The power of nudging in Protools!

I’m going to share with you a super simple technique to improve your vocal productions! One word…nudge. Nudging is simply sliding vocals ahead in time or back in time. Protools has a function to move audio by pressing the + or – key on the numeric keypad. Just select the part you would like to move, separate into a region (command e), then start nudging. First of all it works best for the visual if you are using the Protools grid. I will talk about the grid more soon, but the grid in Protools is showing you perfect time. So make sure the instrumental lines up with the grid perfectly. Make sure you line up instrumental with grid before recording, or you can highlight the instrumental and vocals and nudge them together to line up with grid.Assuming the instrumental is perfect with the grid, you can now visually see in protools if the vocals are too fast or too slow.. 9 times out if 10 the vocals are rushing it. Most performances rush the beat. By selecting an entire vocal phrase and nudging it back in time, we are able to correct the timing issue while keeping the “feel” of the vocal take! This is huge! By far the most simple and effective way to correct timing issues for vocals or other instrument performances! Give it a try and let me know what you think!