Why do screen shots of Track View in magazines always show dozens of discrete clips?

When I see screen shots of the Track View of music done on DAWs (usually Pro Tools) in magazines such as Sound On Sound, the screen shot shows the tracks populated by dozens of discrete clips separated by blank space in between the clips. I have often wondered about why this is so.
 
Do recording have to be chopped up to leave blank spots where there is no audio? This would ensure no noise between musical phrases, but must be labour intensive to do all that chopping up over many tracks. Or, is this something that Pro Tools does for you? And is it something that the "professionals" do to keep their recordings "pristine".
 
Then, why do we bounce to clips, if all audio needs to in discrete chunks? Just wondering...

That is an interesting question, and my "hunch" is that it may be used to avert FX that may react to audio even if it is silence (although none come to mind readily). It also allows for editing to be more discrete (which may be the real reason). Clips also allow for FX to be used on a clip-level rather than in the entire track, which can mitigate CPU-intensive plugs.
 
From a "disk usage" perspective, a clip is simply a window into the underlying wav file, so it is possible to have a 40GB wav file but only be using 1 MB of it (incredibly extreme example). After I get to a certain point in editing, I will bounce clips to create a new audio file for the simple reason that playing a single wav file is easy (is all Windows Media Player does) and not CPU/disk intensive at all.
 
From a "big picture" perspective, I think this is more a matter of taste, since machines now have enough RAM/speed that "clips all over" isn't going to cause issues unless it gets "too intense" (like the extreme example above).

paulo
Remove Silence function is your friend here - I have it set up as a keyboard shortcut so it really isn't a big deal to do it. If you keep all the "silent" parts  that still takes up space on your hard drive, which will mount up after a while.
I also find it makes it easier to identify what's going on visually, but YMMV.

Now I wasn't aware of this function, that is, I wasn't aware of what it was used for as I have never tried it. Must try.
 

mettelus
That is an interesting question, and my "hunch" is that it may be used to avert FX that may react to audio even if it is silence (although none come to mind readily). It also allows for editing to be more discrete (which may be the real reason). Clips also allow for FX to be used on a clip-level rather than in the entire track, which can mitigate CPU-intensive plugs.
 
From a "disk usage" perspective, a clip is simply a window into the underlying wav file, so it is possible to have a 40GB wav file but only be using 1 MB of it (incredibly extreme example). 

 
I had no idea this was the case.

Kalle Rantaaho
I see that particularly in tutorials about using loops and samples.
The most common subject  in hobbyist mags (like Computer Music) is how to use sampled single hits or such in projects. Those usually start with a few bar drum loop, which is split into single hits which are FX'd individually, reversed and blaablaawhatever to make them really cool :o/ and the rhythm tracks are actually build of single hits.
Also, guitar or horn riff (loops) are dropped here there accordingly directly from the sample/loop libraries

 
Yes, I am aware of these situations, but in the case of SOS, they are showing completed famous recordings.
 
 

Karyn, yes I do that too. But I was under the impression that you then bounced all the clips to one contiguous clip.
Guess I was wrong. As mettelus explains, it save disk space by leaving gaps.

Paul P

optimus
Now I wasn't aware of this function, that is, I wasn't aware of what it was used for as I have never tried it. Must try.

There's a current thread about some problems with this function :  Remove Silence Question.
 

I must be doing something wrong then as it has never caused me any problems.

^^^ Best answer.
 
Sadly, a big part of the explanation is also that modern pop productions are increasingly assembled Lego-style by cutting and pasting the same clip over and over, often a canned loop.

I have noticed this with PT tutorials as well. I always wondered because it seems to be that the clips are split into musical phrases, rather than just chunks of the song like "chorus" etc. I could understand if the phrases had been punched in one at a time, but I'm guessing it's more likely that the parts were recorded in full and then split into phrases manually. I was watching one with a wah-wah guitar part split into phrases and I thought there's no way they were punched in separately.

