Editing tricks n tips thread

[RDR]

Hi there

Editing is a skill that every producer should know backwards.. so in this vein, how about a thread with tricks and tips for editing samples and waveforms, simple and complex.

I'll start the ball rolling.

When looping a waveform in an editor, make sure that you have no amplitude mismatches, this produces a click. The waveform should begin and end on zero crossings (i.e.... zero amplitude both ends)

Remember to zoom in on a waveform properly.

anymore?

[TechMouse]

Learning to spot transients is a good skill.

Especially when you have to trim loops starting with a kick or whatever... it takes a bit or practice, but you soon learn to spot the place where you should snip.

[rhythmtech]

*GET RECYCLE*

one of the best editing tools you'll ever use.

[findthesolution]

UNDERSTAND NORMALIZATION.

there is a difference between using that, and simply cranking up the gain. Learn which technique is most appropriate for what you're trying to do.

on that note, have a basic understanding of compression also.

[stjohn]

heres more on transients, from Subvert Central:

TransX is a processor from Waves that costs a lot of money, but is a beautiful thing.

It is designed to shape transients as desired by the user, so in practice you can 'soften' drum hits, or (more usually twisted ) 'sharpen' them.


WHAT IS A TRANSIENT?

I am assuming you know this really, so I'll keep it short.

A transient can be described as a sudden increase in energy in a short time frame. A kind of 'spike' in an otherwise essentially constant signal.

Mathematically this can be said 'dv/dt = big' very happy where v = volume, t = time and big = big laughing (it is pretty arbitrary, but in TransX you can effectively set what 'big' is as we'll see).

So what this means in English is the rate of chage of volume is large.

On a graph this looks like this:




Here you can see four BIG transients, one medium transient (towards the end), and one tiny transient (bewteen large transient 3 and 4).

Be aware however that although the volume of the large and small transients vary greatly, the RATE of the change is actually very similar.

To be more accurate, the lower volume transients' rate of change is not QUITE as large, simply due to the fact it doesn't move as far as the high volume ones.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.

To make this point a bit clearer, think about it;

A quiet drum hit is still a very 'punchy' sound, with a very short attack time - the same as a loud drum hit. The attack time does not change the more quietly you hit the drum. The drum doesn't turn into a pad sound the more quietly you hit (although it would be nice!!!! hyper ).

So the rate of change of quiet hits is smaller, but still very similar, to large hits.




Okay.


SO WHAT?


Right then, so what are we talking about? very happy

Oh yeah - drum hits.

Now say your break is not particularly punchy, and you want to give it more punch.

What you want is something that detects when a drum is being hit, and amplifies the signal in a definable way. So you see we need two parts to our magic plugin - a detection section and an amplification section. This is essentially what TransX has.

1) Detection:

The detection section of TransX is basically the same principle as used in everyone's friend, ReCycle, so we will discuss it in ReCycle terms. BEAR IN MIND THAT RECYCLE'S DETECTION IS PRETTY DAMN SHIT - although it has a different purpose (chopping) to TransX (transient design). That said reCyce does have a (shit) transient shaper.


Anyway;

In Recycle you have a slider called 'sensitivity'. The more you slide it, the more transients it detects.

The sensitivity slider is basically lowering the threshold of rate of change that defines what is a transient and what is not.


So looking at the pic above again, this slider is working somewhere in/around the area between the high level and low level transients' rate of change. Set the sensitivity low, and it misses the low transient.

BUT REMEMBER IT IS RATE OF CHANGE, NOT VOLUME it is detecting.


The TransX detection..... thingy laughing is essentially the same as ReCycle's (but better!), so you set the sensitivity, it 'listens' to the rate of change coming in, and when it is above the threshold set with the sensitivity, says 'THIS IS A TRANSIENT'.


AND?


Once the detection thingybobby has detected a transient, that portion of audio can be shaped as desired. This is a gain/envelope process and nothing more.

The controls for the envelope are very very simple; 'how much (range), how long (duration), and how long to return to unity gain (release)'.

So, a transient comes in. You have set the controls so that when a transient is detected, it will be amplified by a certain amount. The 'duration' control is set to 15ms, the release to 30ms.

The transient will then get exactly that treatment - it will be amplified by the desired amount for 15ms, and the extra gain provided will fade away according to the release time.


The net effect is that the initial 15ms of the transient will be louder before tailing off back normal gain than carrying on as normal.

You can then use plenty of limiting to shave off these amplified peaks, keeping plenty of punch but maintaining iron level control twisted

Check it out - I even made an example pic for you. acclaim teef

Not the best sample to use, but it shows what it does.

[RDR]

How DIVINE! well done stjohn... excellent contribution.

[djshiva]

one of the first things i learned how to do was "read" waveforms and cut single sounds and loops. i didn't really have anything but a simple wave editor, so i spent a lot of time practicing cutting samples and loops perfectly, sans click.

another little tip:

if you are cutting loops in a wav editor, and you still can't manage to eradicate the click at the end, do a short fade out at the end of the loop. make it subtle enough that it doesn't sound like a volume dip. if u do this right, it really helps your loops come out clean when they ARE looped in a sequencer...