Eureka! Things you never noticed about Tracktion.

[Steverdo]

As a seasonal antidote to the T3 doom and gloom, I propose a thread for listing any little (or large) tip or trick that might not be obvious to us beginners even though the diligent manual readers might have had it wired long ago.

To start - a blindingly obvious one that I only just noticed:

The Tracktion pitchshifter filter also works as a midi transposer. VERY handy for those of us without a transpose function on their keyboard.

Any others?

Merry Christmas, by the way.

[skipkent]

Merry Christmas to you! I always loved the 'm' key command. Hit this after selecting a clip and the start/end loop markers will conform to the clip automatically.

[skipkent]

Another tip, every time I do a new install of T, I like to go through each of the sample projects and save off the sample sets for every instance of Sampler I can find, as well as the custom racks particular to each project. LOT's of great stuff there to use and learn from, and plenty of useable drum sounds to get you started even if you haven't yet installed a single other plugin.

[Steverdo]

Thanks, Skipkent - the 'm' key command is a great tip.

[zeoy]

Extra volume filters. I use an extra volume filter for automation while the other one still controls the average volume of the track when mixing.
They can be used also before a VSTi to scale the velocities of the incoming midi notes (check 'apply to midi velocities')

The "find normalized levels" of the master volume is another great function. You can use it to control the peak level of your mixdown and also to estimate/control the the average RMS level when mastering.

The free positioning of the "send" filter is also unique to Tracktion I think (i.e. you can have it post some FX but pre some others)

[Gabriel_S]

I've never trusted any program to normalize my master output. Always use my ears. What I would have loved to have seen in traction was a normalize individual track feature. I do a lot of online mixing and mastering and this feature is much needed/missed for files that are sent to me at too low levels.
Yeah i could put the files through Soundforge or Wavelab and edit them, but that's just another of many steps that slows my progress down in T.

[zeoy]

I've never trusted any program to normalize my master output. Always use my ears. What I would have loved to have seen in traction was a normalize individual track feature. I do a lot of online mixing and mastering and this feature is much needed/missed for files that are sent to me at too low levels.
Yeah i could put the files through Soundforge or Wavelab and edit them, but that's just another of many steps that slows my progress down in T.

you mean that if you want your mixdown to be peaking at -3dB, for example, you use your ears?

you can (destructively) normalize audio source files (view source info-> edit audio file -> basic audio operations-> normalize). Unless you mean something else.

[metamorphosis]

Up until 6 months ago, I never realised you could drag a selection box to catch clips by pressing alt. Every daw I'd used before then just did it with a normal mouse-drag-select, so somehow I'd assumed it was missing. SHould have RTFM.

[skipkent]

Chop up some audio on a track. CTRL-select and then CTRL-C copy the bits you like. Put a Tracktion Sampler on a new track and CTRL-V paste the bits right into the sampler. Set your key ranges as desired and off you go!

And don't forget to save it off as a new preset to be used in any other tracks you like.

[metamorphosis]

Hey, that's pretty cool, never knew that one Slipkent

[Gabriel_S]

I've never trusted any program to normalize my master output. Always use my ears. What I would have loved to have seen in traction was a normalize individual track feature. I do a lot of online mixing and mastering and this feature is much needed/missed for files that are sent to me at too low levels.
Yeah i could put the files through Soundforge or Wavelab and edit them, but that's just another of many steps that slows my progress down in T.

you mean that if you want your mixdown to be peaking at -3dB, for example, you use your ears?

you can (destructively) normalize audio source files (view source info-> edit audio file -> basic audio operations-> normalize). Unless you mean something else.

Ah....that's exactly what I meant. Thnx for the tip !

[hware]

This tip is also in the T3 SWA video but some might not have seen it.

Doing easy A/B comparison of for example two different VST reverb filters or two instuments, or two different group of filters etc.

So given the example of comparing two reverb filters, here goes:

1. Add the two reverb VST's to a track.

2. Disable one of the reverb VST's by selecting (clicking) it and pressing the "F" key on your keyboard to disable it.

3. Now select both the reverb VST's by holding shift or ctrl and clicking them.

4. Now you can start playback and by pressing "F" you can do a A/B comparison of the selected filters.

To do it with more than two filters, you just need to first disable the ones that needs to be the "A" selection, and then select all of them again, including the ones that should be the "B" selection, and then you are able to press "F" to switch between the two "groups" of filters while listening to playback.

The A/B comparision can also be done in the mastering section and inside racks or comparing two racks etc.

Another small tip is ALT+R hotkey to arm or disarm all inputs.

A tip most probably know is a quick way to set the cursor at the start of a marker by typing it's number followed by pressing enter.

[UncleAge]

I guess I should have watched the video closer because I missed the A/B tip

[pquenin]

Something I use sometime : I record some audio (vocal for instance), and I put the audio clip onto a midi clip (where there is a basic drum sequence) : as the clips are tranparent, I can see if my audio is well quantized; If not, I cut pieces ans re-arrange them to be in sync with the midi grid.

Sorry for my lame english.

[skipkent]

Nice one Pquenin. You're English is a hell of a lot better than my French! ; )