Bells, Whistles, and Other Advanced Features
Features Common to Most Pro Tools Systems
Features Requiring Additional Hardware
Features Found Only on Pro Tools TDM Systems
Features Common to Most Pro Tools Systems
As much as we've covered so far, we've really only hit the tip of the Pro Tools iceberg. In this section we point out a few of the lifeboats. Here you'll find some items that you might actually have a use for, as well as some you may never use, and a few that aren't applicable to most Audiomedia III stations.
Many features aren't mentioned here because you won't have a use for them until you're tackling more advanced projects. And some are just plain obscure -- buried deep in some footnote in the manual.
So this certainly isn't an exhaustive list. But as I said at the beginning, you don't necessarily need to know every button and every menu choice to get your work done; it's not uncommon for editors who've been working professionally with Pro Tools for years to get into little shop-talk huddles and end up saying, "I didn't know you could do that..."
This is a very useful feature to make part of your editing habits. When you've arranged the regions of a session to your liking, you can "lock" them into position on the timeline so that they can't be accidentally nudged around or edited. Simply highlight the regions to be locked and press SPLAT-L. (Or go to the Edit Menu and select "Lock/Unlock region.)
You can choose to Lock/Unlock all of the regions in a session by first selecting "All" in the Edit Groups List, then clicking in any track with the Selector, then pressing SPLAT-L.
Small "padlock" icons appear at the beginning of locked regions.
In the upper left of the Edit Window you may have noticed a list of the track names under the words "Show/Hide." This is the Show/Hide Tracks List:
By clicking and deselecting the highlighted track names you can toggle their status between "shown" and "hidden." (In this example, "Audio 1" is hidden.) When a track is hidden, it is not displayed in the Edit Window.
Any audio regions in that track will still play, however, even though the track is "invisible."
Why would you want to hide a track? Sometimes when you have a lot of tracks the display can get a little confusing, and you might want to eliminate some visual clutter.
There are also some cue sheet programs that will print cue sheets based on the regions displayed in the Edit Window. There may be some tracks that are for reference purposes only that you may not wish printed on the cue sheets; if you hide them some programs have the option of not printing the hidden tracks.
If you're not using the "Show/Hide" and
"Edit Group" lists, remember that you can move them out of
the way by clicking the arrow at the bottom right of the
Edit Group list. This will give you a bit more workspace in
the Edit Window. ------------------------------------------------->
When you create a new session, sometimes Pro Tools defaults to giving you several different Timeline Rulers at once, as seen below.
But if you're not working interested in seeing all these variations, just go to the Display Menu and to a submenu under "Ruler View Shows."
If you choose "None" then Pro Tools will give you a single display based on the type checked off at the bottom of the Display Menu. (In this case, it would be Minutes:Seconds.)
Sounds like a film noir title, doesn't it? But it's just an optional large running time/footage display. You choose it by going to Display|Show Big Counter Window.
<---- Here it is in the
minutes:seconds:milliseconds mode.
< ----- Or in the 35mm feet &
frames mode. (Not available in Pro Tools LE.)
When would you want to use this? Well, it would be handy if mixing analog style, with cue sheets, direct from the analog outputs of Pro Tools. Or it might provide a more visible timing reference for certain types of studio recording -- foley, ADR, etc. But mostly it's just one of those features tucked away that you may never need.
This is a feature you might well have a use for. To "bounce" tracks means that you mix all the audible tracks within a selected time range in a session and create a new audiofile from the result (or audiofiles, if you do a stereo bounce.) The length of the selection is determined by highlighting with the selector bar.
Why would you do a bounce? Well, you might have a particularly complex moment within a session where you are beginning to run out of available voices/tracks. Like: some elaborate science-fiction device (made up of many sound effects) is dropped out of the bomb-bay doors (more effects) of a moving spaceship (more effects.) You might wish to create a bounce that is essentially a pre-mix of just the sci-fi device sounds to make the session more manageable.
Or you might be creating a mix which is destined to be burned to CD, or imported into some other editing program. In that case, it makes more sense to create a digital file than do an analog transfer.
