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Old 02-03-2013, 11:01 AM   #1
Tod
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Default Play/Stop, Pause..(a better way)

I don't know about the rest of you but there's a few things that bug me about the way the default SpaceBar (Start/Stop) and Enter (Pause) work.

Often I'll be playing along and hear something that I want to check but instead of hitting the Enter key to Pause, I hit the SpaceBar again without thinking. Or, on the other hand, if I do stop to think and hit the Enter key to pause, I then lose the original position of the Edit cursor.

A good friend of mine, Robert Villwock a.k.a Big Bob, has come up with a set of macros to change all that and I think these are excellent, they work very well.

You can download the KeyMap here, it also includes a short pdf written by Big Bob:

https://stash.reaper.fm/15355/BB_Play-Stop-Continue.rar

Here are the custom macros, the macro name is blue and the bracketed text is the Short-cut Key I use.
-----------------------------------
BB_Play/Stop [Space] - This macro will work just like the current SpaceBar action works. If stopped it will play and if playing it will stop playback and return the cursor to the playback start location. NOTE: This macro must be used instead of the standard Play/Stop action in order for the remaining macros to work properly.
SWS: Save loop selection, slot 5
Loop points: Set end point
Transport: Play/stop
Loop points: Set start point
SWS: Save loop selection, slot 4
SWS: Restore loop selection, slot 5
-----------------------------------
BB_LastStop [Enter] - When stopped, this macro will move the cursor to the location where you last stopped playback. In other words you don't have to use "Pause" any more, after you hit Play to stop, you can hit Enter to go to where you stoped playback. I really like this.
SWS: Save loop selection, slot 5
SWS: Restore loop selection, slot 4
Go to to end of loop
SWS: Restore loop selection, slot 5
-----------------------------------
BB_LastStart [Ctrl-Enter] - When stopped, this macro will move the cursor to the location you last started playback.
SWS: Save loop selection, slot 5
SWS: Restore loop selection, slot 4
Go to to start of loop
SWS: Restore loop selection, slot 5

-----------------------------------
BB_Continue [Alt-Space] - If stopped, this macro will start playback from the last stop point. If playing, this macro will stop playback and return the cursor to the start point (the same as BB_Play/Stop).
Custom: BB_LastStop
Custom: BB_Play/Stop
-----------------------------------

Remember, the BB_Play/Stop must be used before the other custom actions will work.

Also to make these work in the Midi Editor you'll have to assign the shortcut keys you use to "Misc: Pass through key to main winddow".

Last edited by Tod; 02-14-2013 at 12:48 PM. Reason: Made a few corrections.
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Old 02-03-2013, 11:27 PM   #2
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A bit tricky to understand (what's with all the loop selections?), but this could well be the solution I've been looking for in order to get the play / stop system I had in Cubase. (the one thing I'm missing from that DAW).

Will report back once properly tested, but thanks for this anyway.
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Old 02-04-2013, 12:14 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by V'ger View Post
A bit tricky to understand (what's with all the loop selections?),
The loop actions are what Bob used to make this work, basically using the start and end of loop to keep track of the two cursor positions. First the user's loop selection is saved to slot-5 to retain the user's loop selection if there are any. Then it uses slot-4 to save the relevant cursor positions.

Bob used the Save loop selection slots 4 & 5 because he figured most users didn't use these very often which I think is true.

Quote:
but this could well be the solution I've been looking for in order to get the play / stop system I had in Cubase. (the one thing I'm missing from that DAW).
I don't know how Cubase did this but like I mentioned in my first post, I've never liked the way Reaper handles the cursor for Play/Stop and then Pause. These macros make it work much better.

