Jean-Daniel Noir video question

[drfred01054]

Greetings!
As a relative newbie to editing in Pyramix, I have just discovered this illustrative video, and would like to try to implement his method in my own system, instead of the "source-destination" model I started with Dyaxis in 1987. However, I don't understand how he seems to have "reduced" each obviously multi=track take into a single waveform, so that he can easily switch between six or seven takes of the same musical section with a single mouse click in a single window, without scrolling. If I were to arrange six takes, each having ten (source microphone) tracks, vertically, I would have sixty tracks in the project window! What's the trick here? I understand how to assign the same tracks in each take to the same channels in the mixer; I just don't know how to produce these "virtual mono tracks" he seems to have in the video. Thanks!

[fl]

Greetings!
I don't understand how he seems to have "reduced" each obviously multi=track take into a single waveform

Dr. Fred,

The "trick" is found in the Tracks and Track Groups tabs. Firstly, you need to arrange all your takes in a seventy track layout - 6 x 10 for all the takes, plus 1 x 10 for the assembly master. In the Track Groups tab, set up seven track groups, one for each take - each one a "Source", and then one group for the "Destination". Go to the Tracks tab to assign the various tracks to their respective track group. In the Track Groups, you have the opportunity to select "Auto-Collapse", which is the feature you saw in the video. While you're at it, select "Auto Solo" for each one as well. Set up a mixer with ten inputs (ten mono strips, or five stereo, etc. - however you need it), then in either the Tracks tab, or in the individual Track headers (on the left of the timeline), assign the tracks to the appropriate mixer strip. Don't worry, the "Auto-Solo" will make sure that only the currently selected Track Group will play through the mixer.

With this set up, you will see a sixteen track timeline - ten for the current track group, plus six more for the currently inactive Groups.

In the Crossfade tab/window, ten can still be a few too many tracks to see clearly, so in there you can set up things so that you're only looking at a few tracks, say, your main pair, for example. This way, you can use your screen real estate to see detailed waveforms when you need to, rather than a bunch of really tiny tracks.

Just so you know, this is only one of many different methods of setting up an editing session in Pyramix. I used to do this - having all the takes on the timeline at once, but I it often took more time to set up than it took to do the actual editing. Also, I found that it still made for too much crowding, especially with multi-track sessions. I started doing recordings with the setting to create a new Playlist with every new recording, coupled with the cursor's auto return function. This way, my session only needs to show the number of tracks I'm recording, and later I can modify this session by simply adding one additional set of tracks to be my editing destination. In the original - now Source - tracks, I can simply recall the appropriate playlist to recall each take, which I find to be much easier to deal with, than having all the takes mounted (which I believe also taxes the system resources, slowing the program down a bit). Just a suggestion from the cheap seats...

[drfred01054]

Thanks so much, Frank; I cannot imagine a more thorough explanation! I'll try it on for size, but I do see what you mean. The chief problem which I can already foresee is that I'll have be vigilant to allow--in advance--for the maximum number of repetitions of any given section in the piece when setting up the project workspace. In other words, if there are are, say, a dozen takes of one particularly difficult section, but no more than five of all the other parts, I'll have to allocate the "area" in advance for 12 times the ten tracks, even if I only need it once. Thanks again!

[fl]

if there are are, say, a dozen takes of one particularly difficult section, but no more than five of all the other parts, I'll have to allocate the "area" in advance for 12 times the ten tracks, even if I only need it once.

I'm not sure I quite understand what you are describing - I'm guessing that you're referring to having a sufficient number of tracks available to house the maximum number of takes you might have for any particular passage of music..., in which case, Dude!, Seriously!, check out the Playlists!

Using them, you only need to establish the number of tracks you used to record the piece, times two (source and destination). So instead of your seventy-plus track session described in your original post, you'd only need twenty, and nine of those can be auto-collapsed, so you'd only be looking at eleven at any given time.

