Hello,
I am curious to know if there is a way to get the Group Channels to show the wave form watermark of the audio routed to it for the purpose of writing automation.
In a normal audio channel, it will show you a watermark of the audio files and this allows for precise automation of the track. It would be nice if there’s a way for me to see the same watermark for the Group Channels.
Does anyone know if this already exists and how to turn it on?
Thank you.
Hi,
I’m sorry, no, this is not possible.
Dear SB,
This would be a nice feature, as I often find myself writing automation to Group Channels. It would be nice to see the audio that is passing through the Group Channel by way of a waveform watermark.
Those meters are reading the waveform peak data files so it’s not a real-time render (that’s how you can see audio that’s approaching without the need for a time machine). I imagine it’s probably not a high priority to add this to real-time channels.
Exactly.
But at the other hand, the peak file could be also rendered for the Group Channel, in the background (with lower priority). Why not?
But the difference is that an audio track will as its source an audio file, and if I understand what likelystory said it will read the peak file of that file. So we’re then already really looking at a waveform that actually doesn’t represent a true post-fader signal, unless of course you do zero processing on that channel. But if you put a compressor on the channel the waveform no longer show correct values. It’s still probably useful since the changes are miror.
However, once you get to the group you literally have to add signals and then recalculate the waveform image. So the question is how that would/should be done. If you add the signals that go into the group then you clearly can’t have anything ahead of time, as likelystory said, because the signal hasn’t happened yet. If you want to pre-render it like the peak wave files are then the question is what do you want to sum? Do you want to sum the respective peak files for all channels going into respective groups, or do you want to sum using all processing in all inserts, in addition to panning etc? At this point in the signal chain I don’t think it makes sense to take pre-fader / pre-insert signals for summing simply because you might drop the level of Channel A so that it outputs peaks lower than Channel B (because it makes sense aesthetically), but the recorded files could be the opposite with B having lower peaks than A.
See the conundrum?
You can also see the Meter Bridge section above the fader, Insers, even Pre section. So this meter should be Pre- all of these sections.
Actually, it’s kind of ilogical the common PPM meters in this area are post- Inserts, Channel Strip and Fader.
I don’t think I agree with that Martin, if I understand you correctly. If we have the option of both placing meters where we want them and setting meters to measure input or post-fade/post-pan levels then that’s sufficient for me. I think a lot of analog mixers are set up this way simply because it’s convenient ergonomically. So it’s intuitive for me at least.
If the software is capable of making a waveform image while recording, I don’t see why it would be difficult for it to make a waveform as channels are routed to a Group Channel. Nuendo is intelligent enough to calculate tempos and hit points and many other things on it’s own.
It would be really useful to be able to route an audio channel to a group and have an image created. Then, as you add another audio channel, for the Group Channel to show you a culmination of the multiple audio tracks. I understand some plugins are random modulations and it would be difficult to draw an image prior to playback, but maybe perhaps just the waveform prior to all the processing; just something to allow me to see where exactly I want to add automation.
Right now, my workaround is, I export the Group Channel and add as an audio track. I then disable the imported track, so I can see it but not hear it. I place the track near my Group Channel on the track list and begin to write my automation based on what I see on the bounced track.
Does this make sense? Or am I confusing everyone?