(PT) Write to selection in Play mode (not to the whole session)
Hello Christian, Im sorry if I've become kind of bother guy.
Also sorry for my English (its not perfect...).
But I think this one can be REALLY important and can speed up everyone's workflow...
Usually in PT you can normally write "previewed" automation to selection only in transport stop mode. If you will do it while transport was playing back, the PT will write all the changed automation to the whole session. If I understand it properly, it is impossible to change this behaviour in PT itself.
So, there are two questions, related to each other:
1 - Is there a way to prevent a PT from writing previewed automation to the whole session?
2 - Is it possible to make PT write to selection (not to the whole session) even when it played back? (i.e. PT will write to selection always, regardless it STOP/PLAY status)
If the answers will be "no" for both questions, Ive got a 3rd question:
3 - Is it possible to use SF to make PT behave this way:
-
When writing previewed automation to selection, it will suppress "The values of all previewing controls <...>" [screenshot 1] dialogue window.
(so PT will behave like option "Suppress Automation "Write To..." Warnings" in Preferences --> Mixing is checked ON [screenshot 2]), -
When writing previewed automation to the whole session (i.e. when you click on "write on selection" while PT was played back), it won't suppress dialogue "The last play pass included one or mare "Write to All" commands <...>" [screenshot 3]
(so PT will behave like option "Suppress Automation "Write To..." Warnings" in Preferences --> Mixing is checked OFF [screenshot 4])
I think that it can do mixing workflow so much simpler. (You do not need to stop every time when you need to write all the changed parameters).
I understand that it can be really hard to do but this thing can be really helpful.
Thank you very much and have a good day! :)
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2019-10-04 08:24:17.066ZWe already support this workflow via the "...(+ Confirmation Dialog)" commands in the Automation Window package.
These commands will suppress the warning dialog if the automation you wrote was safe (that is, not to the entire session). IF you did do an unsafe write (ie. to the whole session) we'll let the dialog stay open so you can revert your change.
Stepan Sevastyanov @Stepan_SevastyanovThank you, Christian! It's great to have such a feature! I'll give it a try on the next mixing session. :)
However, what Im really interesting in is an ability to write to selection even if the selection was made during playback. Also, I want to forbid PT to write to the whole session. You can read details of the idea in my reply to Sean's post below.
- SIn reply toStepan_Sevastyanov⬆:Sean @SeanH
it looks like you are using an older version of pro tools — and I believe they didn't introduce the more robust warning systems for writing automation to the entire timeline until fairly recently, so this may not work properly on pro tools 10
but the trick here is to keep the default pro tools messages for writing to selection ON (don't supress warnings in prefs) - then use the SF command called "Write Automation to Selection (+confirmation dialogue)"
this will automatically close the warning message if you are writing automation to a specific selection — but if you accidentally hit write during a play pass and write to the whole timeline, it will leave the different warning message for that open.
it works great for me, and I actually really like that the default warning message still flashes onscreen before SF automatically closes it as it gives me visual feedback that the automation write was successful.
- SSean @SeanH
the other thing to know about this is — the transport state being in playback isn't actually what causes automation to write over the whole timeline.
it has to do with whether or not you had a Selection BEFORE you put pro tools in playback.
so you can actually successfully "write to selection" while pro tools is in playback as long as you had a timeline selection before you put pro tools in playback on that pass, if that makes sense.
but if there was no timeline selection before hitting play, then you go into playback and make a selection during playback, and hit write to selection - its going to write to the full timeline becauses it's based on the selection that was made prior to playback.
- In reply toSeanH⬆:Stepan Sevastyanov @Stepan_Sevastyanov
Hello, Sean! Thank you a lot for answering in a thread — I really welcome your interest.
The screenshot is from PT10 from my old home system. I almost never using it today. I mainly work at the studio, where we have newer PT versions (ranging from PT12 to PT2019).
Thank you for clarifying about process when making the pre-selection, then pushing play, then write to selection even in play — the process which wont ruin the whole automation. I knew about this, however, I almost never use this feature.
