Pro Tools Pointers #4
The Mystery of the
Grabber Tool Revealed
by Dave Whittaker
Why You May Be Feeling Confused If Nobody Has Explained This One to You Yet
If you're relatively new to ProTools and if, like me, you find software manuals useful mostly as doorstops, you may not have yet figured out why the Grabber Tool seems to have a mind of its own. The mystery is where it's going to grab when you click it on the edge of a region or within a cluster of regions. The truth is, of course, that it doesn't have a mind of its own, and that it's pilot error, or rather ignorance, that's making you a bit crazy (and looking up "Grabber" in the manual won't provide any help - are we surprised?). The secret is that it's where you click the tip of the index finger on the Grabber that counts, nothing else. Now does it make sense?
Volume Graphing, the Virtual Razor Blade and More
"Volume Graph" is fundamentally the Pro-Tools equivalent of the razor blade on mag film - except it's way better, and not just because it's non-destructive.
You get to the Volume Graph mode by doing a click/hold on the button within the track 'control box' on the left labeled "Waveform" and there you'll find the other display and automation modes ("Region Block" and "Volume Graph", also "Pan Graph" if you've selected the "Stereo Mix" mode in your Preferences setup). You are presented with a horizontal graph line across your track that represents an output fader level of unity (0.0db). Click the index finger tip of the Grabber on that line just ahead of the area that needs work and let go - you've just made an "anchor" (ProTools calls these 'editable breakpoints') as represented by the tiny circle. Next, make another "anchor" to the right of the problem area by a quick click on the graph line.
Now move to the problem itself - a bad lip smack, for example - and click again and drag down. You'll see a numerical display appear nearby giving you the exact output level in db. Let go when you reach -10db (for starters). The volume graph line will look like a "V". Play through your work, You may not hear a big enough change. Grab the -10db anchor and pull it down to -15 or even -20. You can move it with the Grabber to the left and right as well. Add another anchor to the right of the one you just made and you can make a bigger impact by "holding" the fader down at -15 for a longer period, say right up to the start of dialogue.
If you zoom way in, you can write elaborate and drastic fader moves that no human mixer could ever hope to achieve in real-time mixing and thus salvage dialogue that's otherwise hopelessly cluttered with clunks and bangs. And you can take advantage of the 6db of extra gain that's available to boost words, even syllables or mumbled consonants.
There's an easy way to alter the overall level on a region or groups of regions. Just select the whole region (or regions) with a click of the Grabber tool (or a double click of the Select tool), switch to Volume Graph mode, switch to the Trim tool and place it over the selected region(s) - you'll see it change shape to a short horizontal line. Click and drag down (or up if you want to raise volume overall). Let go when you reach the desired level. Note that you have just made four Volume Graph "anchors": one at either end at unity gain and the other two at the new level. You can use the Trim tool again to change to a different level as long as your region(s) is selected.
The important concept here is that the Volume Graph "anchors" at the ends are exactly at the ends, but are still inside, not outside the region. This allows you to move volume-changed regions anywhere in your session and the volume-graphing will move with them as you move (or copy) the region(s) to another location or track. Understand that if you place volume-graph "anchors" outside a region using the Grabber, that volume change lives within the timeline of the session, not the region(s) that you wish to affect. Don't expect Pro-Tools to move any volume-graph automation from one track to another unless all the anchors are each within a region boundary.
To remove volume graph "anchors" just select through them while in Volume Graph mode and hit "Backspace". Only the "anchors" will be removed; your region work will remain un-touched.
If you have a pair of tracks grouped together, as for stereo material, those tracks will volume graph together. If you hold the Option key down when you turn on Volume Graph, all your tracks will display in volume graph - I suggest doing this when a session is done, before you send it off to the stage, to check for any goofs with the volume graph tools.
Because Volume Graph makes it so easy to alter the overall level of regions, it's possible to deliver sound effects (even dialog) to a temp dub that require relatively little mixing, and that can mean the difference between dubbing for three 14-hour days and three 8-hour days. I know which one I prefer.
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 17, No. 1 - Jan/Feb 1996.