In

this assignment, you'll have an opportunity to refine your selections and editing
skills by rearranging audio:

1. Using the Save As command in the File menu, save a duplicate version of the
Assignment 3 session. (We didn't do any work in this week's class that will be
used for the project.) Save it in the default location, which will be the same
folder as the other session files. Name it appropriately; I saved my session
as “113 First Project hw 4 AE”. (As always, use your own initials, not mine!)

2. Our first task will be to add a four-bar intro to the session. We’ll do this by
copying the first four bars and pasting the content to the beginning of the
session:
a. Make sure that the Bars|Beats ruler is highlighted so your display
fields all indicate the appropriate grid subdivisions.
b. Also check to be sure that all tracks are currently displayed. (The Click
track is optional.)
c. Link Track and Edit Selection should be active. (That’s the option next
to the Link Timeline and Edit Selection button under the Edit tools.)
d. Click Return to place your cursor at the beginning of song.
e. In the main Edit window toolbar, enter 5 in the End field and click
Return.
f. We want all of the tracks in the session to be selected in the track
area, which is easily done by selecting all of the track names. Option-
click on any track that’s not selected to select them all.




g. Invoke the Copy command (in the Edit menu, or using Command+C)
to place a copy of the currently selected clips into the Mac OS
clipboard. Note that this works for multiple tracks.
h. Since we want to shift everything in the session four bars later, we can
try using Shuffle mode for this step. Shuffle mode is useful for
changing the sequence of entire arrangements since clips will always
be contiguous from section to section.
i. Click Return to place the cursor at the beginning of the session. As
long as all of the tracks are still selected, the cursor will span the
entire session. Make sure this is still the case!
j. Now, invoke the Paste command (in the Edit menu, or using
Command+V) to place the copy of the first four bars into the tracks.
Did it work?



k. Close, but not quite! The track content is correct but the timeline
events are no longer aligned properly. We could manually fix the
Meter and Tempo events as well as the markers, but that would be
tedious. Instead, let’s use a method that does exactly what we need.
l. Undo pasting the four-bar section into the session via the Edit menu
or the ubiquitous Command+Z.
m. Select the Insert Time option in the Time Operations submenu in the
Event menu:
i. Enter 1|1 for the Start time and 5|1 for the End time.
ii. Make sure you select the second Realign option with All for
sample-based markers and tracks.
iii. Click Apply.



n. Now, both the track content and the timeline events have shifted
together, so we can now paste the copied content into the selected
area. You can still use Shuffle mode because we’re pasting four bars
into a four-bar selection; however if the cursor was placed at 1|1
without a selection the existing content would be shifted when using
Shuffle mode; in that case Slip or Grid modes would be necessary.
o. Close the Time Operations window.



p. Before moving forward we should update a couple of items:
q. Invoke the Move Song Start option of the Time Operations submenu.
r. Select Bars, move to 1, and realign Song Start Only, then click Apply.
The Song Start marker won’t make a difference to us, but it’s location
would be important if we were making additional tempo changes.
s. Add a new marker at 1|1, name it Intro, and make sure it has a
Bars|Beats timebase.

3. Now, you’ll create a new part for the intro by sampling notes you performed
as apart of the third assignment:
a. Solo the track you recorded for assignment 3.
 b. Play through the track and identify segments you can use as building
blocks for a new intro. These could be single quarter or eight notes, or
pairs of notes, but don’t use anything longer.
c. One by one, select each segment using any of the selection methods
we’ve covered. Regardless of which technique you use, zoom in to
make sure the beginning and end of the selection are perfect, with
transitions at the zero crossing with the waveform on the way up.
(Zero crossing is the horizontal line that separates the positive and
negative parts of the waveform.) Play the selection to make sure there
are no clicks and pops, and adjust your selection as needed by Shift-
clicking with the Selector tool. When you’re happy with each selection,
use the Capture Clip command (Command+R) and name the clip.
Don’t separate the selection—that will create needless complexity.

 d. After you’ve captured a sufficient variety of clips, come up with a part
for the intro and assemble it clip-by-clip. Drag the clips into the same
track, or if more convenient create a new Audio track for the intro
only. You can use Grid or Slip mode, but if you choose the former you
might find that the clip locations will need to be adjusted in order to
sound natural.

e. After you complete the new part, use the Smart Tool to add crossfades
between clips to smooth out the transitions. You can do this even if
there’s a little space between the clips.

f. Try to keep the crossfade lengths as short as possible, since longer
lengths will probably sound unnatural. Use the Trim tool to change
the length of a fade. When complete, you should have a reasonably
smooth intro.

4. Finally, we’ll create a breakdown section in the first audio loop track:
a. We’ll add four bars to the arrangement at 21|1 so the breakdown
occurs immediately after the first bar of 3. (This was originally 17|1
 prior to the addition of the intro.) Repeat the process for adding time
from 2.m above:
i. Place the cursor at 21|1.
ii. Invoke the Inset Time command.
iii. Enter 21|1 for the Start time and 25|1 for the End time.
iv. Make sure you select the second Realign option with All for
sample-based markers and tracks.
v. Click Apply.

 b. Note that the operation didn’t result in the correct meter transition, so
make sure you add a meter change to 4/4 at 21|1. You can also delete
the meter event at 24|1 since it’s redundant.
c. Also add a new marker at 21|1 and name it “breakdown”.
d. Create a duplicate version of the first audio drum loop playlist (the
loop that now starts at 13|1) using the Playlist Selector (directly to the
right of the track name). Name the duplicate playlist “Loop Edit”.
e. We can’t extend the first loop (ending at bar 21) forward since it ends
on a bar of 3 and will thus be out of sync with the session, but we can
extend the second loop (beginning at bar 25) backwards. Click and
hold the Control key, then click and drag the beginning of the second
loop backwards with the Trim tool. This will force a single four-bar
extension. (Note that if you used anything other than a four-bar
pattern you should not use the Control key option; just trim the loop
in Grid mode so it fills in the four-bar gap.)

f. Select the drum loop in the breakdown section only by clicking in the
lower right-hand corner of the loop with the Grabber so the loop
symbol is visible.




g. Now, invoke the Separate Clip At Transients command in the sub-
menu for the Separate Clip command we’ve seen in the Edit menu.
Ignore the Pre-Separate amount.
h. Finally, re-arrange the order of the drum hits in the 4-bar section by
clicking and dragging them wherever you’d like. Go a little wild here—
make the 4 bars sound interesting!
i. You could try switching to Shuffle mode, then clicking and
dragging clips within the breakdown section. As long as you
don’t remove clips, the section will maintain the same length.
any swing feel has the potential to throw off the groove.
ii. Your best bet is to use Slip or Grid mode so you have more
flexibility.
iii. You might find it helpful to add a temporary Audio track so you
can temporarily move some of the clips out of the 4-bar
breakdown.
iv. Note: if you want to make things more interesting, you can try
experimenting with AudioSuite processing to reverse some of
the hits. Just select a clip, then invoke the Reverse plug-in
(AudioSuite > Other > Reverse), and finally click on Render in
the lower right-hand corner. However, the placement of clips
will be more difficult since reversed clips must be aligned so
they end rather than start on the grid.
5. You should now have a complete edited version of the project. Save the
session and exit Pro Tools.
6. Important: You will again have to upload both the session file and audio
this week, so pay close attention to the following:
7. Locate the session folder on your audio drive, then Control-click on it and
select the Compress option so you can upload a single zip file.
8. Upload the compressed zip file to the Inside Berklee course site. If you don't
upload the entire session folder, I cannot play back the audio you recorded!