Pro Tools Recording Tips

Current Pro Tools Hardware
Pro Tools HD

HD 1/2/3 Core Systems
192 I/O (8ch 192Khz interface)
192 Digital I/O (8ch 192Khz interface)
96 I/O (8ch 96Khz interface)
96i I/O (16ch 96Khz interface)
Pre I/O (8ch microphone pre-amp)
SYNC I/O (Time Code Synchronizer)
MIDI I/O (MIDI Interface)
Expansion|HD Chassis

Pro Tools LE

Digi 003
Digi 003 Rack
Digi 002
Digi 002 Rack
Mbox 2
Mbox 2 Pro
Mbox 2 Mini
Mbox

Pro Tools M-Powered
M-Audio Interfaces:

Audiophile Series
Delta Series
Fast Track USB
FireWire 1814
FireWire 410
FireWire Solo
Black Box
Ozone
MobilePre USB
Ozonic
ProjectMix I/O

Control Surfaces

VENUE (live sound console)
ICON (current flagship control surface)
ProControl (former flagship control surface)
Control|24 (24 fader control surface with 16 built it Focusrite Mic Preamps)
Command|8 (small 8 fader control surface)

Creating Discrete Headphone Mixes (Single Artist)

When recording, you and your artist will likely want different mixes. She’ll want plenty of piano and voice, but you’ll want to hear everything as it’ll be in final mix state. That means you’ll be fighting her every step of the way and you’ll never get the performance you want out of her. And we both know who’s going to win, don’t we?
So, you’ll need a discrete pair of outputs and a free SEND tab. For Pro Tools users other than Mbox users, try sending a separate set of outputs to her headphone amp so you can each get what you want. In the I/O labels section (setups>I/O labels) click to the OUTPUT tab and choose a pair of outs that are not in use (use 7-8 as they are not likely to be confused with your 1-2 stereo outs). Label the pair something creative like “Artist Headphone Mix” .

On the MIX page (or EDIT page if you prefer, but it’s easier to see on the MIX page), select every channel (option + channel select) and show the Sends view to make sure you have a free send to use (Display>Sends View shows>Assignments). Create a send to the newly labeled “Artist Headphone Mix” pair of outputs on all channels (option + create Send on free assignment tab).

Once you’ve selected all the channels and create the Send, choose Edit>Copy to Send and choose the “Artist Headphone Mix” send. Check the boxes next to any info you’d like to send to the artist (be careful of automation as it’ll be difficult to change values later for her if the automation is carried to the send). If you switch your display to Sends show individual sends (Display>Sends view shows> Send to “Artist Headphone Mix”), you’ll see that your fader mix is copied to your Send mix going to the Artist. Let her tell you what she wants more or less of and simply turn up or down the value of that track until she’s happy. And then hope that she knows what she wants and knows how to be happy. If not, I can’t help you!

Using Track Edits from Other Sessions

How often have you wanted to take the edits from one session and play with them in another? Want the first half of the first chorus from the other song in this one as an effect? Wish you could get to that perfect guitar hit from two songs ago? If you’ve tried, you’ve probably found that you need to close your current song, re-open the other song, find the parts, Export them as files as seen in Figure 3 (or bounce them if you need the effects too), then re-close this song, re-open the current song and import the parts. Lord help you if you make a mistake or want to go back for more!
Next time, if you think you might want to get to these edits in other sessions (and not import the whole parent file and re-edit because you’re too lazy/rushed to close and open songs all day long!) try to Export Regions as Definitions (Audio bin menu drop-down>Export Region Definitions). Pro Tools normally keeps the Region definitions in the session and the audio on the drive, but Exporting Region Definitions exports the timing of edits to the audio files themselves. Once done, you can import the original audio file and you will now see all the regions in the import audio bin as well

Editing

Everyone uses Pro Tools' editing functions a bit differently, mainly because there are so many alternative routes to the same ends. However, if you stick to the following method you should achieve fast results. Forget about the Smart Tool (multi-tool), and forget about clicking the on-screen tool icons. Use the function keys F6 to F8 to choose the active tool. Using this method you'll only need the Selector tool ('I' beam) and the Grabber (hand): all other edits can be achieved using a combination of one of these tools and keyboard shortcuts. The Grabber is used for moving audio and MIDI regions around. Stick to the 'Object' variant of the Grabber, as the 'Time' Grabber is more limited. The Selector can be used for everything else. Trimming is achieved by dropping the cursor at the desired in or out point and using 'A' or 'S' on the keyboard to trim from or to this point. If you need to audition the region before trimming, you don't need the Scrub-trimmer tool. Instead, you can hold down the Ctrl key, which turns the Selector into the Scrub tool, enabling you to find the right spot to drop the cursor. Adding fades is similar: place the cursor at the point you want the fade to start or end, then use the 'D' key to create a fade-in, or the 'G' key for a fade-out. Crossfades are created by selecting across a region boundary and pressing the 'F' key. The fade will start and end at the extremities of your selection. You won't need the Zoomer tool very often, because you can use the 'R' and 'T' keys for zooming the display in and out horizontally. Zooming centres the screen on the current cursor position. If there is a selection on screen the zoom will centre on the start point of this selection. Use the left and right cursor keys to switch the display between the start and end of the selection.

The number one key command in Pro Tools is Command+'=' (Start+'=') which toggles between the Mixer and the Edit Windows. Even if you have two screens this can be useful, because all the single-key edit commands are suspended if the Edit Window is not the active window.

Maintenance

If you've had a crash, and Pro Tools repeatedly quits on launch even after a restart, you need to delete Pro Tools' settings files for a clean start. On the Mac navigate to Users/[your directory]/Library/Preferences and trash DigiSetup, DAE Preferences, and Pro Tools Preferences, then restart. On Windows the Pro Tools preferences are at C:\Documents and Settings\[your directory]\Application Data\Digidesign. The DAE Preferences can be found at C:\Program Files\Digidesign\ DAE\DAE Prefs.

Pro Tools' performance optimisation settings are found in the Playback Engine page, accessed from the Setups menu. The Hardware Buffer setting offsets audio throughput latency against plug-in processing power. CPU Processing Limit lets you set the maximum amount of resources allocated to audio playback and plug-ins, so that you can hold some in reserve for things like screen redraws. The DAE Buffer is Pro Tools' disk reading buffer, so a higher setting allows for increased track count, at the expense of reduced playback responsiveness.

As one of the first programs to provide CD-quality (16 bit and 44.1 kHz) multitrack digital audio editing on a personal computer, Pro Tools quickly grew in the sound recording field. It originally became popular because of its simple, streamlined interface for non-linear, non-destructive editing. This appealed to analog producers making the switch to computer-based digital audio production. Digidesign received a technical Academy Award of Merit for the development of Pro Tools in 2004.