For any Pro Tools veteran burdened with replacing a mountain of sounds, the first port of call is a trusty sound bank. We need gunshots galore, and we need them fast. The second is tab-to-transient; otherwise, most of your time navigating the arrange window will be spent clicking around, and we don't have time for this. The budget is running out faster than the post-production schedule will allow.
One alternative to doing it manually is Audiokids Synchronicity Sound and Foley replacer. This Audiosuite plugin (Mac only) lets you load existing audio and replacement audio from your Pro Tools project timeline, and swap one for the other, automatically and with perfect timing. Find out more about it at our Audiokids Synchronicity page.
Step 1: Load sounds into the clip list
Step 2: Replace Clip Function
Now that your new gunshot sounds are easily located in the clip list, you can use the replace clip function to switch out your most important gunshot sounds. The replace clip function can be achieved by selecting the sound you want to replace and right-clicking on the new sound you want and selecting 'Replace Clip' (See image below).
Alternatively, you can hold down Command-Shift (For Mac) or Ctrl-Shift (for PC), while dragging the gunshot replacement audio from the clip menu onto the clip(s) you wish to replace. Once you have done this or the previous method, a menu will appear that will dictate how your replacement clip is integrated. We recommend keeping the length of the replacement clip unless there are lots of gunshots of the same type in close proximity. If that is the case, use the selected clip length to avoid overlap.
Step 3: SoundReplacer
For background gunshot sounds that contain shots of varying dynamics, a useful tool is Pro Tools' own Sound Replacer. Highlight the audio and open up SoundReplacer (in the Audiosuite drop-down menu), the highlighted audio should show up within the SoundReplacer display window (if nothing shows up, try using the golden arrow keys to zoom in or out of the display).
SoundReplacer uses threshold levels to trigger the replacement of a sound (with up to three options available). Firstly, you must upload the gun sounds you intend to incorporate by clicking on the floppy disk icons underneath the yellow, red, and blue faders.
Yellow sets the lowest threshold, red the medium threshold, and blue the highest, maximum threshold.
Move the yellow threshold faders so that the lowest amplitude peak in your highlighted audio passes the threshold, then continue with the red and blue faders until you are happy with the array. The peaks will show which sample is being triggered by highlighting them red, yellow, or blue.
Once you are happy with the threshold levels and your parameters (we tend to leave these as is), you can render your replacement audio. The rendered audio will replace the highlighted audio within your timeline, matching the dynamics and phase of the original audio.
With plugins like Audiokids Synchronicity, you can go much deeper into clip replacement. It's an Audiosuite plugin (Mac only) that lets you select your original audio and replacement audio on the Pro Tools timeline, then swap the old with the new, while keeping each 'event' in perfect timing.
Find out more about the plugin and see examples on our Audiokids Synchronicity page.
