Nondestructive editing

Nondestructive editing does not change your original audio files when you edit an audio clip. Most editing functions in Pro Tools — clearing, cutting, pasting, separating, and trimming your audio clips, for example — are nondestructive. (All these operations are explained in Chapter 3 of this mini-book.)

Not all Pro Tool editing procedures are nondestructive. A few are destructive: Using them will permanently alter your source audio file. Whenever I describe one of these procedures, I’ll warn you (look for a Warning icon) that after you perform the function, your source file will be changed.

Editing during playback

Most editing functions can be carried out while the session is playing. This feature makes editing much faster and easier because you can instantly hear (and see) what your changes have done. Some of these edits include

• Capturing, separating, and trimming clips
• Nudging, placing, rearranging, or spotting clips
• Creating fades or crossfades in and between clips (version 6.0 and later)
• Auditioning playlists
• Editing automation data
• Inserting RealTime plug-ins (version 6.0 and later)
• Processing audio using AudioSuite plug-ins

You can find out more about these functions throughout this chapter and the next three chapters (Chapters 2–4 in this mini-book).

Selecting the track view

By default, audio tracks in the Edit window are set to Waveform view. This view shows a visual representation of the sound produced by the audio file associated with a particular clip. Pro Tools also gives you the option of ditching the Waveform view and going with something different. You switch between different views with the help of the Track View menu, as shown in Figure 1-1, which you access by clicking and holding the Track View display in the Track Controls section of the Edit window.

Your options are as follows:

• Block:Block view shows a blank box for each audio clip. This view makes screen redraws much quicker, which is useful during mixing when all the editing is done and you don’t need to see the waveform.
• Playlists:Playlists view expands the track to show any additional playlists for that track. These appear below the selected playlist for the track.
• Analysis:Analysis view shows you the event markers for Elastic Audio–enabled tracks. In this view, you can manually edit (add, move, or delete) the marker locations. This is useful for clips that don’t contain easily identified transients that can serve as event marker locations.
• Warp:Warp view also contains the event markers for your Elastic Audio–enabled tracks and lets you edit these events. This is the best place to work if you want to adjust the timing of a performance.

• Waveform:Waveform view is the default — a graphical representation of the audio file, much like what you’d see if you ran a sound through an oscilloscope. This is the best view to be in when you’re editing clips because you can easily find the start of a note. After a while, you’ll probably be almost able to hear the track in your head just by looking at the waveform.

  Besides being able to see waveforms in their normal way — with both positive and negative values — you can choose the Draw Waveforms Rectified option, which displays the waveform as a summed value of the positive and negative level. This can be useful when you want to create volume automation to increase or reduce specific notes (such as, respectively, a weak or very loud drum hit). To get that rectified look, select the Draw Waveforms Rectified check box on the Display tab of the Preferences dialog box. (You know the drill: Choose Setup ⇒ Preferences from the main menu to get to the Preferences dialog box.)

• Volume: This view shows the volume level of the track. The volume level is displayed as a line superimposed over the waveform. In this view, the clip’s name is hidden.
• Mute: This view shows whether the track is muted. When a track is muted, the line shows at the bottom of the view; when the track is unmuted, the line shows at the top. If a track uses automatic muting, a vertical line shows where the mute is turned on or off. This view also shows the waveform in the background.
• Pan:Pan view shows the apparent position of the track’s output from left to right (pan) in the stereo sound. When the track is panned in the center, the line is centered in the view. Far-left panning shows up at the top; far-right is on the bottom. Settings in between these two extremes correspond to the pan value. In this view, you can also see a waveform display in the background.

You can toggle between Waveform and Volume views by highlighting the track and pressing Control+– (minus/dash; Mac) or Windows+– (minus/dash; PC).

