- Exercise 1: Import Audio a New Way
- Exercise 2: Use the Zoomer
- Exercise 3: Use the Grabber in Grid Mode
- Exercise 4: Create a Snare Track and a Hi-Hat Track
- Exercise 5: Use the Trimmer with Slip Mode and Spot Mode
- Exercise 6: Change Timebase
- Exercise 7: Use the TCE Trimmer
- Exercise 8: Use Shuffle Mode
- Wrap Up
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Exercise 7: Use the TCE Trimmer
Skipping the Pencil and Scrubber tools for now, the last tool we use in this chapter is the Trimmer with its Time Compression/Expansion function. For this exercise, we’re going to import the shaker loop from Chapter 2. This time we’ll change the tempo using the Trimmer in TCE mode.
-
Import a loop. In the File menu, under Import, choose Audio to Track. You’ll see the familiar Import Audio window. Find your Chapter 2 Loops folder, and select only the shaker files. If you hold down the Shift key, you can select both files. Choose Copy, and then click Done. This process should be getting familiar by now.
The next window allows you to select the Audio Files folder, where you’ll copy these files. Then click Choose.
-
Rename the track. Double-click the track name Shaker100, and rename it to “Shaker90” (since we changed our tempo to 90 beats per minute in Exercise 6).
-
Activate the TCE Trimmer in Grid mode. Select Grid mode for the Edit window. Then click and hold on the Trimmer and choose the second option, TCE (Time Compression/Expansion).
Your Trimmer now has a clock on its icon.
-
TCE Trim Tool: Reference Guide, p. 255
-
- Change the loop’s tempo. With the Trimmer, click and hold the end of the Shaker loop’s audio region and pull it to the left, until the Event Edit area
shows you a Start time of 1/1/000 and an End time of 2/1/000, with a length of one even bar. Release the mouse button. You
will very briefly see a window telling you that Pro Tools is changing the time of this audio region.
TIP
If you make a mistake, don’t forget
+Z/Ctrl+Z to Undo. -
Rename the region. To rename a region, make sure it’s highlighted. (If it isn’t highlighted, the easiest way to get this done is by choosing the Grabber and then clicking on the region.) I typically use
+Shift+R/Ctrl+Shift+R to rename the region. The Rename command is found in the Regions menu.
As I’ve mentioned often, it’s important to get into good habits while you’re learning. For instance, I always like to know exactly what my audio regions are when I look at them on the screen. Notice that Pro Tools has renamed our region Shaker100-TCEX_02.L. To Pro Tools, this makes sense—the region was previously called Shaker100, and it has now been time-compressed (TCEX) and become edit #2 of the Shaker region. However, we really don’t need to see all this information, so let’s rename this region “Shaker90.”
-
Repeat the Shaker. With the Shaker90 region highlighted, choose Option+R/Ctrl+R and specify seven repeats. You now have eight bars of each track.
-
Save. I probably don’t even have to tell you this, by now.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
The Scrubber and Pencil Tools
The Scrubber is rarely used unless you’re an old analog tape user. You can click with the Scrubber on an audio region to “scrub,” which is the analog term for moving the tape reels back and forth to hear where downbeats are. To use the Scrubber, simply click a track and move your mouse left and right. The faster you drag, the faster the track will play back. Slower dragging gets you a slower playback. If you drag to the right, the song plays forward, and if you drag to the left, the song plays in reverse. It would be hard to hear the results of this tool at this point, because we have very little music to play with. Try the Scrubber later on, after you have created more music.
The Pencil has a variety of uses. The first role of the Pencil tool was to help advanced users fix pops and clicks in audio files. In short, you would zoom way in to the audio waveform, find the place in the waveform where there was a pop or click, and use the Pencil to redraw the waveform to fix the flaw. Today, the Pencil has more uses, among which is to edit MIDI events. The Pencil can be very handy for custom panning, volume, or tempo curves, and for creating special effects. The Pencil has quite an extensive pull-down of options.
)