MACKIE HDR24/96 - Manual (Page 88)

HDR 24/96
Regions and Audio Files
Regions
Regions can be pieces of audio, recordings, sound segments, files, or about fifteen other things. In
fact, they have been called many different things in different systems.
Technically, a region is a text or graphic representation of an entire audio file or some portion thereof.
Each region contains editable start and end boundaries (or borders), that define where within the
audio file, playback is to start and end (or where Region Looping is to start and loop). Essentially
these boundaries are used to trim off any sludge at the head and tail of the region.
A Playlist is a playback schedule (chronological list) of regions on all the available tracks within a
Project. Each region in the Playlist has a start time (or position) at which it begins playing on its track
as measured from the start of the Project. As mentioned, only the portion of the original audio file
that falls within the editable boundaries of the Region will play at that time.
So the audio is in a file, but the know-how to play it back is in the "region." Thus, the Region in the
HDR is the fundamental unit for recording, playback, and editing.
Whenever a recording pass is made, a Region consisting of the entire audio file is created. Visually,
this appears as a block (or “occupied region”, hence the name) in the Track area of the screen,
extending horizontally from the beginning to the end of the recording. Right after the recording pass,
playback of the new Region will include the entire originally recorded audio file.
Simultaneously, the name of the Region is added to the Regions List. The list is a bookkeeping
system which allows you to access any recorded region in its entirety – no edits, with all its warts – at
any time, should you wish to re-edit it or use it in another place in the project, or even in a different
project. Its name is inherited from the Track upon which you recorded it, so it is still (at this point)
quite clear that the two regions refer to the same recording.
Block Regions on the Track display and the Region List shown at the right
Any Region on the Track can be trimmed to represent and playback only a portion of the audio file
for playback. Grab and slide the edges of a Region with the mouse to modify its playback boundaries
(this does not, by the way, stretch or compress the actual time to play the whole file). Or "open" the
Region into the Region Editor where various parameters can be modified. Further, you will create
new regions (still using the same recorded audio) by cutting, copying, and/or pasting sections of an
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