Now time slider

[Emer]

Hi, my question relates to the now time slider, the blue bar that shows where in the song you are.

When I start a song that may be 3.5 minutes long from the very beginning , the slider is also at the beginning. In one or two songs, the slider bar reaches the end of the song, say at 2.5 minutes and the song keeps going for another minute. When I pull that white line at the end of the song backwards, the slider does not start moving backwards until I get to the 2.5 minute point.

Once, I was successfull in resetting that, so that the slider keep moving for the complete song length. I think I used 'Project',  'Set timecode at now', but it didn't solve the problem this time. It shows SMPTE/MTC time and you can enter a value. I entered the end of song time, but it didn't change anything.

Whenever I searched on the web for this, it only shows how to make a song end, etc, but not how to make the slider bar go to the correct end.

Help would be appreciated. It is not a very important thing to have the slider match the actual location in the song, but, as it exists, it might as well show the correct link to the song's position.

 

Thanks and regards,

Edited April 27, 2023 by Emer

[OutrageProductions]

If you are referring to the play head (vertical now time indicator) extending well past the end of the audio in the song, you probably have some automation that goes past the song, most likely volume CC#7. Look in your automation lanes for stuff that extends beyond the logical audio ending.

Easiest way to delete all of that is to engage ripple edit, select all, drag from after the end of the audio to the right where the play head finally stops, delete, then REMEMBER to disengage ripple edit!

Playback will then stop after the last midi note or end of audio decay, whichever is longer.

Edited April 27, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[Emer]

No, it is the opposite. the blue bar (the now time slider, to the left of the 'start/stop audio engine button), stops well before the song reaches the end, the vertical now time indicator keeps going to the end, and the song stops at the end.

The slider and the vertical line should move in sync, so that when the song is at half way, the slider is at half its length, and when the song and vertical reaches the end, the slider should reach the end. However, the slider reaches its end well before the end of the song.

The pic shows where the vertical time indicator was when the blue bar reached its end. When l move the vertical white line from the end of song backwards, the blue line does not move until I get earlier than the 03:49:422 time.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Emer

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

35 minutes ago, OutrageProductions said:

If you are referring to the play head (vertical now time indicator) extending well past the end of the audio in the song, you probably have some automation that goes past the song, most likely volume CC#7. Look in your automation lanes for stuff that extends beyond the logical audio ending.

Easiest way to delete all of that is to engage ripple edit, select all, drag from after the end of the audio to the right where the play head finally stops, delete, then REMEMBER to disengage ripple edit!

Playback will then stop after the last midi note or end of audio decay, whichever is longer.

He's talking about the horizontal slider under the transport controls. Essentially, is isn't scaled properly and it runs the entire width before the song is over, effectively being out of sync with the Now time.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Bruno de Souza Lino

[OutrageProductions]

OK. That's officially weird. What happens if you use <CTRL + END> keys? 
Just for snicks - n - giggles, what happens if you set the Time Ruler, the Now Time display, and the Track View time display to the same measurement:

In your screen shot it looks like you may be looking at Milliseconds, not M/B/T or SMPTE. Not sure if that matters.

 

One more query: does it happen the same way  in one of the stock themes?

Edited April 27, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[sjoens]

It could be a project glitch. Does it happen in other projects or just this one?

[Emer]

Ok, and thanks for th eresponses, although it still does not help me overcoming that problem. As I wrote in my very first question, I had one project where the blue slider already reached its end, when the song wasn't even a quarter done. I did find something then, to make that disappear and after I did that, the blue line only reached its end when th esong ended. Problem is, I don't remember what I did.

WHen I hit 'Project',  'Set timecode at now', with the vertical white line at the very end of the song, it offers an SMPTE/MTC time box (see pic) and you can enter a value. Perhaps it does matter that I entered a time in milliseconds into the SMPPTE/MTC, as nothing changed. I will have to try that

I must say that I am very pleased with your quick responses and I hope that I will get one that proves to be the solution, as I can't find anything in any Cakewalk help page or even professional manual.

