Make the filename/path/etc text of a VSE strip hideable
The file name and path text on VSE strips being directly on top of where the waveform is on audio strips makes it very difficult to see waveforms for audio which was recorded at a low volume. Often it is impossible to tell what is complete silence and what is a waveform covered up by the text.I know that this could be solved by normalizing the audio, but Blender shouldn't expect pristine audio or discourage using raw audio.Right now the only way to make it useable for low volume audio is to shrink the vertical view down so that the entire strip's height takes up the entire screen, but then moving and editing other strips is very difficult, and some waveform detail is still obscured.A checkbox option on the View menu of the VSE to toggle all file names, paths, frame counts, etc (all text) on all strips would be absolutely fantastic for working with audio waveforms.
Thank you so much for considering this!
7 Comments
I wish that I could upvote this more :[ Also being able to normalize the audio waveform or use a logarithmic curve so you can see the lower values. There is far to much display space wasted by transient values.
Thanks! I was hoping others would like this idea. I agree that options to optimize the waveform would be great, but honestly just this one simple change would make my projects soooo much easier that I'm willing to forgo anything more complicated. I feel like this SHOULD take a dev 15 minutes max to add, so hopefully there's a chance it will make it in because it is so simple. Then again, I have no idea what is and isn't simple in Blender development. :(
I gather that no one (devs) really like working in the VSE code as it's quite old and hasn't changed much in a long time. It could be poorly commented or just not core enough to bother with.
But the VSE has received a fair number of improvements and new features in the last several releases! We got the VSE backdrop not long ago, and just in 2.77 we got the more powerful meta strip VSE-scene-within-VSE feature, which I absolutely love. (Thank you for that devs!) Everyone does always say the VSE is not being developed anymore, but I'd say rumours of the VSE's death have been greatly exaggerated. :)
Would be good to be able to check each part of the filename which you want to show or not. Like I would like to have a short filename only per Strip to be able to distinguish them but not always the whole Path or the Frame Length info.
That would be nice, but honestly I never even look at the text on audio strips. I usually remember which strips I've put where, and I usually have audio scrubbing turned on so if I don't remember what a strip is I scrub through to hear it. But you're right: the most useful part of the text if the name. I find the name to be so hard to pick out of all the other clutter of text like the path and frame info that I just ignore the text completely. I honestly think just a global toggle would be good enough, especially if it had a hotkey, but more options like you're suggesting would be great. Thanks for your input!
Another thing: thank you Johannes for reminding me that strips do have other text on them other than the name/path! The path is usually what is in my way so I forget about the frame length and other text which is often in the way too. I've edited my menu mockup, and I'll edit the post when the post edit feature is working properly again. Right now it seems to be under construction. I don't envy the developers of this website! Kind of an explosion of popularity when they are still trying to develop it.