I can't even imagine doing it that way.

JJK

Bob, I think the biggest reason most of us in the "western world" would find that difficult at best to work with would be because we read from left to right--a natural flow for us.

However, in the "eastern world", where folks read from the top down, that might work very well. Interestingly enough, in the days of the upright Moviola, the film did move vertically, as in it did through the projector.

Actually, I don't find moving up and down through the T/Ls annoying. It's something I've never thought of, really.

>have enough tracks and you just run out of screen real estate.<

Do you need to have all the tracks at full size all the time? I find that would be a very rare occasion. When I have a lot of tracks, I resize the ones I don't need to pay attention to at the moment, either by dragging to a particular height or just minimizing and restoring with the button on the track header.

Gary

In some sense there is a logic with the existing horizontal layout with respect to compositing, if you think in terns of the top track being the top layer.

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And don't forget to make use of the F11 shortcuts.

Leave them horizontal and stack two monitors one above the other. With my monitors i'd have a 1280x2048 workspace and i would probably be able to view at least 30 tracks at once. Of course, we're spoiled by double-wide workspaces so probably this would be best with 4 monitors in a 2x2 arrangement.

if you think in terns of the top track being the top layer

That's purely conventional thinking. There's no conceptual problem with thinking "the first track is the first layer", which with a vertical arrangement would probably be the left track. If you had always used that arrangement you would find having a horizontal arrangement unconventional and illogical.

as in the first layer that other layers cover, or the first layer that other layers go underneath?

as opposed to the top layer, which is on top of the other layers (because the top layer wouldn't be at the bottom, would it? :-)

I think horizontal still seems more logical thinking in these terms, but I know what you mean about having always used something in a certain way. It's like the audio convention that the first channel is left and the second is right in a stereo file. Now you need this kind of standard for compatibility etc, but it's a similar concept of being used to a particular system.

I think it would be neat to have the timeline snake across the screen, like the path in the old board game CANDYLAND.

Nah, just kidding.

Robert!
Your screwing with our heads, right?

Not all,
I wasn't thinking so much of video as audio.
Yes with video the current arrangement does have a logical sense to it, top track is the top layer etc.
But there's no such perogative with audio where I'm told over 100 tracks is not uncommon.
However as pointed out it is possible to have vertically stacked monitors, I'd overlooked that very point. Hard to do physically but still doable. That arrangement makes more sense to me, I find going really wide hard to cope with. On one system I've got one 17" and one 23" monitor, I might upgrade that to two 23" beasts but that's a lot of real estate to get my eyes to scan.
Bob.

However as pointed out it is possible to have vertically stacked monitors, I'd overlooked that very point. Hard to do physically but still doable. That arrangement makes more sense to me,

This is exactly how Steinberg/Pinnacle (now Yamaha) shows their audio timelines at major trade shows like NAMM.
Stacked monitors. I couldn't ever get used to it, but then again...I'm used to Vegas and NED as they are.

This is another argument for folder tracks in Vegas isn't it?

Acid had this feature where you group bunches of tracks in a folder track and thus by mimizing one track you can close dozens.

YES!
And at the last SMPTE I saw a hardware mixer that does just this.
Only 8 channel strips for 96 channels. You hold your finger on any knob on any stip and wave you hand over what looks like a bridge section, as you do so ALL the Eq etc snap to that channel, tap and that strip is assigned to that channel. No more chairs on wheels needed to manage 96 channels and no taking your eyes off the channel strips you;re working with. A truly awesome bit of man - machine interfacing.
Of course the whole desk would look more at home on the Enterprise. Did I mention it's also coffee / beer proof, designed by a hands on audio guy for sure.
Bob.

Stacked monitors anyone?
http://sperone.free.fr/images/extraz/PICS6/simulator.jpg

Check out the Chienworks setup link!

Is that a bad gaming system or someone with a bad stutter?