In this blog entry I want to share an old feature that’s had some embellishments thrown at it over the last few years. Video below:
Back in the early days of TDM, there was a particularly convoluted shortcut that would allow you to select a region in the edit window, thenhold the modifier and click and drag a second region from the region bin on top of the 1st region and a very powerful Find and Replace function window would appear. In my experience back then, it was such a complicated task that I just put it off as a non-event and got on with using other tools to get the job done.
Since 7.2 and all the right click enhancements, this feature is back “in vogue”.
In order to find and replace a region on the timeline, all you now need do is simply highlight the region and then right click on the replacement region in the region bin and in your context pop up you now have the Find Replace function ready to go!
Find Replace allows you to selectively choose what file to replace, what instances of that region to replace (just one or all) on what tracks to replace it (just one or all) and the duration of the replaced region (original or replacement length). Its extremely powerful to replace kick drum samples, gun shots, and all those sorts of impulse sounds we use constantly.
The double whammy comes when you use Find Replace in combination with the newish Duplicate track function. Right click on a track name in the edit window, choose to duplicate it, including all automation and the current playlist. Now you have two tracks, identical. Use Find Replace on the duplicate track and you can now easily automate a mix between the new and old sounds.
Ive seen this used in both post and music. Add a 60Hz “kicker” underneath the kick drum only takes a few mouse clicks. Bulking up a gun shot with a small explosion underneath it, the options are only as limited as your lateral thinking!
