A digit at the Track Name end rather than "Copy of"

Cubase
,
1

When you copy a Track the new Track gets e.g the name “Copy of Piano”.
I know it’s a copy and have no use for that clutter. Never. Period.
What I would be able to use would be “Piano 01” or just “Piano” again.

Also, and far worse, say I record some Audio Track and call it “Guitar”.
I pan it to the left and decide I like all the other settings.
I copy the Track and I proceed to record what will be panned to the right.
Only in the Track List it make sense to call this Track a copy of something.
When I have recorded an audio file on “Copy of Guitar” the file name is … “Copy of guitar.wav”!!!
It’s just redundant and counter productive.

I just took a break from writing this just to check.
I created an empty Audio Track called “guitar”.
I copied it twice so now I have

  • guitar
  • Copy of guitar
  • Copy of guitar

Now I recorded some dummy Parts and what’s happening is just the opposite of what I want.
The track called “guitar” records parts and files with predicable and reasonable names.
Any other track is just a mess with files all called “Copy of …” with no reasonable way to figure out what file comes from what Track, which is maybe a theoretical problem, BUT … some day it will bite you in the nose! :astonished:
It’s a mess with the two track above so what about 8 Tracks of guitar???
The information that it’s a copy is completely irrelevant, as opposed to the information that it’s recorded on “Gutar Track 5” or “RubmleGuitarLeft”, especially if you like to do something with the raw files outside of Cubase.

I know I can change the name of the track when I copy it but that’s not what will happen in the real world! :blush:
It would be a great bonus, though, if I just could not have to fight with the freakin’ “Copy of …” crap!
Maybe a few items in the Preference dialog like:
Prefix copies with [ … ]
Suffix new Track names with[ … ] ascending numbers
That way those who like the “Copy of” way can just have it like that and anybody else can have it nice and tidy!

The real problem is human nature and what’'s happening when you’re “just testing” and you’re not sure if it’s worth thinking the Track naming strategy through. You record away til the cows come home and you realize you love what you hear. Then you realize it’s not “just testing” but this project is a keeper so you say “■■■■ this poop, I’m hungry!”, hit CTRL+S and pretend you will fix this some other day! :laughing: :blush:
:sunglasses:

[edit]

knuf this flower, I’m hungry! :laughing:

2

i agree with you, something like:
piano(1)
piano(2)
piano(3)

now if i copy piano(3):
piano(3)(1)
piano(3)(2)

will ensure i can see the name with less screen real state.

3

+1 great suggestion :wink:

Wished it worked like this but never “thunk” to put in a feature request. Weird?

Anyway, you thunk to do it. Nice!

Regards :sunglasses:

4

+1!

5

+1

6

In the mean time, just learn how to do it with a single key press and a PLE script.
It’s easy and fast.
I agree that the copy of is not a great solution, but I never have that issue as the PLE helps me avoid it in two easy steps.

7

+1

8

+1

this makes perfectly sense

piano(1)
piano(2)
piano(3)

now if i copy piano(3):
piano(3)(1)
piano(3)(2)

9

Well exactly that example is a no go, but I fully understand what you mean, but that is the way files that are processed is shown Today and have been for a long time, so until that changes it will have to be shown a bit differently still.

10

This must be THE wish for future updates! Very well put.

11

please, yes

12

+1

13

+1 This one really bugs me!

14

+1

15

A tentative +1, from me in that I hate the “Copy of…” thing.

BUT I think that simply adding a digit could cause confusion if you already have digits on the end of names (as I often do).

Solution: I’d much rather have a setting in preferences where I can choose the behaviour when duplicating tracks, including what, if any, prefix or suffix is added to the source track name.

16

+1

17

+1, of course

18

Hi ErikG - if you have a moment would you be able to share that PLE script please?

(Oh, and to OP … +1!)

19

I’ve managed to do just that with some Autohotkey scripting…

In the video notice that the script isolates the selected track, duplicates it, and changes the name…
The initial duplicate track was called “Copy Of Unique”, but was changed to “Unique-2”…

The current version of the script increment the EndNumber for each following copy until it reaches 99,
So no more “Copy Of Copy Of Copy Of Name”

It’s still a work in progress though, but i can’t imagine that fixing it in cubase would be that hard to do.