PDA

View Full Version : MT Entry Textures - suggestion



AlanH
07-10-2004, 02:31 PM
Although the various colours available through the "MT Entry textures" facility are very useful for identifying particular tracks or groups of tracks in a busy mix, I sometimes find the textures and comparatively deep colours can reduce visibility of the waveforms.

Is there any chance of providing an additional set of "textures" which are in fact plain, preferably light with low colour saturation? I appreciate some thought would be needed to avoid clashes with the inverted and shaded waveform colours in Select and Automation modes.

Maybe both the MT entry and waveform colours could be made user-defined?

Thinking about it, having (say) a red waveform in Automation mode would be useful: Time after time I've tweaked a setting, intending it to be global, only to realise I'm in Automation mode and the tweaks have gone in as automation events!

Cheers,
Alan

Bob L
07-10-2004, 02:58 PM
The textures are all part of the shades... it gets a little involved to design in that they have to be defined for the different modes and look different enough in each mode to be usable... it is not something I choose to make user adjustable... too much time to work out the interface in my opinion.

The texture colors designed in have been chosen from hundreds of different attempts... they seem to be a good overall workable set... if things appear that dark on your monitor, perhaps you are running the monitor brightness a little too low... or your contrast a little too high.

Bob L

TotalSonic
07-10-2004, 03:44 PM
Alan -
This is actually one of the easiest things to change in a SAW shade. Yura's "Green Castle" shade for example contains completely different shade colors than the standard SAW shades.

You can extract the texture bmp's using Bome's Restorator - change the color in any image editor like Photoshop or GIMP- and then use Restorator to resave the shd file.
http://www.bome.com/restorator

Best regards,
Steve Berson

MMP
07-10-2004, 03:54 PM
I use the colors to identify tracks that will be used in different "stems" for final mix to picture.


One thing that would be nice is if the track color could show up near the track select buttons so that when doing final mixes of the different stems, the channels you need to group could be quickly identified by color near the buttons instead of having to find the color of the first region on a track...some which may be an hour down the timeline.

Just a thought...

MM

Yura
07-10-2004, 06:08 PM
I
One thing that would be nice is if the track color could show up near the track select buttons...
Just a thought...

MM

Not bad thought, BTW

Bob L
07-10-2004, 09:35 PM
Michael,

A simple roll of the wheel mouse and you should be able to zoom out and see hours down the timeline while you re-arrange your tracks. :)

SAWStudio, zoomed all the way out can see about 12 hours of the timeline.

Bob L

MMP
07-11-2004, 04:19 AM
Unfortunately this really doesn't work that well as some tracks have a one or two second sound effect that is impossible to tell the color of at that zoom level.

It just means that I use better text labels and the textures are of limited value to me the way I work.

I would use them more if the categorizing color was obvious in the track label area. But, certainly I have found other ways to accomplish my tasks.
Not a big deal.

MM

AlanH
07-11-2004, 12:02 PM
Thanks to Steve Berson for the reference to Restorator. Took all of 30 minutes to download the trial and produce a set of non-textured "textures". I'm all for simplicity - the Classic shade with flat textures may not look super-trendy, but it's easy to see - even at 2:30 in the morning! Cheers!

Bob L
07-11-2004, 12:20 PM
Make sure to do all three versions of each texture you change... the Normal, Automation and the Select Mode version or you will have inconsistencies as you change screen modes which could cause confusion.

Bob L

Yura
07-11-2004, 01:56 PM
Alan,
you may also not to worry about sizes of new implemented bmp textures.
this is in a case if you wanna make deal with new large textures elements. SAWs shade eats all of sizes (if I'm not very wrong). but don't touch color settings :)

AlanH
07-12-2004, 01:17 PM
Bob - I actually used PaintShop Pro to blur to each texture BMP into a flat "average" version of the original colour, so the net effect between normal/selected/automation is basically as it was, but I appreciate your point and will bear that in mind if I go for a complete new lighter set. Question - is it possible to extend the choices and add even more texture images, or is the list limited to 20 in the host code?

Yura - Thanks - can't see myself adding larger textures for the moment, but the opposite may be useful with flat "non-textures": reducing the BMP image would reduce the size of the .shd file.

Bob L
07-12-2004, 03:15 PM
The texture list is limited to the menu choices... and of course, if you change the colors or texture images themselves, they may no longer have anything to do with the listed names.

But... have fun. :)

Bob L