Bouncing is essentially a "what you hear is what you get" process -- if a track is muted, it doesn't end up as part of the bounce. Real-time plug-ins, like EQ, do affect the bounce.
To do a bounce, first highlight the length of the selection. This could be just a few seconds of a session, or even the entire session. Then from the menubar choose File|Bounce to Disk. The following window appears:
Bounce Source: it should be the
outputs that your tracks are assigned to. On the LE systems,
that would be 1-2 (Stereo) by default.
[On the Pro Tools 24 systems
there are more output choices and it's important to make the
right selection. If all your tracks are assigned to play
through outputs 1/2 but your bounce source is set for 3/4,
no sounds are going to end up in your
bounce.] File type: SD II (Sound Designer
II) [Or AIFF, WAV, MPEG,
QUICKTIME, Sound Resource] Format: "Multiple Mono" means the
split stereo approach that Pro Tools favors. If you want to
burn the bounce to an audio CD, select
"Stereo
Interleaved."
[There's also a "Summed Mono"
option, which will combine your stereo mix into a single
mono track. Note that this might result in a higher combined
level and produce clipping.] Resolution:
"16 bit" is CD quality and is the
recommended choice. [8 bit is
low-fi, suitable for some multimedia games; 24 bit is often
used for original music recordings but not for consumer
formats.] Sample Rate: "44100" is CD
quality. [48000 is used in some
pro applications; Pro Tools also provides for other sample
rates to aid in pull-up/pull-down conversion factors,
etc.] Convert After Bounce Import After Bounce: This is
handy; it means that the bounce will automatically appear in
your session Audio Regions List. (Otherwise you'd have to
import the files.)
After you select the type of bounce you want to do, you get a
standard "Save As" window. Usually you would save such a bounce to
the "Audio Files" folder of your session. I like to include the
abbreviation "BNC" to easily identify bounces.
One last note about bounces: you will hear the bounce play in real time as it is created, so if it's a long session, allow enough time for the process.
Fine Control of Faders and Volume Graphing
You may have had some difficulty in precisely controlling level changes; it's easy enough to drop the level by around 6 db, but suppose you want it to read precisely -6.0 dB. There is a fairly easy way to do so, and it applies whether you are moving a fader or adjusting level with the Grabber or Trimmer. Suppose we're moving a fader; first, click on the fader and then as you move the fader up or down also press down the Splat key. This puts you into the "Fine Control" mode. You'll notice a change in the virtual "feel" of the fader and level values will increase or decrease in increments of 1/10th dB.
The same combination works when you're working with volume graphing; hold down the Splat key while you adjust automation with the Grabber or Trimmer and you'll be working in Fine Control.
When it comes to creating interesting sounds, one of the oldest tricks in the analog world is to simply play a sound back slower or faster than normal. You can do a digital variation on this in Pro Tools. First we'll look at ways to slow a sound down.
The simplest method is to try "half speed playback" which is the equivalent of taking a tape recorded at 15 IPS and playing it at 7.5 IPS. To do this in Pro Tools just hold down the Shift key while you press the Spacebar. You'll hear your regions played back at 1/2 speed.
If you're using the numerical keypad in the "classic" mode, there's another way to get more varied speeds: hold down the Contr key while on the right-hand side of the keyboard you press the numerical keypad keys 1-9. (Contr-5 is normal speed; lower numbers give you slower versions, higher numbers are faster.)
You can't use this feature to create bounces, but you can record the resulting sounds onto another tape deck and then re-load them if needed. Or you may just use this feature to help you locate specific bits within a sound, somewhat like scrubbing.
In the Setups|Preferences|Operation there is a choice between Numeric Keypad modes: "Classic" or "Transport." Selecting "Transport" means you can initiate some transport controls by pressing certain keys on the numeric keypad.
0 = Playback/Stop Playback
1 = Rewind
2 = Fast forward
3 = Record
4 = Toggles Loop Playback
5 = Toggles Loop Record
6 = Toggles "Quickpunch"
The TDM systems also have a numeric keypad mode called "Shuttle" which enables different speeds of fast forward and rewind. [The TDM systems also have an option called "Commands Key Focus" elaborate series of shortcuts where various keys are assigned specific commands. If you're working on those systems, request a list of the keystroke commands.]
