THE ART OF DIGITAL AUDIO RECORDING
segment of that initial recording that you have subdivided into a sub-region. This screenshot shows a region of a complete recording (beginning to end) and then, duplicated on the channel below, that region divided into sub-regions).
SCREENSHOT 4.1 Regions and sub-regions
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SCREENSHOT 4.2 Region and sub-region list
Typically, all regions and sub-regions are simply referred to as regions, but the distinction may be important when editing. The region created by each full recording pass is a complete entity, whereas sub-regions created from smaller elements of these regions can be restored to include the entire region. The full region created from each complete recording pass is what is stored on the hard drive. The sub-regions are simply an instruction by the DAW program to play only a part of the original recording. In Pro Tools, the initial region is indicated in bold type in the regions list and the sub-regions are listed below it in regular type. There may be several different ways to create sub-regions from the initial recording. These are basic editing operations that differ within different DAWs, but the principle— the ability to create very accurately timed sub-regions—is essential to much of the editing process. The segment later in this section on edit modes will define the ways that regions can be created and controlled before they are edited.
Cut, copy, paste The most basic kind of audio editing is just like editing with a word processor or just about any other computer program, and it begins with the ability to cut, copy, or paste audio regions. Cutting, copying, and pasting is made possible by the DAW’s use of a clipboard, which is a temporary holding place for data. When any piece of data is either cut or copied, it is placed on the clipboard and available for pasting, but only one unit of data can be put on the clipboard at a time. It remains there until another bit of data has been either cut or copied. A whole universe of editing can be done with these most basic tools—cut, copy, and paste combined with the clipboard function that keeps data available to you as you work.