I'm not sure I buy the disc saving explanation, seems like a pretty weak effort/reward trade off. Personally I've always wondered if some people just like to have their set out as split clips so that they have an instant overview of which instruments are playing when. If every track is one long clip, this is harder to see at a glance.

Did you notice if any of the clips were from VSTi's? If so then that would be significant since you know they would have bounced to one long clip and then split it manually. Unless of course they bounced little sections at a time with different synth settings to save having to automate it (I do that myself sometimes).

Kev999

sharke
...I'm not sure I buy the disc saving explanation...

 
I agree. It won't save anything if the WAV file corresponding to the original large clip is still in the Audio folder.

When I'm done with the tracking side of the project, I "save as" to another location. I have always been under the impression that this copies only the audio that is actually used in the project and discards the rest. Are you saying that this is incorrect ?
 

mettelus
When you bounce a clip, SONAR creates a new audio file, so the old one is "released" and no longer required by the project. AFAIK, if you slip-edit a wave file to a small clip, the save as is going to copy the entire wave file (not the clip window). This is something easy to check though, simply expand a clip edge and see if there is audio data behind it.
 
The only way to create a new file is bounce it. Again, if they are bounced together you get silence between them; the only way to make them "smaller" is to bounce each individual clip.

I thought that checking the "split clips" box in the Remove Silence dialogue took care of this ?

Whoa! This is getting far too complex for my meagre brain.
 

optimus
Whoa! This is getting far too complex for my meagre brain.
 

Well, you did ask......

Kev999

paulo

Kev999

sharke
...I'm not sure I buy the disc saving explanation...

 
I agree. It won't save anything if the WAV file corresponding to the original large clip is still in the Audio folder.

 
When I'm done with the tracking side of the project, I "save as" to another location. I have always been under the impression that this copies only the audio that is actually used in the project and discards the rest. Are you saying that this is incorrect?

 
No, that's certainly correct. But it only saves HDD space if you delete the original project.

Yup, obviously.

Yup.... I have seen those kind of pics and screen shots and many of them look, quite obviously to be loops that were dragged in and placed.
 
And yeah.... if I have the time to spare/waste, or it's noticeable.... I will use one of several methods, depending on the mood I'm in, to remove the noise between phrases with a mic recording..... I generally either process audio/mute, or use envelopes .... both have the same effect as deleting a clip without making the wave look all chopped up in the track view with a bunch of clips.

Most pop songs look like they do in PT because it can.  There are a couple of things you don't want to see getting made - legislation, sausage and pop music.  Everything is beat matched - nothing can be off the grid.  Nothing not the slightest untuned, no accidents (and we aren't talking about notes).  A lot of the tools that exist were to fix mistakes.  Now it is used to fix what is right.  So what is integral to EDM and DM is now mainstream and squeezes the life out of rock and even pop, cause life is slop.  Or at least rock and roll was.  It was about emotion much more than precision.
 
Of course, major productions used to have great players.  I think the Wrecking Crew movie is out - everyone should see it.  Them boys can play.  And they also added that indefinable something that is what music is about.  The walking bass line from "These boots are made for walking" was something Carol Kane, the bassist, came up with on the spot.  And basically defined the song and walking bass lines forever more.  Now even I can sound as tight as Ms. Kane, but it doesn't mean PT will come up with the intro to the song on its own.  But if that walking bass got played in the break, it is easy as pie to copy and paste a walking bass line for the intro.  Maybe fix a few notes up so it doesn't sound exactly the same or put it in a better key going in.  But it won't provide the genius to do it.  And for that you have to cut it into a phrase or bar.
 
@
 
 

bitflipper
The fact that nobody buys recorded music anymore has a potential silver lining: live music might make a comeback as a result, and not just mega-acts in mega-venues.

Having attended a few very small venue concerts in recent years, there's an incredible richness to the experience that has nothing to do with precision or mistakes or anything technical.  It all happens at the level of the relationship with the performer/s, something completely absent in recorded music.