Nudging selections without a numeric keypad

[Robin Kipp]

Hi everyone,
OK, so I’ve been able to record some stuff in PT 11, play around with various options and everything seems pretty good so far! Now, I actually wanted to select part of a track I recorded and then cut that out. I can make a selection with the down and up arrow keys just fine, but I’m having trouble nudging the selection for fine tuning. I know this can be done using keys 1 and 2 on a numeric keypad, but unfortunately since I’m using a Bluetooth keyboard there’s no numeric keypad that I can use… I’ve read that the period and comma keys can also be used to nudge forwards and backwards, but that doesn’t seem to work for me… Am I doing something wrong here, or could this be related to the other keyboard problem I’m having where command + spacebar won’t start recording?
Many thanks to all of you for any hints! :-)
Robin

[Robin Kipp]

Oh, bit of confusion here! Looks like the nudge commands on the keypad are - and +, not 1 and 2 like I wrote… Sorry for that! I’ve been reading PT-related stuff for quite a few hours now, seems like I got to the point where I start mixing things up… :-)

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[Scott Chesworth]

Hi Robin,

Glad you've found the correct shortcuts for nudging from the keyboard.
FYI though, you'll definitely want to pick up an external numpad if
you're going to make Pro Tools your daily driver. It's something I
can't really imagine living without. PT isn't as customizable as other
DAWs when it comes to keyboard shortcuts, and a heavy emphasis is
placed on the numpad.

Cheers

Scott

[Slau Halatyn]

Hi Robin,

As Scott mentioned, you'll definitely want to get the Apple Pro keyboard. The numeric keypad is indispensable and, while there are blue Tooth keypads out there, you won't be able to use modifiers from one Blue Tooth device to modify key clicks from another Blue Tooth device so it doesn't really work as a solution to cobble together 2 separate wireless keyboards. Go for the extended keyboard. It's worth it.

Nudging won't work unless you've selected a clip. Making a selection in the timeline is not the same as selecting a clip. If a clip is selected in its entirety, the nudge command will work. If you've made a selection, you can "capture" a clip with, if I remember correctly, Command-r (but don't quote me, it's in the Edit menu at any rate. this will create a clip from your selection which you could then nudge but the capture clip command will ask you to name the clip. It's kind of a roundabout way of doing things. Normally, I'd separate the clip at the first point with Command-e, move the insertion point or simply let the audio play until the next point, separate again with Command-e. Now you have two cuts in the waveform. If you're on the second cut, use Option-shift-tab to select back to the previous clip boundary and now you can nudge. While everything I've said thus far will get the job done, of course, there's a whole lot to consider when editing and this is just one aspect. Naturally, there are some tutorials out there that will explain things from the beginning.

Hope that helps,

Slau

[Shawn Brock]

Very true. I use a Mac book Pro for my daily workflow, and this means I also had to invest in an external keyboard. What I have found is generally you can pick up a nice Apple keyboard with the number pad pretty cheaply on eBay. Or all else, I think they are $40 direct from Apple. A small price to pay for the convenience. Of that I am certain.

Sent from my iPhone

[Robin Kipp]

Hi Scott, Slau and Shawn,
thank you all very much for your detailed explanations concerning nudging and the significance of the number pad in PT!
So, today I went to an Apple Store to pick up a full-size Apple USB keyboard… After hooking it up to my Mac, I was able to do all the selecting and nudging without any problems so that’s definitely wonderful! Also, after further following the Pro Tools With Speech tutorials and getting into the editing module, I found that the numpad is used in so many ways, e.g. to place markers and quickly navigate to them! I do think that this is a pretty cool concept now that I spent some time playing with it, so I guess I do agree with Scott there - a small price to pay for the convenience. :-)
Robin