Automatically create Crossfades on edit

[Prime Mover]

Question for all of you macro/QuicKeys users (bare with me here):

In my line of sound design work, I'm meticulously pouring over field recordings, listening for digital or acoustic artifacts, and making hundreds, if not thousands of tiny snip edits (cmd-j) at a time, then sowing them up with short crossfades (cmd-f). My order of operation is thus:

1. make selection
2. press Cmd-J (I've now created a second shortcut of "0" number pad)
3. re-select over the edit
4. press Ctrl-F (secondary shortcut F15)
5. Hit enter
6. click back about 0.5 seconds from the edit.
7. Hit space to play over and review the edit for any new artifacts. If okay, let it continue playing until the next edit.

Needless to say, it's tedious as hell, but it's good work, and other parts of the job make it all worthwhile. But I get tired of doing the same damned process 10-thousand times a day, and frankly, even as a working keyboardist who also plays 3-6 hours a day, my hands are RAW after doing those same finger movements so many times.

I really wish DP had some command like Cmd-J, but that would also automatically put in the currently selected crossfade, but it's pretty clear from my searches that it doesn't. It would be totally worth my while to invest in some kind of macro program to automate all those button presses for me, but considering they require making regional selections (selecting over the edit before fade command, and then repositioning the playhead before the edit for review), I'm not sure there's any easy way to do this.

Any ideas?

[FMiguelez]

Perhaps you could try doing all your snips first, and then simply select everything (command-a) and apply the crossfades in one fell swoop (control-f)? This would work unless you need detailed and different crossfades for each edit, of course.
Then you can just play the sequence of snippets to check for funky fades and correct as needed.

I'm pretty sure that a good macro could be created with QK or KM, except for the selecting parts... No way around that. But for firing the shorctus and playing from 0.5 seconds before each edit should be doable.

I'll think about it to see if I can come up with something good.


Yes. Be careful with your hands. You don't want to develop related problems due to overuse!

BTW, which recorder are you using for your field work, if you don't mind my asking?
How are you managing all those resulting files?

I want to get into this as well, mostly to incorporate interesting and unique mangled sounds into my music. It sounds like so much fun! And I've heard it is addictive...

[bleach30]

If you are using the same type of crossfade for your edits then you can use "Fade Again..." (control+option+F)

This will add your fades in one go without having to hit enter..but it uses the last fade type you used in the fades dialogue box.

[bleach30]

Oh yeah...there is also a "Play From Selection Start" in the commands list. My shortcut for that is (X).
So you can start playback from the selection you made while creating fades.

[dbawmp]

This is what I came up with using Quickeys. I'm sure there are multiple ways of achieving this. I'm using i-beam tool, Auto Rewind, Link Selection to Memory & this quickeys shortcut. Hope it gives you some ideas!

[Prime Mover]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I didn't know about the "Fade Again" command, I'll have to look into that. I downloaded a trial of Keyboard Maestro, and setup automation on everything besides the initial selection, and click to playback, and already it's FAR faster than before. In the time that the script is running (about half a second), I can move the cursor back to before the edit and get ready to click/play to review. I'll check out that QuicKeys script dbawmp made, though, thanks for putting in the time to figure it out!