I seem to recall that you don't use Pyramix for your location recordings, preferring to use a hardware recorder, so the Playlist thing would have to be established when you import the tracks from the recorder, but this is really no harder than mounting a bunch of files into tracks on the timeline. You just have to set up your Source Tracks and Track Group, create an empty Playlist, naming it with the take number or something else descriptive, then place all the files from one take into the tracks. Then, click on the Playlist button in the track header and "Create New Playlist for All Tracks in Group", name it, then place the audio to the tracks - lather, rinse and repeat until all the takes are mounted. If you record your session with Pyramix, with "Create New Playlist for each Recording" set, this stuff is taken care of automatically, where the Playlist is given the same name you choose for the sound files when you hit Stop at the end of a take, so it's painless.

Once all the takes are nestled snugly into their Playlists, all you need to do to recall any particular take is hit the Playlist button in the track header and select the take from the pop-up menu that appears. Not as quick when you want to jump from take to take to audition subtle differences, but still, pretty darn fast. Plus, having fewer tracks overall means a snappier system.

[Perfect Record]

A couple thoughts about source-destination editing.

We use and dearly love source-destination. Yes, you can use playlists, but at least for our workflow, using playlists is not as fast.

The key to working quickly in source-destination is to place markers on any important take or area of a take, then it's very quick to navigate "horizontally", even if you have an hour or two of source material. All I can say is, it works for us. Don't forget that you can tab forward or backwards from clip to clip very fast.

Second, playlists certainly have their place, but it's slow and fussy to set up individual playlists for every take if there are a lot of takes. Unless I've missed something, placing a take on a separate playlist must be done manually for each take. You can open up a chain of 10, 100 or 1000 takes with 2 mouse clicks into a source panel if the take numbering convention from the recording session is good. (This is assuming that you are bringing audio in from outside Pyramix, rather than recording directly into Pyramix.)

Lastly, the handling of which tracks are visible is a bit cumbersome in Pyramix, and could stand some improvement. What makes life easy for us is that we always print a stereo mix at the original session, and place that on tracks 1 & 2 of the project. This can also speed things up on a big multitrack edit, since you can mute all the other tracks in the project window (not the mixer) so that the system doesn't need to access the other tracks from disk constantly. Then simply un-mute them when it comes time to mix the edited tracks.

Everyone has their preferred working method, but this has been fast and efficient for us on hundreds of records. We use playlists when we need to edit sync overdub tracks, but otherwise we prefer to set up one source and one destination group.

[fl]

We use and dearly love source-destination. Yes, you can use playlists, but at least for our workflow, using playlists is not as fast.

Fair enough. If you're importing tracks from outside of Pyramix, then establishing Playlists is a chore. Also, complaining about the whole "Markers are not linked to clips, oh how we wish they were" situation is a song we've all been singing for years. So given those two conditions, Playlists won't work for your situation.

For me, however, I record with Pyramix, so the playlists are established automatically - one Playlist per take. Couldn't be easier. When it comes time to edit, having only one take's worth of clips in the timeline at a time - in addition to my assembly (destination) tracks - keeps my session snappy and responsive, even with a Native system with 2 Gigs of RAM running some VST plugins.

Would I like it if Markers could be linked somehow to come and go with each Playlist? And how! Then I think I'd have the best of all possible worlds - simplified layout, markers that pertain to the currently selected take (and that take only), and a session that is not bogged down by having a large number of clips in the timeline. The veiled hints I've seen about Version 8 suggest that this may become a reality at last, but I suppose only the developers and the beta testers would know for sure.

[Graemme]

No sign of anything like that just yet...

The veiled hints I've seen about Version 8 suggest that this may become a reality at last, but I suppose only the developers and the beta testers would know for sure.

[fl]

No sign of anything like that just yet...

Ah well...

My colourful workaround is to apply a different background colour for each take/playlist, and then to select the same colour for any Markers that relate to it. Yes, the Source Timescale can get a little cluttered, and I ask myself the question frequently, why am I using Playlists when I want to use Markers, but finding the appropriate markers in the Markers Tab is actually easier when using multiple colours.

And the assembled master - pretty...