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I work long hours in the Sequence window clicking the playhead around to different times. One of the gripes I've mentioned is that the Time Ruler has an invisible divide between Selection and Playback Position functions. The cursor changes, but the region is small enough that I periodically miss and hit the selection region when I'm trying to reposition the playhead.
I finally broke down and downloaded a free Transparent Overlay app, and made myself a translucent guide that shows the "Playhead Position" region of the ruler. Of course, it doesn't match up with the Tracks Window, but for the work i do, I spend much more time in the Sequence editor and can easily hide the guide. It also lines up correctly with the MIDI Edit Window. Here's what it looks like:
I'm probably fairly unique in this being a major problem or decent solution, but if anyone else is interested, I can explain how to set this up.
I'm interested. I often have to click multiple times because of the unclear differentiation. This looks like it might be a nice solution. Thanks for letting us know!
Mac Pro Rack 7,1 3.2 Ghz 16-core, OS 11.6.1, 192GB ram
MOTU 828es, DP 11.02, Altiverb, Kontakt 6, VEPro
This job is fun, this job is fun....
stubbsonic wrote:Would you please describe what I'm looking at/for? It does seem useful, but how does it correspond to zooming, scrolling, etc?
Looks to me like Eric has placed a translucent blue strip over the part of the time line that you click on to move the playback head. That could be useful, although I've take to moving the head with key commands to avoid having to deal with the tiny active area.
bayswater wrote:Looks to me like Eric has placed a translucent blue strip over the part of the time line that you click on to move the playback head. That could be useful, although I've take to moving the head with key commands to avoid having to deal with the tiny active area.
Correct, however, AFAIK there are no key commands that move to a specific point, just linear forwards and back, which doesn't really cut it for what I'm doing. Now, if there was a key command to "move playhead to cursor", that would be AMAZING!!! Please tell me there is one and I just missed it?!
For all that are interested. Search for a free mac app called "LayerX". It's not perfect and pretty limited, but it gets the job done. It's a little finicky because the guide is a full 1920x1080 graphic (with just enough shaved off the top for the menubar). The one weird thing you have to do is to first drag the "Place Image Here" window down towards the bottom of the screen before dragging in the guide PNG, as LayerX likes to place it a bit out of the screen bounds otherwise. After that, just drag the image down a ways, and then back up until it snaps to the top. No guarantees your monitor resolution or window setup is going to be the same as mine, you might need to mess with it a bit. However, the guide should sit like it does in the first graphic I posted.
I use a tiny Windows app called "Peek Through" that renders a window semi-transparent (transparency can be adjusted) and allows clicks through the transparent layer to what is beneath it. (Though it says it works only up to Windows 7, it works fine on 8-10. The page simply hasn't been updated in a while.) You can set it to toggle on and off using a custom keyboard shortcut, or activate it via the tray icon. http://www.lukepaynesoftware.com/projects/peek-through/
I use it for other guides with IrfanView set to "Stay on Top" at the bottom of the IrfanView's Options menu with IrfanView in full-screen mode.
This problem has been mine as well for quite a while now - it is a relief to have this guide!
bayswater wrote:Looks to me like Eric has placed a translucent blue strip over the part of the time line that you click on to move the playback head. That could be useful, although I've take to moving the head with key commands to avoid having to deal with the tiny active area.
Correct, however, AFAIK there are no key commands that move to a specific point, just linear forwards and back, which doesn't really cut it for what I'm doing. Now, if there was a key command to "move playhead to cursor", that would be AMAZING!!! Please tell me there is one and I just missed it?!
There are commands along these lines but they are not that elegant. The dot on the number pad lets you type in a bar number. There are also key commands to play from memory start or selection start, and others that will move memory locations and selection points. In most cases you have to use two commands to get something useful, and I've put some of the pairs in adjacent keys, like F13/14. You could also use one those utilities that will issue a sequence of key commands. For me, its a trade off between the current capabilities of key commands and the ability to limit the use of the mouse.
