Pro Tools Basics: Working with Samples (Splice, etc)

[@rishadmusthafa4695]

15K Credits ? 🤩

[@nicholasmurt]

Any specific reason why you wouldn’t just drag and drop from Splice? Is that the reason you were explaining in the beginning of file location?

[@kevinkropinack3830]

Importing the file into your session creates a copy in your clips folder for the project/session. When you drag and drop into pro tools from your C:/Downloads folder or wherever it only creates a link to the file location. If you don't import and say make a copy to work on your song on a different machine, the clips that weren't imported will be missing since they aren't in your project clips folder.

[@nicholasmurt]

@ thanks for the explanation, man!

[@galetmg]

Cato, please excuse my ignorance here, I don't do a lot with samples or music creation, when you create a new track to put your sample on, why wouldn't you choose "Ticks" instead of "Samples"? Doesn't the "Ticks" mode conform your sample to match your bars and beats with Elastic audio?

[@CatoNoise]

Yeah, I think for me it's more of a control thing. So tick based timing is often used for MIDI data, like with instrument tracks. Ticks are the smallest unit of timing in that system, whereas samples is referring to the individual samples that are put together to form a digital audio file. I believe you can set it to "ticks" and then import your audio file, using it on the tick based audio track, and then it should adjust to the session tempo (for example, if you adjust the tempo, it should shift the starting location for the audio sample). So, I think it can be a great way to go with one shot samples for that reason. But, I would make sure you understand how it works before using it. I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, that it doesn't adjust the length of the audio file unless you put the file into one of the elastic audio modes beforehand, so if you're relying on it to adjust a file that's longer than a one shot, then you'll want to keep that in mind. And I think you might have to still adjust the file to a tempo (if necessary) at the beginning of that process like I did here, in many cases - and then any tempo changes that you make moving forward will be compensated for...I believe. To be honest, it's probably something I should dig into more, because I think it is a useful feature. But, I like the simplicity and control of avoiding it so far - and I've seen people cause themselves a ton of trouble by using that feature without understanding it - so here I am. lol