Specifications

Chapter 17: Working with Regions and Selections 287
Waveform Repair with the
Pencil Tool
The Pencil tool allows you to destructively “re-
draw” waveform data. This tool is most com-
monly used to repair a pop or click in an audio
file. A pop or click appears as a sudden sharp
spike in a waveform. This tool only becomes ac-
tive when the Edit window is zoomed in to the
sample level.
Although you can Undo a Pencil tool edit, it is
recommended that you create a backup copy of
the target audio, before using the Pencil tool.
You can do this by using the AudioSuite Dupli-
cate plug-in.
To make a copy of an audio region:
1 Select the source region in the track’s playlist.
2 Choose AudioSuite > Duplicate.
3 In the AudioSuite dialog, make sure that Play-
list is enabled as the processing preference, and
that Use In Playlist is enabled.
4 Click the Process button.
The AudioSuite Duplicate plug-in creates a new
audio file that is a duplicate of the original. The
duplicate replaces the original on the track, and
it is automatically named with the region name
and the suffix DUPL.
To destructively edit an audio waveform with the
Pencil tool:
1 Locate the area you want to edit.
2 Using the Zoomer tool or the Vertical Zoom
buttons, zoom down to the sample level so the
waveform appears as a continuous thin line. Ad-
just the Track Height, as necessary, to edit the
waveform with greater precision
3 Select the Pencil tool.
4 Carefully draw with the Pencil by dragging
over the area of the waveform.
Don’t over-edit or the results may be undesir-
able. You can use the Undo command to undo
your previous edit.
Try to limit editing to smoothing over a very
small problem area, and keep the “fixes” in
character with the shape of the surrounding
waveform.
The Pencil tool is a destructive editing tool
that permanently modifies the audio file on
disk and should be used with caution.
You can recall zoom levels with the Zoom
Preset buttons (see “Zooming” on
page 226), or with Memory Locations (see
“Memory Locations and Markers” on
page 324).
Pencil tool
Repairing a “pop” with the Pencil tool
If you have trouble zooming in far enough to
perform Pencil editing, check the Edit win-
dow (session) length. Shorten the overall
Edit window (session) length, if possible,
until the Pencil tool becomes usable.