Quote:
Will report back once properly tested, but thanks for this anyway.
Please do V'ger, and thanks for checking it out.
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Old 02-04-2013, 10:40 PM   #4
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Don't know what's happening but the cursor inevitably jumps to the start of project (or loop) on stop if I use the new BB_Play/Stop (having changed default space over to this one as per the instructions)?
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Old 02-05-2013, 12:43 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by V'ger View Post
Don't know what's happening but the cursor inevitably jumps to the start of project (or loop) on stop if I use the new BB_Play/Stop (having changed default space over to this one as per the instructions)?
Hi V'ger, can you explain a little more. It works perfectly here, just like the default SpaceBar Play/Stop. Here are some LICEcaps showing how they work for me.

https://stash.reaper.fm/15397/01%20St...aceBar%201.gif

This is Play then Stop after the screen has changed.

https://stash.reaper.fm/15398/02%20St...Change%201.gif

This is my favorite, using Enter & Ctrl-Enter to go back and forth from where the play cursor stoped and where it started.

https://stash.reaper.fm/15400/03%20Go...0Start%201.gif

This is using Alt-Space to Continue playing from the stop point.

https://stash.reaper.fm/15401/04%20BB-Continue%201.gif
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Old 02-07-2013, 07:58 AM   #6
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Cheers, I would also love to get the play-from-start-or-stop toggle working, been missing something like that.

Ideally the Cubase method would be the best where there are just two buttons where NumpadEnter is play and Numpad0 pause, but stop (last start) when pressed again. Unfortunately I don't think these macros can accomplish that, but still happy to get the play-from-stop-position toggle working.

Here is the trouble I have now: Whenever you see the cursor jump to the start of the project is when space has been hit (BB_Play/Stop). Normal playing is done by a normal unmodified Enter (play/pause).

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Old 02-07-2013, 08:53 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by V'ger View Post
Here is the trouble I have now: Whenever you see the cursor jump to the start of the project is when space has been hit (BB_Play/Stop). Normal playing is done by a normal unmodified Enter (play/pause).

Hi V'ger, I'm not sure whats going on there. So you hit the SpaceBar (to Play) and the play cursor moves forward as normal. Then you hit the SpaceBar again (to Stop) and both the Play cursor & Edit cursor go back to the start of the project?

This is weird because if you look at the Play/Stop macro there is no action that re-directs the Edit or Play cursors.

Did you download and install the KeyMap I posted or did you put it together yourself based on the actions I show?

Are you assigning the SpaceBar to the right macro, BB_Play/Stop?

I can't think of anything in Preferences that would influence this.

I really appreciate you checking this out V'ger, could you check and make sure you've got the right keys assigned to the right macros.

Thankyou.
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Old 02-07-2013, 09:15 AM   #8
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Enter (standard Reaper play/pause) starts play, spacebar (with the downloaded, imported and assigned BB_Play/Stop) will not play at all, nor will it stop in the traditional way of going to last start position. All it will do is jump to the start of the project (or loop if a time selection is set).

Any ideas why? If you look at my gif, the moment spacebar is hit, a time selection appears briefly, can you see it? That ghost time selection always extends the start of the project for some reason, and will explain why hitting spacebar always goes there, but why is the loop set there?
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Old 02-07-2013, 09:52 AM   #9
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I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this V'ger, cuz it doesn't make sense.

Quote:
Originally Posted by V'ger View Post
Enter (standard Reaper play/pause) starts play, spacebar (with the downloaded, imported and assigned BB_Play/Stop) will not play at all, nor will it stop in the traditional way of going to last start position. All it will do is jump to the start of the project (or loop if a time selection is set).
Yes something is wrong, if Enter is assigned to BB_LastStop, then it shouldn't do anything until after you've at hit Play (run BB_Play/Stop) once. After you've hit play (run BB_Play/Stop), then hitting the Enter key should take the Edit cursor to where you hit stop.

Quote:
Any ideas why? If you look at my gif, the moment spacebar is hit, a time selection appears briefly, can you see it? That ghost time selection always extends the start of the project for some reason, and will explain why hitting spacebar always goes there, but why is the loop set there?
Yes, that time selection you see on the front is caused when the macro saves the time selection to Slot-5. The Time Selection that's saved to Slot-5 is for an existing Time Selection created by the User if one exists. If the user has not set up a Time Selection anywhere then you get the Time Selection on the front. If you assign a Time Selection further into the project then it won't show on the front when you hit play.

Just to make sure, is this the way you've got the shortcut keys set up.

BB_Play/Stop [Space]
BB_LastStop [Enter]
BB_LastStart [Ctrl-Enter]
BB_Continue [Alt-Space]


Of course you can assign any keys you want, the important thing is that the desired actions take place.
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Old 02-07-2013, 10:09 AM   #10
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Hi Guys,

Tod, I think from what he wrote that V'ger still has his Enter key assigned to the Play/Pause action routine.

