Ableton Forum

what about a 'Compress/Hide Time' function?

select a specific amount of time (clips),
choose compress/hide,
time gone (hidden) and not playing..

only thing left should be a renameable, visual clue (marker/locator) to where the time part is located..

double click the visual locater and it will decompress again..


You could compress chunks of a song anywhere without having to worry about it's arrangement..


kickass..!!

and what if you could move this 'Compress' locator freely to another location in the arrangement,
and decompress it at that location?

beam me up Scotty..

This is an excellent idea

yeah.. I really like this..
would make arranging in Arrange so much easier and fun..

I think I understand. The pics above aren't good though, as both pics are identical :p It would certainly keep the screen tidier and help focusing on one specific part.

Let's say you have a rough structure and only want to see the last break. Then you could just hide the other parts with a locator like the one illustrated above. Genious!

Idonotlikebroccoli wrote:The pics above aren't good though, as both pics are identical :p

no they are not identical..

in the first image the yellow and blue clips go from 25 till 37..

in the second image those clips are 'compressed' (hidden)..
the pink clip that started at 37 has now moved to the left, starting at 25..

the idea is that clips that are 'compressed', you don't hear because they don't play,
and the arrangement is rearranged to fill the gap of the compressed time..

the yellow locator 'Break 1' is a visual clue to where the compressed time is located..

Why not just delete time then? I'm not understanding why you'd want to do this, just to try out differetn arrangement ideas?

Tarekith wrote:just to try out differetn arrangement ideas?

yep..
as Angstrom also suggested, I also have plenty of 'options' going in Arrange..

in Session it's ofcourse quite easy to sketch and park different combinations,
but not Arrange..

If Session and Arrange could both handle the same automation and cut ups
it would be different ofcourse..

So if you're not sure about specific parts in Arrange and want to keep them for later use you just compress them without messing up your arrangement..

I really want this so bad..

this could mean so much fun and ease of use in Arrange..

it would totally change the way we're used to use Arrange..

one big organised sketchpad,
no messy selecting/moving,
easy try out of different options,


also very usefull for live performance..

If there's one fresh user-suggested feature which should be implemented right after enabling some MUST HAVE basic functionality (decent grouping/soloing, etc.), in my opinion it's this one.

Very slick, consistent with the Ableton design philosophy, immensely useful and immediately approachable. This idea just works.

+1

Tarekith wrote:Why not just delete time then? I'm not understanding why you'd want to do this, just to try out differetn arrangement ideas?

The big selling point is the ability to freely drag a "compressed time flag", like the one shown in Poster's picture, to any other location on the timeline and then just expand the time back at will. Imagine storing numerous blocks of stem ideas (maybe parts you have originally improvised by triggering clips in the session view) in the arrangement, but at the same time keeping them under control this elegantly without any extra clutter.

When compared to using the empty space behind the actual song to store ideas and juggling everything with copy/paste/drag, this really seems like a beautiful addition.

Poster wrote:

Idonotlikebroccoli wrote:The pics above aren't good though, as both pics are identical :p

no they are not identical..

in the first image the yellow and blue clips go from 25 till 37..

Yeah, but the content of the yellow and dark blue clips is exactly the same as the content of the orange and light blue clips. So why would you want to compress time there and even call it a 'break'?

But seriously: Your idea is brilliant and I know I would use this feature all the time.
Ableton, listen to the Poster!

dr.wackler wrote:Your idea is brilliant and I know I would use this feature all the time. Ableton, listen to the Poster!

Same here. Bumping into a winner idea like this, still knowing that you're not going to be able to use it for quite some time, is actually pretty frustrating

I'm pretty sure the Ableton team will implement this at some point. It just makes so much sense.

(Still waiting for the channel grouping stuff ....... ... .. ...... Grin.)

Nokatus wrote:(Still waiting for the channel grouping stuff ....... ... .. ...... Grin.)

I guess we all are ;D

dr.wackler wrote:Yeah, but the content of the yellow and dark blue clips is exactly the same as the content of the orange and light blue clips.

hhmm.. yeah; that was a bit confusing,
pretty fast mock-up.. hehehe..

changed it..