how to left click on an item without changing selection

[More Sound]

I want to be able to left-click on the top of a media item, and have the edit cursor move there, without the item selection changing. Strangely, in the ultra-customizable world of REAPER, I'm not quite sure if this is possible. The "big picture" goal here is to be able to move the edit cursor and make time selections in the top half of the track, and make item selections in the bottom half.

Here's what I've tried:

1) assigning the left click mouse modifier to "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor". this doesn't work - the item that I click on is selected

2) creating a custom action that saves item selection states, moves edit cursor to mouse cursor, then restores item selection state. then, assigning that custom action to the default left click modifier. this doesn't work, which is odd, because if I trigger each one of the 3 individual actions manually, it does what I want

3) various scripts from ReaPack - they suffer the same fate as the REAPER, SWS, and custom actions.

Here are known workarounds that do not work for me, ergonomically:

1) assigning "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor" to a hotkey. I don't want to engage my left hand to do this

2) middle-mouse button click. I am on a trackball and it's a very odd movement

3) setting the left-DRAG mouse modifier for media items to "Marquee zoom" allows "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor" to work! But, the magnifying glass doesn't allow me precision to drop the mouse cursor in a specific place, for example, right before a drum hit. Also, I want my left drag to do an item/time selection

4) clicking on the Ruler moves the edit cursor without changing the selection. But I want to drop the edit cursor at a very specific spot, for instance, when doing difficult drum edits. It may not seem like a big deal to move up to the ruler for your edit cursor movement, but try doing that 200+ times while editing a busy drum performance and you'll see what I mean

I'm hoping there's someone out there that might be able to script this, or at least see if I'm missing anything. TIA!

[Tod]

Originally Posted by More Sound

I want to be able to left-click on the top of a media item, and have the edit cursor move there, without the item selection changing. Strangely, in the ultra-customizable world of REAPER, I'm not quite sure if this is possible. The "big picture" goal here is to be able to move the edit cursor and make time selections in the top half of the track, and make item selections in the bottom half.

Here's what I've tried:

1) assigning the left click mouse modifier to "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor". this doesn't work - the item that I click on is selected

2) creating a custom action that saves item selection states, moves edit cursor to mouse cursor, then restores item selection state. then, assigning that custom action to the default left click modifier. this doesn't work, which is odd, because if I trigger each one of the 3 individual actions manually, it does what I want

3) various scripts from ReaPack - they suffer the same fate as the REAPER, SWS, and custom actions.

Here are known workarounds that do not work for me, ergonomically:

1) assigning "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor" to a hotkey. I don't want to engage my left hand to do this

2) middle-mouse button click. I am on a trackball and it's a very odd movement

3) setting the left-DRAG mouse modifier for media items to "Marquee zoom" allows "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor" to work! But, the magnifying glass doesn't allow me precision to drop the mouse cursor in a specific place, for example, right before a drum hit. Also, I want my left drag to do an item/time selection

4) clicking on the Ruler moves the edit cursor without changing the selection. But I want to drop the edit cursor at a very specific spot, for instance, when doing difficult drum edits. It may not seem like a big deal to move up to the ruler for your edit cursor movement, but try doing that 200+ times while editing a busy drum performance and you'll see what I mean

I'm hoping there's someone out there that might be able to script this, or at least see if I'm missing anything. TIA!

Have you tried this, it works for me..

Set default mouse modifier action for "Media item left click" to "Select item"

[More Sound]

Tod, I noticed your location - my wife and I drove across the country and spent a few days at Glacier National Park last year. One of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Media click left click to "Select item" is going to do exactly the oppose of what I want. I want the selection to be unchanged, and I only want the edit cursor to move.

Am I missing something?

[Tod]

Originally Posted by More Sound

Tod, I noticed your location - my wife and I drove across the country and spent a few days at Glacier National Park last year. One of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Yeah, I've lived here since the mid 1960s, the hunting and fishing is amazing, and of course the mountains are incredible too.

Media click left click to "Select item" is going to do exactly the oppose of what I want. I want the selection to be unchanged, and I only want the edit cursor to move.

Am I missing something?

No, it don't seem there is a modifier for that. You can click on the "Time Line" to move the cursor without selecting anything.

[martmix]

just click on the time-line

[vanhaze]

"1) assigning "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor" to a hotkey. I don't want to engage my left hand to do this"

I respect this but i do not really understand this ..

I have this Action mapped to the "§" key on my keyboard, which is on the far upper left of the keyboard.
I constantly having my left hand resting at the left of the keyboard, with my pointing finger resting on the "§" key.

In my workflow, i constantly need to fire the action Move edit cursor to mouse cursor and for this i just press down the § key constantly with my pointing finger, where it is resting on anyway.

IMO, way faster workflow than having to use the mouse with your right hand and have to do some mouse actions like dragging and then clicking to fire the Action.

Just my 0.02 ofcourse.

[More Sound]

I appreciate the suggestions, however, if I wanted to adopt a different workflow I'd go to a different DAW. I have moved over to REAPER because of it's configurability. I'm simply looking for ideas to accomplish my specific goal here.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by vanhaze

"Move edit cursor to mouse cursor"

Thanks vanhaze, I didn't know about that one, I've already mapped it to "c" and it's going to be used a lot.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by More Sound

I appreciate the suggestions, however, if I wanted to adopt a different workflow I'd go to a different DAW. I have moved over to REAPER because of it's configurability. I'm simply looking for ideas to accomplish my specific goal here.

I know what you mean More Sound, I came from Cakewalk's Sonar and it was a big learning curve getting into Reaper. But now I don't regret it at all, Reaper is so customizable.

I did try to figure a way to create a macro to do what you want but couldn't find the right actions to do it. It's really strange there's no action for this, I'd like to have it myself, but I think "Move edit cursor to mouse cursor" will work very well for me.

[fourdogslong]

Hi,
I know this is an old thread but I figured my question was related to this so here it is.
Is there a way to navigate through the session without selecting any audio?
Right now it seems that there is always an audio selected no matter what, I prefer to not have anything selected when I don't need to to prevent accidently moving or deleting anything.

[More Sound]

+1

[fourdogslong]

Originally Posted by More Sound

+1

Here's a tip I found that seems to work great: https://forums.cockos.com/showpost.p...8&postcount=27