David Kalmusky

DePop A Vocal Manually

David Kalmusky — Thu, 20 May 2010 03:56:34 +0000

Pretty simple really, but a good way to clean up a vocal, with some plosives, without loosing bottom end, from EQ’ing the Pop’s out. Just a little editing, “Tab To Transient” of the Plosive, hit the letter B (In “Keyboard Focus”) and forward cross fade the P or the B in.

Create Click on Session Cut To An Outside Click

David Kalmusky — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:25:03 +0000

Here’s a very quick way to use Pro-Tools “Identify Beat” feature, to build a grid, on a session that was recorded to a click, outside of Pro-Tools, using the drum performance itself. This is usually easier to use the printed / generated “Outside Click”, however, as you’ll see in this video… the Kik drum will work just fine.

Delay Compensation in Pro-Tools HD 8

David Kalmusky — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:57:38 +0000

This, rather then a “Bug” or “Workaround”, is a look at the Delay Compensation Engine in ProTools HD 8.

Likely a residual “Belief” amongst many engineers, stemming from previous versions of Pro-Tools TDM, where perhaps the delay compensation engine was problematic… The statement, “Once you’ve started to mix, and insert plugins, especially a mix of RTAS and TDM plugins, you need to ALWAYS open, and run your sessions, using the same exact HW Buffer size… Otherwise the delay compensation engine will NOT be performing accurate calculations, and your mix won’t be phase coherent” is a thing of the FAR past.

This is a post, putting ProTools 8 HD’s Delay compensation engine to the task, of recalculating a complex mix, with RTAS & TDM plugins mixed on EVERY track, Controller written automation on several tracks, several paralell compression Aux’s, as well as mult’s with different plugins - All NULLING with the original buffer (64), when changing the sessions buffer to 128, 256, 512, 1024, and ONLY causing a problem at 2048, when the delay compensation engine is “Out of range” and turned red.

I’ve had this argument with several engineers, and after sending a link to this video, posted on a forum, have not only changed the minds of my arguing friends… have received reports of controlled tests, showing the SAME competency in the delay compensation engine, as far back as PT HD 7.4, on 3 different systems.

So… our collective conclusion, is that this has been solid for a while, and that it hasn’t been necessary to maintain identical buffer settings, through the life of a mix, as long as you are not out of range.

If anyone is running earlier versions then 7.4 TDM, please do this same test, and write in with the results, and your version number, and we’ll document problematic versions here, as well as “Where it seemed to be fixed”

Using Beat Detective - The Quick & Dirty Way

David Kalmusky — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:00:19 +0000

Here’s a very “Quick and dirty” Beat detective job, doing it “All at once”, then going back, and making edit changes and fixes. There’s also a helpful tip on here, about using an AudioSuite Gate plugin, on a track to filter out mis triggers.

Comping in PT8 using Playlist View in Context

David Kalmusky — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:35:22 +0000

The biggest complaint, in the new “Playlist View Functionality” for comping vocals in Pro-Tools 8, is having to solo entire phrases, and not being able to “Comp in Context”. This video clip will show you “Dynamic Voice Stealing Style Comping” (WORKS IN LE) using the Playlist View in PT8, along side of the Dynamic Transport, and “Promote First” workflow.

3 Key things to this workflow, as seen in the video, are…

- Ignore Playlist Solo functionality, and monitor ONLY the top, or Master Playlist
- Promote region FIRST to audition in context
- Use the Dynamic Transport to listen THROUGH phrases in context.

I’ve received some e-mails requesting the Keyboard shortcuts I was using in the above video.

- (Control+Cmd+P) Turns Dynamic Transport On or Off
- (P) Moves highlight selection Up
- ( Moves selection Down�
- (Control+Option+V) Promotes selection to Main Playlist

Happy Comping !

Invert Plugin Artifact - Null Test Workaround

David Kalmusky — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:07:11 +0000

It seems that processing a file with the Invert plugin, in pro tools, the transients get effected, in a way, that inverting the “SAME FILE” against itself, with sample accurate alignment, there are artifacts left over, from the cancellation.

This clip discusses, doing a proper controlled Null test, using the Invert Plugin (Processing both, or all audio files in the test, the “Forward Phase file” Twice, and the Out Of Phase file once. It also explains that using the Stereo Dithered Mixer, in PT HD, is definitely NOT the mixer to record tests through. The default HD Mixer, as well as Pro-Tools LE mixer, are the only Mixers suited for recording “Through”, when recording nulled results.

Drum Replacement With Massey DTM & Structure

David Kalmusky — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:33:29 +0000

Well, for the 1st post, I’d like to include a tutorial which shows a bit of my workflow in Sample Replacing / Augmenting Drums, using Masey’s DTM tool, and Structure.

After years of Tabbing through Sound Replacer created files, adjusting more of the samples, then not, for Phase accuracy, or automating out false triggers that would Plague Drumagog, not to mention phase inaccuracies that you’d have to Print, and edit out. Along comes the DTM tool, and finally makes the process, more often then not, a few clicks of Drag and Drop, with complete sample accurate placement on the entire performance, ALSO giving you the 127 Velocity points of Midi for more organic, dynamic drum parts, you’d NEVER achieve with Sound Replacer.

WaveRider Cool New Automation Drawing Plugin

David Kalmusky — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:46:03 +0000

Here’s something really new that draws automation around a wave form, keeping your audio sounding very natural, on top of a mix, allowing you to back off compression, giving you a more accurate “Automation Start Point” on 1 pass, then you could ever create manually. It’s also got a “Ducking feature”, allowing the automation of a background track, to be keyed by another track that needs to remain “On Top” of a mix.

The plugin is called WaveRider, and you can try a 30 day trial, by visiting the author’s site, and downloading it from here.

http://www.automaticmixing.com

It’s a little tricky to set up, but here’s a brief tutorial on it’s setup, and operation. **NOTE** the plugin has been updated since this video (Which was made from it’s 1st ver. Public BETA), there is now no problems with Midi instruments in the same session, and the “Default Port” is set to OFF