"Delete Unused Play Lists" ???

[25ghosts]

Hi There,

maybe I am the one not quite clear in my head but I find that this feature is pretty misleading. If I understand the command right it should be called "Delete Play Lists" Cuz that is really all you can do... Lets says you have recorded a vocal several times and made like 25 playlists containing various versions. Now as you be going thru' those versions there are probably some that you want to delete and at the end you maybe have 3 or 4 playlists actually containing audio files. Now I think it would nice if the command "Delete Unused Playlists" would actually ONLY show you the playlist containing NO audio.... Thus qualifying as UNUSED. What PT doe s is show a list of ALL playlists - INCL those containing crucial audio. If someone uses protools for the first time he is in it for an unpleasant surprise - if he hits "delete unused playlists" and actually believes the term of the command and goes ahead and delete those SO CALLED UNUSED lists..

Maybe its me being sensible here but I think it would be better if the unused playlists were in fact NOT used when popping up in that list.

[sleadley]

The Delete Playlist is indeed a problem from many perspectives. The one you mention is valid. Invalid, in this case means, not the playlist used in the Edit window. i.e the "Top" Playlist, so in this case "unused" has a different meaning. I agree, however, that you should be able to delete playlists that have no audio on them.
If you are working with and Orchestra for example you can end up with Hundreds of playlists if you use a playlist for each take (say 20 tracks for each Take and 20 takes equals 400 playlists!) Try deleting only the playlist for take 15, it is not really practical.
Playlists are one of the great strengths of Pro Tools but the management of them is less than adequate at the moment.
my 2c
Simon L.

[Carl Kolchak]

Whilst I agree with you both that the management of play lists could be greatly improved, there are strategies that can be employed to make life easier.

1. Use the "All" group (or the option modifier) when you create new play lists and when you change play lists - this will keep the various take "in sync" with each other in terms of play list numbers.

2. Name the play lists more obviously. If you type in "tk #" then copy it, you can very quickly paste it into the names of each track or even quicker, rather than create new play lists, duplicate the existing ones several times before you record anything and they will clearly be names "dup.01" / "dup.02" etc.

3. If you have, say two or three play lists on the guitar track that you want to keep, duplicate your guitar track two or three times, copying all values except the active play list. Then on the new duplicate tracks, switch to the "keeper" play lists and deactivate the tracks before hiding them.



The only down side to 1. is that it creates a lot of extra play lists, but they are clearly labeled, so after you've comped the tracks and want to start cleaning up the session, it's very obvious what you're deleting.

The "Delete unused play lists" command should only remove play lists outright that are not used as the primary play list in a track, or you should receive a warning dialog if you try to delete a play list that has "active" regions in it i.e. a primary play list.

I hope that helps.

[bublabs]

Wouldn't it be amazing if there were something like a "playlist browser", where you could organize all your playlists, move them to different tracks, see which ones have regions on them, etc?

[sleadley]

Whilst I agree with you both that the management of play lists could be greatly improved, there are strategies that can be employed to make life easier.

1. Use the "All" group (or the option modifier) when you create new play lists and when you change play lists - this will keep the various take "in sync" with each other in terms of play list numbers.

Keeping the drums in the group does the same thing but the point is that it will generate many playlists that are more difficult to identify when you are trying to manage unused playlists.

2. Name the play lists more obviously. If you type in "tk #" then copy it, you can very quickly paste it into the names of each track or even quicker, rather than create new play lists, duplicate the existing ones several times before you record anything and they will clearly be names "dup.01" / "dup.02" etc.

Naming is not the problem here. We are very particular about the way that the tracks are named

3. If you have, say two or three play lists on the guitar track that you want to keep, duplicate your guitar track two or three times, copying all values except the active play list. Then on the new duplicate tracks, switch to the "keeper" play lists and deactivate the tracks before hiding them.

That is fine with the simple example you mention, but try to do this when you have a grouped playlist with say 24 tracks of orchestra and you will see that your solution is unworkable.

The only down side to 1. is that it creates a lot of extra play lists, but they are clearly labeled, so after you've comped the tracks and want to start cleaning up the session, it's very obvious what you're deleting.

The "Delete unused play lists" command should only remove play lists outright that are not used as the primary play list in a track, or you should receive a warning dialog if you try to delete a play list that has "active" regions in it i.e. a primary play list.

I hope that helps.

[Carl Kolchak]

Keeping the drums in the group does the same thing but the point is that it will generate many playlists that are more difficult to identify when you are trying to manage unused playlists.

Yes, as I mentioned, it creates a lot of play lists, but I don't personally have a problem with this so long as they are named rationally for each grouped take, and that sufficient accurate notes have been taken as to which ones are "keepers" - another use for memory locations.

Naming is not the problem here. We are very particular about the way that the tracks are named

Then perhaps I'm missing something as to why it's difficult to keep track of the play lists?

That is fine with the simple example you mention, but try to do this when you have a grouped playlist with say 24 tracks of orchestra and you will see that your solution is unworkable.

I'm not sure if you mean unworkable in terms of exceeding the maximum number of available voices - in which case plan the order and number in which you duplicate tracks, and how your going to deactivate / re-activate them. Or if you mean the amount of time the process takes - them's the breaks at the moment I'm afraid.

What would be great would be if PT included it's own "takes" window that was specifically design for the task, where you could write extensive notes for individual play lists (even on the same track) that included a check box where you could tag play lists as "keepers" (or what ever vernacular they choose).

Then when you come to "Delete unused play lists" you could filter the visible lists to not include any that you had designated as "keepers"

what do you reckon?

[tj_davies]

It's a bit of a misleading name, yes. But I think Digidesign decided to name it unused, if the playlist is really not used on any track - as for example you can use a playlist from mono track 1 as well on mono track 3 or vice versa.

I agree, that the playlist in Pro Tools is such a great idea, but it seems Digi has stopped thinking about it or working on it. A Playlist Workbrowser is an excellent idea, that might solve a few problems.

And anyway, why can you only create one playlist at a time? And not 50 at once? (in this case letting Pro Tools name the playlist consecutively, like when you add new/duplicate playlist on grouped tracks.)

Preparing sessions can get rather tedious clicking 50 times on New/Duplicate (playlist). Especially the further you get down to the 50th playlist, you have to scroll longer and longer to the menu. At least we have created a template session now with loads of tracks of different names for vocal talents and for each track 50 playlists.

But still Digi, please improve the playlists.
Thank you,
Timothy

[EGS]

...What would be great would be if PT included it's own "takes" window that was specifically design for the task, where you could write extensive notes for individual play lists (even on the same track) that included a check box where you could tag play lists as "keepers" (or what ever vernacular they choose).

Then when you come to "Delete unused play lists" you could filter the visible lists to not include any that you had designated as "keepers"

what do you reckon?

I'll often rename a playlist adding "SAVE", but the checkbox idea would be cool. Dosen't seem like it would be a coding headache, either. Digi?

[DigiTechSupt]

There are many great ideas here - if you want the best chance of getting them implemented, you should use the Feature Request Form.

[tj_davies]

I have actually used that request form several times, for the playlist and other functions. So far nothing has happened. And this is long time before PT7.x

Does this mean I have to resend the requests?