Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small...
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This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
- Prime Mover
- Posts: 2449
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- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
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Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small...
My audio job is incredibly tedious. I listen to field recordings for any minuscule ticks or distracting noises and snip them out. I think I once calculated around 800 snips in a 5minute region. When you're doing a routine over and over again, the little annoyances become huge. There are not many, but the big one, and I realize it's ALWAYS been there, way before I did this kind of work, is that the vertical space along the timeruler to place the playback head is WAY too small, and has no visual delineation. It's maybe 10 pixels high, if that; an invisible region that extends only the height of the ~8pt time/measure numbers. Anything down in the ruler ticks changes to a selection cursor. Even when I'm careful, I miss maybe 15% of the time, and the whole process just adds just a little tension to my workflow.
I'd love to see a shading change between the "selection" region and the "play head" region, that would help A LOT. Secondly, I'd love to be able to change the height of the time ruler.
I'd love to see a shading change between the "selection" region and the "play head" region, that would help A LOT. Secondly, I'd love to be able to change the height of the time ruler.
— Eric Barker
Eel House
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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
- stubbsonic
- Posts: 5158
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Re: Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small
I agree that that area is pretty tight. However, I've gotten so used to finding it-- though it's invisible, the cursor change is all I ever needed.
I think of it as "up by the numbers" is the playback wiper cursor switch, on the ruler notches where I can select a time-range.
And.. HOLY CRAP... I just found something-- Right Click in that little strip right below the ruler to add a Key, Meter or Tempo Change. Never knew that was there.
I think of it as "up by the numbers" is the playback wiper cursor switch, on the ruler notches where I can select a time-range.
And.. HOLY CRAP... I just found something-- Right Click in that little strip right below the ruler to add a Key, Meter or Tempo Change. Never knew that was there.
Last edited by stubbsonic on Sun Dec 17, 2017 7:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
M1 MBP; OS 15.3, FF800, DP 11.33, PC3K7, K2661, iPad6, Godin XTSA (w/ SY-1000), 2 Ibanez 5-string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FX galore
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
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Re: Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small
Wow. Good find. I never knew that was there either!stubbsonic wrote:Right Click in that little strip right below the ruler to add a Key, Meter or Tempo Change. Never knew that was there.

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- stubbsonic
- Posts: 5158
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Re: Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small
It also gives you a from/to option so if you change the key it will add another change back to what it was prior to the change. It also brings up the tempo change window so you can insert ramps, etc. It's more full featured than using the Conductor Event list.
Sorry to hi-jack the thread. But this is pretty cool.
But yea, fiddly that wiper area.
Is there a command to change the cursor to the wiper?
Sorry to hi-jack the thread. But this is pretty cool.
But yea, fiddly that wiper area.
Is there a command to change the cursor to the wiper?
M1 MBP; OS 15.3, FF800, DP 11.33, PC3K7, K2661, iPad6, Godin XTSA (w/ SY-1000), 2 Ibanez 5-string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FX galore
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
- MIDI Life Crisis
- Posts: 26277
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Re: Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small
My paradigm for doing that kind of detail rarely gets me out of the sequence window (with the soundbite zoomed way in). Once I find the little bastards I use the 4 and 6 numeric keys to toggle around it. I rarely touch the wiper.
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- Helen
- Posts: 100
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Re: Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small
Way late reply, but I so very wanted to say THANK YOU for posting the right click technique. I have become right click happy after you posted that, trying right click for several tasks that I used to use the menu or mouse over for. My gosh I am happy with this. Thankyouthankyouthankyou! 

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- stubbsonic
- Posts: 5158
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Re: Area to place playback head in Timeruler is WAY to small
Oh cool! So glad that was a game changer for you. Yea, since I found that a few months ago, I've used it a few times. So nice when you can find a little step saver.
M1 MBP; OS 15.3, FF800, DP 11.33, PC3K7, K2661, iPad6, Godin XTSA (w/ SY-1000), 2 Ibanez 5-string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FX galore
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com