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Flashback's Uses

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Patent Pending.

Some of Flashback's top uses:

More Relaxed, Natural, Unbridled, and Spontaneous Musical Performances - We all know the Record Button can be an intimidating beast, sometimes stifling our performances and keeping us from taking creative risks during a studio performance. Flashback can help free you from this:

Throw Flashback on a track or master fader, set the buffer size longer than any expected performance you expect to play. Set your record levels, but forget about the Record Button and relax! Perform, letting Flashback faithfully capture your performance in its Streaming Buffer in RAM. Eat a sandwich. Let it fill and even overspill as you play until you play it 100% the way you dreamt it. After you have attained magical sonic sweetness in your "take-less take", press Freeze and write it to track via Flashback AudioSuite.

Spontaneous Sample Capture - For sample artists, gathering the spontaneous sample is often problematic and elusive because - unless you're a precognitive clairvoyant psychic - you cannot hit the Record Button before the sample starts! Aha! No more front-truncated samples with Flashback:

Sit in front of your favorite sonic sample source, whether that be the TV, the stereo, the forest, or on a train, throw Flashback on an aux input track and wait for the sample you're looking for with absolutely no anxiety about capturing it "in time". Flashback will capture it in time because it never stops streaming in new live audio into its RAM buffer! After you've heard a sample you want to keep, press Freeze it and print it via Flashback AudioSuite. Meanwhile Flashback is streaming in all new potential live audio sample - right where you last left off with the Freeze click.

The Ultimate Composition Companion - Ever sit at the piano, writing a song, and you play something almost accidentally, and you find yourself unable to re-create it, just seconds later? The idea is gone forever, right? Not with Flashback:

Try this. Always run Pro Tools with Flashback running when composing or practicing. If something truly cool happens, press Freeze and print it! Whether it's the idea you're capturing, or even an actual recording you will eventually use in a final mix, you'll be quite glad you captured it with Flashback, preserving it forever instead of letting it vaporize before your...ears.

With Flashback, you capture: (1) the musical idea spontaneously -AND- (2) you capture it at full session fidelity, so it's also usable mix material! And you only keep what you want and let the rest float out of the galaxy.

Good Old Fashioned "CYA" - Human error or system overload can sometimes cause you to miss a recording. Not any more. Flashback's got your back:

Keep an instance of Flashback on your master fader when running Pro Tools, even if you're recording to disk. If you encounter a human error (e.g., the engineer missed the Record Button or pressed Stop prematurely) or the system glitches with a DAE error due to resource issues, don't fret - and don't stop the performance! Let the band play on. Flashback is getting everything in its signal path, regardless of the state of the Pro Tools transport!

Record Drop-out Safety Net - A variation of the previous use:

If the recording is interrupted due to human or system error, start Pro Tools recording again without interrupting the performance. Use the material you get from Flashback, that was getting all material between the recording failure and recording re-start, to bridge the recording gap later.

Never Miss Between-Takes Material - You never know when something truly great is going to happen in the studio, whether it's something someone says, or a kick-ass spontaneous between-takes solo. Oh, you weren't recording when it happened? No problem, Flashback was there, working hard for you!

With a Flashback instance always running in the studio, you'll never miss that "accidental" guitar riff that becomes pivotal in the final mix, or that conversation that you will no doubt need to include on the hidden track on your CD. (If you really want to have fun, don't tell anyone Flashback is running while in the studio. Sometimes the best stuff happens when no one knows they're being recorded. Disclaimer - Synaptricity does not in any way encourage or condone such covert activity! And keep it legal!)

A Bounce Alternative - Sometimes a bounce in Pro Tools is less accurate with automation than when you're playing back the session in real-time. Flashback can help:

Instead of the usual work-around of using an internal record bus to circumvent this known legacy issue, throw Flashback on a master fader and capture any bounce (less than 15 minutes) at full session fidelity - and with more accurate automation.

Scratch Mix Central - Use Flashback to capture that perfect scratch mix:

Use a captured scratch mix as a guide to reference your automated mixing moves to. Maybe you were playing around and hit on something interesting, or even nailed the perfect balance or transition. However maybe you were just messing around and Pro Tools wasn’t recording any automation. Freeze the contents of Flashback and print to a track for use as a reference.

Faux Looper - Some Flashback testers and users have reported this unexpected use of Flashback:

Throw down a beat and play along. Once you’re happy with the groove, hit Freeze in Flashback, print to a track, make a quick edit, and repeat the process again and again. Each iteration leaves you with another file containing an overdub over the loop. The great part is you’re not recording. You just keep looping and playing back until you’re happy. Once you’re happy, have Flashback bring back time, print it, and move on. Put one instance of Flashback on the master fader and another on your record track. Flashback on the master fader contains the mix and input, while Flashback across the audio track contains only the input signal. Thanks guys!

Who knows what other uses other users will dig up? Flashback is a versatile and powerful tool!

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