So, to not muddy the waters here V'ger, when you are testing and reporting, confine yourself to describing only the Space bar action (ie the BB_Play/Stop macro) and do not mix it up with using the Enter key (assuming it's still assigned to Play/Pause).

If you start playback with BB_Play/Stop and then end it with BB_Play/Stop and your cursor doesn't return to the start position, something is very fishy. BB_Play/Stop by itself is not capable of returning the playback or edit cursor anywhere other than where the normal Play/Stop action routine returns them. So, why don't you try the following experiment.

Temporarily assign the Play/Stop action by itself to some available hot key and then compare its behavior to the BB_Play/Stop macro.

Like Tod, I'm very interested in finding out why you are having this problem.

To be continued ...

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Old 02-07-2013, 08:52 PM   #11
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Cheers guys, it's very strange why this won't work, but I've now assigned all the custom actions thusly:

BB_Play/Stop [Space]
BB_LastStop [Enter]
BB_LastStart [Ctrl-Enter]
BB_Continue [Alt-Space]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Bob View Post
Temporarily assign the Play/Stop action by itself to some available hot key and then compare its behavior to the BB_Play/Stop macro.
Done, and normal Play/Stop works as expected, the BB_Play/Stop one inevitably causes the cursor to jump to start of project and stop, no matter if Reaper was playing or stopped when the action was run. However, once the cursor is at the start of the project, BB_Play/Stop will start play.

But as it seems this problem is my end only, and these actions are only nice-to-have and not essential, I don't want to bog you down with this as it could easily be hours of detective work so appreciate the actions and help so far.
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Old 02-08-2013, 09:21 AM   #12
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Hi V'ger,

This is indeed a very strange problem!

Quote:
But as it seems this problem is my end only, and these actions are only nice-to-have and not essential, I don't want to bog you down with this as it could easily be hours of detective work so appreciate the actions and help so far.
I really wish you would continue to run this down because when we find the cause of it, it will benefit all of us. It may have something to do with some obscure preference setting and/or with a conflict of usage of the loop-selection memory slots. What version of the SWS extensions do you have installed? I'm currently running V2.3.0 #8 (Nov 1 2012).

If it isn't a problem with the SWS version and, if you'd like to continue, the next step I would suggest is to modify the BB_Play/Stop macro to conduct a few more experiments. Confine your testing to just exercising the BB_Play/Stop macro and do not start or stop playback any other way.

First remove the first and last actions that save and restore from loop slot 5. As long as you don't have any loop or time selection set when you run the tests, these two actions are unnecessary. Repeat your test and see if anything changes.

If this doesn't change any thing, try also removing the save loop to slot 4. If this doesn't change any thing, restore the macro and try removing only the set end point and set start point actions (2 and 4). If any of these experiments cause some change (beneficial or otherwise), please let me know.

Did you enter the BB_Play/Stop macro by loading the keymap file or did you type in the definition by hand? If the latter, could you have entered some action incorrectly or in the wrong order?

I want to encourage you to pursue this because I would really like to know what can cause something like the behavior you are experiencing.

Rejoice,

Bob

Has anyone else tried these macros and have they worked for you?
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Last edited by Big Bob; 02-08-2013 at 09:23 AM. Reason: Postscript
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Old 02-08-2013, 04:42 PM   #13
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I tried only the troublemaker, BB_Play/Stop. I assigned it to one of the keys, not spacebar, and kept all the regular transport actions as they were.

I had one existing loop on the track for the test purposes.

Timeline flashed each time the BB_Play/Stop action was used, but it worked just like spacebar; play cursor jumped to the starting place and playback stopped. Next use of this action (or spacebar) started the playback normally.

However, if I toggled the loop points linked to time selection option on/off, the BB_Play/Stop action stopped working, it didn't do anything. If I toggled this option during playback, the play cursor wouldn't stop at all. If toggling while playback was stopped, it wouldn't start. Spacebar worked as usual.

Only way to get BB_Play/Stop working again if the the linking option had been toggled was to edit the loop after that.
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Old 02-08-2013, 07:24 PM   #14
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Hi xpander,

Thanks for testing it.

