Quick track finder?

[MDesigner]

Is there some hidden way to quickly search for a track, as in actually hit search and type in the word "drum" and it would show me all tracks containing the word "drum" in it.

[Shooshie]

Is there some hidden way to quickly search for a track, as in actually hit search and type in the word "drum" and it would show me all tracks containing the word "drum" in it.

Not sure. I haven't done that particular search, but if there's a way, you would find it in the Search Window. That's under the Edit Menu. Pull down to Search, and explore what it offers.

Note that it has a boolean search and a parameter search (including a rhythm grid for finding rhythms), and that they work together. You can figure it out faster than I could explain it, so just go there and see if it does what you want.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

I finally got the chance to take a look. It won't search in track names.

It will search soundbite names, but not tracks.

[edited out stupid suggestion for using markers to identify tracks. Markers only appear in the Conductor Track. Duh!]

This is a bizarre oversight. Why they would not add that, I can't imagine. You can search for literally almost ANY parameter, note value, or presence of notes in a metric grid whose settings are very well thought-out. But you can't search MIDI track names. We need to ask MOTU to fix that.

One other thing; if you know anything unique about the tracks you're searching for, besides their names, you can search for pretty much anything else. By stacking searches, you may be able to eliminate anything that doesn't resemble what you're looking for. It's probably easier to scroll through the Tracks Overview window than to get into complicated searches, but the capability is there. Still, I'm disappointed that it won't select tracks by name.

Shooshie

[cuttime]

Whatever you do, don't try a search with ⌘-F. That sets the View filter.

[MDesigner]

I'll have to drop this in the suggestion box and email a couple of my contacts at MOTU. Thanks for confirming.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I had requested search also be able to find a soundbite by name and report where it appears in a sequence or better yet, project. Easy enough in the SB window. Not so easily globally.

[Shooshie]

I had requested search also be able to find a soundbite by name and report where it appears in a sequence or better yet, project. Easy enough in the SB window. Not so easily globally.

Actually, Search does find soundbites by name. It highlights them so they are easily seen in the Tracks Overview Window or the Sequence Editor. No problemo. Just go to the Search window and look for Soundbites in the parameters menu. (not the Time based ones) You may have to click the + sign first to get the 2nd half of the window to display.

If only it would find MIDI tracks as easily.

Shoosh

[midilance]

Why not utilize Track Folders?

[MDesigner]

I do use track folders. It's not enough. I have a TON of tracks. It would be great to just start typing in a box and have it hide all the tracks that don't match what I'm typing.

[Shooshie]

I do use track folders. It's not enough. I have a TON of tracks. It would be great to just start typing in a box and have it hide all the tracks that don't match what I'm typing.

The way I see this probably being implemented is that you do the search and it highlights any track that fits the criteria. (name) Then you could use keyboard commands such as CONTROL-OPTION-HOME (or END) to gather those tracks at the top of the Tracks Overview Window if you want them together, easily accessible. The keyboard "move track" commands would be very helpful after the tracks are selected.

While they're at it, MOTU would be very nice to provide us with a "SORT" command for ordering track lists, allowing sorting by Finder-type attributes: date created, date modified, name, kind, and so forth.

Shooshie

[MDesigner]

I dunno. I definitely wouldn't want to move tracks anywhere at all, I would just want to temporarily hide what doesn't match. Even finding highlighted tracks might be time consuming. What if you have 100+ MIDI and aux tracks? It would be much nicer if I typed "drum" and then everything dynamically hid itself except "Big Drum," "Log Drum," etc. As soon as I clear the search box, all the tracks are shown again.

[Shooshie]

I dunno. I definitely wouldn't want to move tracks anywhere at all, I would just want to temporarily hide what doesn't match. Even finding highlighted tracks might be time consuming. What if you have 100+ MIDI and aux tracks? It would be much nicer if I typed "drum" and then everything dynamically hid itself except "Big Drum," "Log Drum," etc. As soon as I clear the search box, all the tracks are shown again.

Oh, I totally get what you're saying. The problem is the Tracks Overview Window. It doesn't do hiding. To make that happen, they'd have to implement track hiding in the TOW. It would work fine in the other windows, though. Maybe they could have it highlight in the TOW and select the tracks in other edit windows. "Select" as in "track selector," which only displays the selected tracks, thus hiding all others.

So, you might help them out by coming up with a plan that works and doesn't require a complete rewrite of DP. If you can show them a good way to do it, utilizing what's already there, they are much more likely to implement your suggestion.

Get the idea polished, then send it to them. Post what you're sending here, and some of us will send the same thing, helping to stack the odds in favor of the new feature. And I have no idea if they'll listen to a bit of this!!! But we can hope.

Shooshie

[FMiguelez]

I dunno. I definitely wouldn't want to move tracks anywhere at all, I would just want to temporarily hide what doesn't match. Even finding highlighted tracks might be time consuming. What if you have 100+ MIDI and aux tracks? It would be much nicer if I typed "drum" and then everything dynamically hid itself except "Big Drum," "Log Drum," etc. As soon as I clear the search box, all the tracks are shown again.

YES!!!

+10000

That feature would be SO useful.

I'll ask MOTU to implement that too

[MDesigner]

Not to mention, DP could really use a track visibility feature too! Sure, my template may have 100+ tracks, but I may want to hide a bunch of them in certain projects.

[FMiguelez]

Not to mention, DP could really use a track visibility feature too! Sure, my template may have 100+ tracks, but I may want to hide a bunch of them in certain projects.

When I have to do that, I select the desired tracks and then choose "Move Tracks to Be Together" (or something like that) from the contextual menu. They remain selected, so then I press Shift-Command-R to get them into a new folder, so they get out of the way.

If there's a faster way, I'd like to know about it.


And since we're talking about DP track wishes, how about having a command called "Delete Unused Tracks", or "Hide Unused Tracks" ? (unused as in empty tracks)


That would be particularly useful for users whose templates contain hundreds of tracks, which most of the time aren't used (i.e., when archiving a finished project).

Fernando