Easily select segments of audio to send to delay

[Arnaud]

Hi all, maybe everyone knows the trick I just found out by myself but, as it just saved a significant amount of my time on a project, I thought I would share it anyway.

 

Initial setting : an audio track has a send to an aux channel on which a multi tap delay is loaded, for an echo effect, for instance.

 

Issue: using, only part-time, this multi tap delay that works fine on some parts of the audio track, but not on the whole of it (for instance, the audio track is a vocal track, some syllables should be delayed for an echo effect, other should stay dry). A fairly classical problem, I suppose.

 

Long and painful solution: automate the send (send on/of, or send level, as you like) to open it only on the specified syllables. It's long if you have to draw that automation (in you have a control surface, maybe it's quicker to record it, but still can be partly inaccurate).

 

Much quicker solution:

* Open the audio track send and set level to your taste, as if the whole of the audio track would be processed, and leave it like that

* On the aux channel, load a noise gate right before the multi tap delay

* Create a SI track right below the audio track you want to process (you can load an Electric Piano on it or any sort of organ-like, constant level sound; avoid enveloped sounds), set the output of that track to an unused bus, and set the output of the automatically corresponding aux return to "no output".

* Use this bus as a side chain to the noise gate.

 

On the midi track, you now simply have to draw midi notes right at the places where you want the delay to come into play, its only one click of the mouse, possibly two when you want to change the note length, that's all. A much quicker, but as accurate, process, than drawing automation if you have to open/close the send dozens of times during the project. Instead of opening/closing the send, you open/close the noise gate through its side chain. Same result. In case of need, adjust the sensitivity (attack release, threshold) of the noise gate to best fit the level of the side chain controlling signal.

 

I hope this will help some here.

 

Best regards.

[David Nahmani]

Here's my solution:

 

1) Duplicate the track.

2) Put the send to delay only on the duplicate, not on the original track.

3) With the marquee tool, select the sections where you want to apply the delay, and drag them to the duplicate track.

[Arnaud]

Quite cool too, indeed.

 

Both tips can complement each other : yours is great if you visually know exactly where you should marquee-select the audio. The way I use mine is by play/pausing the audio track: I play it until the point I would want the effect to come in, pause there, click with the pencil tool in an open piano roll editor of the side-chained midi track right where the playhead is, play again (which enables immediate listening of the result with echoed syllable), and run this pause/click/play process for the whole track. I think both tips are great in conjunction, depending on the audio material, to significantly enhance a workflow.

 

Thanks!