track selection in sequence editor

[Shooshie]

I'm certainly with Bayswater on this: the Tracks Overview Window is an exceptional tool that many overlook, thinking that you merely choose between your preference of one or the other. You CAN do that, You CAN also drive a car on flat tires.

This is one reason I work with the Tracks Overview, Sequence Editor, MIDI Editor, and Mixing Board each opened full-screen all the time. Sometimes the Tracks Overview and Sequence editor share a screen in the Consolidated Windows if there aren't a lot of tracks. I distribute these windows to their own "Spaces" (virtual monitors) using Mission Control (F1 on my system), and I go to them using Control-1, Control-2, Control-3, and Control-4. Or invoke the key command for any of them, and it will go to its space automatically. This enables me to keep them always in the same configuration, always as I left them.

Very efficient setup, for me, and the prime motivation for this is to be able to switch quickly between each of those windows without ever closing them or reopening them. Even the Event Editor sometimes is very useful in some task that the others do not handle as well, but I don't usually leave it in its own space, but give it a margin in the Consolidated Windows. Switching between windows during workflows is a very efficient way to work if you can get to those windows easily, consistently, always in exactly the same place and configuration.

But as I said earlier, switching between All Selections to Range Selections Only, or Event Selections Only in some cases, also has its place. These are not just set-and-forget preferences, but different tools that accomplish certain things. If the tool is there, and if it does exactly what you need, why would you ignore it? Better to develop habits that incorporate the use of all the tools at your disposal, as you need them, than to get locked into a way of working that does not fully satisfy you in the one window of your preference.

Shooshie

[bayswater]

Somethings may be better done in one versus the other but that's no excuse for not being able to use normal selection routines in the sequence editor window.

It wasn't meant as an excuse. It was meant as a suggestion that the TO is worth looking into if you want to get the best out of the application as it is.

[musicman691]

Somethings may be better done in one versus the other but that's no excuse for not being able to use normal selection routines in the sequence editor window.

It wasn't meant as an excuse. It was meant as a suggestion that the TO is worth looking into if you want to get the best out of the application as it is.

I didn't mean my comment as a dig against you - far from it. It was more directed at MOTU for not following normal selection conventions in the sequence editor window. Maybe it'll be changed in DP9? From what I've seen in the demos they made some changes to that window and I know Magic Dave said they weren't showing all the changes at NAMM.

[Tim]

Somethings may be better done in one versus the other but that's no excuse for not being able to use normal selection routines in the sequence editor window. I'm really not that nuts about doing a lot of work in the TO; I can see more of what I need in the SE. I also find it easier for setting things up like paths and such as it allows me to see things in a top down manner much easier. But then again each of us works in a different manner.

Yeah. When DP switched to the Mac Control-Click/Command-Click convention, they did it it in the TO, but left it unfinished in the SE. I think that lack of consistency is kinda lame.

The first thing that comes to my mind that might help: When a Range is selected in a track, Command-Shift-Up/Down Arrow will 'Grow' the Selection to adjacent tracks in view in the SE. Then Command-Click tracks (names) to be excluded. Not lightning fast, but it does the trick.

[Phil O]

When a Range is selected in a track, Command-Shift-Up/Down Arrow will 'Grow' the Selection to adjacent tracks in view in the SE. Then Command-Click tracks (names) to be excluded. Not lightning fast, but it does the trick.

I didn't know about this one. Thanks, Tim.

Phil

[Shooshie]

Yeah. When DP switched to the Mac Control-Click/Command-Click convention, they did it it in the TO, but left it unfinished in the SE. I think that lack of consistency is kinda lame.

The implementation is weird, but not inconsistent. The rules:

• Lists: use Command Key for adding to or subtracting from selection (that includes track names)
  Data: use Shift Key for adding/subtracting data from selection (MIDI, soundbites, automation, etc.)

I've found it to be consistently that way throughout the app, but if they missed a place or two, I don't know about it. I was worried how they were going to do that. The Shift Key is an integral part of the keyboard command structure. You can't just replace it with the Command Key, because that has a whole different use.

Shooshie