Audio editing 'Clipboard'

[Dave Oliffe]

I make electronic music and spend lots of time creating chops of audio, adding FX and mangling them, then bouncing them down to another track. However, doing this can get a bit clunky because I end up with lots of useless redundant audio tracks, having just bounced the audio down onto the next track below it. Deleting them can be treacherous in larger projects as I run the risk of accidently deleting tracks with other stuff on.

Forgive me if this already exists, but it would be great to be able to drag and drop a clip of audio from its original audio track, into a separate window, like a clipboard, where all edits could be made, FX added etc etc and then drag it back over to the project, thus bouncing it down onto the audio track from whence it came. So you end up with the newly-mangled audio, but the original audio track is exactly how you left it and doesn't need deleting.

[Xoo]

Not as such, but Archive and Hide might work well enough.

[Dave Oliffe]

10 minutes ago, Kevin Perry said:

Not as such, but Archive and Hide might work well enough.

Thanks, Kevin - can you elaborate on how that would work?

[scook]

Could open a second project and use it as a clipboard.

[Dave Oliffe]

Just now, scook said:

Could open a second project and use it as a clipboard.

That might work - I've actually never done that - didn't know you could open multiple projects at once!

[scook]

Make sure Allow Only One Open Project at a Time is deselected

[Dave Oliffe]

1 minute ago, scook said:

Make sure Allow Only One Open Project at a Time is deselected

Great, thank you - I'll give it a try

[Starship Krupa]

To answer your question of Kevin, I'm not sure precisely what he had in mind, but you could use Archive and Hide as follows:

Do your usual bit, but after you make the bounce, instead of deleting the original track, click on the "A" button to Archive it , then right click on its header and select Hide This Track. If there isn't already one, you could create a custom keystroke for the hiding part.

Alternately, instead of hiding them, you could make a folder for archived tracks and send archived tracks to that folder. Use the folder like the Windows Recycle Bin: don't delete the tracks in it until you're not in the excitement of your creative zone and you're absolutely sure. If you need to save screen space, you can even hide the folder. Side benefit: maybe tomorrow you listen to your project and decide you want to do something different with the track that you tortured with your Glitchmachines or Unfiltered Audio fx, it's there in your Recycle Bin folder in its unmolested state.

(Safety is part of what the Archive function is for, when you're not sure if you want to keep the track, but don't want it sucking resources. I use it all the time to save alternate takes that I don't want cluttering things up.)

I would find this simpler and less confusing than opening a second project. When I do that I find myself making mix moves on one that I meant for the other, etc. It's for special occasions only.

[Xoo]

Got it in one @Starship Krupa (and then some ideas going further).

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

I think this is a good idea, it sounds similar to the scratchpads in StudioOne ☺️

[Dave Oliffe]

On 8/15/2021 at 12:14 AM, Starship Krupa said:

To answer your question of Kevin, I'm not sure precisely what he had in mind, but you could use Archive and Hide as follows:

Do your usual bit, but after you make the bounce, instead of deleting the original track, click on the "A" button to Archive it , then right click on its header and select Hide This Track. If there isn't already one, you could create a custom keystroke for the hiding part.

Alternately, instead of hiding them, you could make a folder for archived tracks and send archived tracks to that folder. Use the folder like the Windows Recycle Bin: don't delete the tracks in it until you're not in the excitement of your creative zone and you're absolutely sure. If you need to save screen space, you can even hide the folder. Side benefit: maybe tomorrow you listen to your project and decide you want to do something different with the track that you tortured with your Glitchmachines or Unfiltered Audio fx, it's there in your Recycle Bin folder in its unmolested state.

(Safety is part of what the Archive function is for, when you're not sure if you want to keep the track, but don't want it sucking resources. I use it all the time to save alternate takes that I don't want cluttering things up.)

I would find this simpler and less confusing than opening a second project. When I do that I find myself making mix moves on one that I meant for the other, etc. It's for special occasions only.

Thanks for breaking this down for me, much appreciated. Yeah this could work - it certainly appeals to me when it comes to treating audio with care. I'm often quite cut throat with my decisions and try to bounce stuff down quickly and not allow myself to second-guess it (otherwise I'd never finish anything). However, if I'm handling someone else's audio, what you've explained here will serve me well. 

However, I still find myself wishing there was something more like my original suggestion. I get the impression there aren't many electronic music makers on Cakewalk, generally speaking - when compared to your Abletons and Reasons etc, so maybe there isn't the demand for such a thing.

[Dave Oliffe]

9 hours ago, chimkin2 said:

I think this is a good idea, it sounds similar to the scratchpads in StudioOne ☺️

Yeah, I think there would be loads of creative possibilities with it. It could be a space which encourages quick, creative decisions - perhaps you'd be able to drag any other audio on top of the clip you're working on and it automatically 'bounces to clip'. It could have splicers, a bit like 'Breaktweaker' to quickly create chops and stutters etc. But everything you do is seperate to your main project, so there's no residue anywhere, less room for mistakes etc.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

2 hours ago, Dave Oliffe said:

Yeah, I think there would be loads of creative possibilities with it. It could be a space which encourages quick, creative decisions 

Yes that's what it's used for in Studio One as well..very handy !

In Cakewalk I have to leave a space and then I use the far end of my project to use for the same sort of thing - It's a bit of a workaround as you do have have to go back and do some housekeeping towards the end so it would be nice to has this type of feature - Good call ! ☺️

Here is the S1 feature in action

 

 

[Dave Oliffe]

1 hour ago, chimkin2 said:

Yes that's what it's used for in Studio One as well..very handy !

In Cakewalk I have to leave a space and then I use the far end of my project to use for the same sort of thing - It's a bit of a workaround as you do have have to go back and do some housekeeping towards the end so it would be nice to has this type of feature - Good call ! ☺️

Here is the S1 feature in action

 

 

Thanks for sharing, yeah that's a step in the direction I'm thinking of. 

The other thing I could do is just use clip effects, rather than putting FX on the whole track. I could bounce as I go that way.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

2 minutes ago, Dave Oliffe said:

The other thing I could do is just use clip effects, rather than putting FX on the whole track. I could bounce as I go that way.

Yes I do that now already - I was thinking about it as more of a tool for writing extra parts or experimenting with them at least ☺️