Re: The Magnetic Timeline – What’s The Paradigm? On Clips and Tracks

[Walter Soyka] "My most basic point is this: tracked editing allows an editor to use 2D space in the timeline to convey meaning. Trackless editing removes that ability."

I think this idea that tracks are especially intuitive is nuts. Tracks are a digital emulation of the behavior of physical recording devices that were limited in their flexibility by their mechanical implementations. The brain fundamentally works in terms of relationships between things, and in terms of multiple overlapping taxonomies. Clip connections and tagging map to these much better than rigidly defined tracks and strict hierarchical organization of clips in bins.

I agree that there is some value in being able to see visually how various objects are classified. Tracks do allow for some of this, but arrangement in a flat 2D space is a pretty crude approach. For something like tagging audio roles, color coding would provide more flexibility.

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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

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