I’m trying to set up a workflow to edit without having to reach for a mouse.
As an example, I get in a dialogue track and need to clean up breaths, cut out unwanted takes, etc. Currently I make use of the range took, resizing handles on the events, etc. but this is a very slow way to work.
I’d like to be able to accomplish this all via the keyboard, e.g. move cursor to the range begin point, press a modifier key of some kind and keyboard scroll to the end of the range, have it recognized as a range so I can then delete it, etc.
I also have a Mackie MCU, and could go that route as well. Anything would be better than having to wiggle a mouse.
I’ve been looking through all the commands for keyboard shortcuts and not finding anything I can hang my hat on.
For me at least, using the mouse is the most cumbersome workflow where never taking my hands off the keyboard is faster. I figure I’m not the only one who has this preference, so I was wondering if anyone has succeeded in creating a mouse-free editing workflow.
Would appreciate any tips or tricks you might have.
Yeah, I have some macros that do the breath removal, I was just trying to see if I could do the whole editing process without involving a rodent. I gather from the lack of responses that I’m trying to do something that Cubase isn’t wired to do.
Perhaps they don’t want to run afoul of the mouse union?
I’m not quite sure I’m following you, but based on this, it seems like a LE preset could be created. I pretty much only copy other peoples LE presets and modify for myself, but hopefully someone will chime in here. I would not give up just yet.
I’m not sure the MCU would have anything to do with this however Metagrid would certainly be an advantage with just it’s customizable buttons and it’s own “macros.”
As an example, let’s say I’ve got a dialogue track with three different takes. I want to go to the middle take and cut out the others.
I can map a key to move the cursor using an arrow key, and I can use Alt-X to make two cuts, then the arrow keys to select the other events and delete them. So far, so good. However, if I want to resize the event, I have to reach for the mouse.
In a similar fashion, I have a macro that splits up an event based on cutting out breaths, so that works at scale. However, it’s based on settings that may or may not be appropriate for all breaths in the event. If I want to manually manage a given breath, I have to use the mouse to select a range. Once selected, I can delete it, or even raise or lower the volume, but to do so, I have to use the mouse.
These are just a couple of examples, but it’s illustrative of my (perhaps unrealistic) goal. Any time I have to lift my right hand off the keyboard, reach for the mouse, then fiddle around to position it exactly where I want, it slows me down. This is what I’m trying to avoid, but the UI is heavily weighted towards mouse interaction.
Anyone old enough to remember Jinx the Cat will understand when I say, “I hate meeces to peices.”
“If” does a lot of work in my world. It probably deserves a raise.
Trying to avoid the mouse isn’t looking very practical, so I may just have to go with macros that do bulk work based on assumptions / default values, and then use the mouse to fix the instances where the assumptions were wrong, e.g. the bulk de-breath and split macro I use (which I may well have gotten from you), Still mousing around, but less of it.
