Event Confidence

Transient events are detected with a certain degree of confidence. The level of confidence is based on the relative clarity of transients.

For example, a drum loop is likely to have clear, sharp transients. These will be detected with a high degree of confidence. However, a legato violin melody may not have clear, sharp transients, so transients will be detected with a lower degree of confidence.

Note that peak amplitude is not the most important measure for event confidence. The clarity of transients is measured in part by the spectral transition from one moment to the next. This tends to favor higher frequency content in terms of event confidence. For example, changing the Event Sensitivity in the Elastic Properties window for a selected drum loop results in the clearer transients of the higher frequency hi-hat hits having more event confidence than the less well defined transients of the lower frequency kick drum hits even though kick drum hits have a higher peak amplitude.

Pro Tools is very aggressive with its transient detection in order to detect every possible audio event. Consequently, it is possible to have erroneously detected events. These events will be analyzed with a low degree of confidence and can be filtered out by lowering the Event Sensitivity in the Elastic Properties window (see Event Sensitivity Property). Filtering out any false transients can result in higher quality Elastic Audio processing.

Conversely, for material with few clear transients, Elastic Audio analysis may not accurately detect audio events, and those detected may be detected with a low level of confidence. You can relocate or add Event markers where necessary in Analysis view (see Editing in Analysis View).

For example, a slow synth pad may not have clear transients and detected Event markers may be incorrectly located or may have not been detected at all. In Analysis view, you can relocate, remove, and add Event markers as necessary (such as where the chord changes). Accurately locating Event markers yields better results when applying Elastic Audio processing.

When processing non-rhythmic audio (such as legato strings) with the Polyphonic plug-in, reducing the number of Event markers often yields better sounding results. You can either manually remove Event markers in Analysis view (see Editing in Analysis View) or lower the Event Sensitivity setting in the Elastic Properties window for the clip you want to process (see Elastic Properties Window).