Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

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sndmarks
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Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by sndmarks »

I'm obviously familiar with the lock function in the track window, but unless there's something I'm missing it's not what I'm looking for.

How do I lock soundbites in the timeline to keep them safe from my stupid and idiotic tendency to accidentally nudge or move them when working quickly?

Thanks,
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Prime Mover
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by Prime Mover »

I dunno... save often? Don't trash your undo history?

Sorry, don't mean to be snide. I really don't think there's a "lock soundbite" command. I've never seen anything like that on any production software (besides DP, I'm more familiar with video editors and compositors these days). I think the developers expect that you're using the track lock command or nothing. My guess is it would be best to figure out what kind of actions are causing you to accidentally nudge things, and find workarounds to them. This may be a case of having to change your style to fit the program... it's not that common with DP, which tries to provide everything for every work style, but in this case, I don't think there's an easy answer.
Last edited by Prime Mover on Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by FMiguelez »

Use Set User Timestamps.

If you move them by accident, then you'd invoke the Move to User Timestamp command and they'll return to where ever they were captured.

If they were recorded with DP, then there is already an Original Timestamp, so the above wouldn't even be necessary.
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sndmarks
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by sndmarks »

I've been a DP user since v2.x and use it daily in a professional composition environment. Over the years I've trained myself to save after virtually every operation.

This has just been one of those niggles that keeps popping up and biting me in the ass. Usually happens when I'm doing a lot of track editing and soundbite highlight->auditioning and when the first click doesn't function as expected. Sometimes I swipe to highlight and the first click failed to click "into" the soundbite. Sometimes I click to select and nudge but the new soundbite doesn't get selected and I end up moving the previously selected one.

I've already stopped using the magic trackpad and my keyboard cover to eliminate the mechanical contributing factors. User error is what I'm left with - thought I sufficiently copped to it in my original post.

Trying to figure out a way to put up a "fence" to protect myself from the pace of my work and my own stupid mistakes. I used to merge everything into contiguous soundbites, but high track counts rule that out. I currently do a lot of grid toggling. It's a PITA, but errors occur and can be fixed in fixed divisions - except when I forget to turn the grid back on.

Admittedly, I don't know that I've ever seen a feature like this in other DAWs. Thing is, DP has always seemed to know what I need before I need it.
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Dwetmaster
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by Dwetmaster »

Prime Mover wrote:I've never seen anything like that on any production software...
Actually, This is in PT and I think Reaper has it too. These are the two DAWs I know for a fact that has it.
FMiguelez wrote:Use Set User Timestamps.
I've never thought of using User timestamps that way. Thanks Fernando. :D
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by FMiguelez »

It definitely works, but that's what I call a poor man's lock :lol:
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by Shooshie »

sndmarks wrote:I've already stopped using the magic trackpad and my keyboard cover to eliminate the mechanical contributing factors.

You can STOP USING a Magic Trackpad??? I can't. In fact, I'd probably quit using DP before I'd quit using the Magic Trackpad. I'm that hooked on it. When I go to any other form of input device, it's like stepping in a time machine and going back to when people used horses and buggies to get around. Except without the fun of having a horse. I use JiTouch with it, which is half of what is so addictive about it.

As for the protection against moving soundbites, here are some of the things I do:
1) be careful! Just learning to leave things where they are was one of the first things I had to do when I went pro in DP. I just didn't have the luxury of saying "wups, could we take a few minutes while I put some things back where they belong?"
2) Use the SHIFT key a lot. That constrains movement to one direction, which may help somewhat.
3) Use the COMMAND key to toggle the grid off and on. Having the grid turned on and set to, say, a quarter note or half note means that a slight movement will not affect anything. If you prefer to leave the grid off, hold down the COMMAND-key when you're mousing around, so that the grid is toggled on temporarily.
4) Use range selections when you can. They're practical to use when working in audio; not so much in MIDI. You can set the type of selections you want available in Preferences @ Editing/Tools/top menu. Range Selections will not allow you to grab objects and move them. You can also select the I-Beam by tapping the I key twice. (or holding it down while you mouse around)
5) I reiterate: be careful! That really is not a problem I've had in about 25 years. Seriously, it was going pro that made me, well, become a pro.

