Wish you could double the number of plugins you can run on your Pro Tools rig? Turns out, the answer is simple. Use AAX plugins instead of RTAS. With the launch of Pro Tools 10 we learned about the new plugin format, AAX and how it was the future. After some recent conversations with the guys at Avid I’ve finally realized that these plugins are way more efficient under the hood than their RTAS counterparts. Here, I’ll show you…
Everyone says it, but many people don’t do it. We need to save and backup our sessions all the time! Something happens and you didn’t remember to save the last few minutes of your work. Isn’t that the worst?! I’ve already covered how to properly backup or archive a Pro Tools session when you’re finished, but one setting in Pro Tools that will literally save your butt is the auto backup feature.
Head To Your Operations Preferences
This is an easy setting to setup. Simply go to the Setup menu and choose Preferences. Once you’re preferences window opens up, click on the Operations tab.
In the bottom left section of the Operations window is the Auto Backup header. Check the box to enable this feature. Then all you have to do is choose how many backups you want to keep at any given time and how often Pro Tools will do an auto backup. I keep 10 backups (the 10 most recent) and mine backs up every 5 minutes.
Where To Go When You Need A Backup
At some point in working in Pro Tools you’ll need a backup. Your computer might crash, Pro Tools might crash, or the power might go out. It doesn’t matter the situation, the problem remains. You didn’t get to save your work and you lost the last few minutes or tweaks.
When this happens, simply close out of the session. Navigate to your Pro Tools session folder, find the folder inside called Session File Backups, and double click on the most recent of those files. It will open up the auto backup session. Simply do a Save As from the File menu and overwrite your original Pro Tools session. You’re now up to date!
27APR
The best of the best Pro Tools users are fast. They don’t waste time fiddling around with the mouse when they could make an edit or a function happen with a simple keyboard shortcut. Neither should you. In fact you may already be using some common key commands to speed up your workflow. But today I want to show you a faster way…
The Normal Way
Normally when you want to use a key command in Pro Tools you use a combination of the Command (or Control) key along with a letter. For example, just a quick glance at the Edit drop down menu will show you some common functions. Command+Z will undo, Command+X will cut, and Command+V will paste, etc.
This is set up by default. And there is nothing wrong with using these keyboard shortcuts. But did you know there was a faster way? Have you ever noticed that little A-Z button in the top right section of your edit window? What does it do?
The Faster Way
If you’ve never bothered clicking on that button then you’re missing out. This is the Keyboard Shortcut Focus button. What it tells Pro Tools to do is allow you to use shorter shortcuts (ha!) which save you time. For example, after you press this button you no longer need to hit Command+Z to undo something. You only need to hit the letter Z. Same is true for cutting and pasting. Just hit the letter X to cut and the letter V to paste. That’s 50% fewer key strokes to hit!
That may not seem like a bit deal to you right now, but when you are editing and mixing, any seconds you can shave off of having to fiddle with extra keys on the keyboard or your mouse, are seconds you can devote to making mix decisions and creating better music. And honestly, if there’s a faster way to do something, why not do it?
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For the ultimate in Pro Tools tutorials, download your copy of REthink Pro Tools and start becoming a Pro Tools power user by this weekend! www.REthinkProTools.com
2MAR
When using Pro Tools on a native based system you may run into the problem of running out of CPU power in complex mix. With all the audio being pulled from you harddrive, the effects plugins running in real time, the mix automation working seamlessly, and even the graphical interface of Pro Tools displaying your masterpiece in radiant colors, it’s not uncommon to hit a wall at some points and be in need of just a bit more power.
There is a lot you can do to give you that extra push of CPU gusto, but here are just 3 quick tips that are convenient and can help out:
Remove Page Scrolling
Typically when you are playing or recording, Pro Tools is set to scroll through as the cursor reaches the far right of your screen. As wonderful as this feature is, it steals CPU power that could be used instead for actually processing your audio. It’s super easy to switch this off. Simply click on Options – Edit Window Scrolling and choose No Scrolling. That’s it!
Reduce Your Levels Of Undo
One feature of digital recording that I love (and rely on) is the Undo button. It’s nice that Pro Tools gives you a ton of levels of Undo (my setup has up to 32), but in reality Pro Tools is stealing a bunch of your computer’s RAM to store all of these stages in your system, just in case you ever want to Undo 32 times. To free up some power, simply reduce the levels undo available to you.
To do that, simply go to your Pro Tools Preferences window under the Setup menu. Click on the Editing tab and at the bottom of the window should be your Undo section. Type in reduced number of Undos and you’re golden.
Turn Off Sends View Meters
When recording in Pro Tools it’s very helpful to have one Send visible in the mix window per track. This way it allows you to see the actual fader and level without having pop up a sperate fader window. I do this a lot to make quick headphone mix adjustments for the talent. But this takes more CPU power to display the send meters all the time, so we’re going to just turn that feature off.
