IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! I'm David Franz, and this is
Pro Tools 9 Essential Training.
| | 00:08 | In this course, I'll unveil the inner
workings of the industry standard software
| | 00:12 | for music and post-production,
including all the concepts and techniques
| | 00:16 | necessary for recording, editing,
mixing, and mastering in Pro Tools.
| | 00:21 | Specifically, I'll cover how to set up
your Pro Tools studio and explore all the
| | 00:25 | facets of the Pro Tools interface.
| | 00:27 | I'll show you how to record and edit
audio and MIDI in a Pro Tools session.
| | 00:32 | I'll explain how to work with virtual
instruments, plug-ins, and video, as well
| | 00:36 | as how to comp tracks with playlists, and
import any kind of data into your Pro Tools session.
| | 00:42 | I'll show you how to utilize Automatic
Delay Compensation to keep your tracks
| | 00:46 | time-aligned, Elastic Audio for time and
pitch manipulation, and how to create a
| | 00:52 | musical score with the Score Editor.
| | 00:54 | Finally, I'll show you how to use Pro
Tools for mastering, and how to archive a
| | 00:58 | Pro Tools session for backup and storage.
| | 01:01 | This course is applicable to all
versions of Pro Tools, and the techniques I
| | 01:04 | teach in this course will show you how
to use Pro Tools for any aspect of music
| | 01:09 | and post-production.
| | 01:10 | So let's dive into the videos,
and get started with Pro Tools 9
| | 01:14 | Essential Training.
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| Exploring the different versions of Pro Tools| 00:00 | There are two versions of Pro Tools 9.
| | 00:02 | First, there is the Project Studio
version, simply called Pro Tools.
| | 00:06 | In earlier versions of Pro Tools, this
version used to have the terms LE or
| | 00:11 | M-Powered following it.
| | 00:12 | There is no distinction
between those previous versions now.
| | 00:16 | The second version of Pro Tools is Pro Tools HD.
| | 00:19 | That version is used with Avid's higher-
end studio interfaces, and is considered
| | 00:24 | the professional version.
| | 00:25 | Pro Tools HD utilizes additional PCI
cards installed in your computer that
| | 00:30 | increase the processing power of the system.
| | 00:33 | The software also includes many of the
more advanced features used for video
| | 00:37 | and surround sound.
| | 00:38 | That said, I know many producers and
engineers that are using the Project version
| | 00:42 | of Pro Tools for professional--
| | 00:44 | that is, paid--work.
| | 00:46 | The two versions are
extremely similar in operation,
| | 00:50 | thus the concepts and techniques
described here in the videos in this course
| | 00:53 | apply to both versions of Pro
Tools, unless otherwise noted.
| | 00:57 | The main differences between Pro Tools
and Pro Tools HD involve the track count,
| | 01:02 | number of input and output
channels, and supported hardware.
| | 01:05 | For example, Pro Tools can support up
to 32 input channels, or Pro Tools HD can
| | 01:11 | support up to 160 input channels.
| | 01:15 | The Project Studio version of Pro
Tools can be upgraded with the Complete
| | 01:19 | Production toolkit 2, which increases
the available track count from 128 to 512,
| | 01:25 | just like in Pro Tools HD.
| | 01:27 | The CPT2 also includes many advanced
editing, automation, and video features, as
| | 01:32 | well as a few plug-ins.
| | 01:34 | You can find a complete list
of features on Avid's web site.
| | 01:38 | Pro Tools HD can be upgraded to
include the HEAT package, which adds analog
| | 01:43 | warmth and color emulation to
simulate running your tracks through an
| | 01:47 | analog-mixing console.
| | 01:49 | Pro Tools 9 works on Macs running
compatible versions of OS X, as well as Windows
| | 01:54 | computers running Windows 7.
| | 01:56 | Note that Windows Vista and Windows
XP are not supported for Pro Tools 9.
| | 02:01 | The session files you create in Pro
Tools are interchangeable between Macs and
| | 02:05 | PCs, as well as between
different versions of Pro Tools.
| | 02:08 | For instance, you can create a session
in Pro Tools on a PC running Windows 7,
| | 02:14 | and then open that same session
on a Mac running Pro Tools HD.
| | 02:18 | Because the versions of Pro Tools are
so similar, and there is parity between
| | 02:22 | Pro Tools on Windows-based computers
and Macs, every technique you learned in
| | 02:26 | this course is applicable
to every Pro Tools 9 system.
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| Optimizing your computer before installing Pro Tools| 00:00 | The first step in having a successful
Pro Tools experience happens before you
| | 00:04 | even install Pro Tools on your computer.
| | 00:07 | Before installing Pro Tools, check to
make sure that your computer meets the
| | 00:10 | requirements to run Pro Tools.
| | 00:13 | Go to the avid.com site, and
navigate to the Avid Knowledgebase.
| | 00:18 | You can find that under Support & Services.
| | 00:21 | On the right side here, Pro
Tools Support, click Knowledgebase.
| | 00:27 | Use this site to check that your
computer specs, operating system, hard drive,
| | 00:31 | audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces,
plug-ins, and third-party devices are all
| | 00:36 | compatible with Pro Tools 9.
| | 00:38 | I absolutely recommend checking this
site before purchasing any additional
| | 00:43 | hardware or software that you plan on
using with Pro Tools, especially if you're
| | 00:47 | buying a new computer.
| | 00:49 | So let's look at where we want to
find information for compatibility.
| | 00:52 | If you actually scroll down to
this menu, you can find Compatibility.
| | 00:59 | Hit Search, and you can see
Plug-in Compatibility, Operating
| | 01:05 | System Requirements.
| | 01:08 | While you're on this site, check to
make sure that you're running a compatible
| | 01:11 | version of your computer's operating system.
| | 01:14 | Minor version differences can be the
difference between whether Pro Tools can
| | 01:18 | run on your computer or not.
| | 01:21 | Before installing Pro Tools, there are
a few things that you can optimize on
| | 01:25 | your computer to make sure that it
runs really smoothly with Pro Tools.
| | 01:28 | On a Mac, you should configure the
System Preferences, optimize the Energy
| | 01:32 | Saver, turn off Airport and Bluetooth,
disable Time Machine, disable FireWire
| | 01:38 | Networking and Filevault Protection,
update your iLok Drivers, and turn off
| | 01:43 | the Software Update.
| | 01:44 | You may also want to disable Spotlight
Indexing, and disable the Sudden Motion
| | 01:49 | Sensor if you're using a laptop computer.
| | 01:52 | The specific steps on how to do these
actions are listed in the Getting Started
| | 01:56 | PDF in the Documentation folder
that comes with your Pro Tools system.
| | 02:01 | You can also find this
information on Avid's web site.
| | 02:04 | Note that some of these steps may
change as the Mac OS gets updated.
| | 02:08 | To optimize a Windows system for Pro
Tools, you should configure your Device
| | 02:13 | Manager, disable network cards, and
audio devices, disable USB Power Management,
| | 02:18 | disable system startup items, make a
few hard disk optimizations, turn off User
| | 02:24 | Account Control, and adjust the Power Options.
| | 02:28 | You may also want to adjust Processor
Scheduling, disable the screen saver, and
| | 02:32 | adjust the display performance.
| | 02:35 | The specific steps on how to do
these actions are listed in the Getting
| | 02:38 | Started PDF in the Documentation
folder that comes with Pro Tools, and also
| | 02:43 | on Avid's web site.
| | 02:45 | Note that these steps may change
as the Windows 7 OS gets updated.
| | 02:49 | Here are a few more recommended
optimizations that are applicable to both Macs
| | 02:53 | and Windows systems:
| | 02:55 | turn off any program that runs in
the background, quit any program that's
| | 03:00 | unneeded while running Pro Tools,
turn off any unused FireWire devices.
| | 03:05 | There may be a few more
that are listed on avid.com.
| | 03:08 | Check their site for the latest info.
| | 03:10 | Avid strongly advises not to record audio to
the internal system hard drive on your computer.
| | 03:16 | That'll reduce the performance of Pro
Tools, and can also interfere with the
| | 03:20 | performance of your computer in
general, not just with Pro Tools.
| | 03:24 | Avid recommends using at least one
external hard drive or a second internal
| | 03:29 | drive to store your audio files.
| | 03:32 | That drive should either be an
external 7200 RPM FireWire drive or a
| | 03:37 | compatible ATA/IDE drive.
| | 03:40 | Again, check the Compatibility page
on Avid's site for the recommendations.
| | 03:45 | Having a large fast hard drive is
imperative for working with Pro Tools and
| | 03:49 | achieving the best
performance from your Pro Tools system.
| | 03:52 | So make sure to optimize your computer
for Pro Tools and check the Compatibility
| | 03:56 | pages on avid.com, so that you don't run
into any incompatibility surprises with
| | 04:02 | your computer or your
associated Pro Tools gear.
