Pro Tools lets you link or unlink the Timeline and Edit selections.
When the Timeline and Edit selections are linked, selecting in a track’s playlist (making an Edit selection) also defines the play and record range (the Timeline selection).
Unlinking Timeline and Edit selections lets you make a selection within a track for editing purposes that is distinct from the selection in the Timeline (which determines the playback and recording range).
If you are working on a film or video scene, you may want to unlink the Timeline and Edit selections to find or audition material that is at a different location than the current Timeline selection. Edit selections can be played (choose
Edit > Selection > Play Edit) without disrupting the current Timeline selection. Once you find the material, you can then go back to the Timeline selection and place it within the context of the scene.
The following figure illustrates another reason why you might want to unlink the Timeline and Edit selections. In this example, the Timeline selection sets a range to be looped on playback, while a MIDI clip (residing within the loop) is selected for editing purposes.
During playback, the Edit selection can be nudged, quantized, or transposed while the loop plays back completely independent and uninterrupted.
While you could theoretically do this with the Timeline and Edit selections linked, as soon as playback is stopped, the playback range would then be updated to that of the more recent edit range, or to a single note when editing MIDI.