To do this, simply go to the View menu, click on Sends A-E (or whichever sends you are using) and click on Assignments. This will then display the 5 sends assignment slots rather than just one send and it’s subsequent metering. Done!
That’s it folks! Three simple tweaks to optimize your Pro Tools rig for more CPU power. Happy music making my friends!
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For the ultimate in Pro Tools tutorials, download your copy of REthink Pro Tools and start becoming a Pro Tools power user by this weekend! www.REthinkProTools.com
24NOV
Before you begin recording in Pro Tools you’ll want to setup a guide track. This will include a click track set to the right tempo and maybe a scratch recording or two. It’s easy to set the tempo in Pro Tools and let the click follow along, but what do you do when your song calls for some tempo changes? How to make the click follow those so you can still play alongside the grid? It’s easy, no worries.
Switch Out of Manual Tempo Mode
The first thing you need to do is get out of the default manual mode that Pro Tools keeps the tempo at. Usually you can just manually type in a tempo setting in the Transport bar/window. You’ll see the same tempo BPM reflected in the Tempo ruler over in the edit window. See below for an example. Our song is set to 130 BPM in manual mode.
If we want to have tempo changes however we’ll need to leave manual mode and instead click on the conductor track icon to switch. You’ll notice instantly that the tempo is grayed out in the transport bar and set to the default of 120 BPM. (If you wanted to change this back to 130 you could simply double click the red diamond next to the tempo in the ruler, and change it there).
Create New Tempo Markers
If we wanted to make a tempo change at Bar 3 in this song, we would simply click on bar 3 to place the cursor there and then click on the “+” sign in the tempo ruler to add a new tempo change. A dialog box will pop up asking us what tempo we would like to change it to. In this case I would simply type in my new BPM for bar 3 onwards and click “OK”.
Now if you look at your tempo ruler you will see the initial tempo (in our case 120) at the song start and then at bar 3 our tempo change to 100 BPM. If you have a click track enabled you will hear it audibly slow down as the play/stop marker crosses over the third measure. To make more changes simply add more tempo changes using this same method. You can even click and drag these tempo change markers to new locations, double click them to change the tempo, and even option+click them to delete.
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For the ultimate in Pro Tools tutorials, download your copy of REthink Pro Tools and start becoming a Pro Tools power user by this weekend! www.REthinkProTools.com
8SEP
I mention Pro Tools a lot on The Recording Revolution, mostly because it’s the DAW I use every day. But I’m not the only one using it…
So that is why I post every now and then with an “Optimize Pro Tools” series featuring helpful, easy tweaks to your Pro Tools rig that will enhance your music making experience. I thought it might be helpful to pool those all together into one simple post for your learning pleasure. Enjoy!
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For the ultimate in Pro Tools tutorials, download your copy of REthink Pro Tools and start becoming a Pro Tools power user by this weekend! www.REthinkProTools.com
30AUG
If you work in Pro Tools a lot you might as well take advantage of its I/O labeling feature and rename your regularly used inputs and outputs. For instance if you always tend to keep your vocal mic plugged in to Input 1 of your audio interface, then why not rename that input to “Vocal Mic” or “B2-Pro”? Same goes for your outputs (main outs, headphone outs, etc). Taking this one simple step to relabel some of your I/O can save you time and confusion so you can get on with making music.
Start With Your Output(s)
The best place to see and edit your inputs and outputs is in the I/O window. Simply click on Settings and then I/O. This will open up a window with a matrix of inputs and outputs that is only as big as your audio interface’s connections dictates.
A great place to start is by clicking the Output tab at the top and then renaming outputs 1 and 2. Simply double click on the name of the stereo output pair and type in something more memorable like “Main Outs”. While you’re at it you might as well relabel a second pair of outputs (if you have them) as headphone mix outputs if you tend to plug in your headphone amp to this output pair.
Rename Your Inputs
Another super helpful thing is to rename the inputs. And as a session becomes more complex with multiple inputs and instruments being recorded, the more inputs you can name specifically the easier it will be to assign them to the right tracks in Pro Tools. You do this the same way as the outputs: simply click on the Input tab and then you can either rename the stereo pairs of inputs or click the drop down arrow next to the pairs to rename the mono input channels.
When all is finished, simply click OK at the bottom of the window and your new names will be saved. Now when you’re working in the Edit or Mix windows you will see those relabeled inputs/outputs reflected in your choices in the channel strips.
The Quick Fix
Here’s just a quick reminder. If you ever need or want to rename your I/O on the fly without going to through your settings, simply right click on an selected input, output, or send and choose “Rename” from the little menu that pops up. Type something new in the field and click enter on your keyboard. Voila! You will just have relabeled all the tracks with that input or output!
