will Avid ever let us disable “snap to grid while in slip mode” ?

[Verbcrunch]

While editing in "Slip", when I make a selection, if I hit the “Command” key before letting up on the mouse - the selection snaps to the grid. I’m working so fast by the time I realize what I just cut or copied wasn’t what I selected, I’ve already made the edit, so I have to hit “undo” and do it again. I edit probably 30% slower because of this.

The workaround is to leave your grid set to 1 sample. Fine. But when I actually produce promos, I usually tempo map the music bed and work in bars and beats - grid mode set to 1 bar or 1 note.. so when I go to edit the Voiceover under the music, my selection starts snapping again. Switching the grid from bars and beats to samples requires carefully clicking that little grid/nudge box and selecting from the tiny menu. There’s no keyboard command, no faster way to switch.

I just want Avid to let us disable “snap to grid while in slip mode” feature. For some reason ProTools users who like this involuntary snap to grid feature seem to think we should all be forced to work this way. They say “don’t hit command, you don’t need it when you work with focus keyboard mode”. (Never mind if you prefer the focus on groups or clip list… then you DO have to hit command to copy/paste/undo).

But the way I work is to copy text from email (using “command”), paste text when renaming an audio file (using “command”), then export into FTP software where all copy/paste functions require using “command”. So the muscle memory to hit “command” when I copy/paste/undo will always persist. ProTools is the only software that doesn’t require it under certain conditions.

[nednednerb]

So... while it is reasonable to ask for a feature like "just slip mode no effect of command key"

However, when you click and drag many many things, like inserts, clip boundaries, clips, automation, etc, and DO NOT press ANY modifiers, you get a behaviour. Command to snap during slip is an "added feature" like this maybe.

It is tempting to add additional features to turn these "extra" functions off, though I also think that is not as good an idea as you seem to feel, "forced to work in this way".

Like, "I press the space bar randomly when I shouldn't but after I do something all the time, in that case I'd like the transport not to run, as a feature I turn on"

In my opinion, "just don't press the space bar randomly" seems to be a coherent answer. Trying to drag in slip, just drag... Trying to snap momentarily, just hold command. Just do what the program expects, as that's how all programs are best used.

[Verbcrunch]

I've been earning a living editing on ProTools full time for 30 years. I know every key command and modifier, and use them without even thinking because they're baked into my memory.

Hitting "Command" while in "Slip" is the ONLY modifier that derails my ability to edit at high speed. It forces me to pay close attention: ensuring I've either let go of the mouse after making my selection, or not hitting "command" when copying or pasting. So I've been working at ProTools 12.5 or lower all these years.

But now I have a new Mac Studio, so I can't dodge this handicap any longer.

[JingleDjango]

I'm confused. Do you leave a finger/thumb in the command key all the time while you work?

[nednednerb]

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.

"Every Key Command"

If you can learn 10,000 things, why not learn one more thing?

Let go of what hinders you, the command key now.

I get it, you tend to make that mistake. But, I can sympathize.
I DO understand that along with the new access to "keyboard shortcuts", there is a slightly blurrier area of system inputs missing some attention:

Keyboard (esp. modifiers) + mouse click shortcuts....

It would be neat and potentially helpful for some power users as yourself to detach a certain modifier-click behaviour on contexts like "dragging clip edge". I have thought of times when I felt like making a keyboard shortcut in the manager for a click behaviour, but that manager is simply non-mouse inputs, for now.

It's a potential area for increasing and enabling more customized use experience. I'm behind your feeling there.

Sometimes I come to an issue like this, however, and I do take aim to "learn a new trick", just so I can still have easy access to the old trick but not stymy myself by recurrent accident.

[Carl Lie]

Oddly I work the other way with using the mod with grid to allow slip mode. I also "miss" but I feel it's on me. Not on Avid.

C

[bolooki]

100% with you on this one!!! keeping the legacy modifier behavior intact should have always been an option. they really went backwards for little gain here, and the way they implemented this behavior out of no where was not cool, nor anything Pro users asked for. I see small cases where it would be useful temporarily, but not all the time.

It still messes up my speed edits because you now constantly have to pay attention to your edit modes first, then tab thru the modes to get back to grid. The modifier should behave the same no matter what edit mode you are in - pressing it should correlate to "no snapping no matter what" bc that really sped up workflows.

I don't understand why this wasn't made an option vs a permanent change. Like, having the Cmd key behave differently between versions when it was the same way for many many years is dumb, and it made a lot more sense for speed's sake to keep it how it was. It made sense previously. Muscle memory aside, the mod key doesn't even behave the same way in Slip mode - it act's weird and will make the cursor jump as described.

I've posted about this quite a few times. No one seems to care unfortunately but I feel your pain!

[bolooki]

previous threads:

https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=405240

https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=403245

[midnightrambler]

Ha! - well as someone who started one of those threads, over three years ago, I can tell you with certainty that this "cmd" key modifier STILL mucks me up. Three years I've had to get used to it, and I still get it wrong. Is it me? Or is it just a terrible idea? (I think we know the answer...)

[Dizzi45Z]

I have to agree that this should be at least be an option to turn off.

I love the fact that if I hit command in Grid mode, I will be able to trim or move as if I was in Slip Mode. I'll bet most of us appreciate this.

The issue is that you don't always remember whether you are in slip mode or grid mode. I'll bet most of us have got used to using command to bypass grid mode. So most of us expect that when you press command and drag or trim a clip, it should always move as if it was in slip mode. But unfortunately, the opposite happens when we are in slip mode.

I hate this because my peanut brain does not keep track in the middle of editing sessions which mode I am in. So it is frustrating to go to edit, press command and have the opposite of what I want happen.

I understand where they felt this would be clever to have the ability to switch modes with the modifier, but I would rather that instead, they had made command always edit in slip mode and if I want to have the edit happen in grid, choose a different modifier so that it will always use grid even if I am in grid mode. That way I don't have to keep track of what mode I am in, or constantly have to look up at the corner before every edit to remind myself whether I should be pressing the modifier or not.

I also, next to never, am in slip mode and wish my edit that I had started was actually in grid mode. So I totally get people wanting this option to be removed.