Ambience Cutter — User Guide

Before You Start — Pro Tools Prerequisites

Ambience Cutter communicates directly with Pro Tools via PTSL. Before doing anything, make sure these two options are active in the Pro Tools Edit window toolbar:

• Link Timeline and Edit Selection
• Link Track and Edit Selection

The Basic Workflow

Ambience Cutter always works in two steps: SCAN first, then EXECUTE.

There is no shortcut — you must scan before every edit. The scan reads the session and stores a reference internally. Execute then uses that reference to perform the edit.

• SCAN → reads your current selection and stores clip/marker data
• EXECUTE → performs the edit using the stored scan data

Two Engines: Clips Mode and Markers Mode

Ambience Cutter has two completely separate engines. They do not share scan data.

Clips Mode (default)

The standard workflow. You select one or more clips on a track, SCAN, then EXECUTE. The engine repositions each clip so that the ambience fills the gaps between them seamlessly, trimming or extending each clip’s edges to match.

Workflow:

1. Select the clips you want to edit in Pro Tools
2. Press SCAN → plugin reads and stores the clips
3. Press EXECUTE → edit is performed

Markers Mode

Markers mode repositions clips to align with memory locations (markers) in your session. Useful when you want to anchor clips to specific points in the timeline.

Workflow:

1. Place markers in Pro Tools where you want clips to land
2. Select the region containing your clips
3. Toggle MARKERS MODE on in the plugin
4. Press SCAN → plugin reads the markers in your selection
5. Press EXECUTE → clips are repositioned to align with the markers

Important: Markers mode pairs clips to markers in order — first clip to first marker, second clip to second marker, and so on. If you have more clips than markers, the extra clips are left untouched.

Critical Rule: Scan and Execute Must Match

You cannot scan in one mode and execute in another.

• If you scan in Clips Mode, then switch to Markers Mode and press Execute — it will not work correctly.
• If you scan in Markers Mode, then switch to Clips Mode — same problem.

Fade Mode Button (+1 to +5 frames)

The Fade Mode button has two zones:

• Left side — toggles Fade In/Out Mode ON/OFF
• Right side (small arrow) — opens a menu to select how many frames to add at each edit point (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5)

When active, the engine extends each clip edge by the selected number of frames before cutting. This gives you a small handle of extra audio at each edit point — useful for crossfades or to avoid hard cuts. Default is 1 frame. You can go up to 5 frames for softer transitions.

Fades Clone Mode

When FADES CLONE is active, the engine reads the existing fades on your clips and recreates them at the new edit points after repositioning.

Requirements:

• Your clips must already have fades on them before you press SCAN
• The fades must be within the selected region
• FADES CLONE must be ON before scanning, not after

Keep / Delete the Source Clip

After Execute, by default the clip you selected for editing — the source reference used by the engine to fill the gaps — is removed from the timeline. You can change this with the Keep / Delete toggle:

• Delete (default) — the source clip is removed after the edit is complete
• Keep — the source clip remains in the timeline

Use “Keep” when you want to compare the result with the original, or when you want the option to undo cleanly.

Crossfade Repeats

When the engine creates repeated sections of ambience, it can optionally place a crossfade at each repetition seam. The Crossfade Repeats toggle controls this.

• ON (default) — a crossfade is placed at each loop point, smoothing the join
• OFF — cuts are left clean, no crossfade at loop points

Zoom

The plugin UI can be resized using the zoom control. Supported levels: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%. All controls remain fully functional at any zoom level.

Common Mistakes

• “0 clips found” even though I have clips selected
  → Check that both Link Timeline and Link Track and Edit Selection are active in Pro Tools. If either is OFF, the plugin warns you and stops.
• “Scan clips first” when I press Execute
  → You pressed Execute without scanning first, or you switched mode after scanning. Scan again in the correct mode.
• Fades clone is not replicating my fades
  → Make sure your clips already have fades before pressing SCAN. If you add fades after scanning, scan again.
• Markers mode says “No clips selected”
  → Make sure you have a clip selected in the track, not just a timeline selection with no track selected. Both Link options must be active.

Recommended Workflow Summary

1. Set both Link options ON in Pro Tools
2. Choose your mode (Clips or Markers)
3. Choose your settings (Add Frames, Fades Clone, Keep/Delete, Crossfade)
4. Make your selection in Pro Tools
5. Press SCAN
6. Press EXECUTE

Practical Example: Adding Multi-track Layers

This example demonstrates how to add new stereo layers to an alternating sequence of mono clips that follow picture cuts. Because this is an addition to an existing edit, the reference mono clips already have one-frame fades.

The Setup: Our reference is a single MONO river file that has been split and alternated across two tracks to match picture cuts and sound perspectives (e.g., Track 1 is used for the “close-up” shots, Track 2 for the “wide shots”). The clips already have fades. We want to add two new stereo files to this sequence.

Step 1: Prep the new files
Choose long audio files suitable for the scene and place them on the timeline to the right of your edited clips. Since our reference edit alternates between two tracks, we need to duplicate our new stereo tracks so we have 4 target tracks in total (Tracks 1 & 2 for the first stereo file, Tracks 3 & 4 for the second stereo file).

Step 2: Scan the first track
Activate Clone Fades. Select the edited clips on the first MONO track and press SCAN.

Step 3: Select targets and execute
Select the source clips on the first and third stereo tracks (our new layers corresponding to the first mono track’s positions).

Press EXECUTE. The cuts and fades from the first mono track are now cloned onto both stereo layers.

Step 4: Scan the second track
Now make a selection on the second MONO track, so we have a new reference with new cuts and fades, and press SCAN.

Step 5: Select targets and execute again
Select the source clips on the second and fourth stereo tracks.

Press EXECUTE.

The Result:
With just two scans and two executions, we successfully replicated all the cuts and fades of a complex alternating sequence.

By properly prepping your source files, you can add as many layers as you want at once, multi-channel or otherwise.