Specifications

Pro Tools Reference Guide336
Defining a Beat Detective
Selection
Whether you will be generating Bar|Beat Mark-
ers, extracting a DigiGroove template, or sepa-
rating regions to be conformed, you must al-
ways define the audio selection to be analyzed.
The Beat Detective window provides tools to de-
fine and capture the selection range, time signa-
ture, and swing (sub-division) content for the
selected audio.
For Beat Detective to generate beat triggers that
are metrically accurate, the length and meter of
the selection must be correctly defined. In addi-
tion, the selection should not contain any meter
or tempo changes.
To define a selection for Beat Detective:
1 In the Edit window, select a range of audio
material in a single track or in multiple tracks.
Make sure the selection’s start and end points
fall cleanly on the beat. To zero in on start and
end points, zoom to the sample level and use
the Tab to Transients option (see “Tabbing to
Transients” on page 254).
2 Choose Windows > Show Beat Detective.
3 You must define or capture the selection every
time you make a new selection or change the
tempo map. To define the selection range, do
one of the following:
• If the tempo and meter of the audio selec-
tion do not match the session’s default
tempo and meter, enter the Time Signa-
ture, and Start Bar|Beat and End Bar|Beat
locations. For a four-bar selection that
starts on beat 1, enter 1|1 and 5|1.
• If the tempo and meter of the audio selec-
tion do not match the session’s default
tempo and meter, and you are unsure of
the length of the material, enter the Time
Signature and the Start Bar|Beat location;
then start playback, and click the Tap but-
ton repeatedly to automatically calculate
the End Bar|Beat. When using Tap with
long selections, continue to tap until the
End Bar|Beat stabilizes. Once stabilized,
you may need to manually adjust the num-
ber to the nearest bar boundary.
To ensure the best possible results with Beat
Detective, make sure the selected passage
starts exactly on the attack of the first beat.
Zooming in to the sample level to start the
selection will help ensure there is no space
before the first beat.
Use Loop playback to check the accuracy of
your selection.
To keep the Edit selection intact while play-
ing or looping from any location, deselect
Operations > Link Edit and Timeline Selec-
tion.
Making an audio selection for Beat Detective
Save and recall an Edit selection by saving it
as a Memory Location. See “Memory Loca-
tions and Markers” on page 324.