Tracktion Software - Editing Audio Video Lecture | Tracktion Tutorial: Master Music Editing - Video & Sound Editing

editing audio tractions clip editing
features are entirely non-destructive
audio clips are merely references to the
original files so you can trim their
lengths chop them into smaller pieces
apply fades etc without affecting the
actual audio file it's stored on your
hard drive at all for example if I drag
an audio file from the browser it will
appear in the Edit as a clip if it is
selected or if the mouse cursor is above
it we see an extra bar appear at the top
of the clip with various triangle and
square symbols if you hover the mouse
cursor over a part of this bar with no
symbols it will change into a hand
indicating that you can pick up the clip
and move it around the edit if you press
and hold the control key before dragging
you'll create a copy of the clip this
does not create a duplicate of the
actual audio file it just creates
another reference to it the clear
triangle symbol in the top left corner
allows the start point of the clip to be
trimmed because this is non-destructive
anything you have trimmed out in this
way can be restored if needed by simply
dragging the clear triangle back again
to reveal more of the original audio
audible trimming in the options menu
will continually play a short section of
the audio as you trim it similarly the
clear triangle in the top right corner
allows the end point to be trimmed while
the clear square will move both start
and end points together as if the clip
were a window into the original file
in other words clear shapes allow you to
adjust the start and end points of the
clip without moving the actual audio at
all the solid shapes on the other hand
all result in the audio itself moving
the solid triangles in the corners move
the audio along with the clip boundaries
while the solid square moves the audio
inside the clip without changing the
clip length or position
holding the Alt key while dragging the
start or end point of a clip will
stretch that clip accordingly by default
this will simply play the audio at a
different speed so stretching a clip out
longer will also drop it playback pitch
and vice-versa you can also set a Clips
playback speed using the speed slider in
the properties panel or the change speed
button this button also has an option to
reset the clip back to normal
traction also offers a choice of two
time stretching algorithms however which
will allow you to change the playback
speed of the audio without affecting its
pitch be aware that although the time
stretch algorithm in traction 3 is
vastly better than that in previous
versions of traction it will still
degrade the audio quality to some extent
so if you have the option to re-record
the part at the correct speed that might
be a better idea
of course you can also do the opposite
and use the pitch slider or the change
pitch button to change the playback
pitch of the audio without changing its
length the pitch shift has the same
quality implications as the time stretch
so again you may want to consider
re-recording at the correct pitch
instead
all the clip editing functions are
affected by the snapping option so you
will need to toggle this on by pressing
Q if you are trimming a clip to an exact
number of bars or beats but turn it off
if you wish to make small timing
adjustment a clip can also be split into
multiple clips via the split Clips
button or by positioning the cursor at
the appropriate point and pressing the
forward slash key notice that we now
have two clips each with their own
separate trim functions though both
these clips can be stretched out to
reveal as much as you need of the audio
file they refer to just as if you had
copied the original clip if you have a
stacked clip containing several tags
that were recorded in loop mode
splitting it into separate Clips like
this
will allow you to choose a separate take
for each section so you can come
together the best bits of each take
selecting a clip or clips and pressing
delete will delete the clips from the
Edit but still does not affect the
original audio file if we switch to the
project page we can see that the
imported file is still listed in the
imported audio folder of the project and
it can be copied to the clipboard so you
can paste it back into the edit if you
wish to permanently delete an audio file
you can do so from the right-click menu
or by holding ctrl and pressing M
traction will pop up a warning when you
do it each audio clip can have a fade in
or fade out applied again
non-destructively using the dedicated
handles at the start and end dragging
these handles will create linear bades
as indicated by the graphic display
nonlinear fades can be selected via the
buttons in the Clips properties panel if
two audio clips overlap pressing the
auto crossfade button or the X key will
set these automatically though you are
still free to make manual changes to the
result each audio clip also has its own
gain and pan parameters in the click
properties and stereo clips can be
treated as mono by turning off one or
other of the channels filters can be
applied to individual audio clips either
by dragging them from the filter area or
from the new filter icon these filters
are automatically turned off when the
clip is not playing which can help to
conserve your processor cycles in
complex mixes and also provides a quick
and easy way to apply an effect to a
short section of a track such as a
single line or word of a vocal part
simply split the clip around the desired
section and drag as many filters to the
new clip as required
