So my question here is this: Which of the DAWs out there for PC can you physically view the most number of tracks on your screen at once? I have a smallish monitor [19"] and have been frustrated by the current DAW trend of making everything look "pretty" instead of efficient. I used Cakewalk 9 for many years, until I decided I couldn't live without DXi support and finally upgraded to Sonar. Sonar seems fairly decent, but I hate how I can't fit as many tracks on my screen at once [they made each track BIGGER so it could look PRETTIER, BAH!], and mixing is a much bigger pain in the ass than before. I like cakewalk 9 because I could mix using the keyboard exclusively, instead of the counter-intuitive mouse. But I'm getting sidetracked here.

Basically I loved the simplicity and lack of bloat that cakewalk 9 had to offer, and I wonder if there are any current PC DAWs with that kind of workflow? Being able to view many tracks in my song project at once is my main objective.

I use sonar too...and you can make the tracks BIGGER as well as SMALLER....you the the arrows or plus/minus(can't remember which) in the lower right hand corner?

Well with Saw Studios you could use dual monitors and see all tracks anf faders at the same time ( dependant on screen resolution ) 72 I believe

LAter
Buzz

On my laptop 15" i can see 52 tracks in Samplitude's arrange window. There is a skin by a clever chap that lets you mouse the vol/pan faders and mutes etc at these mad zoom levels.

You can also just drag the track size up or down. Or you can adjust all the tracks at once from the zoom controls in the lower right hand corner of the track view (the control you want is in between the magnifying glasses).

Probably Sonar's biggest failing at this point is lack of a good, organized online documentation. Like a lot of companies that do frequent feature updates, they're not always completely on top of integrating new info into the online help system -- or making it easy to find.

I've been on a kick to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and I often find myself thinking, gee, what Sonar needs is blah blah blah... only to find that it had it and I just didn't know it was there.


____________

Anyhow, whichever DAW ware you end up with, you might consider picking up a second monitor (and either a dual mon video card or just a second video card if you've got the extra slots). Even a smallish second monitor can give you a lot more flexibility.

I just saw a 15" LCD at Compusa for only $100 (after like $150 in rebates, mind you). Two CRT's can crank up some ambient heat, so an LCD or two will keep things cooler.

I've got a second monitor and dual monitor video card. I just haven't gone about experimenting much with that yet.. for some reason it always felt like more a pain in the ass than it was worth when I tried it. but I keep hearing people say it's really really handy so I might have to do it!

as far as shrinking the tracks, I shrink them down all the way, and they're still substantially larger than they were in cakewalk 9. but I found today searching on the cakewalk site the new feature in Sonar 4 called "Track Folders" which might actually help me out quite a lot. it seems like a really handy way to group and hide tracks so I can concentrate on viewing only the tracks I'm currently fiddling with in the DAW.

Cubase has two widths for the channels but i prefer the wider one usually.

Two monitors is definately the way to go.

On the track folders feature... absolutely! Very handy. Better than hiding them, I think, since it's easy to forget what's hidden. When a folder is 'collapsed' it just takes up the space of one track, essentially. Plus, you can apply some global changes to the tracks in it. (They also added a way to change a given property for a whole set of tracks sometime since 2.2... select them and then go to the Track/Properties menu and change a given property for the whole lot of them.)

I would go insane without my dual 17"'s...

War

Samplitude offers a completely scalable mixer...allowing you to shrink the eniter mixer (stretching the sides and corners) as well as hiding various elements in the mixer...no more scrolling...


Tom

Does everything in the window shrink? I think a mixer/console view where you could shrink everything more or less in proportion would be great. If it's like that, do all the controls work okay when you shrink them?

Yup... The mixer actually scales... The skin engine also means that you can design your own mixer interface if you'd like to do whatever you need.

Tom's to modest to say it, but Synthax also just released the prelimiary info for a new skin for Samp and Sequoia where you have 2 rows of faders and meters.. Means you'll be able to see a hell of a lot of channels on your screen.

-Ben

Hi,

I just wanted to add that due to recent optimisations you can see at least 48 Tracks in the Arranger Window in Samp/Seq WITH level meters and readable names, just using the standard ordinary skins that come with the programme.
Using a standard 17' TFT with standard physical resolution.

This refers to Samp/Sequoia 8.2. See:

http://www.samplitude.com/de/seq8_info_center.htm

Cheers,

Sebastian

On my work computer i can see 71 tracks!!!

One nice thing about the folder implementation in Samplitude is the overview within the folder.

Nuendo has 4 "mixers" which can be configured to show different tracks; you can fit 2 on the screen at once and show about 50 tracks.

this nice feature is also in Cubase and Nuendo. Its handy indeed...