Best way to move whole regions of track

[Clusterfrog]

Hi I've been struggling for a long time to easily move whole chunks of my track

Say I want to shift everything a few bars left, or copy a bit and have it later on in the track

In ableton I'd select any clip that spanned the width I want, select 'cut time', then place the cursor where I want the time, then do 'paste time' - this would shift everything along and place it in there

I've been using the time select tool to cut and paste whole regions (just dealing with the fact that there is no 'insert' - I have to shuffle along whatever is after it manually if I don't want to overwrite).

I just find it too fiddly, there is no easy way to select the region I want. I have to zoom in to find the exact start, which makes scrolling to find the end very slow and tiresome. Then when I go to paste it, I have to select a period of time that is no shorter or longer than the bit I want to copy otherwise it truncates or duplicates.. nightmare.. especially so if my section does not fit neatly onto the larger grid lines - as I cannot zoom out and select a lower resolution grin.

I imagine moving stuff around is really essential to any workflow and this is really tedious so I guess I must be missing something

[u-u-u]

You can select a region by using the time selection tool in the arranger timeline.

Then you should have a look into the 'Edit' menu (or I think in the right click menu on the selected region). There you should find commands for cutting regions, deleting time, duplicating regions, inserting silence(select a time range for this first), copying/pasting regions.

In this you also can find the shortcuts (or use CTRL+Enter for the command popup). Most of the time the normal copy and paste shortcuts + shift. Then it should be quicker to work with such stuff.

Another thing: these region commands also work when you do a time selection on only some of the tracks. Then only the clips/automation on the selected tracks is affected. So make sure to select the region in the arranger timeline if you want to move regions of the whole arrangement.

[Clusterfrog]

Yes as I said I'm already using the time selection tool. After some more experimenting with the cut/paste track region, I have found I can avoid the duplication/truncating issue by simply clicking on the timeline with the time selection tool and selecting paste, rather than selecting a region. That's half the problem - although with no 'paste time' it's just a bit tedious that I might have to shuffle the rest of the track along or use 'insert silence' first.

I still have the problem, and this is the bit I'm really struggling with, of it being difficult to actually select the region of time I want in the first place. I have to zoom in close to find the start, and then can't drag to the end because I'm so zoomed in it is miles away. If I could zoom in/out and keep my time selection in place, so I could easily drag the end marker to the desired place, it would be fine, but switching to zoom mode loses the time selection.

[llze]

i use the group tracks for this usually. Just cut the part of the group region i want and move it else where.

[FortunOfficial]

I do it similar to Suloo but a bit more advanced. I have a "master group", that contains all tracks of my song. Then it basically works as a block, and I can quickly duplicate stuff.

[u-u-u]

Good idea with the groups. Little feature idea: maybe there should be a function that could wrap a whole project into a group.

So master track becomes group master track and all other tracks of the project including sends are automatically moved into that group.

[llze]

you can put whole projects into groups, just drag an drop all your tracks into a group and enter the group. Then that group track is your master. You can also save it as a group and import it into other tracks.

[u-u-u]

Yeah, i know. I'm just too lazy to move the fx devices from the master track onto the new group track

But truth is, some good workflow techniques ideas just get lost because of lazyness. Maybe I should write them down to take them out when hitting a creators block.
My workflow idea here was: Work out the beat 'from the inside out'. So start working on one sound element. This can be complex and contain multiple tracks of content/edits/automation plus sends, master FX and dependencies between the tracks like e.g. sidechain or audio-/note receivers. Then pack the whole thing into a group, fold that up and add an additional element that complements the first element. This again can get very complex. And again pack the whole thing into a group and start adding stuff. And so on... If you do it right and make sonic space for the indiviual elements from time to time (eq-ing/filtering, ducking, panning, distorting, -> mixing) you should be able to get pretty complex and very interesting beats/textures/compositions.

[FortunOfficial]

But truth is, some good workflow techniques ideas just get lost because of lazyness. Maybe I should write them down to take them out when hitting a creators block.

Do it! I have made notes in the Mac Notes program. Title is "Creative Production Tips" and I note down everything there when I see good ideas in forums, blog posts, etc. This then contains things such as "use audio mod to sidechain synth to a drum clip and feed modulation to serum fx filter" or "automate delay feedback for transitions and add distortion in feedback fx".

I always check this list when I open up Bitwig to get an initial idea and create a song around it in no time!

[u-u-u]

Do it!

Thanks for the motivation! I'll try and see how that pays off in the end... Though I'll do it in OneNote

[SoundLight]

you can put whole projects into groups, just drag an drop all your tracks into a group and enter the group. Then that group track is your master. You can also save it as a group and import it into other tracks.

Thanks all for sharing your awesome ideas

[Clusterfrog]

Thanks the grouping the whole track idea will certainly be very useful

If I can just get a solution the selecting the exact bit I am interested problem - I am in business

Say i have a 1 bar fill in before a drop, but want to copy the drop onwards - the bit I want no longer fits neatly on a grid line.

Can anyone advise on how to get the selector to snap to the start of that without having to zoom in on my track loads.