Adjusting the track height

Pro Tools lets you adjust your track heights. You can either choose from various track heights (Micro, Mini, Small, Medium, Large, Jumbo, Extreme, and Fit to Window), or you can simply click and drag the lower boundary of your track with your mouse to the height that you want. These choices allow you to make tracks you’re not editing small, while the tracks you want to edit can be made big enough so that you can really get in close to a waveform when you edit. You choose your various track heights from the Track Height drop-down menu, which you can access from

• The Track Height Selector button in the Track Controls section of the Edit window: Click and hold with the mouse pointer over the button (it’s a down-facing arrow immediately to the left of the track name) to make the Track Height drop-down menu appear, as shown in Figure 1-2. Choose the size you want.
• The far-right edge of the Track Controls section: Choose the track height you want by clicking and holding with the mouse pointer over the little ruler at the far side of the Track Controls section (as in Figure 1-3) and selecting an option from the Track Height drop-down menu that appears.

For stereo tracks, you can choose an expanded view that allows you to view each channel separately. If you edit the channels individually and they end up being different lengths, these stereo tracks become two mono tracks instead.

Assigning clip-name and time-location displays

Every audio clip has a clip name and time stamp attached to it. You can choose whether this information shows up on the clip displays in your tracks.

Displaying clip names

You can choose to show or hide the name of the clips in the track displays by choosing View ⇒ Clip ⇒ Name, as shown in Figure 1-4. (Choose View ⇒ Clip ⇒ Name again to uncheck the option.)

Choosing clip time stamps

You can choose any of several time stamp views by choosing View ⇒ Clip, and then selecting a time stamp view: Current Time, Original Time Stamp (as shown Figure 1-5), User Time Stamp, or No Time.

Your options include

• Current Time: This choice shows the start and end times of each clip.
• Original Time Stamp: This option shows the time when the clip was created.
• User Time Stamp: This option displays a time stamp that you can define. By default, it shows the original time, but you can change it in the Time Stamp option under the Audio Clips list drop-down menu, which you can open by clicking the Audio Clips title bar at the top of the Audio Clips list. Selecting the Time Stamp option opens the User Time Stamp dialog box where you can enter the value you want, as shown in Figure 1-6.
• No Time: This option hides the time stamp.

Zooming in and out

You can zoom in and out of all tracks by using the Zoom buttons at the top of the Edit window (see Figure 1-7), or you can zoom in and out of a single track by using the Zoom tool (see upcoming Figure 1-8). You can also zoom in on the ruler and toggle the zoom back and forth between unzoomed and zoomed. Being able to zoom way into a clip lets you make precise edits to the waveform.

Zooming in on a single track with the Zoom tool

Use the Zoom tool to select a specific spot in a track to zoom in and out of. The Zoom tool has two modes: Normal and Single Zoom.

• Normal Zoom mode: You can zoom in and out horizontally and vertically on the waveform when using this mode.
  • Zoom horizontally: First click the Zoom tool button, as shown here in the margin, to select the Zoom tool. Then click and drag a section to select it, as shown in Figure 1-8. Pro Tools zooms to that section. To zoom in farther, click and drag again.

  • Zoom vertically and horizontally: Press ⌘   (Mac) or Ctrl (PC) and then click and drag the section, as shown in Figure 1-9. Pro Tools zooms in. Repeat to zoom in farther.

    To zoom out again, press the Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) key while you click the zoomed area. Each click moves you out a little bit.

• Single Zoom mode: If you’re in Single Zoom mode when you finish zooming in on a spot, Pro Tools switches you back to the tool you were using. For example, if you want to scrub a section of a track and need to zoom in to get a more accurate start point, you can use the Single Zoom mode of the Zoom tool to zoom in. After you’re zoomed in, you return automatically to the Scrub tool.

  You can select Single Zoom mode by

  • Clicking and holding the Zoom tool button (as shown here in the margin) and selecting the Single Zoom option

  • Clicking the Zoom tool button and pressing F5 on your keyboard to toggle back and forth between Zoom tool modes

    No matter which method you choose to select Single Zoom mode, after you’re in this mode, the Zoom tool button changes its face to look like what you see here in the margin.