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For the ultimate in Pro Tools tutorials, download your copy of REthink Pro Tools and start becoming a Pro Tools power user by this weekend! www.REthinkProTools.com
2AUG
Until you have had a hard drive failure or “accidentally” deleted your Pro Tools sessions where all your hard work is lost, tips like proper session backup seem boring and a waste of your time. If you haven’t had issue with lost recording then pay attention to this post because I don’t want you to ever experience that!
My hardest lesson learned was thinking that I actuallay was backing up my sessions properly. What I would typically do was record everything, and then when we were finished for the day I would simply close out of Pro Tools, find the session on my hard drive and physically drag a copy of the session folder to my backup drive. I figured “I know have two copies of the sessions. No problem” The problem arose when I actually lost some files and needed to access my backup only to find that despite having the audio saved to another drive, it was still looking for information from my old drive and the session was confused as to where each audio region was supposed to be in the timeline. This became a major headache very quickly.
What I’m going over real briefly today is the officially sanctioned procedure for file backup (and even prepration for session transfer to someone else) by Avid themselves. It’s super easy, so there is no reason NOT to do this:
1. Save Copy In
With the desired session still open in Pro Tools, simply head to the FILE menu and choose FILE – SAVE COPY IN.
This will open up a new dialog box giving you a ton of options and settings to choose from, which brings us to our second step…
2. Include All Audio Files
In this dialog box, most everything will be set the way you would want. Pro Tools by default will have the latest Pro Tools session type set, as well as the current audio file type, sample rate and bit depth of your current session (assuming you want to keep that the same for your copy). What isn’t selected by default however is the option to include all the actual audio you recorded. This is a no brainer, check that darn box now!
3. Name It and Save It
Finally you’ll be asked to name the copy of your session (labeled “Copy of …” by default) and give a location to be saved. This is obviously where you’ll want to select your separate backup hard drive as the final location. After click the OK button, Pro Tools will start copying everything over to the new session copy and you will be left with a neat and clean session copy with it’s own audio files.
That’s It!
The benefit to backing up your sessions in this fashion is that you get a completely unique and self contained session copy that isn’t “looking” to any other hard drive or disk allocation in order to function. You could burn and mail this, upload this to your FTP server, or simply re open it later if the original session is lost all without any hassle. Do this from now on and just know that you’re doing the right thing…especially if you are working with paying clients!
12JUL
If you’ve ever worked in Pro Tools on a session that has a ton of tracks, playlists, edits, and regions then whether you know it or not you are creating one massive session with a bloated Audio Files folder. Pro Tools saves everything you record, no matter if you delete it from the edit window or record over it. The file is still there on your hard drive (and visible in your Regions bin). This can take up much needed space on your audio drive. Today I’m going to show you how to quickly and easily shrink your Pro Tools sessions and get rid of all the excess fat.
Select The Unused Regions
This will all take place from the Regions bin drop down menu. Make sure your Regions bin is visible and click on the drop down arrow on the top right of the bin. Arrow down and choose Select and then Unused from the menu.
You’re region bin should now show a bunch of highlighted names. These represent all pieces of audio and MIDI that Pro Tools is currently not using in your edit window. Keep in mind that audio on hidden playlists will not be selected as these are still “used” regions. Just not currently on top of the track.
Clear Unused Regions From Your Session
Now we need to tell Pro Tools to clear these regions out of our session. Go back to the Regions bin menu and choose the Clear option. A warning message will pop up asking you if you are sure you want to clear these regions. It will give you a choice to either clear them out of this session folder or delete them permanently from the hard drive. Typically it’s best to select “Remove” rather than delete. Only because it is possible that other sessions are pulling the audio from here and will be confused if it just disappears.
When Is This Helpful?
This processes is most helpful when wrapping up a recording or mix session. You’re pretty much done with the song and you just want to trim down the session size either for your archives or for sending the session on to a mixing engineer. Clearing out unused audio regions will give you a much leaner and easier file to backup/transfer over the web.
7JUN
In Wednesday’s post we took a look at how one can easily expand your interfaces inputs with an ADAT enabled set of mic pres. This is, of course, assuming your audio interface comes with an Optical ADAT connection. If you then go ahead and purchase one of these lightpipe devices, hook it up to your interface, and record enable your tracks you might notice some weird pops and clicks happening that are really annoying. This is the result of confusion on which device (your interface or lightpipe device) is acting as the clock source. Here’s the quick and dirty way to fix things in Pro Tools.
Once your lightpipe device is connected and powered up, go to the Setup menu and choose Hardware
This will open up a box that shows what your current clock source is selected as. Usually “Internal”. Which makes sense, you’re clocking with your audio interface’s internal clock. But if you want multiple digital devices to play nice you’ll need to let this new lightpipe device be the clock source. To do this simply click on the drop down box under Clock Source and choose Optical. Click OK and the problem should be fixed. Easy as pie!
If at some point you power off your lightpipe device, Pro Tools will prompt you that it is reverting back to the internal clock as it no longer sees an external one. You can always switch this back if need be. Enjoy!
30APR
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