The mixer on the Ren sucks

I don't really mind the pad insert issue that much (I can just use the track inserts) but I hope that there are plans to upgrade the mixer in the near future because I would love to do side-chaining, parallel processing, use sends pre/post fader, reorder insert plugins, reorder tracks, adjustable meter display (to customize how the db's are displayed), and more. If peteblues or anyone else from Akai is reading this and you want to really make the Ren's mixer awesome then look into "Reaper's" routing and mixing capabilities because it has the most advance routing that I've ever worked with (this includes Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar).

Jonespnice1 wrote:I don't really mind the pad insert issue that much (I can just use the track inserts) but I hope that there are plans to upgrade the mixer in the near future because I would love to do side-chaining, parallel processing, use sends pre/post fader, reorder insert plugins, reorder tracks, adjustable meter display (to customize how the db's are displayed), and more. If peteblues or anyone else from Akai is reading this and you want to really make the Ren's mixer awesome then look into "Reaper's" routing and mixing capabilities because it has the most advance routing that I've ever worked with (this includes Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar).

noted

peteblues wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:The mixed signal should just go to both tracks!

if we did that, there would be all sorts of complaints of pad signals leaking onto other tracks. (e.g. if you have an 8th HH on track 1 and 16th HH on track 2, you'd then see 16th HH on both tracks).

Yeah, I got you. But what I'm saying is couldn't the user just simply duplicate the HH pad, move the 16th HH notes to the other pad? That way the 8th HH will be on pad 1 and track 1, and the 16th HH will be on pad 2 and track 2. After learning to use the product, I'm sure users will know not to use the same pad on different tracks with inserts. And I think it would make more sense to people than using a submix.

peteblues wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:Well, the good thing is now with 1.3, they have solve the issue with duplicate plugins when copying sequences. So now, if it works like I hope, you can just use track inserts and it will apply to that track for all sequences. But the only thing is that they've only shown how instrument plugins are handled in 1.3. I haven't seen any discussion on how effects plugins are handled, as far as duplication goes when copying a sequence!

if the inserts are on tracks, those will get duplicated IIRC (since you can have different inserts on the same track in different sequences)
if the inserts are on the plugin program, those won't get duplicated.

But then you're still dealing with the submix scenario still, correct?

Would it be easy at all for you guys to just make it so that a track insert will apply to that same track for all sequences? This would be enough for the submix thing to not bother me!

DJ Hellfire wrote:
Yeah, I got you. But what I'm saying is couldn't the user just simply duplicate the HH pad, move the 16th HH notes to the other pad? That way the 8th HH will be on pad 1 and track 1, and the 16th HH will be on pad 2 and track 2. After learning to use the product, I'm sure users will know not to use the same pad on different tracks with inserts. And I think it would make more sense to people than using a submix.

there are plenty of scenarios where you want to share pads on different tracks. And duplicating a pad would be inconvenient as well. Can't please everyone

DJ Hellfire wrote:But then you're still dealing with the submix scenario still, correct?

Would it be easy at all for you guys to just make it so that a track insert will apply to that same track for all sequences?

Yeah, I forgot now whether or not sub mix settings are shared between sequences.
Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

DJ Hellfire wrote:

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

That would be an option
I'll pass it around.

peteblues wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

That would be an option
I'll pass it around.

peteblues wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

That would be an option
I'll pass it around.

GREAT!

peteblues wrote:while pad with inserts not routing to tracks is not ideal, it's a compromise. If you route pads with inserts directly to the track, you can run into following problem:

i can understand making design decisions/compromises based on the lesser of two evils. but there are several ways to mitigate the impacts of such decisions...

for instance, there could be an expand function to take the midi data from 1 track (i.e. all used pads) and expand them onto several different tracks. that way someone could still record all drums on one track and later separate them without multiple copying/deleting.

second, there could be a function to save/load EFX plug-in presets. that way if someone recorded all drums on 1 track and added compressors on each pad, they could save each individual preset and later load the respective plugin preset on separate tracks.

finally, there could be an option to trigger sampling/resampling by either pressing a pad or sequencer start. that way if someone adds EFX to a pad, they could resample it without affecting the attack of the sample (as is the case with the threshold trigger since there is no pre-record option). there could also be an option to stop sampling/resampling based on a user-defined number of beats. this would ensure the resampled pad sequence looped perfectly without any sample editing.

DJ Hellfire wrote:

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

This!

I applaud Pete for answering questions here and on Gearslutz, salute to you.

grinchmob wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

This!

+ 1.

son of man wrote:

peteblues wrote:while pad with inserts not routing to tracks is not ideal, it's a compromise. If you route pads with inserts directly to the track, you can run into following problem:

i can understand making design decisions/compromises based on the lesser of two evils. but there are several ways to mitigate the impacts of such decisions...

for instance, there could be an expand function to take the midi data from 1 track (i.e. all used pads) and expand them onto several different tracks. that way someone could still record all drums on one track and later separate them without multiple copying/deleting.

second, there could be a function to save/load EFX plug-in presets. that way if someone recorded all drums on 1 track and added compressors on each pad, they could save each individual preset and later load the respective plugin preset on separate tracks.

finally, there could be an option to trigger sampling/resampling by either pressing a pad or sequencer start. that way if someone adds EFX to a pad, they could resample it without affecting the attack of the sample (as is the case with the threshold trigger since there is no pre-record option). there could also be an option to stop sampling/resampling based on a user-defined number of beats. this would ensure the resampled pad sequence looped perfectly without any sample editing.

you could also sort of combine the first 2... let's say you record all drums on 1 track. there could be an option to not only expand the sequence data of each pad onto separate tracks, but also copy any pad insert(s) and automatically add them as track inserts on the respective separate tracks.

peteblues wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

peteblues wrote:Having the same track inserts on all sequences would be undesirable to users who have completely different kind of tracks in different sequences.

What about some option to turn on/off to enable or disable this? To either have track inserts shared for sequences or be independent per sequences!

That would be an option
I'll pass it around.

bearhead wrote:Does anyone have anyway of fixing this?

Doubt it. Your best option might be to return/sell it and get Maschine.