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| Troubleshooting| 00:00 | If at any time you come across a
problem with Pro Tools, I highly recommend
| | 00:04 | visiting the Avid web site, and
utilizing their Knowledgebase.
| | 00:08 | Click on Support & Services, and
navigate over to the right side. Under Pro Tools
| | 00:13 | Support, click Knowledgebase.
| | 00:15 | Just type in some keywords about your
issue into the search box down here, and
| | 00:22 | you'll often get an answer on the
first page of the search results.
| | 00:25 | I've used this countless times for
my own studio and almost everyday for
| | 00:29 | helping out my students.
| | 00:30 | There is also a great tool to help with
troubleshooting called the Tech Support folder.
| | 00:34 | It includes a tech support utility, a
PC Wizard, and troubleshooting sessions.
| | 00:40 | This is probably included when you
install Pro Tools on your computer,
| | 00:43 | but if not, you can download it from avid.com.
| | 00:46 | If I type it in here into the
Knowledgebase and search for it, it comes up
| | 00:53 | right here.
| | 00:54 | Once you've downloaded it,
you can look at what's included:
| | 00:58 | the PC Wizard, Tech Support
Utility, and Troubleshooting Sessions.
| | 01:02 | Just check out the associated PDFs to
find out how these tools can help if you
| | 01:07 | are experiencing any
troubles with your Pro Tools system.
| | 01:11 | The third reference I'll recommend for
troubleshooting is the Digidesign User
| | 01:15 | Conference, nicknamed the D-U-C, or the DUC.
| | 01:17 | Go on to this site, and look for
answers in a wide variety of posts.
| | 01:22 | You can do a search, you can join in
to conversations, and comment on other
| | 01:27 | posts, and help other
people with their issues, too.
| | 01:30 | Let's scroll down here, and you can
see Pro Tools HD, Surround & Post, Live
| | 01:36 | Sound, and all sorts of
other areas for discussions.
| | 01:41 | There are tons of resources on here
for any kind of system that you have.
| | 01:45 | You can ask questions about virtual
instruments in MIDI, any of these guitars,
| | 01:50 | drum rooms, anything you can think of.
| | 01:53 | If all this fails, and you can't find
what you need on the Avid web site or the
| | 01:57 | DUC, you're going to have to
contact Avid's tech support.
| | 02:02 | You can do that right here on their site.
| | 02:04 | Click on Support & Services, and choose
their Support Center or Contact Support.
| | 02:10 | So hopefully, you won't need tech support,
| | 02:12 | but if you do, I've shown you a
bunch of different options for
| | 02:15 | troubleshooting here in this video.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you are a premium member of
lynda.com Online Training Library, or if you are
| | 00:05 | watching this tutorial on a DVD-ROM,
you have access to the exercise files used
| | 00:10 | throughout this title.
| | 00:11 | Be sure to copy the exercise files
onto the hard drive that you'll be using
| | 00:15 | with the Pro Tools.
| | 00:16 | That drive should not be an internal drive in
your computer that's running your applications;
| | 00:21 | instead, it should be an external
drive or a separate hard drive installed
| | 00:25 | inside of your computer.
| | 00:27 | Watch the "Connecting Your Pro Tools System"
video for more information about hard drives.
| | 00:32 | Also, note that the Pro Tools files
will not play back from the DVD itself.
| | 00:36 | You definitely need to copy
those on to your hard drive.
| | 00:40 | You can see the exercise files folder here.
| | 00:42 | Although we're referencing it here
from the Desktop, we actually have the
| | 00:46 | original files on this Original
HD separated drive right here.
| | 00:53 | Each chapter of the course has
a folder for its exercise files.
| | 00:57 | Inside each chapter, you'll see
sessions or folders for each video that has
| | 01:01 | exercise files associated with it.
| | 01:03 | The Pro Tools session files for each
exercise are located inside of each of
| | 01:08 | these exercise folders.
| | 01:10 | The .ptf is the file that is
the Pro Tools session file.
| | 01:14 | I'm going to double-click on this
Recording Audio.ptf file to open up
| | 01:20 | this exercise file.
| | 01:22 | You may run into a few dialog boxes or
warning Windows like this when you open
| | 01:27 | up these session files.
| | 01:29 | The first warning says, "The original disk
allocation for the session cannot be used.
| | 01:34 | Check the disk allocation
window to see what's changed."
| | 01:37 | That simply means that the drive
that I created these sessions on is not
| | 01:41 | connected to your computer.
| | 01:42 | So, it's just warning you that you can
now check the disk allocation window to
| | 01:46 | see where those files will be saved.
| | 01:49 | The second part of this says Your I/O
setup has changed since the last time
| | 01:53 | this session was saved.
| | 01:54 | Check the I/O Setups
window to see what's changed.
| | 01:57 | That means that your interface is
different than the one that was used to
| | 02:00 | create this session.
| | 02:02 | So, no problems there.
| | 02:03 | Would you like to save a detailed report?
| | 02:05 | Not really necessary,
so I'm going to click No.
| | 02:09 | When the session opens up, you
might see this Missing Files dialog.
| | 02:14 | Keep the Automatically Find
& Relink button highlighted.
| | 02:18 | I highly recommend checking the
Regenerate Missing Files Without Searching button.
| | 02:23 | This means that Pro Tools will
automatically search your hard drives and find
| | 02:27 | and relink the audio files to this session.
| | 02:30 | It also means that Pro Tools will
recreate any fades that are in your session
| | 02:34 | without having to search for
those fades on your hard drive.
| | 02:37 | This speeds up the process of getting
your session up and running really quickly.
| | 02:42 | Press OK, and you'll see the audio files
become relinked to the session really quickly.
| | 02:46 | If you don't have access to these
exercise files, the videos in this course will
| | 02:51 | be more than adequate to demonstrate
the concepts and techniques needed to use
| | 02:55 | Pro Tools 9 effectively.
| | 02:56 | You can also create your own
sessions to mimic what I do in the videos to
| | 03:00 | further enhance your understanding.
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|
|
1. Getting Set Up in Pro Tools 9Installing and authorizing Pro Tools| 00:00 | Whether you have a Pro Tools
installer DVD or you've downloaded Pro Tools
| | 00:04 | from the Internet, the
installation process is the same.
| | 00:08 | First, be sure to watch the "Optimizing
your computer before installing Pro Tools"
| | 00:12 | video here in this course.
| | 00:14 | Then install Pro Tools according to
Avid's instructions, which you'll find with
| | 00:19 | your installer and/or on Avid's web site.
| | 00:23 | To run Pro Tools after installing it,
you'll need to authorize Pro Tools to
| | 00:27 | run on your computer.
| | 00:28 | Avid supply you with an authorization that
you will need to install on your iLok key.
| | 00:33 | An iLok key is essentially a
small USB hard drive created by PACE
| | 00:37 | Anti-Piracy that's used to store
software authorizations for Pro Tools and
| | 00:42 | for additional plug-ins.
| | 00:43 | If you haven't already, you will need
to set up an account on ilok.com in order
| | 00:48 | for Avid to send you your
Pro Tools authorization.
| | 00:51 | Once you have an account, you can
retrieve the authorization from the web site
| | 00:55 | and install it on your iLok key.
| | 00:57 | Pro Tools will not run without a
valid authorization located on an iLok key
| | 01:02 | connected to your computer.
| | 01:04 | A Pro Tools 9 authorization enables
you to run Pro Tools 9 on a supported Mac
| | 01:09 | or Windows computer with a Pro
Tools audio interface, an M-audio audio
| | 01:14 | interface, or any third-party audio
interface with supported core audio--Mac--or
| | 01:19 | ASIO--Windows--drivers.
| | 01:22 | That means if you have a Mac,
you can run Pro Tools without any
| | 01:25 | additional hardware.
| | 01:27 | The same holds true if you have a
Complete Production Toolkit 2 authorization.
| | 01:32 | A Pro Tools HD Authorizations lets you
run Pro Tools HD on a supported Mac or
| | 01:37 | Windows computer with Pro Tools HD hardware.
| | 01:40 | It also lets you run Pro Tools
with the Complete Production Toolkit 2
| | 01:43 | functionality on supported Mac and
Windows systems without Pro Tools
| | 01:48 | HD hardware.
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| Connecting your Pro Tools system| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to show you
how to connect the pieces of your Pro
| | 00:03 | Tools studio system.
| | 00:05 | First, if you haven't already,
install Pro Tools according to the directions
| | 00:09 | that came with your software.
| | 00:11 | This process also involves authorizing
your iLok key, and that process is shown
| | 00:16 | in another video in this course.
| | 00:18 | If you have an external FireWire
hard drive, plug that in first.
| | 00:22 | Plug in the power and turn it on.
| | 00:24 | Then connect it via FireWire to your computer.
| | 00:27 | Note that USB hard drives are not
compatible for using with Pro Tools.
| | 00:32 | They're not fast enough to keep up
with all the audio data transferring.
| | 00:36 | Instead, I recommend using USB
drives only for archiving your projects.
| | 00:40 | Using an external FireWire drive or
a second IDE, ATA, or SATA drive for
| | 00:46 | recording audio is highly recommended.
| | 00:48 | You should avoid recording audio to the
internal system drive on your computer.
| | 00:53 | Not only will you get better
performance from an external drive, you will also
| | 00:57 | keep your audio files and
your system software separated.
| | 01:00 | If necessary, format your hard
drive according to the instructions for
| | 01:04 | your computer type.
| | 01:06 | Should you partition the drive?
| | 01:07 | I personally don't think so.
| | 01:09 | Partitioning is not really necessary these
days, as the gains really aren't worth the cost.
| | 01:15 | I don't recommend doing it.
| | 01:17 | Check Avid's Compatibility page
online for specific hard drive
| | 01:22 | compatibility information.
| | 01:23 | Also, be sure to back up your data regularly.
| | 01:26 | You wouldn't want to lose one of your
musical ideas, or your clients' projects.
| | 01:31 | Next in the set of procedures is
connecting your interface, if you're using one.