Finding Regions in the Regions List
As you import more audiofiles and create regions, that Regions List over on the right side of the Edit Window gets to be pretty long and unwieldy. The fact that they can be sorted alphabetically helps somewhat.
(There are some other sorting options in the Audio Regions List menu, which we might as well take a quick look at.)
<---- You would probably want your
regions displayed by region name, in ascending order,
although there are other possibilities.
Even with the regions and files sorted, there are times when
scrolling through that long list just isn't efficient. If you have an
option called "keyboard selection" enabled, you can search for a
region just by typing the first letters of the region name into the
keyboard. The region list will then highlight and scroll to the first
region name that matches those letters.
To activate Keyboard Selection you have to click on a little "az" button in the upper right of the regions list. Like in the example at the lower left:
<---- Typing "c" on the
keyboard will select the first region that begins with "c,"
which in this case is Cary Grant Dialog. (Typing "cr" would
have selected the "crow caws.") By the way, if the Audio Regions "az"
button isn't active, it means the Edit Groups "az" button
is. If this button, shown to the right, is highlighted, it
means that you can select and deselect groups by typing the
letter associated with this group. --------> (In this example, the "b" group --
meaning faders 1 & 2 -- is active. Typing "b" would
deselect it.)
Searching for regions by Keyboard Selection is quick and easy, but sometimes it's not enough. You might have a very long list of regions that start with "Biplane": Biplane bys, Biplane Take-offs, Biplane Revs, etc. Or you may be unsure of the exact file name you're seeking. In that case you can use the "Find" feature of the above Audio Regions List menu (the shortcut is Shift-Splat-F.)
You can see that the display area of the
regions list is full, and this is only a small fraction of
all the regions in the list. Selecting "Find" will bring up a small
window where you can type the name or partial name of
the file you want. Using a partial name is a very useful
search option.
In this case we'll just search for "metal." The region list displays
the search results, as seen below right.
The last item in that search would not have turned up if we'd done a
regular keyboard selection, since the file name starts with "WW."
After searching, we can always choose "Display All" from the regions
list menu to once more list all files and regions.
Eliminating Clutter in the Regions List
Often the Audio Regions List fills up with lots of regions that are simply divisions of regions created by editing. You can choose not to display them by going to the Display Menu and deselecting "Display Auto-Created Regions." This can thin out the list considerably.
A "memory location" originally was a kind of timeline marker, a point of reference that you could store. This would make it easy to return to a particular spot within a large session. Then it occurred to people that it would be handy to store other parameters besides just position on the timeline. And so a Memory Location Window was created. To view it, choose the obvious: Windows|Show Memory Locations Window. It looks like this:
In this case there are four different
memory locations stored. The default "name" for the
locations is either the Marker number or, if you choose to
store a selected area, the actual position on the timeline,
given in the same units as the timeline -- in this case,
minutes:seconds:milliseconds. But in this example, I've chosen to give
most of these locations their own names. The session playback cursor will "jump"
to a memory location if you click one of the stored location
buttons in the window. (Or -- if you're in the "Classic"
Numerical Keypad mode, you can type the number of the
location, followed by a Period. In this case, location #4 is
active.) Notice the odd-looking icons to the right
of the memory location names; these indicate the types of
parameters that are stored. Location #1 has only a marker
position stored. Location #2 has a selected area,
zoom-magnification, and pre-roll settings stored. Location
#3 has a marker plus a set of Group enables stored. And
Location #4 has display parameters such as zoom, hidden
tracks, and track heights stored.
What are these settings? Let's first answer the most basic question:
how do you go about storing one of these memory locations?
It's easy -- just position the cursor where you want it (which is wherever you happen to be "parked" in the edit window) and press the "Enter" key on the numerical keypad. This will call up the following window --
You can accept the default name, or type
in something more memorable. The default is to store a
timeline/selection position. To store the other settings,
you have to check their boxes. You can see that Zoom Settings might be
an item you could store. You can also see that, if you'd
like, you can store settings such as Zoom size and Track
Heights without having any particular timeline position
stored with them -- just select "None" for the Time
Properties and you have a convenient way to store your
favorite "zoomed in" mode for finicky editing. Similarly, if you were doing some complex
mixing, you might just want to store certain Group Enables.
