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Getting to the Point
Last week I gave you some really great tricks for moving
the beginning or end of a region to the Edit cursors so
that you could perfectly align regions in Pro Tools. This
week, we’ll take a look at Sync Points, and build
upon those same concepts for manipulating regions in a
way that makes more “musical sense.”
As always, there are keyboard commands involved, but only
two this time, so it shouldn’t be too bad:
What is a Sync Point in Pro Tools?
A Sync Point is Pro Tools serves as the positional/ time-reference
for a region. Without a Sync Point Pro Tools doesn’t
really know where the meaningful part of a region is, and
just uses the beginning (head) of a region. For example,
while in Grid Mode, when you move a region without a Sync
Point, notice that that it is the beginning (head) of the
region that is actually snapping to the Grid.
In this case, the very beginning of the region is not musically
significant at all. There is a fair amount of silence before
the attack of the first beat of the region actually occurs.
Using Tab to Transient, we can identify a Sync Point and
use that first attack as the positional/time-reference for
the region.
- While in Slip Mode, use the Selector tool to place
the Edit cursor just before the first transient of the
region.
- With Tab to Transient enabled, press the Tab key to
move the Edit cursor perfectly on the transient.
- Choose Region > Identify Sync Point or press Command
+ , (Macintosh) or Control + , (PC) to position the Syn
Point at the Edit cursor.
When we return to Grid mode, and move the region, it is
not the beginning (head) of the regions that snaps to the
Grid, it is the Sync Point, which makes much more sense musically.
It’s important to be hip to Sync Points, as they are
very useful in making sure that the musical elements of the
region fall where they should. If you use sample libraries,
it is quite common for the sample to have a little bit of
silence at the beginning of the file/region. Setting the
Sync Point on the attack of a Kick or Snare sample, for example,
is critical for accurately positioning them.
Although there are many practical ways to employ Sync Points,
we found ourselves here by discussing ways to align regions.
Just like last week, the trick to understanding how all of
this works, is to always remember that the destination for
anything we move, is the Edit cursor. The recipe for everything
we do this week, will always be the same:
- Place the Edit cursor at the location to which you
want to move a region to.
- Use the Grabber tool along with the keyboard command
to make the desired move.
Note: To keep things straight forward, make sure that
Link Timeline and Selection is enabled on the Edit
window and
that Tab to Transient is not enabled. When Tab to
Transient is not enabled, pressing the Tab key will
move the
Edit cursor from the beginning (head) of a region,
to the Sync
Point
of a region, to the end (tail) of a region.
Align Regions by Sync Points
In this example, we want to move Region B (Green) so that
the Sync Point of Region B aligns with Sync Point of Region
A (Blue). In other words, Region A will stay put, while
Region B does the move:
- While in Slip Mode, use the Selector tool to place
the Edit cursor just before the first transient of the
region.
- With Tab to Transient disabled, press the Tab key
to move the Edit cursor to the Sync Point.
- Using the Grabber tool, Control + Shift-click (Macintosh)
or Start + Shift-click (PC) on the region you wish
to move to the cursor
Align the Sync Point of One Region to the Start (Head) of
Another
This trick uses the exact same technique as above, as it’s
all about where the cursor is when moving a region with
these keyboard commands. In this example, we want to move
Region
B (Green) so that the Sync Point of Region B aligns with
beginning of Region A (Blue). In other words, Region A
will stay put, while Region B does the move.
- Because we want to snap the Sync Point of Region B
to the start (head) of Region A, we first need to place
our
cursor where Region B should align with. To place the
cursor at the start (head) of Region A, simply click on
Region
A with the Grabber tool.
- Because we want Region B to make the move, using the
Grabber tool, Control + Shift-click (Macintosh) or
Start + Shift-click
(PC) on Region B and it will align the Sync Point of
Region B with the cursor, which is as the start (head)
of Region
A.
Note: Whenever you make a selection in Pro Tools, the Edit
cursor is always at the beginning/start of that selection.
Align the Sync Point of One Region to the End (Tail) of
Another
This trick uses the exact same technique as the previous
two, again – it’s all about where the cursor
is. In this example, we want to move Region B (Green) so
that the Sync Point of Region B aligns with end of Region
A (Blue). Again, Region A will stay put, while Region B does
the move.
- Because we want to snap the Sync Point of Region B
to the end (tail) of Region A, we first need to place our
cursor where Region B should align with. To place the
cursor at
the end (tail) of Region A, simply click on Region A
with
the Grabber tool, then with Tab to Transient disabled
on the Edit window, press the Tab key twice to move the
cursor
to the end (tail) of the region.
- Because we want Region B to make the move, using the
Grabber tool, Control + Shift-click (Macintosh) or
Start + Shift-click
(PC) on Region B and it will align the Sync Point of
Region B with the cursor, which is as the end (tail)
of Region
A.
Okay…I’ve done my part. Over the last two weeks,
I’ve showed you some really powerful ways of moving
and aligning regions. There’s really only one way to
get these kinds of moves under your fingers – that’s
to practice by using them every opportunity you get. Pro
Tools Tidbits
- T.C.
Electronic has released two new plug-ins for Pro
Tools for HD, DVR2 Digital
Vintage Reverb and NonLin2 Stereo
Effects Reverb ported directly from their System 6000.
(HD)
If you have a Pro Tools related question that you would
like me to take a shot at answering or have any feedback,
please send it to scott@audioMIDI.com. I will do my best
to select the questions that seem to stump the most people.
As always, stay tuned to the audioMIDI.com eNews for the latest reviews and new product info.
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