M-AUDIO Pro Tools Recording Studio - Manual (Page 445)

Chapter 22: Editing Basics 427
Chapter 22: Editing Basics
Pro Tools Editing
The Edit window in Pro Tools provides a power-
ful collection of tools for editing and arranging
audio, video, and MIDI. Track material can be
edited nondestructively and in real time during
playback. The Edit window also lets you graphi-
cally edit Elastic Audio and track automation.
This chapter covers the basic concepts of editing
audio and MIDI regions and playlists. Subse-
quent chapters provide more detailed informa-
tion on the following editing tasks:
Editing Regions and Selections See Chapter 25,
“Editing Regions and Selections.” Also, see
Chapter 35, “Arranging Regions.”
Editing Fades and Crossfades See Chapter 26,
“Fades and Crossfades.”
Editing Elastic Audio See Chapter 38, “Elastic
Audio.”
Editing MIDI See Chapter 29, “MIDI Editing.”
Editing Automation See Chapter 42, “Automa-
tion.”
Editing Video See Chapter 48, “Working with
Video in Pro Tools.”
Nondestructive Editing
The vast majority of audio editing in Pro Tools is
nondestructive. Whether cutting, pasting, trim-
ming, separating, or clearing regions, you are
only performing these functions on a map of
the actual media (such as audio files). The source
files remain untouched. However, certain pro-
cesses or tools work destructively (can perma-
nently change audio files on your hard disk), as
noted in this guide.
While editing for MIDI tracks is in some in-
stances destructive, with a few precautions you
can keep important MIDI tracks and regions safe
when performing edits (see “Nondestructive
MIDI Editing” on page 436).
Editing During Playback
Pro Tools lets you perform many editing tasks
while the session plays. This powerful capability
lets you interactively modify and edit a session,
hearing the changes as you make them.
Use Loop and Dynamic Transport modes for
auditioning and editing loops during play-
back. See “Playback Modes” on page 337.