improved pro tools crib v2

8/3/2019 Improved Pro Tools Crib v2

1/15

Part One: Setup

Start a new Pro Tools session by clicking its icon in the Dock. After Pro Toolsfinishes starting up, go to the File menu, select New session, and give it a name.This creates a new Edit window. It also creates a folder automatically thatcontains your session document (with a .ptf extension), an Audio Files folder, andother items. Make sure to save your session where you can find it.

The Pro Tools Edit window is where youll do all of your work. Right now its completely blank.

To create some tracks, go to the Tracks menu and select New. To begin, lets create four newMono audio tracks:

The Edit window that results will look something like this: You can double-click on eachtrack name and change it fromAudio 1, Audio 2, etc. tosomething useful. Lets callthem N, Ax, Amb and Work (fornarration, actualities, ambience,and a work track to park youraudio temporarily).

The Edit window can (and

should) be sized to make itbigger. More on this below.

This is Important Do Not Skip

After creating a new session, there are three preferences to set every time:

1. Under the Setup menu, go to Preferences. Click the Operation tab and checkTimeline Insertion/Play Start Marker Follows Playback.

2. Under the Options menu, make sure Link Timeline and Edit Selection is checked.

3. Also under Options > Edit Window Scrolling > Page will refresh the screen when youplay back so you dont lose the cursor off the right of the screen.

Pro Tools LE

The default Pro Tools Edit window (track names have been changed)

Pro Tools crib sheet page 1


2/15

Customize the Edit window

The next step is really a best practice and I do it right away.

I like to use all my available screen real estate, so I expand the Edit window to fill the screen,either by dragging it from the lower right hand corner or by clicking the green Zoom button.

Since I seldom use the Track List/Group List column on the left hand side, I hide it by clickingthe chevron at the bottom left margin (see illustration, right). Youcan also hide the Region List on the right by clicking its chevron; Iprefer to leave it visible.

Next Ill click on the Edit Window View selectorpop-up and choose None (see below). Later,when Im mixing, Ill need the I/O view back; rightnow I want that extra inch of horizontal space.

As you can see, there are a lot of possible views you couldenable if you owned a nice 30-inch display.

You should also click on the Ruler View selector and decidewhether you want the Marker ruler or not. Thats really up toyou I usually leave it visible, even though I seldom use

markers.

The Edit window is your Pro Tools workspace. If its sized down to a 5 x 7 rectangle or clutteredwith unnecessary views youre making it harder to work as efficiently as possible. Remember,it doesnt matter if Pro Tools fills the screen and you cant see the Desktop or your otherapplications (like Word or Firefox). You can always use Command-Tab to cycle through allactive applications.

Take some time to move the cursor over the various buttons and displays. When you pause, asmall yellow window will appear and ID whatever function youre pointing to.

These Tool Tips, as theyre called, can be useful in helpingyou learn what does what in Pro Tools.

(Later, when you become a pro yourself, you can turn themoff in Preferences.)



3/15

Part Two: Importing and Recording Audio

Once youve created a new session, there are twoways to get audio into it. One is by importing audioyou already have; the other is by recording directly

into Pro Tools.

To import audio into Pro Tools, go to the File menuand select Import > Audio.

Yes, you can also drag and drop a file directly ontothe Edit window (not recommended; creates a stereotrack) or into the Region list (preferred.)

The Import Audio window may look confusing at first,but its loaded with information and useful tools. Take

some time to explore it you wont be sorry.

Locate the file you want to import, select it, then clickCopy (or Convert, if necessary) to put it in the Regions toImport list. Then click Done.

If you have several different files and youre unsure whichone you want, you can play each file from within thiswindow to preview it.

After you click Done, Pro Tools will ask you where youwant to save this audio. Pick the Audio Files folder insideyour session folder (see below).

Last question: do you want to put this audio on a brandnew track, or in the Region list?

Always put your recorders files into the Region list.

Dont select the Audio track option this will create azillion stereo audio tracks, one for each audio file. Wereworking in mono, not stereo.

This is really important Get into the habit of keeping all your audio within your sessionfolders Audio folder. One way to make sure of this is by always using Copy or Convert butnever Add when youre in this window. (If you choose Add, Pro Tools will use the audio,wherever it may be but wont copy it to the Audio folder. Then later, when you move yoursession folder to some other computer, chances are you wont even think to move that addedaudio as well. When you open your session on the new workstation Pro Tools wont be able tofind the audio you left behind and you will be very, very unhappy.)

