Scissor tool in the Tracks Tab is greyed out

[liquiddp]

Hey all I'm very new to DP8. Im coming from Logic PT blah blah blah.. and I have learned that there are no regions to speak of. So here is my question

1. My scissor tool is greyed out in the Tracks tab is that by design or did i already break my new toy?

2. What advice can one give if I'm used to cutting and pasting regions in my workflow. It seems REALLY time consuming if I have an 8 bar phrase and i only want to duplicate 4 bars of that phrase to have to go and select each individual track and duplicate it. (I'm sure there is a better way i just don't know how. Cant the scissor tool in the Tracks Tab do that? is the MIDI tab the preferred way?

3. The mixer window when i have the mixer window opened on a separate monitor and i add a track the mixer window resizes is there a setting to fix that?


just looking for ideas thanks

[Shooshie]

Learn to use multiple windows. Don't try to plop down in one window, like the Sequence Editor, and do all your work there. Use the MIDI Edit Window for MIDI. Sequence Editor for audio. Tracks Overview for moving things around, selections, assigning I/O, and large-scale edits.

Clicking in the Tracks Overview Window (from here on out, called "Tracks"), you'll find each cell divided into upper and lower clicks. Upper clicks (top half of a cell) allow you to select ranges of any size. Lower clicks select the cell or region. Adding the Command Key to a click enables you to start or end a selection within the cell, rather than selecting the whole cell.

I'll let you get started with that. If you search this forum for "Tracks Overview Window," you'll find posts by me which describe a lot about that window and key commands and modifiers. I suggest you read them.

DP is deep. The lack of regions is not an oversight, but a choice in working methods. We use selections as regions, meaning that we select what we want to work with. There is even a search feature for helping to select specific events, passages, ranges or rhythms to work with. You cannot learn DP overnight, so prepare for a long haul. The end result is, IMO, worth everything you put into it, and more. If you chicken out and go back to Logic, that's your choice. Keep using DP, and you'll learn some very efficient ways to work. Not for everyone, but nothing is.

Shooshie

PS: • scissors tool work when you've got a valid selection for cutting.
• If you want the Mixing Board to stay a certain size, you need to hide tracks that you don't want to see, or drag the board to a size smaller than the displayed tracks. The list for choosing which tracks to hide or show is in the left margin, and it is revealed/hidden by a button in the bottom-left corner of the window.

[bayswater]

PS: • scissors tool work when you've got a valid selection for cutting.

In the Tracks window? There's a way to get scissors to work in the Tracks window?

[liquiddp]

Learn to use multiple windows. Don't try to plop down in one window, like the Sequence Editor, and do all your work there. Use the MIDI Edit Window for MIDI. Sequence Editor for audio. Tracks Overview for moving things around, selections, assigning I/O, and large-scale edits.

Clicking in the Tracks Overview Window (from here on out, called "Tracks"), you'll find each cell divided into upper and lower clicks. Upper clicks (top half of a cell) allow you to select ranges of any size. Lower clicks select the cell or region. Adding the Command Key to a click enables you to start or end a selection within the cell, rather than selecting the whole cell.

I'll let you get started with that. If you search this forum for "Tracks Overview Window," you'll find posts by me which describe a lot about that window and key commands and modifiers. I suggest you read them.

DP is deep. The lack of regions is not an oversight, but a choice in working methods. We use selections as regions, meaning that we select what we want to work with. There is even a search feature for helping to select specific events, passages, ranges or rhythms to work with. You cannot learn DP overnight, so prepare for a long haul. The end result is, IMO, worth everything you put into it, and more. If you chicken out and go back to Logic, that's your choice. Keep using DP, and you'll learn some very efficient ways to work. Not for everyone, but nothing is.

Shooshie

PS: • scissors tool work when you've got a valid selection for cutting.
• If you want the Mixing Board to stay a certain size, you need to hide tracks that you don't want to see, or drag the board to a size smaller than the displayed tracks. The list for choosing which tracks to hide or show is in the left margin, and it is revealed/hidden by a button in the bottom-left corner of the window.

thanks Shooshie.. I messed with it all day today and I'm getting a little more comfortable with it. i set up a template with VEPpro5 and my other computers. That was pretty easy. Im digging it for sure.

Studio one to me is a scratch pad for ideas and logic to me is a sound module i use them that way. But i think DP is going to be my main DAW.. I def. like it a lot..

I just hope they have a free upgrade to DP9 since just bought this LOLOLOL..

anyway thanks I'm sure i will ask more questions soon enough

[Shooshie]

PS: • scissors tool work when you've got a valid selection for cutting.

In the Tracks window? There's a way to get scissors to work in the Tracks window?

Ummm... no, I don't think that would be a valid selection, though I have to admit that I haven't tried it recently and don't really remember. I don't think it will, though.

I see now... he was asking about the Scissors in the Tracks window. I replied only briefly and vaguely about the Scissors tool. Sorry if I was vague on that; I was in a big hurry to get back to some auctions I was bidding on (and won them all).

