Very slow timeline zoom despite i7 960 x58

[DJS]

I am using PMX Native 7.1.5, under W7 32. When I press Alt 1 or Alt 3 or 4 to zoom the timeline, it sometimes takes as much as 5s to respond to the first request. After that it is somewhat better, but the first time you think the command hasn't registered, and it continues to "stick" occasionally. Alt 1 takes a long time to zoom to fit to screen. This is despite the fact that the PC is i7 960, X58 chipset (GB UD5 mobo).

Anyone else having this sort of issue?

[DJS]

Nudge. Nudge.

[Ulrino]

i have this issue with some projects, not all. didn´t find the reason yet. it seems it occurs more often with projects consisting of wave-files, not pmf-files.

do you experience that with every project?

[DJS]

Interesting. I have it with all projects and all of them are using BWAV files. As BWAV is a standard and PMF is not, this is disappointing if it is the reason.

[DJS]

So the lack of response to this problem must mean everyone uses PMF format? Is this the standard format for PMX projects that everyone uses? So your recorders write BWF and you convert to PMF for editing and mastering?

[Larry Elliott]

David,
I record on separate machine too in BWF and don't have the problems you are experiencing.

[jeremyvanslyke]

You might check with Merging to make sure you're running a recommended video card. We were getting terrible glitches from masscore overloads in our audio and it all turned out to be the video card the system was running. When we switched out the video card to one recommended by Merging, all our problems went away. I realize this isn't the exact same problem you've been having, but given that most of the glitches happened during zoom in and zoom out, you might find this relevant.

[DJS]

Thanks Jeremy, good point. Will ask Merging, unless the video cards are posted somewhere? I am using an ATI Radeon HD 5570 at present.

[Daniel Keinath]

Hi!
I used to have similar problems. As projects are getting bigger and bigger during editing (i.e. there are more clips on the timeline) zooming becomes very slow. It is less of a problem when using pmf format though, but at some point this may become a problem on any project, I suppose. Apparently every time you zoom in or out pyramix needs to gather lots of waveforms from many files on the hard drive at the same time. This seems to be some kind of a bottleneck.
For this reason I've been using an SSD drive (which has a much faster access time than any mechanical drive) on the last couple of projects and this really made a signifficant difference! It feels like zooming is ten times faster now and the fade editor is working really smooth. It doesn't even matter if there are ten clips on the timeline or ten thousand. It's a shame that these drives are so expensive and small. But honestly, editing is so much more fun now...

Best
DK

[J.Wajer]

Zooming tends to become slow, yes, but you can do something about it. You need to switch of all fancy graphic stuff that cripples zooming.

• Turn of gradient look.
• Turn of Show Media (All the hidden trails sum up in the background)
• Turn of automation lines/lanes.
• Turn of Envelopes.
• If that doesn't help, turn of waveforms, but that's pretty drastic. You could make it a shortcut I suppose.

That ought to speed up zooming a bit.

[Ricardo Ryan]

Hi,

If that doesn't help, turn of waveforms, but that's pretty drastic. You could make it a shortcut I suppose.

Watch out mostly for the the WaveForms display Auto-Scale modes. In such Modes we must recompute the Waveforms scale based on the Peaks at each zoom ratios.

Another side effect of the Auto-Scale mode recompute is a long pause at the end of opening a project.
Compare the Waveforms Display x1 vs. Waveforms Display Auto-Scale to see if this is your problem.

Regards,
Ricardo

[DJS]

Could we have a summary of where these settings are and how to make their setting default for all projects?

I have found:
Gradient Fill: All Settings, Timeline Layout, can save as default

Show Media and Waveform scaling appears to be not global in All settings. How does one make these a default for new projects?

Can't find where to turn Automation and Envelopes off.

[fl]

Show Media and Waveform scaling appears to be not global in All settings. How does one make these a default for new projects?

I don't believe you can. However, these conditions are saved with each project, so ensure that you leave things in the optimum state when you save and close a session. Also, consider designing and using Templates for typical sessions from your work. The "Show Media" and waveform zoom setting will be saved in the Template, and subsequently to every session you create with them. You might also find that Workspaces are useful in this regard - something else which gets saved with the session.

Can't find where to turn Automation and Envelopes off.

Again, not a global setting, but something that can be saved with each session and/or Template and, from there, Workspace. The controls for the visibility of these things are in the track header(s) - an icon with a "W" indicates that waveforms are displayed. Click on it and it changes to an "E" and the envelopes are shown. Another click and the icon turns grey and blocks are shown instead of any waveform.

Similarly, the icon with the "A" controls whether Automation curves are shown - right click, and the pop-up menu allows you to choose which curve will be displayed.

If you have a jillion tracks, it may be easier to access these settings from the Tracks Tab, as opposed to scrolling through all of them in the Timeline. Another quick way to access everything is to "Select All" clips, Group them, make the desired adjustments in the header, and then Ungroup.

[DJS]

Many thanks Frank, this is most helpful. Forgive my ignorance, I am still trying to learn this monster. But I am quite proficient with it now for producing classical CD's. Not completely conversant with Source Dest yet, but that the Christmas break project.

[fl]

I am still trying to learn this monster.

After five years, I'm still discovering new things. I think the fact that absolutely everything is configurable makes the initial learning curve that much steeper. Once I discovered templates, I began to customize things to my liking more and more, and once saved, there is little reason to go back to the "out of the box" configuration. But, it took a while.

As for S-D editing, it's the primary reason I went for Pyramix over anything else. Once I got on to the use of playlists, creating them in session, and then accessing the various takes come edit time, it's just that much better. Just remember to put the Destination tracks below (or after) those containing the Source playlists (a little gold nugget from Mark Wilshire).