you
klipsch can be designated as loops by
toggling on the little L symbol to the
right of the slip editing squared this
can be used to create a looping backing
part such as a drumbeat first you need
to make sure the clip is trimmed to
exactly the right length this can be
done in various ways here I have a
recording of a drummer playing a beads
with no click track if i zoom in tight
and turn off snapping I can position the
cursor at the start of a kick drum beat
and then press the i key to move the in
marker
I can then repeat the procedure with the
kick drum at the next downbeat this time
press o to set the out marker
if I then press the L key to set
traction to loop playback around the
market I can fine tune the loop if
necessary and then use the split clips
at mark in and out options from the clip
properties when I'm happy
you
alternatively I could split
clip roughly on the fly using the /ki
and then make fine adjustments later by
slip editing with the clear triangle
you
pressing em will move the markers around
the selected clip to allow you to
audition the loop once the clip is
perfectly trimmed or the markers are
accurately positioned traction will be
able to work out the loops tempo for you
using the auto tempo function in the
clip properties if there are any tempo
changes in the Edit the tempo will be
applied to the last one prior to the
clip start of course if you already know
the tempo you can just click the BPM
display and type it in we can now turn
snapping back on drag the clip to the
start of a bar or the start of the Edit
and if we turn on the click it should be
in time
pressing the L symbol will turn on
looping mode for the clip so you can now
stretch the clip out to repeat the loop
for as long as you need using the clear
triangle symbol in the top right corner
looped clips can be split just like
normal clips and the result will be two
looped clips which can both be slip
edited in the usual ways and have their
loop lengths adjusted by dragging any of
the dividing lines between iterations
looping can be turned off again using
the same button this feature can also be
used to create machine-gun snare old
you
you
offer interesting glitchy effects with
very short loops these standard editing
functions allow manual beat slicing to
be achieved zoom in tight position the
cursor at the start of each transient
and slice the loop into separate beat
you
now select all of the clips by holding
alt while drawing a box around them and
check that the remap on tempo change
option is turned on changing the edit
tempo will now shift the timing of all
the clips to keep the beat in time with
the metronome if you speed up the tempo
enough to make overlaps a problem select
all the clips again and slip edit all
the endpoints together you can then make
individual adjustments to segments or
apply fades as needed
clip colors can be changed freely in the
properties panel
in this case I have
color kick drums blue and snare drums
red but they can be used to indicate
good takes or to differentiate between
cores and verse or any other methods
that make sense to you
the view source info button will bring
up parameters relating to the actual
audio file rather than just the clip
from here we can rename the source file
or open its directory and we can preview
the file in the window the edit audio
file button provides an option to create
an actual copy of the original file
which might be a wise decision if you
then move on to the basic editing
operations which are the only
destructive audio editing functions in
traction if you need more detailed
destructive editing you can define a
suitable external editor via the set the
audio editor to use option it will then
appear in the same edit audio file list
and also in the right-click menu for
audio clips
if you edit a file in an external
application and then press save traction
will update its display accordingly once
you have edited your Clips you may wish
to link them together to treat them as a
single object this can't be done non
destructively but you can create a new
audio file of your edited clips by
selecting the track and using the render
functions in the properties panel render
to a specific file allows you to specify
exactly the file name and path used
while render into project directory will
automatically name the file and save it
in the current project directory both
options allow you to specify the
bit-depth used and to choose whether the
resulting track will be added to the
edit alongside the original or whether
the new track replaces the original you
can also opt to render only the region
between the markers or to ignore any
filters on the tracks
this is destructive in the sense that
you will no longer be able to adjust the
individual segments but it is still
non-destructive in the sense that the
original audio file we started with
remains intact we can verify this by
switching back to the project page the
original file is still there and can be
previewed in the bottom panel we now
also have a newly rendered file
containing our edited version
alternatively you could put the track
inside a folder which will then display
an overview clip to represent all the
clips contained in that folder the
overview clip can be dragged copied and
pasted in the same way as individual
clips
if you hold the old key you can stretch
all the clips together as if they were
one
if there are a gap
between the audio clips then they will
appear as separate overview clips if
this is a problem you can add a blank
track to the folder and insert a dummy
MIDI clip to glue the overview clips
together