Fades

Knowing about the less glamorous features in Pro Tools can be extremely useful, so this month we turn our attention to fades.

It takes a lot of practice to become a skilled audio editor: discovering what works, and learning to predict the results of your interventions. However, whether you're hacking away at quarter-inch tape with a razorblade, or butchering waveform displays with a mouse or a jog/shuttle wheel, there are only three basic techniques: cutting, trimming, and fading. Of these techniques, the humble crossfade is so ubiquitous and platform-independent that it's rarely discussed, compared to newer and more appealing features like automation and plug-ins. But, nevertheless, fades are the cornerstone of audio editing, particularly when compiling a track from multiple takes.

There are two basic fade types that you'll find in Pro Tools and other systems: fade-ins and -outs (from or to silence), and crossfades between two regions joined together on the same track. The behaviour of these two types differs in one particular way that's important to understand in order to avoid confusion. When you create a fade-in or -out, the fade begins or ends at the same point as the original audio region. However, with crossfades, each region involved is effectively 'trimmed out' (or extended) so that audio outside the clip's original boundaries can be used as an overlap (see Screen 1).

For crossfades to be possible in this way, it's necessary for audio to exist outside the in- and out-points of the regions, and if you try to crossfade between regions that represent the entirety of an audio file, you'll get the familiar error message reporting insufficient audio. With audio recorded directly into Pro Tools, this is rarely a problem; but it's common with imported loops, or when you've used an Audiosuite function (which writes a new file based on your on-screen selection). Many people attempt to get around this problem by including extra audio when exporting clips from another system or using Audiosuite -- this workaround is known as keeping 'handles' on the audio regions.

Another thing to bear in mind is the fact that Pro Tools renders fades as you create them, so instead of dynamically changing the volume of the audio in real time, Pro Tools writes a new audio file containing just the duration of the fade. The advantage of this is that considerable processing resources are saved, which would otherwise be devoted to the task of replaying the fades, although it does mean a little more clutter on your hard drive. Fade files are stored in the "Fade Files" directory within a Pro Tools project folder, and, unlike the main audio files, fade Files are semi-temporary -- if they get lost when moving projects around, Pro Tools automatically recreates them based on the edit information contained in the session file.

As a brief aside, this is a good point to mention that in addition to normal manually-created fades, Pro Tools offers the global option of adding short (10ms maximum) real-time fade-ins/-outs, which are known as auto-fades. This is set from the Preferences menu, but is only advisable when time is short, as it can cause problems later on. For example, clicks that were inaudible before may become apparent if you send the project to another system where the option is off, or if you render an Audiosuite plug-in across several regions.

There are now quite a number of ways to create fades in Pro Tools, so here's an overview. Firstly, you can select a duration and position over a boundary, and then move directly to setting and editing how the fade behaves. Alternatively, you can use either the Smart Tool or keyboard shortcuts to quickly place a default f

Using the traditional Pro Tools method, you can drag a selection over the splice to be smoothed to set the start and end of the crossfade. If it's only a simple fade-in or fade-out, only the part of the region covered by the selection will be affected (despite the manual erroneously suggesting otherwise). However, with a crossfade, the centre-point of the fade defaults to the centre of your selection -- not the splice point itself. Once your selection is made, press Command+F to open the Fades window (see Screen 2), set the parameters for the fade, and press Enter to confirm and apply the fade.

Sometimes, it can become tedious to repeatedly open the Fades window when you rarely need anything other than the default fade options. In these cases, shortcuts can be very handy and the Preferences dialogue includes an option for setting the default fade curves for fade-ins, fade-outs, and crossfades, which are used by the shortcuts (see Screen 3).

When you're using the Smart Tool, positioning the mouse over the top corner of any audio region will switch the cursor to the Fade tool (which is similar to Logic Audio's), and dragging this over a region will dynamically draw a fade slope that's applied when you release the mouse button. In a similar way, positioning the mouse over the bottom corner of a region that's adjacent to another will bring up the Crossfade tool, and dragging this tool will create a crossfade. This is a particularly useful way of creating crossfades because while you're dragging, the Selection Field at the top centre of the Edit Window indicates the fade's length.

Instead of using the Smart Tool, you could try the instant-fade-creation keyboard shortcuts. For fade-ins, simply drop the normal selection cursor at the point you want the fade to end and, if you have a TDM system (which has single-keystroke functions), press D to 'fade to start' -- Pro Tools LE users should press Option+D. For fade-outs, press G (or Option+G) to 'fade to end', and with crossfades, drag out a selection and press F on TDM system -- unfortunately there's no equivalent shortcut for LE users.

Finally, if you select across multiple regions and press Command+F, the Batch Fade dialogue lets you specify and apply fades to all the clips within the selection, which can even be the whole song if you like. In addition to the normal options, you have to choose a duration, the type of fade to apply, and whether you want to alter existing fades within the selection or leave them alone.

And that's how you create fades using Pro Tools. One last important point is that if you want to remove a fade, simply select it and press Delete or Backspace. Multiple fades can be deleted in one pass by selecting the area including the fades and selecting "Edit > Fades > Delete Fades".

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