Foldable Rack Columns

[w1pl0c]

+1

[Ottostrom]

Okay yeah this is just a great improvement all around. I'm currently working on a rather large track and every time I open the rack view while the song is playing the graphical side of Reason comes to a screeching halt since there are so many devices which need some sort of animation. I can of course hide them away in closed combinators/mix channels but this would be an even easier way to achieve this!

[joeyluck]

Okay yeah this is just a great improvement all around. I'm currently working on a rather large track and every time I open the rack view while the song is playing the graphical side of Reason comes to a screeching halt since there are so many devices which need some sort of animation. I can of course hide them away in closed combinators/mix channels but this would be an even easier way to achieve this!

You can also use option+click or alt+click to fold or expand all per rack.

[Ottostrom]

Okay yeah this is just a great improvement all around. I'm currently working on a rather large track and every time I open the rack view while the song is playing the graphical side of Reason comes to a screeching halt since there are so many devices which need some sort of animation. I can of course hide them away in closed combinators/mix channels but this would be an even easier way to achieve this!

You can also use option+click or alt+click to fold or expand all per rack.

I didn't know about this! Thanks for the tip, this is gonna speed up my workflow

[challism]

You can also use option+click or alt+click to fold or expand all per rack.

I didn't know about this! Thanks for the tip, this is gonna speed up my workflow

From the title, I thought this thread was going to be about ALT/OPT+clicking. Nope. What a pleasant surprise and how dumb do I feel for never thinking about this (rather obvious) feature all these years? Great idea. I hope RS will add it to Reason.

[Ottostrom]

I didn't know about this! Thanks for the tip, this is gonna speed up my workflow

From the title, I thought this thread was going to be about ALT/OPT+clicking. Nope. What a pleasant surprise and how dumb do I feel for never thinking about this (rather obvious) feature all these years? Great idea. I hope RS will add it to Reason.

Yeah I've also never thought of it but it seems so obvious now!

[joeyluck]

You can also use option+click or alt+click to fold or expand all per rack.

I didn't know about this! Thanks for the tip, this is gonna speed up my workflow

One possible downside is it will unfold all of your audio/mix channels whether you need to or not. Some folks might not like that and might prefer keeping mix channels folded unless they have inserts. I actually wish there was an option when creating mix and audio channels to have them unfolded, so this doesn't bother me.

[joeyluck]

I wonder if there is a slick way to incorporate this idea by moofi, that also makes use of the Rack's section handle for the labeling and collapsing feature without needing to use extra vertical space for another layer of handles

[nemesjs]

I wonder if there is a slick way to incorporate this idea by moofi, that also makes use of the Rack's section handle for the labeling and collapsing feature without needing to use extra vertical space for another layer of handles

Building on this brilliant idea by moofi and the comment by joeyluck I noticed the dock left button on the rack wooden panel so maybe it could be done by adding a new dock up button and placing the docked racks labels horizontally on the rack section handle, this way:



This would not be as pretty as the original idea from moofi but it uses 0 extra space (horizontal and vertical)
(btw I used the labels done by moofi)

[pushedbutton]

Na, crap idea.

Kiddin', I love it. Hope it happens.

[Ottostrom]

I wonder if there is a slick way to incorporate this idea by moofi, that also makes use of the Rack's section handle for the labeling and collapsing feature without needing to use extra vertical space for another layer of handles

Building on this brilliant idea by moofi and the comment by joeyluck I noticed the dock left button on the rack wooden panel so maybe it could be done by adding a new dock up button and placing the docked racks labels horizontally on the rack section handle, this way:

This would not be as pretty as the original idea from moofi but it uses 0 extra space (horizontal and vertical)
(btw I used the labels done by moofi)

Yup that's a great place to put it
I think this function would be a bit confusing for newcomers but I guess they wouldn't need to use it in the first place.

[nemesjs]

Building on this brilliant idea by moofi and the comment by joeyluck I noticed the dock left button on the rack wooden panel so maybe it could be done by adding a new dock up button and placing the docked racks labels horizontally on the rack section handle, this way:

This would not be as pretty as the original idea from moofi but it uses 0 extra space (horizontal and vertical)
(btw I used the labels done by moofi)

Yup that's a great place to put it
I think this function would be a bit confusing for newcomers but I guess they wouldn't need to use it in the first place.