Scissors tool is valid in the graphic edit windows and various layers within them (pitch, for instance). In MIDI tracks, it will split a note, or you can set the grid for, say, 32nd notes, then drag the Scissors Tool over a long note or group of notes, and it will split them into 32nds equal in number to the full value(s) of the note(s) over which you dragged. You can also click on a grid element, and it will split all the notes that lie upon that grid, at the grid. I think that's about it for MIDI Scissors.

Scissors will cut grouped tracks as one. In the pitch layer of the Sequence Editor, the Scissors tool is very helpful for releasing individual notes for pitch editing. Once cut, it's much easier to adjust random deviations in the pitch, but it can be very hard to get the ends of some pitch segments to match up. Fortunately there is always Undo.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

Since we're talking about tools, here's a cheat-sheet I use for prodding a recalcitrant memory into hitting the right key to invoke the right tool:


Feel free to drag any of these sheets to your Finder, then print them out to fit 4x6 borderless photo paper and keep them handy for when you need them. The more personalized ones will require that you use mine as models, but download your own sets of commands from various dialog windows. I use Adobe Illustrator to make it easier to arrange them on the page.

Might as well post another cheat-sheet or two. This one is for Step Record:


Next is a cheat sheet I made for color sets. You can do it by copying the color palette in the color set editor, then reducing them all to the same size in Adobe Illustrator, and creating a layout that works for you. I change color sets a lot, for various reasons. First of all, it gives me better contrast on the track I'm working on. You can't have EVERY track perfectly contrasted from every other track, so it pays to run through them and find one that works for the track you're currently working in. Takes all of about 5 seconds. Use QuicKeys to set up menu commands with keys. I use a double-trigger, so that I click Control-Option-Command-C (very easy with the left hand), followed by any of the keypad keys. I can run through the window sets in just a few seconds. Otherwise, it would be too tedious to do this by dragging through menus. Here's my cheat-sheet for colors, which I rarely need anymore, because I know where they all are:


I used to have several cheat-sheets for window-sets. Here is an old one. I don't use these anymore, because I leave my windows open in Spaces, where they remain at full-screen, a keyboard click away from any other screen. But you can copy the window sets panel and use it to create a cheat-sheet like this:

Again, QuicKeys is your friend when setting up large numbers of keyboard commands for batches like these. And again, use the double-trigger, so that you can have your choice of keyboard commands, and not have to depend on finding unused ones.

If you are in a new Mac, QuicKeys may not work for you. Keyboard Maestro is a little more tricky at first, but will do pretty much everything that QK will do, and should work on the latest Macs.

Here is one of the stands I use for holding cheat sheets:


Here they are more visible:
[I don't use this computer hardware anymore; these were made over 10 years ago! But I still have the little apple "colors" stands.]

You can get these at office supply stores. These originals happened to have come from the Apple Store at 1-Infinite Loop, Cupertino, at Apple headquarters, before they opened all the stores around the country. I don't think they have these anymore, but office supplies do.

Just showing the original poster a few little tricks that make this all easier.

Shooshie

[liquiddp]

Dude that was awesome.. thanks

[fusion58]

PS: • scissors tool work when you've got a valid selection for cutting.

In the Tracks window? There's a way to get scissors to work in the Tracks window?

Apologies for the necro bump - a topic search led me to this thread.

Having the same issue as the OP with DP 11.

Is the scissor tool no longer available in the tracks window?

[bayswater]

PS: • scissors tool work when you've got a valid selection for cutting.

In the Tracks window? There's a way to get scissors to work in the Tracks window?

Apologies for the necro bump - a topic search led me to this thread.

Having the same issue as the OP with DP 11.

Is the scissor tool no longer available in the tracks window?

Was it ever? Split at counter works, but i don't recall ever using the scissors tool in Tracks.

[Michael Canavan]

Shooshies wording is weird there, but no, the scissor tool never worked in the Tracks Overview.

[fusion58]

Shooshies wording is weird there, but no, the scissor tool never worked in the Tracks Overview.

I just upgraded to 11 from 9.5 and I could've sworn the scissor tool was available in tracks window in 9.5. Weird!

Probably premature senility on my part.

[Michael Canavan]

Shooshies wording is weird there, but no, the scissor tool never worked in the Tracks Overview.

I just upgraded to 11 from 9.5 and I could've sworn the scissor tool was available in tracks window in 9.5. Weird!

Probably premature senility on my part.

Naw, it's just the weirdness of DP. No other DAW I know of divides 50/50 arrangement duties between two windows. They used to be called Tracks Overview and the Sequence Editor, and that gave a better clue on what their strengths are.

[James Steele]

I still really like having the Tracks Overview. I'll find I use it for a lot of things, including stripping silence from soundbites, etc.

[HCMarkus]

I, too, love the TO. Super handy being able to have two different zoom views available at once; typically overview in TO, zoomed in in SE.

Also, TO is a great way to quickly move all MIDI Data simultaneously, and from track to track, with ease.

[bayswater]

Another vote for the TO. Perfect to set up a project structure and layout and high level edits. SE and GE for the minutae of soundbites and MIDI, but there’s a lot that is easier in the TO.