Remember Add is bad.

Importing audio using File > Import > Audio

our window ma look different...



4/15

If Im importing more than one or two audio files Ill always use the Import Audio command(shortcut: Commnd-Shift-I), rather than dragging and dropping with the mouse. This lets meselect multiple files all at once and put them right in the Region list, without having to move orresize the Edit window, locate, select and drag with the mouse, etc. (In general, using themouse is slow using the keyboard, whenever possible, is faster.)

Speaking of which:

Be sure to enable Keyboard Focus mode byclicking on the a...z indicator (see illustration)so a blue border appears. That will let you useone keystroke to do a lot of common Pro Toolstasks. (More on this later)

The final task is to drag your audio from the Region list into the edit window.

Your Region list will look something like this:

Notice that each file is a stereo file, and wehave mono tracks in our Edit window. Youcant pull a stereo file onto a mono track (andvice versa). So lets just use one channel. Itdoesnt matter which one since theyre boththe same.

To uncover the left and right tracks, click on the little triangle just to the left of the file name:

The arrow points down and the tracks display.

Now drag one or the other (again, it doesnt matter which theyre identical) onto the track.

To record directly into Pro Tools, first record-enable thetrack you want to record onto (usually this will be yournarration track.) Click the R button on the far left side ofthe track. The button will start flashing red, meaningyoure ready to record on that track. If theres audioalready going into Pro Tools, the audio level indicator willdisplay a fluctuating green bar. Track is record enabled and has audio input



5/15

If the green bar isnt present (or if its very low), raise the the level on your sound source theMackie mixer. The green bar should cover more than 50% of the track height on average. Thered clip light indicates a level thats too high and will be distorted.

There are several ways tostart the recording.

You can use the Transportwindow: click its red RecordEnable button, then clickthe Play button. Recordingbegins immediately.

You can also press number 3 on the numeric keypad, theF12 key, and (if its not set up to bring up Spotlight) you canuse the Command-spacebar key combination as well. Theyall do the same thing.

Youll know youre recording when a pinkish bar begins toappear in the track. As it grows from left to right, youll alsosee the waveform of the audio youre recording.

Press the spacebar to stop the recording.

To abort the recording in progress and discard anything youve recorded, use the Command-period key combination. Recording will stop and no soundfile will be created.If you already have audio on anothertrack in your Edit window at the sameplace youre recording, youll hear italong with the new audio as youmonitor Pro Tools.

If this is not what you want, you canmute the output of that track by clickingthe M button to the right of its recordenable button. Even though its greenlevel indicators are still moving, thattrack wont play back.

Be sure to un-mute the track when you want to hear it again.

After recording your audio, give it a more descriptive name than N_01, N_02, etc.Double-click on each soundfile youve just recorded with the Grabber tool, and entera filename in the window that appears. This little bit of housekeeping is a good habitto develop as your pieces get more and more complex.

You can record on any track, in mono or in stereo, except for Aux and Master tracks.

The Transport window, recording in progress.

Recording waveform appears in the track.

Adjacent track Amb1 is muted. Note orange Mute button.

Grabber



6/15

Part Three: Edit Modes and Tools

All audio in the Pro Tools edit window plays from left to right on the timeline in the Edit window.To allow you to move soundfiles to their proper places on the timeline there are two basic editmodes: Shuffle and Slip. These are selected in the upper left-hand corner of the Edit window.

Slip mode lets you move soundfiles freely anywhere in

any track. You can rearrange them, even move them fromone track to another. In Slip mode, soundfiles will staywhere you put them.

In contrast, when you move a soundfile in Shuffle modeits compelled to snap to the next region boundary either to the left or to the right, depending on which

direction you move it. If theres nothing in the track, thesoundfile will snap all the way to 0:00 on the timeline.

Shuffle modeis the best wayto edit actualities or voice

tracks. If you delete some audio in Shuffle mode, the re-gion on the right will snap to the left to close up the gap.(In Slip mode, everything stays put and a hole remainswhere the audio was deleted.)

Its important to be aware of what youre doing in Shuffle mode sometimes audio that youvecarefully placed on the timeline will shuffle out of sync with adjacent tracks. Youll toggle be-tween these two modes often. As you get used to the keyboard, youll learn to use F1 (orOption-1) for Shuffle and F2 (or Option-2) for Slip.

