TrackView

The TrackView Manager (TVM) is an OOM custom designed and built feature with one task. To put the user in complete control of his project, and show or hide any tracks in the project. With the TVM, the user can put Tympani next to Contrabasses, Oboes next to Choirs, and, well, the choices are unlimited. It's up to you. Custom Track views can be created or destroyed at will, and any type of track can be added to any track view. The user might want to keep all his 1stviolin midi tracks with the 1stviolin wave tracks, and busses, and auxes, and, well, any combination.

TrackViews are simple and easy to use, requiring only a click to turn them on and off, and mix and match to the user's requirements. The TVM lives in the resource centre dock on the left of the window, and the tab is marked Views. Simply click on the tab to open the TVM window. The TVM is made up of the following components:

The Views list is a non-configurable list of views for your project.

Working view, which we will come to shortly,

Inputs view, which shows all your input busses,

Outputs view, which shows all your output busses,

Buss view, which shows all your project busses, and

Aux view, which shows all your Aux busses.

You can mix or match any of these to appear in your track list, but you cannot edit or change these views.

Custom Track Views.

It's here where the user can build a simple or complex sets of views to suit his project, or as a part of a template. In the example picture above, there are TVs for sections of the orchestra, as well as TVs for each instrument(s).

These are your edit buttons. The arrows move a selected TV up or down in the list. The green crossed button opens the TV popup window. The trash button removes a selected TV from the custom TV list.

When you press the green button at the bottom of the TV window, a popup window opens. This window is where you create and edit views, populating them with the tracks in your project, as you want. To create a new view, press the new button and create a name for your view. Then click on a track in the left window, and press add track. continue adding or removing tracks as you want, and when you're ready to create that view, click apply. Your new view will now appear in the Custom TV list, but the popup window will stay open, should you wish to create more views. You can close the window at any time with the ok button, or if you changed your mind about creating a TV, click cancel. If you wish to edit an existing view, then choose it in the dropdown list at the top of the popup window, and add or remove tracks to your requirements. Press apply, and your TV is edited. The copy button enables you copy an existing view, and it will be given a number, so if "Extras" is your current view, then the copied view will appear as "Extras 1". The delete button destroys a view, and it will disappear from the Custom TV list. The arrows buttons below the righthand window enable you to change the order of tracks in your view.

Now we see the TV in action. In the example project above, there are no views selected, so all tracks appear in your project. This is the default behaviour.

Working View

The Working View is a special kind of view, and particularly useful for those users with a lot of tracks in their project. In the modest example project above, there are 52 midi tracks. Not all will fit in the window, and not all of the tracks will be used, as this is a quick template for getting an idea written quickly. The project is half completed, and the user wants to do some editing before continuing further. In the previous example picture, we can clearly see that not all tracks have parts in them. When the Working View item is checked, any track without parts disappears from view, and leaves only those tracks containing parts. Now the example working view picture shows only those tracks, and the user has all the tracks he's recorded so far in 1 window, making the task of editing, and tweaking considerably easier. All the tracks containing parts in this project are under the user's fingertips, reducing the scrolling involved considerably, and in the example, no scrolling at all. In our tests at the OpenOctaveProject, the TVM is the biggest time saver of all.

As an example of the other non-configurable views, here is the Inputs view, showing all the Input busses for this project.

And here is the Master Output, and additional output, as well as an Aux buss. As you can see, checking multiple views enables an unlimited number of options for the user.

In this example, orchestral section views have been created, and 2 of them appear next to each other. In this example the user wants to align tweak the Tympani and Contrabass phrases, in conjunction with the rest of the Strings.

And the same views with the woodwinds added. The TVs follow the order in the Custom TV list, so the Woodwinds appear between the Strings and the Percussion.

In this final example, the user has created instrument views further refining the combinations possible by checking multiple views. With 1st and 2nd violins, and Flutes and Oboes, the user can work closely on matching phrases, timing, etc, without neccessarily following a strict timeline, and still match doubled parts closely, without having to constantly scroll up and down to match parts.