Feature Request: Time Measuring Tool in Console

[Peter Inouye]

For my workflow, I constantly need to measure time from one sound to another for implementation or to send to my engineer (e.g. Start File1, wait 870 ms, start File2 at volume 0 and fade in over 1250ms, wait 500ms, start File3).

I did recently learn about setting the timeline to milliseconds and dragging a region, which is better than what I had been doing. (For the last 10 years, my normal go-to is just to drop a marker at the two spots, set my time view to time in ms, and just do the math in a calculator (33625-32000=1625ms between markers).)

But I wish there was a better way, like having something in the "selection" module in the console that would also show total length of the selection. The selection module doesn't even follow the ruler format, and always shows in bars:beats.

Another possibility, if you highlight a region, the "export" menu shows the project and selection in frames. This number format is also not affected by the time ruler format. Sometimes I'll just quickly use that and calculate it (5:15 = 5.500 sec)  but it's not always accurate enough at 1/30 of a second (33 ms chunks). If we could force that to milliseconds, that would also be viable.

While the timeline-drag does help, it forces you to memorize the number if you have to type it somewhere else, since when you release the mouse-drag, the number goes away. Also, since 85% of the time I'm composing music vs. sound design, switching the timeline ruler to milliseconds to measure becomes a tedious task. It's 8 clicks total (right click toolbar, click Time Ruler Format, select Milliseconds, select beginning and end of region, switch back to measures:beats). If there was a little selection length module, we could just drag a region, and have it show up there, and stay there while I open implementation software or an email to log the number.

Thank you!

[John Vere]

You can show all 4 different time ruler formats at the same time. On the right is + symbol to add or subtract different options. Its just below the Off for Ripple edit. 

The plus sign is pretty microscopic which seems to be trending in Sonar and Next! 

 

Edited May 30 by John Vere

[Glenn Stanton]

this would be a nice feature - possibly updating the "export" or "selection" display to reflect the time rule format setting instead of just the SMPTE or MBT settings could be a quick win. per the other conversation on topic: