How do you clean up your sessions?

[Kaux]

Hi

 

I dont mean noise reduction software or some thing like that. No, just simply audio editing. Where do you apply crossrfades? do you delete silences? how long they have to be to be deleted? jeje i mean a horn section is playing riffs, some of them are really far apart some are more together. Am i explaining my self?

[Phil O'Keefe]

What program are you using?

 

In Pro Tools, I'll sometimes use the "Delete Silence" feature to remove the areas where they're not playing, then apply fade ins / outs. Other times, I do it manually by cutting out the parts where they're not playing. In other cases, I'll just use fader automation; raising the faders as needed for when they're playing, and pulling them all the way down when they're not.

 

Crossfades are crucial. I will sometimes do a Cntrl F across the entire track to do batch fades, but usually that's as an insurance policy to make sure I didn't miss any of them when I was doing them one at a time (manually) as I was in doing my comping / editing. I just set it so it doesn't adjust the existing crossfades, but will create new ones if they are missing anywhere.

 

A missing crossfade can easily result in a nasty pop or click. I don't like pops and clicks - especially those that are a result of missing crossfades - as they're totally avoidable.

 

As far as noise reduction, I don't typically need a lot of that, although I do have the BNR plug in for when I do. IMO, it's better to address that (a noisy source) and clean it up before tracking whenever possible. If the amp is humming or hissing, better to address the issue at the source rather than try to correct it later... but I'm not too anal about it - a little hiss from an amp is to be expected - it's rock 'n roll after all. I might feel differently on a jazz or Americana project, but those are less likely to employ exceptionally noisy sources to begin with.

[UstadKhanAli]

Decent lapses of time, whatever sounds good, that's what I edit out. It really depends on how much time I have as well. But if it's a quiet sound source, then yeah, I go and clean things up if I have the time. I record in the living room of my house, so there's plenty of ambient sound as it is, so a little cleaning up goes a long way. I don't have a set rule, just if I have enough time and there's something bugging me or long stretches of time.

[Lee Knight]

I usually just use the mute button. I'll go through and mute-unmute each track all the way through when appropriate. If it's something that is loud enough to be too abrupt I'll use volume auto instead.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I usually just use the mute button. I'll go through and mute-unmute each track all the way through when appropriate. If it's something that is loud enough to be too abrupt I'll use volume auto instead.

 

I find that I get clicks when I unmute sometimes, so I tend to use the faders or cut the tracks and use crossfades, but if mutes are working for you, that's certainly a viable option.

[Kaux]

I have been using cubase, but now i started with pro tools.

 

So every "isolated" region should have a fade in and fade out?

 

Where do you apply the crossfades?

 

sorry, i have little experiencie working with audio, i have done more virtual instruemtns.

[ermghoti II]

Funny, I don't remember ever crossfading. I line up edits with transient peaks, figuring any artifacts will be eaten up by the peak. I know how many ways it's wrong, but I have yet to hear anything. It's probably easier to cross-fade, but I find I'm usually making a small correction of a really ugly slip-up, and the probability of something not lining up during the fades outweighs the extra few seconds it takes to zoom into the peaks and set the auto-punch parameters.

[Lee Knight]

To crossfade or to not crossfade. It's a great way to ensure you don't get a pop at an edit point. If you were to take the time to cut at the zero crossing, you won't experience a pop or any other artifact for that matter. But that's time consuming, finding all those zero crossings. So you cross fade and be done with it.

 

I sit a a workstation 40 plus hours a week edit voice files. I've gotten pretty good at finding zero crossings a mile away. Then I come home and sit at a Pro Tools rig for another few hours working on music projects.

 

So I tend to use the mute button as an edit point. Zero or near zero crossings as mute points. I don't hear anything either. But this is noisy pop music where I'm using the mutes. If it's a bit where there may be some artifacts... you can bet I splice edit and fade.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Zero or near zero crossings as mute points.

 

And if you're not going to use crossfades, zero crossings for both sides of the splice (edit) are definitely recommended, or you definitely will get clicks - even if they're masked by the sharp transient, they're still there, and I personally don't want to have any clicks whatsoever.

