Things that should happen automatically

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deeplink
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18 May 2021

tallguy wrote:
18 May 2021
deeplink wrote:
18 May 2021
When double clicking VSTs from the sequencer it should open the VST - not take you to the VST Rack Device
It already does that, no? Unless I'm misunderstanding what you said.

Single click takes you to the device in the rack. Double-click opens the VST
Shit, just realized that I've been single clicking this whole time .... my bad :(
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jam-s
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18 May 2021

tallguy wrote:
18 May 2021
OK, here's another one. When you drag an automation clip to another lane, Reason will often put red stripes through the clip as it's formatted differently. I only just found out you can right-click and "Adjust Alien Clips to Lane" so it re-formats the data to fit the new lane. That's something that should just happen transparently.

Seriously, all these years of me not assuming Reason simply can't do this. Just make it happen automatically.
No it should not, as automatic conversion might reduce information (for example when a higher resolution curve has to be down-sampled into 127 midi values). The way it is implemented is fine. People should just RTFM.

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guitfnky
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18 May 2021

set automation nodes at the beginning and end of a new automation clip, at whatever value the knob/control is currently set. I hate having to add nodes to an empty automation clip.
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sonicbyte
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18 May 2021

If you add a send effect it wrongly auto-route to from/to device main instead got to send / return in / out.... pretty annoying

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tallguy
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18 May 2021

jam-s wrote:
18 May 2021
No it should not, as automatic conversion might reduce information (for example when a higher resolution curve has to be down-sampled into 127 midi values). The way it is implemented is fine. People should just RTFM.
Yeah yeah, I assumed it had something to do with resolution. But frankly, I don't think it would be much of an issue in the vast majority of use-cases. They can always make automatic conversion an option in the preferences.

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tallguy
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19 May 2021

When doing "Save As..." it should take you to the folder the previous version of the project sits.

When I'm working on project A, and I open an older project B, try to save up a version of project B, it will default to the folder of project A. I'm constantly saving files in the wrong place with this system.

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zoidkirb
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19 May 2021

Getting back to OP's talk about Rack streamlining, I often wonder why we're stuck with 1:1 patching of CV or audio cables.
Cherry Audio Voltage has these neat little circle connectors that let you plug multiple jacks into the same connector. Even Reason Studios' own Complex-1 synth lets you stack as many cables as you want onto any one connector. I'd like to cut down on the number of Spiders and other splitting devices in the Rack.

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selig
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25 May 2021

Great thread, all of these sorts of things can really improve getting an idea documented quickly! There are already some great suggestions here IMO.

Here are my contributions, mostly things I do manually at present:
•Double click on clip should force the new edit window to be centered (same as going into edit mode and then clicking Z to "zoom to selection).
•Moving a device to a new location in ANY view (Sequencer/Rack/Mixer) should automatically move it in ALL other views (with an override option in Prefs).
•Dragging a device in the Rack to a new location should automatically route the device to the new location, adding Shift should override this behavior (not the other way around!).
•Entering Edit mode for a track should automatically display ALL clips in the track in edit mode, like selecting notes across multiple clips (not possible now) or transposing all notes in a track including multiple clips (not possible now), etc. (clicking on the clip icon at the top should still allow selecting ONLY elements in a signal clip as it does presently) [workaround: join clips first, but then you loose the clip boundaries]
•A way to automatically select ALL clips in a track (maybe triple click the track header, or triple click on any clip in the track?)
•A way to automatically select ALL tracks/clips across multiple tracks (edit groups) without selecting all the tracks - I really do hate doing this one manually!
•Everything you play should be recording in a buffer even when the transport is not running, but also as well as when it IS running (even when the track isn't in record) - record always!!!
•There should be a "do over" button that automatically stops recording, hits "undo", locates back to the last place you started playback from, starts playback from there (you can insert a "pause" before playback in the Prefs), and finally punches into record at the same time you originally you punched in. Seriously, why has no one done this yet? I preform this same series of commands over and over when trying to figure out a new part/idea…would love to get it down to one button!
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selig
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25 May 2021

zoidkirb wrote:
19 May 2021
Getting back to OP's talk about Rack streamlining, I often wonder why we're stuck with 1:1 patching of CV or audio cables.
Cherry Audio Voltage has these neat little circle connectors that let you plug multiple jacks into the same connector. Even Reason Studios' own Complex-1 synth lets you stack as many cables as you want onto any one connector. I'd like to cut down on the number of Spiders and other splitting devices in the Rack.
Totally agree - worded to fit the original thread title…
You should be able to automatically split and/or merge audio and CV cables when making connections, without required additional "hardware".

