I have got frustrated by the lack of this feature so many times that I cannot even count them.
SO::: when you have Sends effect(s) active on an audio track AND you have an ENABLED-DISABLED automation present on that track, then there is no way of turning on (or off) that single SENDS channel so that one could listen the playback with (or without) that effect channel, depending on the automation status.
Of course one could just disable all the Sends with that “global sends bypass” button but that’s not what I mean, and it is NOT good enough;
I often have several SENDS in use in a single Audio track that also have this automation saved for ENABLE-DISABLE status and I would equally often like to listen to the playback with the specific Send ENABLED or DISABLED regardless of its automation status. So that global Sends’ bypass isn’t enough since I would like to be able to adjust/preview only a one, single Sends channel.
Also temporarily disabling that SEND channel from the multi-track is not the solution since the other Audio tracks might be using that Effect also. And that would not be a solution when desired to have this Effect ENABLED regardless of the automation status.
And yes; you could also disable the READ status for that specific track but that is NOT the solution either; I definitely NEED TO have by choice the other SEND channels as READ status activated as I need to be able to preview the effect of disabling/enabling a single SEND channel only because I just want to be precise. I’m sure that every serious studio professional thinks the same way.
So MY SUGGESTION IS THIS:: Include a “global ON or OFF” buttons right beside each SEND channel area in the Mixer window. So that ONLY one of those could be active at any time - bypassing the ON/OFF automation . And you could have both choices disabled simply by clicking that active ON or OFF button a second time. So that when those “global Send channel ON or OFF” buttons are disabled, the automation would be active (enabled) and would behave just like it normally does. And this all would be available to every SENDS channel separately.
What do You think? I really can’t see any reason why this would NOT be a good feature to have. Do you? It wouldn’t take too much extra space on the Mixer window. Also the disabled READ gets left as Disabled status amazingly often just out of not concentrating enough, and the multi-track window doesn’t intuitively and clearly show wether that track has saved automation data inside. That has happened to me many times at least.
Also that “global Send channel ON/OFF” status could show on the multi-track view for example just by a simple little colored dot. Meaning that when it is lit, then that track has at least one SEND channel set as “global Send ON/OFF”.
All the feedback is welcome. This feature would soooo make my very active music mixing life easier.