| | 01:36 | Pro Tools 9 doesn't actually
require to use an audio interface.
| | 01:40 | However, if you're using one that
requires power, like the 003, plug in the power
| | 01:45 | first before connecting it to
your computer. Then turn it on.
| | 01:49 | Only a few interfaces require power.
| | 01:52 | Even though many of the interfaces come
with power cables, most interfaces can
| | 01:56 | get enough power from the USB or the
FireWire port on your computer, and don't
| | 02:01 | need to be plugged into
an external power supply.
| | 02:04 | Now connect your interface to your computer.
| | 02:06 | Use the USB or FireWire cable
that came with your interface.
| | 02:10 | If you only have one FireWire port
and you've connected your hard drive to
| | 02:14 | that port, connect your interface to your
hard drive instead of directly to your computer.
| | 02:20 | Most FireWire drives have two FireWire ports.
| | 02:23 | If your interface has a FireWire 400
connection and your computer or hard
| | 02:27 | drive only has a FireWire 800 connector,
you'll need to purchase a cable that
| | 02:32 | has a FireWire 400 connection on one end and
a FireWire 800 connection on the other end.
| | 02:38 | With the interface connected,
now you can launch Pro Tools.
| | 02:45 | Let's talk about connecting
instruments and mics to your interface.
| | 02:49 | If you want to record a mic, plug it into
one of the mic preamps on the interface.
| | 02:53 | Choose Mic as the input type on the interface.
| | 02:56 | If it's a condenser mic, be sure to
turn on the Phantom Power button that's
| | 03:01 | usually labeled with a 48 V
above or below the button.
| | 03:04 | This powers the microphones diaphragm.
| | 03:07 | Without this added power,
the mic will not function.
| | 03:10 | If you want to record an instrument
directly like an electric guitar or
| | 03:13 | bass, choose DI as the input type and plug
directly into the DI input on your interface.
| | 03:20 | If you have a MIDI controller, you
can plug it into the MIDI ports on your
| | 03:23 | interface. Or if the controller has a
USB connection, you can plug it into
| | 03:28 | your computer directly.
| | 03:30 | Plug your headphones into the headphone
input on your interface and connect your
| | 03:34 | studio monitors to the monitor outputs.
| | 03:37 | If you have a USB-powered interface,
like the Mbox 3, use the mix knob on the
| | 03:42 | front of the interface to mix the
output signal from Pro Tools with the input
| | 03:46 | signal from whatever you've
got plugged into the interface.
| | 03:49 | If you have any further questions about
how to connect any device in your studio
| | 03:53 | setup, consult the guides that Avid
or your third-party manufacturer has
| | 03:58 | provided with your interface.
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| Powering up and powering down| 00:00 | In this video, I want to show you the
proper way to power up and power down
| | 00:04 | your Pro Tools system.
| | 00:06 | Here is the order for
powering up your Pro Tools system:
| | 00:09 | First, turn on your
control surface, if you have one.
| | 00:12 | Next, turn on your external hard drives.
| | 00:16 | Third, turn on your audio interface, if
you're using one, unless it draws power
| | 00:21 | from your computer via USB or FireWire.
| | 00:24 | Then turn on your computer, flip on your
monitors, and then it's safe to launch Pro Tools.
| | 00:29 | Here's the proper order for
powering down your Pro Tools system:
| | 00:33 | First, Quit Pro Tools.
| | 00:35 | Then power down your monitors.
| | 00:37 | Then you can turn off your computer,
your MIDI gear, and your audio interface.
| | 00:41 | Finally, power down your control
surface, and then your hard drives last.
| | 00:46 | I highly recommend observing these
steps to avoid damaging your hard drives,
| | 00:50 | creating large pop sounds from your
monitors, and unnecessarily losing data or
| | 00:55 | communication with your interface.
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| Choosing the Playback Engine and Hardware settings| 00:00 | After you have set up your Pro Tools
gear and connected all the components, it's
| | 00:04 | time to tell your computer what
hardware you want to use with Pro Tools.
| | 00:09 | As you can see here, I have already
launched Pro Tools, and now I am going to go
| | 00:12 | to the Setup menu and choose Hardware.
| | 00:16 | In this dialog box, we can choose
from any of the peripherals that are
| | 00:20 | connected to our system.
| | 00:22 | A peripheral refers to a device that
you can use to listen through and record
| | 00:27 | with while running Pro Tools.
| | 00:30 | If you have a specific Avid Digidesign
or M-Audio interface, such as the 003
| | 00:35 | shown here, you'll usually want to choose that.
| | 00:39 | However, you can also
choose a third-party device.
| | 00:42 | There are a few listed here.
| | 00:45 | You can use a third party device with Core
Audio device software drivers on Mac computers.
| | 00:50 | Core Audio connects the audio
streams between audio hardware and software
| | 00:55 | applications like Pro Tools.
| | 00:57 | On a PC, Steinberg's Audio Stream Input
Output, or ASIO drivers provide the same
| | 01:04 | function as Core Audio on a Mac,
| | 01:06 | thus you can use third party
interfaces with a PC with Pro Tools as well.
| | 01:12 | The Pro Tools Aggregate I/O is an
option that enables you to use any of the
| | 01:17 | available built-in input and
output channels on your computer.
| | 01:20 | This is only a Mac feature, and I
will talk about this later in this video.
| | 01:25 | Let's go back and look at the 003 interface.
| | 01:29 | First, we have got the Clock Source.
| | 01:31 | The Clock Source is the timing
reference that all the digital gear in your Pro
| | 01:35 | Tools system has to sync up with to
ensure accurate playback and recording.
| | 01:40 | The majority of the time you will
probably leave this as Internal when using Pro
| | 01:44 | Tools as the SyncMaster.
| | 01:46 | The only time to change this option is
when you're syncing to another device
| | 01:50 | that you'll want to have
provide the timing reference.
| | 01:54 | Below the Clock Source is the Sample Rate.
| | 01:57 | What you choose here will be the
default sampling rate when you start up a
| | 02:00 | session with this interface, and I
will explain sampling rate in a video
| | 02:04 | later in this chapter.
| | 02:06 | For the 003, we also have the Optical Format.
| | 02:09 | There is an optical interface on the
back of the 003 that you can choose
| | 02:14 | between ADAT and S/PDIF.
| | 02:16 | On many of the other devices, you won't
have this option here in the Hardware Setup.
| | 02:20 | And below that, we have the Footswitch Control.
| | 02:23 | If your Pro Tools interface supports a
footswitch, you can tell Pro Tools what
| | 02:27 | you want to do with it--whether you want
to use it to record via punching in and
| | 02:31 | out or use it for playback start and stop.
| | 02:36 | Going back over to the Pro Tools
Aggregate I/O, this is a Mac only option
| | 02:40 | that enables you to use any of the
available built-in input and output
| | 02:44 | channels on your computer.
| | 02:46 | When using the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O,
M-Audio interfaces, or any other third
| | 02:51 | party interface with Pro Tools, you
should click the Launch Setup App button to
| | 02:56 | configure the hardware settings.
| | 02:59 | The Launch Setup App button will start
up the program or driver appropriate for
| | 03:03 | your connected device.
| | 03:04 | There is a wide variety of these,
but the one that shows up for Pro Tools
| | 03:08 | Aggregate I/O on a Mac is the Audio MIDI Setup.
| | 03:11 | So here, I will choose Pro Tools
Aggregate I/O. In this window, you can adjust
| | 03:17 | the Clock Source based on the Built-in
Line Input, Built-in Output, or the second
| | 03:23 | Built-in Line Output.
| | 03:24 | There will be a variety of
options here for you depending on your
| | 03:27 | computer system's layout.
| | 03:29 | And you can tell Pro Tools what you want
to use with this setup by activating or
| | 03:35 | deactivating these particular audio devices.
| | 03:39 | Check off any of the audio
devices that you will be using.
| | 03:42 | You can even configure your
speakers using this button down here.
| | 03:46 | When you're done, you can quit this app,
and you'll have your Pro Tools set up
| | 03:50 | for your Pro Tools Aggregate I/O
system setting, and you will also want to
| | 03:57 | hit OK to finalize it.
| | 03:59 | So you can use a wide variety of
interfaces--even on your own computer's built-in
| | 04:05 | audio devices--as your interface with Pro Tools.
| | 04:08 | Use the hardware setup to make the
appropriate settings for your interface.
