Loop - duration limitation

[cablenaute]

Hi,

I've been using ProTools for years, quite happy with it actually…
But there is one thing that really annoys me, I always work with "loop playback" enabled, it works perfectly well, until my selection isn't long enough... then you hit play, it stops, and I have to select a longer selection for the loop playback to work again…
Really? Does it make any sense? Is there any preference for this?

Thanks!

[Dmytro L]

Hi cablenaute,

There's no preference for that but the selection must be at least 500 ms in length for it to loop on playback.

[cablenaute]

Tanks for your answer, exactly, any way of having it shorter?

[Dmytro L]

Originally Posted by cablenaute

any way of having it shorter?

No way to do that currently and it's not planned to be changed.

[chompers2022]

yes this old chestnut. Terribly annoying.
I would think that having the playback continue would be the best option, instead of the stupid stutter and stopping and not playing. It happens often when you're flying around.
JUST let it not be looped, BUT let it play as if the selection was a normal selection point!

[nednednerb]

What about taking your 333 ms section and "repeat" clips to get the loop your want?


What in heavens do audio professionals need to loop such tiny sections for? It becomes nonsense. I say this because a few chestnuts as you say might ask for this feature, but virtually nobody else is actually interested.

So what is the use scenario? "Just being able to do so" is a junky explanation to give as a reason, I would argue.

[albee1952]

I'd also like to understand why this is wanted. Beyond that, could a solution be to call up an AudioSuite plugin and use that to loop a tiny selection with the Preview button?

[smurfyou]

Why do we always need an explanation to improve longstanding limitations? There are a lot of really senseless limitations that have been pointed out repeatedly over the years. We’d like it improved.

Firstly, the main chestnut is that it completely kills your flow when editing. Especially with the video engine.

Secondly, yes sometimes I would like to loop a small segment. Also wouldn’t mind a loop jog like Fairlight had but I’ll do without that one.

[cablenaute]

I work with sessions with a lot of tracks, DX, MX, FX, so "duplicate" is just not thinkable.

A simple example, in the middle of a sequence, I have a single sentence that sounds quite bad, this particular sentence needs some EQ.
I simply select this sentence in the timeline, hit play, loop playback won't work, it's too short.

I work in real time, so it would be really, really helpful, being able to loop this particular sentence in order to tweak my EQ and then apply the resulting automation…

Bad luck, this sentence is shorter than 500ms, I guess I'll have to ask actors to pronounce slowly next time…
And yes, it's bothering me each time, sorry about that.

No way to do that currently and it's not planned to be changed

At least that's clear, good customer service.

[mattrixx]

Originally Posted by cablenaute

I work with sessions with a lot of tracks, DX, MX, FX, so "duplicate" is just not thinkable.

A simple example, in the middle of a sequence, I have a single sentence that sounds quite bad, this particular sentence needs some EQ.
I simply select this sentence in the timeline, hit play, loop playback won't work, it's too short.

I work in real time, so it would be really, really helpful, being able to loop this particular sentence in order to tweak my EQ and then apply the resulting automation…

Bad luck, this sentence is shorter than 500ms, I guess I will have to ask actors to pronounce slowly next time…
And yes, it's bothering me each time, sorry about that.

At least that's clear, good customer service.

A way around it, is to highlight a longer section, hit play and then the clip you want. If not using dynamic transport, the initial looping selection will continue and you do whatever you want, to just the "too short" clip.