Editing

All VS workstations include a set of track editing functions. On some machines, these editing functions are referred to as region editing functions. For now, we'll just refer to them as track editing functions. Some workstations also have a set of phrase editing functions, and those details will be covered in the appropriate workstation-specific chapters.

When you edit audio on the VS, you're actually just editing sets of pointers that tell the VS how to play the data. This is referred to as non-destructive editing. The benefit of non-destructive editing is that you are not editing the actual audio, just the pointers. This means you can perform an edit, and if you don't like it, you can undo it. This also means that you can be creative and experiment with different edits, knowing that you can always get back to where you started.

All track editing functions require you to specify starting points and ending points. These starting and ending points are called IN and OUT points, or START and END points, depending on the VS model you are working with. Some functions also allow you to set FROM points and TO points. Using a FROM point allows you to set a reference point within the source section of data to be moved or copied and allows you to place that reference point in a particular location (TO point) in the target data.

Let's take a look at some of these track editing functions. Depending on which VS model you have, there may be additional parameters and controls within these functions, and some functions may have limited use.

Copy

This will copy a section of audio to another location. You can copy audio within the existing V-Track, to a different V-Track within the same recording track, or to a V-Track on a different recording track. If audio already exists at the destination, it will be overwritten, although some VS models give you the option to insert within the existing audio. You can also have multiple copies of the data placed in the destination V-Track.

Move

Move is similar to Copy, except the section of audio on the source V-Track will be replaced with silence. Like the Copy function, if audio already exists at the destination, it will be overwritten, although some VS models give you the option to insert within the existing audio.

Erase

Use Erase to remove a section of audio from a V-Track. After the Erase, that section of audio will be silent.

Cut

Similar to Erase, Cut removes a section of audio from a V-Track. However, all data that occurs after the cut section is shifted forward in time so that there is no gap of silence.

Insert

Insert is the opposite of Cut. It will insert blank space into a V-Track at a given point. All data after that point is shifted backward in time.

Compression/Expansion

This function allows you to time-shrink or time-stretch a section of audio and select whether the pitch should be changed or kept. This function is good for small sections of audio, but it may not provide satisfactory results for large sections of audio.