Spotting Clips

For more information, see the following topics:

Right-Click Commands for Spotting Clips

Clip Time Stamps

Spot mode is useful for sessions in which you want to spot clips to precise locations based on any of the Time Scales. This is useful when performing post production tasks. In Spot mode you can spot a clip by specifying a SMPTE frame or bar and beat location, by capturing an incoming timecode address, or by using the clip’s time stamps.

For even quicker spotting, if you are using VITC, use the Auto-Spot Clips command to spot a clip to the current SMPTE frame location with the Time Grabber tool. For more information, see Auto-Spotting Clips.

For more information on using SMPTE with Pro Tools, see Working with Synchronization.

To spot a clip:

1 Enable Spot mode (see Edit Modes).

2 Do one of the following:

Drag a clip from the Clip List, or drag audio files or sessions from a DigiBase browser, to an existing track.

– or – 

Click a clip already in a track with the Time Grabber tool.

3 In the Spot dialog, select a time format from the Time Scale pop-up menu.

Each of the fields in the Spot dialog are dis played in the chosen Time Scale.

 

Spot dialog

4 If the Time Scale is set to Timecode, select the Use Subframes option to display subframes in the fields for improved accuracy.

5 Do one of the following:

Click in the field for Start, Sync Point, or End and type in a new location. Changing one of these locate points automatically updates the other locate points.

Click one of the up arrows next to Original Time Stamp or User Time Stamp to enter the associated values into the currently selected field.

If you are using an external SMPTE timecode source, click the down arrow next to the Current Timecode display—or press Equal (=) on the numeric keypad—to capture an incoming timecode address.

6 Click OK. The clip is moved to the new location specified for its start, end, or sync point.

If a clip does not have a sync point defined, the Sync Point field in the Spot dialog functions the same as the Start field.