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| Optimizing Pro Tools performance| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to explain
some of the key settings that affect how
| | 00:04 | Pro Tools interacts with your
computer, and why you should adjust them for
| | 00:08 | improved performance.
| | 00:10 | Let's go to this Setup menu
and choose Playback Engine.
| | 00:14 | First, make sure that the Current Engine
matches the peripheral you chose in the
| | 00:19 | Hardware Setup window.
| | 00:22 | Let's talk about some of
these settings down here.
| | 00:25 | First, let's look at the CPU Usage Limit.
| | 00:28 | The CPU Usage Limit is the amount of
your computer's total processing power
| | 00:33 | assigned to Pro Tools.
| | 00:34 | For example, if you assign 85% of your
computer's power to Pro Tools, 15% is left
| | 00:42 | for other applications,
including your operating system.
| | 00:46 | On this system, we're actually allowed
to choose up to 99%, and that's because
| | 00:51 | this is an 8-core multiprocessor.
| | 00:53 | Your computer might only be able to
go up to about 90% if you don't have a
| | 00:57 | multi-core processor.
| | 00:59 | The only reason not to boost this all
the way to the limit is if you're going
| | 01:03 | to be running other intensive programs on
your computer at the same time as Pro Tools.
| | 01:09 | Now let's talk about the Hardware Buffer Size.
| | 01:12 | The Hardware Buffer Size is related to latency.
| | 01:15 | All computer recording systems have latency.
| | 01:18 | Well, what is latency?
| | 01:20 | Latency is the time it takes for your
computer to receive an input signal,
| | 01:24 | process it, and send it back out to
an output so that you can hear it.
| | 01:28 | Yes, that's right; digital
recording is not actually instantaneous.
| | 01:32 | We can adjust the latency in Pro Tools
using the Hardware Buffer Size, shown here.
| | 01:37 | The Hardware Buffer Size is the
amount of audio data in samples that your
| | 01:41 | computer grabs and processes at one
time before it spits it back out for
| | 01:45 | monitoring or recording.
| | 01:47 | Large buffer sizes give the computer
more time to process audio data, but also
| | 01:52 | increase the amount of latency, and
cause slower user interface response.
| | 01:57 | Small buffer sizes--like 32 samples
shown here--decrease latency, but don't allow
| | 02:03 | the use of as many
plug-ins while using Pro Tools.
| | 02:07 | So smaller hardware buffer sizes--like
32 samples or 64 samples--are more useful
| | 02:14 | for recording sessions where you'll
have less latency, and you may not need to
| | 02:18 | use as many plug-ins.
| | 02:20 | Larger buffer sizes--like 512 or
1024 samples--are more useful for mixing
| | 02:27 | sessions, where there is more latency,
but you can also put in more plug-ins.
| | 02:32 | As a side note, because these buffers
are measured in samples, it stands to
| | 02:36 | reason that faster sampling
rates will yield lower latencies.
| | 02:39 | For example, 128 samples at a 96 kHz
sampling rate is half as long as 128 samples
| | 02:48 | at a 48 kHz sampling rate.
| | 02:51 | These calculations may be over your head
at the moment, but if they are no worries.
| | 02:55 | The take-home message here is that
lower buffer sizes are better for recording
| | 02:59 | and higher buffer sizes are better for mixing.
| | 03:02 | We'll discuss this topic
further in the Recording chapter.
| | 03:06 | Let's move onto the Host Processors.
| | 03:09 | The Host Processors setting determines
how many processors in your computer are
| | 03:14 | allocated for plug-in processing.
| | 03:16 | On computers with one processor,
this is automatically set to 1;
| | 03:20 | however, on computers with multiple
processors like this one, you can increase
| | 03:25 | this number to take
advantage of those extra processors.
| | 03:28 | I recommend setting this to either the
maximum, 8, or the one below the maximum
| | 03:33 | allowed, 7, which is often the preferred value.
| | 03:37 | When using most audio interfaces you
want to keep the Ignore Errors During
| | 03:42 | Playback/Record unchecked, because if
you do check it, it says down here it, "May
| | 03:47 | cause clicks and pops in
your playback and recording."
| | 03:51 | The only real reason to check this
is if you need a little bit of extra
| | 03:55 | horsepower from your computer, and you
can deal with a couple of clicks and pops
| | 03:59 | during playback and recording.
| | 04:01 | Below the Host Engine, we have the
Delay Compensation Engine, and I'm going to
| | 04:05 | discuss that in another video.
| | 04:07 | Let's look at the DAE Playback Buffer.
| | 04:09 | DAE stands for the Digidesign Audio Engine.
| | 04:13 | It works behind the scenes within Pro
Tools to manage all of the audio streams.
| | 04:18 | The DAE Playback Buffer setting can affect
the responsiveness of the Pro Tools interface.
| | 04:24 | However, I've rarely have the need to
change the default values, which are shown
| | 04:28 | here: Level 2, which is the default,
we'll keep it that, and the Cache Size
| | 04:34 | we'll keep as Normal.
| | 04:36 | As you can read here on the screen,
"Lower values for the disk buffer reduce disk
| | 04:41 | latency while higher
values improve disk performance."
| | 04:45 | Again, the default settings
should be fine for both of these.
| | 04:48 | On some devices, you may see a plug-
in streaming buffer in this window.
| | 04:53 | This setting determines the amount
of memory DAE allocates for streaming
| | 04:57 | playback from virtual
instruments samplers, like structure.
| | 05:00 | Low values free up system resources
for other uses, while higher values yield
| | 05:05 | better playback reliability, even
though they take up more system resources.
| | 05:09 | Usually keeping the default value is
fine. Only change this value if you're
| | 05:14 | experiencing problems with the
reliability of streaming playback from virtual
| | 05:18 | instruments samplers.
| | 05:19 | Although some of these settings and
terminologies explained in this video might
| | 05:23 | not make complete sense to you right now, it
will as you move forward in using Pro Tools.
| | 05:28 | Revisit this video after getting
more familiar with Pro Tools, and you'll
| | 05:32 | understand it more deeply.
| | 05:34 | However, for our purposes here, I
would recommend maximizing your CPU Usage,
| | 05:38 | adjusting your Hardware Buffer Size to
a lower number, and setting your Host
| | 05:43 | Processors to one below the maximum amount.
| | 05:46 | These settings will increase the
power and optimize your performance of Pro
| | 05:50 | Tools on your computer.
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| Utilizing Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC)| 00:00 | Pro Tools 9 now has
Automatic Delay Compensation.
| | 00:04 | It's not a Pro Tools HD feature only anymore.
| | 00:07 | Automatic Delay Compensation, or ADC,
helps to manage any delays created from
| | 00:12 | plug-ins and hardware inserts, as well as
internal mixer routing via sends and buses.
| | 00:18 | For example, if in your Pro Tools
session you have tracks with different
| | 00:22 | plug-ins on them, or if the tracks have
different mixing signal paths within Pro
| | 00:26 | Tools, an ADC will help keep them time-aligned.
| | 00:30 | Pro Tools adds the exact amount of
delay to each track necessary to make each
| | 00:34 | track's delay equal to the same amount,
thus keeping all the tracks time-aligned.
| | 00:38 | We can adjust the delay compensation
within the playback engine, shown here.
| | 00:43 | Right now, we've got no Automatic Delay
Compensation, but we can choose between
| | 00:49 | three different options.
| | 00:50 | The Short ADC value uses less
processing power than the long ADC value and
| | 00:56 | should be fine for any session that only has
a few plug-ins that don't induce much delay.
| | 01:01 | The Long ADC value allocates the
maximum amount of resources for
| | 01:05 | delay compensation.
| | 01:06 | You should use this in sessions where
there are a lot of plug-ins causing a
| | 01:10 | large amount of delay.
| | 01:12 | Automatic Delay Compensation should
always be enabled during playback and mixing,
| | 01:17 | and during many recording situations.
| | 01:19 | Now while you don't need to activate
delay compensation when you're recording
| | 01:22 | your first tracks in a session,
| | 01:24 | once your session start to become a
little more complicated via signal routing
| | 01:28 | and insertion of plug-ins,
using ADC will become a necessity.
| | 01:32 | I'll discuss much more about ADC in
the recording and mixing chapters in
| | 01:36 | this course.
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| Setting essential preferences| 00:00 | Pro Tools has a huge number of
preferences that you can adjust to customize how
| | 00:05 | you work with Pro Tools.
| | 00:06 | I certainly won't cover all of them
here, but when you're just starting out
| | 00:10 | using Pro Tools, it's a good idea to
set up or confirm that several of the
| | 00:14 | essential preferences are enabled.
| | 00:16 | Let's go to Setup and choose Preferences.
| | 00:20 | You'll see at the top of the page here
seven tabs; each tab opens up a different
| | 00:25 | page of preferences.
| | 00:28 | When you're just getting started using
Pro Tools, you might want to make sure to
| | 00:31 | keep the Tool Tips on, so that when you
mouse over a button in Pro Tools, you can
| | 00:37 | see the function and details
that describe what it does.
| | 00:40 | I also like keeping the Quick Start
dialog open when Pro Tools starts up.
| | 00:45 | That's an easy way to get started
using Pro Tools and creating a new session.
| | 00:50 | And I like all the other the defaults on
this page, and we'll cover a few more of
| | 00:53 | these later in other videos.
| | 00:55 | Let's go over to the Operation tab and
go down to probably the most important
| | 01:00 | preference that you have here
in Pro Tools: the Auto Backup.
| | 01:04 | Let's be honest. Computers freeze
and Pro Tools can unexpectedly quit right
| | 01:09 | in the middle of your session,
| | 01:10 | so save yourself by Enabling the
Session File Auto Backup. Just check this box
| | 01:17 | and set up the number of recent backups
that you want to keep and how often you
| | 01:22 | want it to back this up.
| | 01:24 | I actually like to back this up every two
minutes and keeping 10 as probably just fine.
| | 01:29 | Everything else on this page is good.
| | 01:31 | Let's go to the Editing preferences.
| | 01:34 | Down at the bottom, we have the Levels of Undo.
| | 01:37 | This allows you to go back in your steps
of whatever you've done in Pro Tools, up
| | 01:41 | to 32 levels, that is 32 steps back.
| | 01:46 | We'll keep this at 32 for now.
| | 01:48 | However, you should know that the
number of levels of undo are kept in your RAM,
| | 01:53 | and so if you actually want to save on
your processing power in your RAM, you
| | 01:57 | can reduce this number, and then Pro
Tools won't have to remember as many steps
| | 02:01 | of undo, and that will open up more
processing power for plug-ins or virtual instruments.
| | 02:06 | And if you think about it this way, if
you setup your Auto Backup to happen every
| | 02:10 | two minutes, you probably can't even
get into 32 edits in those two minutes.
| | 02:15 | So you could always go back
to a previously saved version.
| | 02:19 | So if you want to, you can reduce this,
but you'll might as well just keep it at 32.
| | 02:23 | All the other default preferences
are fine to start out with here.
| | 02:27 | I just wanted to introduce you to the
preferences now, and we'll revisit specific
| | 02:31 | preferences in other videos in
this course when they're relevant.