Quote:
However, if I toggled the loop points linked to time selection option on/off, the BB_Play/Stop action stopped working, it didn't do anything. If I toggled this option during playback, the play cursor wouldn't stop at all. If toggling while playback was stopped, it wouldn't start. Spacebar worked as usual.
I did test the macro to be sure it didn't care whether loop and time selections were linked or not, but, I don't think I tried toggling the link while playback was in process.

Tomorrow morning I'll test this area again and see if I can repro what you have reported.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

To be continued ...

Bob
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Old 02-09-2013, 01:15 AM   #15
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Slight tangent here: I programmed the buttons on my shuttle controller once for a particular project and liked it so much I left it that way. I have a "play" button, a "stop" and a "return to start" (opposite order to listed, actually).

Play works like spacebar starting play from cursor point, but storing that point. Stop works like "pause" and stops the cursor where it got to. RTS just returns the cursor to its original start point. The play action is the only custom one and from memory it is two lines long (store position, play).

It's not as complicated as this, conceptually works the other way round, but I like it. Just thought I'd share...


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Old 02-09-2013, 08:34 AM   #16
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xpander,

I am not able to repro the problem you have described.
On my system, it doesn't matter whether time-loop selections are linked or not and it doesn't matter whether or not I link/unlink during playback or in a stopped condition. Evidently, there must be one or more preference options that interfere in some way with these macros but so far, I have not been able to discover what they are. And, I have tried changing many preferences that even remotely sound like they might have an effect on these macros but, on my system, the macros continue to function properly. I would really appreciate it if you could identify what it is about your system that affects them.

As far as the flashing time or loop selection display, that is a normal consequence of saving and restoring the current loop selection (if any) and the time it takes the macro steps to execute.

************************************************** *************

planetnine,

I think it all depends on what seems more natural to you. I tried a number of schemes similar to what you described. By the time I realized I needed to do something about this 'pothole' I kept falling into, I had developed such a habit of using the Spacebar to both start and stop, that I found it very difficult to change that habit.

As a result, I felt it was better to have an easy way to 'recover ' when hitting the space bar to stop (when I maybe should have used the Pause function). That way, I wasn't forced to remember to hit some other key in the 'heat of the moment' when I needed to quickly stop. In addition, I find that there are many situations for which it is quite useful to be able to ping pong from the last start point to the last stop point before resuming playback. I tried a lot of variations on this before settling on this set of macros. For me, these macros have greatly improved my workflow. But, not everyone has my memory problems and difficulty in losing old habits .
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Old 02-09-2013, 09:01 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Bob View Post
Evidently, there must be one or more preference options that interfere in some way with these macros but so far, I have not been able to discover what they are. And, I have tried changing many preferences that even remotely sound like they might have an effect on these macros but, on my system, the macros continue to function properly. I would really appreciate it if you could identify what it is about your system that affects them.
Big Bob, I did try many different settings on my end also, but couldn't find any which would've changed the behavior I was describing. I will try again, but given there's big changes going on with pre versions, my main focus is there. Just to say it might take a while.

Yes, the flash effect was not really concern to me, I figured it is related to how these actions work.


---

update: It works. Only difference was closing Reaper in between the tries! To verify, I deleted the custom action and imported it again, works. Deleted the custom action and recreated it anew, works. Some glitch apparently yesterday, but I missed the most basic fix, restart. I apologize for that.

Last edited by xpander; 02-09-2013 at 10:17 AM.
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Old 02-09-2013, 03:52 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Bob View Post
planetnine,

I think it all depends on what seems more natural to you. I tried a number of schemes similar to what you described. By the time I realized I needed to do something about this 'pothole' I kept falling into, I had developed such a habit of using the Spacebar to both start and stop, that I found it very difficult to change that habit.

As a result, I felt it was better to have an easy way to 'recover ' when hitting the space bar to stop (when I maybe should have used the Pause function). That way, I wasn't forced to remember to hit some other key in the 'heat of the moment' when I needed to quickly stop. In addition, I find that there are many situations for which it is quite useful to be able to ping pong from the last start point to the last stop point before resuming playback. I tried a lot of variations on this before settling on this set of macros. For me, these macros have greatly improved my workflow. But, not everyone has my memory problems and difficulty in losing old habits .
Yes appreciated, I did own up I was being tangential -everyone has their own workflows and I can see the thought-process and fluidity advantage of your way if you can get it working for you. I'll keep checking back to see how this goes.

