This is a guide I made on working with multiple sources and multiple destinations in a similar way to how you would work with playlists in Pro Tools.
If you just want to read the guide without the chit chat here is a link to a pdf version. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vVh_PrdlrGaM15ysDTN1KPtBAIyKt82k/view?usp=sharing.
It's a bit more tidy and you can go to page 4-5 if you want to jump straight to the multiple sources and multiple destinations workflow that is similar the workflow of playlists in Pro Tools.
So I watched the live presentation on Pyramix “tips and tricks editing”. Great stuff by the way, on all of them. And while most of it is pretty known to me on the subjects, there are always some small things to take from them no matter how well I thought I knew the subject, or just another way of doing something that you can integrate into your own workflow. Love it!
Anyway on the last one “tips and tricks” someone asked if it was possible to use multiple destinations in S/D editing, and while the given answer was great (I learned some new tricks), I felt it was maybe not quite what was being asked. Because I had a similar question when I came from Pro Tools and started working in Pyramix. Something like “What is happening with these playlists?" and "There has to be a better way?”. And a lot pointed towards Source and Destination editing. But what was that, and how would I integrate all those functions into a workflow, and what workflow. Digging into what’s available on that subject only helped so much. I got all the this does that and this does that, but not the “how can I put this together into a workflow to replace the playlist function”. This is the workflow I eventually came up with. It’s pretty close to the Pro Tools workflow of overdubbing with playlists, although quite a bit more complicated but also more flexible. And once it’s in your fingertips it’s pretty close to as fast as well, just with a lot more options.
This is a step by step guide on how to work with multiple Sources and multiple Destinations in Pyramix, teaspoon style. Giving you a sort of visual playlist system similar to that of Pro Tools, just more complicated and flexible. Let’s start from the beginning.
Create a new project.
Here I’ve created a project with 10 tracks to start. This will be our main takes for this example.
We then go on to make our source destination groups. We can wait til after recording. I like to get it done before the session starts.
Start with a group called for example Live destination and assign all tracks to it.
(In real life I like to put a “d” in front of all destination groups and “s” in front of all sources. So a group might be called dLive, and its source would be sLive. Or for an overdub it might be dVoc, and its sources would be called sVoc1 (take 1), sVoc2 (take 2), sVoc3 (take 3) etc).
Now duplicate that group and call it Live Source. You can see the options I have chosen on the groups. I’ve collapsed the destination and armed my source. I am now ready to record my main takes.
Now that we've done the main recordings with the whole band I’ve assigned source and destination function to the groups and I can edit as with normal source destination (The Merging Youtube page has a great video on that).
Sometimes I won’t use S/D on the main takes. I will just record one take after the other and edit between them, and dub under the chosen take.
But for this example it’s better to start with S/D from the start.
Now we’ve done our S/D editing and have a complete take ready for overdubs. As you can see I have turned Auto Solo off now and muted the clips and the tracks on the source group(safety measure). I have also turned on Auto hide on the source, so as soon as I click anywhere on my destination all the source tracks will hide (I’m done with them and don’t need to actively see it in my timeline anymore).
As you can see all source tracks are hidden. If you need to see them again later for some reason you can unhide them by selecting one of the tracks related to that group in the Track List.
Now we’re ready for overdubs. Let’s say one of the guitarists wants to add a solo. We’ll use two tracks for the solo. I’ve set up two tracks and assigned them to a group. Our future destination group. I’ve duplicated that group making our first source group, our if you will, our first playlist.
And named it sSolo take1. I’ve also copied this text “sSolo take” to my clipboard for later use. And collapsed the destination group. No need for that to take up any extra space yet. You can assign source destination types to the groups now. Sometimes I do now, sometimes I don’t do it before I’m about to start editing. I’ve also added the option of free markers so I can add markers to that take/group.
Let’s record. Arm the sSolo take1 group tracks and record. If you have “prompt for name” on, you could also name the clips something like Guitar solo take 1. Then you find some excuse to talk with the guitarist, maybe about the take, or maybe he wants to listen to it. While you do that you set up for a new take(this can be done while playing back take 1). If it’s not already selected select our sSolo take1 group and click in the duplicate field. Paste the “sSolo take” in and add a “2”. So it becomes “sSolo take2”.
Two new tracks are created, and the guitarist is done listening. You unarm the tracks (if you haven’t already) and mute the sSolo take1 tracks and arm the sSolo take2 tracks. Ready for take 2. Some might like to add a lot of duplicates beforehand so you have ready made track for new takes, I like to make them as they’re needed. It takes 2 seconds once you get used to the workflow. You can also add auto collapse to the previous groups/takes so they take up less real estate on the screen.
Now we’ve done 3 takes. I’ve spread them out so the next part will be easier to see. I’ve turned on auto mute on all the relevant groups. Also remember to assign type if you didn't earlier, Source on all takes and Destination on our dSolo group.
We’re almost ready to edit. But first we must set up two macros. This is to enable easy vertical S/D editing. Similar to how you would work with playlists in Pro Tools. And yes “Gate In to Cursor” needs to be there 2 times. Assign the two new macros to easy shortcuts. I have them on 4 and 5.
Now we are ready. Select the part you want from take 1.
Now press your shortcut to trigger the “Gates to Selection Cursor to start” macro. It should look like this. With the gates set to the selection.
Next click with the mouse anywhere on the destination tracks timeline (all we are doing is selecting the destination tracks). After that press your shortcut to trigger the “Vertical S to D” macro. Your selection should now be moved up to the destination.
So as I have my macros assigned to 4 and 5 all I do is leave my left fingers over 4 and 5 and my right hand on the mouse. Select, 4, click, 5 and repeat. That is pretty much as fast as working in Pro Tools with playlists, but a lot more flexible. Also, you don’t have to move them vertically you could also mix this with normal S/D editing if you’d like to move something in time too
Our edit is done, a weird very quiet solo edit. But before we go on we can hide all the sources. But we should remember our safety measures.
I over do this a bit and mute all source clips and mute the tracks. One or the other should be just fine. I’m just not taking any chances for a hidden track to suddenly end up in the mix. If you mute the tracks remember to turn off auto mute(safety).
And last for reference here is the timeline with nothing hidden.
And that’s pretty much it. Repeat for as many overdubs you’d like.
Hope you like it, hope it was helpful for some. If you have any questions or anything was unclear. Just let me know.
