Presonus Studio One?

[mojobone]

Hm. I theenk in Tracktion you can throw your plugin windows to another screen, or you could put the settings or file management tabs there. I've never felt a particular need for another screen, as there's a dedicated function button to fit all tracks, if I need to see 'em. I tend to mix with my ears, anyhow. I believe the most tracks I've ever used in a 'home' mix was about 40, (for a hybrid symphonic metal project) and though it didn't feel pinched, I'd probably do submixed stems and collapse the tracks, if I had it to do over.

If I'm recording a track, there's a big meter running horizontally all across the bottom of my 27 in monitor, so I can see from across the room whether I'm in the red, lol. (of course I can also see small meters for all the other tracks and the master at all times, unless I turn them off, should I need more editing space) The scroll wheel changes the bar/beat resolution, when you have a track selected, and does other handy things, elsewise, like turning those pesky knobs, though not all plugins support that. The menus in Tracktion are contextual, depending on what's currently selected, whether it's a track, a clip a fader, or something else, so there's no floating this here or docking that there-it's already organized. Unless a plugin window covers it, I can always see everything. If I had a second screen, I'd use it for a video feed from a remote recording location.

Maybe this is just me and my ADD, but I find scrolling through menus and resizing windows to be a colossal waste of time and effort, though I'll admit it's still the only way to instantiate a plugin, though new tracks in T7 are 'born' with fader and pan, neither of which are virtual "knobs", btw. I gave Studio One a shakedown, and in some ways it's similar to Tracktion, but the big sticking point for me was the price; the Artist version, I wouldn't even keep on my computer for free, because 'no third-party plugins' and the Pro version costs more than Logic, which comes with an arsenal of usable instruments. I'm a big fan of Presonus' products, but I find their hardware to be a better value.

[cosmicdolphin]

Hm. I I've never felt a particular need for another screen, as there's a dedicated function button to fit all tracks, if I need to see 'em. I tend to mix with my ears, anyhow..

Probably me being old skool..I started out with separate recorders and mixers so I tend to view the "mixdown" stage as a separate process. In the old days this meant re-patching my outboard and getting out my track sheet notes, masking tape and china pencils ! I think I had about 40 channels available at mixdown, but some of the DAW projects I've mixed for other people have weighed in over 100 tracks. Thankfully Taxi stuff is simpler as I do almost all instrumentals in the box.

I also did a lot of FOH P.A back in the day so I'm kinda used to standing there with a desk full of faders, fingers at the ready and responding to what's going on on stage. I guess I'm just used to being able have a complete overview of everything in one place as far as mixing goes so the 2nd screen is ideal..I'll probably add a 3rd next time I upgrade

Maybe this is just me and my ADD, but I find scrolling through menus and resizing windows to be a colossal waste of time and effort, though I'll admit it's still the only way to instantiate a plugin.

Yes, exactly...hate resizing windows etc...two monitors just lets me have one for the mixer and one for the arrange page..I know all the shortcuts so no menus needed ...a third for the plugins would be perfect lol.

I guess it's horses for courses and it depends which direction you've arrived at DAWs from.

[mojobone]

I put in a good thirty years or so on analog consoles, too, mostly live cuz most of my studio work was for other people and usually not behind a console. I do still tend to track lots of live instruments, which slows things down considerably, but I got tired of keybass never sounding quite right in my home productions-of course nowadays the samples are so good, I could totally get away with it, but programming bends, slides and fret noise are still more trouble than picking up a bass and hitting drums with a stick is also way more fun than programming.

It's probably more or less the same with any DAW, you're fastest with what you're used to, and once you've learned a few keyboard shortcuts, you can really fly. I'm sure T7 has lots more customization available, but it's under the hood, where I never have to think about it. The coolest thing ever is never running out of tracks, a feature of most DAWs, up to the limit of what your machine can handle, but even that has a downside; you tend to want to fill them all up, lol.