donh9316555 wrote My biggest issue is that there doesn't seem to be any good and fast way to mark an in and out on an audio file before adding it to the multitrack. Is that accurate? At the moment I've created a scratch track in my multitrack and am draggin each effect there, then trim it down, then drag it to the track its supposed to actually live on. That's really slow. I tried loading the file into the waveform editor, trimming it down there, and then adding it to the multitrack, but that seems to be destructive so if I decide later that I need an extra second or two of chirping birds, I can't just drag the end out in the multitrack session. (At least that I've figured out at this point.) |
ryclark's answer (posted whilst I was creating this one) notwithstanding, the systemic answer to your problem here is to use the Marker system. If you open a file in Waveform view, you can place markers at the start and end of the bit you want to use (F8). You need to turn these into marker ranges - either using the tool in the marker list, or by making a selection using the mouse; still using F8 this will automatically be marked as a range. You can name each range, so you know exactly which one you've got.
Now, if you highlight one of these ranges in the Marker list, and right-click on it, you'll get an option to insert it into your multitrack session, and it's not too difficult to get it to insert where you previously left the pointer (although depending upon your session, and how you want to place the tracks, this might be slightly hit and miss - well it is for me, anyway!
The thing is, though, that if you want to extend or shrink the clip, you can, as it's only marker information that you've put in. Even though only one section appears in the track, the whole file is actually available. You might think that this would get unwieldy in terms of the number of files you have open, but actually it doesn't; if you use several bits of the same file in different places, it still only accesses them from the single working file.
This is actually the designed intention of the software when it comes to editing, and it works pretty well when you've got used to it. And it's universal; I use the same system for editing recorded music takes. The only thing you really have to watch out for is that it's not a good idea to make any destructive changes to your original file at all, if you're going to use it in a session like this - especially not anything to do with deleting time from it, as this will screw up every previously inserted instance of the clip in your session. Other than needing to watch out for that, it's good. With sound effects, obviously you don't want to mess with the originals anyway, and this system sort-of encourages you not to - which has to be a good thing!
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