waveform in sequence not displaying

[stainless]

I have one track recorded last night, that plays fine, when it was recorded the waveform displayed normally, but opening the session this morning it displays as a solid bar in the middle of the sequence track... and it is preceded followed by 2 parallel lines which seems to correlate to volume and panning

it still plays fine.... how do I get it back to the "normal" view of the waveform

In waveform it likewise, shows up as a solid black bar???

any ideas- I can re track, but with the exception of two timing issues it's a good take

Thanks

[stainless]

well... never mind..... I merged the entire track together to try exporting and bring back in and the sound-byte that wasn't displaying previously is now back to normal..

If anyone has an explanation of WTF I did, I'd be most happy to hear it!

It does still show the parallel lines at the end of the sound-byte and goes as far as seem interested in scrolling....

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The usual cause is the dreaded View Filter Easter Egg MOTU has programmed into DP. I haven't checked DP 8 but in all other version hitting cmd-f would call up the view filter. Users thought they were dismissing the box by clicking the bottom right corner, and they were. They were also setting the filter to ALL so you couldn't view anything. Just record hear it.

What makes this particularly pernicious is that in the OS and virtually every other app the cmd-f keystroke is used for FIND. It's very easy for a user to hit that instinctively and inadvertently loose all visual references in DP.

I has a client drive 90 miles to a session only to have that happen and we could not find the fix. He had to drive back the next week and we were none too happy. I've written to MOTU many times about it but AFAIK they're just laughing so hard they've yet to fix this.

[magicd]

The View Filter is an Easter Egg?...

No, this was not a view filter problem.

Yes, the parallel lines you see are automation data.

If there is a problem with the audio waveform drawing, that may have something to do with a problem with an analysis file. When DP records or imports audio, it analyzes the audio and create a secondary file that contains the waveform graphics data. This secondary file is stored in the Analysis Files folder in the Project folder.

If DP then somehow loses track of the analysis file for the audio file, it won't display the waveform. There are two fixes for this. If the contents of the Analysis Files folder are trashed, the next time the file is opened, DP will recalculate the waveforms for all audio in the project. The other fix is to merge the audio, which causes DP to create a new audio file, and therefore a new analysis file and waveform draw.

How does this happen? As far as I can tell, a common cause is that multiple audio files are created with the same names. This is more likely to happen if you don't name the audio track before recording. If you don't name the audio track before recording, you end up with dozens of files named Audio-1, Audio-2 and so on.

But I think you found the fix!

Dave

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The View Filter is an Easter Egg?...

I didn't want to say it was the worst possible choice of a shortcut key ever, resulting in more posts and confusion for users of any app in the history of mankind.

Seriously, there are probably more posts about that than any other aspect of the basic interface causing confusion in all versions of DP.

Hey, man, I'm a big DP fan. A fanboy, even, but that one little key command has bit so many users - novice to expert - that I truly have lost count of how many times I've posted the "view filter fix" here.

Do a search for it here, but be careful. If you're in DP, don't forget and use the standard FIND command. You'll.... we'll, you know...

[magicd]

The View Filter is an Easter Egg?...

I didn't want to say it was the worst possible choice of a shortcut key ever, resulting in more posts and confusion for users of any app in the history of mankind.

There is no shortcut key to clear everything from the View Filter. I think what you mean is that there's a shortcut to open that window, and people press the Clear button in that window (by accident of course).

As a long time MOTU technician, I can tell you that a more frequent call involves someone turning on MIDI remote Controls without knowing it. "Every time I play a "D" DP goes into loop mode!". Another customer put it this way "I press all button and nothing work!"

For the convenience of customers and technicians all over the world, we have put a "Defaults" button into the Digital Performer Preferences window. Defaults are goood...

But in this case, it wasn't the View Filter, it was a problem with the analysis files. Can't blame key commands on this one.

Cheers!

Dave

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I get that and suspected as much. The mention of the view filter default key was a knee jerk reaction. LOL. And then there's the "F#2" doesn't sound on my kbd. Sometimes DP has come with a MIDI trigger. Sometimes not. Always seems to be F#2 on my systems but not of late. Keeps us on our toes.

