Is it possible to move/ copy track folder between projects?

[Misha]

Craig, ok...

Thanks for post.  Ok, so folder copy is out of the question (hopefully will happen one day)

This is where I get stuck.  Lets do it with round numbers for the sake of example. I have 5 tracks about 50 take lanes in each = 250 take lanes. About 200 are muted / 50 un-muted. When I drag, or copy and paste to new project, mutes on take lanes are not preserved   I have all 250 takes play simultaneously.... ?  I want those muted items there, since I might choose something over something at later time.

[Craig Anderton]

I was thinking in terms of track folders. Take Lanes are actually easier to deal with, and you can do exactly what you want.

1. Drag across the Parent track. If the Take Lanes are muted, it will seem like there's nothing to drag over, but drag over that region anyway. The Take Lanes can be visible or folded up, it doesn't matter.

2. Copy and paste to the second instance (although this also works with drag and drop, if you drag over the parent track).

3. The Take Lanes will come along for the ride, AND preserve solo and mute status. As a bonus, any automation will be included as well.

I'm pretty sure that solves your problem. [Edit: at least for audio; I haven't really checked out MIDI yet, but will do so if there's interest. Also, track folders don't work this way but I suppose you could cheat, and put the tracks from track folders into take lanes prior to moving, then drag back into a folder after moving.]

Edited February 28, 2019 by Craig Anderton

[msmcleod]

This is what happens when you try to drag/drop with instrument tracks:

 

However "Duplicate track" within the same project works fine with instrument tracks.

Adding a project selector to the "Duplicate Track" dialog, showing all open projects would be an ideal solution.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Any plug-ins need to be dragged over for a track. Unlike the clip and automation data, they don't go along for the ride when you copy the data. Parent track volume and pan settings do go over as well, but not parent track solo or mute status - odd, given that it's preserved for takes. Hmm...

I think a "copy track" command that copies everything about a track, including clip data, has been requested a lot in the past. It seems the raw materials are there, what with track templates and what I talked about above where copying a parent track copies take lanes, their status, and automation. It seems combining the two would get you pretty much where you wanted to go.

[msmcleod]

33 minutes ago, Craig Anderton said:

Any plug-ins need to be dragged over for a track. Unlike the clip and automation data, they don't go along for the ride when you copy the data. Parent track volume and pan settings do go over as well, but not parent track solo or mute status - odd, given that it's preserved for takes. Hmm...

I think a "copy track" command that copies everything about a track, including clip data, has been requested a lot in the past. It seems the raw materials are there, what with track templates and what I talked about above where copying a parent track copies take lanes, their status, and automation. It seems combining the two would get you pretty much where you wanted to go.

Track templates combined with drag & drop seems to work. Extra audio tracks are created, but they can be deleted afterwards.

Still, it feels like a workaround... I'd still like a real track copy between projects ?

[Craig Anderton]

Yes, what I meant was combining the two into a single command might not be that hard if all you had to do was glue them together with virtual epoxy...

 

[Misha]

Craig, 

Thanks! I read and re-read what you said... I know that you are very familiar with Cakewalk, and I was surprised why the drag thing did not retain mutes and automation for me. Then.... I figured it out. It was closer than my nose.  I was trying to create "new" audio track in destination project and paste things there,  mutes were not retained from source...but when I dragged selected track from source to empty space of destination project it dragged over everything. Thank you!

[Craig Anderton]

2 hours ago, Misha said:

Craig, 

Thanks! I read and re-read what you said... I know that you are very familiar with Cakewalk, and I was surprised why the drag thing did not retain mutes and automation for me. Then.... I figured it out. It was closer than my nose.  I was trying to create "new" audio track in destination project and paste things there,  mutes were not retained from source...but when I dragged selected track from source to empty space of destination project it dragged over everything. Thank you!

First of all, you're very welcome!

Second, I am familiar with Cakewalk, but prior to this morning I had never considered what would be needed to preserve mutes when transferring between projects. My "default" is assuming something is possible, but that I just haven't figured it out yet. Sometimes it's an easy solution, sometimes it's a workaround, but it's important to remember that any DAW is a collection of tools. All the applications you can implement with those tools aren't even close to all being documented (e.g., using the Loop Construction view for varispeed, adding truly human expressiveness automatically to MIDI drum parts). Granted, some things are indeed impossible, but it's surprising just how much is possible.

Also, this discussion has solved an issue for me: What to write about for my next Sound on Sound CbB column   I'll dig into this further and see what is an is not possible. I've haven't paid much attention to the instrument transfer issue, but Mike has been helpful in documenting the limitations, so any solution will have to be a workaround. But...a workaround is always better than nothing.

 

[William W. Saunders, Jr.]

Good work, team Cakewalk.  I love the collective intelligence, intuition and experience of this group, and the fact that some real experts are still here to help us.

[Scott Kendrick]

I'm not sure if I"m trying to do something different or I'm just not understanding the suggested steps here, but these ideas don't seem to be working. My specific example.

- I have a project already set up, specifically a tempo map within the project

- I also have a drum midi file in this existing project

- I essentially want to take a folder from another project that has all the drum tracks and associated busses with effects, bring that into this new project

Why? I have a kit setup that I really like in my other project. It has all the effects and settings on each drum track... so once I get it into my new project, I just want to repoint (or copy paste) the drum midi track to this template of drums that I like.

Export/import track seemed to get close but tempos got messed up for some reason, had troubles pointing (or copy paste) the midi track to this new set up kit.

Any suggestions? Did this get documented as a step by step I could try to follow?

Thanks in advance.

[razor7music]

Sorry if my suggestion is out of context. I read as many posts in the thread as I have time for.

Can't you just save the project with a different name and delete everything but the track folder(s) you want?

[michheld]

On 2/28/2019 at 6:17 PM, Craig Anderton said:

You can do it easily if you open up the two projects in a single instance of CbB.  Make sure that under Preferences > File > Advanced, "Allow only one project at a time" is unchecked.

There are some really cool aspects to this. First of all, with audio you don't have to render clips so they start at the beginning! Select the entire track, or drag over the entire track to the beginning (even if there isn't data there), and copy into the second instance - all the clips will end up where you want them. You can also copy/paste multiple tracks. Or if you want the copy to start at an arbitrary place, select the track, drag across the timeline, note where the now time is, place the now time in the same place in the second instance, and paste. (However with MIDI, you do have to slip-edit the beginning of the first clip in a track so it starts at the beginning.)

You can also drag effects from one instance to the other. And if you use the "old school" method of inserting instruments into the FX rack, you can drag instruments over from one instance to another as well.

You can't drag over or copy a track folder, however, you can select all the tracks within the folder and drag or copy them over. Then you can create a folder and put them inside. 

I wrote about this as a "Friday's Tip of the Week," and included it In the original "Big Book of SONAR Tips," as a response to those who complained that SONAR didn't have something like Studio One's scratchpad functionality. I thought it was a reasonably good workaround, but the reaction was so negative about "oh, everything has to be a workaround in SONAR, you suck " that it was one of the few tips I left out of the CbB book. However, the main points are in one of my archived Sound on Sound columns. Although the technique is awkward when you're trying to run multiple projects simultaneously, for  copying clips and effects from one project to another, it's extremely effective. Maybe it's time to write a column specifically about transfer techniques from one CbB project to another, and include an updated version of the original "sandbox" article.

I really like this solution, especially knowing that at least since Win3.1 "Ctrl+TAB" switches between two windows in the same application. Thanks, Craig. You're awesome as always!