Nodes behavior and Fader+Knob increment driving me crazy

[Bryon]

I currently spend probably 60 hours a week using Cakewalk, been using it since the mid 1990s (Sonar for several years in the 00s), and roughly 10% of my overall time has been spent cussing, getting pretty steamed and fighting the urge to do something rash over how nodes and fader/knob increments behave. I have some questions.

 

- Why does dragging a spliced clip in a track start creating random new nodes all over the associated automation tracks (yes, plural) that are either dashed lines which randomly toss in 90 degree bends that can not be selected or converted to linear, fast, slow, etc OR are even crazier than that, node formations that are literally not documented anywhere and so have absolutely zero potential use (ie nothing explaining their existence)?

-Why is there then no method of or work around to then cleaning up the randomly created mess of new nodes injected into the automation lanes OTHER THAN going in and right-click deleting every random node (except, of course, those that won't allow themselves to be deleted)?

- Why can I not select a clip in a series of clips on an individual track and slide if forward or backward on the track without the automation nodes (of any/all automation lanes) syncing up with that clip and being dragged with it (which also starts creating random new nodes all over the place)?

- Why does clicking and dragging a node, or fader or any random knob, up or down, side to side, etc, in order to change its envelop (volume, gain, etc) ALWAYS not give me a solid number like -1.0 instead it gives me -0.9 or 1.1, -5.6 or -5.4 instead of -5.5? I REALLY like moving in increments of 0.5. Is there no way to lend the 0.5 increments some gravity? Maybe, like, if the mouse button is held for more than 250ms the action could then go into fine detail mode?

-Why is it Shift+Left-Click+Drag to get fine movements instead of Cntl+Left-Click+Drag like literally every plugin I have ever used, dating back to almost 30 %@*!ing years?

-Why do things that I DO NOT INTERACT WITH become selected?

 

On that last note, I have exported north of 2,000 projects. For at least 25% of them some random something has been automagically selected somewhere in the project and I got an empty .wav file after exporting, oh, and every time it said it was THE EXACT SIZE of what it would have been had it not been empty. This phenomena has had me checking outboard gear and my monitors, cables, power lines, basically pulling hair out and wasting A LOT OF TIME for DECADES. But, yeah, "Dude, always select>none", right? Right? That's the gotcha, right? What if your car randomly wouldn't start because a backseat seatbelt wasn't clicked-in, even though you had no passengers and some dip then said "Dude, always check your seatbelts"? Sure, in every emergency situation ever I've had time to go around to every seat and check that a 5 year old didn't leave its belt un-clicked. Yeah. No.

 

I can not underestimate the amount of desk pounding and calling Cakewalk devs a whole lengthy stream of angry words that I have done over these things. Every time I have decided that it was obviously a big OBVIOUS issue that would eventually be resolved. I wrote it off because coming here and saying anything would just be a nightmare of gotcha people trying to say "Yeah, but" nonsense in attempts to look helpful or knowledgeable but being nothing but annoying. I'm done with that now, that's over. I am here. These are massive problems that have many times led me to a point of nearly wrecking an entire project, ie getting so ticked off I can no longer work that day, let alone keep whatever mood or vibe I may have had that COULD HAVE created something fun, something exciting, artistic, that betters my life and others' lives. I am sick of dealing with these simple little things that should have been fixed DECADES AGO, until project crippling / inspiration destroying frustration sets in.

 

I would like to select WHAT I CLICK ON and absolutely nothing else gets involved, no nodes created, nothing synced up, nothing moves along with it, if I want that kind of behavior it should be a CHOICE. I shouldn't have to spend ten times as much time un-doing nonsense that I didn't want than anything that I did want. Don't tell me about alternatives, I don't want work arounds. I want these things fixed and that is all. No suggestions, no accolades, no sympathy votes, no BS. Just fix the patheticness.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

 

 

8 hours ago, Bryon said:

- Why can I not select a clip in a series of clips on an individual track and slide if forward or backward on the track without the automation nodes (of any/all automation lanes) syncing up with that clip and being dragged with it (which also starts creating random new nodes all over the place)?

 You can , it's under the options menu in the track view 

 

[Byron Dickens]

Maybe RTFM?  This all sounds like user error. I can't recall ever having any issues like you allude to.

8 hours ago, Bryon said:

... I wrote it off because coming here and saying anything would just be a nightmare of gotcha people trying to say "Yeah, but" nonsense in attempts to look helpful or knowledgeable but being nothing but annoying....

Sounds like you really don't want help. You just want to bitch and moan and stay pissed off.

[sjoens]

links are broken ATM.

Edited July 20, 2023 by sjoens

[Byron Dickens]

12 hours ago, Bryon said:

What if your car randomly wouldn't start because a backseat seatbelt wasn't clicked-in, even though you had no passengers and some dip then said "Dude, always check your seatbelts"? Sure, in every emergency situation ever I've had time to go around to every seat and check that a 5 year old didn't leave its belt un-clicked. Yeah. No.

I think if that was the case it would be a whole lot easier to just get in the habit of checking the seat belts than to keep getting pissed off....

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

While I have personally complained about the Export window quirk of selections having priority over presets, the other issues are a bit weird considering your claimed track score. You've been using Cakewalk since the 90s and you've never felt like reporting those sooner, especially considering you were a Cakewalk user when some of those were brand new features?

On 7/20/2023 at 6:14 PM, Byron Dickens said:

I think if that was the case it would be a whole lot easier to just get in the habit of checking the seat belts than to keep getting pissed off....

Considering you cannot get out of a properly adjusted belt unless you unbuckle it, the comparison is a bit of a non-issue and you'd only have that triggered if you are one of those people that buckles all seat belts even when no one is using them. In that case, you'd figure that issue sooner, rather than bottle all of that in for years only to rant about it 20 years after you've been running the car.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Bruno de Souza Lino

[Starship Krupa]

I feel the OP's pain about things getting selected that I didn't want selected, and the ramifications of that when exporting. I, too, still check all the seatbelts and then cross my fingers when I do an export, and still, from time to time, I get silence.

One thing has made my time with Cakewalk less of a headache in that regard, which is to bind my "~" key to Edit/Select None. I know that the default binding is Num 5, but that doesn't work too well on my laptop.

As for the sometimes oddball key modifiers, that too. Although I understand that Cakewalk dates back to a time before those key modifiers became industry standard, and the company prioritized the comfort of their existing user base.

As for the rest, got no answers except that since I (and others) don't seem to have the rage quit level issues with automation nodes, there must be some way to avoid them.