Tag Archive for 'shortcuts'

Audio region labelling techniques for large speech recording projects

Published on July 18, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

More and more of our work can revolve around games audio where there is a need to reliably and accurately label audio files with the correct file name. This thread came up on the Digidesign User Conference recently. ‘JamesSosound’ asked…

The company I work for are embarking on a project recording Speech for a AAA computer game for the first time. We will need to be able to label audio regions in between takes during recording as efficiently as possible. Pausing recording, then double clicking a region, copying from a script then pasting the text back in to Pro Tools would be quite time consuming for thousands of files. Is there a more straightforward solution using a plugiin or feature of Pro Tools I am currently unaware of that will ease this process. Would anybody be happy to shed light on standard industry practice for this type of process.

‘nucelar’ came back with this suggestion….

Take a look at voXover. It is not Pro Tools-based but it fits these kind of jobs perfectly. Once the recording session is done, you can of course import the files to PT for further tweaking.

‘clusterer’ suggested a workflow that uses Excel, Pro Tools and Quickeys…..

The excel-sheet had titles for each cue/take BELOW each other. so I recorded a few work steps with quickeys..:

  1. In the excel-sheet – I recorded the double click of the first title/cue, then command+c,
  2. Record the “down arrow key” to select the next title (the titles of course have to be below each other).
  3. The next recording was command+tab (to change to Pro Tools). there I hit “enter” (set marker); then command+v (to paste the name of the first title/cue); then enter again; then I recorded the PT-short-cut to move the curser forward/NUDGE for 30 seconds (nudge must be changed to 10 seconds or anything you prefer) .
  4. next step was change over to excel (command+tab)again. the next/following title in the sheet should be selected now.


so with that – you have got a “loop”. Save this as a Quickey and a shortcut.. and let it work for you. When you’ve finished the recordings you have to record a quickey that allows you to copy the marker-names into the regions regarding to the markers..

‘mjryder1′ suggested another workflow using Strip Silence….

I’ve done a bit of this before using the strip silence function on Pro Tools in the edit drop down menu.
This allows you to duplicate and name lots of regions in 1 go but is only useful if they need sequential names. (eg: VO1, VO2, VO3, etc)
Don’t know if that’s any use? if you got them named like this though you could give a folder of them to someone to rename somewhere else therefore not clogging up you studio.

‘JamesSosound’ rounded up with a thank you….

Thank you all for your excellent suggestions. The voXover software fits the bill perfectly and is a very worthwhile investment for only £250. I have been using the trial version this morning, very straightforward and versatile. Problem solved. Thanks again.


Contextual Menus or “If it moves, right click it” – part 3

Published on June 15, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Here are some more details on using Right Click in Pro Tools. Part 1 is here and part 2 is here

Transport Window

There are contextual menus on four of the transport buttons accessible by right-clicking them. They work on the transport buttons on both the Transport window and the Edit window if you have the Transport function option selected from the View menu for the Edit Window.

Play

This shows the options for the Play button.

Half Speed – This is the same as Shift and Spacebar.

Prime for Playback – When playing back a large number of tracks,

Pro Tools can take a little while to actually start playing back audio. To avoid this delay you can put Pro Tools in Play Pause mode (Prime for Playback) so that when you do hit play you get an instant start.

Loop – This is the same as selecting Loop Playback in the Options menu and enables Pro Tools to play the same selection as a loop to help select a good loop point.

Dynamic Transport – This is the same as selecting Dynamic Transport from the Options menu. For more on the Dynamic Transport functionality see the Pro Tools workshop article in the May 2007 issue of SOS.

Record

This shows the options for the Record button and you can see that you can get to any of the record modes from the one contextual menu. As with most of the right-click menus there isn’t anything new but they bring together all the relevant options in one little menu. For more on QuickPunch and TrackPunch see the Pro Tools workshop article in the December 2006 issue of SOS and July 2008 for Destructive recording. Remember TrackPunch and Destructive Punch are HD only features.

Return to Zero & Go To End (HD only)

These show the options for these two buttons and they enable you to access automation commands that you would otherwise access from the Automation window.