Who cares if it's not "plausible", it's convenient as hell IMO!
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zoidkirb
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25 May 2021

selig wrote:
25 May 2021
zoidkirb wrote:
19 May 2021
Getting back to OP's talk about Rack streamlining, I often wonder why we're stuck with 1:1 patching of CV or audio cables.
Cherry Audio Voltage has these neat little circle connectors that let you plug multiple jacks into the same connector. Even Reason Studios' own Complex-1 synth lets you stack as many cables as you want onto any one connector. I'd like to cut down on the number of Spiders and other splitting devices in the Rack.
Totally agree - worded to fit the original thread title…
You should be able to automatically split and/or merge audio and CV cables when making connections, without required additional "hardware".

Who cares if it's not "plausible", it's convenient as hell IMO!
Exactly man. I don't use Reason as an exact replica of real world hardware, because it's really not that. VCV and Cherry are way closer to a Eurorack/modular experience but I just don't have the time or patience for that at the moment. I like Reason because it takes a much more macro approach to a hardware concept.

But it seems backwards that the more realistic/down and dirty modular sims are the ones with superior yet 'unrealistic' quality of life improvements.

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selig
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25 May 2021

zoidkirb wrote:
25 May 2021
selig wrote:
25 May 2021


Totally agree - worded to fit the original thread title…
You should be able to automatically split and/or merge audio and CV cables when making connections, without required additional "hardware".

Who cares if it's not "plausible", it's convenient as hell IMO!
Exactly man. I don't use Reason as an exact replica of real world hardware, because it's really not that. VCV and Cherry are way closer to a Eurorack/modular experience but I just don't have the time or patience for that at the moment. I like Reason because it takes a much more macro approach to a hardware concept.

But it seems backwards that the more realistic/down and dirty modular sims are the ones with superior yet 'unrealistic' quality of life improvements.
I just realized you can do similar things in hardware (EuroRack specifically) such as using stackable cables, where one jack can feed multiple destinations. In fact I'm about to order some stackables myself as soon as they return to "in stock"… ;)
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guitfnky
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25 May 2021

selig wrote:
25 May 2021
•There should be a "do over" button that automatically stops recording, hits "undo", locates back to the last place you started playback from, starts playback from there (you can insert a "pause" before playback in the Prefs), and finally punches into record at the same time you originally you punched in. Seriously, why has no one done this yet? I preform this same series of commands over and over when trying to figure out a new part/idea…would love to get it down to one button!
they’d have to add auto punch first! 🤦🏻‍♂️😅
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aeox
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25 May 2021

Mint wrote:
10 May 2021
Only one request;
Imported audio file automatically plays at project tempo.
It usually does for me, if the imported audio has the tempo in the meta data.

Reason would need tempo detection for imported audio(if the audio file didn't have the meta data) but any sort of tempo detection isn't very reliable and it's much easier to just stretch the audio clip to match the tempo.

You don't even need to know the tempo of the imported audio, you just load it in stretch it until the transients match the grid

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fieldframe
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25 May 2021

selig wrote:
25 May 2021
•Dragging a device in the Rack to a new location should automatically route the device to the new location, adding Shift should override this behavior (not the other way around!).
This is a great observation. UX designers spend a lot of time thinking about user intent: What is a user trying to tell the UI they want to do? To me, dragging a device in the rack says one thing: the user wants to change the signal path. Auto-routing should indeed probably be the default.

(As an aside, UX designers also spend a lot of time thinking about discoverability, which Reason isn't always very good at, especially with modifier keys. A lot of modern software shows hints in the corner of the window when modifiers are available, e.g. "shift: disable auto-routing" during a drag operation, which would be a great fit for Reason.)

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Auryn
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26 May 2021

I feel that identifying things that should happen automatically is something that should happen automatically.
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pushedbutton
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26 May 2021

I've got one.
When you're using 'Slice edit' on vocals and then you move to a new clip to continue using slice edit you should be able to double click on the clip to get back to slice edit mode rather than being randomly thrown into comp edit or pitch edit mode.
Also, when you're in Slice Edit mode you should just be able to click out of the clip to close it.