 

Whenever possible, I try to line up tracks so that the waveforms are seamless - IOW, even though I still use crossfades, I'm trying to get the waveforms to "make sense" so that on one side of the crossfade, if I have the waveform going "up", the opposite side of the edit has the waveform going "down", and the waveform appears continuous and seamless - as close to what it would look like if there was no edit point present. However, due to timing concerns and "feel" concerns, or grouped tracks (multitracked drums), that's not always practical...

 

Craig Anderton recently turned me on to a screen capture program that I'll be able to use to do short videos of stuff like this as soon as I get the hang of it.... it might be easier to show visual and audio examples of this type of stuff than to merely describe it with words...

[UstadKhanAli]

 

To crossfade or to not crossfade. It's a great way to ensure you don't get a pop at an edit point.

 

 

That's why I do it. If it's between two sections, I crossfade. If it's not, I apply an extremely short fade.

 

If it's something rhythmic, then I've already edited at a zero crossing, and it won't pop. I have a strong tendency to edit at zero crossings anyway as a matter of habit, but if I am going for speed, as is the case with the Tibet Connection radio show, then I will do crossfades/quick fades.

[Kaux]

 

Zero or near zero crossings as mute points. Craig Anderton recently turned me on to a screen capture program that I'll be able to use to do short videos of stuff like this as soon as I get the hang of it.... it might be easier to show visual and audio examples of this type of stuff than to merely describe it with words...

 

 

That would be awesome. Can I recommend you one? http://camstudio.org/

 

Its free, and i was trying a lot of them, leaving it in the shelf because i thought " its free, it cant be as comprehensive as the commercial ones". So in every one i found i feature i liked, but this one has all of them together. The only thing "mising" is the ability to zoom in or out while you are recording. The other thing that i have yet to figure out is how to make it to record the sound of pro tools. I gues the solution could be having another interface with WDM drivers capturing the audio of the mbox. Well... if you could do that videos would be great.

[nerol1st]

5 ms crossfades (95% of the time)

Edits in right places.

Automation

Gates

[Kaux]

 

That's why I do it. If it's between two sections, I crossfade. If it's not, I apply an extremely short fade.

 

 

So you apply a short fade at the beginning of every section/region?

[Lee Knight]

 

So you apply a short fade at the beginning of every section/region?

 

 

Here's a tip for adding fades quickly in Pro Tools using the "Smart Tool". The Smart Tool is the button under all the various selections of tools. It effectively combines all of the tools depending on where you place your cursor on the region.

 

So with the Smart Tool, just click the upper left edge if the region. Just a short click. Fade added. If you Click and hold, you can drag the fade into a longer fade. But for little invisible, preventative fades, just a little click. Same thing for the tail of the region just at the upper end of the region. It will put whatever style of fade is in your default under Preferences.

[Kaux]

hey, nice tip. Thanks.

[UstadKhanAli]

Lee does kinda rule.

[Zooey]

 

Here's a tip for adding fades quickly in Pro Tools using the "Smart Tool". The Smart Tool is the button under all the various selections of tools. It effectively combines all of the tools depending on where you place your cursor on the region. So with the Smart Tool, just click the upper left edge if the region. Just a short click. Fade added. If you Click and hold, you can drag the fade into a longer fade. But for little invisible, preventative fades, just a little click. Same thing for the tail of the region just at the upper end of the region. It will put whatever style of fade is in your default under Preferences.

 

 

One thing about using the smart tool to draw fades--you'll want to be in slip mode or have your grid set to something really fine for short fades.

[Lee Knight]

 

One thing about using the smart tool to draw fades--you'll want to be in slip mode or have your grid set to something really fine for short fades.

 

 

Good point, Slip Mode for me. Unless... I actually want a timed fade in. But for what we're talking here, click prevention, Slip for sure. Thanks for pointing that out.

[EerieDreamZ]

Non-pro musician, here but wanting to say this thread has a lot of great stuff in it!

Thank you

 

Mick

[ermghoti II]

LOL. Recording this weekend, punched in some distorted guitars: clicks galore. Zeros were pointed, fades were crossed. Coincidence? Read the book!

[ninja shrimp]

thanks guys ! lee phil and all teh other chaps, there is a wealth of info in this thread, im just using pro tools about 2 months or so now, im starting to use fades and the smart tool, i accidently put cross fades into a peice the other day , didnt know what the hell id done at first ! im using the e key to zoomin on those pops and edit them out of my jams, im getting to like pro tools mpowered now.