UAD Luna - Soundflow - Is there a future for this relationship?!

Thanks for the reply Christian,

Yeah, makes total sense. Luna is a young app, so I'm not expecting the world from it just yet!! - There is a lot of demand for a lot of things she's missing, and they're doing an incredible job at prioritizing and keeping the updates rolling. I'd expect they'll be doing a lot more for the app before opening the can of worms to others!! Hopefully, the MCU compatibility offers up a lot more for the next steps. I've extended my package even more this evening, so after that update drops and I modify it; I'll be sure to share to give others a place to start and get involved.

Thanks again for the awesome work!!

Heya Chris,
So far I’ve managed a range of keyboard commands solo/mutes, navigation, region editors, nudges and more (these are super simple macros and cover most of the surface so I won’t list them all!).
On an encoder with four pages I can scroll:

• Clips Views & Reset
• Waveform Zoom & Reset
• 2 x speeds of playhead jogging (course and fine)

Using menu paths I’ve added non shortcut items like Solo Latch & Exclusive, Clear Automation etc

Using Mouse clicks Macros (a bit trickier):

• Soloing of the mixer workspace views (Inputs,sends,console,inserts etc) and a view/restore All
• Solo Clear
• Grid Selection (seperate buttons); Beat,bar,1/4-64,dot,trip & snap toggle.
• Read, Touch, Latch, Trim, Off Track automation (arrange view only, selected track)

There’s a few caveats with functionality on the mouse click events, I’ve got ideas for workarounds and streamlining it. But the complexity will increase, and like mentioned; the MCU update will likely make a lot of these things more accessible so I’ve hit pause on it for now!

Let me know if you need any tips on setting up. They are really straight forward macros though, and fall into the basics compared to what’s getting Java’d for PT!!!

Adam.

Hi Adam,

Definitely, this is something we should consider for our roadmap. Unfortunately, we already have booked out the entire fall/winter for other important work (lots of cool stuff coming), so it's not likely that the core team will be able to address this until early 2022. But please keep logging requests etc. in here so that we'll know what to look for once we'll have time again :)

Heya Dominic!
Welcome! Glad to see others realising the potential of streamlining that could be brought to Luna!
I had a theory for a plug-in loader, but it’s looking to get more complex and require more caveats (ie; requirements before initiating, different scripts for arrange/mix window etc.) not to mention potential processing delays.
Protools offers up API functions that Soundflow can call on, and also releases the UI elements in the OS, so getting super tweaky with this is what makes it possible to manipulate with our own scripts. Unfortunately Luna doesn’t offer either of these. So with what’s on offer to us in Soundflow at a basic level is, keyboard shortcuts, menu paths, and mouse clicks without a relative to a specific UI.

That said, I’ve managed some sneaky Mouse clicks based around elements that never move.
For example I’ve assigned every Grid option to individual midi buttons, so 1/2, 1/64, triplets on/off, beat/bar etc. are a tap away without heading to the drop down menu. And also scripts that select my mixer views; one tap to isolate console, inserts and outputs, another for the sends, another for input, utilities and tape etc etc.
As these clickable options are fixed (with the exception of when a console editor pops everything right a little!!) scripts work beautifully at switching these (relatively) quickly. Probably about 800ms delay.

A plug-in loader is a tricky one as our tracks are often in different places (in mix view at least, which for me is where I’m working most when plugging) - And without an API function to manipulate we have to use workarounds basically to get there, which are time consuming to script and can become defunct with any updates or even a change in workflow.

So far the easiest option I’ve found for a loader would be in the arrange window, as this is always static (eh ehm… console editor 🤦‍♂️) - But the click of the next available slot is a variable that not sure how to focus in on. Mostly because that view and the positioning can be so widely different based on full plug-in view, other plugins and the state of isolated views even there. I’m looking into pixel scraping to help automate and identify, but it’s time consuming and I haven’t had a chance to dig much deeper on that so far.

Regarding the Melodyne option. I’ve only setup a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to my stream deck for Melo. But it might be attainable. Maybe, by manually assigning all the tracks you wish to transfer to a buss and spilling that bus with an isolated insert view in the mixer (now you’ve got a static position for all your tracks), set a cycle range, ensure that your first insert is free on every track and then automating from there. Melodyne has assignable keyboard shortcuts which helps, so a script that starts on the first channel/slot in spill view could:- prompt for how many channels (repetitions of the transfer script) - click the first slot, type Melodyne and enter to find/load the plug-in - Then engage Transfer and play - Await the Finder window to pop up, switch back to Luna - move mouse click co-ordinates to the next channel and repeat - Send an email or play an alert when it’s done with the last transfer.

Anyway, I ramble!! - Hope you have fun with the automating. I have a feeling that UA isn’t going to be opening up API anytime soon (especially so early in it’s development), maybe if enough users join the Soundflow generation and start to push it to them towards seeing the benefits… “Hit the Feedback button!!”.

Would love to hear what concepts you come up with in the future!

Adam.