Can you tell I use slice edit quite a lot?
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joeyluck
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26 May 2021

fieldframe wrote:
25 May 2021
selig wrote:
25 May 2021
•Dragging a device in the Rack to a new location should automatically route the device to the new location, adding Shift should override this behavior (not the other way around!).
This is a great observation. UX designers spend a lot of time thinking about user intent: What is a user trying to tell the UI they want to do? To me, dragging a device in the rack says one thing: the user wants to change the signal path. Auto-routing should indeed probably be the default.

(As an aside, UX designers also spend a lot of time thinking about discoverability, which Reason isn't always very good at, especially with modifier keys. A lot of modern software shows hints in the corner of the window when modifiers are available, e.g. "shift: disable auto-routing" during a drag operation, which would be a great fit for Reason.)
At this point it would have to be an option, or otherwise users who have been familiar with the way it works now (for up to 20 years) would be very confused.

So maybe a preference like this could be added?

Moving devices in the rack:
● maintains cabling (holding Shift reroutes cabling)
○ reroutes cabling (holding Shift maintains cabling)

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orthodox
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26 May 2021

fieldframe wrote:
25 May 2021
This is a great observation. UX designers spend a lot of time thinking about user intent: What is a user trying to tell the UI they want to do? To me, dragging a device in the rack says one thing: the user wants to change the signal path. Auto-routing should indeed probably be the default.
This would be dangerous. As it is now, weird things can happen with routing if you accidentally start moving a device with Shift down, when you actually meant just to turn a knob by a bit and missed it. You suggest that it happen without Shift.

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Timmy Crowne
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27 May 2021

Something that should NOT happen automatically is appending “copy” and “copy 2” to every duplicated device. Should be an option in the preferences.

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integerpoet
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27 May 2021

Auryn wrote:
26 May 2021
I feel that identifying things that should happen automatically is something that should happen automatically.
I feel that post is something that should have happened automatically.

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fieldframe
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27 May 2021

orthodox wrote:
26 May 2021
fieldframe wrote:
25 May 2021
This is a great observation. UX designers spend a lot of time thinking about user intent: What is a user trying to tell the UI they want to do? To me, dragging a device in the rack says one thing: the user wants to change the signal path. Auto-routing should indeed probably be the default.
This would be dangerous. As it is now, weird things can happen with routing if you accidentally start moving a device with Shift down, when you actually meant just to turn a knob by a bit and missed it. You suggest that it happen without Shift.
I would call this more an issue with the rack's drag-and-drop behavior than anything else. At the risk of going off topic, this is another area where Reason isn't the best at discerning user intent: Imagine an instance where a user clicks and starts dragging the space between two knobs on Europa. What would you say the chances are that the user meant to adjust one of the knobs, versus moving the Europa? 80, 90%? Dragging the device is very likely the wrong default.

There's a handful of UX patterns that could help clarify what the user intends to do in a case like this, but Reason doesn't currently use any of them.

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joeyluck
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27 May 2021

fieldframe wrote:
27 May 2021
orthodox wrote:
26 May 2021


This would be dangerous. As it is now, weird things can happen with routing if you accidentally start moving a device with Shift down, when you actually meant just to turn a knob by a bit and missed it. You suggest that it happen without Shift.
I would call this more an issue with the rack's drag-and-drop behavior than anything else. At the risk of going off topic, this is another area where Reason isn't the best at discerning user intent: Imagine an instance where a user clicks and starts dragging the space between two knobs on Europa. What would you say the chances are that the user meant to adjust one of the knobs, versus moving the Europa? 80, 90%? Dragging the device is very likely the wrong default.

There's a handful of UX patterns that could help clarify what the user intends to do in a case like this, but Reason doesn't currently use any of them.
Well regardless, as I mentioned the way shift-drag works to reroute has been this way for 20 years, since the very beginning. So it would have to be an option like I suggested and the current behavior would still be the default.

But maybe Reason could then include an onboarding questionnaire to ask about this preference and others? It could step through a few things for the user such as knob precision, always show tutorial window, open companion on startup, default song, monitoring, etc.

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