP it in and out when desired. I see it as akin to having the DP project in a mixing board kind of setup.

[cuttime]

Well, fwiw, I use CW but still use key commands to select the window and PPP it in and out when desired. I see it as akin to having the DP project in a mixing board kind of setup.

You can also double click atop the window with the "grab" icon to pop it in or out. Anyway, I use the CWs because that is how I first learned DP. Having a number of window sets handy is a big help.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Absolutely use window sets!

[Michael Canavan]

I have a single large monitor now instead of two, so Consolidated Windows works for me anyways a lot better than messing around with too many screen sets. The Tracks Overview works very well as a selection tool for the Sequence and MIDI Editors, so I have that open at the top as a selection tool when editing. Whatever window you have selected is the one that the key commands will propagate. So shift M pulls up the mixer etc. the side windows collapse quickly with "command [" and "]" respectively, so I hardly bother with screen sets, if I'm working with more than one edit window switching to different desktops is fast. I mostly use this with plug ins that take up large amounts of real estate like Maschine, Kontakt, MachFive 3 etc. I sometimes think about getting an additional monitor, as I did like that workflow, but Consolidated Windows and the occasional extra desktop in OSX works just fine.

As a side note, considering that floating windows disappear when you select the desktop or any other application besides DP I'm grateful MOTU gave us the option to have them not float. You cannot drag floating plugins to another desktop which would have killed my workflow.

[bayswater]

I start with a fully loaded up CW from a template that has a lot of stuff I often use all set up. As the project proceeds I find I need big edit screens and sometimes a need to see a big mixer, so I pop out large SE, ME and Mixer windows, and put each on a separate OS X screen. With that in place CTL-Arrow goes from screen to screen.

If I have a lot of tracks, I have a screen set that puts a tall narrow TO on the left, zoomed out, showing only the track names and enable and play buttons, a large SE in the middle, and a channel strip to the right. You can do a lot with that layout, but you can't do it in a CW. (I'd like to be able to put the TO in a CW sidebar).

So, I like the CW and the individual screens in combination with screen sets. The all have their place at different project stages.

[MikeInBoston]

As I posted in a similar thread recently, if DP didn't have a consolidated window, I wouldn't be using it now. I would have hated all those messy little windows cluttering up my monitor in the earlier versions of DP. It's one of the main reasons why I never tried it back then. Anyway, I love it now. It's like a beautiful and elegant sports car. VVVRRROOOOOOMMM!!!!!

Mike

[David Polich]

I'm one of those who dislikes Consolidated
Windows. I spend most of my time in the
Tracks Overview because I can see and
control everything (that I personally need
to control) in that one window. The T.O.
window was one of the first things that drew
me to DP, because I could see everything
on a small monitor. I still dont have dual
monitors, although I graduated to a 27"
Asus monitor last year.

Consolidated Windows are just too distracting
for me. But that is just my preference. The
great thing about DP is we can choose which
way to view things (not so in some other
DAW's).

[wvandyck]

CW is a (+) when using a single monitor whether 24", or a 15" MBP.

Key commands and well-designed Window Sets make it work.
I've used another DAW without a CW. Even when using the equivalent of Window Sets, the screen can become a big mess.

[magicd]

This is a fascinating thread because there are posters who are very much for, or very much against using the same feature. That simple fact points out that there is no one way to do things that everybody will like and should use.

Part of the challenge of developing these tools is to give a broad range of users the ability to work the way they want. So if there are multiple ways to work, how do you give different users a simple path to get where they want to go?

I've been using DP for a long time and I can get around in the program very quickly. I also receive files from customers that show me how people work in very different ways than myself.

I do use the Consolidated window. I don't use window sets. Even within the consolidated window I have my own particular layout that I prefer.

DP is an amazingly customizable interface. For a new customer the options can be intimidating. We try to offer presets and explanations of how to get up and running. I think for long-term power users, each of us ultimately develops our own preferred workflow.

One of things that makes this a great forum is that we all share the different ways we work. I constantly learn about DP by reading threads here.

Thanks!
Dave

[mikehalloran]

I pop the mixer out and put it on a second monitor. Otherwise, I leave everything in the CW.

Now, with floating windows for plugins, I am playing with those on a third USB monitor where if is shared with the user guide. I'm not sure I will keep that gong, though.