(Demonic) Pencil Tool in Protools

[gathernogloss]

peace.
kinda freaking out
was experimenting with pencil in protools to get some clicks out of vocals…. saved as a separate session
now what I did is creeping into my other sessions…
I’ve tried things like creating a new track then moving the audio to that- at first it will sound back to normal but then as time passes it will put the weird pencil effect to it
someone please tell me there’s something I can do to undo this

[drumsound]

What is it you're doing with the pencil tool, and what's bothering you?

[digitaldrummer]

you may want to look at the Avid documentation for keyboard shortcuts to make sure you aren't accidentally invoking the pencil tool when you mean to do something else? Or perhaps you have a sticky key on your keyboard that is doing it for you?

or are you saying that some audio that you modified with the pencil tool is finding its way into other sessions?

I think we need a more detailed explanation of what the exact issue is.

[The Scum]

It sounds like you're pressing too hard with the pencil, and it's making ruts in the sessions underneath.

[trodden]

It sounds like you're pressing too hard with the pencil, and it's making ruts in the sessions underneath.

Ha!

[Nick Sevilla]

The pencil tool is a DESTRUCTIVE editing tool.

It directly writes into the wave file.

It is recommended that you first make a COPY of the audio file you are about to edit with the pencil tool. And keep the original intact.

It's right in the reference manual:

page 648 "Waveform Repair with the Pencil Tool"

"On audio tracks, the Pencil tool lets you destructively “redraw” waveform data. This tool is most commonly used to repair a pop or click in an audio file. A pop or click appears as a sudden sharp spike in a waveform. This tool only becomes active when the Edit window is zoomed in to the sample level. Although you can Undo a Pencil tool edit, it is recommended that you create a backup copy of the target audio before using the Pencil tool. You can do this by using the AudioSuite Duplicate plug-in.

The Pencil tool is a destructive editing tool that permanently modifies the audio file on disk and should be used with caution.