Saving Space with Linear Audio in Pro Tools (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this tutorial, I covered the process for getting started, staying organized, and identifying and removing silent gaps. For Part 2, I go through more space-saving tips by demonstrating how I look for opportunities to reuse the same audio clips in multiple places. If this part is not an option for your project, please skip ahead to Part 3,  PREPARING THE SESSION DATA.

FORMATTING FOR REPEATED AUDIO

Accounting for the space allotted for audio, flow of language, etc., the process for identifying and removing repeated audio differs between projects. In an example taken from this project, the text in parentheses shows the instances where repeated audio was identified and qualified for reuse:

A. “Eins. / Zähl bis / (Eins) / Eins! / Wow!”
B. “Zwei. / (Zähl bis) / (Zwei) / Eins Counting / Zwei Counting / Gut gemacht!”
C. “Drei. / (Zähl bis) / (Drei) / (Eins Counting) / (Zwei Counting) / Drei Counting / Super!”

The audio referenced within these parentheses is removed and replaced with the audio files that preceded them. For instance, in line A, the second appearance of “Eins” was very similar to the first, thus it was replaced by that first instance. Once files are replaced, it will appear in the timeline that the files are out of sequence, but this is merely the order by which the files will be called when in the process of programming. See below:

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Similar to removing the silent gaps, this process is repeated until all duplicate files are removed and replaced. In Part 3, I show how to prepare and export the session data for programming. Should you have any questions, please contact me via the social media links below or feel free to email me directly, [email protected]. Thanks for reading!