Exactly. @Moofi had an excellent idea with this and as you said if this would ever be implemented (and unfortunately that's a VERY BIG IF...) new users wouldn't even feel the need to use it initially but I think all users would benefit a lot from this rack docking feature. It would also bring the CPU and graphic load way down and that's a major advantage in big projects!

[zoidkirb]

This is the most elegant yet impactful suggestion I've ever seen for the rack.
If I was working at RS I'd be kicking myself for not thinking of this.

[moofi]

Yes, the addition was merely an idea for easily being able to mute columns in the rack in combination with sonicbyte´s idea of integrating a VU-Meter.
Not necessary though, also because so far it´s got a design flaw in case there are multiple channels in that column you would like to be able to display/mute.
There could certainly be ways to implement it, then, In the end I would prefer to keep it simple for its maintask being able to simply fold rack columns.

It is a very good idea. I am not 100% convinced on adding/duplicating functionality Mute etc on each Rack Column as that seems to me to be a Bus thing but so long as it is elegant (therefore not intrusive or cluttered) I am all for it.

Same with a Mixer Bus-based Folderational function.

[selig]

Yes, I thought of something like that aswell, then what if there are multiple mixchannels or none in that column?
A little patchname-like window with a dropdown menue for what mix channel or even device should be displayed could help here. .
Then of course I would aswell integrate a VU Meter

Please, no more VU meters as the primary/only meter type - IMO it totally sucks the channel meters are fixed to VU mode. This one thing, combined with the red LEDs in the channel meters, have cause more basic audio level confusion in Reason than any other “feature”…
Besides that, where would the meter be tapped from? What if an audio path isn’t restricted to one rack? Similar questions about solo/mute in rack headers…

[moofi]

See above

Yes, I thought of something like that aswell, then what if there are multiple mixchannels or none in that column?
A little patchname-like window with a dropdown menue for what mix channel or even device should be displayed could help here. .
Then of course I would aswell integrate a VU Meter

Please, no more VU meters as the primary/only meter type - IMO it totally sucks the channel meters are fixed to VU mode. This one thing, combined with the red LEDs in the channel meters, have cause more basic audio level confusion in Reason than any other “feature”…
Besides that, where would the meter be tapped from? What if an audio path isn’t restricted to one rack? Similar questions about solo/mute in rack headers…

[moofi]

Yes, this would be pretty good to save UI space in the sense of being able to show the column label permanently on top of the column without taking away from the vertical UI space what it would do if it should be displayed at all times with the original design. I wouldn´t have minded if it was just a little vertical addition to the rack yet decreasing the overall UI because of it seems less elegant.

Then I would still keep the idea of centering the columns name right above the column for clear assignment/overview purposes, not list them all at once in the rack bar even if it would allow for quick navigation between columns. I also prefer having the folded colums inside the rack for clear sight and order of things. The gathered listing in one spot actually confused me when seeing it at first and the direct connection to the rack would be missing. You wouldn´t know either where a folded column is positioned within the rack because there could be many expanded ones in between.

Also I don´t mind if it uses more horizontal rack space as we already would have saved a lot of that alone by integrating the functionality of folding columns.
In addition you would also be able to see the cables on the back connected to each folded column like it does when you fold a device vertically.

Because extra folding buttons on the rack bar could interfere with the existing rack section fold button, folding could be achieved by simply double-clicking the name in the rack bar.

P.S.: Btw, it´s kind you mentioned using the labels I created, not necessary though

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Foldable Rack Columns integrated labels.jpg (517.38 KiB) Viewed 2178 times

I wonder if there is a slick way to incorporate this idea by moofi, that also makes use of the Rack's section handle for the labeling and collapsing feature without needing to use extra vertical space for another layer of handles

Building on this brilliant idea by moofi and the comment by joeyluck I noticed the dock left button on the rack wooden panel so maybe it could be done by adding a new dock up button and placing the docked racks labels horizontally on the rack section handle, this way:



This would not be as pretty as the original idea from moofi but it uses 0 extra space (horizontal and vertical)
(btw I used the labels done by moofi)