Using Replace Region — need expert

[Dan Pinder]

Does anybody know if you can use Reglace Region to match-cut an edit with a different piece of audio?

What I'm trying to do is take a series of edits using a few different audio files and replace the underlying audio with different versions of the same music. In other words, I need to swap out the audio in a bunch of edits without messing with the edits themselves.

I have had luck replacing a region if the region begins from the audio file start time, but I cannot seem to replace a region that has a start somewhere in the middle. Can this be done?

[blairl]

Does anybody know if you can use Reglace Region to match-cut an edit with a different piece of audio?

Yes, Hold down command+shift, go to the region bin, select the replacement region and drag it on top of the region you want to replace in the timeline. You will be prompted with several options to choose from at that point.

[Dan Pinder]

Thanks Blair—

I am able to perform the basic command, but this only works well if the region I'm replacing starts from the beginning (in other words, if there is a 2:00 long audio file and I have a region that starts from 0:00 to 0:40, it works great. I cannot seem to make it work if I'm using a region that starts at say 0:54 into the file and ends 40 seconds later. The options SEEM to hint at this, but I cannot make it work to my satisfaction. I see things like "start time" and "end time" as check boxes, but no evidence it can work. Every time I apply a new region onto an old one that begins in progress, it always ends up at the beginning.

Hmmm

[Dan Pinder]

I tried again tonight. I think this feature cannot replace the middles of regions. Match cutting must be done the old fashioned way. Hey Digi, the Replace Region command should be able to do this.

Very often I get songs in MP3 or AAC format from music supervisors to try. If these songs end up being licensed, I have to get the uncompressed version of each song and painstakingly match-cut each one for the final. This could be easily obviated either by adding the functionality to Replace Region (something like "replacement region follows original region's start/end times") or the alternative is to name the new audio the same thing as the original file and hope to god that manual relinking will recognise the new file. I have told Pro Tools 6.x several times to please, please use a new file that has the exact same name, file type and length as the file it is looking for and often to no avail.

Moral: force-relinking would take away the need for all this.

[Torc]

Yeah, the start time and end time options refer to the region you're replacing. So, if you have Audio_1, and there's four regions from it that have been trimmed to different sizes in the playlist, those options will allow you to replace the regions that have the same start position within the file or the same end position within the file. But unfortunately, it still replaces it with the start of the replacement region.

However, from here, you can use ctrl-(num key plus) and (num key minus) to nudge just the contents of the region, keeping the region size and position on the playlist. It's not a one-step solution, but it's better than having to do everything manually.

[sleadley]

I tried again tonight. I think this feature cannot replace the middles of regions. Match cutting must be done the old fashioned way. Hey Digi, the Replace Region command should be able to do this.

Very often I get songs in MP3 or AAC format from music supervisors to try. If these songs end up being licensed, I have to get the uncompressed version of each song and painstakingly match-cut each one for the final. This could be easily obviated either by adding the functionality to Replace Region (something like "replacement region follows original region's start/end times") or the alternative is to name the new audio the same thing as the original file and hope to god that manual relinking will recognise the new file. I have told Pro Tools 6.x several times to please, please use a new file that has the exact same name, file type and length as the file it is looking for and often to no avail.

Moral: force-relinking would take away the need for all this.

On Dark City, I had a whole temp score done in Mono that they wanted in stereo with the proper tracks. Now in the old Pro Tools it was easy to point to a file and replace a file with a new one, and on that film I had 2 sessions one called Left and one called Right tht we dups of the same mono session, then I pointed the session to all the LEFT Score tracks then I opened the other session and pointed to all the RIGHT Score tracks then track Transferred both sessions into a new stereo session and Panned LEFT and RIGHT. Easy, all the edits were maintained and I got a stereo Tmp score (I was also the hero of the hour) But with PT 6 onwards you cannot "fool" ProTools Like you used to be able to. It wants the Name; or ID to be correct. You could remove all the audio (or put the session on a new drive) rename all the Source files to the same names as the mp3/AAC's then point PT at them, that should work. Try it with 1 file to see. However in the old days you could say "PT wants file A but File B is now File A, and PT would comply by using file B. But no so in the new and improved version.
Hope this helps
Simon L.

[Dan Pinder]

Thanks guys for your replies. Simon, I'm sure Mr Lotwis would want to say Hello; just worked with him recently.

Simon, your suggestion about renaming the file... Yeah, exactly what I said I have tried in vain to do. It seems to work maybe 1 out of 4 times. There is something about Pro Tools 6/7's relinking that is just voodoo: it's undocumented, unsure of itself and unreliable. My kingdom to be able to select the drives from which it automatically scans. My son's college fund to be able to force relink.

Note to Digi: if Replace Region actually did something as I've described, we wouldn't need force-relinking.

Do we need to formally organise a petition about force-relinking? Since Digidesign has yet to comment on this, there's no way to divine their attitude towards this very necessary feature for editors. In spite of the many magnificent additions and civilities PT 7 now boasts, this really is a case of %$#&ing it up through improvements.

[sleadley]

Thanks guys for your replies. Simon, I'm sure Mr Lotwis would want to say Hello; just worked with him recently.

Simon, your suggestion about renaming the file... Yeah, exactly what I said I have tried in vain to do. It seems to work maybe 1 out of 4 times. There is something about Pro Tools 6/7's relinking that is just voodoo: it's undocumented, unsure of itself and unreliable. My kingdom to be able to select the drives from which it automatically scans. My son's college fund to be able to force relink.

Note to Digi: if Replace Region actually did something as I've described, we wouldn't need force-relinking.

Do we need to formally organise a petition about force-relinking? Since Digidesign has yet to comment on this, there's no way to divine their attitude towards this very necessary feature for editors. In spite of the many magnificent additions and civilities PT 7 now boasts, this really is a case of %$#&ing it up through improvements.

Hey say Hello to Steve for me, I will send him an email. (Oh I don't have his email I see now)
Yea I agree with you, It was better in the old days and yes, it does seem like Voodoo now, I always have my fingers crossed when I try to relink files. There really should be a way to say "yes I know file A is not there but hey, use File B it is the same but with a different name and File ID" it would make it so much simpler.
regards
Simon L.

[Andre Knecht]

Do we need to formally organise a petition about force-relinking?

Sign me up!

[Dan Pinder]

okay Team, look for it in Pro Tools TDM Mac main forum!