Question on consolidating...

[Brent H.]

I'm a newbie and i was wondering if you only consolidate a whole track after you have completely edited it? yes or no and why?

Also, when you are completely finished editing every track, do you make sure they are all consolidated fully and nice looking?

[markshan]

I consolidate constantly, especially doing live shows. Nothing pisses me off more than getting the fade exactly how I want it then ripping it apart because I moved something that wasn't consolidated. It ends up eating a lot of hard drive, but if I need to I just bounce then delete the whole session and import what I am now working with.

[t N t]

Consolidating and Processing a track is soley dependant on the production. If said user is effecting a track with some sort of effects, it may be best to use the audio suites once you have found the proper settings for the effect (ie. copy pasted them to the audio suite), which will consoldate them. Or if you are just simply trying to heal seperations, you may want to highlight each region and then heal them. I always like to think ahead of what I am doing in a project.

However, when you take the ProTools courses to become a expert or certified user, they teach that you should look at the session in a process. Ie. Record each part, apply effects, process each effect. This is a great formula, but like I stated earlier each session may call for differnt methods to be used.

Taking into consideration what you are trying to achieve it seems that you may just need to heal each region. The cosmetic feel you are looking for is easly obtained by healing them, while the method of applying effects will do the same thing, it seems as if you are simply trying to make sure your workspace is tiddy(sp?).

[Sebastien Richard]

It might be better to just make a region group option+apple+g
If you have ever noticed when you consolidate audio in Pro Tools its not sample accurate. I have noticed, certain hits can move up to 500 samples within a consolidated track. I found this problem after hearing random phasing which appeared once i had consolidated a top and bottom snare track.
-s

[L.Ninio]

I'm a newbie and i was wondering if you only consolidate a whole track after you have completely edited it? yes or no and why?

Yes, for audio and effects. Because I hate the look of lots of regions when I mix, it annoys me. It's easier to back up. Lot's of edits means the session has to jump around the hard drive more looking for each edit.

Also, when you are completely finished editing every track, do you make sure they are all consolidated fully and nice looking?

Yes. I like nice looking things. That's why there's a mirror in my studio.