Hi all,

The video below outlines two possible ways of manipulating the tempo of a piece of production music to easily fit it better to picture. I’ve since thought of another way of doing this and will follow on with a second video on this topic shortly.

Hi all,

The videos taken below were from Scott Wood’s presentation as part of our 2007 HD picture workflow tour. There is a tonne of great info in here about video resolutions, video satellite, codecs of choice, frame rate niggles and general HD nastiness - if you’re not feeling ready to tackle audio post for HD video, these videos could make a heck of a difference for you! All up, there’s about an hour and a half of footage below.

Part 1 of 5…

Part 2 of 5…

Part 3 of 5…

Part 4 of 5…

Part 5 of 5…

Hi all, Sorry for the hiatus between videos!

Before Pro Tools 8 takes over, I felt it would be good to look over the elastic audio features in 7.4 and how they apply in post production. I see a lot of facilities upgrading to 7.4 for bug fixes or increased stability but still many engineers aren’t adopting elastic audio features into their everyday workflows.

The video below is an introduction into the 7.4 Elastic audio feature set, specifically how to use warp markers to clean up sync on dialogue.

Sorry for the delay getting this recent video onto the site. Ive been travelling the last few weeks throughout Australia and NZ with Scott Wood of Digidesign in LA presenting clinics on HD picture workflow and the transition to file based workflows.

Last video I went into detail with Custom Fader “Plug in” mode and how to map your plugs onto the fader the way you like them. Due to a few client requests, this video goes back to the beginning and explains the other 3 Custom Fader Modes:
Custom Groups
Pro Tools Groups
Track type/Masters

Ive also started to upload an awful lot of material from last year’s Workflow tour with Scott, going into A LOT of detail about file based workflows and also looking at Field Recorder workflows. Having a fw technical difficulties currently, I suspect due to the durations, but hope to overcome that this week. Stay tuned!

Before we look at plug in mapping - a reminder, the HD Workflow tour starts on Monday in Adelaide! If you havent RSVP’ed for the Adelaide, Sydney, Auckland or Wellington events, please do so!

OK, first, here’s a video explaining what Plug in maps is about….

Now you’ve watched the video, a few extra notes. The “maps” that you create of plug ins all get added into a file kept on your CPU. Thats a *.PIO file, and they can be imported and exported from your ICON from the soft key section.

Why would you want to do this? Well, there are alot of plugs out there that aren’t EQ or Dyn and consequently wont map to your centre section. As a result, all your other plugs will come up slightly differently when you focus them into the custom fader section. why not map them for some consistency?  Input and output levels always in the same spot? Reverbs mapped down similarly, so its only the character/timbre of them that changes, but you drive them the same…there are alot of options here.

SO, you have your pio file, and its how you access your plugs, put it on a thumb drive and take it with you to another ICON studio and there you go! You can import it and youre driving their system the way you like to!

If you dont move around alot, then I guess its not a big deal, apart from backing it up for redundancy - last thing you want is to have a fantastic detailed map file for hundreds of plugs lost because you had to reinstall your OS…

Last thought on the topic, when a pio file is made, it seems to take a snapshot of all the installed plugs on your system. Consequenty its not representative of your map of a single plug in, but rather of ALL plugs on your rig. Why is this important? Well, what if you want to find a map that you used to use…so you import that old pio file into your current rig, and you have your old map for that plug in…problem is, you may have created new maps since that file was backed up, and on those plug ins that previously had no map, the default state will have copied over on top of your maps, putting EVERY installed plugin back to its state…

So its NOT incremental, its a system state file - so beware if you intend to tinker with it! If you think of these files as system snapshots taken in series, getting more complex over time, then you should be fine.

To import and export the files, its in your preferences menu, 4 or 5 pages deep.

More “Custom Fader” goodness coming soon…

Hi all,

Just wanted to apologise for the gaps between the last few blog posts. Ive had some work trips recently, keeping me away from the office studio and getting videos finished…

Ive also just taken delivery of a new CPU for the office, switching from XP to OSX and need to find new screencasting software (Camtasia that I normally use isnt compatible with OSX unfortunately).

Should be back on “the air” within the week.

Ive also managed to swap out the local DCommand unit from Blue to a new ES black unit, which should help visiblity on videos in the future.

Big thanks to Brad Watts and the crew at Audio Technology magazine for their recent news item about this blog. I appreciate any help in letting folks know about the work I’m putting into the topics here and hope you’re all finding the videos and tips and tricks useful.

Lastly, if you’re in Adelaide, Sydney, Auckland or Wellington, hopefully I’ll see you at the up coming workflow clinics with Scott Wood and myself. Seats are limited, so be sure to register, by clicking HERE

Mapping on ICON blog coming up soon, promise!

