There’s many things that I love about Nuendo but zooming drives me crazy. This has led me to wonder if maybe I’m doing it “wrong” or if there are better methods out there.
The main thing that drives me nuts is that zooming in vertically does not take into account any object selections you might have (zooming in horizontally DOES however). So if I’m trying to zoom in on an object for better editing I always have to scroll after zooming, which is really annoying. It seems like if Nuendo just kept my object selection in mind while zooming this wouldn’t be an issue but Nuendo always zooms from the top, if that makes sense.
So how do you guys zoom? Do you use the zoom tool, or zoom presets?
Zoom to selection. It will fill the screen with whatever you have selected. This can be a single event or a group or a range. Use UNDO ZOOM to back out to where you were
Also you might like ZOOM tracks exclusive which I tend to use more.
At the bottom right of the screen next to the horizontal zoom bar, you’ll see a very small downward arrow. If you click on this you’ll see zoom presets. You can use these or click add to create your own. You can assign key commands to the first 5 user presets.
I have a good reachable shortcut for the zoom tool…so I switch…make my selection…very fast…I work further with a right click first…I have the tools on right click…so I am immediately on the cursor tool. For a step back in zooming I have a shortcut for the zoom history…
I know that sounds kinda weird…but I am used to the single zoom tool in protools…so if you have some good shortcuts…that would be a very good work around for detail zooming.
The zoom behaviour is utterly pointless, as it wouldn’t allow to zoom to locators, instead it zooms around the playhead, which then centers. Absolutely terrible.
No Zoom to locators > Zoom to locators, pretty please.
And as you’re at it: the ability to lock screen sets, and NOT automatically add new tracks to them.
There is a menu state to automatically zoom the selected track (edit > enlarge selected track). It can be great or distracting depending on your work habits.
Rely on the bottom zone editor rather than zooming the event. That editor can be toggled (I’ve mapped it to a controller key). It can be set to automatically scale to width of screen. Using that editor has several other benefits beyond being already bigger.
Setting up zoom presets and mapping them is very helpful. I mostly use two that are event level and high detail.
If you have a mouse/trackball with scroll wheel, that can easily be used for more precise scrolling and zooming. Same for any controllers that have Zoom mapped.
Lastly I find the the command to show just tracks with data under playhead super helpful to focus the screen for work. It can be reverted and I mapped to F13 on my keyboard.
I try to avoid zooming via the bar at the top of the timeline at all cost, as it’s finicky and rarely get me what I want.
Definitely a case where there many roads that lead to Rome and you have to find the one that suits you. So the premise of your post is spot on.