And so forth.
Here's a Memory Location I created specifically for double-checking
the accurate placement of the sync pop that lines up with the picture
countdown leader.
Clicking on the "Check Pop" location
brings me right to the correct position, with a zoomed in
view to examine the single frame of pop tone. A couple combo keystrokes you should
know: 1. To delete a memory location, hold down
the Option key while clicking the location in the Memory
Location Window. 2. To revise a memory location,
Double-Click on it. (If you want to revise the actual
timeline location, re-position the cursor in the Edit Window
first.)
The Memory Location Window is one of those nice features I keep
meaning to utilize more; you may want to make it part of your work
habits.
The ability of Pro Tools to import Quicktime movies into a session and position the movie on the timeline has brought digital video to Pro Tools editing. For frame-accurate sync and high quality picture playback on separate video monitors, third party video cards and software are used for digitizing and playback. But for some projects, the small Quicktime window that appears on the Mac screen may suffice. (Or at least it can give you some idea of the possibilities.)
This is a subject that should be the basis of an entire tutorial, but I just want to provide a very brief look at how this works. First, from the menubar I choose Movie|Import Movie. An "Import Movie" window appears. I navigate to a folder on one of partitions containing some picture clips, indicated by Adobe Premiere movie icons. Choosing one of these movies displays the first frame of the clip in the Preview window.
When I choose to open a particular movie file it will appear in the
Pro Tools window as a kind of "movie track" with the same name as the
movie. A small Quicktime movie window also appears. (The picture
looks better than in this screenshot, although it is certainly not a
high resolution image.)
Clicking anywhere along the timeline will "jump" the Quicktime movie display to that frame, and playing any point in the session plays both audio regions and the Quicktime movie. You can also scrub sound and picture backwards and forwards.
Obviously, sounds can now be nudged around to be in sync with the picture. If the picture is digitized to the proper specifications, sync relationships will be the same as if Pro Tools had been slaved to videotape with timecode. Picture that has a proper SMPTE head and tail leader can be positioned on the timeline in such a way that its Pro Tools timeline position will correspond to the timecode window dub information burned into the movie frames. (Digidesign has made this difficult on the Pro Tools LE systems by no longer providing a timecode ruler display.)
If the movie was captured with audio, the movie audio track can also be imported into Pro Tools. (From the same Movie menu, select Import Audio From Current Movie. Pro Tools will create a new Sound Designer II copy of the movie audio, which can be saved to the session audio files folder.)
For a better sense of what this is all about, you might view a Pro Tools demo called "Demo Video."
Loop Record is useful when there is a fairly brief section of a recorded performance that may need to be repeated promptly, over and over, to achieve the best take.
Suppose we're recording a line of Voice Over which has a specific timing (either in relation to picture or to music or other sounds in our session.) If we enable Loop Record, then we can put a track in "record ready" and highlight the approximate portion of track, from beginning to end, where the line should go. Like this:
<----- A range from twenty to
twenty five seconds on the timeline is selected.
Next we can actually put Pro Tools into record. As usual, a pink highlight that indicates the recording progress starts at the 20 second mark and begins moving toward the right. Now ordinarily, that highlight would continue moving to the right until we stop recording. But in Loop Record, once the the pink progress bar reaches the end of the highlighted portion it jumps back to the beginning and repeats the process. We can continue recording in this way for many passes. When we stop recording only the last recording pass is present in the edit window track.
<----- In this case I wanted to
take advantage of the way Pro Tools temporarily labels
soundfiles based on the track name, so I labeled my record
track "VO" for Voice Over. Notice how "03" is appended to
the end of the region name. That's because in this example I
did three record passes or takes.
So in our record track we find only a one region that consists of
our last take. But we actually recorded a longer single audiofile
with each take readily available. If we look over in our regions
list, we'll see the rest of our takes.
Remember, the bold type indicates
the entire audiofile. Pro Tools has automatically broken
this file into three regions that represent the three takes.
