Audio Track - Programmer - gone in Reason 12?

[cocoazenith]

It seems that the Audio Track Programmer is gone in Reason 12.
I cannot see the Show Programmer button. What gives?

It's a feature I often used to easily automate insert effects.
Shame if it's been removed And why?

REASON 10/11

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REASON 12

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[joeyluck]

The controls are all still there (and then some). You no longer have to 'show programmer' to get access to these macros now that Combinators can be nested in the insert container. Now you just 'show insert FX'.

If you had a Combinator loaded into the insert programmer before, you will see it there as the first Combinator in the insert section. You can add more Combinators too!

All automation from before carries over to that Combinator and so will Remote support as well (fix being beta tested now).


This is what you saw in R11 and previous:

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This is what you see now:

Macros R12.png (121.5 KiB) Viewed 1348 times

What used to be 'show programmer' is simply now the editor for whatever Combinator(s) you have loaded into the insert.

[cocoazenith]

Okay. Got it. But the bigger problem stems from the following functionality or lack thereof. In fact it's why I used the programmer. In previous versions whenever you map an Insert FX control to the programmer you can control it in the Transport Automation via Insert/Parameter.

This way when you can use up to 8 controls and they will all apear as slaves/included to the said Audio Tracks transport lane. This helps me a lot to keep things organised.

See below.

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Right now in R12 I see no Insert FX parameters in the Automation dropdown - except Bypass all.
I used the Combinator in Inserts and mapped my desired effect's parameter to the first switch
and when I want to automate it it creates a huge two lane new transport track.

So I get a lot of screenspace ocuppied and a lot less organisation because of this. Previously it really helped visually
to know which automation lane belongs to which audio track and this does not help at all.

Why can't things stay simple. Why complicate a simple concept just because they've introduced this new Combinator.
This doesn't seem the kind of feature that they'll re-instate after they've made these overhauls

The Combinator is seen as a distinct device as opossed to the former Programmer which was PART OF THE AUDIO/MIX TRACK.

See below.

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[orthodox]

I only wish some of the controls of the Combinator attached to Mix Channel were available in the Mixer view. Now they are gone.

[cocoazenith]

I only wish some of the controls of the Combinator attached to Mix Channel were available in the Mixer view. Now they are gone.

I wish that as well and also need them desperately in Sequencer > Audio Track > Track Parameter Automation > Inserts

[joeyluck]

My hope is that we get track folders and news ways of organizing the Sequencer anyways.

There was always a disconnect with this. If you automated the macros on the .cmb patch, those were tied to the channel as you mention, but individual controls of the devices, whether linked to the programmer .cmb patch or just included in the insert, those got their own lanes the same as your example now.

So I think this creates an opportunity to fix it for everything when figuring out track folders and sequencer organization features.

[QVprod]

Would much rather if insert automation was handled like other DAWs do it. Embedded in the track just like all the channel strip stuff is.

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[selig]

I wish ALL associated devices were in a single track in the sequencer, each on their own lanes and able to be viewed together if desire (it's handy to edit volume automation above your audio waveform, or be able to draw MIDI notes on top of audio waveforms for vocoding or vocal synthesizers. Right now if I have a track for a DrOctaRex and want to automate the mix channel volume, it's on a different sequencer track.
So yea, they're going in the wrong direction here if you ask me, I'd rather be seeing new ways of grouping all associated devices together in one place than changes that require even more tracks in the Sequencer.

[cocoazenith]

I wish ALL associated devices were in a single track in the sequencer, each on their own lanes and able to be viewed together if desire (it's handy to edit volume automation above your audio waveform, or be able to draw MIDI notes on top of audio waveforms for vocoding or vocal synthesizers. Right now if I have a track for a DrOctaRex and want to automate the mix channel volume, it's on a different sequencer track. So yea, they're going in the wrong direction here if you ask me, I'd rather be seeing new ways of grouping all associated devices together in one place than changes that require even more tracks in the Sequencer.

Would much rather if insert automation was handled like other DAWs do it. Embedded in the track just like all the channel strip stuff is.

I gave up on wishing these two things some time ago and was happy to at least have this programmer with its 8 rotaries and switches included in the Track Parameter Inserts Automation. While they were only available for Audio/Mix Tracks, not Device Tracks...now even these are gone.......

A desirable outcome would be RS taking things forward and linking all parameters of these new "insert combinators" as lanes belonging to the said main audio/instrument track. Who knows......right now it seems like the work regarding these aspects is not done anyway, so an improvement is probably coming. Hopefully it's not in the opposite direction

[joeyluck]

That was exactly the point I made. It was broken and disconnected before. Automating parameters of devices in an insert, including those tied to a programmer combi were separate, so it was like some things attached and others not.

Now they are at least consistent in behavior. So now they can maybe tackle it all together with track folders and grouping of all parameters inside inserts.

[OverneathTheSkyBridg]

Yeah, I can see this change being very messy in the sequencer if they don't add track folders and ways to group devices together. This change makes for a smaller SSL mixer, and I'm wondering if they're going to condense even more of that functionality by nudging us to just use the SSL Mixer rack devices instead.