Theres not a lot of documentation for AudioSnap at all, and only one decent tutorial (this expands upon that), which was user written. This is how to do Beat Detective cut/crossfade editing with AudioSnap for drums or whatever else youre doing. This is for AudioSnap 1 (Sonar 8 and below), but Im sure all, or almost all of this will carry on to 2.0.
Sounds like a very convoluted and complicated process.. it is. But if you hotkey a few of them (I have the first few steps set to F3 F7) then its a lot faster. Remember to disable AudioSnap when youre not using it.. at least on my computer it slows everything down a LOT (particularly when after you split the clips), even when Im not using its features. This method is effectively just as powerful as ProTools Beat Detective, I think. You can adjust things manually if need be, and of course adjust the strength of quantization, along with a few other things which I havent fiddled with.
1) Make a master timing track. Do this by cloning all your close-mic tracks, dragging them onto the same audio track (remember to disable crossfades), then bouncing. This will be what generates the transient markers.
2) Enable AudioSnap on that track, adjust the threshold til its about right, then go through the song and make sure no hits have been missed, none have been marked just before the transient (often happens on kick drum tracks that are too loud, for some reason). Insert or re-enable transient markers that have been missed, disable those that shouldnt be there.
3) Click AudioSnap Add Transients to Pool. Its the pink button, third from the left in AudioSnap 1.
4) Now select all of your other tracks, and turn the threshold all the way down so it disables ALL transient markers.
5) While the tracks are still selected (not the timer track, everything else), rightclick and go AudioSnap -> Apply AudioSnap Pool Transient Markers. This will make every track have the markers at exactly the same place, so the phase relationship between tracks is preserved.
6) Depending on your computers speed, either split the song up into sections, or do the whole thing at once. If theres a long-ish break somewhere in the song, I recommend splitting it as itll just make the whole thing a bit easier. Then click the Scissor button, Split Beats into Clips. Then turn AudioSnap OFF on all the little beats, otherwise your computer will die trying to play it. NB: Under Options there is Auto Fade Split Beats, turn this off. It shouldnt make a huge difference but if youre doing manual crossfades itll mess you over because it makes linear crossfades instead of slowout/fastin.
7) Now is where it gets a bit fiddly. Select a portion of the split beats that you want to edit (can do all at once, but it gets a bit iffy if there are triplets and straight beats, or if the drummers timing is terrible) and turn AudioSnap back on for those beats. Then go Quantize. Select the resolution that fits. Then click on Audio Clip Start Times (this will disable AudioSnap Beats, which is for stretching). Then UNCHECK AUTOXFADE AUDIO CLIPS. You will do the crossfades later. If you turn it on now, your computer will/may die. You make sure everything is edited correctly, and THEN you do the crossfades. My computer locked up with only 8 bars with crossfades checked, but could play 2 minutes of edited material without crossfades.
8) TURN OFF AUDIOSNAP. You dont need it on to listen, and itll needlessly slow your computer to a crawl.
9) Play the audio and make sure everything is edited correctly. If not, then turn on the grid snap (click the small button next to the grid snap to adjust resolution) and move the clips til it all sounds right.
10) Go through and do the whole song like this, if you havent done it in one go.
11) Then, once its all edited correctly, select everything, turn AudioSnap back on and go Quantize again. Now set the resolution to 32nd Triplets (will include 16th Triplets and 16ths), and Tick Auto XFade Audio Clips. The default settings should be fine. Make sure Audio Clip Start Times is checked. Now press OK and itll do all the crossfades for you. Make sure there are no gaps, then bounce and listen. Should be perfect.
Sounds like a very convoluted and complicated process.. it is. But if you hotkey a few of them (I have the first few steps set to F3 F7) then its a lot faster. Remember to disable AudioSnap when youre not using it.. at least on my computer it slows everything down a LOT (particularly when after you split the clips), even when Im not using its features. This method is effectively just as powerful as ProTools Beat Detective, I think. You can adjust things manually if need be, and of course adjust the strength of quantization, along with a few other things which I havent fiddled with.