The editing tools youll use most often are Trimmer, Selector, and Grabber. The Selector

(highlighted, right) is the tool that lets you click anywhere in the time line, press the spacebar,and play back from that spot. You also use it (as its nameimplies) to select a portion of a soundfile for editing.

Click, hold and drag the Selector to highlight any piece ofaudio. Hold down the Shift key and drag the Selector tomodify what youve highlighted. Shift + Tab to extend thathighlight to the next region boundary. Option + Shift + Tabto go left. The Selector is the tool youll use most often.

The Grabber lets you select and move files around on the timeline. Its what enables you to

name or re-name a soundfile. (It also serves an important function in mixing, allowing you tocreate points on a volume graph where the level can change.)

The Trimmer tool can be used to adjust the boundaries of a region or soundfile. Move it to-ward the left boundary and the cursor becomes a left bracket ( [ ). Click and drag to trim thatboundary to wherever you want it. On a right-hand boundary, its a right bracket ( ] ) and hasthe same effect. (In mixing, the Trimmer tool also comes in handy. It can raise or lower any se-lected volume.)

Trimmer Selector Grabber



7/15

A fourth tool, the Zoomer (magnifying glass icon, right), is for enlarging a waveform in order to home in on a particular sound or to make a difficult edit. Its alsouseful for navigating around the Edit window and getting a quick overview of yourentire project.

You can easily zoom in on any sectionof a waveform by selecting the Zoomer, then click-ing and dragging across the soundfile. (Notice themagnifying glass cursor contains a plus sign.) Whenyou release the mouse button, the area youve se-lected will expand to fill the width of the entire Editwindow:

You can also simply click anywhere with the Zoomer tool and the waveform will continue to ex-pand horizontally. Option-click (the cursors plus sign changes to a minus sign) and youllshrink it back.

The best part of all: if youve completely lost track of where you are in the Edit window andwant to see everything at once, just double-click on the Zoomer. Your entire project, beginningto end, will fill the Edit window.

The Zoom buttons are another way to change the appearance of thewaveform so you can make cleaner edits or zero in on that distinc-tive sound you heard. They work much like the Zoomer, with theadded capability of increasing or decreasing waveform amplitude.

The left and right arrows work the same way as clicking and Option-clicking the Zoomer. The up/down arrows next to the left arrow willmake the waveforms peaks and valleys appear taller or shallower.This can be useful if youre trying to find the beginning or end of very soft audio. (Note thatyoure not making the audio louder or softer with these tools it just looks that way.) Theother set of up and down arrows are for MIDI information only.

If you find a zoom resolution thats so useful you come back to it again and again, you can

save it as a preset with one of the five numbered buttons under the Zoom buttons. Click andhold on the button, then select Save Zoom Preset. These presets are easy to recall with the 15 keys on the Pro Tools keyboard.



8/15

Part Four: Editing and Mixing

Now that you know how to use the basic edit tools and modes, lets edit a piece of audio.

You can always drag acrossthe waveform with theSelector tool and hit the

Delete key, but lets tryanother method. Drag acrossthe waveform as before, butdont press Delete.

Instead, go to the Edit menu and select Separate Region > AtSelection.

Youll notice the keyboard equivalent is Command-E one ofmany keyboard shortcuts thats worth memorizing. Its also theletter B (for Blade) if youre in Keyboard Focus Mode.

Youve now created a new region whose boundaries are thebeginning and end of the highlighted area.

This is a useful way to mark a piece of audio that you maywant to come back to later much better than using Markers,which dont move when the audio moves.

Whats more, there are now three new regions in the Regionslist the one you just created, plus two on either side of it.

Why would you want to dothis as opposed to drag anddelete? For one thing, youmay want to save the deletedmaterial and use it later.When you drag and delete,you create two new regions,but the material you deletedis not in the Regions list. (Tryit and see!)

When you create a new region, you have the option to give it a new name (this is very usefulwhen it comes to separating ambience or room tone, for example.) You can park it in theRegions list and drag it onto the Edit window as needed as many times as needed.

One more thing: you can only make an edit when playback is stopped. Assuming you setpreferences correctly, you cant edit and play back audio at the same time.



9/15

Mixing involves playing back more than one track at once. This allows you to vary the levels ofdifferent types of audio, create ambience fades, and layer audio tracks on top of one another.

Heres a basic example.Ive cut my news spotnarration and Ive insertedmy actuality from Joe

Blow where it belongs.

Notice that the level onthe actuality is muchlower than the narration.