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| Creating a Pro Tools session| 00:00 | Let's create a new Pro Tools session.
| | 00:02 | When you launch Pro Tools or choose
New Session from the File menu, the Quick
| | 00:08 | Start dialog opens, offering you a few options.
| | 00:12 | We can create a session from a template.
| | 00:14 | We can choose from a variety of different
templates, as well as musical styles, for this.
| | 00:22 | If we go to say Guitar, we can choose
Ballads, Metal, Rock Guitar, or we can
| | 00:29 | start with a blank session.
| | 00:32 | Let's talk about what
these Session Parameters are.
| | 00:35 | First, let's talk about Sampling Rate.
| | 00:37 | There are two primary determinants
in the accuracy of digital recording:
| | 00:42 | sample rate and bit depth.
| | 00:45 | Photography is a helpful
metaphor for discussing sampling rate.
| | 00:48 | Digital recording is like taking
pictures of audio waveforms at a speed
| | 00:52 | determined by the sample rate.
| | 00:54 | If the sample rate in your session is
44.1 kHz, Pro Tools takes 44,100 pictures
| | 01:02 | of your audio input every second.
| | 01:05 | Each picture captures the amplitude, or the
level of the audio signal at that moment.
| | 01:10 | The more pictures that you take, the
more accurate the representation of
| | 01:13 | the audio waveform is.
| | 01:14 | Thus, the higher the sampling rate in
Pro Tools the more accurately Pro Tools
| | 01:20 | can recreate an analog
waveform with digital samples.
| | 01:24 | Higher sampling rates also
require more hard drive space.
| | 01:27 | For example, audio files recorded at 96
kHz are twice as big as those recorded
| | 01:34 | at 48 kHz--all other factors being equal--
simply because there is twice as much
| | 01:39 | information being recorded.
| | 01:41 | Moving over to Bit Depth, each sample
is digitally mapped to an exact digital
| | 01:46 | amplitude value and
converted into binary digits, or bits.
| | 01:51 | The number of bits in a system
is referred to as the bit depth.
| | 01:54 | 16-bit recordings offer roughly 66,000
different amplitude levels, while 24-bit
| | 02:02 | recordings offer over 16 million
different levels, thus the higher the bit
| | 02:07 | depth, the more accurate the digital
representation of the analog sound.
| | 02:12 | Note that 24-bit recordings take up one
and a half times more hard drive space
| | 02:18 | as 16-bit recordings.
| | 02:20 | As a reference, CDs are recorded at
16-bit, 44.1 kHz, while DVDs are recorded at
| | 02:28 | 24-bit, 96 kHz for the audio.
| | 02:31 | So choose your bit depth and sample
rate wisely when you're creating your new
| | 02:36 | session in Pro Tools.
| | 02:37 | The I/O Settings refer to the signal
routing options within Pro Tools, and via
| | 02:43 | the interface that you've
connected to Pro Tools, like an Mbox 3 Pro.
| | 02:47 | You can simply use the last used
settings or choose from any settings that
| | 02:52 | you've made previously or some of the
default settings that come with Pro Tools.
| | 02:57 | I discuss how to make custom I/O
setups in a video later in this course.
| | 03:02 | Finally, we have the Audio File Type
and we can choose between .WAV and AIFF.
| | 03:08 | It really doesn't matter which one you choose,
as they are both compatible with Macs and PCs.
| | 03:14 | So once you've chosen all of your session
parameters, click OK and save the session.
| | 03:22 | Name it, choose where you
want it to go, click Save.
| | 03:27 | When you press Save, Pro Tools
opens a new blank session file, and we'll
| | 03:31 | cover the interface and the elements of a Pro
Tools session in other videos in this course.
| | 03:35 | Now, you know what all the parameters of
a Pro Tools session mean and how to use
| | 03:39 | them effectively when creating a new session.
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| Identifying elements in a session folder| 00:00 | When you create a new session file, Pro
Tools actually creates an entire folder
| | 00:05 | that contains many subfolders that hold
all of the files related to the session.
| | 00:10 | So I am going to hide Pro Tools
and look at this new_session folder.
| | 00:16 | Here are the contents.
| | 00:17 | The new_session.ptf file is the
session file. That stores all of the session
| | 00:23 | data, but it does not store audio or video data;
| | 00:27 | it only points to the audio and
video files on your hard drive.
| | 00:31 | The audio files are kept in
the separate Audio Files folder.
| | 00:35 | They are not part of the session.
| | 00:37 | This is very important to understand.
| | 00:39 | They exist separately in this folder,
and the session file simply references
| | 00:44 | them and tells the hard drive
what parts of the files to playback.
| | 00:48 | The same goes for the video files.
| | 00:50 | The Fade Files folder contains files for
each fade and crossfade made in the session.
| | 00:55 | These are saved as waveform files and are
reference by the session, just like audio files are.
| | 01:00 | However, Fade Files can be erased,
and Pro Tools can recreate them because
| | 01:05 | they are saved as part of the session file
as well, which is not the case for audio files.
| | 01:10 | The waveform cache file stores all of
the waveform display data for a session.
| | 01:15 | This allows Pro Tools to open more quickly.
| | 01:18 | If you delete this file,
Pro Tools will rebuild it.
| | 01:21 | When you activate the auto backup
preference in the Operations Preference page
| | 01:25 | in Pro Tools, Pro Tools creates backup
copies of your session automatically.
| | 01:29 | Those backups are stored in
the Session File Backups folder.
| | 01:33 | Now, there are two things that you should
know by seeing the session folder setup here.
| | 01:37 | First, when you record audio, create
fades, etcetera, those files are created in
| | 01:41 | a nonlinear fashion.
| | 01:43 | They're not all in a row like they
would be if you're recording to analog tape.
| | 01:47 | For instance, you can record audio
files to multiple different hard drives
| | 01:52 | and Pro Tools can still pull all of
those various files together and play
| | 01:56 | tiny little pieces of them in the session and
play them all back at once or in succession.
| | 02:02 | Second, it's important to understand that
editing an audio file in Pro Tools is nondestructive.
| | 02:07 | Because the audio files are separate
from the Pro Tools session, almost anything
| | 02:12 | you do to the audio file in the session
will not harm the original audio file.
| | 02:17 | So, now you know that a Pro Tools
session actually pulls data from multiple
| | 02:21 | sources, all contained in separate files
and folders within the overall session folder.
| | 02:26 | I recommend keeping them all together
within the session folder so that Pro Tools
| | 02:31 | can find them easily.
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| Creating new tracks| 00:00 | When starting up a new session,
you'll need to create some tracks.
| | 00:04 | In this video, I am going to explain the
different types of tracks and how to create them.
| | 00:09 | If you go to the Track menu and select
New, you'll see the New Tracks dialog.
| | 00:15 | Here is where you create all of your new tracks.
| | 00:17 | We've got listed here Create one new
Mono audio track, with samples as
| | 00:23 | the timebase.
| | 00:25 | We can choose the track format, Mono,
Stereo or some sort of surround soundtrack type.
| | 00:33 | We can choose between Audio, Aux Input,
Master Fader, VCA Master, MIDI Track,
| | 00:38 | Instrument Track, and Video Track.
| | 00:40 | Let me tell you a little bit
about these different types.
| | 00:44 | Audio Tracks are used to record and arrange
recorded or imported audio files and regions.
| | 00:49 | It's important to remember that Pro
Tools session documents don't actually
| | 00:53 | contain the audio files;
| | 00:55 | the session references them from the hard drive.
| | 00:57 | These audio tracks can be Mono, like a
single voice track, Stereo, like a piano
| | 01:03 | track, or multi-channel on HD systems
or Pro Tools systems with the complete
| | 01:08 | production toolkit too.
| | 01:10 | Aux Input tracks are used for effect
returns, sub-mixing, and a variety of other
| | 01:15 | signal routing tasks.
| | 01:16 | Aux Input tracks can be Mono,
Stereo, or multi-channel as well.
| | 01:20 | Master Fader tracks are most often used
to control the overall level of all the
| | 01:24 | audio signals routed
through the main output paths.
| | 01:27 | For instance, if you have 12 audio tracks
all routed to analog outs 1 and 2, a
| | 01:33 | Master Fader track with its output
assigned to analog outs 1 and 2 will control
| | 01:38 | the combined output level
of those 12 audio tracks.
| | 01:41 | Master Fader tracks can be
Mono, Stereo, or multi-channel.
| | 01:45 | I highly recommend putting a stereo
Master Fader track into any Pro Tools music
| | 01:49 | session you create to
monitor the overall output level.
| | 01:53 | VCA Master tracks are only available in
Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools systems with
| | 01:58 | the complete production toolkit too.
| | 02:00 | VCA Master tracks emulate voltage
controlled amplifier channels on analog
| | 02:05 | recording and mixing consoles and are
used to control tracks in a mixed group
| | 02:09 | that are assigned to a VCA Master.
