Tab to transient...

Something I've been appreciating lately is the tab to transient button in ProTools, especially as it relates to copying and pasting regions. One common application would be "flying" vocals from the first chorus to the second chorus of your song. I can usually accomplish it using this method much faster than I could by adjusting my session so that grid mode works, unless I have to fly a lot of parts. If you're going to be a doing a LOT of this, go ahead and grid your session. I'll cover that in a later post.

As an example, I'm going to fly the bass guitar from the intro to the first chorus. To accomplish this or something like it, just use this method:

1. Make sure the tab to transient mode is active.


2. Find the most transient (dynamic) and rhythmically consistent track in your session. This might be the click track if you have the click on an audio track, or it might be the kick drum or a loop or something. I'm going to be using the click track in this example.

3. Using the select (cursor) tool, click to the left of the downbeat you'll be using. Then push the tab key and the cursor will jump to the transient. Push again to jump to the next, until your cursor is right where you want it.


4. With the cursor on the click (or whatever) track you're using and located on the transient, hold shift and click with the select tool in the track you're going to be copying. This will place the cursor on both your click track, and the track you're copying. Holding shift, drag your selection to the right of the cursor to select how much you want to use, and then press command-c to copy the selection.


5. Go to the location where you want to place the copied audio, and use tab to transient to locate to the desired downbeat. Then hold shift and click to the track you're copying, in this case the bass. Make sure the cursor is flashing in ONLY the click and bass tracks.

6. Press command-v to paste. Add some crossfades to make sure your edits are clean, and you're done!