Why do you like/dislike consolidated windows?

[musicman691]

Coming from spending a lot of years in Cakewalk Sonar and ProTools (10 and 11) with their individual windows for everything to DP8 (and now 9) with the CW I had quite the shock. But I've found that with a single monitor the CW working quite well for me. That and being able to bring up one (or more) other views in the main part of the CW from the bottom of the CW screen seems to be working.

I haven't tried operating without the CW and I find it a bit of a bummer that the single button option to not use the CW has gone away in DP8.07 (it might have been earlier but that I don't know) and DP9. Thanks to this thread for pointing me in another way to go about essentially disabling the CW.

[philbrown]

I only use one big monitor and I like CW a lot. For the main editing work I do I keep a meter bridge (just a narrow view of my main stereo output) in a popped out window, though. I use various tabs on both sides of the CW and switch them as necessary and then normally have the TO at the top and SE at the bottom.

[Babz]

I've been using P/DP from the beginning, so I remember what it was like before the CW. When the feature was introduced, I immediately took to it and it never looked back. (Incidentally, DP was one of the first, if not THE first, to develop the feature, and it is an example of something MOTU came up with first that was later copied by Logic and ProTools.) It would never have occurred to me that anyone would prefer it the old way, until I started reading about how other DP users work and listening to arguments against it.

Digression: In all the years I've used DP, I realize that I've spent very little time thinking about work habits, templates, etc. I always TELL myself I'm going to. I have a few times set aside time to rethink things, take a personal inventory, all that… But when I think about it now, that is a tiny fraction of all the years I've spent just diving in and dealing with things as they come up.

The other thing that has happened is that I've been forced to move and rebuild my studio many times over the years. Then there was also the gradual move away from hardware, eventually going mixerless, going from multiple computers to all in one box, all that…. All of this influences how you work.

So I guess I'm a mixture of old habits and constantly changing habits. OK, back to the CW ...

One thing that influenced me a lot came as a result from having to work on a few projects in another DAW. I became dead set on the idea of a channel strip, like they have in Cubase, and many other DAWs. Over the years, I have tried various ways to get as close as I can to that in DP, and DP has changed in various ways to try to offer their version of a channel strip, which still is not integrated into the Tracks/SE like I wish it were.

All of this has influenced how I use the CW.

I started off using the CW with the channel strip in the side panel. In fact, this was one of the main things that drew me to the CW, the promise of getting a fader strip along the left side, like in other DAWs.

But the Channel Strip was the first thing that had to be removed from the CW and I now work with it as a separate window to the left of the CW main window. The reason for this has to do with the problem of DP only displaying a single mixer channel when you switch to the Mixer window. (This has been discussed a lot, and hopefully everybody knows what I mean here.)

Having the Channel Strip in a separate window helped, but was not completely sufficient to prevent the problem, so after hearing about how other people work, the next step I took was to remove the Mixer from the CW, working with it always popped out.

This mostly solved the problem, but for one thing. As long as I switched to the Mixer using a key command (Shift-M), I was fine. But because my hand is more often on the mouse, and because old habits die hard, I still find myself using the mouse to click on the Mixer button in the CW to get to the Mixer.

When you do this, the Mixer pops itself back into the CW! Argghh….

Then I have to pop it back out again. I have to really try hard to remember to not use the mouse to choose the mixer. This is compounded by the fact that my current set up has the keyboard a little less conveniently located, making the mouse the place where my is most naturally located as I work.

So that's my story, FWIW. I wish they would make it so that once the Mixer is popped out of the CW, it *stays* a separate window, even if you use the mouse to select it w/ the CW button. More than that, I wish DP would just implement a proper channel strip, like Cubase, etc.

So I think a big part of whether you do or do not like the CW has to do with other factors... Things like your monitor setup, how much you use the mouse, how you switch windows, etc.

Best,
Babz

P.S. The other point I will say in favor of the CW is that it is massively helpful if you have to work on a laptop screen.

P.S. P.S. My current set up is basically a single monitor system. (Actually, I have 3 different single monitors located in front of various instruments around the studio. I'm forever dreaming about a better way, but you have to work with the space and time constraints at hand.)

[Basstrup]

I like CW, however I keep my Mixing window on a separate monitor. What I don't like is when the Mixer is "popped out" of CW, the Mixing Board tab stays in CW I would expect good UI to be bring the Mixing Board window in focus when clicking the tab, NOT bringing the mixing board back into CW, so I have to pop it out and move it again again. If I wanted to bring the Mixing Board back in I could use the menu/key command for popping it back in. No?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Yes, ctl-1 should pop any "pop-able" window in and out of the CW. And it does seem like the mixer is a popular one to float. If it resized so I could see the entire mixer in the CW, I might leave it in there more often. It just doesn't fit well with other windows in there. I always keep the Tracks Overview on the top middle pane. I also float the meter bridge as I like to see the meters in more detail. In fact, I'd like to see more variety in the DP meters. Maybe something like this?

