Grid Lines - Slip Mode vs. Grid Mode

[jeremyroberts]

For me the best case would be to have the grid on all the time and just be able to switch on and off the snap to grid feature-it would be simpler and require fewer keystrokes in the long run for all users.

Yes -- and let's even model this after macdraw or quark or photoshop

This requires TWO commands:

1. Show grid/Hide grid
2. Snap to Grid on/off

There are times when I am working totally free - no timebase at all -- i do NOT need to see any grid. I would like to turn it off.

I think if the program would use 3 modes instead of 4 [slip, shuffle, spot] and 2 grid modes as mentioned, it would be WAY more intuitive and productive.

But this will never happen, because it's hardwired to digi control surfaces... when we design our perfect DAW, we can do it this way.

[JGuth]

It should happen though. Trying to work in a meter with triplets is totally annoying in Pro Tools. I always want to slide things small amounts relative to the grid and if I need triplet 8ths it's just not possible. The tool suspend grid modifiers are too clunky and there's not one for selections and all could be replaced with one "snap to grid" toggle. The grid visibility should be independent of snapping to the grid-ie a separate "snap to grid" command, then we could add snap to grid in shuffle mode and avoid the current complexity of having to make gridded selections in grid mode, then switch to shuffle to shuffle, then switch back to grid for the next edit. It's just cumbersome. And tying snap to grid to displaying the grid makes no sense.

[Howardk]

One thing that helps:

"To temporarily suspend Grid mode and
switch to Slip mode while dragging a region,
hold down the Control key (Windows) or
Command key (Macintosh)."

[PTUser NYC]

1) I agree that grid lines should behave the same in grid and slip modes.

2) Jeremy is right (again) that there are two different properties at work here, which each require their own key command.

3) An inelegant workaround is to have an audio track, click track, derived from whatever audio you like that you can use as a grid. You drag the track next to the one you're editing. This can be the main rhythm guitar track if you want a "groove template". Maybe you took the best bar of the rhythm guitar, and cut it up too, so only the attacks were preserved - that'd be a good guide track.

Be careful using MIDI to derive your click or guide track. Latency is one big issue, but you can compensate for that. Worse yet, is slop, the difference in the latecy each time. if I was creating a groove template from MIDI notes, I'd take a good listen to the audio after the fact, and see if it needed tightening up at all.

I'm a singer. I keep a 57 ready to go, hooked up to an input all the time. Whenever I need something to groove better, i sing the groove, and use the vocal track as a template to line up the audio. This works really well for rubato, and tempo changes, ritards etc. its also very helpful in programming drums, and fills.

4) Pro Tools needs a new feature. I want to do all this fancy quantizing on audio snippets, but I want to quantize the attack of the note, not the whoosh of the kick drum pedal before the strike. I realize that with beat detective, I can set a threshold, and cut the audio into snippets, then quantize the snippets, and then open out the attack of each to get the preceeding air. But each piece of audio is now quantized to the moment that it corssed the same volume threshold. harder and softer kicks actually hit at different levels.

Right now, Pro Tools uses the left edge of each audio file as its location point. What if the two were seperate? One thing is the left edge of the file, another property is the locator mark, which could even be outside the audio piece, like 8 ms before it in the case of a snare drum's room track, which was to maintain its relationship with an earlier dry track? Even if it was within the audio snippet, I'd take it!

Let's say that you could use the I beam cursor to quickly click and spot the attacks of a whole bunch of files. Now, when you quantize them, they are moved so that the markers you identified are conformed, not the left edge.

These markers could be set in group mode too, so that drum tracks would stay referenced together correctly.

Well, until I get that, I can still just line each piece up by eye to a groove template reference audio track.

Forget beat detective, just look at the track zoomed in, and select across from an area of just before anything happens to tyhe same part of the following event, cut and paste. Do this for every OTHER hit, and you're done quickly. Then you just use the hand cursor in slip to line up what you see as the true attack of the sound to the groove template. It won't sound mechanical, that's for sure. And if you do it quickly by eye, you may be a few sample off of perfection. a ms here or there doesn't mean that much if the groove template is very tight to begin with. It results in less slop than I'll bet your (our, my) MIDI rig does right now?

[Tweakhead]

1)
4) Pro Tools needs a new feature. I want to do all this fancy quantizing on audio snippets, but I want to quantize the attack of the note, not the whoosh of the kick drum pedal before the strike. I realize that with beat detective, I can set a threshold, and cut the audio into snippets, then quantize the snippets, and then open out the attack of each to get the preceeding air. But each piece of audio is now quantized to the moment that it corssed the same volume threshold. harder and softer kicks actually hit at different levels.

Command+Comma to mark the transient. Been there for ages.

[Ray Lyon]

I would love to see a visual option for grid in slip mode. However, one temporary workaround I've found useful is to stay in grid mode, select your notes, and make heavy use of the nudge command (by 10ms increments using +/- keys on numerical keypad)... it's fast and easy, especially for minor timing tweaks. You can easily move data around without snapping to grid with this method.

Hope this helps

[PTUser NYC]

Command+Comma to mark the transient. Been there for ages.

Ah. What I meant to say is: I need to read the manual again.

Thanks tweak!

[Howardk]

>>Ah. What I meant to say is: I need to read the manual again.<<
Ya gotta love when people admit they might just not know it all. It is a strong hint they have forgotten more than most will ever know. . .

[hearttimes]

mt. e i know exactly what you mean and agree 1000%

[GlennR01]

My kingdom for selectable grid (as mentioned above) and TRANSLUCENT WAVEFORMS as a selectable option.