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Creating New Regions
When editing audio, you will often need to select a portion of a
region and delete it, move it somewhere else, or make multiple copies
of it. For example, you may want to make multiple copies of a bass
line to create a bass loop that repeats during a song’s verse.
In Pro Tools, there are several ways to select a portion of audio
and create a new region, including capturing a new region, separating
a region, or using the Separation Grabber tool.
I usually create a new region by selecting a portion of an existing
region with the Selector tool and choosing Separate Region from
the Edit menu (or typing 
+ E [Mac] and Ctrl + E [Win]). This command creates new regions
by separating and renaming the affected regions on the playlist.
Additionally, if you’ve placed the cursor somewhere on a region
but haven’t selected any part of it, the Separate Region command
will split the region right where the cursor is. It is beneficial
to automatically separate a region like this if you know you want
to cut out and/or move the region, because it makes the region easier
to select, grab, trim, move, or delete. I also recommend learning
how to use the Separation Grabber to perform region separations.
Cut, Copy, Paste, and Clear
If you’ve used any piece of software (like a word processor
or spreadsheet) other than Pro Tools, you probably have cut, pasted,
copied, and cleared data before. Those actions are no different
in Pro Tools, except that you are cutting, pasting, copying, and
clearing audio or MIDI data instead of text or graphics. These commands
are very useful for editing and can be used to edit any type of
track material. The Track View determines what type of track material
(e.g., volume data) is cut or copied from a track. Remember that
you’ll cut or copy all data that accompanies a track in its
Master View, as mentioned previously.
As with most editing functions, the current edit mode determines
how track material is affected by an editing action.
DIGITAL EDITING TECHNIQUES
When cutting and splicing analog tape, you rely solely on your ears
to find musical edit points. There are often hundreds of pieces
of tape to keep track of and all razor-cut edits are destructive.
It is an exacting and exhaustive process that yielded good results
for several decades. However, it’s fast becoming a dead art
since digital editing has forever changed the way we think about
production.
One of the best features of editing digital audio (in my opinion)
is that you actually see the waveform you’re trying to edit;
you’re able to combine your senses (hearing and sight) to
get the job done. Obviously, music is heard, not seen, so we must
continue to rely heavily on our ears to make sure anything we do
sounds good. However, for visually oriented people like me, being
able to see what I’m listening to helps me find accurate edit
points much faster. In fact, most people rely on sight as their
primary sense . . . even musicians.
With its variety of functions, there’s really little you can’t
do in Pro Tools when editing audio or MIDI. In fact, because Pro
Tools offers so many ways to edit your music, every Pro Tools user
seems to utilize different techniques and functions to get their
work done — an entire book could be written on Pro Tools editing
techniques alone. That said, I’m going to cover just a few
of the functions I use regularly.
Additional information on all of the editing features of Pro Tools
can be found in the Pro Tools Reference Guide and on the Digidesign
Web site. I also recommend getting together with other Pro Tools
users and exchanging tips — you’ll be surprised how
much you can learn. (Visit Digidesign’s User Conference area
or the DigiZine on their site for access to a knowledgeable and
vibrant community of Digi users, from newbies to top pros.)
In its most basic forms, Pro Tools editing is cutting, pasting,
copying, and clearing regions and files; being familiar with these
commands is imperative. Editing also involves dexterity in creating
regions, capturing regions, locking regions, placing regions in
tracks, and sliding regions so you can manipulate them comfortably.
Usually I learn new editing techniques when forced to do so. For
example, I needed to figure out the best and fastest way to comp
a vocal part together. So I paged through the reference guide for
information, asked some friends, and sussed out a few different
techniques. After trying several methods, I chose to comp vocals
using playlists because it worked best for my recording and editing
needs. This technique might not be the technique that someone else
would use first, but it works well for me. The moral: Don’t
feel like you have to be a total Pro Tools expert to edit like a
pro. You can learn as you go!
Comping Using Playlists
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Fig. 4.9. Click on the arrow
next to a track name to select or create a new playlist, then
name the playlist.
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“Comping” is the
process of combining all the best parts from multiple takes
into one master take. As I mentioned in chapter 2, I like
to record multiple takes of tracks, particularly overdubs
such as vocals or guitar solos, on new playlists on the same
track. That way I can compare the parts I like from each and
easily edit them to create a master take. |
To me, copying and pasting among takes on separate playlists is
the fastest way to comp together the finished product because (a)
it’s not necessary to create or separate any regions (Pro
Tools automatically creates them) and (b) the same selected audio
or MIDI area stays selected when changing between playlists, making
seamless comps a breeze.
