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.alc clip preview doesn't playback the automation

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 3:10 pm
by Addy123
Currently, when you save a clip from a track that contains automation, the automation gets saved into the .alc file so when you reuse it, you get the exact same sound as the original. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that when you preview such a clip, the automation doesn't play back with the rest of the clip, in fact, all those automated parameters are simply set to the value that's in the beginning of the automation and you get a completely static playback.

Why is this a thing? Is that a bug? Is that a feature that devs forgot to implement? Is it intentionally not working correctly?

It's not like it would introduce an overhead, Live already has to load the instrument and all the plugins so automating some of the parameters on top of that is negligible. I did some testing and the only scenario when this works as expected is when a native Live instrument is used and only its parameters are automated. Then the preview playback includes the automation. But when you automate some of the effect plugins on the channel or if you automate parameters of an external instrument, it doesn't work properly.

.alc files are an immensely powerful feature that lets us really capitalize on sound design sessions in order to build our own sound libraries. Which is what we'd love to do as artists, make banks of our own sounds. This bug is very unfortunate and renders this whole feature worthless. Of what use is your own library to you when the preview you hear while browsing it IS NOT actually what the clip itself contains.

Please do not waste the awesome original idea and make this work properly. It would be a shame to throw such convenient functionality out of the window.

Re: .alc clip preview doesn't playback the automation

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:49 pm
by arretx
It's probably a thing because the preview is simply a tiny little wav player and not a clip player, and the automation that you have set probably requires that all of the devices that are automated be accessible in the currently loaded set.

What if you were to record the audio output of the clip to go side by side with the .alc version. I know, it's more work. Would be nice to have what you suggest, but conceptually it doesn't seem possible without having the clip inside the set with all of the devices.