cut and paste

[Tom Harmon]

I'm a newbie to protools. The owners manual is loaded with info, but doesn't tell you clearly how to replace a bad part of a take with a good part from another take. Can someone give me a clear direction on how to best do this? Thanx... Tom

[Red Wing]

Well Tom, I am new to pro tools as well but I do have some very basic advise for you to check out. First I would highly recommend going to the Digi website and ordering a free promotional video for Pro Tools. I found the Music Production one to be the best and most informative. It will take you through a session and give a very decent overview of the concept and practical application of Pro Tools.

With regards to the specifics of your question, it seems to me that you would simply highlight the audio region of what you want to remove and either delete, clear or cut it. One trick is to use the trimmer tool whenever possible because doing so will not create "auto created regions" in the audio bin which can really get bogged down with a ton of bits and pieces everytime you cut or clear a region selection. With the trimmer you can then pull back the audio as necessary thus making it much easier for smooth edits. In other words "non destructive edits". If your unhapppy with your edit you could just pull the original audio region back. From the 2nd track from which you want to take the edit just select the portion of audio, copy and then paste it into the 1st track. Be aware of what "mode" you are in: Slip, Grid, Shuffle or Spot. In Grid or Slip mode you will be able to select a grid value and nudge value that will be in Bars/Beats, Minutes/Seconds... or I believe frames.( I'm not sure about frames). From there you can Nudge the audio forward or backwards in the increments that you have chosen to be the nudge value ie. 16th notes in Bars/Beats.(use the + and - keys at the right of your keyboard for nudging if desired) You might want to trim the pasted region really tightly and then trim/pull the adjacent regions from the 1st track right up to the beginning and end of your pasted edit.

My main advice is to experiment with audio that is for experimenting purposes. Have no fear and just screw around using the manual to fill in the blanks and details of something that you know should be possible but is eluding you. If your new to this like myself it's easy to get frustrated but focus on slow and incremental improvement with the understanding of how powerful this software really is and that absoulutely no one mastered it an a couple of weeks. I have come a long way since February and look forward to where I could be in the next 6 months. Peace and Good Luck!