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Comping with Playlists in Pro Tools 8
On top of all the fancy new UI enhancements and fantastic sounding Virtual Instruments, Pro Tools 8 has made significant improvements to many of my everyday workflows. Playlists have always been a great way to keep track of alternate takes in Pro Tools, allowing you to easily craft the perfect composite performance or “comp” by piecing together different takes. Pro Tools 8 has enhanced this process infinitely by allowing you to view, edit and audition a track’s playlists within its new “Playlists View.” This week at the corner I will show you some tricks that will cut your comping time in half and share what’s new with playlists in Pro Tools 8.
Playlist Basics
Essentially playlists are just a way for Pro Tools to store the timeline placement of a group of regions on a track. Regions are pointers to raw audio files on your hard disk, while a playlist stores the organization or placement of multiple regions in time. A track in pro tools can have an unlimited number of playlists associated with it, or “virtually unlimited” as we like to say in the DAW world. In other words, you don’t need to worry about running out.
New loop record workflow
Before Pro Tools 8, loop record and playlist comping were sort of mutually exclusive workflows. You generally used either the “takes list” comping method with loop record, or you stopped recording and manually created a new playlist after each take. Fortunately, these two features now work harmoniously in version 8, using the new preference “Automatically create new playlists when loop recording.” When this option is checked, Pro Tools automatically appends each new pass in loop record to a fresh playlist. Let’s check it out.
Step 1: I start by checking the preference “Automatically create new playlists when loop recording,” found under the Operations tab of Setup > Preferences.
Step 2: After creating and naming a new track for my loop record pass, I enable loop recording via Operations > Loop Record or by using the shortcut Option-L (Mac) Alt-L (PC).
Step 3: At this point, I need to make a selection defining the “loop” that I will record each pass over. Remember, loop record mode always requires a selection to define the length of each take. If you need a refresher on the basics of loop record mode, check out my previous article here [http://www.audiomidi.com/classroom/protools_corner/ptcorner_67.cfm].
Step 4: After defining my loop record selection, I can add a bit of pre-roll to get me into the first pass and record enable my track. To make this easier, Pro Tools 8 added three new shortcuts for record, solo and mute track. Shift-R for record, Shift-S for solo, and Shift-M for mute on the selected track.
Step 5: In this example I have recorded 3 takes and Pro Tools has created 3 new playlists, leaving the final pass as the active, or “main” playlist on my track. Because Pro Tools left my final take on the original playlist “LoopRec,” I will double click the track’s nameplate and rename this playlist to “LoopRec.03.”
Tip: You don’t have to complete your loop recording in the initial run, you can stop and start up again as much as you’d like. Because Pro Tools only creates a new playlist for the second pass of a loop record take, just create a fresh playlist for each loop record set you want to do.
Tip: If you have already completed a loop record pass without the preference “automatically create new playlists in loop record mode” checked, you can simply right-click one of the loop recorded regions and choose Matches > Expand Alternates to new Playlists. Alternates are defined by the “match criteria,” to change the match criteria right-click a region and choose Matches > Match Criteria.
Comping with the playlists view:
Now that I have a set of playlists, either ones created automatically via loop record or ones created manually during the recording process, I can easily view these simultaneously by switching the track’s view to “Playlists.” Click on the word “Waveform” and select “Playlists,” or Ctrl+Opt+Cmd-Click (Mac) Start+Alt+Ctrl-Click (PC) on the track’s playlist selector.
Right now the active or “main” playlist is LoopRec.01, but I want to create a new main playlist for my composite take. I can do this by clicking on the track’s playlist selector (the little down arrow next to the track’s name) and choosing “New…” I name this playlist LoopRec.Comp and since it was the last playlist created it now becomes this track’s active or “main” playlist. Remember, whichever playlist is active (selected via the track’s playlist selector) is by default the track’s main playlist, therefore any playlist can be the “main playlist” for a given track.
Hint: When selecting playlists, you can generally ignore the number in parenthesis after the playlist’s name (e.g. “Playlist.01 (XX)”). This is simply a master playlist counter telling me when the playlist was created relative to others. This continues to count up even after tracks/playlists have been deleted or after an undo.