Actually, I just went into Cakewalk and changed the time to H:M:S:F, went to the start of the song and set the Now time to 00:00:00:00, then went to the end and set the now time to 00:04:19:14 and it made no difference. The blue bar still stops way before the song gets to the end. ALl I want is for the blue bar to reach the end when the song reaches its end, not way before.

I use one of the stock themes and it happens in other projects, as I mentioned before when it ran out at a quarter of the song. As I base all my songs on th esame template this behaviour of it stopping say at about 85% of the song length happens in most of them, but I had the one that really stood out at a quarter of the song. It must be possible to sync bar and position in th esong correctly.

 

Thanks

Edited April 27, 2023 by Emer

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

7 hours ago, sjoens said:

It could be a project glitch. Does it happen in other projects or just this one?

I'm pretty sure it always happens but we never noticed because we tend to never look at the transport module, especially if we know the keyboard shortcuts to move around.

[sjoens]

Maybe the slider needs cleaning???   You may notice the white indicator line also doesn't start moving right away when transport is initiated.

This is by design. The square Indicator graphic    is 20 pixels wide and starts moving when the blue line 1st reaches it, but stops when it reaches the end while the blue line continues moving behind it.

Watch this short video or insert this 50% transparent indicator graphic    into a theme and see for yourself.

Edited April 27, 2023 by sjoens

[Colin Nicholls]

5 hours ago, sjoens said:

Watch this short video or insert this 50% transparent indicator graphic    into a theme and see for yourself.

You definitely win the Internet this afternoon. Well done.

[Emer]

Hi, thanks and, yes I watched the video and it seems that the blue line and the white vertical reach the end at the same time, which is what I try to achieve as well. I didn't quite get what I should understand from that little video.

To check whether my 'problem' is by design , I decided to load one of the Cakewalk Demo songs and in that one , the white line and blue slider reach the end of song almost together. So that does not show my problem, which means clearly that there is something in my project set-up that I have to change. As I wrote in my very first email, I thought it had something to d with Project, set now time, at the end, but that is not it. It alreeady shows the correct now time at the end of the song. One thing I looked at was the clock. As I have audio and MIDI (which I always freeze into audio, before finalizing) I need to use the Audio clock. It is set to 925 clicks per quarter note and 30 FPS ndf and no SMPTE/MTC offset.

[OutrageProductions]

Well... you have me confused... because for the last 25 or so years the PPQ has always been divisible by 2 like this:

 

So if you are actually running at 925 PPQ, there is something other-worldly about your system clock. (Unless that's a TYPO, then your excused 😁)

[Emer]

No, sorry, don't know what happened but now ot shows 960 as well. Whether 925 was just my mistake or actually happened, after it now reads 960, nothing has changed. Still blue bar reaches the end, well before the end of song.

So, apart from this, how do I fix the lack of synchorisation between the now time blue bar and the white vertical line, so they both arrive at the end of song together?

Edited April 28, 2023 by Emer

[OutrageProductions]

To be honest, I've never seen this happen in any project.  And you did mention that some other/demo/new projects operate normally. 

I might make a safety copy of this project, then start deleting tracks 1 by 1 to see if it goes away at some point. Eliminate the obvious.

[sjoens]

9 hours ago, Emer said:

I didn't quite get what I should understand from that little video.

Look  c l o s e l y inside the red circles:

[sjoens]

If the graphic stopping short bugs you, it can be trimmed to 1 or 2 pixels wide or made completely transparent in Theme Editor so the blue line is completely exposed.

[sjoens]

Here's some options to try:

  watch the horizontal blue line slide past the vertical white line

>  < 2 pixel wide vertical white line follows the blue line start to end

>  < completely transparent

 full width hides the blue line

Drag images to your desktop or right-click and save.

Edited April 28, 2023 by sjoens