To create a playlist for a new take, choose New from the Playlist
selector and name the file accordingly (as in figure 4.9). To copy
and paste between takes, select and copy the audio or MIDI area
that you want from one playlist, then choose the “target”
(master take) playlist using the Playlist selector and perform a
paste — Pro Tools automatically creates a new region for the
pasted part. If you need to create a crossfade between regions on
a newly comped track to smooth out the sonic transition between
two regions, choose Fades then Create Fades from the Edit menu (more
on fades and crossfades in the section that follows).
FADES AND CROSSFADES
A huge part of making your edits sound natural is your ability to
use crossfades. Crossfading is the process of fading two regions
of audio together to prevent pops, clicks, or sudden changes in
sound. Crossfades have many applications, from smoothing transitions
between regions to creating special audio effects.
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Fig. 4.10. The Fades window
takes the pain out of creating seamless transitions between
regions.
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Pro Tools makes it easy to create
your own fades and crossfades. For those who’ve edited
analog tape, you know you’re basically limited to choosing
one of a few different angles of tape cuts to create crossfades.
But with Pro Tools you can actually draw your own crossfade
curves and listen to how they sound, or choose from Equal
Power, Equal Gain, and any of a number of different curves
as seen in figure 4.10. You can even apply dither to fades.
Note: When you’re working with 24-bit files I
recommend using dither on crossfades if levels are low, and
that you always use dither on fade-ins and fade-outs. (Dither
is fully explained in chapter 13.) |
THE EASY WAYS TO FADE
As with most other major functions in Pro Tools, there are keyboard
shortcuts that make creating fades easier. To access the Fades dialog
box, simply type + F (Mac)
or Ctrl + F (Win). And even easier... to apply a crossfade to a
selection without accessing Fades window at all, do this:
+ Ctrl + F (Mac) This uses
the default fade shape defined in the Preferences.
Ctrl + Start + F (Win) This uses the last fade shape that you selected.
And remember, you can also use the Smart Tool to create fades and
crossfades. First, place the Smart tool near the beginning or end
of a region. Then, to create a fade, mouse to the upper half of
the track and the fade icon will appear. Click and drag where you
want the fade to begin and end. Similarly, if you want to create
a crossfade, mouse to the lower half of the region and
the crossfade icon will appear. Click and drag where you want the
crossfade to begin and end.
Nudging Notes
Sometimes you’ll record a great take but one or two notes
are just a bit out of time. A good example of this is when a bass
player hits a downbeat slightly ahead of when the drummer hits the
kick drum. (I’m not implying that bass players tend to rush;
they just get overly excited sometimes.) To fix the syncopation,
you can nudge the bass note slightly later in time to match the
kick downbeat.
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Fig. 4.11. Use the Nudge
dropdown menu to easily move selected regions without having
to mess with ultra-accurate mousing.
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To nudge a note or several notes,
first find the note(s) in the waveform in the Edit window.
Zoom in close enough so you can see where the note begins
and ends. Select the note(s) and create a new region by choosing
Separate Region from the Edit menu. Now select the nudge value
from the Nudge dropdown menu in the upper-right corner of
the Edit window. You can choose from Bars:Beats, Min:Secs,
or Samples. Pro Tools offers a list of values for each of
these, but you can type in your own if you want. I recommend
trying 10ms as a starting point and adjusting from there.
Press the plus key (+) on the numeric keypad to move your
selection forward by the nudge value or the minus key (–)
to move the selection back. You may have to press either key
several times to align the bass note with the kick drum. |
And if you want to get really fancy… If you nudge while
pressing Control (Mac) or the Start key (Win), you can actually
nudge the contents of a region without changing the region’s
start and end points. This only works if there’s audio or
MIDI material outside the region’s start and end points. (It
would work in our bass/kick drum example and could possibly yield
slightly better results.) You should also note that the Nudge command
works the same regardless of the Edit mode you’re using at
the time.
Be careful using the nudge editing technique though. You can go
crazy trying to align every note, killing way too much time and
taking away from the real performance — the “vibe”
— of the part. If the part needs that much fixing, re-record
it!
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