| | 02:11 | They do not pass audio, so they don't
have any input, output, inserts or sends,
| | 02:16 | yet they can be mono, stereo or multi-channel.
| | 02:20 | You may not ever use one of
these in one of your sessions.
| | 02:23 | MIDI tracks are used to record MIDI
performance data--that is notes, velocity,
| | 02:27 | pitch band, et cetera.
| | 02:29 | Because no audio passes through them, there
is no option for mono, stereo, or surround.
| | 02:34 | Instrument tracks are essentially a
combination of a MIDI track and an Aux Input.
| | 02:38 | They allow MIDI recording as well as
audio monitoring of an inserted software or
| | 02:42 | hardware instrument on the track.
| | 02:45 | Finally, Video Tracks, which are only
available on HD systems and Pro Tools
| | 02:49 | systems with the
complete production toolkit too.
| | 02:52 | However, you can import a video
into Pro Tools, and a video track will
| | 02:57 | automatically be created.
| | 02:58 | We'll cover more about video
tracks later in this course.
| | 03:01 | So I am going to go ahead and
create a number of tracks here.
| | 03:06 | If you click these Plus and Minus buttons,
that will add or subtract new tracks.
| | 03:12 | Create a Stereo Aux Input, Stereo
Master Fader, Stereo VCA Master, a MIDI
| | 03:25 | Track, a Mono Instrument
Track, and a Video Track.
| | 03:34 | So now you know how to create tracks
and what the differences are between
| | 03:38 | each type of track.
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|
|
2. Learning the InterfaceExploring the Edit window| 00:00 | This is the Pro Tools Edit window.
| | 00:02 | It's probably the window you'll
use most when working with Pro Tools.
| | 00:06 | I've opened a session here that
already has some tracks in it, but I want to
| | 00:10 | talk about the individual
parts of the Edit window.
| | 00:13 | At the top, we've got the Edit toolbars.
| | 00:18 | Right now, if I go to the Edit Toolbar
menu, you'll see that I have just the
| | 00:22 | minimal setting, and that consists
of the Edit modes, the Edit tools, the
| | 00:29 | Counters, and the Grid and Nudge values.
| | 00:33 | If I go over to the Edit Toolbar menu, I
can add additional things like the zoom
| | 00:39 | controls, which show up over here, Transport.
| | 00:44 | I can actually go down and click All,
and that will extend even beyond the
| | 00:51 | screen what we can see here, and the
Expanded Transport which adds pre-roll and a
| | 00:58 | longer version of the Transport window.
| | 01:00 | Now, if you want to see some of these
that are beyond the view, you can press
| | 01:06 | Command on the Mac or Ctrl on a PC and
click and drag them and move them around.
| | 01:14 | Below the Edit toolbars, we have the
Universe window, and that's this small
| | 01:20 | group of colored lines.
| | 01:22 | We can show or hide that, and that just
represents all the tracks that are down
| | 01:28 | here in the Edit window.
| | 01:30 | You'll also see the color-coding that
matches up with the markers that are shown here.
| | 01:35 | We can show and hide those particular things
over here in the Edit toolbar menu as well.
| | 01:42 | You'll also see in this menu the Tracks
list, the Regions list, and the MIDI Editor.
| | 01:48 | The MIDI Editor shows up
at the bottom of the screen.
| | 01:51 | If you have MIDI Tracks, you'll see some
tracks in there, and I'll activate that now.
| | 01:55 | We'll talk about this in a later video,
but I just wanted to show you that it's here.
| | 02:01 | You can hide it by
clicking this button right here.
| | 02:05 | On the left side of the Edit window,
we have the Tracks and the Groups lists.
| | 02:10 | The Tracks list shows all the
tracks that are in the session.
| | 02:14 | If we click on one, it
highlights the name of the track.
| | 02:18 | The Tracks list also contains the tracks
menu, where we can show all tracks, show
| | 02:23 | only a few tracks, hide all
the tracks and sort the tracks.
| | 02:28 | Below the Tracks list is the Groups list.
| | 02:31 | You can group multiple tracks together
to create a group and then work on the
| | 02:35 | tracks in that group simultaneously.
| | 02:38 | There is a Group list pop-up where you
can create New Groups, display different
| | 02:42 | groups, modify the groups, and delete groups.
| | 02:45 | I'll show you more about how to
make a group in a later video.
| | 02:49 | On the right side of the screen, we have
the Regions list, and this shows all of
| | 02:53 | the audio and MIDI regions
that are in the sessions.
| | 02:56 | It also has a pop-up menu.
| | 02:59 | It has a wide variety of things that we
can do to apply to the regions, and we'll
| | 03:04 | talk more about that in the later video as well.
| | 03:07 | In the top-center, we have all of the rulers;
| | 03:11 | Bars|Beats, Min:Sec, Samples.
| | 03:14 | We can go over to the Ruler menu and
choose which ones that we want to see.
| | 03:20 | Below the rulers, we have the Edit
Window view selector where we can choose what
| | 03:24 | we want to see on our tracks.
| | 03:27 | Right now, I've got the Inserts,
the I/O and the Track Color showing.
| | 03:30 | If I choose Minimal, we'll only see the
names of the tracks with the track colors.
| | 03:36 | If I show All, I can barely see any of
the tracks because we have all of these
| | 03:42 | things that we can view, so we have the
tracks, the comments, where we can type in
| | 03:47 | anything about the track,
| | 03:49 | The Mic Preamp section, the
Instrument section, the Inserts where we put
| | 03:53 | plug-ins and virtual instruments,
| | 03:55 | the Send, we have 10 different sends,
the I/O, so that's the input and the
| | 04:00 | output and the volume and panning, and
Real-Time Properties, which we can apply
| | 04:05 | to any MIDI, or instrument track.
| | 04:07 | Let me go back to Minimal.
| | 04:11 | In each track, we have the Record
button, Solo, and the Mute buttons.
| | 04:16 | We've got the Track view, which will show us
all kinds of different views of the tracks.
| | 04:22 | So, in this particular case, on this
instrument track, we have the MIDI regions.
| | 04:26 | We can show the notes and a wide
variety, even down to the audio volume of the
| | 04:31 | track, and these are the
automation views for the Track view.
| | 04:38 | We can also show multiple views of this
track if we show and hide the automation lanes.
| | 04:43 | So now we have the Regions view up
here as the main view, the Velocity's down
| | 04:48 | here and we can add more
and choose whatever we want.
| | 04:55 | Below the Track view selector,
we've got the Patch Selector.
| | 04:58 | If we click that, we can choose a
different patch, if we have a MIDI
| | 05:03 | device connected to this.
| | 05:05 | We'll talk more about that later.
| | 05:06 | We have the Automation mode selector and
we'll talk about this later in a different video.
| | 05:13 | We have the Timebase selector, which
we'll also cover in a different video.
| | 05:18 | If you go down right below the track, you'll
see how the cursor turns into a double arrow.
| | 05:24 | If you click and drag, you can make
the track larger or smaller in height.
| | 05:30 | You'll see that some of the features
of the track either get hidden or become
| | 05:36 | really small buttons.
| | 05:39 | You can also adjust the height by clicking
right here, and that works on any kind of track.
| | 05:49 | On audio tracks, we have the Current
Elastic Audio Plug-in, if there is one, in
| | 05:54 | this area, and down here we
have the Polyphonic one showing.
| | 05:58 | We'll talk more about that in another video.
| | 06:00 | While we are down here in this corner,
let's look at the show and hide buttons.
| | 06:05 | Right here we can show or hide, vice-versa.
| | 06:09 | We can toggle between showing and hiding
the Tracks and Groups lists, and we have
| | 06:14 | the same button over here where we
can show or hide the Regions list.
| | 06:19 | Right around these buttons
are some zooming buttons.
| | 06:23 | We can zoom in and out, and make things
taller or shorter, and MIDI zoom in and
| | 06:29 | out right here with Audio Zoom In and Out.
| | 06:32 | Finally, the last button, here we
have the keyboard focus button, and we'll
| | 06:37 | describe how that works
in another video as well.
| | 06:39 | So, as you can tell from this video,
you can do about everything that you need
| | 06:43 | to do to your tracks here in the Edit window.
| | 06:46 | I'll get into the specifics of all the
features in this window in many of the
| | 06:50 | other videos in this course.
