Ability to have >12 return tracks

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sqook
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Ability to have >12 return tracks

Post by sqook » Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:24 am

I don't think any Abes actually read this part of the forum, but I should at least throw it out there in case they do. Anyways, why does Live have this silly restriction on the number of return tracks you can have? I've got a bigass monitor and tons of CPU, why not let me have 100 return tracks? What's the reason for the limitation?

ameree
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Re: Ability to have >12 return tracks

Post by ameree » Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:59 am

Interface issues with all of those send dials and numericals maybe? Can't imagine how all that would fit and still be usable.
multi-window and alternate view MaxForLive tools for Live 8 & 9
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sqook
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Re: Ability to have >12 return tracks

Post by sqook » Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:35 pm

You're kidding, right? On a large iMac display screen, I see mostly empty space in Ableton.

Anyways, I can think of 3 easy ways to solve the UI issue with a large number of sends. First, allow scrolling in this part of the view if there is not enough room to display all the sends. This is a small price to pay for the added flexibility. Second, force all sends to have the box instead of the knob interface if there is not enough room.

Finally, Live could just do what it already does when there's not enough room to display all the sends -- either gray out the "S" button to indicate to the user that there's not enough room for that panel, or simply truncate it.

I still hold to my point that the restriction is silly, and should at least be raised if not removed.

ameree
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Re: Ability to have >12 return tracks

Post by ameree » Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:01 pm

Nto sure we're thinking about it the same way. I'm talking about the height of the sends, not the width of the return section. Here's it with 12 sends, already looking pretty tall and taking up a lot of space on my 1920x1200 display:

Image
double that to 24 and there's no room for the effects/device section, triple it to 36 and there's no view space left for clips.

For specialized tasks I'd just use a normal track and change the routing to act pretty much like a send/return anyway, or use a group.

I'm not saying it's THE reason. Just my thoughts as someone who's had to deal with interface design issues.
multi-window and alternate view MaxForLive tools for Live 8 & 9
http://www.erasermice.com

sqook
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Re: Ability to have >12 return tracks

Post by sqook » Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:07 pm

Point taken, but resize the window and see how Ableton deals with less space. It can already do it, right?

Most of my Livesets cap out the return tracks because once you start doing complex routing, you run out of returns pretty quick. Certainly in the return track section there is room to show more knobs/boxes especially since there are no clips in there.

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