Now if we want to, we can easily drag alternate takes into
the edit window. (The easy way to put them "in sync" with
our existing take is to highlight the take that's currently
in a track, then hold down the CONTROL key while dragging in
a different take onto another track.)
For film sound work, Loop Record is especially useful for recording ADR and tricky bits of Foley -- or anything else where you want to record several attempts quickly without a lot of starting and stopping.
QuickPunch is a feature that simplifies the task of "punching in" to existing material, going in an out of record to update and improve a particular portion of a track. With QuickPunch turned on, to perform a punch-in you would first record enable a track. Then you play it. As you play along, when you reach the section where you want to record you simply click on the Record button of the Transport Window, then click again to come out of record. You can continue to punch in and out this way many times during a single playback.
When you stop playback you'll discover that new regions have appeared in the track for all your new punched in sections, with the regions sequentially numbered. But over in the regions list you'll find one long audiofile listed in boldface representing the entire record pass. (Very much like the way audiofiles were handled in Loop Record.)
One advantage of QuickPunch is that when "AutoInput Monitor" is enabled in the Operations Menu, each time you punch in Pro Tools will smoothly switch over from playing previous recorded material to monitoring the new input and back again, without noticeable hesitation.
All QuickPunch recording is non-destructive; if QuickPunch is turned on and you select destructive recording it will automatically turn QuickPunch off. (And as mentioned before, there are very few cases where destructive recording is desirable.)
Link Edit and Timeline Selections
As mentioned before, most of the time it's probably preferable to keep these selections linked. Pro Tools gives you the option of unlinking them; I'm hard pressed to explain in words this distinction and what advantage it might provide.
But here goes.
Below is a screen shot where Edit and Timeline Selections are linked.
|
|
If Playback were started, it would begin at the "Blue Arrow" markers (actually, since Pre/Post roll is enabled, it would start and end at the green flags.) |
But in the example below the Edit and Timeline are unlinked. (You'll notice a new set of black markers in the timeline that correspond to the highlighted portion.)
|
|
Here Playback would not at the highlighted portion, but at a previously determined range represented by the region further to the right. (However, the highlighted portion could be played by selecting Operations|Play Edit Selection.) |
By unlinking the two, you have the option of "saving your place" on a particular playback region while going to another part of the session to edit/audition material. In the examples above, I imagined a situation where I might want to select a particular drum hit from earlier in the track to use further to the right in my "timeline selected" region.
By all means experiment with this option; you might find your own uses for it.
The "Linking" option is toggled by either
clicking on the icon shown to the right, or by going to the
Operations Menu, or by using the shortcut SHIFT-/
Features Requiring Additional Hardware
Additional hardware of a MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard or sound module is needed to properly record and play back MIDI music; in that sense this is an "optional" topic. And MIDI is too complex a subject to deal with in a brief summary. But let's briefly note for the record that Pro Tools does have the capability to record and play back MIDI tracks.
What are MIDI tracks? These are essentially just lines of information as to what musical keyboard keys are pressed, when they are pressed, and how hard they are pressed. The tracks don't contain any audio. No sound is being recorded; just instructions for making sounds that will come out of devices that play samples or synthesize sounds.
Think of a MIDI track as a kind of player piano roll expressed digitally. In fact, the Pro Tools display of MIDI information somewhat resembles the holes punched in an old-fashioned player piano roll:
<---- You can see how each note is
represented by a dash along the timeline. The length of the
dash corresponds to how long the note was held. The vertical
"height" of the display corresponds to the pitch of the note
-- you can see how the notes relate to the representation of
the black & white piano keys. See how the Grabber is poised over one of
those notes? The note can be dragged and re-positioned. (For
instance, this G note could be turned into a C.)
MIDI is a very powerful music producing tool because you can edit
more than editing note positions; you can easily edit other MIDI
instructions. For instance, you can change the type of instrument
being played -- a part written for guitar can be quickly reassigned
to a harp.
Although Pro Tools doesn't have all the MIDI capabilities of dedicated MIDI programs, its MIDI features exist side by side with its audio strengths, and all you would need to record MIDI in Pro Tools would be a fairly simple MIDI interface box, some cables, and a MIDI keyboard.
