View filters and track folders

[Chris T]

I'm trying to program some view filters in order to quickly jump between viewing different track types.

Does anyone know if there's a way (in DP, or via a KB Maestro macro perhaps) to show only MIDI tracks which are assigned to an ENABLED VI or VEPro plugin. This way I can view only the MIDI tracks that are "enabled", or "in play". Selecting "Show MIDI Tracks" is not useful for me, and "Show Enabled Tracks" only shows Audio or the actual VI tracks. "Show Play Enabled Tracks" is also not useful since I like to have all my MIDI tracks Play-enabled anyway.

Once I do the above I could then save these different options as "Track Layouts" and open / save corresponding MIXER window layouts. This would speed up my workflow immensely.

Thanks,
CT

[Michael Canavan]

when you say enabled I'm thinking you mean literally whether the track Instruments and FX are turned off or not, not the record enable state or whether the track is muted. There is no command to show only (CPU) enabled tracks that I know of.

[bayswater]

Isn’t there a command to show only tracks with data? That might be a start.

[Chris T]

Yes there is however the various View filter options seem to just reset the previous one: I.e. say you choose "View only soundbites and notes", then choose "View Audio tracks", the latter command will reset the first command. Unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't seem to be a way to select "View only soundbites and notes", and THEN sub-filter it again to select "View Audio Files" from that sub-selection. That would be magic if doable...

[Michael Canavan]

One trick you that might help is to mute tracks that you've disabled then you can use the play enable state to filter out whatever tracks are muted. One advantage of the universal Solo button here is not having to reset it to bounce around this way, at least until you're in the mix stage. obviously also would work with any track.

[Michael Canavan]

Oh and show/hide disabled tracks is a good suggestion for MOTU, might as well hit em up!
https://motu.com/en-us/suggestions/

I still want a lock for Track settings for each edit window as well.

[Chris T]

I just figured out a good workaround for this. I'm sure many do this already but it's new to me. Any further comments or suggestions welcomed:

1). Select whichever tracks (in Track Window) that you want to see. MIDI, Audio, Master, Verbs, etc.

2). Shift-Select all those tracks. Hit shift-M to open MIXING board (assigned for those viewable tracks only).

3). Go to main View Menu / Save Track Layout As... "xxxx"
Then when you select that track layout, you'll get the desired tracks viewable ONLY. This will open any relevant closed folders and make them viewable.

4). You need to do an extra step to view the Mixing board. Shift-M. Whatever it opens as (probably last selected mixing board), make sure Mixer windwow is selected on screen. Go to View / Board Layout (Select same as Track Layout).
Then Mixer board layout will correspond to exactly selected Tracks in Track view layout.

[dwilliams]

After you save the track layout, go to the shortcuts window and search for the layout name you just created and you can assign a short cut key.

[RayMasse]

Hi! just want to write my tip!

I have configure a short cut command on the button F13 on my Mac keyboard the "SELECT TRACK ONLY"
command!

So, when I select a certain type of track (S) (MIDI, Audio, Instrument...) and want to see them in any window view!
(Editor window, mixer window...) I click on F13 and only the track(s) I have selected is now displayed.

I think this tip can help you maybe!

Ray!

PS: that's my first intervention on motunation.com. I feel good! ;@)

[dwilliams]

That's a good one. You can assign short cuts to show/hide any kind of track or any track layout. I have a ton of them assigned on my Stream Deck.

Screenshot 2024-05-20 at 3.50.57 PM.png (111.77 KiB) Viewed 150 times

Screenshot 2024-05-20 at 3.50.05 PM.png (143.39 KiB) Viewed 150 times

[bayswater]

that's my first intervention on motunation.com. I feel good! ;@)

Thanks for the contribution.

[James Steele]

That's a good one. You can assign short cuts to show/hide any kind of track or any track layout. I have a ton of them assigned on my Stream Deck.

To be so specific with the types of tracks that are shown/hidden, are you using a "tagging" system where you add a particular string of characters to the track names and then tigger a macros that does a search in the Track Overview search field for that particular string?

[dwilliams]

All of the "Show/Hide" commands are already built into the DP shortcuts. You just have to assign key commands.

To do the track layouts (besides a couple of basic ones like "Show All"), first create and name the layout. Then open the Commands window and search for the name you just created. The layout has been added by DP but is not yet assigned. Once you find it, just add the key command. The only bummer is, and I hope MOTU fixes this, if you revise the layout, you have to reassign the command. Note that layouts now work in the Tracks Window and the Mixer Window (it used to only work in the Tracks Window). I've never tried it in the Sequence Editor.

Layouts are enormously convenient. Want to see bass & drums? Boom. VCA's only? Boom. So fast.

[James Steele]

All of the "Show/Hide" commands are already built into the DP shortcuts. You just have to assign key commands.

To do the track layouts (besides a couple of basic ones like "Show All"), first create and name the layout. Then open the Commands window and search for the name you just created. The layout has been added by DP but is not yet assigned. Once you find it, just add the key command. The only bummer is, and I hope MOTU fixes this, if you revise the layout, you have to reassign the command. Note that layouts now work in the Tracks Window and the Mixer Window (it used to only work in the Tracks Window). I've never tried it in the Sequence Editor.

Layouts are enormously convenient. Want to see bass & drums? Boom. VCA's only? Boom. So fast.

I get it. Right, Layouts. I think as i recall if you add another track that belongs with say, "Drums," you need to re-save the Layout? I think that was the part that seemed sort of tedious, but I suppose if you made a template that contained placeholder tracks for everything you might normally encounter and then created Layouts from that, it would work. You could recall a Layout and then follow up with a command to show only tracks containing data or enabled tracks?

I have to sit down with this. What I was thinking of was a video that a guy named Evan Goldman posted on YouTube demonstrating his system for naming his tracks and then using Keyboard Maestro macros to instantly filter to show certain types of tracks. I guess the advantage being that as long as you followed the naming convention, it didn't require re-saving a Layout.

Here's the first in the series of videos:

[James Steele]

Addendum: Since I got my Avid S3, I've been using VCA Tracks as a way to group families of instruments together. I'll have VCA Tracks for:

Drums/Percussion
Guitars
Vocals
Keyboard/Synth

I pretty much just leave the VCA tracks at unity. I just use them to take advantage of a feature called VCA Spill on the S3 where I double press the Sel button on a VCA track, and the VCA track moves to Fader 16 (rightmost) and then only the tracks that belong to that VCA group "spill" across faders 1 through 15. Makes finding things quick also. Double pressing the Sel button a second time on the VCA track returns you to the "top level" so to speak.

Anyway... gotta look at this all some more. One nice thing about using EuCon is that you can run Artist Control on iPad/tablet and use the soft key screens as a stand in for a StreamDeck.