[stainless]

The track in question was named before any recording (it's the main template I use)

It would not clear after restarting...rebooting, but merging seemed to solve everything except the automation lines projecting from the end of the track into the great beyond.

unless there is a reason to do something about the automation lines (unnecessarily uses CPU resources), should I be concerned about it?

[Shooshie]

… merging seemed to solve everything except the automation lines projecting from the end of the track into the great beyond.

Just curious… did you try double-clicking on the automation line and deleting? Actually, you might have to create an automation point first. Ok. Click, then double-click on the point, then delete. That should get rid of it all.

Shooshie

[stainless]

all that does is get rid of the automation point(s) created...

I exported the track and brought back into the session and the automation graphics did not export/import back into the session

[Shooshie]

all that does is get rid of the automation point(s) created...

I exported the track and brought back into the session and the automation graphics did not export/import back into the session

Ok, I'm pretty sure that you exported a WAV or AIFF file. Those would not preserve automation, but would probably incorporate the automation already in the track. The result is just an audio file, not a DP track.

I haven't been doing this lately, but in the past I've been able to drag selections from the Tracks Overview Window to the Finder and it would create a file I could drag back in, and I think it would be intact.

Another way is to drag a selection to the Chunks Window, and it creates a chunk from it. You can then drag that chunk into an open Tracks Overview window, and it will import everything pretty much as it was originally, right into wherever you dragged it. But those features were changed in some versions. I don't know if it still does that or not.

Anyway, I was just trying to figure out if your problem was a malfunction or just a mistake. I'm still not sure, but it seems unlikely that DP messed up.

Shooshie

[stainless]

it may well have been something I did... and if so, would be nice to know what exactly I did (an errant keystroke?, or the result of clicking on some task/function too close together (I have crashed a couple of plug-ins by what I'm guessing amounts to giving too many instructions in rapid succession (either an errant selection ... or impatience )

Yes I did export as an .AIFF

I can select the sequence and drag it to another track and the automation graphics remain "behind"... they seem to be only on the original track where they occurred

It would actually be pretty helpful if the automation lines would show on the track 'superimposed" on the waveform all the time without switching (with some variation so you could ID volume from pan, Fx automation!!), but alas, my mind is wandering

[magicd]

it may well have been something I did...

I tend to doubt that you did anything "wrong". I'm not sure why the original audio lost it's waveform but that shouldn't have happened. You did fix it by merging a new soundbite. I think if you had trashed the analysis files folder, that may have brought back the waveform. No worries. It's not a drastic problem and you found the fix.

It would actually be pretty helpful if the automation lines would show on the track 'superimposed" on the waveform all the time without switching (with some variation so you could ID volume from pan, Fx automation!!), but alas, my mind is wandering

That's exactly the way it works. On the left of the track in the Sequence Editor, there are a series of menus. For an audio track the Audio Edit Layer menu defaults to Soundbites. Click on that menu to change the view between Soundbites, Volume, Pan, Loops, Pitch, and Bite Volume. If there are additional types of automation writing into the track (such as plug-in automation, they will also be listed in the edit layer menu.

If there is volume automation in the track (for example), setting the edit layer menu to Volume will cause the volume automation line to move to the front of the display, superimposed over the audio waveform. If there is no volume automation in the track (for example), changing the view to that data type won't change anything in the display. By switching between the data types in the view menu, you should be able to figure out what type of automation data you have in the track.

Dave

[stainless]

A while back someone was discussing periodically trashing the analysis folder... good idea or bad idea... ?


what I meant was having the automation line(s) show concurrently without switching (as if DP had a "display all" - volume -solid line , pan- dotted line, bite volume dashes, loop hot pink, etc ). Selecting to edit seems a good safeguard against accidentally using the pencil tool to modify the wrong automation

I didn't realize it would show plug in automation, so I'll have to spend some time with that.

I spent ~ 5 hours yesterday in DP and no problems (operator error or otherwise)