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How to share loops and regions with yourself and your mates
Here's a tip that is actually just an extension of creating regions in Pro Tools, but I suspect a feature that is oft-overlooked - once discovered though, can be of major benefit in a range of applications.
Side-note for the N00bs - Regions 101:
Whenever you separate or trim audio in Pro Tools, a region is automatically created. Regions are not actual audio files themselves, but are simply 'markers' that tell Pro Tools which part of the original file to play, and when to play it. Quite simply any part of the file visible as a waveform is playable as a region.
Image 1 shows two whole files on track 1 and 2, and in the region list. Note whole files are bold in the list.
Image 2 shows the files edited into regions. The files are in fact sets of drum loops from a sample CD. Each two bar loop has been separated and renamed. These will be used later on in the tutorial
The major benefit to regions is that they do not create or duplicate audio files on your drive and therefore fill it up unnecessarily (it also reduces performance load on both the CPU and drive). When you copy or duplicate a region you are simply telling the session to play the same part of the file over and over. When you move a region you are just telling session to play that section of the file at a different time.
Understand the basics? Good, let's move on!
Normal Region Storage
Usually regions are stored as part of your session, and live in the region 'bin' or list at the right of the edit window. They are not normally stored with the audio file itself. This makes sense as it is not uncommon to have thousands of tiny redundant regions created when you are editing away (see pic 2 above ^). It is far more efficient to store them with the session.
However, this means that if you use the file in another song, or give the files to someone else to use in another program, the regions are not available to them and you have to potentially start the editing process all over again. Tedious!
It also means that if you have created an arrangement of loops and edits, you would normally need to consolidate or bounce down the track(s) in order to export the arrangement to another song or program. Also tedious!
Yes, it is possible to import entire tracks, regions and all, from one Pro Tools session to another. But if you are sharing with a Logic user this is not possible. So what to do?
Side-note for Geeks - IFF Chunks
The 'big three' audio files - WAV, AIFF and SDII - all conform to the Electronic Arts IFF specification for 'Interchangeable File Formats'. In essence they are basically the same - the PCM sample data actually is the same.
IFF files are made up of Chunks. These house specific sets of data about the file. There are Header Chunks that identify the file type to the computer. There are various Data Chunks that contain info about the file. 'Common' Chunks contain info like sample rate, bit depth, date creation, file size, file length (min/sec), mono/stereo, etc. Other Chunks are used for a wide range of things - for example, Loop points and MIDI notes can be stored with sample files for reading by a sampler. One of these specific chunks is called the Marker Chunk.
The Marker Chunk can be used by Pro Tools to store regions within a file.
Export Region Definitions
So how does Pro Tools save the regions into the Marker Chunk? By using the command Export Region Definitions.
A Region Definition is basically made up of:
- the region name
- the region start time (i.e 'in' marker)
- the region end time (i.e 'out' marker)
The command is accessed from the 'Regions' pop-up menu above the region bin:
The keyboard shortcut is cmd-shift-Y (Mac) or crtl-shift-Y (PC)
To export a region definition, simply highlight the desired region(s) and execute the command above. A prompt dialog appears and you click Export:
Why do it?
Here's two scenarios - the second one will be outlined in more detail.
Scenario 1 - I'm giving my song to a Logic user for remixing or arranging. Any loops and edits I have made to my audio can be imported and used by the remixer. Saves a lot of time re-editing loose tracks and so on.
Scenario 2 - I have files downloaded or ripped from audio sample CD's that have multiple loops and sounds stored on each track (like the loops in the pics above ^). I want to import into a session only the loop I want, not the whole file. Let's explore this one further.
Example
Each of the two files above contain 6 drum loops. Normally, if I want to use one of them in a track, I import the file and trim/separate the desired loop, deleting the other 5.
Bummer is if I want to use the loops in a lot of different tracks, I have the time-consuming task of repeating this task every time I use them.
However, if I export those regions back into the original file, I can import them into any track already edited! I can even audition the regions when importing!
In the pic below I have deleted the unused regions from the session, leaving only the renamed ones. It's a bit grainy but they are labelled Soul Beat 106-A, Soul Beat 106-B and so on:
Now let's assume I executed the Export Region Definitions command as above, for each region in the session.
Now let's say I want to use the loop Soul Beat 106-C in a track. I open my standard Import dialog and get this:
A - select the .L half of the stereo file
B - note how the exported regions appear in the list below the file itself. I simply select the region I want. Note also how the list is called "Regions in Current File" - now it makes sense hey? (if you even bothered to look before now!)
C - I can audition each region separately here
D - Click the Add button
E - Region is ready to import
F - Done* - region imports
*Remember to repeat the process for both left and right channels before clicking Done!
And presto! The end result is this - a nice neat loop imported and ready to duplicate!
Expert Mode - convert regions to file on Import
If you attempt to import a region into a session that uses a different file type, sample rate or bit depth, no problem. Pro Tools will still let you Copy the region as opposed to Add it. This will make a copy of the region as a newly formatted file. Simply do all the above, and click the Copy button. Pro Tools will prompt you to save the converted file(s) to a folder - by default your session's current Audio Files Folder. Click OK and Pro Tools looks after the rest.
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I'm in the process of doing this to a whole slab of files I have like this, ripped from CD's, that need the loops easily extracted from them. If I take the time to do it once, then it saves a lot of time later. That being said, the whole process above took less time than writing this tute
I also save drive space and fragmentation because I can leave my large stereo files sitting permanently on the hard drive with no duplications.
The final benefit is that when I get Logic eventually the very same regions can imported directly into it as well, or in fact any other app that supports the feature.
When you think about it, this is a mighty little feature - and so easy to use!
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