I think the only way I get round that "what I'm most used to" conditioning is these moves of mine are programmed onto the buttons of a controller -if I'm using that I do it that way, else I also just hit the spacebar

Good luck with it...


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Old 02-09-2013, 05:02 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xpander View Post
update: It works. Only difference was closing Reaper in between the tries! To verify, I deleted the custom action and imported it again, works. Deleted the custom action and recreated it anew, works. Some glitch apparently yesterday, but I missed the most basic fix, restart. I apologize for that.
Hi xpander, so it's actually working okay? Both Bob and I tested this pretty thoroughly, Bob much more than I, and I know I didn't have any problems with it.
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Old 02-09-2013, 05:19 PM   #20
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Hey planetnine, the BB_LastStop is my favorite part of all this. Like Bob, I can't tell you how many times I've been playing along and hear something I want to check so I atomaticaly hit the SpaceBar to stop. Heh heh, so where was that now humm?

With these macros, not only can I go to where I stopped play but I don't lose where the edit cursor was in the first place.
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Old 02-09-2013, 05:56 PM   #21
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Thanks for all the input guys.

Now if only we knew what the cause of V'ger's strange problem was ... but, I guess he didn't want to pursue it any more

Rejoice,

Bob
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Old 02-09-2013, 10:14 PM   #22
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Sorry for the late response, definitely wanted to get this working but was just thinking it unfair hassle for you after a giveaway addon so have now been doing some investigating and finally found the cause which means everything is working great.

The conflict was with the setting: Preferences - Editing Behavior - Move edit cursor to start of time selection on time selection change, which was on.

I had it set like this so I could just make a time selection and play would continue from there without stopping etc. Quite useful in itself but prefer to have your actions working.

So thanks again for this, but do let me know should you ever come up with how to have the same button work as pause when pressed during play, and as stop when pressed during no play.
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Old 02-10-2013, 10:09 AM   #23
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Aha! Good show V'ger, I'm glad you zeroed in on the cause. I may be able to modify the macro so it will be immune to this preference setting. I'm about to leave for our morning church service but after lunch today I'll try to look into this.

Meanwhile I can tell you that your problem only occurs if you also have time and loop selection linked. If you de-link them, the macro will still work OK even if you set your preference option.

One of the challenges with designing a general use macro for Reaper is that there are so many preferences and such that it's often difficult to anticipate all the ways different users may have their systems set up.

As to the Pause with one click and rewind with the next (or variations on this theme), so far I haven't been able to devise a way to handle this kind of situation in Reaper. In order to do things like that, we probably need some means to 'read' the current playback state and then have some kind of conditional 'if-else' mechanism available.

To be continued ...

Bob
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Old 02-10-2013, 02:06 PM   #24
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OK V'ger, here is an easy modification you can make to the BB_Play/Stop macro so that it will be immune to the setting of:
Preferences - Editing Behavior - Move edit cursor to start of time selection on time selection change

I've named the new macro BB_Play/Stop+ and I'm attaching it as a zip file. You can unzip the keymap file from the attachment and then import it to try it out.

This revised version of the macro uses the SWS actions for Store and Recall edit cursor to wrap the 'Set end point' action. This will protect the cursor position from being affected by your preference setting.

In text form the revised macro now looks like this;

BB_Play/Stop+
SWS: Save loop selection, slot 5
SWS: Store edit cursor position
Loop points: Set end point
SWS: Recall edit cursor position
Transport: Play/stop
Loop points: Set start point
SWS: Save loop selection, slot 4
SWS: Restore loop selection, slot 5

The only disadvantage of this version is that it uses the cursor memory resource (in addition to the two loop slot memories). So, if you are using the SWS cursor memory for other purposes, running the BB_Play/Stop+ macro will wipe out anything you may have saved in this memory slot.