The only shortcuts I used in the above video were fairly straight forward editing ones:

Region Loop = Option/alt + Command/Start + L
Using the trim tool at the bottom edge of a looped region to edit the selected content

Here is an excerpt of a short cut list I assembled for guys doing quick turnaround/churn and burn editing:

Grabber modifiers
Snap region “Head” to Cursor location Ctrl/Win + Grab
Snap region “Tail” to Cursor location Ctrl/Win + Command/Ctrl + Grab
Snap region Sync point to Cursor location Ctrl/Win + Shift + Grab
Insert Sync point Command/Win + Comma (,)
Copy region to Cursor Location As above + Option/Alt

Trims (with keyboard focus enabled)
Top trim to cursor location A
Tail trim to cursor location S
Top and tail (Trim to Selection) Command/Win + T

Fades
Fade from beginning of region to cursor location D
Fade from end of region to cursor location G
Create crossfade across selection without popup Ctrl/Win + Command/Ctrl + F

Nudging
Nudge left/right + or – on numeric keys
Nudge left/right , or . (in CF mode)
Nudge left/right by next higher nudge value M or / (in CF mode)
Nudge content of region left or right Ctrl/Win and +/- on numeric keys
Shift Selection Opt/Alt + H

Navigation
Go to and select next region Ctrl/Win + TAB
Go to and select previous region Ctrl/Win + Opt/Ctrl + TAB
Enter main counter * on numeric keys (in CF mode)
Enter Start/End/Length counters / on numeric keys (in CF mode)

Multiples
Duplicate at end of selection Command/Ctrl + D
Repeat selection Opt/Alt + R then enter quantity
Region Loop Opt/alt + Command/Win + L

Hope these are useful!

NEXT BLOG: Mapping plugs and sends using Custom Fader functions on ICON

Hi there!
Have a look over the video below, the notes will be under it:

OK - so what were the shortcuts?
There unfortunately aren’t any for the Copy Special commands, however they can be easily accessed on an ICON from the Edit Function buttons (Func 1, pages 2 & 3)

Paste Special - Repeat to Fill Selection is simply Ctrl+Command+V (or Ctrl+Win+V on XP)

Viewing your plug in automation is Ctrl+command+ either touching a parameter on the surface of your ICON or clicking on a parameter in the plug in window.

When I was opening and closing plug ins I used a few shortcuts: Opt click on close to close all open plug in windows, Ctrl+Opt+Command+W to show/hide all floating windows and Shit+clicking to open multiple plug ins for comparison - obviously windows configs come in handy here also (see my second blog entry)

Copying plug in settings from one channel on the ICON to another - view in inserts mode, then Ctrl+shift+Select button under the plug in you wish to copy from
Ctrl+Shift+BMP button under the matching plug in on another channel that you wish to paste to

Gliding automation can take a bit of getting used to.
Seems the easiest keyboard driven workflow (as demoed in the video) is writing the “To” setting, clicking inside that area, Suspending automation and then moving your Selection’s in point to the place where you wish to glide From. Then press Option+Shift+Forward Slash(/) or Alt+Shift+Forward Slash(/) on XP to Glide All enabled automation parameters. Remove your Automation suspend, hit back and play and voila!

On an ICON it’s easier (as you’d expect) - simply highlight your selection whilst in Latch mode (with Latch Prime in stop pref ticked) flick over your plug in setting (or copy paste it from the insert view on your channel) and hit glide to all enabled and you’re done.

So those are few of the Automation functions that help manage things when playback is stopped. If you’ve got any other tips or tricks regarding these ideas (maybe some alternative glide workflows?) PLEASE log in and drop us a comment!

If you’re working on Pro Tools HD, then you’re probably aware that it does some automation. You’re probably aware that you can craft a mix and have the software remember your moves. What you may not realise is that you can write those moves in real time and push them pretty much anywhere you like, in time…

Open the Automation window. You’ll see two sets of 5 buttons that look like arrows. These are the Automation Write To commands. They are some of the most powerful buttons in Pro Tools HD, but they look pretty unassuming don’t they? So how do they work?

Well, you’ve got two choices. The top set of arrows work in real time during playback. So you can be riding the faders, get to a level you like and then push the button for the direction you want to write that level and it happens immediately, and you’ll see a red line in track volume view update to show you what you’ve done.

The second set of buttons do the same task, but they kick in when the transport stops. So they are buttons for “anticipation”. A slightly different workflow. Most engineers Ive met have found these functions and started here, with the second option.

So what are my choices? Well, the simple ones are write from where you are now, to either the start or end of the session. Then you’ve got the write to all button in between - this is a tricky one, as its actually TWO buttons in one. If you have a selection on screen, then it will write your automation to all of your selection, constrained by the in and out points. If you are playing and writing automation from the cursor with no selection then it will write it to all of your session, from the start to the very end.