Contextual Menus or “If it moves, right click it” – part 2

Published on May 30, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Here are some more details on using Right Click in Pro Tools. Part 1 is here.

Adding modifier keys to right-click

Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) and right-clicking on a region brings up a slightly different contextual menu. The reason for this is so that you don’t loose your selection when accessing this version of the contextual menu.

The new elements are….

Rename – This brings up the Rename Region dialog box so you can rename the region. Why isn’t this one also in the normal right-click contextual menu?

Move Region …. To Selection Start

These, along with the Snap To options on the normal right-click menu, are really useful options and saves having to remember a series of complex shortcuts. In the example we can see what will happen to the ‘Vocal’ region when we use the ‘Pad’ region as the Selection. Of course the selection could be the cursor location instead.

Make your Selection first and then Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) and right-click on the ‘Vocal’ region, then choose the appropriate selection from the set of three options. This shows Move Region Start To Selection Start….

This shows Move Region Sync To Selection Start

and this shows Move Region End To Selection Start.

Elastic Audio

In Warp view you can Right-click anywhere in the region and select Add Warp Marker from the pop-up.  If there is an Edit selection, Warp markers will be added at the selection start and end.

To delete a Warp marker within a selection, Right-click and then select Remove Warp Marker from the pop-up menu.

Contextual Menus or “If it moves, right click it”!

Published on May 27, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

For along time it was debatable as to whether a two-button mouse was worth having when working with Pro Tools. However since Digidesign introduced v7.2HD and 7.3 LE right-click enhancements have appeared all over the place and now each new feature seems to be making full use of that second button on your mouse or trackball. So in this month’s workshop we are going to look at what you can do with that right hand mouse button. Remember that Control-Click in the Mac Pro Tools world was equivalent to right-clicking. This is now not the case. Control-clicking can do different things to right-clicking now.

Edit Window

Region

Right Clicking on a region now brings up a contextual menu. Most of these options are available to you elsewhere in Pro Tools but the great advantage of these right-click features is that they offer these options right under your fingertips.

Cut, Copy, Paste, & Clear – These all duplicate the functions in the Edit menu.

Matches - Alternatives

After recording multiple takes with loop or punch recording, you can replace the take currently on a track with one of the other takes. This only works if each region has an identical start time. You can select and audition alternate takes from the Matches popup menu whilst the session plays or loops.

Matches - Channels

When working with audio files imported from a field recorder, you can this feature to replace a mono region on a track with a matching segment of an alternate channel that was recorded simultaneously. Any fades performed on the original region are automatically recalculated against the replacement region, and any pre-existing automation on that track is left unchanged. The details of this feature are complex and if you want more information then I would suggest you start by reading the Field Recorders Workflow guide which you should find the Documentation folder in the Digidesign folder in your Applications folder.

Separate – This is the same as Separate Region in the Edit menu usually Command+E (Mac) or Control+E (Windows)

Delete Fades – This enables you to delete a fade region and becomes active when you have made a fade selection.

Snap to Next & Snap to Previous – These work in a similar way to Shuffle and are very useful especially when you don’t want to use Shuffle edit. Take a look at this screen shot, which shows a vocal track I am editing. 

If I right-click on the middle region and select Snap to Next you will see that it has snapped to the next region to the right, something you could never do with Shuffle! 

Conversely Snap to Previous will move the middle region to the region to the left, which is what you would expect to happen when moving a single region using Shuffle. Right-Clicking a region with the Selector Tool used to enable you to scrub with the cursor.  To do this now you must Control-click (Mac) or Start-Click (Windows).

Spot – This brings up the normal Spot Region dialog box.

Group Regions & Ungroup Regions – These enable you to create and undo region groups from a selection and are the same as Group and Ungroup in the Region menu.

Loop and Unloop – These enable you to create, remove, or flatten region loops and are the same as Loop and Unloop in the Region menu.

Expand to Tracks – This is another feature that comes into its own when you have multi-channel tracks acquired using a field recorder. Again for more info go to the Field Recorder Workflow guide.