Rejoice,

Bob
Attached Files
File Type: zip BB_PlayStop+.zip (287 Bytes, 386 views)
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Old 02-10-2013, 05:29 PM   #25
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I knew you'd figure something out Bob.
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Old 02-11-2013, 08:14 AM   #26
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Hi Tod,

Hey old buddy, judging by how this has been going so far, maybe we shouldn't 'count our chickens before they're hatched' So, I think I'll hold my breath until V'ger reports back

Meanwhile, since you started this thread, why don't you torture test the BB_Play/Stop+ version to see if it has some other unexpected side effect. But, if all goes well, maybe you should post an addendum to your 'sticky' version of this to at least add a caveat for those that also might be using V'ger's preference setting.

As I see it, the long and short of it is if anyone is using V'ger's preference and they also have time/loop linked, then the original version of the macro will not work properly. However, the 'plus' version should work properly regardless of whether V'ger's preference is set or not, provided there is no conflict with cursor memory usage (SWS: Store/Recall edit cursor).

I personally have a pair of button icons on my toolbar that I use for temporarily saving and restoring the edit cursor and I find it to be quite useful during editing. So I would like to keep this resource for that purpose. And, since I don't use V'ger's preference option, I intend to stay with the original version of BB_Play/Stop. But, for others the BB_Play/Stop+ version may be the best choice.

Rejoice,

Bob
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Old 02-11-2013, 01:22 PM   #27
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Okay Bob, check it out and let me know if it's okay.

http://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php...&postcount=130
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Old 02-11-2013, 05:46 PM   #28
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Quote:
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Okay Bob, check it out and let me know if it's okay.

http://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php...&postcount=130
Looks OK to me but maybe you should have waited until V'ger checks in? Who knows he may have some other problem with this change

Did you check it on your system?

Has anyone else checked the BB_Play/Stop+ version?

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Old 02-11-2013, 09:47 PM   #29
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Cheers Bob, that's a nice fix, works well. Happy to be able to keep my loop preference which I actually liked a lot.

I never knew about cursor or loop slot memories until now so just hope I won't get too much into that (of course I have to mess with that now ), but can always use your original BB_Play/Stop of course.
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Old 02-12-2013, 07:34 AM   #30
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Cheers Bob, that's a nice fix, works well. Happy to be able to keep my loop preference which I actually liked a lot.

I never knew about cursor or loop slot memories until now so just hope I won't get too much into that (of course I have to mess with that now ), but can always use your original BB_Play/Stop of course.
Glad to hear everything works for you now V'ger. OK Tod old buddy, I now happily return this thread to you and get back to learning how to use Reaper

Rejoice,

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Old 02-12-2013, 09:02 AM   #31
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Quote:
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Did you check it on your system?
Morning Bob,

Yes I did check it out before I updated the post.

It's good to see V'ger has it working as well.
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Old 02-14-2013, 12:50 PM   #32
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One thing I forgot to mention is that in order to make these macros work in the Midi Editor you'll have to assign the shortcut keys you use to "Misc: Pass through key to main winddow".
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Old 07-07-2014, 01:27 PM   #33
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An alternative method that works for me:

1) Create the following cycle action:



and assign it to Spacebar.

2) Then, create the following custom action:



and assign it to Ctrl+Spacebar.

Now, when you press the spacebar it plays/stops leaving the edit cursor where you stopped. If you press Ctrl+Spacebar, then it does not only restore the initial edit cursor position, but it restores the arrange view you had when you pressed play too!
Attached Images
File Type: jpg play cycle action.jpg (31.8 KB, 6832 views)
File Type: jpg restore play position.jpg (13.0 KB, 6799 views)

Last edited by amagalma; 07-07-2014 at 01:40 PM.
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Old 11-15-2014, 12:32 AM   #34
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Default Yet Another Alternate ...

