Pro Tools 8 "undo" bug

[Bryan_Golder]

Slowly getting into Pro Tools 8, and I ran into what I think is a rather nasty bug, or perhaps it was an intentional change that was not well considered...

In Pro Tools 7.x:
Record a region, maybe 10 seconds long - length doesn't matter
Record another region that covers the first 5 seconds of the first region
Play.
Undo. First region is revealed.
Play.
Redo. Second region (the last recorded one) is restored.
Play. Listen. Pick one.

That's a technique I use often when tracking vocals, often when just grabbing a single word or phrase to fix on a vocal comp rather than create more playlists. Record the new take, listen, undo, listen to original, redo, listen to new take. Pick one. It's super fast (one keystroke) and it has always worked.

Here's the problem. In Pro Tools 8, if you do this:

Record 1st region
Record 2nd region
Undo
Press play to listen to 1st region
Redo to restore 2nd region and listen.
You can't redo. It's gone.

So the bug is -- pressing play after recording a region clears the redo history (or the forward undo history) and wipes out what you just recorded. 100% reproducible. Quickpunch mode on. Pre-roll on/off doesn't matter.

I know there's other ways to A/B a vocal punch, but the undo/redo trick is fastest, and it has always worked. It makes no sense that pressing play clears the redo/forward history and wipes out a recorded take. That shouldn't happen.

There are many other inconsistencies with Undo in Pro Tools which the user is not warned about which still exist in Pro Tools 8...but that's a bug report for another day. Digidesign, please fix this.

[c-tone]

I believe that this is the way Pro Tools works under version 7 as well. Once you choose "Undo Record", you lose that last record pass forever once you hit play (or do almost any other function).

This problem was discussed in detail in this thread.

[AURORA4DTH]

yes that is true it has always been this way with my system. I HATE this, just like you I would love to be able to press play and not lose "take 2" auditioning between the two.
Sometimes when someone new uses my system and they are used to using other software they are stunned to see that you cant re do the second take after pressing play to re listen to the first.

[Premo]

Ya I always prefer to loop record any sections, then use match takes to switch between matching regions or essentially audition them.

I never use the undo command. If I'm 100% sure I don't like a take I press command+period and kill it while it's still recording, thus the audio doesn't even remain on the drive anymore when you cancel it that way.

Or you could use duplicate playlist or loop record and create auto playlist preference.

[Bryan_Golder]

Interesting. I'm perplexed. I will have to try this again on my 7.4 system. I could have sworn that I did this often with 7.4 (record, undo, play, redo) without ever losing the last take. Only in PT 8 did I notice this immediately because it definitely happens every time. I wonder if there's a particular combination of preferences in 7.4 that prevents this issue from occurring and maybe I've been operating that way. Maybe the last time I worked this way was in 7.3, but that would have been quite a while ago and I've done a lot of tracking and stem printing in 7.4 and I don't recall this happening. Thanks for the link to that other thread c-tone. I'll have to investigate. I agree with the sentiments in that thread and suggest again to Digidesign that pressing play should not dump the last recorded take. I hope they're listening.

[Drew Mazurek]

It's all about Quickpunch. This won't happen if it's off. But of course you lose the benefits that it offers.

[AURORA4DTH]

Hey Drew!
For the most part I dont use this either , i am always doing about 5 vocal takes on playlists and then choosing from there. That being said When I am in a rush not losing the "2nd take would be very helpful" I rarely turn off quick punch.

[claybot]

I know this thread is a year old but wanted to add that if, after recording a pass in quick punch, you first take the track out of record mode, you can then freely undo and redo the two passes while playing them back. Still an annoying quirk, but will allow AB'ing the two passes with undo/redo commands.
Note that if you then put the track back into record mode you will lose the redo function after hitting play after an undo command

PT 8.0.4