Audition Action Nitpicking

[Perry Warren]

The audition action is great, but the problem I have with it is that it only solos the track, starts and stops play if you have dragged a selection. It would be great if you could click on a clip in a track and it would do the same thing (without having to drag a selection). If I click a small clip and hit the A key it solos the track and plays starting at the clip, but it doesn't stop at the end of the clip. I have to hit stop. I know this is nitpicking, but any saved keystrokes or mouse clicks helps with a faster work flow. You can hit the H key and it will play the clip by starting at the beginning and stopping at the end of the clip, but it doesn't solo the track first like the audition action. I think a command that would play the clip you selected by clicking on it and soloing it at the same time would be useful when comping a vocal track. You could quickly audition the various clips to determine whch ones you want to use.

[Ben@Harrison]

Hi Perry,

My original implementation of the "audition" feature would always start playback from the start of the selected region. I found that this can be a real pain in the case where the region doesn't fit easily in the screen.... either because you are zoomed in close, or because the region is very long.

I found that it was generally more useful to select the region, and then place the playhead where you want to listen (either by clicking in the Ruler bar at the top of the editor, or using the 'P' shortcut to place the playhead at your mouse location)

* power-user tip: hold the "P" key until your keyboard starts to send repeated P commands; then you can "scrub" the playhead with your mouse

For my own workflow, I don't audition the lower layers but instead bump the desired layer to the top of the layer stack for auditioning. Here are my steps:

1) use the Range tool to select the space between phrases, and delete it. (so all layers are cut at the exact same spots)
2) select a region and use "move region to top layer" shortcut to audition and assemble the comped take.
3) extend those topmost regions out a bit, so (a) you don't hear any residual bits of the lower layers at the fade, and (b) to catch a little more room tone around the vocal

If it's a pop/rock vocal that needs doubling then I'll often just set those top layers "transparent" and then adjust the region-gain of the layer below it, to stack a little bit of the second-best take under the main take. You might have to trim & nudge those lower takes to get the timing exactly like the topmost take.


There are lots of other ways to comp a vocal take, too. Playlists are another option; or you can make a scratch track to drag stuff in&out of the final track.

I hope this helps!
-Ben

[Perry Warren]

Hi Perry,

My original implementation of the "audition" feature would always start playback from the start of the selected region. I found that this can be a real pain in the case where the region doesn't fit easily in the screen.... either because you are zoomed in close, or because the region is very long.

I found that it was generally more useful to select the region, and then place the playhead where you want to listen (either by clicking in the Ruler bar at the top of the editor, or using the 'P' shortcut to place the playhead at your mouse location)

* power-user tip: hold the "P" key until your keyboard starts to send repeated P commands; then you can "scrub" the playhead with your mouse

For my own workflow, I don't audition the lower layers but instead bump the desired layer to the top of the layer stack for auditioning. Here are my steps:

1) use the Range tool to select the space between phrases, and delete it. (so all layers are cut at the exact same spots)
2) select a region and use "move region to top layer" shortcut to audition and assemble the comped take.
3) extend those topmost regions out a bit, so (a) you don't hear any residual bits of the lower layers at the fade, and (b) to catch a little more room tone around the vocal

If it's a pop/rock vocal that needs doubling then I'll often just set those top layers "transparent" and then adjust the region-gain of the layer below it, to stack a little bit of the second-best take under the main take. You might have to trim & nudge those lower takes to get the timing exactly like the topmost take.


There are lots of other ways to comp a vocal take, too. Playlists are another option; or you can make a scratch track to drag stuff in&out of the final track.

I hope this helps!
-Ben

I have found several ways that work. One interesting way I found to audition in the stack is by selecting a region with the mouse, use the loop action (I assigned the L key to it), and then press the audition key (a). The region will keep looping and and you can just click any region in the stack below it and it will keep looping in the stack until you press stop.

For my purposes and possibly others, the "play selected regions" action (H) would be perfect if it could only be used on any region in the stack.

[Ben@Harrison]

That's cool!