This discussion inspired me to search for an option like toggling start/stop. I didn't notice anything that jumped out at being what I wanted. I then noticed that <Ctrl-Space> stops and starts playback - and the latter from where it stopped playing. It was a simple matter then do a Find Shortcut in the actions menu, and find out what used <Ctrl-Space>. "Transport: Play/Pause" is what we are looking for. I just set that action's shortcut to <Space>; but it told me the shortcut key was in use. I then told it to override the previous association; and now Reaper in turn starts, stops, and resumes playing from where it left off, when I hit the space bar - which seems a more intuitive way to do it to me in the first place.
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Old 11-20-2014, 10:18 AM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CodeLurker View Post
This discussion inspired me to search for an option like toggling start/stop. I didn't notice anything that jumped out at being what I wanted. I then noticed that <Ctrl-Space> stops and starts playback - and the latter from where it stopped playing. It was a simple matter then do a Find Shortcut in the actions menu, and find out what used <Ctrl-Space>. "Transport: Play/Pause" is what we are looking for. I just set that action's shortcut to <Space>; but it told me the shortcut key was in use. I then told it to override the previous association; and now Reaper in turn starts, stops, and resumes playing from where it left off, when I hit the space bar - which seems a more intuitive way to do it to me in the first place.
Thanks for this tip and it would be nice if it was default to the spacebar. Your tip worked for me.
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Old 01-14-2019, 06:38 AM   #36
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Default Re: Yet Another Alternate ...

I used this for quite a while, but being used to the Steinberg way of doing it, this still doesn't quite satisfy. One problem I've had is in listening to tails of echoes and/or reverbs. If I set the Spacebar to the Ctrl-Space action, I can indeed stop (what Reaper calls pause) playback without jumping to the start of playback. However, when the DAW is paused, you can't hear an echo or reverb tail. If it is stopped, you can. I am accustomed to being able to play for a little bit, press the Spacebar, and listen to the FX tail. Then, press it again, to quickly listen to it on subsequent, but different, material. Doing this several times in a row allows you to get a sense of how your FX tail reacts to different passages. I can find no way to do this on Reaper. Cakewalk reportedly has an option where you can enable or disable going back to the start of playback after stop. If Reaper had this, I could listen to my FX tails right. Another use for this, is if there are particular points of a song that trigger FX particularly strongly, or characteristically. A "echo throw" might be an example (seen more in other kinds of music than the Rock/non-Satainic, non-Theist Heavy Metal I like), or a particular vocal or solo note that is performed loudly, and then stops. Just hit spacebar again, when it happens, and you can hear the FX there. I think this is the biggest thing that keeps me from feeling comfortable in Reaper. I wish they had an issue tracker again; and one that accepted votes. I'm sure this would get a lot.

It doesn't work for me for any other key than the Spacebar to stop recording and playback, and then restart playback on subsequent presses. The Spacebar is just too big, and too readily available, to not have such a fundamental function assigned to it, IMHO. Some of the above script approaches might can be adapted to (what is, in my mind) fixing this; but I haven't gotten so far as to be able to figure out how to do this with the above ideas yet.
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Old 01-14-2019, 06:48 AM   #37
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Could you explain a little bit how Steinberg do it? Thanks.
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Old 01-14-2019, 07:11 AM   #38
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If you have ReaPack, you can use these actions/scripts:
1- amagalma_Transport Play-Stop (with memory - no undo).lua
2- amagalma_Transport Play (with memory - no undo).lua
3- amagalma_Transport Stop - Toggle position (with memory - no undo).lua
4- amagalma_Toggle behavior of Play-Stop buttons.lua


The 4 toggles between two different behaviours: the default one of Reaper (Stop buttons returns cursor to the beginning) and the alternative (cursor stays where it stopped).
The 1 is a play/stop button (assign this one to Spacebar).
The 2 is a Play only button (assign this one to Num Enter)
The 3 is a Stop button (assign this to Num 0). Pressing this one when playing, works as a normal Stop button. Pressing it while stopped it toggles between the start position and the end position of the play cursor.
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Old 01-14-2019, 08:32 AM   #39
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Default Re: Yet Another Alternate ...

OK. I played around with it for a little bit, and figured out what amagalma was saying. For those of us relatively new to this (e.g., me), I should say how you create cycle actions. First, you need to install a Reaper plugin called SWS / S&M Extension. That gives you a menu item "Extensions", that has a Cycle Action Editor. You open this. You can then type the action codes in the Command column as you see them verbatim in the image as amagalma has them, and the Descriptions will be filled in; or you can supposedly copy and paste action ID's, although I had difficulty pasting in Pause. Easier yet, you can just download the zip file that is an exported version of this, that I have attached to this post.

