Mackie HDR24, HDR96 Editing Manual
HDR 24HDR 24
HDR 24/96
HDR 24HDR 24
EDITING GUIDE
24 TRACK/24 BIT, DIGITAL AUDIO HARD DISK RECORDER AND EDITOR
®
Contents
Introduction ........................................ 3
Regions ................................................. 3
Track and Region Editing Tools...................... 4
HDR 24/96
Selection ............................................................ 5
Area Selection (I-Beam Tool) .................... 5
Region Selection (Hand Tool) ................... 6
Magnifier ........................................................... 7
The “Dive” Key (Z)....................................... 7
Node Tool .......................................................... 7
Cursor Location Display .................................. 7
Nudge Tools ....................................................... 8
Nudge Resolution ....................................... 8
Nudge arrows............................................... 8
Selection Start (left) .................................. 8
Selection End (right)................................... 8
Selection (center) boxes ............................ 8
Scrub Wheel ...................................................... 9
Edit Clipboard ................................................... 9
History List Entries........................................... 9
Cut....................................................................... 10
Delete ................................................................. 10
Copy.................................................................... 10
Paste ................................................................... 10
Paste Repeat...................................................... 11
Splice Mode....................................................... 11
Snap and Snap-to Functions........................... 11
Snap Enable .................................................. 11
Snap to Grid ................................................. 12
Snap to Cues ................................................ 12
Region Manipulation Tools
and Functions ......................................13
Split .................................................................... 13
Crop .................................................................... 13
Moving Regions - Click’n’Drag ....................... 13
Insert Time ........................................................ 14
Fades ................................................................... 14
Auto X-Fade (Crossfade) ................................. 15
Volume Envelope (Node Tool) ....................... 16
Region Editor....................................... 17
Region Name ..................................................... 17
Start time .......................................................... 18
End Time ............................................................ 18
Region Length ................................................... 18
Fade In and Fade Out....................................... 19
Envelope Active ................................................ 19
Region Looping ................................................. 20
Region Lock ....................................................... 20
Editing Workshop ............................... 21
Create a Practice Project ................................ 21
Playlists .............................................................. 21
Split .................................................................... 22
Splitting a Selected Area ................................ 22
Crop .................................................................... 22
Undo and Redo ................................................. 22
Cut and Splice ................................................... 23
Copy & Paste ..................................................... 23
Pasting with Splicing .................................. 23
Pasting without Splicing............................ 24
Adjusting a Region’s Length ........................... 25
Crossfading between Regions ........................ 25
Extra Credit.......................................... 26
Render Tracks ................................................... 27
Dragging Regions into Tracks ......................... 27
Manual Part No. 820-230-00 Rev. A 12/00
© 2000 Mackie Designs Inc., All rights reserved
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HDR 24/96
Printed in the U.S.A.
Introduction
Non-destructive editing is one of the capabilities that distinguishes the HDR24/96
from your old tape recorder. It’s easy, it’s fun, and you won’t cut your fingers
learning how to do it. This guide will introduce you to the editing tools and
concepts.
All the editing operations are performed on screen through the Graphical User
Interface (GUI), so all the discussion in this section applies to GUI operations and
displays only. See page 13 of the Quick Start Guide for details on installing a
monitor, mouse and keyboard.
Once you are ready, sit down in front of your screen, take a deep cleansing breath,
reach for the mouse and let’s get started.
Regions
Regions are graphic representations of audio files — or portions of audio files —
stored on the hard drive. The HDR24/96 editor displays regions as boxes within a
track, each containing a waveform display of audio. It’s important to understand
the difference between regions — which just represent audio — and the actual
audio files: A region is information which tells the player at what time, relative to
the start of the audio file, to start playing a portion of the audio file, and when to
stop playing.
Editing Guide
After a recording pass, a new region appears along a track, representing the new
audio file in its entirety. The region’s start and stop times are the same as the
beginning and end of the audio file. From this point, the region can be chopped up,
moved, copied & pasted, transferred to other tracks and more; completely
changing the song as it is heard, but without changing the original corresponding
audio file. Each piece becomes a new region, with new information as to where
along the audio file to start playing and where to stop.
If a region is deleted, it won’t play back (because there’s nothing telling the
HDR24/96 when to start playing the file) but its corresponding audio data is still
on disk. Even if all its regions are deleted, the audio file remains. That audio file
can be called back as a new region or erased from the disk.
If you’ve laid some tracks that you really don’t want disturbed, right-click on their
regions and select Lock from the pulldown menu.
An editing note regarding regions within Virtual Takes: Each track can contain up
to seven inactive virtual takes. These are safe from global editing operations only
when the tracks are collapsed so that only the active take is visible. If you are
performing global selections and chopping and plopping regions here’n’there,
make sure that only the virtual take that you want chopped is visible. Select it as
the active take, then collapse the track to keep the others safe from this Borg type
activity.
