New Project Logical Editor / Logical Editor Improvements, Custom Scripts, Auto-LE(ALE), AI

[awesomeaudio]

I’ve got quite a few I will keep updating here,

A basic one at hand right now:

Generate Name - Only allows one type of numbering format

Generate Name can only do 1,2,3,4,5

If I put 001, it should do 001,002,003,004,etc

Generate Name Script (User Customized Script)

Not sure if this possible, but I’ve been thinking about whether or not PLE could have user created scripts.

For example if someone has 32 record inputs, they could create different lists of track names they could apply to all 32.

Or generate note names

etc

Classic PLE Function/Behaviour Broken

Open an LE or PLE preset via a standard menu and key command without applying it - Cubase - Steinberg Forums

Solution/Feature Request:

PLE Prompt Window

Logic is as follows

• Any activated Action Prompts are called always called open regardless of if Auto-Apply is on or off.
• If auto-apply is on, but there is an Action Prompt activated, that prompt appears, the user enters data and hits enter - and then auto-apply happens.
• Important Note: If the PLE Windows is already open, Auto-Apply does not function, so that the User can Open PLE Window, and “execute” a PLE command to bring that script to view without applying it (this was the old behaviour)

This gives users a few ways to implement PLE into their workflow. Auto-Apply on/off is stored with PLE presets.

The Action Prompt Window would just be a simple context window that shows the action to take place, and automatically has the user cued to type into the fields, and then press enter:

1.) User executes key command that triggers a PLE which has an Action Prompt and Auto-Apply Activated
2.) The Action Prompt Context Window opens, the user types ‘Vocal’ presses keyboard-tab ‘001’, and presses keyboard-enter…

…3 selected tracks are named ‘Vocal001’ ‘Vocal002’ and ‘Vocal003’.

Both Targets and Actions can have prompt activations.

Multiple Targets/Actions are stacked in the prompt. The user can quickly type and keyboard-tab through all of them and hit enter.

Project Logical Editor in the Right Zone

Allow us to optionally have the Project Logical Editor in the right zone with a search filter. Double clicking executes a command. There will need to be a sub-tab switch for Logical Editor / Project Logical Editor.

There will need to be a Right Zone in the MIDI editor for Logical Editor.

P/LE Command Execution History

Would allow user to re-use commands they had just made previously, as they often get tweaked without saving a preset.

This could appear in three ways.

• Attached Side-Panel Pop-Out from the P/LE editor window
• A dedicate prompt box the user can call via key command
• as a sub-tab in the Right Zone PLE I proposed above.

MediaBay Access and Scripting

I would like PLE to be able to place and or replace sounds on the timeline based on factors such as user entered text/track name in the prompt, folder directory, etc.

Explore the possibility of incorporating AI into both Targets and Actions.

More on this later, back to work.

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edit

There is an old PLE suggestion thread here that was created before the new PLE that is worth checking out, lots of ideas yet to be incorporated:

New PLE Functions? - Cubase - Steinberg Forums

[MattiasNYC]

+1 on this and thanks for linking to that older thread.

I’d add: The ability to rename tracks by filtering to select multiple target tracks with different names according to a list and replacing them with individual names according to a list. This could be a table with column A being target track names and column B being the new names.

Example: My template could have the following output buses/names in col A, followed by ( | ) desired naming col B;

“Stereo Mix” | “full-stereo-mix”
“Mix Minus Narration” | “DME”
“Music And Effects” |“music-and-effects”

Right now I can only target/filter a single track by name, and the new name can’t be pulled from a list but has to be typed into the PLE itself, as far as I know.

PS: The reason for this is that having default naming in a template in a way that makes it easy to read and consistent is desirable, yet many TV/streaming clients have other names for the same files, sometimes being ridiculously long. It would be good to be able to apply these when exporting rather than after export has finished.

[m.c]

@MattiasNYC

Right now I can only target/filter a single track by name, and the new name can’t be pulled from a list but has to be typed into the PLE itself, as far as I know.

Correct.
On the other hand, MIDI Remote can be used with a third-party app to perform tracks renaming.
I’ve prepared a tiny MIDI Remote for accepting the track names (targets|new names) from an HTML page using MIDI.
Here’s a video demonstrating this:

And here’s the midi remote file for anyone interested in seeing/testing the mechanism (contains the HTML file too):
Test_Renaming tracks.midiremote (3.5 KB)

[awesomeaudio]

@m.c Dude! That is clever af!