Zooming with the Zoom Toggle command

The Zoom Toggle command takes a selection, increases the track’s height to Large, and fills the window. This command makes zooming quick: just one keystroke. This is a great function to use when you edit parts and need to get in really close to make an accurate edit, and then move out further to find the next spot to edit. To use the Zoom Toggle command, follow these steps:

1. Choose the Selector tool by clicking it at the top of the Edit window.
2. With the Selector tool, select a portion of one or more tracks.

3. Press Control+E (Mac) or Windows+E (PC).

   The track height changes to the Large setting (see the “Adjusting the track height” section, earlier in the chapter) and the selection fills the space.

4. Repeat Step 3 to return to the previous view.

If you want to change the default height for the Toggle Zoom to something other than Large, use the Zoom Toggle Track Height drop-down menu. (It’s on the Editing tab of the Preferences dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-10.) Choose Setup ⇒ Preferences from the main menu to call up the Preferences dialog box, from which you can select any of the possible Track Height options.

Setting grid resolution

Setting grid resolution is an outrageously handy tool for precision-tweaking the rhythms of your track. If you decide to go the Grid mode route, you can set the resolution of the grid that you work in by following these steps:

1. Click and hold on the Grid Value window, located under the Edit tools in the main Edit window, as shown in Figure 1-13.

   The Grid Resolution menu appears, offering you choices for the resolution of your grid — 1/2 notes, 1/4 notes, 1/16 notes, whatever.

2. Drag to the resolution you want.

   Within this menu, you can also choose the time scale you want the grid in as well as whether you want the grid to follow the main time scale.

Displaying grid lines

Again, if you want to work in Grid mode, you might find the grid lines in the Edit window helpful. You can get them to appear onscreen by using one of two methods:

• Click the Grid button (see Figure 1-14).
• With Grid Edit mode enabled, click the Timeline Ruler (Bars:Beats) button to toggle the grid on and off, as shown in Figure 1-15.

Creating a new playlist

When you record or import audio into a track, you automatically create an empty playlist. With this new playlist, you can import audio clips, drag those clips in, or copy and paste them from other tracks. You can create additional playlists by opening the Playlist drop-down menu; just click the Playlist selector next to the track’s name in the Track Controls section of the Edit window and choose New. (See Figure 1-17.)

Duplicating a playlist

Being able to duplicate a playlist makes creating different arrangements of a track or making edits to the clips in a playlist easy. Instead of creating a new blank playlist, you start from one you already created. To duplicate a playlist, click and hold with the mouse pointer over the Playlist selector and then choose Duplicate. You get the option of naming the new playlist or going with the default.

Deleting a playlist

Playlists take up no space on your hard drive, so you don’t need to delete them to free up space. Still, if you want to delete a playlist from a session, follow these steps.

You can’t undo this operation.

1. Make sure that the playlist you want to delete isn’t the active one in the track.
2. Open the track’s playlist menu by clicking the Playlist selector (the arrows located next to the track’s name in the Track Controls section of the Edit window).

3. Choose Delete Unused.

   A dialog box opens, listing all playlists in the track (except the currently assigned playlist).

4. Select the playlist that you want to delete from the list.

   To delete more than one, press and hold the Shift key while you select the playlists.

5. Click OK.

   The selected playlist is deleted.

Renaming playlists

To rename the current playlist in a track, double-click the name of the track where the playlist resides and then type in a new name.

Assigning a playlist to a different track

You can assign an unused playlist to a different track than the one it was recorded to by choosing Other Playlists from the Playlist selector.

Choosing playlists

You can choose the playlist that appears in a track by clicking the Playlist selector (the arrows located next to the track’s name in the Track Controls section of the Edit window) and dragging to the playlist you want. The name of the playlist then shows up as the track’s name.

