If you have ever tracked and edited live multitrack drums in Pro Tools then there's a strong chance you've used Beat Detective. Beat Detective is a super-powerful, mostly automatic process in Pro Tools that can help to get a drum performance that’s played slightly off the beat into the pocket.

Beat Detective in Pro Tools provides a way of working with audio that cuts exactly at the initial transient point of audio. The beginning of each audio event, which is the transients of say a kick or snare, can then be quickly snapped and quantized to the grid value in Pro Tools. This smash and grab approach to fixing timing issues does come at a small price. Many areas within the performance will form gaps and holes due to being cut up and shuffled around the time-line.

These remaining gaps can easily be back-filled in Beat Detective with overlaps being added by appropriate crossfades. It is a pretty seamless process if done right, but what about Studio One? Is there a way to get a Beat Detective workflow here?

There is, watch this free video tutorial to see how it works.

About Marcus Huyskens Music

Marcus is a PreSonus Studio One Specialist. What Marcus doesn’t know about Studio One isn’t worth knowing. Luckily, we will share many more free video tutorials produced by Marcus just like this one over the coming months for the Studio One Expert Community to enjoy.