Pinpoint to region with Cursor

Community Ideas for Ardour
#1

So far I can’t find this quick feature. As dragging the red line around is slow.

One click and then the new play point or start to record point is accessed.

I have Ardour installed on Bodhi with Jack and Windows 10 with the Asio from Focusrite.

The windows with Jack is also installed yet too confusing at the input output prompts so I’m just using the Asio.

My test recordings are similar,
although Linux is slightly higher pitched in the top notes. (priority 95)
& Windows is more blurry sounding overall.

I’m adding in a preamp sometime this week, so the results will change at bit more.

Another update would be either a reference to the customization of colors for the tracks & regions, as those are difficult to remember, which gtk or selected item color goes for what.
& yes more colors would be better.

Here’s a screenshot of some of the customizing possibles.
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#2

Sorry,. I don’t understand what this feature is supposed to be. There are already shortcuts to move the playhead to the next or previous region boundary.

There are no guides for creating themes. There are 5 themes that come with Ardour already, and in version 6.0 the number of colors and their names have been somewhat rationalized and reduced in number. That’s as good as it gets … until some (maybe yourself!) steps up to right a more definitive guide.

#3

If I am understanding you correctly, what you are looking for is the ‘P’ key on the keyboard, which will cause the playhead to jump to the mouse cursor.

And yes in A6, if you change the track color via a group, the regions should also incorporate that color as well.

Assuming I am understanding you correctly.

    Seablade
#4

Yes; the left click and “P” work, however as it is with a simpler program, such as audacity you just select with 1 click.

Moving your arms around like in a madness is just that, too many sticky keys.
They’re just nonsense that waste time learning and time during,
when there are far more objectives to accomplish in this life rather than proving you are “young” and “able” to wave your arms around as you type. & not everybody has long arms and hands ready to reach for the keys all over the place.

Ardour has good recorded sound, and that’s its specialty.
If it can be simplified you would attract more people to download the product.

Good for you that you don’t get tired waving your arms about,
but I think it’s just excessive nonsense. :laughing:

#5

that’s a lot of fairly aggressive or at least energetic words that don’t provide much ability to help you.

What is it that you actually want?

#6

Therein lies the difference, Audacity is more than just a simpler program, it is a very different program as an audio editor instead of a DAW. It is MUCH more difficult to do a lot of things I consider simple in Ardour, for instance moving the start of a region to align precisely with another, or editing precisely on the start of the region.

As a result I would argue any DAW will take a different UI than Audacity and many audio editors do, which are much more focused on editing specific audio files.

By the way if you want a ‘simpler’ product used with Ardour’s codebase, go take a look at Waves Tracks Live. But the catch is it still isn’t necessarily ‘simple’ to learn or operate, even though it has a VASTLY reduced feature set, but it is VERY efficient in it’s use case.

    Seablade
#7

It was just a suggestion to point with the cursor and click - To the exact place on a preferred region.

Without using more keys.

I believe once I even had the feature working on linux for a short time.

That was all.

Thank you anyway, I will go away and struggle through on my own.
I have other Ardour issues to learn about, I thought I would just mention the cosmetic features first.

#8

There’s no need to go away, or struggle on your own.

You can point and click in the rulers to jump directly to a point.

You can’t point and click in a track because that can have totally different implications that we consider more important than moving the playhead there. You might be selecting a region, or a track for example.

You might enjoy enabling “follow selection”, which will automatically move the playhead to the start of whatever is currently selected. With that enabled, clicking on a region will (1) select the region which will then (2) cause the playhead to move to the start of the region.

But you need to keep in mind that “move mouse pointer and click” is the simplest and thus most important mouse operation you can perform, and in Ardour that does not move the playhead, but is used for selection (which we believe to be more important and common).

#9

zayvra please try what Paul has just suggested: click around the rulers, and considering your screenshot I feel you would get more satisfying results if you activate at least one more ruler like “location Marker”, that way you will have a little more easy to access space to aim.

#10

I had the same feeling when I started using Ardour after using Reaper for years.

In Reaper, clicking while using the select tool (no modifier key) can both select a regions and move the cursor, in Ardour it will only select the region. However if you are using the range select tool then you can click anywhere you like and it will move the cursor, but it won’t select underlying regions.

For my workflow I prefer the Reaper approach, using the ruler for range selection and clicking anywhere I like to move the cursor. But I can see that if range selecting is something you do a lot then the Ardour method will be better. Although since we have two tools I don’t see why we can’t have both types of functionality (unless the select tool does other things which I haven’t yet discovered).

#11

Thanks for the great info! it will speed up tasks for sure. Follow selection is very helpful, then the right left arrows can be used quickly with 1/32 etc. My hands are small and all those far reaching keys just tire me out, & I lose my energy to sing. Singing arias can be arduous, and the hand and arm movements need to be saved for singing.

Thank you for your expert advice.

#12

I will look into adding location markers, thank you for the info. :slightly_smiling_face:

#13

It is odd, as the cursor is way is obvious and direct. “I want to go there, now!”, Big computer babies that we are.
Learning the new methods invite hesitation and can slow one down.
They’re probably using some sort of mouse cursor compiled libraries,
so perhaps they aren’t compatible to include both.
The instant feature would bring more users though, as we’re trained with most all other programs to just point and click, and get what we want instantly. :blush:

#14

In Ardour, when you select “Smart” mode alongside the grab tool, you get range selection in the upper half of a region and grab in the lower half. So you can have both here as well.

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#15

Range markers work to the exact play point! Great news.
The select a region with a cursor, with follow range activated, then grid 1/32 ie. right or left arrow also work.

Thanks for the info. It’s like a new program now.

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