To audition the main playlist for a track I simply hit play. To audition alternate playlists associated with a track, I simply hit the solo button (the “S”) on each alternate playlist. When auditioning, try making a selection and using the key commands Cntrl-P/Cntrl-; (Mac) or Start-P/Start-; (PC) to move the selection up and down in conjunction with Shift-S (track solo key command) to quickly audition each alternate playlist without using the mouse. Tip: In command key focus mode you can use ‘P’ and ‘;’ without a modifier to move the selection up or down.
To promote a selection to the main playlist, simply select the piece you wish to copy, right-click and choose “copy to main playlist,” or use the key command Cntrl+Opt-V (Mac) Start+Alt-V (PC). You can also copy the selection to a new or duplicate playlist from the same menu.
Once you are finished editing you can re-hide the alternate playlists by switching the main track back to “Waveform” view. The alternate playlists will still remain in the session, associated with the track in case you need to do any further comping.
Remember, all of these playlist and loop record workflows will work with MIDI data too!
Rating Regions:
Pro Tools 8 features a brand new region rating system that allows you to give any regions a numerical rating of 1-5. Use this to rate each pass in a loop record take, and then use the playlist view’s “filter lanes” function to show only takes with a rating of 4 or better.
To rate a region: Simply right-click on any region in the edit window and choose Rating > 1-5.
To display the region’s rating: Choose View > Region > Rating.
To filter the playlist lanes: In playlists view, right click on any playlists name and choose “Filter Lanes.”
Tip: each region has a its own numeric rating, if you have already edited a group of regions and wish to rate them as a whole, first consolidate the regions into a new whole region using Edit > Consolidate Region (currently region groups and the rating system don’t work so well together)
Some considerations
While loop recording with new playlists is a great way to speed up your recording and comping workflow, there are a few things you may want to consider. For example, let’s say you loop record 3 passes of your first verse and then you want to loop record 3 passes of your second verse. The system will create an entirely new set of playlists for the second verse’s loop record pass, leaving you with 6 playlists (3 representing the first verse’s takes and 3 representing the second verse’s takes). So depending on how you are used to using playlists and loop record for tracking and comping across a complex multi-part tune, just work out a organizational game plan in your head before hand, otherwise you may end up with 40-50 playlists on each track (which is fine if that is what you want). This is a situation where region rating and lane filtering can really be handy. Imagine a track representing 3 verses of a song. Each verse has 10 takes generated via loop record for a total of 30 playlists. After auditioning and rating each take, the lane’s filter can pair your choices down to only the 4 and 5 star takes, or filter based on regions within the timeline selection, making the comping process much more organized and efficient.
This entry was written by , posted on October 18, 2009 at 7:22 pm, filed under Articles, PT Corner and tagged editing, playlists, pro tools, PT Corner. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This is an excerpt from my column “The Pro Tools Corner” at audioMIDI.com
Pro Tools 8: MIDI Editor
The MIDI editor in Pro Tools 8 is one new feature that has certainly been turning heads, especially those of other “sequencer heavy” DAWs. While many users have been making comparisons to Logic’s flavor of MIDI editing, the Pro Tools MIDI editor features a few unique tricks that are sure to speed up your sequencing workflow. This week at the Pro Tools Corner I will walk you through the basics of the MIDI editor and help you unlock to true sequencing power of Pro Tools 8.
Opening the MIDI Editor
First off, if you are worried that your current MIDI workflow isn’t going to translate in Pro Tools 8, fear not. You can still work with MIDI data in the edit window just as you had in Pro Tools 7 and earlier, but once you experience the MIDI editor you probably won’t want to.
Working with the MIDI editor is fairly straight forward, and the editor can be accessed in one of two ways:
To open a floating MIDI editor: With the MIDI or Instrument track view set to “regions,” double-click with the grabber tool on any MIDI region or simply select a group of notes and choose Window > MIDI Editor.
Note: double-clicking with the grabber tool in PT 7 and earlier brought up the “rename region” dialog, you can return this functionality in the MIDI tab of your preferences.
To open a “docked” MIDI editor: Choose View > Other Displays > MIDI Editor. This will dock a MIDI editor at the bottom of the Edit window.
If the windows “target” button is active (red), this docked editor will update dynamically as you select new MIDI data in the Edit window and can be resized vertically to the size of your choice. The “target” is the small square in the upper right-hand corner of a floating window.
Hint: Save a window configuration of the docked MIDI editor to toggle it instantly.
