I work with big templates and sessions with lots of tracks and therefore find the Find Tracks function (in the project window) invaluable.
I have 3 simple ideas that would make this function even more useful:
1. The ability to select multiple tracks (using ctrl-click and shift-click)
When I search for a certain track name, there will often be several related or adjacent tracks that I want to select and show. E.g. all tracks that have the word ‘snare’ in the track name. I now have to press Ctrl-F several times and enter the same search term each time to add those tracks one by one. It would be great if we could select several tracks using ctrl-click or shift-click and then press enter to show all of these.
2. The ability to filter by track type
It is now hard to see in the search results whether a track is MIDI, audio, group, etc. and it is quite common for e.g. MIDI and audio tracks to have the same name. It would therefore be great if the Find Tracks window would have a track type filter (similar to the one in the project window). That way you can choose to search only MIDI tracks, only audio tracks, etc.
If the track type filter is hard to implement, showing legible track type icons before the track names, clearly identifying the search results as MIDI track, audio track, instrument track, etc. would already be a great help.
3. The ability to audition MIDI and instrument tracks on single-click (temporarily activating Monitor for that track)
This would pertain to MIDI tracks and instrument tracks only and would be a huge workflow enhancement for big templates! This allows you to search for instrument tracks or MIDI tracks with a certain name and actually play them when single-clicked in the search results list, without having to select and show them in the project window first. You could keep all your visibility settings in the project window as is, step through a few instrument/MIDI tracks to audition their sound, and then only add them if you know you are going to need them.
Now, if we could start playback while auditioning a track, that would be even cooler .
I am sure these suggestions would be very helpful to many users.
I landed here looking specifically for his Suggestion #1 – regarding Filtering (whether in the track list, or Mixers), this is the exact same Ask that I have.
Furthermore, I would like to also vote for a ‘Select All Filtered Results’ button, somewhere within the Filter features.
e.g. If you have a huge track count, and want to select all Snares (like in Seahawk’s example), then filter for text: “Snare”, and then when the results appear, click ‘Select All Results’. Form there, you can right click and modify tracks/channels visibility, to exclusively view those Snare tracks you’ve selected! Boom. Huge time saving there.
Cheers. Thanks for the good suggestions, Seahawk.
Steinberg, I absolutely Love everything you’ve done with the last few releases of Cubase. You guys are killing it! …getting things so dialed in.
and then I’m also consistent with name tags - Drm for Drum, Voc for Vocals, Gtr for guitars, Syn for synth - etc, etc. And then are more specific subtags like ‘VocLd’ for Lead Vocal, and VocLdDbl for Lead Vocal Double.
I’ve trained myself to just be consistent with my naming, and come up with my own sort of code language to find things quickly.
That at least solves 1 and 2 for you, albeit, will require some manual organizational to stay on top of.
+1
The list should be way longer. It should take up the whole screen for templates with a few hundred tracks. Searching in Cubase needs an overhaul. Tracks, Key commands, Automation lanes etc.
Search track notes within the same Find Tracks function (using a checkbox).
So we can start our own tagging system without crowding the track name or abbreviating beyond recognition/memory.
Then we can use descriptive phrases, references anything. It would be a life saver. I’m currently nearing 1400 tracks in my nuendo template.
@vncvr solution is the only current method, but its a big commitment to start such a convention and dedicate the space in the name for it.
Tagging is great, but does not solve my suggestion 1: the ability to select multiple tracks (using ctrl-click and shift-click). This feature alone would be hugely helpful.
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