Hidden keyboard shortcuts part 4

Published on April 26, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here is another batch of keyboard shortcuts, following on from part , part 2 & part 3.

Auto and Input monitoring
Perhaps more useful for LE users as TDM users now have a seperate Input Monitor button on each track. Alt+K will toggle between Input Only and Auto Input modes.

Creating New Tracks
When you create a new track use Shift+Command+N and the New Track window will open. Then you can use the Command+Left or Right Arrow to choose Stereo, Mono etc, and Command+Up or Down Arrow keys to select from Audio, Aux, Master or Midi tracks. Finally use Command+Alt+Up or Down Arrow keys to select Samples or Ticks.

Using the Trim Tool to fill
Have you ever wanted to trim out a region precisely to a preceding one.  Well you can by holding down the Control key and trimming Pro Tools will stop at the preceding region’s edge.  This works with the Trim tool in TC/E mode too so enabling you to precisely fill or stretch to fit.  Neat or what!

Hidden keyboard shortcuts part 3

Published on April 16, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here is another batch of keyboard shortcuts, following on from part 1 & part 2.

Viewing selected track in other window (Edit & Mix)
By using Control+Click on any track in the Edit Window will force the Mix window to scroll along so that that track appears as first visible track on the far left of the Mix window (or as far left as possible). This also works the other way so Control+Click on a track name in the Mix window will put the selected track at the top of the Edit window (or as high as possible). This is great for large sessions on 2 screen systems where you have the Edit window on one screen and the Mix window on the other.

Fat Mix Windows
Command+Alt+Control+Click on a Meter in the Edit or Mix window will toggle between fat and normal meters on all tracks in both the Edit & Mix window.

Regions and editing
We all know how to duplicate a region so it repeats after itself but here is a way of getting it to repeat a region before itself. To copy backwards Control+Alt+Command+Click the region and hey presto a duplicate will appear butted up before the original.

Renaming tracks
When naming multiple tracks use Command+Right Arrow to select the next track to be named. Alternatively having named the first track instead of hitting the Return key, which is the natural thing to do, use Command+Return and you get the next track ready to rename. This one falls very nicely under the fingers.

Editing Groups
Have you ever wanted add or remove a track from a group and ended up creating a new group and then deleting the old one, what a pain! Well you can edit a group.
To do this select all the tracks you now want to be in that group in the normal way and use Command+G as if to create a new group. Now change the group ID to match the group you want to edit. Finally click OK and that group will contain the new selection of tracks.

Hidden keyboard shortcuts part 2

Published on March 31, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here are some more hidden shortcuts…

Navigate without scroll bars
Navigate quickly without having to dive down to the bottom of the edit window to click on the scroll bars. Using the Alt+Page Down key will scroll the edit or mix window one “screen” to the right and the Alt+Page Up key will scroll the edit or mix window one “screen” to the left.

Track height resizing
To make a track size larger or smaller use Control+Up or Down Arrow keys.  Adding the Alt key into this shortcut does it to all tracks.  This works on the track selected with the cursor.

Nudge/Grid adjust
To adjust the Nudge size hold down Command+Alt and use the + or – keys on the number pad to adjust the nudge size up or down.

Similarly holding down Control+Alt and using the + or – keys will adjust the grid size up or down.

Hidden keyboard shortcuts part 1

Published on March 24, 2010 in tips. 4 Comments Tags: , .

Automation
I am sure many of us automate plug-in settings by clicking on the Auto button in the plug-in window, selecting the parameter, adding it to the list and clicking OK, then selecting the correct parameter on the audio track, missing it in the list by mistake and having to try again! For us, there is a really useful shortcut. It turns automation on for your chosen plug-in parameter and switches to the automation data display on the track in two very quick and easy steps…

To turn automation on
Ctrl+Option+Command-click (PC: Ctrl+Start+Alt-click) on the plug-in parameter.

To switch that track to display automation data for a given parameter, Ctrl+Command-click (Ctrl+Start-click) on the plug-in parameter.

