pro tools: session time management

[joeymusicguy]

alright so in cubase i usually go into project setup and type in 15 for my bar offset... this makes it so the project actually starts at -15, then i leave bar's -1 and 0 for count off (8 or 4 typically), and song starts on bar 1

if song starts on an off beat, it comes before 1

this is how i ALWAYS do it, and i'd like to continue doing so in pro tools

but i haven't quite figured out the best way to manage this. there seems to be multiple ways of setting it up.

any tips? thanks for your time!

 

[brianhood]

any particular reason you do this? I just start wherever in a session haha. It never really seemed to matter where to me.

 

[SkybluestudiosBEN]

Go to EVENT-and then go to "Move Song Start"

 

[joeymusicguy]

any particular reason you do this? I just start wherever in a session haha. It never really seemed to matter where to me.

for a lot of reasons...

1. bar's are correct, lets say you're on bar 51 of the song, you can assume its the start of a part because its an odd number (just as an example)

2. almost always end up putting something before bar 1, probably about 90%a of the time. its a little more elegant to have that room and do it there instead of shifting all the regions around (lol @ newbs who do that)

3. i like to look at the begginning of the song in the center of the screen sometimes, its so claustraphobic when you scroll to the left only to realize there's no room around the project (i dont care if anyone thinks this is weird, im probably not alone here lol)

number 2 is the biggest reason. think back to your early days, i know this has hapened to me before i started doing this. you get ready to record vocals to a song and they say, oh i forgot to show you this part im putting at the beginning, its me by my self for 2 bars before the drums cut in...

if you have no space before the project starts, you're kind of screwed, lol

but yeah, thats one of the reasons why i started having a 16 bar space before the song starts.

 

[joeymusicguy]

Go to EVENT-and then go to "Move Song Start"

any advantage / disadvantage to this vs "renumber bars"?

 

[brianhood]

ahh i see what you mean. Pro tools has the option to "add time" if that need arises where a band tells you about the vocal intro at the last possible second. Just press alt+1, select insert time, and type how many bars you want to add

same deal with cutting time if you end up needing to take entire sections out of songs(which i've done a few times).

 

[joeymusicguy]

ahh i see what you mean. Pro tools has the option to "add time" if that need arises where a band tells you about the vocal intro at the last possible second. Just press alt+1, select insert time, and type how many bars you want to add

same deal with cutting time if you end up needing to take entire sections out of songs(which i've done a few times).

another reason is when you decide the song needs an intro after you've recorded the whole thing

which happens more often than not knowing about a part that's supposed to come before the current song start

haha i just thought about that right after i typed it

thanks for the tip, brian

 

[SkybluestudiosBEN]

Cool part about pro tools if when you add the time in the beginning of the session it will shift everything over without fucking it all up.


Also expiriment with the Shuffle mode. You sometimes may start a song with only 1 bar and want to quickly add extra, just put the ALL group on, select a couple bars by putting pro tools into SHUFFLE/GRID mode (hold shift and click shuffle and grid) and then hit COMMAND+D and it will duplicate the blank bar and move everything over for ya. Works great for when a band has a pause and then decideds they want the pause LONGER or SHORTER.

 

[SkybluestudiosBEN]

O yea and if you use Melodyne plug in MAKE SURE THAT YOU PRINT YOUR TRACKS. Because if you leave shit like that on the track and then add space, melodyne saves where you put it and your vocals will suddenly be in a whole different location! hahahha happened to me once and took me forever to figure out wtf happened.

 

[Seth Munson]

Cool part about pro tools if when you add the time in the beginning of the session it will shift everything over without fucking it all up.


Also expiriment with the Shuffle mode. You sometimes may start a song with only 1 bar and want to quickly add extra, just put the ALL group on, select a couple bars by putting pro tools into SHUFFLE/GRID mode (hold shift and click shuffle and grid) and then hit COMMAND+D and it will duplicate the blank bar and move everything over for ya. Works great for when a band has a pause and then decideds they want the pause LONGER or SHORTER.

hmm im going to try this.

 

[dcb]

2. almost always end up putting something before bar 1, probably about 90%a of the time. its a little more elegant to have that room and do it there instead of shifting all the regions around (lol @ newbs who do that)

+ fucking 1 !!!

 

[brianhood]

O yea and if you use Melodyne plug in MAKE SURE THAT YOU PRINT YOUR TRACKS. Because if you leave shit like that on the track and then add space, melodyne saves where you put it and your vocals will suddenly be in a whole different location! hahahha happened to me once and took me forever to figure out wtf happened.

a huge +1 on this. I almost committed suicide the first time this happened(i had 4 songs in 1 session).

Also, make sure none of your tracks are hidden when you add or remove time, because those tracks are unaffected.

 

[LydonB]

If you start at bar 20 you can reset it as bar 0. I believe that anything before the new bar zero will then go into negative numbers.

 

[TheDriller]

for a lot of reasons...

1. bar's are correct, lets say you're on bar 51 of the song, you can assume its the start of a part because its an odd number (just as an example)

2. almost always end up putting something before bar 1, probably about 90%a of the time. its a little more elegant to have that room and do it there instead of shifting all the regions around (lol @ newbs who do that)

3. i like to look at the begginning of the song in the center of the screen sometimes, its so claustraphobic when you scroll to the left only to realize there's no room around the project (i dont care if anyone thinks this is weird, im probably not alone here lol)

number 2 is the biggest reason. think back to your early days, i know this has hapened to me before i started doing this. you get ready to record vocals to a song and they say, oh i forgot to show you this part im putting at the beginning, its me by my self for 2 bars before the drums cut in...

if you have no space before the project starts, you're kind of screwed, lol

but yeah, thats one of the reasons why i started having a 16 bar space before the song starts.

Huge +1 on all points!!!

having the audio right up against the beginning of the session feels like having your nose pressed against a brick wall.