The lower two are new, cooler ones…Write to Punch and Write to next. Write to next is to write your current level down the timeline to the next piece of automation, protecting what is downstream if you will. A safe way to work when you are in the middle of a job doing fix ups. Write to Punch is Digi-speak for “lets get the level right before committing to it” - write to punch writes your current level back in time to where you touched the parameter. Say you are finding a level for a vocal, you get it sitting well and write to punch, then you see a red line go back to where you grabbed the fader and a 90 degree breakpoint is written there, at the start!

In my last video we had a super quick look at AutoMatch, the ability to drop back to Read from writing automation in latch mode. Automatch works very powerfully with the write to punch function, have a play with them together!

The only other thing worth throwing into the mix (pardon the pun) are the buttons above the auto write-to commands, the automation enables…This allows us to almost slice and dice our mix by enabling and disabling as we write to all, write to end or write to punch etc

The features really came into their own in PT HD 7.2 when they became much more real time and you could see the red line on screen to give you confidence in what you are writing.

There’s also a great new preference that came into play in 7.2, on the Mixing tab, “Suppress automation write to warnings”, be sure to tick that on before using these features, it will save you alot of pop ups!

Next blog I hope to write up some tips for gliding automation and applying automation from the mouse and keyboard - for those of you without ICONs!

The Pro Tools Mix window is a pretty straight forward place for engineers with a good grasp of signal flow, but there are quite a few keyboard shortcuts that make it even more flexible than you may at first believe. In this entry I’ll go through some of the more commonly used techniques to get the most comprehensive control of your mix.

Do to all - holding the Option key when you do something in the mix window is the old “Global modifier”, so if you want to change the master outputs to your interface, hold option and change one track, and all the outputs will switch.

Do to Selected tracks - this is a good one, hold Opt AND shift AND then do the task and it will multiply it across your selected tracks. This is very powerful when used with “Link Track and Edit Selection” enabled. Say you are editing your BVox group, highlight a quick swipe across their tracks, Command + = to switch to the mix window and then opt-shift and change their outputs to a buss. You now have all your BVox sent to a unique buss master, or maybe you want to instantiate a reverb send on those selected tracks…save yourself from…

Opt + click and drag to copy sends and inserts around the mix window

Ctrl click on SOLO buttons to enable Solo protect mode - this means that this track cannot be muted by another track’s solo state. Very useful with effects returns from post fader sends or sub group masters.

Command/Apple click on the up/down icon next to a send and it will change send view from “Assignment” mode (the default) to show the complete info for the first send on that block - a small fader, pan and meter. Its a useful view. In fact for quick turnaround work, I like to set up my main two sends on send A and F slots so they can both be viewed at the same time in this mode for quick visual feedback.

Ctrl clicking when you assign an output allows you to send the output of a track to multiple places, like hitting multiple outputs on the assign section on a console. This is EXTREMELY powerful once you can think about it transparently - for example, you have a buss master for your drum group, its currently assigned output is the mix buss. Ctrl click and assign a second output, to a buss. Now its going to both places. You can return the buss to an aux alongside it and throw a compressor on it and you’re now in a parallel compression configuration. Advertising engineers can use this to set up a buss master for a mix minus, so everything is sent to the buss master EXCEPT the voice over. They can now have multiple VOs on seperate tracks mixed in with the mix minus, tracking to seperate outputs at the same time.

When creating your mix groups, you have a choice of what letter they get assigned - I never thought much about this until I was shown a great workflow, where you choose the letter that starts the name of the group, and this enables the keyboard focus to switch that group on or off by simply hitting that letter (when the mix window is in the foreground and keyboard focus is on). So you’re mixing, you’ve made a drum group and assigned it to the letter “d” instead of the default “a” for your first group. Now, when you have the mix window open, you can simply hit “d” to turn that group on or off!

Speaking of groups, if you are not using a VCA, the normal group behaviour is to gang all your faders together when the mix group is enabled. This is mostly what you want, but what about fine tuning? Simply hold Ctrl and move the fader - this acts as the group clutch key and temporarily disengages the parameter you are touching/moving from the ganged group. (This saves you turning the group on and off)

Lastly, another groups tip. Since 7.2 we’ve had a lot more control in the Groups Window by adding two new tabs, Global and Attributes. These features allow us to do things like group our effects controls together independent of the fader controls, or send levels grouped independent of faders. These can be useful tools in some situations, so be sure to explore the hidden tabs in the group creation window!

Hopefully there are some useful tips there! If you’ve got any other great tips for the Mix window, please comment down below and share them!

NEXT BLOG: I’ll make another video, having a look at the Automation “Write to..” commands and how powerful they now are.