Destructive Record

[Lucas Derode]

Hello,

is there a function which enables to correct a media straightly? Like "Destructive Record" on ProTools. It could save a lot of time when we have to correct a master.

Lucas

[fl]

There is the "Render" operation, which will create a new file, rather than overwrite an existing one, but I understand you wish to replace an existing media file with a corrected one. This is not easily done with Pyramix.

One of the the program's most fundamental design elements is the safeguarding against unintentional loss of media. The reasoning seems to be "better to have too much, than not enough" recorded media. Pyramix will usually crash rather than save a new media file with the same name as one already in existence, which is the reasoning behind the "unique filename" file creation/saving option. This may seem cumbersome or even unnecessary to someone new to the program, but the benefit is realized the first time one is spared the grief of losing a priceless or irreplaceable take due to momentary inattention, especially with those projects where you only have one chance to get things recorded properly.

[Lucas Derode]

thank you for the answer! Yes, I was trying to replace an existing media file to avoid a render on the whole master.

[fl]

You have other choices with Rendering than just processing the whole Project. It is possible to Render individual Clips, or a Selection of Clips, but the selection process can be tricky, especially if you've have your audio Clips grouped together in Clip Groups. As with a lot of things, it takes far longer to describe the processes needed in words, than it takes to just do them, so thanks in advance for your patience and perseverance with this somewhat lengthy post.

It is common that if you record Projects in multiple Tracks at a time, such as when you have two or more microphones on a single instrument, or when you are recording a whole ensemble, that your recorded material, "Clips" in the terminology of the Pyramix Manual, will be grouped together in "Clip Groups". Clip Groups are not the same as Track Groups. Grouping your Clips keeps them time aligned and allows you to move them around easily as a, well, group. Clips can be grouped vertically, crossing many Tracks, and they can simultaneously grouped horizontally, so that you can have successive stacks of multi-track Clips all grouped together. Automatic Clip Grouping for Recording is enabled or disabled in the All Settings > Project > Record window, by checking or unchecking the check-box for "Group Recorded Clips" which appears about a third of the way up from the bottom, on the right side. This is helpful, but can be an obstacle to the kind of process you seem to require for Rendering. What happens if you need to select only a few Clips on a single Track?

You can Command+Click on a single Clip on a single Track, and only that individual Clip will be selected whether it's part of a Clip Group or not. If you need ALL the Clips on a single Track - that's also easy: Move your mouse cursor to the Track Header for that Track, at the left side of the Timeline window, and right-click. In the pop-up, you'll see and entry for "Select All Clips". Do that, and you'll Select all of that single Track's Clips, even though under normal circumstances, those Clips are contained in a series of Clip Groups.

Fabulous, but what if you wish to Select only a few, say three, Clips - only on that Track, somewhere in the middle of a succession of Clips in the Project?

Select the Clip Group containing the first Clip you require by clicking on it, and then Shift-clicking on each following Clip Group, adding it to the selection, and so on as needed. Now go to the Selection menu > Nudge > Narrow Selection Down, or just type Control+Shift+Alt+Down Arrow Key, and the Clips in the last Track will be de-selected. Do it again, and those from the second to last Track are no longer selected and so on. To de-select Clips in Tracks above what you need, type Control+Shift+Alt+Up Arrow Key to de-select those. Keep Narrowing until you only have the sequence of Clips on the Track (or Tracks) that you wish to Render.

In the specific case of when the material you wish to Render does not align with the Clip boundaries, you can place the Red (In) and Green (Out) Marks to delineate the beginning and end of the section you wish to Select. To do this, locate the cursor at the beginning of what you want and then go to the Cursor and Marks menu > "Mark In to Cursor" - or just hit the F7 key, or type 7 on the numeric keypad. Move the cursor to the end, and Cursor and Marks > Mark Out to Cursor, or just type F8 or 8 on the Numeric keypad, and you should now see both the Red and the Green Marks at either end of the section you want. Then go to the Track Header as described above, right-click and choose "Select All Clips Between Marks". Despite the wording being similar to the "Select All Clips" option, this selects the whole Clip Groups between the marks - I believe this is a bug that needs squishing, as it's really no better than Shift-clicking on the Track Groups apart from allowing you to Select "sub-portions" of Clips. From here you'd proceed with the Narrowing process described above.

A second method would be to just use the "Select All Clips" via the Track Header method to Select all Clips on the single Track, and then Shift+Click to de-select each Clip you DON'T want to include, but this can be tedious in a long, multi-Clip Project, and if you're zoomed out, it can be difficult to locate your mouse pointer on really short Clips without having to zoom in, click, and then zoom back out again.

I suppose that a third method would be to click on each Clip Group that comprise those you need, and then un-Group them (Clips menu > Ungroup), allowing you to Select individual Clips from a single Track, but the downside is that it's tedious to re-Group all the remaining Clips again once you're done.

However you achieve it, you can now proceed to the Project Menu > Render operation to create a new Clip/audio file from the Clips you've selected. Note that, among all the options available for Rendering, you can add "Handles" to the beginning and ending of the Rendered material, which can be useful when you've made your Selection using the Marks, and need to adjust the crossfade transitions at the beginning and end of the newly Rendered Clip when it replaces what was there before.

Again, sorry about the length - something about having a man-brain that needs to 'splain.

[phaseboy]

Sorry Frank TLDR...

To the OP - while I haven’t used it because I do this type of work in pro-tools - pyramix does have a destructive record mode similar to pro-tools - otherwise it would be unusable for dubbing. Search the manual for destructive and dubbing mode. This should be what you’re looking for.

Best regards

Mark

[Lucas Derode]

thanks a lot Franck for all these tips!

For the destructive record, I've gone further in the manual. The function called Virtual Tape allowed us to modify a BWF directly, but it does'nt exist anymore (last version was v8_1).

Lucas

[phaseboy]

Page 760 of the V12 Manual:

Clean up Media after recording
Note: This option is automatically set OFF when a Project is opened.
This mode makes Pyramix work like an analog or DASH multitrack. I.e. All punch-ins are highly destructive !!

Mark

[Lucas Derode]

It seems that "clean up media" enables to delete unused media that doesn't appear on the timeline... But doesn't enable to re-write directly the file. I tried with both PMF and BWF.

[phaseboy]

Wow - I finally had a moment to sit down with pyramix and I stand corrected! I cannot believe this functionality has been removed. Merging is still marketing pyramix for film post-production, but the lack of virtual tape/destructive record makes it unusable in most final mix workflows. Disappointing... Anyway apologies for sending you in the wrong direction!

Best Regards,

Mark