Action to disable (and not toggle) multichannel metering?

[puddi]

I know there's the action Track: Toggle full multichannel metering but does anyone have one that only disables it? The toggle action is kind of useless for me given that on some tracks it might be enabled and vice versa, so I can't just select all tracks and disable it.

I have no use for multichannel metering and wish that a flexible DAW like Reaper would allow me to disable it by default for new tracks. Oh well, maybe one of you smart guys have a script for this?

Thanks!

[nofish]

I can't help but I agree.
Seems surprising that there's no action / option for turning it off, I also don't need it (most of the time) and get slightly annoyed having to turn it off per track when doing sidechaining.

edit:
Seems at least turning it off for all current tracks could be scripted. No API for multichannel metering (if I didn't miss) but I think it could be done via track chunk ('VU ...' line).

edit2:
Added actions to en-/disable multichannel metering for next SWS version.

[Pinknoise]

Has this action been added ? Can't find it.

[nofish]

Next SWS version (where this is added) is not out yet, unfortunately.

[Edgemeal]

Originally Posted by nofish

Seems at least turning it off for all current tracks could be scripted. No API for multichannel metering (if I didn't miss) but I think it could be done via track chunk ('VU ...' li).

edit2:
Added actions to en-/disable multichannel metering for next SWS version.

Great! Any word when new SWS will be released?

I came up with this a few weeks ago, gets pretty slow with say 100 tracks, a lot fx, midi, etc. But for my simple/small project usage it does the job for now.

-- Disable multichannel metering on selected tracks
-- Edgemeal -- Dec 15, 2018
-- If you have ~128 tracks with a lot of fx, midi data,
-- it may take up to one second to run! (i7-3770 @ 4ghz)

local tracks = reaper.CountSelectedTracks()
if tracks == 0 then return end

--init_time = reaper.time_precise() -- For benchmarking code.

reaper.PreventUIRefresh(1)

-- get selected tracks
trk={}
for i = 0, tracks-1 do
  trk[i+1] = reaper.GetSelectedTrack(0, i)
end

reaper.Main_OnCommand(40297, 0)  -- Track: Unselect all tracks

-- disable multichannel for selected tracks
for i = 1, #trk do 
  local ret, str = reaper.GetTrackStateChunk(trk[i],"",false) 
  for line in str:gmatch('[^\r\n]+') do
    if line == 'VU 2' then -- multichannel metering is on.
      reaper.SetTrackSelected(trk[i], true)
      reaper.Main_OnCommand(41726, 0) -- Track: Toggle full multichannel metering
      reaper.SetTrackSelected(trk[i], false)
      break 
    elseif line:find("TRACKHEIGHT ") then -- went past VU line, skip to next track.
      break 
    end
  end
end

-- restore selected tracks
for i = 1, #trk do  
  reaper.SetTrackSelected(trk[i], true)
end

reaper.PreventUIRefresh(-1)

-- >>> For benchmarking code,...
-- duration = reaper.time_precise() - init_time
-- reaper.ShowConsoleMsg(tostring(duration) .. "\n")
-- <<<

[Pinknoise]

Well that's a good start hopefully we will get an action that auto disable this by default. Edgemeal saving my ass again.

[Edgemeal]

Originally Posted by nofish

Next SWS version (where this is added) is not out yet, unfortunately.

I just tried the new 'SWS/NF: multichannel metering actions' in SWS v2.10.0 pre-release, wasn't expecting them to be so slow..

Select all tracks, enable multichannel metering, run action to disable,
SWS: 3.95 seconds.
Script: 0.386 seconds.

128 tracks - multi-chan.RPP
https://stash.reaper.fm/35344/128%20...multi-chan.RPP

testing on REAPER 5.965/ Win7 / x64

[nofish]

Wow, that's surprising indeed.
SWS actions also use chunk parsing as your script as there's no native API but I woudn't have expected to be this slow.
I'll look into it, thanks.

edit:
I see in your script you use

reaper.Main_OnCommand(41726, 0) -- Track: Toggle full multichannel metering

I do chunk patching instead, maybe this makes a difference.

edit2:
Actually no need for overlapping functionality anyway I think. For anything that's scriptable (as in this case) I think scripts (in ReaPack) are preferred anyway to not bloat SWS, so I'd think about removing these actions for next SWS version. I think the speed improvement in SWS (if any) would be minimal in this case, as it basically does the same thing as your script.
Would you consider putting it in ReaPack?