@MattiasNYC

I’m trying to understand the topology of your issue a bit better,

Is it that PLE can’t do this at all, or is it that it is too cumbersome to do with PLE? Because multiple PLEs could be strung together to achieve this but it’s dependent on the track target names being similar enough that ‘Name-Contains’ works properly.

I think I see the conundrum now, because even if your target names don’t change, you may require different Action names, in which case you’d need to go through each PLE preset.

Would this also require ‘Get Track Names’ so that you don’t have to type out each track name as a target into separate PLEs as well as their change name actions?

It looks like @m.c has a solution very close to what you want.

[m.c]

@awesomeaudio

It looks like @m.c has a solution very close to what you want.

I must note something here, just to be clear. I’m not suggesting such snippets as solutions but rather as demonstration of what is currently doable, just to add to the conversation

[MattiasNYC]

Thanks m.c.

How do I use that midi remote file (I don’t use MIDI at all, basically), and how would I modify it?

[m.c]

@MattiasNYC

I don’t use MIDI at all

If feeling a bit adventurous, you can download this midi remote file and install it by going to Studio→MIDI Remote Manager→Import Script and selecting the downloaded file.
Next step is to activate it, by opening the lower zone of the project window, navigating to MIDI Remote, and then adding the remote Test→Renaming tracks. You will need a virtual MIDI Port as a MIDI Input (and another one as an output but we don’t use it). Once this is up and running, navigate to [yourDocumentsFolder]/Steinberg/(Cubase or Nuendo)/MIDI Remote/Driver Scripts/Local/Test/renameTracks and you will find an html file named renameTracks.html. Open it using a compatible browser for MIDI (Chrome will do), set the port to the one you’ve previously set to the MIDI Remote and you can test it Important note: This script needs Cubase or Nuendo > 13.0.50.

[MattiasNYC]

@awesomeaudio

Is it that PLE can’t do this at all, or is it that it is too cumbersome to do with PLE? Because multiple PLEs could be strung together to achieve this but it’s dependent on the track target names being similar enough that ‘Name-Contains’ works properly.

I think I see the conundrum now, because even if your target names don’t change, you may require different Action names, in which case you’d need to go through each PLE preset.

That’s right. It would be a long string of PLEs where you’d have to set up one set per network preferences. I could easily have 16 outputs as sources for export and thus would need the 16 renames for just that one network.

@awesomeaudio

Would this also require ‘Get Track Names’ so that you don’t have to type out each track name as a target into separate PLEs as well as their change name actions?

Ideally yes, if I understand you correctly.

[awesomeaudio]

I don’t know too much about scripting/code although I’ve done some stuff in AutoHotKey, so I’m sort of basing my knowledge of its capability in making this obviously over simplified topology mockup.

It would require background code base and functions (making up my own terms here) that the user is scripting within much like AutoHotKey.

There’s sub scripts for both Actions and Targets, and a Execution Script that calls and receives the sub-scripts.

In this particular topology it would require some base scripting elements like:

• ‘GetTrackNames’
• The ability for users to create their own prompt boxes, column lists with functions.
• Direct to a txt file on computer as an alternate solution

This mockup isn’t necessarily the best way to do it, just inspiring the direction/idea of allowing PLE to become more open and customizable with deeper user scripting capability.

It’s also possible Steinberg could just incorporate a ready made solution that incorporates Bulk targeting/actions with a prompt UI/UX as explained in my earlier post.

I think incorporating AI into PLE could be interesting.

AI and PLE

• Creating scripts for users
• Learning Users Custom Scripts
• Asking a user if a script it executed worked properly / verification learning
• Allowing users to just type what it is they want and having AI figure out the Boolean Logic

Another thing I was thinking about that could also tie in AI…

Auto Logical Editor - Auto Scripts, AI Assistant, etc

Auto Logical Editor would be running as a constant background process in a project and could tackle various jobs, feature user customized scripts and perhaps AI Assistant as well.

• Auto-Colouring of Tracks Based on Name Content/Track Type
• Auto-Fill of Track Names while user is typing
• Auto-Track Picture Selection/Filter/Creation based on TrackName
• Auto-Track Organization based on user preferences
• Auto-Track Routing
• Auto-Silence Mute Editing
• Auto-Load-Track-Preset Based on Track Name
• Auto-MixConsole-EQ based on Track Name

Text in channel NotePad could be used as an alternative target identifier if users want less confliction with Track Names.

Also there would need to be a logic/scriptability that allows users to not have auto-changes occur during playback/record / until playback has stopped.

There would need to be a logic ability for knowing whether a user has already made custom changes to a track name for example, and not auto-re-naming it.

Users could pause ALE scripts individually or pause all.