Im going to want to bring that level up (and learn how to record better audio in the field.) Onthe left hand side of the AX track, I find the Track View selector its a pop-up button thatallows me to switch my track view from waveform to volume.

Once I switch viewsI can see theVolume graph linerunning horizontallyalong the track.This line indicatesthe volume at anypoint on the timeline.

Next I switch fromthe Grabber tool tothe Trimmer tool.

Using the Trimmer tool I click inside the actuality and drag the volume graph up. As I do that, anumber appears on the screen to tell me how much gain I am adding to my playback.

In this case, Im going to start bybringing it up by 7 db (a lot of gain).Next I want to play back the audio anddetermine if the level of the actuality

matches the level of my voice tracks.(Ill switch to the Selector tool and clickseveral seconds ahead of the act.) If itstill needs tweaking, Ill go back withthe Trimmer tool and repeat theprocess, going for, perhaps 8 db ofgain this time.

Volume graph visible in AX track (red circle indicates Track View selector.)

Click and drag up with the Trimmer tool to change level



10/15

Finally, I want to switch back to Waveform track view. Im now ready to listen to the entire spotand bounce it to the Radio share drive.

This process is called level matching. It should always be done by ear, not by looking atmeters. Always match the actualities to the narration, not vice versa. Do level matching first,before mixing any ambience or music.

Always put your narration and your actualities onto separate tracks (and sometimes more thantwo). Dont try to mix narration and actualities on one single track. Were going after whatscalled a checkerboard effect:

This is a layout (in Pro Tools 8) of a sound-rich 45-second news spot by NPRs Robert Smith.From top to bottom: Narration, Acts 1, Acts 2, Amb 1, Amb 2, Amb 3.



11/15

Part Five: Working Smarter

Pro Tools users can approach the program in many different ways. For example they canchoose to click on an icon, or use a menu selection, or type a keyboard command all ofwhich will give the same result. This flexibility makes the program easy to learn and use, butnot all choices let the user work as efficiently as possible. A journalist under deadline needs tosave time without sacrificing accuracy. Here are some ways to do this in Pro Tools.

As I said earlier, I like to use as much of the screen as possible for my Edit window. My idealEdit window (before adding tracks) would look like this:

The reason is to have as much horizontal space as possible to work with. Thats becausewhen I start to listen to my audio and pull my actualities, I like to put everything on one worktrack. All too often Ill see students with Edit windows that look like this:

The problem is that this window is cluttered and confusing. All the audio starts at 0:00 on thetimeline, so in order to play back any one file, the track its on has to be located and soloed (or,worse, all the other tracks muted individually). Some tracks have scrolled off the bottom of thewindow! Later, all those unnecessary tracks will have to be dealt with further either deleted or

Exhibit A: the Edit window from hell



12/15

muted and hidden. Another big problem is that all the imported audio files have similar,incomprehensible names (MZ000017, MZ000018, MZ000019, etc.) Much better to renamethem ASAP with a descriptive word or two (hotdog vendor, street amb, passerby vox, etc.)

The one track approach lets me jump to any point in any region on the timeline with theSelector and start listening immediately. Tip I double-click on the Zoomer or use Option-Aand all session audio fits in the window. Another tip: Highlight any region, option-click on the

Zoomer or use Option-F, and that highlighted audio fits in the window.

Later I can slip all that audio over to the right (or just delete it from the timeline) and startbuilding my piece on the same track. No soloing, no scrolling, no searching, no cluttered Editwindow. Thats working smarter.

Remember: You dont have to haveall your audio in the Edit window

all the time! Once I determine whatsound I have (looks to be close to40 minutes in the example above), Ido a spot check on regions I dontneed to listen to all the way through

(like ambience), name them, anddelete them from the timeline. Ican always get them back later bydragging them from the Region List.

As soon as I hear a portion of audiothats probably going to become anactuality, I separate it immediately(Command-E or B in keyboard

focus mode) and rename it with a descriptive name. Tip: If you start the name with a space,the new region will jump to the top of the Region List. Thats an easy way to group your

actualities.

If you do this right away, when the interview is relatively fresh in your memory, chances areyoull be able to skip directly to your best audio without having to re-listen to the whole thing.

You dont have to fine-edit the actuality at this time and you shouldnt. You can always dothat later, assuming you decide to use it. Right now youre just pulling likely candidates.