Using the MIDI Editor
The beauty of the MIDI editor is that its toolset, zoom settings, grid resolution and edit modes are completely isolated from the Edit window. For example, you could be using the smart tool in grid mode with a resolution of 1 bar in your Edit window and have the pencil tool in slip mode active in the MIDI editor. Generally, all of the tools in the MIDI editor will work the same way as they do while editing MIDI in the Edit window, so you don’t really need to learn any new edit tools, you just have get used to looking at MIDI in another window.
Note: If you are used to using single key shortcuts with command-key focus, you will need to focus them to the MIDI editor while docked. Command-key focus is represented by the “a-z” button in the top right hand corner of the editor.
Like the Edit window, The MIDI editor allows you to view additional MIDI/Instrument track data below the piano roll. By default, Velocity is shown but additional lanes can be shown or hidden by clicking the “plus” or “minus” icons. This can be very handy when you are editing multiple layers of CC data.
To quickly switch the editor into score view, simply click on the score button at the top left hand corner of the editor.
Viewing MIDI in Layers
By default, the MIDI editor shows only the selected track’s MIDI data. By using the track show/hide list attached to the MIDI editor, you can actually view MIDI data in overlapping layers. Think about editing multiple tracks of MIDI drums within a single piano roll and you will understand the power of this special feature.
The black dot to the left of the track name represents the track’s show/hide status, while the pencil to the right lets you know which track you are currently editing.
When you work with MIDI in layers, by default each layer will be represented by its region color. Because many times you may have regions that are the same color, the MIDI editor features two alternate color-coding options for notes.
Color notes by track:
Regardless of track color or region color, this option will assign a different color to each note layer in the MIDI editor. This helps when two tracks have the same region color.
Color notes by velocity:
This option will color code notes based on their velocity. Darker colors represent higher velocities. You can set all MIDI notes to color code by velocity automatically within system preferences, under the “Display” tab.
MIDI Editor Options:
You can set custom scrolling options in the MIDI editor using the discloser triangle at the top right hand corner of the editor
Just like the edit window, you can view additional ruler displays (like meter, tempo, etc).
In Closing:
While it might take you a little time to adjust to editing MIDI in a different window, I think you will find that the new editor makes working with MIDI in Pro Tools much more efficient and intuitive. In the past, I would always have trouble getting the correct level of horizontal, vertical zoom and octave range on my MIDI tracks, the MIDI editor has completely eliminated these navigational inefficiencies for me, and with a little practice I think it will for you as well.
This entry was written by , posted on at 6:28 pm, filed under Articles, PT Corner and tagged editing, MIDI, pro tools, PT Corner. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Score! Working with the Score Editor in Pro Tools 8
By far one of Pro Tools 8’s most anticipated new features was the score editor, finally providing users a built-in notation package without having to export MIDI data into Sibelius. The Pro Tools 8 score editor introduces basic notation based editing and printing functionality and is surprisingly easy to use once you get the hang of it. This week at the corner I will walk you through a basic workflow using the score editor to create and a print a score directly inside of Pro Tools.
Setting up: Key Signature
Before using the score editor there are a few session level set-up tasks that you will want to consider, starting with the sessions key signature ruler. To view the key signature ruler choose View > Rulers > Key Signature.
To insert an initial key change for the session (which will become the sessions default key), return the edit cursor to measure 1|1 and click on the small plus sign on the key signature ruler.
If there are any other key changes in the session that I want to account for in the score I will continue to add those changes by clicking again on the plus sign of the key signature ruler.
Setting up: Score Setup
Before opening up the score editor, I will open up the score setup menu to enter title and composer info and set up the spacing/layout preferences for the session. To open score setup choose File > Score Setup.
Opening the Score Editor:
In this simple example I have 3 instrument tracks that I will configure in the score editor. To open the score editor simply choose Windows > Score Editor or use the shortcut Ctrl+Option+= on Mac or Start+Alt+= on PC.
Note: Each track’s name is reflected in the score and any print outs so be sure to name your tracks appropriately.
By default all MIDI and Instrument tracks are displayed in the Score Editor, I can selectively show or hide tracks from the score using the tracks list. Simply click on the small circle icon to the left of the track name to show/hide that track from the score. When printing scores use the show/hide menu to print out individual parts.
