Quickly select all adjacent clips?

[Cactus T-Shirt]

Hello all,

I often find myself editing together a drum loop, a vocal phrase, or some length of audio that begins with one clip and (several crossfades later) ends with another. Here is the issue:

It is usually when I am zoomed in all the way on a clip in the center of this "clip phrase" that I need to select the entire length of adjacent clips that, together, constitute this single "phrase" that I am editing. For example, let's say you had the following clips in your Pro Tools session:


(empty Edit Window space)........Clip 1, Clip 2, Clip 3, Clip 4, Clip 5, Clip 6.........(empty Edit Window space)


Let's say that Clips 1-6 constitute a four-second comped Saxophone phrase, where are all six of these clips are connected to one another by crossfades in between them.

Now, let's say that I'm zoomed in on the end of Clip 3, where I'm adjusting the position of a 4 millisecond crossfade between Clip 3 and Clip 4. As I'm editing this crossfade, I feel the need to select Clips 1-6 (i.e. the entire Saxophone phrase), so that I can nudge the entire Sax phrase forward to give it more of a laid back feel. However, I know that after I nudge this saxophone phrase forward, I will again need to tweak the position of this 4 millisecond crossfade that is currently blown up on my screen (so that I can, say, hide the fade behind the attack of the kick drum). This is my problem:

The only way I know how to select all six clips is to zoom all the way back out (losing my place at the high zoom level) until I can see all six of these clips. Then, I have to select Clip 1, hold down shift, and then finally click Clip 6. After I nudge this phrase, I then need to zoom all the way back in and find my place again in order to re-tweak that 4 millisecond crossfade.


This is particularly a headache when the reason that I need to select Clips 1-6 is to reference a value related to these clips as a unit (for example, the length, start, and end times of the Saxophone phrase). In this situation, the values that I need to reference are only displayed in the respective Pro Tools windows while all six of these clips are selected. This is an issue, because, if I need to go back to my previous (high-zoom-level) location in order to use these values, I need to first de-select all six clips (removing from the displays these values that I needed to reference in the first place), forcing me to remember/write down these values while simultaneously trying to find my place at that high zoom level again.

It would be so nice if you were to, say "command click" on any clip, and this would instantly select all adjacent (touching) clips to the left and right of the clip on which you "command clicked". This would save you from having to zoom out and lose your place, and would prevent you from having to remember/write down any values when you have to necessarily de-select al six clips in order to place the locator and zoom back in to search (and search hard!) for the place you just were moments ago.


In my search for a solution, the closest thing that I found is the "shift tab" and "shift option tab" (on Mac), which selects the next/previous region (or section of blank space), respectively. However, this doesn't work for two reasons:

1. Hitting either of these commands moves you to the ending location of your new selection (even with "Link Timeline and Edit Selection" disabled), causing you to lose your place.

2. Using this method requires that you know EXACTLY how many clips are adjacent to one another (as well as which clip you are zoomed in on) in order to confidently hit Shift+Tab and Shift+Option+Tap the exact number of times each, so that you can reference the values you desire in the respective display.


What do you guys think?

Thank you for your help!

[Rich Breen]

Well, as you've figured out, there's no way to just select the right-adjacent clips. But a few things that might help:

shift-option-return will select *everything* to the right on the timeline. You can lock regions, so you could for instance place your cursor just past the section your interested in, hit shift-option-return, then lock those clips. Now, when you're working on the area you want you can shift-option-return and everything to the right will be selected, and you can nudge things without affecting the locked clips. Also, clip-groups (option-command-G) can be useful in these kinds of situations.

Hope that helps,
rich

[The Weed]

Why don't you put a Marker at the spot you're zoomed into, set the Marker to remember the Zoom level and recall the Marker?