[Edgemeal]

Originally Posted by nofish

How did you measure the SWS actions processing time btw.?

Same way basically,

init_time = reaper.time_precise() -- For benchmarking code.

reaper.Main_OnCommand(reaper.NamedCommandLookup('_NF_DISABLE_MULTICHAN_MTR_SEL'), 0) -- SWS/NF: Disable multichannel metering (selected tracks)

duration = reaper.time_precise() - init_time
reaper.ShowConsoleMsg(tostring(duration) .. "\n")

[nofish]

Originally Posted by Edgemeal

Same way basically,

Sorry, I figured that shortly after posting, that's why I edited the question out meanwhile.
Thanks though.

[Edgemeal]

Originally Posted by nofish

I think the speed improvement in SWS (if any) would be minimal in this case, as it basically does the same thing as your script.
Would you consider putting it in ReaPack?

OK Done.

[nofish]

Thanks.

Out of curiousity, I tried to optimize the SWS version, if you want you can check:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5e7zf755b...sws64.dll?dl=1

It seems a bit faster here now than your script.
If you test, you think the speed improvement (if any) is worth keeping the SWS version?

[Edgemeal]

Originally Posted by nofish

Thanks.

Out of curiousity, I tried to optimize the SWS version, if you want you can check:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5e7zf755b...sws64.dll?dl=1

It seems a bit faster here now than your script.
If you test, you think the speed improvement (if any) is worth keeping the SWS version?

WOW, thats MUCH faster now!

SWS...: 0.053
Script: 0.386

How do I remove my script from reapack?

[nofish]

Thanks for pointing me to that flaw (it was in the chunk patching, wouldn't have expected that).
And sorry for the hassle, I should have checked if I can improve it before suggesting uploading your script to ReaPack.

That said, personally I'd think it's not bad having the functionality also available as script on ReaPack, as maybe not all Reaper users might use SWS.

If you want to remove it, ask a ReaTeam maintainer (cfillion, X-Raym, ...) to do, I guess.

[sammydix]

It's in the newest version, but it's still enabled for any new tracks (unless I'm doing something wrong). It just won't go away.

[nofish]

Yeah, the SWS actions only work on existing tracks.
I'd find a preference / option for this nice too.

[Joe90]

I'm a right to assume that there's still no way to switch off multichannel metering by default? Tried saving it into the default track template but no joy.

[sammydix]

It confuses me that this is the default because I'm guessing faaaaar more people on average use stereo over multichannel, so why that would be the top pick as default is beyond my understanding.

[Joe90]

I'm guessing the argument for this one originally was that the meters are still totally functional as stereo meters in multichannel mode, so why not do it this way? I can understand that reasoning, but it's somehow aesthetically unpleasing to see every meter only half being used, and like you say, most users aren't using more than 2 channels most of the time.

The default choices in a fresh Reaper install have always been a mystery to me... that's fine. What is quite surprising is that we still don't have an option to change the default.

[sammydix]

Originally Posted by Joe90

I'm guessing the argument for this one originally was that the meters are still totally functional as stereo meters in multichannel mode, so why not do it this way? I can understand that reasoning, but it's somehow aesthetically unpleasing to see every meter only half being used, and like you say, most users aren't using more than 2 channels most of the time.

The default choices in a fresh Reaper install have always been a mystery to me... that's fine. What is quite surprising is that we still don't have an option to change the default.

Yeah, that actually does make sense, but that "aesthetically unpleasing" is what gets me. And yes, a global choice would be outstanding. This IS Reaper.

[sammydix]

Since this post is two years old, anybody know if since then there's been a script or action that enables stereo meters by default--*including new tracks*? Two years later and I STILL hate having to toggle from something I never use.

[nofish]

Originally Posted by sammydix

Since this post is two years old, anybody know if since then there's been a script or action that enables stereo meters by default--*including new tracks*? Two years later and I STILL hate having to toggle from something I never use.

+1
It annoys me every time I do sidechaining that the meters 'intelligently' switch to multichannel metering and I'm going to turn it off again.
Still no default option for it afaik.

[sammydix]

I don't even have to side chain. Simply adding a stereo vst3 (which is like 90% of all vsts) automatically does the "intelligent" switching.