13/15

Shortcuts

There are many Pro Tools keyboard commands, but a few I consider truly indispensable:

! The Tab key moves the cursor to the next region boundary (very useful when playingback actualities for your editor)! Option-Tab moves to the previous region boundary (also L in keyboard focus mode)

Now, hold down the Shift key, and you get these:! Shift-Tab highlights from the cursor to the next region boundary! Option-Shift-Tab highlights from the cursor to the previous region boundaryFinally, heres one I use all the time:

! Option-Shift-Return highlights from the cursor to the end of the entire sessionAlmost forgot one of the most common Pro Tools questions: How do I get the playback cursorto go to the beginning? Answer: Hit Return.

Another common question: How do I find the playback cursor when its scrolled off the screensomewhere? Answer: Hit either the left or right keyboard arrow. Also useful to locate the be-

ginning or end of any highlighted region.

Navigating around the Pro Tools Edit window usually involves a lot of zooming in and out. Illsometimes see a student playing back audio with an Edit window timeline that looks like this:

This window is zoomed all the way in to the hundredth of a second! The cursor is scrolling pastevery 2.2 seconds! Unless youre fine-editing, who can work like this?

So, along with the Tab, Option-Tab, Shift-Tab, and Option-Shift-Tab commands, here are acouple of easy Zoom commands:

! Command-[ (left bracket) zooms outhorizontally (also R in keyboard focus mode)! Command-] (right bracket) zooms inhorizontally (also T in keyboard focus mode)! Command-Option-[(left bracket) zooms outvertically! Command-Option-] (right bracket) zooms inverticallyWhen in keyboard focus mode, there are additional shortcuts:

! Pressing E toggles between the last two Zoom resolutions (useful for jumpingbetween a normal resolution for playback and an extreme close-up for fine editing).

! If youve saved Zoom Presets, the 1 5 keys will recall these presets.



14/15

Again, try these out until they become second nature. Never move the mouse up to theZoomer tool again! (And dont forget Option-A to see the whole session.)

Keyboard focus mode (see p. 4) allows the smart Pro Tools user to perform a number of taskswith just a single keystroke! Speaking of single keystrokes

Look at the top row on the Pro Tools keyboard and youll notice you can switch between thetwo Edit modes, Shuffle and Slip, by using the F1 and F2 keys respectively.

Get into the habit of using these keys instead of the mouse and you will save a lot of time!

Likewise you can use the function keys F5 though F8 to select your most commonly used Edittools:

The keys I use most often are Selector F7, and Grabber F8, followed by the Trimmer F6.As for the rest, I dont use the Zoom Tool much since I prefer the keyboard Zoom commands,and I rarely Scrub or use the Pencil.

Whenever you can use a keyboard command instead of moving the mouse around the Edit

window and clicking, youre working smarter and saving time!



15/15

Part Six: Best Practices

At the very beginning we told you that Pro Tools creates a session folder automatically whenyou begin a new session. This folder contains your session document (with a .ptf extension),an Audio Files folder, and other items.

The session document the one with the Pro Tools icon contains no audio. It has toknow where its audio files are. It is useless by itself. If you move a session document by itselfto another computer, nothing will happen. You have to move the entire session folder.

If you want to back up your session or relocate to another workstation, best practice is to dragthe entire session folder to the Radio share or to an external hard drive. (Once youre at thenew workstation, you must then drag the session folder from the Radio share onto the newcomputer. You cant work directly from the Radio share.)

Some clever students discover the Save Copy In command under the File menu and presumethis is the way to make a backup. Please dont. Unless youre absolutely sure of what youredoing, this can really mess you up. I have seen students with so many different versions oftheir Pro Tools session, with audio scattered among several folders, that theyre completelyconfused.

It is okay to use the Save As command, however. This command saves the current sessiondocument under a new name. From that point on, youre working on (and saving to) that newsession name. This is useful to indicate different versions of a session for example, you maywish to differentiate a session thats been moved to a new computer from the original that was

started elsewhere. As long as the new document stays in the same folder as its audio files, allwill be well.

Dont remove anything attached to the computer when Pro Tools is running. Pro Toolswants to take control of any volume it sees as a potential place to store audio, whether its athumb drive, hard drive, camera disk yes, even the Olympus recorder. If you connect therecorder, start Pro Tools, and then remove the recorder, youll soon see this error message:

When this appears, Save, Quit, and re-launch Pro Tools.

Lars Hoelrevised Oct. 2, 2011


improved pro tools crib v2

Documents