Formatting the Score:
The default setting for tracks in the score editor is “Grand Staff,” because showing both bass and treble clefs for each track may be unnecessary, Pro Tools allows you to format each track’s settings individually using the “Notation Display Track Settings” dialog. To access a track’s notation settings simply right click on the track in the score and choose “Notation Display Track Settings.”
Here I can set each track’s display settings as well as configure global display settings for quantization, straighten swing and note overlap. Remember that display quantization settings and “straighten swing” have nothing to do with note quantization or swing in the sequencer, it is purely for cleaning up the score to avoid strange looking rhythms. Each track can have its own display quantization settings or be set to follow the global defaults.
After setting up the correct display settings for the 3 instrument tracks my score looks much cleaner and I am no longer wasting space with the grand staff for each track.
Inserting Chord Changes:
The Score Editor can also display a chord chart as defined by the session’s chord ruler. To show the chord ruler switch back to the edit window and choose View > Rulers > Chord Symbols.
To insert a new chord change simply click on the plus sign on the Chord ruler or Cntrl-Click (Mac) Start-Click (PC) anywhere on the Chord ruler.
After inserting my chord symbols I can switch back to the score. Because the spacing might be a little tight with the new chord symbols, I change the “System Spacing” in the Score Setup window to 11.0 to accommodate the chord symbols.
Editing the Score:
While I personally find it easier to edit notes in the matrix editor or event list, you can edit directly within the score editor using the same tools you are use to in the edit window.
To add notes:
Use the pencil tool to add new notes or modify existing ones. The note value and default velocity is set in the top left hand side of the score editor and follows the grid by default. To delete a note simply Option-Click (Mac) or Alt-Click (PC) on the note.
To move or transpose notes:
Use the grabber tool (or pencil tool) to move/transpose single or groups of notes. When notes are selected they will be shown in blue.
Moving the playback cursor:
The edit insertion is represented by a solid blue line in the score, you can click and drag this to start playback from different points.
Docking the Score Editor:
You can easily “Dock” the score editor to view while editing by using the new Window > Arrange commands like “Tile Horizontally.”
Printing the Score:
To Print the score I first activate the double bar line to cut the score at the end of the last midi region.
To Print the score I simply choose File > Print Score or hit Command+P (Mac) or Control+P (PC) and choose print (assuming my printer is hooked up). At this point I could just as easily create a PDF to email.
In closing:
While the Pro Tools 8 score editor provides basic notation resources, great for lead sheets and simple editing, depending on your needs you may still want to invest in a dedicated score editor like Sibelius. For example, currently the notation display preferences don’t have any provisions for displaying percussion notation, tempo, dynamics or lyrics data, basically you get notes on a staff and that is it.
This entry was written by , posted on at 12:09 pm, filed under Articles, PT Corner and tagged editing, MIDI, notation, pro tools. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This article was written back when 7.4 came out (introducing elastic audio), but is still equally relevant in Pro Tools 8 as these features haven’t changed much.
Elastic Audio Part 2:
In the last installment of the Pro Tools corner we took a first look at 7.4’s incredible new elastic audio feature. This week I want to dive a little deeper into the topic, showing you how to easily quantize and warp audio directly in the timeline with incredible accuracy and sound quality.
Quantizing audio regions elastically:
The beauty of elastic, “tick” based audio is its ability to re-conform itself much like MIDI data, making tempo changes and quantization (or re-grooving) a breeze. What use to take hours of laborious editing time can now be done in a few clicks, and still sound better then doing it the old fashioned way with beat detective.
To quantize an audio region:
Manually warping audio events:
Sometimes, rather then quantizing an entire selection of audio events, all you want to do is manually shift an event slice one way or another. In this case, Pro Tools allows you to easily create and shift warp points within a region manually. For example, you may want to carefully manipulate the timing or feel of a vocal track, a common situation where an outright quantize would yield less then satisfactory results.
To editing a regions warp points:
If you ever need to remove the warp properties from a region and revert back to the original copy, simply right-click on the region and choose “remove warp.”
Correcting Transient Analysis:
The secret behind Pro Tools ability to stretch, shrink and quantize audio regions accurately lies in its transient detection, or the ability to identify rhythmically significant points within a file. If Pro Tools is detecting too many erroneous transient points, you can edit a regions “event sensitivity” via the region’s “elastic properties.” Adjusting the detection sensitivity is similar to using the sensitivity slider in beat detective, lowering the sensitivity on material with complex waveforms and poor transient definition can help remove excess analysis points (ie: vocals, complex synth patches, etc).
