Is anyone using MetaGrid with Melodyne? thx
Yup! It’s been extremely helpful.
cool - thx for responding. May I ask if you have any tips? I’m setting up the grid with the tools at the bottom, though in a different order based on which I use the most. Then Zoom etc. at the 2nd level. Is that similar to what you’re doing? Did you change your design after using it for a while? Do you have multiple workspaces/scenes/grids?
I appreciate any advice you can offer. It seems like Melodyne would be a good candidate for a Preset.
-Matt
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Sorry for the delay responding. Work is a little bonkers right now.
The beauty of MGP is that you can set it up however you want. What I’ve learned over time is that when your brain is telling you that it likes seeing certain things in a certain order, arrange them that way. Cater to your personal perception of shapes and objects and hierarchies. That’ll get you to the most effective setup in your grids. I change mine constantly. There are some aspects that remain the same across all grids, but the rest is always evolving. I also have a place in every grid for what I call a “hotspot.” It’s usually a couple of buttons that I change out based on a project or task so that if I’m doing a particular thing many times, I put the related button or fader or switch in the lower outside corner of the grid opposite my trackball so I can two-hand that task and blow through it many times really fast. Otherwise, I always keep the most common things I use in positions where they’re easiest to reach with my non-trackball hand.
I don’t use scenes much, but rather “sub grids” where I cluster together buttons and other elements that are related to a particular set of tasks. Some are triggered by dynamic tracking, some are “hard” grids that I activate using buttons so they stay on top while I’m doing different things.
With Melodyne, I have three grids: Main, Edit & Modify. The main one is a collection of all the things I use most. The Edit grid gets granular about accessing all of the editing functions in the app and the Modify one is granular about specifically manipulating audio pitch, time and amplitude.
When I’m building a workspace, I start by making a basic button for every action in every menu of the app, including sub-menus. Then I apply macros to all of those buttons. In Melodyne’s case, and with most apps, you have to dig through the shortcuts available in-app, too. They’re usually far more extensive than the main menus. Then I come up with a general layout and start grouping items that make sense together. After that, I apply a basic design scheme to everything, using different text, color, background, etc. parameters. Once that’s done, then I get into the custom stuff like extended zooming capabilities, automating multi-step dialogs, automated text entry, and extended navigation. That’s where you can really customize and streamline your workflow just for you and eliminate tedious stuff. That usually requires getting into Keyboard Maestro, which I HIGHLY recommend using in concert with MGP. Between the two there’s NOTHING you can’t automate in any kind of app. If you can do it with a keyboard and mouse, you can automate it.
After that, it’s a matter of trial and error. You’ll figure out what you use and don’t use real quick. Offload and save the things you don’t use very much (you might to at some point!) and tweak the rest. And keep a running tab of things you wish you could do with MGP and Melodyne, because you can. Some of them just might take going down a rabbit hole for a bit to figure out.
It’s like I tell people all the time, for every minute you put into MGP you’ll get an hour back. It makes that much of a difference, but it takes some practice and time using it to get there. I’m at the point where if I run into anything that seems like a roadblock or I want it automated, I do it on the spot. I can make a fully designed and functional button in less than a minute and something that’s assigned to a highly complex task or macro in less than ten. When you get there, you’re making yourself more efficient in real-time.
Don’t be put off by the initial head-scratching and learning the architecture of MGP. Once it clicks, you’ll be motoring through grids and wondering why you didn’t start using it way sooner.
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OMG - I literally just saw this. Thank you so much for spending so much time! I really appreciate it!
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You’re welcome! I hope it helps!