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Old 06-26-2008, 06:58 PM
Sheldon Radford's Avatar
Sheldon Radford Sheldon Radford is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Mountain View, CA
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Default Snapshot Edit and Propagate modes

Hi everyone,

Here are a few questions that often come up as people start digging into the deeper functionality of snapshots.

How do I use Edit mode, and what's the difference between absolute and relative changes?

Here’s a quick example to help wrap your mind around Edit mode.
1) Save whatever you’re working on to a show file (so you can come back to it later)
2) Clear the console (Options > System > Clear Console)
3) Set fader one to 0 dB. Create new Snapshot 1.
4) Set fader one to -5 dB. Create new Snapshot 2.
5) Set fader one to -10 dB. Create new Snapshot 3.
6) Recall Snapshot 1 (0 dB)

Okay, now the fun begins…
7) Enter Edit mode
8) Move fader one up to +5 dB (a relative change of +5 dB)
9) On the Snapshots page, multi-select all three snapshots
10) Hit the REL button to capture the relative change.
11) Recall snapshots 1, 2 and 3. Fader one should now be at +5 dB, 0 dB, and -5 dB (up 5 dB in each snapshot, relative to the original setting.)

Cool, huh? Now do this, to help understand the difference between Relative and Absolute edit mode:
12) Enter Edit mode again.
13) Set fader one to 0 dB
14) On the Snapshots page, multi-select all three snapshots
15) Hit the ABS button to capture the absolute value.
16) Recall snapshots 1, 2 and 3. Result: Fader 1 is the same value in all snapshots, because the absolute value was stored.

This example uses only faders, but any parameter (aux send, EQ, etc.) can be adjusted using Edit mode.
…and before the band arrives don’t forget to re-load the show file you saved in step 1. Enjoy!

What is the difference between Edit mode and Propagate mode?

On the surface both modes appear to do the same thing: they allow for very localized parameter changes - tweak just the EQ on one channel, for example - to be applied to one or more snapshots in a fast, efficient way. But they're actually quite different...

The way I always describe it is that Propagate mode is great for when you’ve made a change and then realize afterwards that you need to apply that change across a number of snapshots. For example, you finally get the lead vocal EQ dialed in and now need to carry that change through the rest of the snapshots. In this case, it’s easy to enter Propagate mode, scope the vocal channel fader and EQ data type, and apply the change. So Propagate mode is a reactive way of working.

Handy tip: to select all snapshots in the list use CTRL+A on the keyboard, or right-click the list and choose “Select All”

Edit mode is more of a proactive way of working, and has two main benefits compared to Propagate mode:
1) only the controls you change while in Edit mode, and
2) you’re able to make relative changes to parameters stored in snapshots.

Contrast this with Propagate mode, where you can only affect all controls in a section (all EQ controls compared to just the gain on one band, for example, or a single aux send on a channel compared to all Aux Mon or Aux FX).

A great example of when to use Edit mode is this: the drummer says “my mix sounds great, but can you turn the lead singer down by a few dB in every song?” The hard way to do this would be to recall each snapshot individually, adjust the lead singer’s aux send for the drum mix, then re-store the snapshot to capture the change. Then repeat this process for each snapshot. Ugh!

A much better way to do this is to enter Edit mode, make the aux change once, then capture this as a relative change across all snapshots. By applying the relative change you’ve maintained the overall volume curve of the channel in the snapshots (loud in song 1, down a few dB in song 2, etc.), but simply shifted the overall volume curve up or down by some relative amount. Cool!

Sheldon
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