Pro Tools Pointers #17 More Tips From My Colleagues by Dave Whittaker Name Your Tracks — The Easy Way Most Pro Tools users were taught to name a track by double-clicking on its name "bar" to reveal the pop-up naming box. But naming lots of tracks in this fashion is unnecessarily slow. Here’s a quicker way. Highlight the track name bar of each track that needs a new name (hold down the option key and click on any of them to highlight all). Then select ‘Rename Selected Tracks…’ from the File menu. The standard naming pop-up will appear, for the topmost track. After you have filled in the new name and hit Return, a naming pop-up for the next track down will appear, and so on. If you are naming a group of tracks that all need to start with the same prefix, try using the copy and paste commands to quickly blast through large numbers of tracks. Serious Scrubbing Methods That Will Leave Your Hands Soft and Smooth You probably know that scrubbing audio can be done, not just with the Scrub tool, but by holding down the control key and scrubbing with the Select tool. But have you discovered what happens if you hold down shift, option or command at the same time? Adding the shift key creates a selection as you scrub, for as long as it is held down. This is handy if you are, for example, scrubbing production material to localize a very specific syllable. This sort of task is a bit easier if you start scrubbing a bit ahead of the area you wish to isolate, then hold down the shift key once you find the beginning. Continue to hold it down until you locate the end. You can even continue scrubbing after the selection is made – the selection will wait there patiently for you until you are ready to use it. This feature also works when scrubbing in reverse. Adding the option key greatly increases the speed at which audio will play when scrubbed, well up to at least double speed if you really get your mouse moving. The option key also adds a "flywheel" feel to the scubbing action – if you are going fast you have to ‘apply the brakes’ by reversing mouse direction, in order to stop scrubbing. Adding the command key slows the maximum scrub speed by about half. Localizing a very short sound can be easier if you slow down your scrub speed, because this yields finer control. Keeping Your Audio Files All Cozy Together After a restore, have you every struggled to find a correct file, only to learn that there is more than one with the same name on your drive? Or have you ever considered placing the entire sound effects kit pulled for a show on all the effects drives, so that your editors all have access to everything pulled for the entire show, rather than the limited material pulled for their reels? Either way, you may find it helpful to organize the audio files for multiple projects on the same drive into one common top-level ‘master’ folder. Putting all the sound effects or dialogue in a single folder makes it much easier to know where to look for something. This will also simplify tape backups. You won’t end up backing up the same file repeatedly just because it was moved into a different folder after the initial backup. Note the ‘Audio Files’ folders are empty – the sessions reference the top-level ‘FX Audio’ folder. Building on the single-folder concept, here is a way to simplify the process of opening a session after a restore or disk copy. First verify that the session’s Audio Files folder is empty (and if it isn’t, move the contents to the top-level audio folder). Next, copy the top-level audio folder’s name to the clipboard (or make an alias folder). You’re going to need the exact name of this folder later. Then rename that folder "Audio Files" and move it inside the session folder, replacing the original (and empty) Audio Files folder. Now, when you launch the session, you should find the expected question "Where is…?" conspicuous by its absence. Once the session opens, save it. If you have multiple sessions using the same ‘master’ audio folder, then repeat this procedure for each of them, moving the renamed ‘master’ folder into each of them in turn. Once all sessions have been opened and saved, move the ‘master’ folder back to the top-level and change it back to it’s original name – the clipboard contents or alias folder will provide the exact wording. Now, even though it seems that the path to the audio files has just changed, Pro Tools will not be confused, and the sessions will open right up. Out of Tracks and Need More? Maybe what you need is more playlists, not actual tracks. Musicians probably learn how to use the New and Duplicate Playlists commands early on, because they give you a great way to have unlimited alternate takes and edit versions available without wading through ridiculous numbers of tracks. Pro Tools thinks of all the regions that live in a single track as a playlist, and loads a playlist to it’s assigned track in order to play it (watch the progress notations while a session is opening – you’ll see a brief reference to "Reading Playlists"). A playlist can be duplicated to a new "phantom" track, which can then be held aside for future reference while the original track is used for fresh recording or editing. An unlimited number of "new" empty playlists can also be created on a track. By using the New and Duplicate Playlists commands, you can create plenty of room to cut alternate versions of tricky scenes. Additional playlists are also ideal places to park alternates, for example, when you are looking for just the right ending to a clipped word, or cutting several versions of the same music cue. To manipulate playlists, begin by clicking on a track’s Playlist Selector, which is the little button with the character ‘>’, just to the left of the track name bar. This will yield a pop-up that looks like this: To create a new playlist, choose "New". A track naming pop-up will appear and the default name will be the track name with "-01" appended. After clicking OK an empty playlist with the name you assigned will appear in the current track in place of your original playlist. Don’t panic – your original work is not gone, it’s just hidden. To switch back and forth between playlists just click on the Playlist Selector button and choose from among the available playlists displayed in the pop-up. One cool thing about additional playlists is that all available new or duplicated playlists will appear in the ‘available playlists’ pop-up for all tracks in the session. You can make any available playlist appear on any track! To create a duplicate playlist, choose "Duplicate". An exact copy of the regions you had in that track will appear in the duplicated playlist, and you can now cut an alternate version. Be aware however, that automation, such as volume graphing, is tied to a track, not the playlist. If you delete automation in a duplicated playlist, you will delete it on the original playlist as well. Because playlists don’t take up any additional disk space, or count as tracks, there is no real need to delete them when they’re no longer used in a track. But if you wish to delete one, click on the playlist selector button and select ‘Delete Unused’. You’ll be presented with a list of unused playlists to choose from (shift-click to choose more than one).   Thanks to Michael Chock, Aaron Glascock and Marvin Walowitz for their contributions to this column. Tips and reader feedback are most welcome. Contact Dave Whittaker at (818) 980-1506 or via email   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine Vol. 21, No. 4 - July/August 2000   Guild Home | Magazine Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700