Editing Guide
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HDR 24/96
Track and Region Editing Tools
Your tool kit includes the I-Beam, Hand, Volume Envelope, and Magnifier tools.
The Scrub wheel isn’t really an editing tool, but it’s grouped on screen with them
because it interacts with the Hand and I-Beam tools, and it’s handy for locating
edit points.
An editing tool is selected by clicking on its button. Alternately, right-clicking in
the track area of the screen brings up a pop-up menu with a Tools option. Select
Tools, then select the tool you want. By using the pop-up menu to change tools,
you’ll keep your eyes and mouse hand right where you’re working.
There are keyboard shortcuts for the editing tools, which will help you to keep
your eye on the ball, and your nose to the grindstone:
T – Toggles between the I-Beam and Hand tools.
F1 – Selects the I-Beam tool
F2 – Selects the Hand tool
F3 – Selects the Volume Envelope tool
F4 – Selects the Magnifying tool
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HDR 24/96
Selection
Area Selection (I-Beam Tool)
The I-Beam tool is used to mark the start and end times of an area for editing
operations. It operates on a single track, a group of selected tracks, or all the
tracks.
Clicking and dragging the I-Beam across a track selects an area. The same
selection can be made on all tracks by clicking and dragging the I-Beam
across the time bar.
Once an area has been selected, the area boundaries and its position can be
adjusted in several ways:
• Placing the I-Beam cursor on either edge of a selection boundary turns
the cursor into a double-headed arrow. When this arrow appears, click
and drag the edge of the selection to move it. The selection boundaries
can also be dragged from the time bar at the top of the track area. The
selection is marked on the time bar by a gray band with its upper
corners darkened. Those dark corners are “handles” by which you can
drag the selection ends.
• CTRL-click on the Selection Range Start or End time field to capture
the current transport time into that field. This can be done either with
the transport stopped or while playing, to select an area on the fly.
• The entire selection (at its present length) can be repositioned by
dragging the gray area on the time bar.
Editing Guide
Multiple Area Selection
To make the same selection on multiple tracks, after an area is selected on
one track, CTRL-click anywhere in another track’s area to duplicate the
selection on that track. Shift-clicking on another track will duplicate the
selection on all the tracks between the first one selected and the one on
which the mouse pointer is clicked.
Selection Range Display
The Selection Range Start and End time
fields in the Tools panel show start and
end times of the area currently selected
via the I-beam tool. This time display is
interactive with the selected area. The
area boundaries can be updated by
editing the numbers in the time fields.
Conversely, as the selection boundaries
are changed by dragging with the mouse,
the time fields are updated.
Editing Guide
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HDR 24/96
The time fields in the Selection Range Display can be edited as follows:
Click on the desired field in the Selection Range display to highlight the pair
of digits you wish to modify. Change the numbers by dragging the mouse up
or down over the highlighted digits or with direct numeric entry from the
keyboard. Navigate between hours, minutes, and seconds fields with the Tab
or Shift-Tab key or mouse. Complete the data entry with the Enter key
or by clicking in the Tools panel background area.
NOTE: If you manually enter a Start time which is later than the current End time,
the later time becomes the selection End time, and what was the former End time
becomes the new Start time.
Region Selection (Hand Tool)
The Hand tool is used for selecting (grabbing), moving, and resizing regions,
plus changing fade-in and fade-out curves. The Hand tool works on single or
multiple regions, so it’s possible to move or resize a group of selected regions
at one time. This is particularly handy for stereo tracks, or all of the drum
kit’s tracks.
A region is selected for editing by clicking anywhere in the region with the
Hand tool. The Hand tool’s function changes, depending on where it’s placed
in the active region area, with its cursor shape changing to indicate its
current function. Placing the Hand Tool cursor on either end boundary and
above a region’s centerline activates the fade adjustment tool. Below the
region’s centerline the cursor becomes a resizing tool. Within the region
boundaries, the Hand Tool’s hand cursor is used for dragging the region.
A region or regions (selected as group) may be dragged around with the Hand
tool and dropped on top of blank track area, on top of other regions or a little
bit of both. The Splice and Crossfade functions affect the way a region will
intersect or overlay another region.
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HDR 24/96
Multiple Region Selection
Multiple regions can be selected and operated upon as a group (moving,
deleting, resizing, or changing crossfades) by CTRL-clicking on each region
of the desired group with the hand tool.
Double-clicking on a track number selects all the regions in the active take of
that track. If the track is expanded to show virtual takes, double-clicking on
any take number selects all the regions in that take, but does not change the
active take.
CTRL+A selects all regions in the project.
Magnifier
The Magnifier tool expands and contracts the region and track displays, allowing
you to take a closer look at the waveform on a track and zero in on your selection.
