Editing Digital Audio in Pro Tools By David Franz

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Let's talk about how to edit materials in Pro Tools. In my view, the most powerful features of Pro Tools lie within the software’s extensive editing capabilities. Getting your head around all of the editing possibilities and techniques will take some time, but it’s time well spent. You may need to refer back to this chapter as you progress through your projects because you’ll probably be editing in every stage of the production process. But, before we get knee-deep in editing techniques, let’s cover a few concepts that are crucial to your success in editing digital audio files with Pro Tools.

NON-DESTRUCTIVE EDITING AND EDIT PLAYLISTS

The reason that editing digital audio in Pro Tools is so powerful is that most editing functions in Pro Tools are non-destructive. What does that really mean? Non-destructive editing means that any cutting, pasting, trimming, separating, or clearing of audio data occurs virtually . . . the source audio files are not harmed in any way. Pro Tools only performs these editing functions on a map of the actual audio data, never touching the recorded source data. All edits that you perform simply help Pro Tools tell your hard drive where to look for data and how to arrange it for playback. Edit playlists are the mechanisms that do this.

An edit playlist is one or more regions arranged on an audio or MIDI track. The order and location of regions in a track define the track’s edit playlist. The following examples will demonstrate the evolution of a track’s edit playlist utilizing nondestructive editing.

When you first record a track, the edit playlist usually consists of just one entire whole-file audio region, as in the guitar track in figure 4.1.

Say you like some parts of the track and not others, plus you want to get a bit creative with the track. So, you cut out some parts and move other parts so the track sounds really cool and ultimately looks like figure 4.2.

Once you begin editing a track, many distinct regions are created and the edit playlist becomes more complex. Yet, with nondestructive editing, instead of creating brand new audio files for each small part of the track shown in figure 4.2, Pro Tools simply directs the hard drive to the place where each part of the audio track is located on the original source audio file, in the order determined by the edit playlist.

Having a large number of edits on your tracks requires the hard drive to do a lot of locating. (That’s one reason that you need a fast hard drive to have Pro Tools work properly.) For example, the edit playlist may first direct the hard drive to read the first two seconds of the source audio file. Then an edit occurs that tells the hard drive to read the last four seconds of audio on the source file. The next edit instructs the hard drive to read a different section, and so on. Thus, the original audio file is not actually cut apart and spliced together . . . it only appears that way on your computer screen. In reality, the source audio file is completely intact and untouched. Ah, the beauty of non-destructive hard disk digital audio editing.

EDIT MODES AND EDIT TOOLS

There are six edit tools you can employ for editing in Pro Tools: the Zoomer, Trimmer, Selector, Grabber, Scrubber, and Pencil tools.

Fig. 4.3. By pressing the bar below the Trimmer, Selector, and Grabber tool icons, you can select the Smart Tool. This edit tool lets you use the Selector, Grabber, and Trimmer, as well as create fades and crossfades, all at once. Depending on where you place the cursor within a region or MIDI note, the Smart Tool automatically switches to the appropriate tool for the job.

The Selector Tool The Selector tool will probably be your most used edit tool. Its primary functions are to place the cursor for playback at a specific point on the track (by clicking in the track) and to select specific track material for editing (by clicking and dragging in the track).

Here are some handy Selector tool features: If you double-click with the Selector on a region, the entire region will become selected (highlighted). If you triple-click with the Selector on a track, the track’s entire edit playlist will become selected (highlighted). If you place the cursor somewhere on a track’s edit playlist, then hold down the Shift key and select another part of the playlist, all of the area between the two points on the playlist will become selected.

The Grabber Tool

Fig. 4.4. The Separation Grabber separates selected material into new regions. This tool makes it really easy to grab part of a track, cut it automatically, and move it somewhere else.

The Grabber Tool comes in two flavors: Time Grabber and Separation Grabber, as seen in figure 4.4. You’ll probably use the Time Grabber most often. Its primary function is to select or move entire regions, MIDI events, and Conductor track events. The Grabber can also be used to insert and edit automation breakpoints (see chapter 12). Read about creating and editing automation data in this chapter’s Pro Tools Hands-On.

The Trimmer Tool

The Trimmer’s main function is to shorten or expand a region. It can also be used to lengthen and shorten MIDI notes as well as scale automation and controller data up or down. Being a non-destructive tool, it does not actually modify the original audio or MIDI data.

For editing audio, the Trimmer is most often used to cut off the beginning or end of a region or to extend a region’s start or end point by clicking and dragging the beginning or end of a region left or right to shorten or lengthen the region. To reverse the direction of the Trimmer, press Option (Mac) or Alt (Win).

The Trimmer tool can also be used in Time Trimmer mode. The Time Trimmer uses the Time Compression/Expansion AudioSuite plug-in to alter the length of an audio region and create a new audio file. Use this tool to time compress or expand a region so that it matches the length of another region, fits better on a tempo grid, or for a special effect.
Simply drag the start or end point of a region with this tool to expand or compress the region. Choose the default settings for the TC/E plug-in from the pop-up list in the Processing Preferences page or create your own by opening the plug-in itself and saving your settings.

EDIT MODES — OH, BEHAVE!

The Edit modes (Shuffle, Slip, Spot, and Grid) determine how regions behave on a track’s edit playlist when edited by the edit tools. They provide you with different ways to manipulate your recorded tracks with the editing tools.

Shuffle mode: This mode restricts the placement of regions so that they snap to each other and are placed end to end.

Spot mode: In this mode, you’re prompted to enter a location for the moved or trimmed region.

Grid mode: This mode constrains edits and selections to the nearest spaced boundary.

Slip mode: In this mode, regions can be moved and trimmed freely, and placed so that regions overlap or so there is space between regions in the destination track.

For example, the Trimmer tool, when used in conjunction with each of the edit modes, can be a very powerful editing tool. Often, you’ll want to use the Trimmer tool in Slip mode. When in Slip mode, the regions are simply trimmed wherever you see them on the computer screen. However, when using Shuffle mode, adjacent regions are slid as necessary to make room for the edited region. If using Grid mode, the trimmed start/end times snap to the nearest grid boundary. And, if using Spot mode, the Spot dialog opens, where you can enter the new location for the trimmed region’s start or end point. Try out all of the edit tools in each edit mode to see the unique editing features of every combination.

 

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