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| Exploring the Mix window| 00:00 | The Mix window mimics a mixing console,
displaying each track as a vertical channel.
| | 00:06 | Although you can actually access almost
every Mix window feature from the Edit
| | 00:10 | window, I find working in the Mix
window while mixing and even recording can be
| | 00:15 | more intuitive--plus it's
nice to see the tall faders here.
| | 00:19 | Let's start on the left
side with the Tracks list.
| | 00:22 | Just like in the Edit window, we can
see all of the different tracks here, and
| | 00:26 | we've got the Tracks list pop-up, where
we can hide all the tracks, show all the
| | 00:32 | tracks, or show only certain types of tracks.
| | 00:37 | Below the Tracks list is the Groups
list, where we can create groups, display
| | 00:42 | groups, suspend groups and modify groups.
| | 00:45 | Again, we'll talk about groups in another video.
| | 00:48 | Let's look at the track channels.
| | 00:50 | Down here with this button, the Mix
Window view selector, we can choose All or
| | 00:56 | Minimal or specific pieces of the
mix channels that we want to see.
| | 01:01 | Starting with Minimal, we can look at
just the I/O section, which has the input
| | 01:05 | and output for the track, the automation,
the group status, the panning, Record,
| | 01:12 | Solo and Mute buttons, the track faders
and meters, and we've also got the Patch
| | 01:19 | Select button, the Track Type;
| | 01:21 | these icons show the different types of tracks.
| | 01:24 | So that's an audio track.
| | 01:26 | This is an instrument track.
| | 01:27 | We've got the name of the
track and the track color.
| | 01:30 | If you go back down to this button and show
All, you'll see a very tall mixing channel.
| | 01:38 | At the Mic Preamp section up here,
the Instrument section, the Inserts, and
| | 01:43 | you'll see that we have 10 Inserts,
five at the top, A through E and then F
| | 01:48 | through J, and that's where we can
put virtual instruments and plug-ins.
| | 01:52 | We've 10 Sends as well, A through E and
F through J. As I scroll down here, you
| | 01:59 | remember the I/O section and below
the name of the track, we have the delay
| | 02:04 | compensation section and the comments section.
| | 02:08 | If you go up to the View menu and
choose Mix Window Views, we can select
| | 02:15 | particular things that we want to see,
and that acts the same way as this button
| | 02:20 | down here, the Mix Window view selector.
| | 02:23 | Also, from the View menu, we can
choose to see the Narrow Mix, which makes all
| | 02:28 | of the tracks much more narrow, and
this works out really well if you have a
| | 02:32 | very large session with a ton of
tracks. That way you can see a lot more
| | 02:36 | tracks in your Mix window.
| | 02:37 | I'll go back to the regular mix,
and I want to show you one more sneaky
| | 02:43 | little option here.
| | 02:44 | If you want to see fatter meters, you
can press Ctrl+Opt+Command on a Mac, or
| | 02:50 | Alt+Start+Ctrl on a PC, and click the
meter to make them fatter. Check it out.
| | 02:57 | The vertical channel layout of the Mix
window makes it fairly intuitive to use
| | 03:01 | once you know what all the
buttons, knobs, and menus do.
| | 03:05 | I'll get into the specifics of all the
features in this window in many of the
| | 03:08 | other videos in this course.
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| Exploring the Transport and Big Counter windows| 00:00 | The Transport window in Pro Tools
acts like the controls on a tape machine.
| | 00:04 | You can show it in the Edit window
toolbar up here, or you can go to Window >
| | 00:12 | Transport, and you'll open a floating
window that floats above any open window.
| | 00:19 | Here we are looking at the smallest
version of the Transport window, and you can
| | 00:23 | see only the most essential controls.
| | 00:26 | On the left, we've got the Online button.
| | 00:29 | Click this only if you are trying to
sync with another playback device, like an
| | 00:33 | external tape machine or a video editing deck.
| | 00:37 | Then we have the regular controls:
Returns to Zero, Rewind, Fast Forward, Go to
| | 00:42 | End--and then the most obvious ones:
the Stop, Play and Record Enable.
| | 00:48 | If you right-click the Play button,
you'll see Half-Speed, Prime for Playback,
| | 00:53 | Loop Playback, and Dynamic Transport.
| | 00:56 | We'll cover those later in a different
video. And also if you right-click the
| | 01:00 | Record Enable button, you'll see four
different types of recording we can do, and
| | 01:05 | we'll cover that in another video as well.
| | 01:08 | Go to this button here and we can expand
the Transport to see the Counters, MIDI
| | 01:13 | Controls, and Synchronization.
| | 01:16 | I am going to show all, which extends
this out pretty far, and then I am going
| | 01:22 | to expand the Transport to show even more.
| | 01:27 | Below the Transport controls, we've got
Pre-roll and Post-roll. Type in a number
| | 01:32 | here, hit Return, and
you'll have Pre-roll activated.
| | 01:37 | To the right, we have
the play length selections.
| | 01:39 | Then we have the Online and
Generate MIDI Time Code buttons.
| | 01:44 | To the right of that, we have the Main and
Sub Counters, and finally, the MIDI Controls.
| | 01:49 | We can set up a count off and
activate it by clicking this button.
| | 01:53 | We can see the Meter and the Tempo
in the session, and then we have four
| | 01:58 | MIDI Controls down here.
| | 01:59 | We have a Wait for Note, the Metronome,
MIDI Merge and the Conductor Track.
| | 02:06 | We'll discuss more of these
in detail in later movies.
| | 02:09 | Now let's go and check
out the Big Counter window.
| | 02:14 | Like the Transport window, the Big
Counter is a floating window and is handy for
| | 02:18 | watching the time from a distance.
| | 02:20 | So if you are far away from your screen,
you can actually blow this up really
| | 02:25 | big, and tell where you are in the session.
| | 02:30 | If we change the timescale, you'll note
that the timescale will change here on
| | 02:35 | the Big Counter and on the Transport,
and up here in the Edit window toolbar.
| | 02:40 | So if I change this to minutes and
seconds, all three of them change.
| | 02:45 | Although the Big Counter and Transport
windows have their uses, I usually just
| | 02:49 | watch the counter up here at the top of
the window, and also keep the Transport
| | 02:53 | controls up here in the Edit
window toolbar for easy access.
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| Using the Color palette and window arrangements| 00:00 | In Pro Tools, you have a lot of control
over the way the interface looks and how
| | 00:04 | the windows are arranged.
| | 00:06 | In this video, I'll discuss
the color palette and the window
| | 00:09 | arrangement features.
| | 00:11 | If you choose Window > Color Palette,
the color palette opens up, and you'll see
| | 00:16 | that you can apply color to
tracks, regions, groups and markers.
| | 00:22 | If you drag the Brightness control, you
can increase or decrease the brightness.
| | 00:28 | Click the Apply to channel strip
button right here, and you can adjust the
| | 00:32 | saturation--how deep the colors are.
| | 00:38 | You'll notice here in the Tracks menu
I have these two tracks highlighted.
| | 00:42 | You can also see that their
names are highlighted down here.
| | 00:47 | When they are highlighted, I can choose
to change their track color by choosing
| | 00:52 | Tracks from this menu and changing the color.
| | 00:56 | I actually prefer the original,
so I am going to undo that.
| | 01:00 | You can also go back to the default,
which it's actually set out right now, or
| | 01:06 | choose None, by clicking these buttons.
| | 01:09 | You can further customize the way Pro Tools
handles colors by going to the Preferences.
| | 01:15 | In the Display page, we have
this whole section on color-coding.
| | 01:20 | I personally like the
defaults that we have here:
| | 01:23 | the default track color-coding for
just the track types and the default
| | 01:27 | region color-coding for tracks and MIDI
channels. But you can change them up if you like.
| | 01:31 | Now let's check out the window arrangements.
| | 01:35 | If you go to Window > Arrange, you can
see that we can adjust how we look at the
| | 01:41 | different windows in Pro Tools.
| | 01:43 | Right now, we have the Mix window open,
and that's all we see, but if we choose
| | 01:47 | to tile horizontal, we'll see both the
Edit and the Mix on top of each other.
| | 01:55 | We can tile them vertically so they
are side by side, or we can cascade them,
| | 02:01 | so one is in front of the other, but
it's easy to switch back and forth.
| | 02:06 | The color controls in the color palette are
certainly nice features for a few reasons.
| | 02:10 | First, the colors help to organize
your session. Also making Pro Tools less
| | 02:15 | bright is beneficial if you have to stare at
it for many hours in a row, as many of us do.
| | 02:20 | The window arrangement options
enable you to see more information on your
| | 02:24 | screen at once, or simplify your workflow by
only showing what you need to show at any one time.
| | 02:31 | Use the color palette and window
arrangements to personalize how you
| | 02:34 | interact with Pro Tools.
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| Investigating the menus| 00:00 | The menus in Pro Tools are
very logically organized.
| | 00:03 | In this video, I want to give you a
quick overview of what's in each menu and
| | 00:07 | touch on a few key menu items.
| | 00:10 | Let's start with the Pro Tools menu.
| | 00:11 | We can access the Preferences here as
well as the Hide and Quit Pro Tools commands.
| | 00:18 | Notice that there's no key command
for hiding Pro Tools, so you have to use
| | 00:22 | this menu item for it.
| | 00:24 | In the File menu, we have
some of the usual suspects:
| | 00:27 | New, Open, Close, and all these saving options.
| | 00:31 | We also have the Bounce to Disk
command--which you'll see is pretty important
| | 00:36 | later on--and the Import and Export functions.
| | 00:40 | In the Edit menu, it's pretty
logically organized as well, where we have only
| | 00:44 | editing functions like cutting, copying,
pasting, clearing, even duplicating,
| | 00:50 | inserting silence,
separating regions and creating fades.
| | 00:56 | In the View menu, we can customize the
way that we look at Pro Tools and what we
| | 01:00 | see in each of the windows.
| | 01:01 | We can check out what we see in
the Mix window or the Edit window.
| | 01:05 | We can change our Ruler displays.
| | 01:07 | We can even change what our waveforms look like.
| | 01:12 | In the Track menu, we can create new
tracks, duplicate them, make them inactive,
| | 01:17 | and even delete them.
| | 01:18 | We can change our monitoring
mode and even create a click track.
| | 01:23 | The Region menu lets us do anything we
want to do to a region. We can lock it.
| | 01:27 | We can group it. We can loop it.
| | 01:29 | We can rename it. We can even
adjust the elastic properties.
| | 01:34 | The Event menu lets us do
anything time or event-related.