To edit a region’s elastic properties right click on the region and choose “elastic properties.”
In the rare case that a region’s transients are not properly identified and adjusting the event sensitivity doesn’t help, you can manually edit a region’s analysis using the grabber tool inside the track analysis view.
To manually correct or modify analysis:
Because editing analysis points on complex polyphonic material can be quite tricky, start by practicing on rhythmic material with clearly defined transients.
This entry was written by , posted on October 14, 2009 at 6:21 pm, filed under Articles, PT Corner and tagged editing, elastic audio, pro tools, PT Corner. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This article was written back when 7.4 came out (introducing elastic audio), but is still equally relevant in Pro Tools 8 as these features haven’t changed much.
Introducing elastic audio:
A few weeks back we took a first look at some of the new features available in Pro Tools 7.4, the most notable being elastic audio, or the ability to stretch and squeeze audio regions automatically in the timeline. After spending some quality time with the new features, I must say that elastic audio is simply amazing and will definitely transform the way you work in Pro Tools and save you hours of time. While there are surely an endless number of uses for elastic audio, this week I want to walk you through a basic audio loop workflow inside Pro Tools 7.4.
Elastic Loops
One of the greatest features added in Pro Tools 7 was the ability to drag and drop audio content from the finder or windows explorer directly into your session, allowing you to quickly add loops and audio samples from anywhere on your hard drive. While this was nice, the usefulness of audio loops has always been limited to the source material’s tempo, unless you want to spend the time using beat detective or manually conforming the audio material to your session’s tempo. Now, by taking advantage of 7.4’s elastic audio engine, not only can we drag and drop our favorite loops directly into a session, but these loops will also re-conform themselves automatically to the session’s tempo map.
If you have ever used apple loops in logic or garage band, or worked with Abelton live, you may already be familiar with the benefits of an elastic timeline. The workflow that I am about to show you will help get you started with elastic audio in Pro Tools, as well as showcase some of the unique elastic time features inside 7.4. Remember, to complete this example you will need to have Pro Tools 7.4 installed on your system, as the techniques I am about go over will not work in previous versions.
Example: basic elastic audio workflow in 7.4
I have prepared for this example by first creating a new blank session into which I will import and time my audio loops. I have chosen a few different loops to work with in this example (a simple drum, bass, and percussion loop), but almost anything will work. As you start to experiment with elastic audio, you may want to try working with rhythmic tracks first, as their transient detection confidence is very high and they can be re-timed relatively easily.
Step 1: Setting up
Before I begin, I want to check a specific option location in the processing tab of Setup > Preferences called “enable elastic audio on new audio tracks.”
Step 2: Importing the first loop
To import my first loop (a drum loop) into my session, I can simply drag and drop the file from my finder (or window’s explorer) into the tracks list in Pro Tools. A new track will automatically be created, and since this is the first file to be imported Pro Tools will ask me if I want to import the tempo from the loop.
In this example I will go ahead and choose “import” from the dialog. Pro Tools will now adjust the tempo ruler to match the extracted tempo from the audio loop.
Step 3: Selecting tick based audio
Because audio is generally sample based (), Pro Tools defaults the track’s time base to samples. When using elastic audio in conjunction with tempo changes, I want to change the track’s time base to “ticks” (
) by clicking on the track’s time base selector.
Now I can change the session’s tempo and all tick-based tracks will follow the tempo ruler just like MIDI events.
Step 4: Previewing new loops
Now that I have the tempo extracted from the first loop, I want to preview some new loops at the current session tempo, before adding them into the session. To do this I will browse and import my loops from the workspace browser, located under Windows > Workspace.
To preview the loops at my current session’s tempo I will click the “audio files conform to session tempo” icon in the workspace browser.
To preview a loop in the workspace browser, simply select the file and hit space bar or click on the preview icon. Note: you can choose to preview with loop playback or activate auto-preview by checking those options in the browser menu.
To import a file from the browser I can again just drag and drop it into the tracks list. A new track is created and automatically set to ticks with elastic audio enabled. I can continue to preview loops and add them into my session all at the same tempo, regardless of the loop’s original tempo.
