Question on a major workflow issue for arrangement

[terminus_one]

(Apologies in advance if this has been covered – I was unable to find the answers anywhere)

Tracktion's simplicity (with it's UI paradigm etc.) is fun and refreshing. I'm very much looking forward to Tracktion 7! Hurry up, guys… please?

However, I do have a major workflow issue / question:

How do you add and remove space, or easily move around groups of things, within the arrangement? E.g. add 4 bars of space at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle. Obviously you can "select all" and move stuff around, but that seems a bit too rudimentary. And it doesn't look like you can drag and move entire markers/regions easily (like you can in Reaper, for example).

Being able to easily create and rearrange sections is crucial for productivity and creativity. The concept of "Edits" does help, but is fairly heavyweight to manage, if you just need to play around with sets of samples, or try out different compositions, or create a compelling breakdown, or flesh out an initial idea into a fully fledged arrangement, and so on.

As a generalisation to the first point, I'd be interested in hearing: how do you find Tracktion's linear sequencing for your own workflow – do you feel you can be productive and creative with it? So far I'm finding that aspect to be the weakest part of Tracktion – it feels too much of a restrictive linear sequencer so far.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[terminus_one]

Additionally – something like Reaper's "ripple editing" [1] would go a long way to improving the workflow.

[1] https://ask.audio/articles/ripple-editing-in-reaper

[crashedthecar]

If someone could show how to script "select all items to the right of cursor", this function could be done with a macro.

Otherwise I don't know.
But yeah ripple editing rocks

[jabe]

(Apologies in advance if this has been covered – I was unable to find the answers anywhere)

Tracktion's simplicity (with it's UI paradigm etc.) is fun and refreshing. I'm very much looking forward to Tracktion 7! Hurry up, guys… please?

However, I do have a major workflow issue / question:

How do you add and remove space, or easily move around groups of things, within the arrangement? E.g. add 4 bars of space at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle. Obviously you can "select all" and move stuff around, but that seems a bit too rudimentary. And it doesn't look like you can drag and move entire markers/regions easily (like you can in Reaper, for example).

Being able to easily create and rearrange sections is crucial for productivity and creativity. The concept of "Edits" does help, but is fairly heavyweight to manage, if you just need to play around with sets of samples, or try out different compositions, or create a compelling breakdown, or flesh out an initial idea into a fully fledged arrangement, and so on.

As a generalisation to the first point, I'd be interested in hearing: how do you find Tracktion's linear sequencing for your own workflow – do you feel you can be productive and creative with it? So far I'm finding that aspect to be the weakest part of Tracktion – it feels too much of a restrictive linear sequencer so far.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

To insert space:

Move Input marker to the point you want to insert the space.
Move Output marker to where the existing stuff will be moved to (so, for instance, if you want to add 4 empty bars, the Output marker will be 4 bars after the Input marker).
Highlight the track (or tracks) you want to affect.
In the Property Pane, choose "Insert Into Tracks" (second item in the middle column).
Select "Insert space in the marked region".

To remove space:

Locate Input and Output markers around the unwanted bars, and highlight track(s).
In the Property Pane, choose "Delete Marked Region" (second to last item in the middle column), and then "Delete marked region of selected tracks and close the gaps".

That should do it.

T7 will allow grouping of clips and we'll hear where that can be useful.

[crashedthecar]

Ha!
that easy after all

[frankvg]

A workaround for arranging: select everything in edit and folder it. Use this folder clip for arranging: you can slice parts and copy/drag them around. Only limitation is tempo and time signatures.

[steff3]

@Jabe : grouping of clips across / on multiple tracks?

Thanks

[jabe]

I'll have to get back to you on that one. What I did think would be good is to be able to select a whole section of a song by just clicking on its marker, so it'd select everything up to the next marker.

[frankvg]

would be good is to be able to select a whole section of a song by just clicking on its marker, so it'd select everything up to the next marker.

I have once requested this, also with the ability to lock tempo and time sig data to the marker. It is hopefully somewhere on the FR list. Obviously we never know what the priorities of the devs are until a new version hits the shelves. Since we can't look under the 'hood' there is no way to see if it could be (simply) added or that it would need a complete rethink and rewrite of lots of code.

[jabe]

would be good is to be able to select a whole section of a song by just clicking on its marker, so it'd select everything up to the next marker.

I have once requested this, also with the ability to lock tempo and time sig data to the marker. It is hopefully somewhere on the FR list. Obviously we never know what the priorities of the devs are until a new version hits the shelves. Since we can't look under the 'hood' there is no way to see if it could be (simply) added or that it would need a complete rethink and rewrite of lots of code.

Indeed - glad to hear you've already suggested it.

My preference is towards having sections in their own edits. I've an ancient Yamaha sequencer (QX21, I think) which allows chunks to be stored and recalled.

[terminus_one]

Thanks @jabe – that certainly helps; is there a shortcut to select all tracks? If not, it may be a bit cumbersome to manually select all tracks every time we want to just add some space in the arrangement.

Thanks again!

[jabe]

Thanks @jabe – that certainly helps; is there a shortcut to select all tracks? If not, it may be a bit cumbersome to manually select all tracks every time we want to just add some space in the arrangement.

Thanks again!

As long as at least one track is already selected, ctrl-A selects all tracks. I assume it'll be the usual Mac equivalent.

[terminus_one]

As long as at least one track is already selected, ctrl-A selects all tracks. I assume it'll be the usual Mac equivalent.

Ha! Yes, that makes a lot of sense – cheers!