Sub-Dividing arrays for Podcast Editing Script

Hey everybody,

Does anybody know of simple way (hopefully just a method) to subdivide an array within itself?

I’m working on something for podcast editors in which, after strip-silencing away the “dead space,” we’d slide the clips over without disturbing the conversational timings between speakers. Assume each speaker has their own microphone and track. The net effect would be an identical conversation without any of the extra pauses or “umms” that tend to add 15 minutes of nothingness to an hour-long show.

In layman’s explanation, I am collecting all of the information about the selected clips at the very beginning and sorting them them by Start time. TrackName is one of the criteria that also pops up when collecting this data. After data collection, I’d like to sub-divide the array into smaller sections every time the “Track Name” changes. I'm referring to this as a "clip set" in my code.

I believe that I have the “action” function done, but without sub-dividing the grand array into "clip sets", the double-layer index's I'm trying to target (as clipsets) obviously don't exist for my action function.

This is my current progress:

function promptClipDistance() { // Prompt for clip spacing in seconds
    const iconPath = `/Users/randybrown/Documents/Professional Materials/SoundFlowRandyIcon.png`
    const iconExists = sf.file.exists({ path: iconPath }).exists

    let spacingInSeconds = sf.interaction.displayDialog({
        prompt: 'Please set your clip spacing (in seconds):',
        title: 'Clear the Air',
        defaultAnswer: "0.25", // Default to 25 milliseconds
        hiddenAnswer: false,
        icon: iconExists ? iconPath : undefined
    }).text

    if (spacingInSeconds === '') {
        throw 'Please Set a Clip Spacing in Seconds'
    }

    //Converts Seconds to Samples for easy entry
    const sampleRate = sf.app.proTools.getSessionSampleRate().sampleRateNumerical;
    const clipSpacing = parseFloat(spacingInSeconds) * sampleRate;

    return clipSpacing;
}

function createClipsArray() {
    let clips = Array.from(sf.app.proTools.getSelectedClipInfo().clips);
    clips.sort((a, b) => Number(a.startTime) - Number(b.startTime));
    return clips;
}

function spaceClips(time) {

    sf.keyboard.press({ keys: "alt+shift+h" }); //Open Space Clips
    sf.ui.proTools.windows.whoseTitle.is("Space Clips").first.elementWaitFor()

    sf.ui.proTools.windows.whoseTitle.is("Space Clips").first.popupButtons.first.popupMenuSelect({ menuPath: ["Samples"] });

    const win = sf.ui.proTools.windows.whoseTitle.is("Space Clips").first;
    let spaceField = win.textFields.whoseTitle.is("NumericEntryText").allItems[0];

    win.elementWaitFor();

    if (spaceField.value.invalidate().value.trim() !== time) {
        spaceField.elementClick();
        sf.keyboard.press({ keys: "backspace" });
        sf.keyboard.type({ text: time });

        let i = 0;
        while (spaceField.value.invalidate().value.trim() !== time) {
            sf.wait({ intervalMs: 100 });
            i++;
            if (i >= 20) throw `Could not update number field`;
        }

        sf.ui.proTools.windows.whoseTitle.is("Space Clips").first.buttons.whoseTitle.is("Apply").first.mouseClickElement();

        win.windowClose();
        win.elementWaitFor({ waitType: "Disappear" });
    }
}

function processClipSets(masterArray, spacing) {

    /* The first and second clip offset set needs to be processed on its own. When utilizing the final clipset, we can't
    be using (i+1) */

    let firstClipSet = masterArray[0]
    let secondClipSet = masterArray[1]

    let secondClipSetStart = secondClipSet[0].startTime
    let firstClipSetEnd = firstClipSet[firstClipSet.length].endTime
    let relativeOffset = Number(secondClipSetStart) - Number(firstClipSetEnd);

    //Target First Track for processing
    sf.app.proTools.tracks.invalidate()
    sf.app.proTools.selectTracksByName({ trackNames: firstClipSet[0].trackName, selectionMode: "Replace" });

    //Target First Set of Clips
    sf.app.proTools.setTimelineSelection({ inTime: firstClipSet[0].startTime, outTime: firstClipSet[firstClipSet.length].endTime })

    //Execute
    spaceClips(spacing);

    //Grab end of NEWLY CREATED selection. This will be the launch-point for the relative paste
    let newTrackAnchorPoint = sf.app.proTools.getTimelineSelection().outTime //Update, will need for offset
    let secondClipSetPastePoint = Number(newTrackAnchorPoint) + relativeOffset //Now that first clipset was reorganzied, this is the adjusted start point for next clip set.

    //Target second clip set Track
    sf.app.proTools.tracks.invalidate()
    sf.app.proTools.selectTracksByName({ trackNames: secondClipSet[0].trackName, selectionMode: "Replace" });

    //Target clips (haven't been moved yet)
    sf.app.proTools.setTimelineSelection({ inTime: secondClipSetStart, outTime: secondClipSet[secondClipSet.length].endTime })

    //Paste Second Clipset to Start in its new location
    sf.app.proTools.cut()
    sf.app.proTools.setTimelineSelection({ inTime: secondClipSetPastePoint.toString() })
    sf.app.proTools.paste()

    //Second clip set adjusted. Timeline now has a new anchorpoint
    spaceClips(spacing)

    //Loop starts at 3rd clip set
    for (let i = 2; i < masterArray.length; i++) {

        newTrackAnchorPoint = sf.app.proTools.getTimelineSelection().outTime

        const currentClipSet = masterArray[i]
        const previousClipSet = masterArray[i - 1]

        let currentClipSetStart = currentClipSet[0].startTime
        let previousClipSetEnd = previousClipSet[previousClipSet.length].endTime
        let relativeOffset = Number(currentClipSetStart) - Number(previousClipSetEnd);

        let pastePoint = Number(newTrackAnchorPoint) + relativeOffset //Now that first clipset was reorganzied, this is the adjusted start point for next clip set.

        //Target Track. Track data is being pulled from the first clip data in the current clipset.
        sf.app.proTools.selectTracksByName({ trackNames: currentClipSet[0].trackName, selectionMode: "Replace" })

        //Target the Clips to
        sf.app.proTools.setTimelineSelection({ inTime: currentClipSet[0].startTime, outTime: currentClipSet[currentClipSet.length].endTime })

        sf.app.proTools.cut()

        sf.app.proTools.setTimelineSelection({ inTime: pastePoint.toString() })

        sf.app.proTools.paste()

        spaceClips(spacing)
    }
}

function main() {

    sf.ui.proTools.appActivateMainWindow();

    sf.app.proTools.setMainCounterFormat({ value: "Samples" })

    //Enables Edit/Timeline Link
    sf.soundflow.runCommand({ commandId: 'user:ckp49i4j60000a2100yfwywgf:cksb6kui000147g10vv94f9t2#cks0ssycu0007hu10mpyprc8d' })

    let clips = createClipsArray();
    let spacing = promptClipDistance();

    //HELP HERE! I need a function before this that splits the clips array into chunks (clipsets) every time the speaker/track changes. These sub-arrays will be used to make the following "for loop" work.
    processClipSets(clips, spacing);

    sf.app.proTools.setMainCounterFormat({ value: "MinSecs" }); //Sets back to min/secs because it's most helpful for podcast editing.

}

main();

Would appreciate any help! I think we can save people some serious time with this one and thanks in advance!