Notice the elastic audio icon in the top right hand corner of the region, and next to the region name in the region’s list.
Step 5: Changing the tempo
Now that I have imported a few loops and set them up to re-conform as elastic audio, I can easily change the manual tempo in the transport or even add tempo events in the tempo editor. Notice how the regions squeeze and expand to match the bar|beat grid.
Quality considerations:
Now is probably a good time to discuss some of the fidelity considerations when stretching or shrinking audio files. While the elastic audio algorithms in Pro Tools are very good, as a general rule of thumb you don’t want to stretch or shrink your audio too much (your ears will tell you how far you can go). You can help the process out a bit by selecting the appropriate plug-in algorithm from the track’s elastic audio drop down menu. Pro Tools features 5 different base algorithms to choose from: Polyphonic, Rhythmic, Monophonic, Varispeed, and X-Form (rendered only). While a complete breakdown on the differences between the algorithms is beyond the scope of this article, try experimenting. Start with the appropriate algorithm for the type of audio you are working with and then try out different presets, listening for any changes.
More elastic audio coming up:
We have only begun to scratch the surface of elastic audio in Pro Tools. Stay tuned for elastic audio: part 2 with more tips, tricks, and tutorials on this amazing new feature.
This entry was written by , posted on at 6:00 pm, filed under Articles, PT Corner and tagged editing, elastic audio, pro tools, PT Corner. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Once hailed as game changing and certainly one of Pro Tools’ most buzz worthy features, has beat detective officially reached legacy status?
Yes and no. While elastic audio and tick based time references for audio tracks have made life easier for many editors, in some instances literally cutting the time it takes to complete a task by ten fold or more, I firmly believe beat detective still has a place and time (no pun intended) in a Pro Tools, at least for now.
BD or Elastic Audio?
Essentially, all beat detective really does is “detect beats” or transients of audio material (usually drums, percussion or monophonic bass/guitar). Once these “triggers” have been detected, the user has some options. Traditionally, slicing or separating a larger region’s transients into individual smaller regions and then subsequently “conforming” or quantizing these slices to the grid was beat detective most commonly used workflow.
This usually works OK, but can manifest problems worse than the bad timing was in the first place. Because beat detective physically cuts and moves regions (thus maintaining absolute phase accuracy in multi-track scenarios like drums) the gaps resulting after a conform are a neccissary evil of the process. While these gaps can be filled and cross-faded inside beat detective, many times the process of trimming the conformed regions reveals the decay of the previous note (this is especially the true when notes are extremely rushed or ahead of the beat, or when you are trying to add swing to an originally straight feeling performance). Often what engineers are forced to do is manually address these problem spots one at a time, usually pasting an alternate hit over the un-trimmable section (either from another part of the session or from samples taken from the kit during recording). This can take several hours, depending on how out of time the performance is and how often manual intervention is required. I personally have had sessions where completely rebuilding a section of drums manually with samples from other parts of the session was a faster option than trying to use beat detective. At which point I usually say to myself, “It would have been cheaper to rebook the studio, hire a better drummer and re-record the drums.”
Much of what was once done in beat detective has been replaced by the elastic audio feature set. Because elastic audio “warps” or stretches notes into time, no gaps are created when quantizing or conforming audio to a different feel, and since the “rhythmic” elastic audio plug-in is essentially just adding or subtracting space in between hits, you generally don’t have to worry about the “zipper” artifacts that plague granular re-synthesis based warping.
Some engineers argue that unlike beat detective, elastic audio can’t maintain perfect phase coherency across multiple tracks because the algorithm processes each track uniquely. While this is true, you can get around this somewhat by grouping the tracks before elastic analysis and processing, this method will try to maintain phase coherency as much as possible as audio is stretched. I generally find this group method yields usable results almost every time, and while I do hear very subtle differences in the phase alignment of the kit, they are so subtle that the cost of doing a 4 to 8 hour beat detective session wouldn’t warrant the improvement (nor be affordable or in the best interest of the client).
Like beat detective, I find that working with small sections (4-8 bars) at a time yields the most accurate results when conforming with elastic audio. This allows me to focus and address any errors manually as I work through the song. I generally do not try to conform fills and opt to manipulate them by hand, as the timing during these sections is often dramatically different than a grid quantize would suggest. For bass, I generally avoid automated conforming altogether and adjust each note by hand with warp markers.
