Scribble Strip Idea..

[Runnytofu]

I'm not sure of how great a use this would be to other people, or if it's already possible and I just don't know about it (entirely possible, though I did do a search).. however, here it goes:

I was just working as the Pro Tools operator for the recording of the score of the new IMAX 3D film soon to be released (Under the Sea 3D), and due to my extreme anal-retentive qualities, it made looking at track names nearly impossible on channels. For instance, every cue in the score has a fairly standard name (1m1, 1m2, 1m3, etc), and I was recording each cue separately in its own session. Each channel recorded to would begin with the cue number in case of extreme disaster, and someone having to rebuild a session from scratch. Next, since I was recording to picture, I was making heavy use of the playlists feature, so that adds further characters. And finally, there were overdubs of multiple passes of certain instruments, so I'd end up with tracks named something along the lines of "1m1 ElVlnOD2.05 R", which when viewed on a mix page would pop up looking like "1EO25R", which is pretty indecipherable to the naked eye, especially when your track is running about 80 tracks wide of orchestra/overdubs/temp synth tracks.. What I ended up doing to make my life easier, and see what exactly was going on at a glance on the mix page was to use the comments feature on every track to come up with a name that I could easily look at and figure out what it was I was working on. Total time-saver, and made life much easier.

However, this led me to think about the ICON consoles we've installed a couple of months ago at our facility, and made me wonder if there was a way to have the scribble strips display what was on the comments track, or even better, would it be possible to add another layer of things you could view, like the comments section, but more of a "board tape" section, where you could type a shorter 6-character or less name into it, and have that display on the ICON's scribble strip? That way I'd be able to keep my file management as precise as I like it, I can use the comments section to make any notes about editing/comping of takes, and finally be able to view things easily on the board without pulling my hair out?

I'd love to hear if this has already been thought of, or if anyone else thinks this is a worthwhile idea.

Thanks,

Paul Talbott

[Chris Lambrechts]

Hi Paul,


All makes perfect sense to me and I can perfectly see where you're coming from.

The 'view comments on scribbles' idea is definitely worth a closer look. One of the first things that comes to mind though is that you'd be either limited to the characters available, or have to apply some kind of 'scribble stealing' while viewing comments etc ...

On a different note though. You mention using playlists and their name extensions. I think there's a simple way to avoid that.

When you first create the session you name the tracks right ? I'll use your track names as an example :

1m1
1m2
1m3
etc ...

Now, instead of recording to those, I would suggest you leave those empty. Use them after all the recording is done as your main playlist. Comp different takes together to that main playlist or copy whichever take you want to use in your mix over to that playlist.

So when you start recording, you immediately create a playlist for your first take - which the will be named :

1m1.01
1m2.01
1m3.01
etc ...

And for the second take you do the same ... new playlist

1m1.02
1m2.02
1m3.02
etc ...


and so on ...
Now the advantage here will work in multiple ways. First of all by copying the final takes to your Main / empty playlist, you keep the names ion the tracks readable and understandable both in the Software and on the Control Surface.
AND ... it is WAY more easy to keep track of which take is which because they are all numbered from the very beginning.


Hope this makes sense.


Chris

[Runnytofu]

I agree that the 6-character limit on scribble strips on the ICON boards might make it of limited use for some people, but it would be way easier for me to set my own shorthand for things, than rely upon the 'Tool to do that for me.


Also, I think you might have misunderstood my earlier post about track names for individual pieces of music. The "1m3 (for example) I mentioned was a cue name that I put at the beginning of every track, in case session files become completely fouled, or something equally horrid happens. So, tracks like "Vln1", or "Tree L", would therefore become "1m3 Vln1", or "1m3 Tree L". I do usually use the .00 (or non-numbered initial) playlist for final comps of stuff, but even still, it makes things hard to read when you've got the mixer page collapsed down to small fader view.. "1m3 ClarODTree1 L" still is a bit much for the program to parse into an intelligible shorthand.

Many thanks for the reply, though, and if anyone else has any ideas for help, I'd love to hear 'em.

Paul

[GlennR01]

Originally Posted by Runnytofu

...made me wonder if there was a way to have the scribble strips display what was on the comments track, or even better, would it be possible to add another layer of things you could view, like the comments section, but more of a "board tape" section...

Brilliant and pretty necessary.

[GloryIsSilent]

Can you not view the tracks full name? I seem to recall this being possible on the Icon when I last worked with one.

I know exactly how to do it on an 003, but that doesnt help :)

[Runnytofu]

I'm sure it's probably possible, I'm just looking for something that gives you the ability to quickly look at what's going on on every channel, without having to interrogate each channel that I can't decipher at a glance.