I also added a condition that detects if a recording is in progress, and stops it as well. Here's what I came up with:



Just extract the zip, and go to the Cycle Actions Editor. Click the import button, and import the INI file. You'll then have an action called "Fixed Spacebar". Go to Actions | Show Action List, and type "fixed" in the Filter. You'll see "Fixed Spacebar" there. Click Shortcuts ... | Add. Type the Spacebar. Override the existing mapping. Then, you go into Actions | Show Action List and press Custom Actions | New. Type "SWS/BR" in the Filter, scroll down, and choose "SWS/BR: Restore edit cursor position, slot 16", and drag it from the left column to the right. Find "SWS: Restore arrange view, slot 1" and drag it in next. Name it something like "Restore play/edit cursor position (slot 16)" and click OK. It should be selected. Click Shortcuts ... | Add. Type the Control-Spacebar. Override the existing mapping.

I just thought it would be helpful to give people the steps, in as many words, just in case they were newbies, and were as bewildered as I was — trying to figure out how to do something that very much should already have been an option in Options | Editing Behavior, a long time ago.

Thanks to amagalma for the idea, which I tweaked a bit. I made it use Save Cursor Slot 16 instead of 4, since 16 would normally be the last one to get used; in addition to making it end recording, as above. I worked this out after posting my previous post, but before noticing that amagalma had posted a Lua solution as well. That should work if your DAW is online, but you'll need to find the repository manually, and install it offline otherwise. I've tested that the FX tails keep playing when you hit the Spacebar, that it doesn't go back to the start of playback, and that Control-Spacebar does. Free at last, from really annoying GUI design, free at last!

Hey! Did you hear that Reaper was breaking all the old plugins, and going to WebExtensions, which have a lot less power, but are more malware resistant?!! Not! ;}
Attached Images
File Type: png Cycle Action.png (44.6 KB, 4269 views)
Attached Files
File Type: zip Fixed Spacebar.zip (352 Bytes, 199 views)

Last edited by CodeLurker; 01-14-2019 at 09:21 AM.
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Old 05-19-2021, 05:37 PM   #40
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Default Made it Like Ableton Play/Pause And Shift + Space Bar (Plays from paused position)

Quote:
Originally Posted by CodeLurker View Post

Just extract the zip, and go to the Cycle Actions Editor. Click the import button, and import the INI file. You'll then have an action called "Fixed Spacebar". Go to Actions | Show Action List, and type "fixed" in the Filter. You'll see "Fixed Spacebar" there. Click Shortcuts ... | Add. Type the Spacebar. Override the existing mapping. Then, you go into Actions | Show Action List and press Custom Actions | New. Type "SWS/BR" in the Filter, scroll down, and choose "SWS/BR: Restore edit cursor position, slot 16", and drag it from the left column to the right. Find "SWS: Restore arrange view, slot 1" and drag it in next. Name it something like "Restore play/edit cursor position (slot 16)" and click OK. It should be selected. Click Shortcuts ... | Add. Type the Control-Spacebar. Override the existing mapping.

I just thought it would be helpful to give people the steps, in as many words, just in case they were newbies, and were as bewildered as I was — trying to figure out how to do something that very much should already have been an option in Options | Editing Behavior, a long time ago.

Thanks to amagalma for the idea, which I tweaked a bit. I made it use Save Cursor Slot 16 instead of 4, since 16 would normally be the last one to get used; in addition to making it end recording, as above. I worked this out after posting my previous post, but before noticing that amagalma had posted a Lua solution as well. That should work if your DAW is online, but you'll need to find the repository manually, and install it offline otherwise. I've tested that the FX tails keep playing when you hit the Spacebar, that it doesn't go back to the start of playback, and that Control-Spacebar does. Free at last, from really annoying GUI design, free at last!
Tweaked it a little bit! Thank you for this!
Made it Like Ableton Space Bar (Play/Stop) And Shift + Space Bar (Plays from paused position)

>>>> https://imgur.com/a4uVaF6
Fixed Spacebar
>>>>
https://imgur.com/eUCUM3o
Continue Playing
>>>>
https://imgur.com/W7w45eL

Assign Fixed Spacebar to Spacebar in action list.
Assign Continue Playing to Shift+Spacebar in Actions list!
Attached Files
File Type: ini S&M_Cyclactions_export Play:Pause.INI (303 Bytes, 149 views)
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