Guide to Pro Tools Digital Audio Recording and Editing

Moving Sound Regions Around in Your Session

(Shortcut = "command-4")

Use the Grabber tool to click and drag a region to a new location.

You can expand your view of the region using the Zoom in/out buttons. This is essential when you are making edits to sound regions.

Track Height Tool. You can expand or contract your view of the waveform.

Helpful in combination with Zoom for very precise edits.

Navigation Buttons.

You can view different sections of your session, by scrolling through the Edit window.

The Edit Modes affect how you move audio around and how some of the edit tools function (the Trimmer, Selector, Grabber, and Pencil).

The two most common Edit Modes you will use are Slip and Shuffle; there may be occasions when Grid mode can be useful for getting elements and stories to conform to demarcated time limitations.

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In Slip mode, regions can be moved freely within a track or between tracks.

This is the mode you will want to use to place sounds at your discretion, and is most useful in the assembly of a radio feature or news production.

Be careful, audio files can be easily slipped over each other, obscuring the audio underneath.

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In Shuffle, the audio regions are automatically snapped together end-to-end when moved, but do not overlap.

Shuffle mode is useful for making edits, such as closing the gap between two sound regions separated by an edit or when you want to change the order of sound regions.

Mute and Solo

To isolate the tracks you are hearing, either click on “Mute” to silence a track, or choose “Solo” to isolate playback of just the track on that you are working (NOTE: Solo automatically “mutes” all other tracks).

Editing Your Session or Sound Regions

Once all of your narration, actualities and ambient sound are recorded and transferred into Pro Tools, and your sound regions are all named, you're ready to begin editing.

There are some basic methods of making edits to sound regions in Pro Tools.

The Trimmer tool is an effective way to make edits at (or “trim off”) the beginning or end of sound regions.

Select the Trimmer tool and place it over location where you intend to make a cut; then click to make the actual trim (NOTE: to locate a specific location, you may need to expand the view of the sound region).

If you cut too much, you can click and hold the Trimmer tool while dragging the mouse to expand audio region and reveal how much of the waveform will be restored.

You can make internal edits to a sound region using the Selector tool. Just click-hold and drag over the section you wish to delete, then press the DELETE key.

Alternately, click on the beginning of the edit you want to make and, while holding down the SHIFT key, click on the endpoint of your edit and press DELETE. In Shuffle mode, the adjacent regions will snap together. In Slip mode, the regions will be separated by a gap equal in length to the segment you have just deleted.

There are additional shortcuts for editing.

Press the Apple key + "E" for a shortcut.

Separate region to delete. To make successive edits to an audio region, choose your edit by highlighting it with the Selector tool, as described above. Then, use Command-E to create a separate region that you can name if you think you may need it for future reference (a dialogue box appears). Or, to simply delete it, you can double-click on this new region and press the DELETE key. In Shuffle mode, adjacent regions will move together. In Slip, they will remain separated.

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The Smart tool is the tripled-headed arrow located below this group of tool icons: Trimmer, Selector, and Grabber.

By clicking on this bar, you can quickly move between these three tools. You can also quickly perform fades and cross fades.

Use caution, as the Smart tool takes some time to get acclimated to its multiple functions. Depending on where the Smart tool is placed over an audio region, you can access all three basic tool functions plus fades:

Selector

• Upper half of sound region

Grabber

• Lower half of sound region

Trimmer

• Near start or end point of region

Fades

• Small diagonally shaded box icon near edit points within a region and near the ends of regions.
• Click and release to create a fade. To create a longer fade: click, drag and release.

Cross fades

• Small shaded box (quartered) as the cursor is held over the bottom of an edit point between regions.
• Click and release to create a fade. To create a longer fade: click further to the left of the edit point, drag further to the right, and release.
• There are 16 successive levels of Undo/Redo with Pro Tools.
• Press the Apple key + "Z" to undo your last edit or move;
• Press the SHIFT key + the Apple key [?] + "z" to redo your last edit or move.
  

Next: The Final Mix: Getting the Sound You Want