Quick Summary
If your electric guitars are very overdriven you can lose the transients which make waveforms easy to interpret, and easy to navigate and edit using Tab To Transients in Pro Tools. Recording an additional DI track can help here even if you don’t use it in the mix.
Going Deeper
Tab To Transients is incredibly useful for editing audio in Pro Tools. But it relies on there being clearly identifiable transients in the waveform. Some sounds like drums and bass are inherently transient-rich, others, like vocals, can be less easy to navigate using transients. Electric guitars can be anywhere from having an abundance of transients to having none at all depending on the sound employed. Using this simple tip, brought to you with the support of Avid, you can make sure you always have the most clearly defined transients possible in your electric guitars.
What Is A Transient?
A transient is a rapid rise, usually closely followed by a rapid fall, in the amplitude of an audio signal. These ’spikes’ at the beginning of sounds are associated with percussive sounds but also with plucked sounds and with any sound which has a sharp attack.
These transients are easy to identify visually and transient-rich waveforms are easy to interpret. They are also useful when editing audio in Pro Tools using the Tab To Transients feature, which allows the Insertion Point to be advanced along a waveform transient by transient using the Tab key. The Tab To Transients feature doesn’t have any user customizable settings and it’s advisable to only use it advancing forwards along the timeline as transients usually present their steepest rise in level in that direction only.
Why Do Electric Guitars Lose Their Transients?
Electric guitars are usually plucked and therefore present a sharp attack transient most of the time. However increasing amounts of overdrive and distortion produce waveform clipping which removes the peaks from spikes in waveforms, reducing the transients while also reducing the overall dynamic range by increasing the sustain of held notes. The overall effect is one of a more ‘squared off’ waveform with fewer identifiable transients. The more distorted the tone the fewer transients in the waveform.
How To Use A DI To Avoid A Lack Of Transients
Many people record a DI version of an electric guitar take to keep their options open when it comes to guitar tones and mixing. Using amp modelling plugins or re-amping are all legitimate choices and even engineers who subscribe to the idea of committing to a sound at the tracking stage often take a DI as a ‘safety’. The idea of this tip however is to take a DI of a guitar which is being tracked in the traditional way, with mics in front of a speaker cabinet, so that you have an easy-to-navigate track from which you can make edits, with the edits being applied to the other guitar tracks using an Edit Group. The DI track probably won’t be used in the mix at all.
We love this tip. thanks to Mike Exeter for the inspiration.
More Use Of The Tab Key
Tab To Transients is very much one of Pro Tools’ party tricks. In my experience it’s a feature which gets the attention of new users of Pro Tools before many of them know what the Tab key does when Tab To Transients isn’t enabled. I’ve been asked in the past why someone would ever switch Tab To Transients off?
Put simply, without Tab to Transients enabled the Tab key advances the Insertion Point to the next Clip boundary. That might sound underwhelming but to many users it’s every bit as useful as Tab To Transients and there is much more to the humble Tab key than that. For a deep dive into the use of the Tab key check out the Premium Tutorial video.
How Can I Watch This Video?
If you are interested in watching Production Expert premium content you can watch the preview section of the videos for free, no charge and with no signup. If you have not yet signed up to the new platform, and you want to watch the rest of this video, and hundreds more like it, then you can by signing up for a free 7-day trial. If you aren't satisfied it is a good deal then cancel the subscription within the 7 day trial period and it won't cost you a penny. If you like it then for just $3.99 per month you can watch this and hundreds more videos like it.
If you are already an existing subscriber to our video platform, then thank you for your support and you will be able to watch this video all the way through.