Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

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Prime Mover
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Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:19 am
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Location: Fairbanks, Alaska

Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

Post by Prime Mover »

With the work that I've been doing these days, I'm CONSTANTLY re-setting the wiper position by clicking on different places in the ruler. I find that the wiper position region is really small, maybe only 8px at most. Furthermore, there's no visual bar or shading to determine where it is. Often times I miss and have to replace the cursor again. I'm making virtually hundreds of small edits over one session, and repositioning after each one, this can be very aggravating and time consuming over a project.

I'm guessing there's no way of expanding this region. However, is there possibly any themes that shade this region to see where it is, that would help me a great deal!

I know that the larger region below can position the wiper with a double-click, but I'd rather not have to do that every time.
— Eric Barker
Eel House

"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
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Shooshie
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Re: Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

Post by Shooshie »

There are various ways of doing this, depending on what you are doing at the moment. Unfortunately, just plain old click-to-locate is pretty much as you have described. The problem with my chiming in and trying to explain it all is that it takes pages to explain these things, but only a fraction of a second to do them. I'm going to try to hit a couple of points and hope that you are able to take them and find your own way to using them.

Set up keys for "Link Selection to Memory," and "Link Playback to Memory." When you have both of these on, and when you are using "Range Selections Only" (Preferences / Editing / Tools / top menu), anywhere you click becomes the starting point. Any drag becomes the range for playback, stop, and auto rewind. Notice, the cursor disappears when you use this method. It is your selection or insertion point that becomes the "cursor."

When comping takes, turning on the above two buttons (Link Selection & Link Playback to memory) causes DP to play the currently selected comp range only. This gets you through the comping process quickly, because each range you drag to comp becomes the new selection, thus it's also the memory and playback range. Note that you needn't use "Range Selections Only" for this, and it's preferable to leave that set to "All Selections" when you don't have a specific need for only one or the other (Event or Range). Any comp segment you click on plays automatically, so it's great for auditioning and choosing takes. To hear your comps in context, click on the first comp where you want to start, then turn off the Link Selection to Memory and Link Playback to Memory buttons. (set it up in Commands Window. Mine is set to Option-[7] for both)

If editing with this setup (Link Selection & Playback to Memory), just drag a selection over the events you just edited, and that's what will play. You can also use another method to play back only what is selected, rather than all the tracks in that range, by typing Option Spacebar. (Or is it Control Spacebar?) I don't have DP open and I sometimes have to try those to remember them right. I think one of those plays back only the selection, while the other one plays all play-enabled tracks within the range of that selection.

In the Keypad, the numbers 7, 8, 9, and minus modify your transport controls. In reverse:
Minus: toggles playback loop at memory boundaries
9: toggles Auto Stop at Memory End boundary
8: toggles Auto Rewind at Memory Start boundary
7: toggles the settings above on and off. For example, you may have the Loop and Auto Rewind set up. Hitting 7 will toggle them on/off without having to reset them.
Option 7: I set this up in Command Window to toggle BOTH link buttons on/off. If they get out of sync, hit 7 THEN Option 7.

Keypad 7 also toggles one of the two memory links we've been talking about above. (Link Selection to Memory and Link Playback to memory.) Again, I'd have to open DP to remember which one it does for sure. I probably know the answer, but rather than risk that 10% chance of it being the wrong one, I'll let you figure it out.

Make a cheat sheet with these and other selection/memory related commands for faster working. Eventually you remember them, although if you're like me, you have to try them to be sure you remember correctly.

One more: if you know that your memory start is set to where you want to go, but your current location is BEFORE that point, you can toggle Auto Rewind (Keypad 8 ), then hit Keypad 0, then toggle off Auto Rewind again (three quick key presses) and your cursor will be at the memory start point.

If you want to start at the end of your SELECTION range, hit Pause (Keypad 3) then Command-6, and your cursor will be at the end of the selection, but in Pause mode. Hit Keypad 0 to stop it there.

