Firstly, let me just say thank you! I’ve been using SpectaLayers extensively recently for a BIG isolation job, and I’m finding the software performs significantly better for this type of work than the other tools at my disposal (WaveLab and RX). I’ve been using it extensively with a Wacom tablet, and by and large it has been a pleasure to work this way.
I wanted to take a moment to share a little feedback from my own use case and experience with the software.
BUGS
- Holding down CTRL, mouse pointer changes to Playback tool allowing for quick previewing of material. Releasing CTRL returns to whatever tool the user was previous using. If the selected tool prior to holding CTRL was Hand or Zoom, the functionality for those tools persist with CTRL held, despite the mouse pointer showing as Playback tool.
- No way of changing the default Transport → Scolling setting
- No way of changing the default “Pen Pressure controls strength” state for manipulation tools
- Can’t draw with a tablet in ARA mode
- Program crashes unceremoniously if the cache disk runs out of space
- During playback, playback cursor doesn’t quite match up with what we’re hearing
- I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but “Pen pressure controls strength” behaves very strangely with the Eraser tool - it will actually sometimes boost instead of attenuate. I’ve avoided using it because of this.
FEATURE REQUESTS
- MIDI mapping for all controls. This is far and away my number 1 biggest wishlist item. I am constantly touching FFT Size, Attenuation and tool Size; if I had each of these on a MIDI knob, it would speed up my workflow immensely.
- Hotswappable user defined tool presets.
eg.
[1] Eraser tool: Attenuation 6, Size 15
[2] Eraser tool: Attenuation 2, Size 30
[3] Highlight tool: Attenuation 3, Size 15
Allow us to create these types of things, and hotkey them.
- Hotkeys that allow momentary switching to another tool while the key is held down. On release, previous tool is reactivated.
eg. While holding Z, use Zoom tool. On release, return to previous tool selection.
- Spectral dynamics processor
A large part of my workflow involves reducing unwanted broad spectrum noise down to the surrounding ambient background noise level. The Stamp tool works for some cases, but when things are crowded, it can be a trick avoiding repetition. If find in a lot of cases, better results can be achieved performing the reduction by hand. Effectively what we are doing is applying a per-frequency dynamics manipulation process. This seems like something that could be automated? Melda’s Spectral Dynamics processor does this sort of thing (unfortunately it’s very unwieldy!).
- Plugin suport
Many thanks!