That’s it! Now you are ready to edit the automation graphically.

Adding Breakpoints
To add breakpoints (or anchors) in any graphical automation you can click with with the Grabber tool, but there are alternatives. On the Mac, you can use Option+’/', which is really nice, as there is a ‘/’ key above the right-hand Option key on most keyboards (this appears to be an HD only option – See comments). On the PC, you simply right-click.

To access graphical automation data more easily, you can use Ctrl+Command-click (PC: Ctrl+Start-click) in the Edit or Mix window to change the display as follows:

Ctrl+Command-click on the track name changes display to waveform.

Ctrl+Command-click on the text ‘vol’ in the I/O view changes display to volume automation.

Ctrl+Command-click on the text ‘pan’ changes display to pan automation.

Ctrl+Command-click on the mute button changes display to mute automation.

On the Mac, adding the Option key to any of the above will make the change to all tracks. These shortcuts work on both the Mix Window and the I/O section of the Edit window.

Using The Trim Tool To Fill
Have you ever wanted to trim out a region precisely to a preceding one? Well you can: by holding down the Ctrl (PC: Start) key whilst trimming, Pro Tools will stop at the preceding region’s edge. This works with the Trim tool in TC/E mode, too, thus enabling you to precisely fill or stretch to fit a gap. Neat!

Command Focus keyboard shortcut part 6

Published on March 5, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Timecode Commands (TDM Only)

These final two sets of commands relate to timecode features or the use of a stationary playhead are not available on Pro Tools LE.

Snap to timecode

Having ‘parked’ your machine at a suitable timecode position these 3 commands allow you to spot the highlighted region to the ‘parked’ timecode position. Protools will obviously need incoming timecode from a slaved machine for this to work.

Snap Start (of selected region) to timecode – Y

Snap sync point (of selected region) to timecode – U

Snap End (of selected region) to timecode – I

Snap to stationary Playhead

This group of commands allows you to snap your selected region to the playhead position.

Snap Start (of selected region) to playhead – H

Snap Sync point (of selected region) to playhead – J

Snap End (of selected region) to playhead – K

Conclusions from the ‘pain barrier’

For me the best parts of using the Keyboard Focus are being able to Zoom in and out both with the Preset zooms and the Zoom Out – R; and the Zoom in – T commands. These alone have made it worthwhile to have the Keyboard Focus on and the Track View toggle, Zoom toggle, Separate, and Nudge keys are serious bonuses. I still use the Smart Tool for the fades and the Trim tool but I am definitely declaring long live Keyboard Focus!

Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, part 4 & part 5.

Command Focus keyboard shortcut part 5

Published on February 13, 2010 in tips. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Cut and Paste commands
The usual Cut – X; Copy – C; and Paste – V are available to you but without the need of modifier keys (Command for Mac and Control for Windows).

Separate – B
This does the same as Command+E on the Mac and Control+E on Windows. If you have the cursor placed in a region then clicking B will create an Edit at the cursor position.

Similarly if you have highlighted a selection and click B then edits will be created at both ends of the selection.

Toggle Settings
The next 2 commands toggle between 2 states each time you click on them.

Timeline Insertion follows Playback (pref toggle) – N
This allows you to turn on & off ‘Insertion follows Playback. With it on the cursor will stay where it is when you stop playback and will continue on from that point when you hit play. With it off when you stop playback the cursor goes back to the point you started to play from. Before you had to go into Preferences to change this, which was a real pain.

Track View Toggle – Minus Key (alpha section only)
This will toggle the track that the cursor is on from Waveform to Volume Graph and back.

You can use this in conjunction with the Option key for Mac (Check the Windows command) or if you have groups selected will work across them too.

Nudging Selections
The next group of four enable you to nudge selections both by the Nudge value set in the menu bar, Nudge back – <; Nudge forward – >; but also by the next nudge value up from the set one, Nudge back by next nudge value – M; Nudge forward by the next nudge value – /.

And finally in this section perhaps the most useful (again without the need of a modifier key.
Undo – Z

Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and part 4.

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