Selecting clips

Here’s how to select single or multiple clips from the Audio Clips list:

• To select a single clip: Click a single clip. It becomes highlighted. Then select the Clip List Selection Follows Track Selection check box on the Editing tab of the Preferences dialog box (the dialog box you get by choosing Setup ⇒ Preferences from the main menu). Voilà! The track containing this clip becomes highlighted to show it’s selected.
• To select a range of contiguous clips: You have two choices:
  • With the cursor on the left of the Audio Clips list (a marquee will appear), click and drag across the clips you want to select.
  • Shift-click to the left of the first and last clip names for a group of clips. All the clips in between these two are selected.
• To select multiple clips that aren’t next to one another: Your method depends on your platform:
  • Mac: With the cursor located over the name of the clip, ⌘  -click each clip.
  • PC: Shift-click over the name of each clip.

Using the Audio Clips list drop-down menu

Audio clips can also be managed from the drop-down menu located at the top of the Audio Clips list, as shown in Figure 1-19. (The Audio Clips list is located at the right side of the Edit window. If it isn’t visible, click the double arrow at the bottom-right corner of the Edit window to open it.) Open this menu by clicking and holding the Audio Clips title at the top of the Audio Clips list. Many of the functions in this menu are covered in this section.

Sorting clips

After you start editing in earnest, the clips in the Audio Clips list start adding up. The only way to keep track of them is by being able to sort them. Pro Tools offers you several ways to sort, including by name, time stamp (when it was recorded), length, and a host of other parameters. To sort clips from the Audio Clips drop-down menu, choose Sort By from the menu and then choose one of the many options pictured in Figure 1-20.

Finding clips

You can find clips in the list by choosing Find from the Audio Clips drop-down menu. When you do, a dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-21, where you can enter part of a word or a whole word for the clip you want to find.

Displaying clip information

Besides displaying just the clip’s name — the default for the Audio Clips list — you can have Pro Tools display some additional information about the clip in the playlist section of the track:

• The complete path of the clip’s location: Choose the Show option from the Audio Clips list drop-down menu; then from this list, choose Full Path. Open this menu by clicking and holding the Audio Clips title at the top of the Audio Clips list located on the right side of the Edit window. (If this list isn’t visible, click the double arrow at the bottom-right corner of the Edit window.)
• The name of the file where the audio clip is located: Choose Show from the Audio Clips list drop-down menu; then from that list, choose File Name.
• The name of the hard drive where the file is located: To see this information, choose Show from the Audio Clips list drop-down menu; then, from that list, choose Disk Name.

Setting levels of Undo

Pro Tools offers up to 64 levels of Undo. You don’t have to use them all, though. In fact, if you have minimal memory on your computer, performing edit operations in Pro Tools will quickly fill it up and really slow things down. Or, if your memory is really low, you might not be able to perform an edit at all because all your previous edits are stored in RAM, right up to the number you specify in your preferences.

Luckily, Pro Tools offers you the ability to choose the maximum levels of Undo that your session will have. You can set these levels on your session by doing the following:

1. Choose Setup ⇒ Preferences from the main menu.

   The Preferences dialog box duly appears.

2. Click the Editing tab.
3. Type in the number of Undos you want in your session in the Levels of Undo field at the bottom of the window, as shown in Figure 1-22.
4. Click OK.

Performing Undos

Performing Undos in Pro Tools is just like any other program: Choose Edit ⇒ Undo from the main menu. The Undo option also includes the name of the operation that you’re undoing, as shown in Figure 1-23. This is helpful when you want to perform multiple Undos because you have to move back progressively through each operation that you performed. Keeping track of 32 operations can be tricky.

You can redo an Undo — but only the last one — by choosing Edit ⇒ Redo from the main menu.

Knowing when you can no longer Undo

Some operations result in clearing your Undo lineup. Whenever you perform the following operations, your previous operations can no longer be undone:

• Importing track or session data.
• Selecting Select Unused Clips or Select Unused Clips Except Whole Files from the Audio Clips list drop-down menu.
• Deleting a track or clearing a clip from the Audio Clips list drop-down menu.

Pro Tools won’t warn you before you perform these operations. But hey, sometimes we human beings actually do know what we’re doing.