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Staying in Key With 7.3
Welcome back everyone! I hope all of you had a great holiday and a happy New Year. As promised, in this week’s column I will share some brand new tricks from the latest version of Pro Tools. Since these tricks will only work with Pro Tools 7.3, be sure to upgrade your software before trying them out. Believe me, the new features are more then worth the price of the upgrade and if you missed it, be sure to check out last week’s column for a list of what’s new in 7.3.
Before we begin, I would like to extend a warm welcome to any newcomers that received a Pro Tools rig for Christmas or to anyone discovering the Pro Tools Corner for the first time. As we enter 2007 this will continue to be the place to visit every week for all your latest tips, tricks, and Pro Tools related news.
One Step Closer To Notation
Many top composers and arrangers choose to integrate Pro Tools into their workflow, whether it is for recording, mixing, or editing. But the lack of notation often requires them to use another DAW during the writing/arranging stage of production. With the recent acquisition of Sibelius, it is clear that Digidesign is looking to attract user’s who require notation in their workflow by offering convenient interchange of compatible MIDI data between the two applications. New in 7.3, the “Send to Sibelius” command, found under File > Send to Sibelius, exports selected MIDI and Instrument tracks to Sibelius or G7 notation software, allowing you to further edit or print a score. Pro Tools exports the data as a standard MIDI file and automatically sends it to Sibelius (note: Sibelius must be installed for this function to work).
Tip: To send a single MIDI or Instrument track to Sibelius, right click on the track name and choose “Send to Sibelius.”
Key Signature Ruler
To compliment the new “Send to Sibelius” command, Pro Tools 7.3 now offers a Key Signature lane as part of the conductor rulers. Key signatures can now be imported and exported along with MIDI data and can be used to transpose MIDI and instrument tracks both chromatically and diatonically. The process of adding, editing and deleting key changes is actually quite easy and very similar to working with the tempo or meter ruler.
To add a key change in Pro Tools 7.3:
- Make sure your Key Signatures Ruler is showing by selecting View > Rulers > Key Signature. (Note: you can also view the staff by selecting View > Rulers > Key Signature Staff, or by clicking on the disclosure triangle on the key signature ruler.)
- To insert a key change (the default key is C Major), place your cursor in the timeline where you want to add the new key and choose: Event > Add Key Change or click the (+) plus sign on the key signature ruler.
- In the key change dialog, select the key and mode (major or minor). Verify the location and range and choose how you want it to affect pitched tracks (MIDI and Instrument tracks).
- You can edit an existing key change by double clicking on it. To delete a key change hold down Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) and click on the key signature marker.
What Is Transposed?
When you add a key change to your session, MIDI and Instrument tracks are transposed up or down based on the parameters defined in the key change dialog (by selecting the “Edit Pitched Tracks” option). You can tell Pro Tools to transpose chromatically or diatonically. To illustrate the difference, let’s take the sequence C, D, E in the key of C major. If transposed diatonically to the key of D minor, the resulting sequence would be D, E, F. If transposed chromatically the resulting sequence would be D, E, F#. The “Constrain Pitches To Key” option allows you to constrain pitches to the notes of the new key. Diatonic notes in the old key that are not found in the new key are individually transposed to the nearest diatonic pitch of the new key.
(Note: when transposing diatonically, chromatic notes are maintained when changing key, letting you keep the “blue-notes.” For example, when changing key from C major to E major, the note B-flat is transposed to D-natural.)
Pitched Tracks
Pro Tools 7.3 allows you to define whether or not the key signature ruler affects specific MIDI and instrument tracks. For example, you may not want to transpose MIDI trigging a drum sequence or other samples triggered by specific key mappings. Whenever a MIDI or Instrument track is created they are considered “pitched” by default, to change this simply click on the tracks playlist selector and uncheck the “Pitched” option (see pic). Remember to uncheck this option for any drum or percussion tracks otherwise you may be in for a surprise when you add any key changes.
Pro Tip: The Loop Trim Tool
Pro Tools 7.0 added the “Loop” command that allows you to loop a region or group a desired number of times or measures. Pro Tools 7.3 takes looping one step further with the new Loop Trim Tool. The loop trim tool works much like the regular trim tool except instead of revealing more or less of a regions whole file, Pro Tools will automatically loop the region over and over as long as you continue to trim it out.
To Loop Trim:
- Click and hold on the trim tool icon to bring up the trim tool selector menu and select the loop trim tool.
- Make sure the region you wish to loop plays cleanly front to back as a loop. (Note: you can check this with loop playback, select the region and choose Options > Loop Playback to preview the region as a loop).
- Position your loop trim tool over the top half of the region. The trim cursor will change to indicate a loop trim.
- You can trim from the start or the end of a region to add loops in front of or behind the existing region.
- You can trim an existing loop in 2 ways: Trim as usual to add or take away total time from the loop. Or trim the source region (loop iteration) while maintaining the total loop length. To trim the loop iteration, place your trim tool over the small loop icon in the bottom right hand corner of the looped region. For example if you have a 2 bar region looped 4 times that would equal 8 measures. Trimming the loop iteration down to 1 bar would result in 8, 1 bar regions maintaining a total of 8 measure in all.
Pro Tools Tidbits
- Arturia announced a universal binary version of Moog Modular V (v2.2)
- Native Instruments released a universal binary version of B4 II (v2.0.3)
- Propellerheads announced Windows Vista compatibility for Reason, ReCycle, Reload, ReWire and Rex.
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 brian@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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