For me it is not the solution of the problem because generally I'm firstly play back the session, then start mixing (still in playback) and mak the decisions. Under "decisions" I mean the kind of automation i need write (plugin parameters, pan, bypasses etc), how long the selection need to be, and so on. When I've made the decisions and put all the needed tracks to preview, I need to write it to selection, so I can continue automate the tracks to the new state. But the obligation to stop playback first really slows my workflow down . The workaround, as you said, to make a selection prior to playback. But I don't really like it because I don't always know in advance to what particular selection I need to write the changed automation. Sometimes I really can decide it only during playback when I'll preview the automation.
So I'm mixing mainly in play mode (it seems very logical to me because only in play mode i hear the sound changes, lol) and i want to write the automation in play, wothout the interruptions. And the logic of writing to the whole session always seemed very "weird" and "illogical" to me, as well as inability (IMO) to change this behaviour in preferences...
So what Im thinking about — Is it possible to forcefully (with the help of scripts) make Pro Tools to write previewed parameters ALWAYS to selection which is made in the moment when the button "write to selection" was pressed?
Thank you a lot for getting interested and helping me! :)
Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2019-10-11 11:18:44.663ZHi Stepan
Unfortunately I don't see a way for SoundFlow to change this inherent behavior in Pro Tools :/
All we can do is automate existing functionality, but this to me sounds impossible to do at the moment.- Stepan Sevastyanov @Stepan_Sevastyanov
Thanks for reply, Christian! I undestand these PT limiting behaviour... Little bit sad about all of these limitations (this always've been a problem - for example, every editor need to reconform his sessions in realtime because of that, etc...)
Sean's idea is really close to what I'm looking for, I've responded to his reply. We'll see what we can do about this feature in future (for now im really busy for a few months)
- In reply toStepan_Sevastyanov⬆:SSean @SeanH
Ya I totally agree the inherent way pro tools behaves here doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. But its been the behavior for so long I don't foresee avid changing it. And in this specific instance i don't think soundflow can go against or revert the inherent behavior.
HOWEVER - one idea I had that soundflow should be able to do to alleviate this issue —
— could replace the "write to selection" soundflow command with a script where soundflow first checks whether or not pro tools transport is currently in playback, and refuses to proceed forward with the write command if you are in playback. then you could have the script proceed forward with the automation write as soon as playback is stopped automatically, or you could just have the command canceled, and then re-trigger once you stop playback.
— additionally, and this one is a little more complicated to code but seems possible — could have a script where when you invoke the write to selection soundflow command, SF will automatically check whether or not you actually have a pro tools selection or not, and if you don't, SF will issue a warning and then give the option to either cancel the command, or wait for you to make a proper selection, before proceeding forward. the difference here, as opposed to the default pro tools warning messages, is that you don't lose your preview buffer by triggering this write command and then canceling it or undoing it in the normal way if you accidentally wrote to the full timeline. currently if you trigger a write to selection that is going to write to the whole timeline, pro tools WILL warn you about it, but it won't give you the option to cancel it other then UNDOing it afterward, which if you have spent a lot of time tweaking things in the preview buffer, could be painful. SF could help with that by preventing the command from ever proceeding if you are going to write to the entire timeline, or better, giving you the option to prevent it from proceeding.
- Stepan Sevastyanov @Stepan_Sevastyanov
Hello Sean and sorry for not responding for a few weeks (it was a kinda hardworking time so almost no free time at all...)
I totally agree with you opinion. Both ideas are good, but second seems to be the best solution for now. How we can make it work?
Also, you write "SF could help with that by preventing the command from ever proceeding if you are going to write to the entire timeline, or better, giving you the option to prevent it from proceeding." I think that the option to prevent writing would be better just because there wont be a chance that you can ruin all your automation in certain parameters by writting to the whole timeline. If I'll need to write to entire timeline (this happens really rare) I can select all the timeline manually in these situations - it wont be really long but will prevent from accidental automation loss.
It would be great if someone will try to make these ideas work. I think it can be handy for a lot of mixers, not only me and you. Maybe I could try to do it myself, but it will be in January or later (Im making my first feature film as a supervising sound editor for the end of December and im really havent free time, also). Also I dont know JS at all, so I need to study it first (maybe Ill try to do this in January, too).
Jason King @Jason_KingDid you guys find a solution for this?
- Stepan Sevastyanov @Stepan_Sevastyanov
@Jason_King hi, nope we didnt