TomHelvey
Hey guys, thanks for the responses.
It sounds like everyone has had similar experience with it and have given up as well.
Does anyone actually use it in production?
If so, for what?
 

I don't use it that much, but that is because my workflow doesn't require it that often.  Even for things like chopping breakbeats, i have discovered that i would rather chop and map to pads to be triggered than correct the time and lose the swing that gives them the feel that makes them special.
 
I think what frustrates people about audiosnap is similar to what frustrates people with tools like Melodyne.  The sample videos and marketing materials give some the impression that it is a quick fix tool.  The most basic of tools can be time savers, but honestly, the real power in either takes a lot of time and effort to get desired results.  Some ask why bother with this tool if so much work still needs to be done?  i suppose that is a question everyone has to reconcile on their own.  For me , i like having it on hand and occasionally use it. no tool that is in essence a repair tool should be a regularly used feature.  Many times you are better off just doing another take. Fix it in post is a poor strategy.  I think chuck uses audiosnap a lot and has made videos that show practical applications

dubdisciple
  I think chuck uses audiosnap a lot and has made videos that show practical applications

where are the videos?

Maybe itr wasn't chuck.  I know it was on youtube. here is one from karl tha tmay help: https://www.youtube.com/w...o&feature=youtu.be

thx dub.  NOT giving up, as I could really use this feature in many situations.  Lots of free form tracks that I deal with, and asked to add music.  I'd either like to *straighten up* the supplied track or give me a tempo map that I can add MIDI stuff to.

Someone on the forum posted a really detailed use of audiosnap with a multi-track drum session that was well done but i can't recall who.

The CakeTV Webinar Seth and Ryan did a couple years ago called Drum Production showed how to use Audiosnap on multi tracked drums to do correction work. It's pretty informative. There was Cake Blog post recently (by Dan Gonzalez I think) that was essentially a step by step tutorial on working with Audiosnap and even provided test files to work along with inside Sonar.

I use AudioSnap for only a few things: lining up tight vocal harmonies, correcting bass guitar sloppiness, lining up hand percussion, and for generating a tempo map from a live drum track. The latter works well if you have a separate kick or snare mike to key off of. It's the only scenario in which AudioSnap is a simple "click here for magic" operation.
 
Bass works best if you only use initial transients to quantize a note start to the beat. I'll typically delete all but the first detected transient, so I'm essentially just moving whole notes around with little or no stretching. Sometimes it's easier to just split-and-nudge instead of bringing out AudioSnap, if there are only a couple notes that need tweaking.
 
The vocal alignment procedure is labor-intensive because you have fewer reliable transients to lock onto. I typically delete 50-80% of the detected transients and often move the remaining ones visually or insert my own. This works OK because for vocals you're usually only trying to line up consonants, starts of phrases and durations of held notes. It's rarely worth the effort for a lead vocal alone, but it pays off for multi-part harmonies.
 
At least in these limited applications, AudioSnap is a wonderful convenience that really works. I just wouldn't trust it on anything that didn't have well-defined transients (e.g. strummed guitar).
 

I use AudioSnap a lot for touch-up, including guitar. I use it for what it does well, and rarely have needs that go beyond that. I've mentioned using Live for tweaking program material for use in Traktor, which doesn't allow for warping, but have never fixed something in Live than imported it into SONAR. I don't use AudioSnap on program material, I use it on the individual tracks that make up the program material.
 
This talks about the transient map and why it's important:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3107362
 
This is "AudioSnap made easy," and how I use it 80% of the time:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3110584
 
The remaining 20% is splitting clips into beats and using the pool to snap tracks to each other (e.g., bass to kick).
 
But the most important point is this: AudioSnap is designed for correction, and like any type of correction - pitch correction, noise reduction, etc. - the less correction is needed, the more effective the corrective process.
 
 

mixmkr
I've tried it several times trying to create a tempo map to a freely played instrument part...so I could add MIDI drums, etc.  It has always been a failure and trying to figure it out each time was laborious to say the least.

This has been my primary purpose and frustration as well. I have not sought to stretch or make something fit to tempo, but rather SONAR's tempo map match the audio. For this I have sort of given up with AS and fallen back on using Shift-M, which is significantly more forgiving to me.
 
One thing that bothers me lately is I have popped open a few low-end VSTs recently and the bpm in them is spot on loading a file, even for a commercial mix... it is almost like the beat detection algorithm has EQ baked into it to isolate frequency bands. I am not sure how AS works, but using "non-percussive" often falls apart on me, when other programs/VSTs seem to be fine with an entire mix (things not even doing any AS functions even).
 
Then again, it may be the lack of patience with AS that really gets me.

Anderton
I use AudioSnap a lot for touch-up, including guitar. (...)

Hi Anderton,
I don't have Audio Snap yet, but I am planning to upgrade and what I was hoping to find in Audio Snap is a tool that helps me tightening up bass and rhythm guitar parts and get them in line with programmed drum parts. Reading this thread I got a bit concerned with so many critical voices saying guitar parts could be problematic because they don't have transients that are as distinct as e.g. drum parts.
I read your Friday's Tip but haven't fully understood what to get out of it. Is it is proof that guitar corrections will work or only to some extent or only with a different approach.
And what did you do in that example and what was done automatically by Audio Snap.
Were the transient markers in track 3 set automatically and then you dragged them all by hand? Or were they aligned/dragged/corrected automatically (what I thought was the way Audio Snap would typically work).
Sorry if this seems obvious but since I couldn't try it myself I have to ask.