Tracks routing, groups, busses and VCAs

[bluebones]

I’d like to properly bring this topic into the forum, already have a request on tracker (https://tracker.ardour.org/view.php?id=7887).

I have been using a little more VCAs and they are very handy for mute/solo/group level actions, but I am missing the possibility of applying effects and processes to those groups of tracks/busses. That is already possible when everything is routed to the proper bus, so really it raises for me the same desire: a simple way of assigning an output to a selection of tracks, and I hate bringing other names to the table but I keep thinking “like one can do in Pro Tools”.

I also have been making more use of the audio connections window (Alt-P) and it have served me well in some cases, but I feel it would be easier if 1. select tracks 2. on one output button of any of those assign the new out and have it applied to the whole selection.

Groups are a blessing when it comes to edit multiple tracks at the same time, but for me they feel cumbersome for mixing, even more I would like the group gain options to be permanently disabled as they tend to mess up my workflow rather than enhance it (but that is a very personal feeling haha).

I think I just like my mixing process to follow kind of a tree, where all the branches are progressively getting joined in bigger branches finally meeting in the great master trunk . And on each one of the joinings I maybe let a compressor fall so everything goes more even to the next level and so on…

Looking forward to the forum thoughts on this, cheers!

[bluebones]

Now that I am at it I’m thinking about a “folder view” for tracks layout, has something like that been already discussed?

Maybe not necessarily an arrangement with “indent” (don’t know if that’s the correct word in english), just a little arrow in some corner to unfold tracks inside a bus could maybe clean the session view…

[seablade]

Yes Folder Tracks have been explored, sadly they were never fully completed. Carl worked on it a while back, before VCAs were implemented in fact. It is both a powerful and flexible concept, but insanely tricky to get the details correct on IIRC.

In your bug report it clarifies a bit and I think you (The OP) understand this, but I just do want to state here for others that really if you are using VCAs, VCAs and subgroups are two different tools. VCAs are about mixing really, Subgroups are about processing. Route multiple things to a subgroup to process them together, which I think is what you are hoping for is a bit easier time to do this to multiple tracks at once based off selection and not just edit/mix group, something i could probably get behind as well.

 Seablade