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sndmarks
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by sndmarks »

I'm going to try the user timestamp thing once I've finished editing tracks. Not exactly what I want, but a step in the right direction. Interesting idea, FMiguelez. Thanks.

Shooshie, it wasn't hard to give up relying on the Trackpad when it wasn't terribly reliable and heavily contributing to the problem. My MacPro seems to have a bluetooth antenna issue that I've been unable to resolve. Spotty connection meant jumpy, imprecise movement, missed clicks, etc. I picked up a USB bluetooth dongle, but the mac doesn't want to give up its internal bt bus. Haven't had time to chase down the issue beyond that. The other mechanical contributing factor was a DP keyboard cover that occasionally jammed up the keys.

As a pro who has taken great pride in my work for 17 years, I am focused and careful. I am also human. We are less exact as we get tired. My work - mostly in TV as of late - leads to long hours over many days. Multi-day stretches without sleep aren't nearly as uncommon as I'd like. I'm always looking for ways to tweak my workflow to improve creativity and efficiency and make it as technically tired/idiot proof as possible.
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by Phil O »

Don't forget command-T (move to original time stamp). And, you can always make a soundbite's position the original timestamp by merging. Again, not a lock, but useful workaround.

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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by Shooshie »

sndmarks wrote:I'm going to try the user timestamp thing once I've finished editing tracks. Not exactly what I want, but a step in the right direction. Interesting idea, FMiguelez. Thanks.

Shooshie, it wasn't hard to give up relying on the Trackpad when it wasn't terribly reliable and heavily contributing to the problem. My MacPro seems to have a bluetooth antenna issue that I've been unable to resolve. Spotty connection meant jumpy, imprecise movement, missed clicks, etc. I picked up a USB bluetooth dongle, but the mac doesn't want to give up its internal bt bus. Haven't had time to chase down the issue beyond that. The other mechanical contributing factor was a DP keyboard cover that occasionally jammed up the keys.

As a pro who has taken great pride in my work for 17 years, I am focused and careful. I am also human. We are less exact as we get tired. My work - mostly in TV as of late - leads to long hours over many days. Multi-day stretches without sleep aren't nearly as uncommon as I'd like. I'm always looking for ways to tweak my workflow to improve creativity and efficiency and make it as technically tired/idiot proof as possible.
The dongle can be setup in your System Preferences/Network, starting with a new location, choosing Bluetooth, and looking for the dongle in the list. I haven't done it in quite a while, but you're a pro, so you'll figure it out quickly once you're there. Sorry you're having Bluetooth trouble. That's happened to me before. Not sure why it stopped, but I think it was external interference. There are a lot of BT devices around here. Anyway, my Magic Trackpad has no problems these days.
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by jon.brantingham »

I've been doing some music editing, and I've had to deal with the issue of timestamps. You can set the user timestamp easily in DP, but resetting the Original Timestamp is not as clear.

The best method I've found for resetting the original timestamp is to select the region, right-click, and choose Merge Soundbites. This will create a new audio file, and set the original timestamp to its current position.

This works with a single soundbite or multiple soundbites. The name of the soundbite will be what the current track name is, so make sure that is accurate.
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Re: Technique for Locking Soundbite Position

Post by FMiguelez »

During the 12+ years I've been using and abusing DP, I've never ever moved SBs accidentally with the mouse. And I've had more than my share of 20-hour working days for weeks.

The only times my SBs have gotten all messed up haven't been accidental.... They've been due to DP's unbelievable clumsiness and downright amateurishness when dealing with time-range selections. I'm referring to the fact that nothing in the track Takes ever moves along with the rest of your selections, even when you snip regions, insert or delete measures.

Now, THAT DOES have the potential to ruin your project... Or at least will give you the gift to spending a full night resyncing everything again.
Mac Mini Server i7 2.66 GHs/16 GB RAM / OSX 10.14 / DP 9.52
Tascam DM-24, MOTU Track 16, all Spectrasonics' stuff,
Vienna Instruments SUPER PACKAGE, Waves Mercury, slaved iMac and Mac Minis running VEP 7, etc.

---------------------------

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