There are more, but this is an example of the hodgepodge of "tricks" for starting playback in certain places. The closest one to what you were asking for is the first one, which starts from anywhere you click.

Study the Commands. You'll find tons of stuff in there. I have to make cheat sheets to help me remember them at first, but then it goes pretty smoothly.

Shooshie

PS: I'll check for errors later. I don't have DP open now, and won't for the night, most likely.
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
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Prime Mover
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Re: Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

Post by Prime Mover »

I'm actually VERY familiar with the memory selection tools, all of them. I use them constantly and have them mapped to keys that I commonly use. I didn't really think this would be an option in this case, having usually used them for selected ranges. but now I see that if you just click without dragging, it creates a start point and immediately goes from there (without an end), which is PERFECT!

Yeah, for my work, I'm perusing 20min+ files, no grid, no comping... it's not music, but natural field recordings and white noise, so I'm not using the traditional methods that I've used for music editing. Basically, I'm taking things like a 25min rain recording, and editing out passing traffic, miscellaneous noises, etc, and having to be very thorough, so there's a lot of back-and-forth editing and re-listening, hundreds of edits in one minute of audio. But using "Link Memory to Playback" and "Link Selection to Memory" and just simple-clicking on point results in exactly the kind of movement I need.

THANKS!
— Eric Barker
Eel House

"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
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Shooshie
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Re: Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

Post by Shooshie »

I LOVE that kind of thing. I've done a lot of recordings of bird calls. I actually take a MOTU 896 out in the car, plug it into an inverter, and run phantom powered mics to make great recordings of things like a mockingbird's endless library of songs. The iPad opened up possibilities there. Can't edit out traffic noise in the city, as it's just a constant din, but the birds still sound center-stage. I may be able to push down the traffic with Z-Noise by Waves. I just haven't gotten back to those recordings yet. Funny how much work it is to do such a simple recording!

Shooshie
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
User avatar
Shooshie
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Re: Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

Post by Shooshie »

Prime Mover wrote:I'm actually VERY familiar with the memory selection tools, all of them. I use them constantly and have them mapped to keys that I commonly use. I didn't really think this would be an option in this case, having usually used them for selected ranges. but now I see that if you just click without dragging, it creates a start point and immediately goes from there (without an end), which is PERFECT!
I neglected to mention that in order to make it truly simple, you need to hold down the I-Beam (I) key when clicking, or use Range Selections Only. Then you don't have to aim for the selection timeline, which is as tedious as the cursor timeline. With either of those options (I-Beam or Range Selections Only) you can literally click anywhere in any window for your starting point.
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
User avatar
Prime Mover
Posts: 2439
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:19 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska

Re: Ruler wiper area, anyway to increase size?

Post by Prime Mover »

Yeah, my employer and I are currently just using Zoom H4ns, but I'd like to step up my game with a Sound Devices 702 whenever I can afford it. Or maybe at least a Foster FR-2. I've been doing a lot of low-gain recording: ocean waves, rain storms, waterfalls. But any time I do high-gain stuff, it stuffers a bit, and we have to kind of take what we can get. Zoom H4n with external mics is supposed to be even worse because decent mics hitting the low-end pres are supposed to be pretty hissy.

However, being on an island city (O'ahu), I don't have much opportunity for really hard-core high-gain nature stuff, as there's usually distant traffic and sounds that will get in the way. I have to do a lot of EQing, and gutting of impeding frequency ranges. So, I'm not sure I want to sink $2000+ into an device who's main advantage (high-gain recording), I wouldn't take advantage of much. Maybe 9 months from now, we'll see how things pan out.
I neglected to mention that in order to make it truly simple, you need to hold down the I-Beam (I) key when clicking, or use Range Selections Only. Then you don't have to aim for the selection timeline, which is as tedious as the cursor timeline. With either of those options (I-Beam or Range Selections Only) you can literally click anywhere in any window for your starting point.
Yeah, I work in I-Beam mode most of the time with these projects. Most of it is: I-Beam select, cmd-J (snip), repeat.
— Eric Barker
Eel House

"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
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