When I solo a track in Montage and then un-mute another track to add to the Solo, the Solo indicator goes off. This did not happen in WL7.
It gets very confusing not being able to see what track was initially soloed. The only way to remove Solo mode, is to mute the extra track (or tracks) and then I can see the Solo light up again.
Is it possible to keep the solo light on, like it used to be in WL7.
Sorry, I would say no. “Solo” is understood in the true meaning of the word: if the solo switch is activated, then one and only one track is hear-able.
I never ran into this, but it is very against convention. Solo and unmute normally exist together, but the solo channel must always be recognizable, since ‘unsolo’ means listen to all. Irrespective of already unmuted channels. IMO this should be changed - especially if it was like that in WL7.
Agreed Arjan…
On every console I’ve ever used you can solo more than one source, not to mention groups. I do see a slight difference due to “mouse-y” interface of DAWs: you can only get to one button at a time, often with windows covering them. And in mastering there are absolutely times where you need what PG states, one-button/one-track only. Still it’s not conventional or even always desireable.
I humbly suggest that solo ≠ muting all but solo’d channel, and there is a legitimate need for soloing groups of tracks and signals together. To address the interface shortcomings (hidden buttons, non-obvious indicators etc), could we have a modifier key? IOW, if I want solo to be what I click and only what I click, I’d press the modifier to defeat existing solo settings and make the selected track active alone, while soloing one track with another already solo’d would simply add it to the audible group. Or vice versa since PG is the cook with the vision here and prefers solo-as-only… I’m not picky.
-d-
Daved, you say you agree with Arjan, but you write the opposite:
Arjan says ‘unsolo’ should mean ‘listen to all’.
You say: you want to be able to ‘solo’ several channels, ‘unsolo’ would then result in ‘listening to the remaining soloed channels’ and just NOT ‘listen to all’.
IMO the current setting already gives you all possibilities you ask for: If you want to ‘solo’ more than one track you can easily ‘solo’ the first one and ‘unmute’ all following. In addition to the mute and solo button the colour of the waveform shows you immediately which channels are muted and which are not. If ‘solo’ really means ‘solo’, this is very easy to remember and understand which I find good and helpful.
I don’t think that every console convention has to be transferred to software programs. The audio montage differs from a console in many many ways and adding another setting option wouldn’t make things easier and it also wouldn’t actually improve anything.
Your important semantic distinctions have been noted and accepted Lutz.
Nonetheless I disagree with your conclusion that a DAW should behave differently than a convention that’s worked wonderfully for generations and is understood by virtually every professional engineer. I do not take issue with the functionality issue - yes, indeed you can accomplish what I want with the existing set up. Where we disagree is that the change is some sort of improvement. At best, the benefit is what you and PG point out; a semantic (and I’d argue pedantic) clarity of the word “solo”, that contradicts a well understood, long-standing convention that exists in both DAWs and physical consoles. Changing this convention can only steepen an already steep learning curve, if only slightly. Still it adds up…
My bottom line is that as a change from WL7, it not only makes things more confusing for newbies and all working pros, it also needlessly complicates things for existing users. I don’t really see other benefits beyond semantic consistency (already broken industry wide). Seems like a strange battle to fight.
I’m just upset because this feature in WL7 was a large part of my workflow.
I mix orchestras 16 & 24 track recordings. I think Wavelab is the best for doing this in a style I can relate to. With the solo light left on and the ability to un-mute extra tracks, I was easily able to make a sub-group of just the strings or just the winds. Taking the solo button off, was all that was needed to get back to monitoring all the tracks.
Now…
It’s hard to remember where the initial solo track was selected. If you choose the wrong one you end up having to un-mute all of the tracks individually. This is a big pain. Please make it the way that it was.
Even if you want to add a feature to create sub-groups consisting of chosen tracks and the ability to save them as pre-sets. I would go for that.
Then you wouldn’t have to corrupt the term ‘Solo’.
Then there would be a new term called ‘Sub-Groups’
I agree to revert to the same behaviour as WaveLab 7 (for WaveLab 8.0.3).