While we're at it, some of the windows that I'd like to pop in and out of the CW don't do so. Most importantly to me is the notation window (not to be confused with the qucikscribe window. That poor orphaned notation window. One of the greatest features in DP and never even mentioned in the PR...

But I digress... (what else is new?)

[magicd]

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.

Funnily enough, I can't work with the floating plug-in windows. I find the feature to be a pain. I absolutely recognize that others find this feature indispensable. It's nice to have choices!

Dave

[Robert Randolph]

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.

Funnily enough, I can't work with the floating plug-in windows. I find the feature to be a pain. I absolutely recognize that others find this feature indispensable. It's nice to have choices!

Dave

What do you dislike about it? I can't think of any downsides on first consideration.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

What do you dislike about it? I can't think of any downsides on first consideration.

For me, they clutter the screen. Once I set a plug I don't need to have it showing all the time. It's usually a "see it and forget it" think for me. I open them when I need to fight with them. So I like having them disappear after I've had my way with them.

[Phil O]

For me it's probably just what I'm used to. I've been working in DP since pterodactyls were nesting in my back yard (i.e., pre-consolidation) and when consolidated windows came along it just seemed awkward. We are such creatures of habit. Dinner time. I think I've got some pterodactyl meat in the freezer.

Phil

[bayswater]

I'm used to looking at the plugin window as a general effects window and using its menus to go from one plugin to another within the same window. A floating window a nice option if you want to see what is happening inside a plugin while you edit parameters elsewhere, but leaving loads of them floating makes a confusing mess.

[monkey man]

I constantly learn about DP by reading threads here.

Thanks!
Dave

Pull the other one, Davo! LOL

Oh yeah... I just keep the TO, MIDI grid and Mixer windows fairly maxed out and command-tilde or shift-m or whatever to switch between them. Single monitor.

If I need to do something specialised I surf the menus and marvel at what is the brilliance and elegance of DP. Then I scratch my butt and think, "It'll be amazing one day when I figure out a morbidus operati for dealing with all these options, but in the meantime, especially as I'm not being paid for this, I'll just sit here in awe, mesmertittyised by this first-hand creation of the Gods of MOTU."

Was that over the top? 'Twas true.

[bayswater]

[a morbidus operation

Your classical eduction is showing.

Morbidus (Latin)
Adjective: morbidus m (feminine morbida, neuter morbidum); first/second declension
- sickly, diseased
- unwholesome

[monkey man]

As always, you flatter me, Stoiv. I especially appreciate it this time 'round as Miss Pellings somehow got around the MonkeyLabs Grammar Detective™; she was able to hack my words of wisdom. Erratum has been cleandefecatised.

Truth be told, I had an embarrassment of riches from which to choose a self-customised variant of the expression. I try to mix it up a bit, but the MonkeyLabs Approved™ standard set reads thusly:

bolus pooperfungi

justificus methodori

modebecause operationi

mophatticus hoppohippi

modicum operetta
modicus operetti

modicus apparatus
modicus pooparazzi

modulus synthosoundi

morbidus operati

operandus versitili

ploppicus poopverandih

It goes without saying that you'll require the appropriate licenses in order to be able to use any of the terms regularly. I think they self-destruct upon demo expiration. You can purchase the full licenses via the links in the MLI Product Update Q2 2015, which is posted in that looong OT thread.

Oh, and to anyone who's still somehow tuned in to this broad cast(!), my preference for utilising those main windows I mentioned the way I do is driven largely by my need to maximise real estate, which in turn is an effort to minimise scrolling, especially sideways as I'm using a sub-$10 microsoft generic mouse (I bought a bunch of 'em years ago).

See ya 'round like a rissole, Stoivo.

[Guitar Gaz]

Yes, ctl-1 should pop any "pop-able" window in and out of the CW. And it does seem like the mixer is a popular one to float. If it resized so I could see the entire mixer in the CW, I might leave it in there more often. It just doesn't fit well with other windows in there. I always keep the Tracks Overview on the top middle pane. I also float the meter bridge as I like to see the meters in more detail. In fact, I'd like to see more variety in the DP meters. Maybe something like this?

While we're at it, some of the windows that I'd like to pop in and out of the CW don't do so. Most importantly to me is the notation window (not to be confused with the qucikscribe window. That poor orphaned notation window. One of the greatest features in DP and never even mentioned in the PR...

But I digress... (what else is new?)

Strange Full Screen mode behaviour in CW seems to have a solution - when I sometimes lose the popped out windows in my Window Set when I return to Full Screen, I discovered if I click Right Command and effectively use Mission Control, if I then select the Space that has DP in it, hey presto the popped out windows have returned and all work in Full Screen mode. Not exactly Shooshie's Spaces but effective - so maybe this is all workable after all. Probably bears a bit more experimentation - maybe some of the window strangeness can be solved by re-selecting in Mission Control?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I don't use MC. I'll give it a shot next time my windows go South.