Groove Extraction
All that said, I still haven’t fully addressed the question, “is beat detective dead?” For quantizing drums and other percussion, pretty much. At least for my workflow it is. Simply put, time is money and elastic audio saves me lots of time and sounds really good if you know how to use it. But I still use beat detective almost daily for it’s lesser known feature, “groove template extraction.” Groove template extraction uses the same process of detecting beat triggers but instead of separating/conforming those triggers it records them to a groove template. A groove template is essentially a list of tick offsets from the grid, with a goal being to extract the groove of one things and apply it to another. For example, if the “and of four” is slightly behind the beat, a groove template would record the exact number of ticks that note was from the grid point (…|4|480). Subsequently, when I quantized something with that groove template, the off-beat of 4 would be pushed back a bit. If I had to imagine a groove template as a text file, the following 1 bar template would describe a swung 8th note feel:
Grid: 1|1|000 Offset: +0 ticks
Grid: 1|1|480 Offset: +100 ticks
Grid: 1|2|000 Offset: +0 ticks
Grid: 1|2|480 Offset: +100 ticks
Grid: 1|3|000 Offset: +0 ticks
Grid: 1|3|480 Offset: +100 ticks
Grid: 1|4|000 Offset: +0 ticks
Grid: 1|4|480 Offset: +100 ticks
When beat detective is in groove extraction mode, it measures the difference from the triggers it detects to the tick grid and records them either to the groove clipboard or a new groove template. At that point, I personally would use elastic audio to quantize another region with the newly created groove template.
In this workflow, there is a sort of symbiotic relationship between beat detective and elastic audio, at least until Avid integrates groove template extraction into the elastic analysis engine (I believe sonar has a feature like this in its elastic implementation). I imagine an elastic audio system that would allow me to let’s say, click on a menu and see a list of every other elastized track and choose “quantize to follow track XYZ.” At which point the warp markers of one track would reconform to match the analysis (or warp markers) of another track in the session.
Bar Beat Marker Generation
One additional usage of beat detective is it’s bar|beat marker generation mode, which is specifically designed to conform a session’s grid to a freely recorded piece of audio. It is sort of like reverse groove template extraction, where audio that may not conform to any one tempo is assigned a grid based on the transients absolute sample position. Think of a performance and it’s transients representing specific beats of the music (1,2,3,4 etc). Now imagine the grid is flexible and all you have to do is place a push pin at each transient marking what bar|beat it represents. In this scenario, Pro Tools switches the tempo ruler to bar|beat marker mode and every pair of bar|beat markers may represent a change in tempo. Remember, you are not conforming or quantizing the audio, it is the grid itself that is moving. A freely recorded piece of music that may sound consistent will still have small tempo changes, maybe a fraction of a BPM per measure.
Most would ask, “why on earth would I want to conform the pro tools grid to my audio, and not conform my audio to the grid?” Say you have a session that was not recorded to a click, but you like the feel and want to add additional MIDI and/or do some editing. Your options are either to work completely in slip mode (without the ability to quantize additional MIDI performances), or to develop a bar|beat grid based on your freely recorded audio. The people who track notes for guitar hero and rock band have to do this kind of stuff all the time, as most of those classic songs from the 70s and 80s were not recorded to a click and creating an accurate control track requires MIDI with many tempo changes over the course of the tune.
Identify Beat
An alternative to Beat Detective’s bar|beat marker generation is Event>Identify beat, which uses the same concept of sample based bar|beat markers to develop a grid around a freely recorded session. The only difference here is that you will use tools like tab to transient to place the cursor and identify beat to manually insert a bar|beat marker into the session. I actually prefer this method over beat detective as it gives me a lot more control and I can generally get a song mapped (placing one marker per measure) in under 10 minutes.
In Closing
While the sonic purist may still consider using beat detective for mult-track drum timing, and certainly every unique situation calls for a slightly different approach, over the past 2 years elastic audio has definately taken a big bite out of my beat detective work flow. I will of course continue using beat detective for groove template extraction until a faster solution is implemented, and I will probably always use indentify beat when mapping out free performances, but for the most part I am glad to leave those aweful gaps and tediously long editing session behind.
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