They took away our tracks, but gave us LANES

With the no-tracks "evolution" I was pondering what could be done to better organise the timeline with regards to clips.
This led me to the idea of having an addition to 'roles' in the timeline called 'Lanes'.
'Lanes' would basically sort/group the clips on your timeline according to the defined roles.

What you mean is that tracks would automatically gather together if they are part of the same role ?

yes

I like it.

I already do something like this using adjustment layers but you're idea is nice.


Call Apple

But let's see what comes in the next version (I hope next week) I hope they've tackled some of the issues with tracks and sound in general.

I think with compound clips this could be done as a work around, you can assign roles to the compound clip, the idea would maybe be better to have color coded roles so you can see at a glance various roles..

chrisb wrote: …'Lanes' would basically sort/group the clips on your timeline according to the defined roles.…

Please ignore my ignorance - but what for?

In the Timeline Index you can 'bundle by roles' …  to, e.g. adjust all Dialogues by +2dB , or to mute all Titles or whatever.....

And a graphical represenation of roles along a time-axis helps me to do what…?

So, what is what in this timeline? Some people might like having a better view of where different elements are.
Yes, you can choose a role and adjust parameters. But your timeline still looks messy. Some people like order.

I think it would be a nice addition to roles. Different strokes, for different folks - I , for one, find the Precision Editor 100% useless for example. Others might like it.

chrisb wrote: So, what is what in this timeline? …. But your timeline still looks messy. Some people like order.…

No, my timelines don't look like that - I'm a huge fan of cmd-alt-arrow down.
In your example, there're dozens of points in the timeline, where 4 (5?) video-tracks are stapled - what for? Usually, you show one pic at a time...... (ok, diff. story with complex compos ... not FCPX' main feature)
That is 'tracks' - and FCPX isn't made for tracks.

(complete other story for audio… => LogicX)

I meant my question seriousiy, not to offend you!
I'm a beginner reg FCPX, still hungry learning new tricks.
I understand the benefits of the Timeline Index… but 'lanes' …?

I do not understand why the Percision Editor is considered 100% useless. It is the easiest way to make sure where a transition begins and ends. The only addition I would like to see now is that you can create key frames for audio in the transition. Right now you have to move the transition to create those key frames. I use the editor every day.

I do not understand why the Percision Editor is considered 100% useless. It is the easiest way to make sure where a transition begins and ends. The only addition I would like to see now is that you can create key frames for audio in the transition. Right now you have to move the transition to create those key frames. I use the editor every day.

It is not considered useless as such. It is just a feature *I* have no use for in my daily editing flow as I can edit faster without having to use the precision editor.

No, my timelines don't look like that - I'm a huge fan of cmd-alt-arrow down.
In your example, there're dozens of points in the timeline, where 4 (5?) video-tracks are stapled - what for? Usually, you show one pic at a time...... (ok, diff. story with complex compos ... not FCPX' main feature)
That is 'tracks' - and FCPX isn't made for tracks.

(complete other story for audio… => LogicX)

I meant my question seriousiy, not to offend you!
I'm a beginner reg FCPX, still hungry learning new tricks.
I understand the benefits of the Timeline Index… but 'lanes' …?

None taken

cmd-alt-arrow down is 'overwrite to primary storyline'... I am also a fan but do not see the point here? What would be nice, is a shortcut to move clips up and down - at the moment you have to drag clips up and down using the mouse.

Nope - there are no "stacked" video tracks as such. You can see a couple of video clips beneath the main storyline. I only use the audio from those. Yeah, I could've ctrl-shift-s'ed them to break apart the audio from the video - but I might have to cut to the picture later.
The benefit of 'lanes' would be to visually organise your timeline in a way that mimics a "traditional" NLE without actually *being* tracks.

Effective use of secondary storylines would help with a lot of this. If I had time I would make a tutorial but I don't. Maybe the Ripple guys can do it.

chrisb wrote: … The benefit of 'lanes' would be to visually organise your timeline in a way that mimics a "traditional" NLE …

I guess, you presume my reply to that...

chrisb wrote: … Some people like order. …

You're screenshot contradicts this statement…  :woohoo:
(^^^^ meant funny!!)

But, ok, you found a way to mimic tracks in a no-tracks-needed environment …

Each to their own - not my cup of [strike]tea[/strike] coffee… 

This is a really elegant description from Marcus Moore about how roles could be used for audio organisation. I'd love this.

disproportionatepictures.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/roles.html

Thes pictures show a before and after of how roles organising could help the view of a sequence.





I love the idea that when you connect Effects they jump to the effects area. Music jumps to the music area etc.

TGC wrote: This is a really elegant description from Marcus Moore about how roles could be used for audio organisation. I'd love this.

disproportionatepictures.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/roles.html

Thes pictures show a before and after of how roles organising could help the view of a sequence.

I love the idea that when you connect Effects they jump to the effects area. Music jumps to the music area etc.

Very nice indeed. Had forgotten about that. Basically the same result as my own thoughts. I think roles are somewhat under-utilised for timeline organisation at the moment. And color coding needs to happen!

I really think (hope) that Apple is aware that roles have much more potential than what they are giving us now.

I expect we will see some improvements in the future versions.

Yes, at lot of us have been clamoring for this very feature... vertical roles organization and color-coding. I have actually called it 'lanes' myself. For video it's not so simple because the stacking order is important, but there needs to be a way to at least add a native separator that's NOT a clip like an adjustment layer. It should just be a thin line, and I would be happy... and while we're at it, there should be a keyboard shortcut for moving clips up and down other than the one to move it in/out of the primary storyline.

haysoos123 wrote: ...I have actually called it 'lanes' myself.

For what it's worth, they *are* called Lanes, that's the actual term used by FCP in the databases/xml etc. what you all are talking about should be called "highways" (a lot of lanes lol)

Role grouping is a cool idea, with a couple problems. the biggest one is how you would deal with clips containing multiple Roles. For what I do, most clips have DIA and FX embedded. What happens to this? same with color coding... rainbow clips? I'm sure this is on Apples radar, who knows what they'll come up with.

plysat wrote:

haysoos123 wrote: ...I have actually called it 'lanes' myself.

For what it's worth, they *are* called Lanes, that's the actual term used by FCP in the databases/xml etc. what you all are talking about should be called "highways" (a lot of lanes lol)

Role grouping is a cool idea, with a couple problems. the biggest one is how you would deal with clips containing multiple Roles. For what I do, most clips have DIA and FX embedded. What happens to this? same with color coding... rainbow clips? I'm sure this is on Apples radar, who knows what they'll come up with.

I think the simplest thing is to have it grouped by the top channel if unexpanded, but when you expand it, the different channels slot into their roles. An alternative is to have no grouping for multichannel audio (so it'd be just like it is now), and then when you expand it, then they get organized. This has to pretty much happen anyway, I think, because that's how you would deal with audio attached to video in the primary storyline... when it's unexpanded, it has to be in the primary.
By the way, I think this role grouping should be an optional view that can by turned on/off with a hotkey.

You do know you can manually adjust what sits in what lane, right? Arrange them as you wish? Just saying....