Misconstrue it as arrogance but I keep coming across my seemingly otherworldly ability to detect insufficient product development. It haunts me! And though it's worth writing about, it sucks. I would prefer my wants to be outpaced by product delivery for once, but almost always I expect the seemingly undoable. Although it would be perfectly possible if there was a will on the programming company's part.
Here I am, super humble and happy to be engaging in a new potential workflow hack by learning my tools more thoroughly. And I tweak and test, I try things, I read on forums and I eventually get to a point that sort of works. But then I think of this one thing that would be really sweet; the thing that would make the tool I have in front of me a living dream to use and... it's not possible.
Regardless of what I try. Diminishing returns. Be happy with what you got.
Almost always it's a feature that - say a software synthesizer - should feature as sort of a no-brainer. A naive potential customer like me still thinks: "Of COURSE THAT IS POSSIBLE". Only it isn't. They did not make it possible even though they could. Like Apple "forgetting" the freakin' AUX jack in any modern device of theirs. What a scam.
The most recent example being XLN's wonderful drum vst plugin XO. I mean what an ingenious tool for unimpeded beat making workflow. It's a blast and I'm trying their demo with almost divine levels of relief, knowing some major workflow hurdles in drum production I suffer from will forever be banished if I buy XO.
Now the natural thing would be to integrate it with my Digitakt setup to sequence beats directly and immediately, rather than using their tedious built-in sequencer. It IS nice in its features, but that brings me full circle again - they haven't thought it through ALL THE WAY.
Here is this wonderful drum machine that lets you browse all your samples on all folders of your hard-drive in a PERFECT and immediate way, but the sequencer they give you only spans one bar. Two bars if you link patterns. But that's it.
WHY?! Are you guys crazy? You build a lightspeed aircraft but you somehow forget to put landing wheels on it? If you want to capitalize on your strengths and sell as many copies as you possibly can, there is not a single reason this should be the case but it is.
So naturally, I needed to find hacks. Workarounds - as everybody in music production is familiar with - we all stumble on these limitations time and time again; on the ones that are unexpected and feel completely unnecessary.
So I hack it by using a combination of tutorials (the amazing Polarity music on youtube for Bitwig related hacks) and though XO does not support native Midi note input (they want you to use their limited sequencer and then EXPORT the Midi to your DAW)... I now have it playing notes from inside Bitwig through a Drumrack! First major win!
Now the Digitakt. I need to sequence XO from Digitakt in hardware to minimize cuddling with and bitching at the tedious mouse workflow standard. And I get it all going.... everything except... the main feature people buy XO for - the similarity swap feature of any of the drum pads.
I can map almost anything I need in XO to a hardware controller. But the button that moves through the "similar samples" on each slot... THAT is unmappable. Well peachy fuckin' dandy. The main feature of the plugin cannot be mapped! You programmers have done it again. And I take that back. It was most likely company policy. I somehow feel programmers are the saddest of all to withhold life-improving features from humanity that they could easily implement on the next update. But that somehow never happens.
Looked for more than an hour and no. There isn't a way. Really. Be happy with what you got. "Similar Sample" does not show up in the mappable parameters and there is no hardware workaround I am currently aware of... I cannot even change the whole drum rack at once cycling through ALL similar sample tracks, you have to click the damn little button with your mouse. Man what a shame!
An almost perfect setup gone wrong at the very last minute because the reason you got the damn thing turns out to be the very thing they have not taken all the way...
The result is usually a sort of bitter disappointment about unrealized potential. And as I said, this moment keeps happening to me with all sorts of software and programs and tools and things.
And when I'm really demoralized because I see my workflow dream bubbles pop in front of my imaginary mind, I do swear somebody somewhere has decided to do this on purpose to piss people like me off, ahahahaha.
Anyway, back to finding the best workflow.
I am now miles ahead of where I was and incidentally, I HAVE figured out to use XO in a way noone ever intended that is a sheer GAMECHANGER. For the nerds out there, you can use XO's galaxy feature as a sound source and process it directly. Put a gate behind it to keep the audio sync'ed to your project and you now have all drum one-shots on your system easily playable in sequence for any processing to come after it. I did NOT think of this, I came across this in a youtube video. But I instantly saw: THAT guy ought to work for XLN for sure. I'll adopt his hack instead and fit it nicely into my own toolbox with a twist, thanks.
So to any XO users out there, maybe this will give you some inspiration at least.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MxRSfSyz5aI
*sigh. Guess I'm back to trying other things I need to improve still. Back to Bitwig...