Hi all
Yes, it's true - I did derail the thread, but (at least partly) with the best of intentions.... to draw to the OP's attention that there are workflow problems with Automation in Reaper far beyond the one he or she asked about, which may well bite the OP at some point to come.
FWIW I also believe in having "options" for Ripple behaviour with automation. The current behaviour is a nightmare for Radio style editing, frankly, but if it works for some people (perhaps doing bar and beat-based music work?) then fair enough.
What I would actually suggest as a Holy Grail would be something like this:
Another property is added to the definition of an Envelope point (along with its value, shape etc) and that is its "ownership". There could be a Preference which allows the default ownership of a new point to be "Free" (ie as it is currently, related to the track but not items). But there could also be an option to allow points to be assigned ownership intelligently - ie if it is on a track with no item/take above it, then it is Free; if placed on a track underneath an item/take then it is owned by that item/take and always stays in sync with it when the item/take is moved. (There would have to be a logic to decide which of two or more overlapping items to assign it to if they occur on the track).
Additionally, you could Edit the property of any point at any moment, just like you could with its shape etc. So you could right click on it, and "Make point Free", "Give ownership of point to concurrent Item on track", "Give ownership of point to Selected Item" for example. Then if you've created Free points on a Buss track, and later want to tie them to an item you place on the track you could do that.
I think such a system would potentially allow ALL the desired workflows.
To re-iterate - currently Take Envelopes are absolutely NOT the solution to my problem, for several reasons.
- they do not apply to track FX, eg setting the EQ for a collection of items.
- they are individual to each item/take, whereas I might want to use envelopes to set the volume/pan (and automate the parameters) for a section of audio containing 100 items (speech which has been heavily edited for example). To do this with Take Envelopes, I'd need to create one (individually) for each audio item, and set each one. Creating curves which extend across item boundaries is extremely fiddly.
Adding FX to Takes instead of tracks is also not the solution, for similar reasons. Not only do I not want to instantiate 100 copies of every plugin I need on that track for that section, but if I then have to change parameters for all 100 items....? Or introduce more audio to the track and then have to copy the FX from existing items to those new ones without missing anything...? Not workable.
A potential other option which would help in all this though would involve
1) extending the definition of Take FX to allow control of any track FX parameters as well, and
2) creating a proper "non-destructive glue" feature, whereby a load of items could be stuck together in such a way that they appear and act as a single item - have a single shared volume and pan value etc and also a shared take envelope which spans the "glued" items. Unlike actual glued items, though, this could be instantly unglued for later re-editing if need be (which would of course destroy the shared properties, but you can't have everything).
Any or all of these ideas would make Reaper hugely more efficient for people doing my kind of work.
Andy
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