Locking audio to Bar/beat grid

[MilesMusic]

I know this has been discussed before, but I was wondering if there was any new info on this topic.

I need to be able to lock audio regions to bar/beat grids. This is easily do-able in DP or StudioVision (R.I.P.) and a fairly important tool for composers needing to change tempos after laying audio chunks (percussive hits, etc.) into a sequence.

Is this possible in ProTools or do we have to wait for a revision for these kind of real MIDI sequnceing tools (like notaion editing)?

I actually like using PT for sequncing and have stopped using DP after 12 years. When it comes to long cues with complicated tempo maps, I have to go back to DP. Clients and directors like to tweak music too much. THis requires much flexiblity with tempos...

[DigiTechSupt]

There is no preference to make regions automatically lock to the grid (when the session tempo is changed), but you can achieve this by utilizing Beat Detective.

I am not in front of Pro Tools right now, so this is from memory:

1. In bars/beats grid mode, highlight a selection of bars on the track(s) that you want to conform to a different tempo.
2. Make a note of the bar/beat that your selection starts and ends on, e.g. Start: 12|1|000, End 25|1|000.
3. Create a memory location for the selection. Set the memory location type to Selection (not Marker), and the reference to Absolute (not Bars|Beats).
4. Change the tempo of your session as desired.
5. Recall the memory location selection you created in step 3.
6. Open Beat Detective.
7. In the Selection field of Beat Detective, enter the bar/beat start and end times you made a note of in step 2.
8. Go to the Conform window of Beat Detective, check the Strength box, and set the strength to 100%.
9. Hit the Conform Button. You will get a dialog box asking if you want the regions to conform to the new tempo; click yes (I do not remember the exact wording). Your regions will snap to the grid of the new tempo.

Hope that helps.

Steve

[MilesMusic]

Thanks Steve.

Unfortunately, your solution is not 100% accurate. When working with long cues (2 minutes and longer), changing tempos can radically alter the grid forcing me to manually move audio to the correct bar/beat marker (especially if working on an 1/8th note grid or smaller)

This is a one click operation on all other sequencers that I know of. IMO, if PT is going to compete as a pro MIDI sequencer, locking to the bar/beat grid is essential. Notation editing, or more importantly, music part printing is a close second.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally posted by MilesMusic:
Unfortunately, your solution is not 100% accurate. When working with long cues (2 minutes and longer), changing tempos can radically alter the grid forcing me to manually move audio to the correct bar/beat marker (especially if working on an 1/8th note grid or smaller).

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I am not sure why this is not working for you. I just created a session with a 16th note grid and a couple of cues including a 2 minute cue, and the method I described above worked perfectly for snapping the regions to the grid (I had changed the tempo from 120 bpm to 139 bpm).

locking to the bar/beat grid is essential

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">That's definitely a valid feature request.

Steve

[Robert U]

I totally agree with Miles. That function would make my life so much easier!

-Robert