FR: Text based markers and an easy way to navigate to them

[nuisance sonore]

I just make a track at the top of the screen, where I put in empty midi clips labeled intro, verse chorus etc. Works good enough for me.

/Jörgen

yeah, that is tbh a perfect solution as far as labelling goes. it even lets you colour code! but the only problem there is that you can't skip automatically to the next 'marker'.

It's also very slow. If I press "M" 20 times and thus inserted 20 markers, how many midi clip can you insert in the same time? Can you do that realtime while a song or a video clip is playing? To me, it's just a workaround for uncomplete markers implementation.

well, you 'sort of' can.. if you select a clip on the 'marker' track, you can 'select' the next/prev ones with alt-left/alt-right. then if you quickly tap END then HOME the cursor will reposition itself to the beginning of the newly selected clip (home will move the cursor to either the beginning of the selected clip or the start of the edit, depending which one it would pass first.. thus if the cursor was already before the clip it would just go to 0.. tapping end first makes sure the cursor is after the clip)

My head is spinning

but yes that's not much of a workaround! personally, i'm happy with 10 markers,

Another problem is that you HAVE to name them in Tracktion, be it just number as it may, and if you lost track and insert a new one using a marker name that was already used, well my friend, you just moved the old marker to the new location and lost the old one. There's no way around it, marker implementation in T is just plain bad.

possible implementation

perhaps just to the left of the 'NEW FILTERS' button at the top right there could be a little round 'M' markers button; click on it and a menu pops up (like when you drag to add a new filter) but it contains a scrollable list of all the markers, named as you have named them. click one and you are moved to it; perhaps it is also 'selected' and becomes the active thing in the properties panel, whereby you can name it, delete it, move it.

That would be sweet, but I would settle with autonaming, renaming capability and a decent number for now.

[haydxn]

yeah, my idea for the button top-right was really a suggestion as to where the buggering christ the list could live effectively without being too much of a bodge.

[nuisance sonore]

BTW haydxn, thanks for the FR, MMC and skin thread, and thanks also to whichever mod made them into a sticky.

[haydxn]

no worries always looking to help make things better

[pdxindy]

m key to add markers is good... definately more than 10 is needed. would be great to be able to import video from Final Cut and have its markers import into Tracktion... and export markers from tracktion with audio into FCP as well...

[nuisance sonore]

The new video capability added to T2 brought a need for improved marker implementation (in my own opinion and workflow, of course).

Here's a summary of what I propose as a request:

One shortcut key to insert marker at cursor position (while playing or at rest); I suggest "M".

Marker would be autonamed by an incremental number by default (from 1 to 99 if there has to be a limit).

Clicking on any marker would bring it's properties up in the properties panel (in keeping with the Tracktion context sensitivity, why mess with a winning combination).

The properties panel would give the options of renaming to marker, with maybe the first ten caracter behing displayed on the top bar, as well as show the position in bar and beat (timecode also? too much to ask?), and , of course, typing new numbers would change marker position as well. Capability of changing color would be sweet as well: one could, for instance, have one marker color for video scene transition while another could be used for proposed tempo change etc.

It goes without saying that the current shortcut used for jumping from marker to marker (-/=) should stay.

Thank you and happy Tracktionning.

[haydxn]

the MCU spec has a command for adding a 'new marker' (without specifying a number- just putting in the next one), working in this manner. i set it up yesterday to call this from my midi keyboard. it still only goes up to 9 however, but Tracktion is already able to do this 'add marker whilst playing'. the only thing it needs to do is have the option for more markers! which of course is something that needs to be incorporated into the whole design, as it needs a place to keep track of them too.

[jplanet]

(on another member's suggestion, this is re-posted here from another thread).

On the past few projects I've done with Tracktion, the single most time-consuming task was rearranging parts for song ideas, especially after several tracks have already been recorded.

For example, if you could define sections of the timeline as intro/verse/chorus/bridge, then set a play order such as intro/chorus/2x verse/1x chorus/4x verse, etc....Then when you have your final arrangement down, you could do something like a render or merge that would sum each track into one continuous clip.

This is similar to a feature in Cubase SX 3.0. It seems like it would be well suited for Tracktion, in that it would really add to the appeal for songwriters, and continue with the "get it done faster" approach.

[hexman]

(on another member's suggestion, this is re-posted here from another thread).

On the past few projects I've done with Tracktion, the single most time-consuming task was rearranging parts for song ideas, especially after several tracks have already been recorded.

For example, if you could define sections of the timeline as intro/verse/chorus/bridge, then set a play order such as intro/chorus/2x verse/1x chorus/4x verse, etc....Then when you have your final arrangement down, you could do something like a render or merge that would sum each track into one continuous clip.

This is similar to a feature in Cubase SX 3.0. It seems like it would be well suited for Tracktion, in that it would really add to the appeal for songwriters, and continue with the "get it done faster" approach.

Yes! Thats what **I** mean by markers. I want the ability to build a song with them. You would probably want ability to mute a track depending if you are in the "intro" / "bridge" etc of the song.....