It stops playback when passing zero
I notice that even in build 2312, scrubbing still is not properly implemented. It was added over a year ago in build 2116, but still exhibits the annoying behavior where the play button pops out and playback stops during scrubbing if the scrubbing cursor hovers near the vertical playback indicator. As expected, playback should slow to zero when the scrubbing cursor is over the playback indicator, but as soon as you drag to the right or left of the playback indicator, playback should resume. It doesn’t. You have to click the playback button to get playback going again.
If you are not familiar with scrubbing, it is similar to the days of reel-to-reel tape where you located a section of audio by manually turning the reels to “scrub” the tape across the tape head to find the exact point on the tape you wanted. In a DAW, a scrubbing feature will allow you to find a particular point in the audio track by being able to shuttle playback manually in either direction. In some DAWs, you can drag a scrub cursor on the waveform and playback immediately follows the cursor as if it were a tape head and the waveform were a piece of audio tape. In other DAWs, scrubbing is implemented like a jog-shuttle wheel where you can control playback back and forward, passing through zero play speed as needed. n’Track uses the jog-shuttle method.
To scrub in n-Track, load an audio track and begin playback. Then place your mouse cursor in the tiny strip just below the top timeline and above the first track. You will see the mouse cursor acquire a little forward-pointing scrub arrow. If you drag the scrub arrow to the left of the current position of the playback indicator (white vertical line indicating playback position) the playback will reverse. If you drag it to the right of the playback indicator, playback will resume forward motion. The playback speed will be determined by how far to the left or right of the playback indicator the scrub arrow is.
All of this works fine until you pass over the playback indicator. If you do it very quickly, you can actually jog the playback back and forth as intended. But, if you hover over the playback indicator, the play button will pop out and playback will terminate. You have to start playback again to resume scrubbing. The way it is supposed to work is when you pass over the playback indicator the playback should go to zero. But, as soon as you move the scrubbing arrow off the playback indicator, playback should resume. It doesn’t - and that is the problem that needs fixing.
must not forget that the MIDI control of SCRUB is also shot -
om a standard QWERTY keyboard ctrl + left arrow and ctrl + right arrow should also control it -
Dr J
Maybe a spot in prefs to set the scrub speed? I kind of hate that deal where the function tries to accelerate based on how long you hold a key down. That is a pain to use IMO. I’d rather have a fixed speed that I can set someplace.
My 2 centavo’s anyway…
D