User Manual

TRANSPOSING AUDIO
914
Absolute vs. relative pitch editing
There are two modes for editing pitch: Absolute and
Relative, chosen from the Pitch layer mode menu
(Figure 81-2). These two modes do not change
how the audio plays back, just how it is viewed and
edited.
Absolute
Absolute mode displays pitches as directly editable
bars in a piano roll style edit layer with a vertical,
multi-octave pitch ruler along left edge of the track
lane (as shown in Figure 81-2). This mode is best
for tuning monophonic audio (i.e. solo vocals, solo
instruments, etc.)
Relative
Editing in Relative mode simply allows pitch to be
offset by some amount. The pitch ruler keyboard
shows interval offsets, mirrored above and below a
center (root) line, rather than absolute pitches
from top to bottom (Figure 81-3). The root pitch in
the pitch ruler is indicated by the track color.
Figure 81-3: Relative pitch editing mode.
Initially, Relative mode displays a single bar for the
entire soundbite (Figure 81-3), which you can drag
up and down. Use the scissor tool to split the bar
into segments, which can then be individually
dragged up or down (Figure 81-4), similar to
Absolute mode. The scissor tool responds to grid
snapping, if enabled. When dragged vertically,
pitch bars snap to the chromatic scale in the pitch
ruler. For fine-tuned adjustments, hold down
command/ctrl to override pitch snapping while
dragging vertically.
Figure 81-4: Use the scissor tool to create and drag pitch segments.
Relative mode can be used for monophonic
material, but it also works well for full mixes and
polyphonic audio, which cannot be represented
with single pitch bars.
The pitch curve
The blue pitch curve (Figure 81-2) represents the
original pitch. If you modify the pitch curve in any
way, the modified portions of the curve are
displayed in red. You can select and edit the pitch
curve directly using the Arrow tool and the Pencil
tool, as follows:
Pitch ruler keyboard with
mirrored intervals
To do this to the pitch curve Do this
To redraw the pitch curve Set the Pencil/Reshape curve
menu in the Tool palette to Free
and drag over the pitch curve
with the Pencil tool.
To select the pitch curve Drag over it with the Arrow
tool (lasso cursor), or click a
pitch segment to select the part
of the curve that it represents.
To get rid of any red portions
(modifications)
Select the curve and hit delete,
or choose Audio menu> Pitch
and Stretch > Clear Pitch.
To scale the existing curve Option/Alt-click the curve and
then drag vertically. See “Scal-
ing the pitch curve” below for
further details.
To reshape the curve Choose the desired shape from
the Pencil/Reshape curve menu
in the Tool palette, set the edit
grid resolution (if desired) and
drag over the pitch curve with
the Pencil tool.