"Fill With..." over selected bar range?

[tonedef71]

I was wondering... is it possible to first select a track; then select a range of bars in the composition window; and then invoke one of the "Fill Track With..." operations to fill just the selected range of bars with phrases/generators?

If this is not possible, would it be a reasonable enhancement to implement?

BTW: I'm not sure what should happen if the selected phrase/generator can not fit completely within the selected range of bars (perhaps slip-clip the phrase/generator?).

[themixtape]

+1,000 - I'll email Attila about this, too. Brilliant.

Maybe a SHIFT+F thing with a pop-up window asking you from which bar to which bar). Regular letter F just fills the entire Composition.

I'm not sure if having an active section will prevent the Comp from filling entirely (using the Structure Inspector).... but, something to consider, for sure.

[yellukhan]

Very useful idea
+1

[musicdevelopments]

tonedef71, thanks for the good idea! You will get it in 2-3 days in the next update.

It will work like the 'new' MIDI drag-and-drop: if there is selection on the timeline, that will be used. Without timeline selection, the currently active line, part or whole composition is filled.


On a related subject I need your opinion: I don't like the way deselecting the timeline range works. Dragging on the timeline to select a range is OK. But anywhere you click (e.g. to move the playback position) the selection will be removed, and this is annoying. How would you like deselection work on the timeline? (I would like to reserve double-clicking for splitting/glueing lines in the future). Maybe another drag operation, or a long mouse-click. The latter is used now for zooming but it could turn off selection. I don't know...

Thanks!
Attila

[pinki]

I'm so used to these two universal shortcuts on a mac:

command-A = select all
command D = de-select all

I notice that cmd-A does not select all in RC which is a bit confusing for us mac users.

[yellukhan]

Shift + drag to select
Shift + click to remove selection ?

[musicdevelopments]

pinki,
you are right. This will be fixed soon by defining 'focus' areas in the UI where standard selection/deselection/delete/cut/copy/paste/move operations will work with keyboard shortcuts.

Thanks,
Attila

[tonedef71]

tonedef71, thanks for the good idea! You will get it in 2-3 days in the next update.

Thank you, that is awesome!

On a related subject I need your opinion: I don't like the way deselecting the timeline range works. Dragging on the timeline to select a range is OK. But anywhere you click (e.g. to move the playback position) the selection will be removed, and this is annoying. How would you like deselection work on the timeline? (I would like to reserve double-clicking for splitting/glueing lines in the future). Maybe another drag operation, or a long mouse-click. The latter is used now for zooming but it could turn off selection. I don't know...

Good point. Cakewalk Sonar Xn handles a similar issue with respect to specifying the boundaries of loop playback in the time ruler -- it uses two toggle buttons: one toggle button when clicked will turn on (and maintain) selection for the currently highlighted area in the time ruler, or turn off selection (regardless of any highlighted area in the time ruler); the other toggle button when clicked will set/update the bounds of the selection to match the currently highlighted area in the time ruler. To recap, one button [A] to (de)activate the time ruler selection, and one button to (re)define the bounds of the time ruler selection:


Pinki brings up a good point about standard keyboard shortcuts. In MS Windows, Ctrl+A selects everything (analogous to the Cmd+A in OS X). If Cmd+D is to be used for deselection in the Mac version, then I think the Windows version should use Ctrl+D (to be analogous to Cmd+D in OS X). I would like to see RC use more of the "standard" keyboard shortcuts by default. Perhaps this will be possible with the new customizable key bindings sub-system that is planned for the next RC release?

While drag & drop can be a useful UI mechanism, I do not like to rely solely on it; keeping the mouse button held down and dragging for long distances can be real cumbersome and error-prone (especially with a touch pad).

[musicdevelopments]

Shift + drag to select
Shift + click to remove selection ?

I love this!
In addition so that dragging would not be mandatory,
Shift+click to define one endpoint of the selection, and another Shift+click to define the other endpoint. A third Shift-click would deselect it.

Thanks for the suggestions!