Single clicks with the Magnifier tool selected expand the track display
horizontally. Dragging the Magnifier across tracks and regions draws a box and
zooms the selected area both vertically and horizontally, like a magnifying glass.
CTRL-clicking with the magnifier tool active zooms out.
Editing Guide
The “Dive” Key (Z)
The ‘Z’ key operates as a momentary zoom-in key for a high resolution view
around the current cursor position. Releasing the Z key returns to the
previous screen view.
Node Tool
The Node tool allows adjustment of the volume level within a region (which could
be the entire track). For details on using it, please see page 16.
Cursor Location Display
This time display tracks the current time location of the cursor pointer, regardless
of the selected tool. It is a display function only.
Editing Guide
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Nudge Tools
This tweak tool set allows you to nudge selected regions, areas, or area selection
boundaries. Actions include moving regions, resizing regions, moving or resizing
region attributes (such as start, end or length) in specified time increments.
Multiple regions and region attributes may be selected and modified in the same
manner as single regions. Nudge tools are located on the Tools panel, just to the
right of the Selection Range time displays.
HDR 24/96
Nudge Resolution
The pulldown menu above the nudge tools selects the increment of one
“nudge” (a small amount of movement) in units of samples, SMPTE frames,
or fractions of a second.
Nudge arrows
The arrows surrounding the three Nudge Selection boxes nudge to the right
or left by the increment selected. What gets moved is determined by which
Nudge Selection box is selected.
Selection Start (left), Selection End (right), Selection (center) boxes
These three boxes select whether the left boundary, right boundary, or the
entire selection or region will be nudged. These are “radio buttons” - only one
may be active at a time. When the Hand tool is selected, the boxes contain a
waveform icon, indicating that a region will be nudged. When the I-Beam tool
is selected, the boxes show a divided block, indicating that a selection will be
nudged.
Selecting the left box causes the left boundary of the selection or region to be
nudged when the left or right arrow is clicked. Similarly, selecting the right
box and clicking on an arrow will nudge the right boundary in the direction of
the arrow. Selecting the center box causes the complete region or selection
area to be nudged when a direction arrow is clicked, without changing its
length.
I-Beam (Area) Nudge
(Nudge the selection area of the region)
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HDR 24/96
Hand T ool (Region) Nudge
(Nudge the region itself).
Scrub Wheel
The Scrub Wheel tool is the round wheel at the right-hand end of the group of
editing tool buttons. Its function is similar to “rocking the reels” of a reel-to-reel
tape deck. Scrubbing allows playback at slow speed, even in reverse, to locate an
edit or punch-in point the old fashioned way - by ear. The Scrub function is
engaged by clicking on the Scrub Wheel button to highlight it. The S key
momentarily activates the Scrub tool, turning it off when you release the key.
When Scrub is engaged, clicking and dragging the mouse pointer horizontally
along the Marker Bar at the top of the track screen starts the transport playing on
all 24 tracks. Dragging it to the right plays forward, dragging it to the left plays
backward. The mouse acts as a throttle - the further you drag it, the faster the
transport plays, up to full speed. By using a side-to-side motion with the mouse
and listening to the playback, you can zero in on a point in the track that you’re
trying to locate.
If you want to scrub just a single track, with the I-Beam and Scrub tools both
active, place the cursor on the track you want to hear, then click, and scrub.
Caution: Selecting the Scrub tool does not automatically deactivate the Hand
tool. If you scrub on a region with the hand tool active, you won’t scrub, you’ll
move the region.
Editing Guide
Edit Clipboard
Cut, copy and paste editing operations are performed through the Clipboard. The
HDR24/96 clipboard follows the conventions common to word processors and
other computer-based editing tools. The editing clipboard buffer holds the result of
a single cut or copy operation (which could be performed on multiple items if
selected). The cut or copied section remains on the clipboard until replaced by the
next cut/copy operation.
For example, if two region Copy operations are performed successively, only the
second selection copied remains on the clipboard, with the first copied selection
going into the bit bucket to make room for the second. As long as a copy remains
on the clipboard, it may be pasted any number of times and to any location.
Each cut and paste operation is recorded on the History list. This possibly very
long edit list is retained only as long as the Project file is open.
History List Entries
With the history list, editing isn’t like heart surgery –
the History list offers a safety net to undo any series
of editing operations. The History List is discussed in
detail in the List Panel section of the Technical
Reference Guide. It’s important to mention here
because the history that’s listed, in addition to
recording passes, is that of all of your editing
operations. It’s the key to nondestructive editing. By
deleting entries from the History list, you can undo
any editing operation.
The following activities are recorded in the History
List and may be undone as long as the list remains
active for the project: Record pass, split, crop, cut,
copy, paste, move region(s), resize a fade-in, resize a
Editing Guide
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