Layout snapshots?

[wibem]

Are there any kind of layout snapshots, which can be stored and quickly recalled in Studio Pro? I can't find this function and think it would be really nice to have it.

 

[Cypher]

It's called Scenes. You have several options to store and recall. from simple visiblity to full mixes...
I use it just for track layout

 

[wibem]

I think that scenes are snapshots of the actual state of the mixer etc. A kind of quick "save as" function. That's not what I meant. I'm looking for a store and recall function for the actual layout of the windows on the screen . Perhaps you can do that with the Scenes function too? How?

 

[Jens]

To me layout snapshots feel more like a general concept in a theoretical GUI environment or a nice-to-have feature at best. It would be helpful if you would attach two screenshots of your preferred layouts and explain why they are needed/useful.

SP uses a modern single window GUI, it remembers its previous/preferred state for its various sections and is context sensitive. This means you can switch between your preferred window layouts with one or two key commands. You can also write macros to chain them. This approach should work pretty well if you toggle between two preferred layouts.

 

[lokeyfly]

@ wibem [OP]
Maybe just my missing something, but "layout snapshots" seems a bit broad termed. For layouts, there are song templates which you can freely construct to your liking before, or for any new song. As to snapshots, this was an earlier feature from Studio One. It was discontinued, and I havent checked if mixer snapshots are back yet. Probably not.

 

[wibem]

Mixer snapshots were called scenes in Studio One . I don't know if they further exists in SP. Templates are for me something , what is totally different. You can't save in them the actual window configuration and get back later to them in the same project. I wonder if macros can do the job to have a special windows configuration with a shortcut. I will give it a try.

 

[lokeyfly]

Yeah, check. You can also save presets, as a one-off track setup, you could set up extensive track presets like with one click. For example bring up a bass, with settings, channel splits, and fx all recallable at once. Yeah, I tend to call scenes, snapshots. I'd like to see them back, for sure.

Another in a pinch way to modify a whole song is using [Save to new folder] in the files, menu. Just another possability.

 

[BobF]

Other software I use calls this 'workspaces'. This would make a great Feature Request

 

[Jens]

Other software I use calls this 'workspaces'. This would make a great Feature Request

I'm guessing this has been proposed multiple times because everything has already.

"Workspaces" or "layout snapshots" seem like good concepts but what's the use case?

There are only 3 (or 4) main sections: Inspector on the left, browser on the right and a multi-purpose section at the bottom (and possibly the launcher). Worst case is 3 (4) actions, most used case for me is one action (bottom section) equal to switching to another layout preset. If I change a subsection within a main section I either keep it as my new preferred layout or revert it after I'm done. The amount of actions are the same with layout switching.

Maybe people are used to this concept. Nobody has provided any layout screenshots as an example of how they would use layout presets and how often they would actually use it as a (significant) time saver.

Maybe I don't like another layout manager, or maybe I wouldn't remember which of my (sub-)layout permutations does what exactly. But more importantly I like the visual/flexible way it is now. Layout switching supports only an alternative/faster way of viewing/accessing things, other feature requests allow "new" ways of doing things.

 

[Lukas]

Short answer: This feature does not exist in FSP yet.

 

[Jens]

Short answer: This feature does not exist in FSP yet.

Not very subtle.

You're often posting on VI and asking for a use case for any feature request. You just don't discuss it there further.

But people often overstate the usefulness to push their request. I don't think it's rude to argue against that and argue in favor of what's already there. It doesn't mean that the request itself is useless.

(I'm pretty invested in GUIs in general anyway and this is a discussion forum meant to encourage more detailed postings. I usually keep my postings as short as possible.)

 

[Lukas]

I only wanted to clarify that the requested feature currently does not exist, since the discussion above was about possible workarounds (scenes?) that might achieve the same result.

I have used multi-monitor setups myself where, for certain projects, the Note Editor was always on the second monitor and the instrument window on the third. Being able to switch between different layout configurations would have been very useful in that situation.

I do not personally need this very often at the moment, but that may change again. And from a product specialist’s perspective, I can certainly see how this could be useful for specific users and workflows. So yes, I support the feature request.

 

[SwitchBack]

Only sideways related but to throw out a feeler: Would it be a useful ergonomic addition to be able to rotate the screen assignment in multi-monitor setups? That way you can [keyboard shortcut] your main (editing) focus screen front and center without having to drag stuff around. And the implementation is probably pretty easy