Again, the following doesn't apply to a basic Audiomedia III system; you need additional hardware for syncing to videotape. And the Pro Tools LE systems lack the timecode displays that are an essential tool for editing to videotape.
So intro students may want to skip this whole discussion.
It's tempting to say that syncing to SMPTE timecode-striped videotape has been superceded by digital video and leave it at that. But this isn't the case yet. We'll be dealing with videotape for a while to come, so we'll take a brief, simplified look at the procedure.
The simplest way for Pro Tools to "get in sync" with videotape is to use SMPTE timecode to "trigger" the playback of audio regions. For the basic approach, all you need is a SMPTE timecode to MIDI timecode converter (the Mac doesn't respond directly to SMPTE but it is designed to deal with MIDI.)
If you put Pro Tools "online" and you have the SMPTE timecode from your videotape running to a gadget that converts it to MIDI, and you have the appropriate cables and adapters going to the appropriate serial port of the Mac, when Pro Tools "sees" a timecode number that falls within the session timeline, it will start playing back the session from that point, and all your sounds would play back in sync with the picture.
That assumes that you actually have sounds in sync with picture. How would you sync up sound to the videotape? Let's use the simplest example: the "pop" or beep that should correspond to the frame marked "2" on the countdown leader that precedes the first frame of picture.
First, you need a videotape that is striped with SMPTE and has a window dub that displays the running timecode numbers. You locate the "2" frame on the videotape, and you see that the window dub reads: 01:00:06:00. (If you're like me, that's too many digits to ponder -- I much prefer working with a window dub that shows Feet & Frames, and using the same kind of timeline in Pro Tools. But for this example we'll use the SMPTE numbers.)
Now if you have an audio region that consists of one frame of "pop" tone, you just need to position it so that it is at exactly 6 seconds along the timeline. Well, you could always go into the "Grid" mode and grab the pop and drag it along the track and watch the numbers in the "Start/End" display change until you're in the ballpark, then nudge it into place. (This isn't the most accurate and efficient way to deal with a sync pop, but it could work for some sound effects.)
A better method might be to switch to the "Spot" mode. Now when you click on your "pop" region, a Spot Window appears:
Now it's just a question of entering the
correct number into the "start" field. This determines the
placement of the start of the region. (We set up our session
so that it begins at exactly 1 hour and zero seconds, so our
pop goes at 6 seconds from the beginning of the session, or
01:00:06:00.) [Note that you have the option of using a region sync
point as the reference field. This would be used for syncing
up something like the "Biplane By" effect where we created a
Sync Point at the peak of the sound.]
A slight refinement to typing in a number is available if the
videotape has vertical timecode (VITC) as well at linear timecode
(LTC.) Then, with an optional VITC reader box, Pro Tools will "grab"
positional numbers based on the frame where the videotape is paused.
If an option called "Auto-Spot Regions" is enabled, regions that are
"grabbed" should automatically jump to the frame position where the
tape is paused.
[In actual practice, this VITC reading business is only accurate to within a frame or two. Regions then often need to be nudged a bit to correspond with the actual window dub position.]
In any case we would want to wind up with a pop region positioned correctly on the timeline.
In theory our pop is now in sync with picture. We can test it by playing the videotape. If we play the tape from the beginning of the SMPTE head leader countdown, the timecode output should have time to "stabilize" and trigger the beginning of session playback so that the Pop will be heard on the "2" frame of the SMPTE countdown. The session continues playing and any other regions that are positioned in the appropriate spots on the timeline will play in sync with picture. This continues until we stop the videotape.
Simple SMPTE to MIDI converters are fairly inexpensive, so it's easy enough to hook up this basic set up. Unfortunately, for really critical sync work over the course of a long session, it's not accurate enough. That's because, once the start of session playback is triggered, the session continues playback based on the computer's internal clock speed; there is no continuous reference to what the SMPTE is doing.
The computer clock is quite stable, so for most purposes this is accurate enough. Still, over the course of a ten minute session, you could have a one or two frame discrepancy as the computer's clock time drifts away from the SMPTE time of the videotape. (It should be noted, though, that this is really just a problem during a long continuous playback. You might do a lot of editing on a bare bones system and as long as you do your laybacks or final mixes on a more stable system, everything should be in sync.)
To correct this problem, there are a number of refinements that require more equipment. One involves feeding any actual fluctuations in the playback of the SMPTE code to a device that moderates another computer-style clock which is used in place of the Mac's internal clock. In this way the session playback fluctuates very subtly to stay in sync with the tape.
A simpler approach that is more stable in actual practice, is to use a single reliable clock source -- called "video black" or "house sync" -- as a reference for both the computer and the videotape deck.
Regardless of these refinements, syncing to analog videotape has a number of drawbacks compared to digital picture systems:
Oddly enough, most of these disadvantages don't apply to working with sound and picture in a moviola or on a flatbed. (That had other disadvantages.) Digital picture has eliminated a certain amount of grumbling from the ranks of sound editors who started off cutting sound on film and then crossed over to Pro Tools.
Features Found Only on Pro Tools TDM Systems
This is by no means a complete list of the differences between the LE and TDM systems -- some of which we've dealt we previously. But these are some of the flashier features.
Remember that little "AZ" button we clicked so that we could search the regions list by typing names on the keyboard? (Or we could use the Groups "AZ" button to enable groups by typing their letters.)
Well, there's another "AZ" button on the TDM systems, just below the "Shuffle-Spot-Slip-Grid" buttons. Clicking it enables something called "Commands Key Focus," which is a whole set of keyboard shortcuts for common editing tasks. Want to do a Fade In? Type "d." A Fade Out? Type "g." And many others, too many to list here. Digidesign provides a card that summarizes the shortcuts as well as a set of "stick on" key labels (if you've worked on an Avid, you've seen similar key labels.)
Unfortunately, these keystrokes can't be customized (at least not with the current software version.)
I've only played with this feature briefly; it's rather nice for mixing when you are going back and forth over a section. Available under the Setups|Preferences|Operations menu, it turns the numeric keypad into a handy fast-forward and rewind control with different speeds assigned to different keys. "4" gives you normal rewind; "6" gives you normal fast-forward. "1" or "3" gives you a slow (1/4th speed) rewind and fast-forward. "7" and "9" give you a high speed (4x normal) selection.
Scroll with "Playhead" Display
In the default Pro Tools display, the timeline and regions are stationary and the playback cursor scrolls along, moving down the timeline as it plays the sounds. This is a fairly common approach in workstations.
But some other editing systems have taken a different approach and Pro Tools now offers a display option that may be more comfortable to those who've worked on these other systems. In the "Scroll with Playhead" approach, the cursor remains stationary and the timeline and regions move past the cursor (somewhat like analog tape moving past a playback head.)
It's just a different way of viewing the playback movement; the end results are the same.
On TDM systems, when you click and hold on the Trimmer Tool button, a menu of two additional Trim Tool options appears. One is "Scrub Trimmer." This combines Scrubbing and Trimming actions in one tool; as you move the Trimmer along a region, the audio is scrubbed so you can locate a particular place on the region. When you release the mouse, the region will be trimmed at that point.
When in this mode, the Trimmer works in conjunction with an Audiosuite plug-in called Time Compression/Expansion. (That's why this is also called the TCE Trimmer.)
Suppose you have a sound region that is two seconds long. Let's say that this is a sound with a beginning, middle, and end -- a car crash, for instance. The only problem is that, for timing purposes, it would be nice if this particular sound was two and a half seconds long.
Easy; you take the Time Trimmer and use it to extend the region another half second. The plug-in then creates a new, longer "time stretched" file to replace the original. Likewise, you can "shorten" a region in similar fashion. This tool provides an easy, accurate and intuitive way to do Time Compression/Expansion -- much simpler than having to do it "by the numbers" using the plug-in directly.
There's a limit to how radically you can Time Compress/Expand a sound before sonic artifacts become noticeable, but in modest doses this can be an effective tool.
That should be enough of the Tutorial. I hope you found it helpful. Even though it's wordier than I'd like, I suspect it's still much easier than wading through the manual. (Although at some point, you'll need to refer to it.)
But for now quit reading -- and start listening and playing with sound.
Or: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Copyright ©2000 by Rodger Pardee