| | 01:38 | So we have Time Operations where we
can change the meter or insert time,
| | 01:43 | Tempo Operations, and Event Operations,
where we can alter the quantization or
| | 01:49 | the transposition.
| | 01:52 | We can even use Beat Detective here.
| | 01:55 | The AudioSuite menu shows us
a list of AudioSuite plug-ins.
| | 01:59 | We can apply any of these to
any audio region in non-real time.
| | 02:03 | We'll cover more about these
in some plug-in videos later.
| | 02:08 | The Option menu gives us all kinds of
options for recording, setting pre-roll
| | 02:12 | and post-roll, our playback
style, even activating our click.
| | 02:18 | The Setup menu shows us how to set up
our hardware, playback engine, and disk
| | 02:23 | allocation, as well as our I/O
settings, and our session settings.
| | 02:28 | You can even access the Preferences here.
| | 02:32 | The Window menu shows us
our window configurations.
| | 02:35 | We can arrange our windows
differently here, and we can open any of the
| | 02:39 | various Pro Tools windows.
| | 02:42 | Finally, in the Help menu, you can
search for help from a variety of
| | 02:46 | sources, including accessing the
online Knowledge Base, or pulling up the
| | 02:51 | Pro Tools Shortcuts document.
| | 02:53 | Like any mature software program, there
are a lot of menu items to choose from.
| | 02:57 | Many of the items are duplicated as
buttons in one or more of the windows, and
| | 03:02 | most have keyboard shortcuts too,
| | 03:04 | so there're many ways to get things
done in Pro Tools, but knowing the right
| | 03:07 | menu to select for the command you're
looking for will certainly make you more
| | 03:11 | efficient when using Pro Tools.
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| Understanding samples and ticks| 00:00 | Every track in Pro Tools has an
underlying timebase that defines where audio and
| | 00:04 | MIDI data are placed
within a session's timeline.
| | 00:08 | There are two different
timebases: sample and tick.
| | 00:11 | In this session, I have got an
instrument track that by default is tick-based
| | 00:15 | and an audio track that's sample-based.
| | 00:18 | Let's talk about what these terms mean.
| | 00:21 | On this instrument track, if we go
over to the Timebase selector, you can see
| | 00:24 | that it's Ticks and on this
audio track, it's Samples.
| | 00:29 | A sample is a slice of audio that has
an absolute timebase built on the sample
| | 00:34 | rate--for example, 44.1 kilohertz as
the sampling rate--where each sample is
| | 00:40 | placed at an exact and absolute
location in the session, and only moves if you
| | 00:45 | move the region itself.
| | 00:47 | You can see that where this cursor is
placed is exactly this many samples away
| | 00:53 | from the very beginning of the session.
| | 00:55 | In contrast to samples, a
tick is a slice of time.
| | 00:59 | Its length is relative based on the tempo.
| | 01:02 | When using ticks as a timebase, each
quarter note in the Pro Tools tempo grid is
| | 01:07 | divided into 960 subdivisions called Ticks,
| | 01:11 | thus the duration of a Tick varies
according to the tempo of a session.
| | 01:16 | We can see ticks right up here shown in the
main counter, and there are 960 subdivisions.
| | 01:22 | So starting at 0 and
going all the way up to 959.
| | 01:28 | Without getting into the math of it,
faster tempos yield shorter tick values,
| | 01:33 | while slower tempos have longer tick values.
| | 01:35 | 960 ticks per beat may seem like a lot
of subdivisions, but it doesn't even come
| | 01:41 | close to the number of
subdivisions in sample-based tracks.
| | 01:45 | However, tick-based tracks
have some serious advantages too.
| | 01:48 | MIDI performance data is tick-based by
default because MIDI events are locked to
| | 01:53 | the tempo of the session.
| | 01:54 | Thus, if the tempo of the session is
changed, MIDI notes will follow the tempo
| | 01:59 | change and not lose
their bar and beat location.
| | 02:02 | However, sample-based audio
tracks will not follow a tempo change.
| | 02:06 | Let's check this out.
| | 02:08 | If I click and change the tempo from 120
to 160, watch the strings track adjust.
| | 02:17 | All of these notes stayed locked with
the tempo change and the bars and beats
| | 02:22 | but now are just going to be
playing back at a faster tempo.
| | 02:25 | However, the audio track didn't move at all.
| | 02:29 | I'll go ahead and undo that.
| | 02:31 | What's great about Pro Tools though,
is that you can actually make audio
| | 02:34 | tracks tick-based as well.
| | 02:36 | So let's go down and make this Tick
based, and let's add Elastic Audio.
| | 02:43 | I am going to choose Polyphonic, and
Pro Tools analyzes this now. And if we
| | 02:49 | go and change the tempo, both the
MIDI and the audio changed to
| | 02:56 | follow the tempo change.
| | 02:58 | Now we are going to talk more about
Elastic Audio in another video in this
| | 03:01 | course, but I just wanted
to show it to you here first.
| | 03:05 | Sample and tick-based tracks can
coexist in the Pro Tools session; however, each
| | 03:09 | track must be either one or the other,
not both at the same time, and obviously
| | 03:14 | as you saw here, you can change a
track's timebase at any point while working in
| | 03:18 | the session, by toggling
the Timebase Selector button.
| | 03:22 | Now you understand the difference
between a sample and a tick. I recommend
| | 03:26 | keeping the default timebase for each
track when you first create the tracks,
| | 03:30 | but then you can change them
later if you really need to.
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| Viewing and manipulating tracks| 00:00 | Once you have created some tracks in
Pro Tools, there's a lot of ways to
| | 00:03 | view and manipulate those tracks before,
during, and after you record material onto them.
| | 00:08 | Let's start with the Tracks list.
| | 00:11 | As you'll notice, when I click a name of
a track in the Tracks list, the name of
| | 00:16 | the track gets highlighted here.
| | 00:18 | That means it is selected.
| | 00:21 | If I click this circle, it will hide the track.
| | 00:24 | There are some other options
here in the Tracks list menu,
| | 00:28 | where you can show only certain
types of tracks, you can hide
| | 00:31 | selected tracks, and sort tracks.
| | 00:37 | You can also move tracks around pretty
easily by clicking on the name of the
| | 00:40 | track and dragging it, and the yellow
line will indicate where it's going to go.
| | 00:46 | One thing I highly recommend
doing is naming your tracks.
| | 00:50 | If you double-click on the name of the
track, the name and comments come up, and
| | 00:54 | you can name the track.
| | 00:56 | Now if you don't name the track, and
then you record onto that track, the audio
| | 01:00 | files or the MIDI regions that you record will
be named the generic name shown here, audio1.
| | 01:07 | That's why I strongly recommend naming
your tracks as soon as you make them, so
| | 01:11 | that the name gets associated with
the track right from the beginning.
| | 01:14 | You don't want to have a hard drive
filled with a thousand audio1 files.
| | 01:19 | Adding comments is also a great idea to
give even more information about what's
| | 01:23 | on the track, or even
details about how it was recorded.
| | 01:27 | Like if you're recording in electric
guitar amp with the Shure SM57 mic, 1 inch
| | 01:32 | from the left speaker, then those
comments can show up in the comments field,
| | 01:36 | and they will be in both
the Edit and the Mix window.
| | 01:39 | So let's name this El Gtr, and
I am going to hit the tab key to go down
| | 01:44 | into the Comments field, and I'll say,
"SM57 on the left speaker 1 inch from
| | 01:55 | grill." Press Return and that
will show up in the Comments field.
| | 02:00 | We can access that here, and I am going
to drag this down to make the track taller.
| | 02:07 | And if we go over to the Mix window,
scroll down, and see that the comment is
| | 02:14 | there, and the track is named there as well.
| | 02:16 | Now there are bunch of comments that
we can choose from the track menu that
| | 02:20 | apply to viewing and manipulating tracks.
| | 02:23 | First one I want to do is Duplicate
track, so you'll see that the electric
| | 02:28 | guitar track is highlighted.
| | 02:29 | If we duplicate it, we get the
Duplicate Tracks dialog and we can choose
| | 02:35 | what data to duplicate.
| | 02:36 | I am going to keep all of this on here,
but sometimes you might not want to keep
| | 02:41 | all of these things on here.
| | 02:42 | You can also make multiple duplicates.
| | 02:45 | I will just make one. And you'll see that
it automatically names the track El Gtr.dup1.
| | 02:54 | I would definitely rename this, and you
might need to touch up the comments as well.
| | 02:59 | With this track highlighted, if I go
up to Track and choose Delete, it will
| | 03:05 | automatically delete that track.
| | 03:07 | Unfortunately, this cannot be undone, so be
careful when you decide to delete a track.
| | 03:11 | Let's go back to the Edit window,
and I am going to select the electric
| | 03:17 | guitar track again.
| | 03:18 | One of the coolest features in Pro Tools
is the ability to make a track inactive.
| | 03:24 | If you go to Track > Make Inactive, you'll
see that the entire track has been grayed out.
| | 03:30 | You can still see it, but you won't
hear anything on it, and it will not take up
| | 03:35 | any computer resources.
| | 03:37 | However, all the settings for the track
and any audio or MIDI data that's on the
| | 03:41 | track will be saved with the session,
so this saves a lot of processing power.
| | 03:46 | If you go back up to track and choose
Make Active, then you can start using that
| | 03:51 | track right away again, and
you will be able to hear it.
| | 03:53 | If you go back to the Mix window,
you can actually click on the icon for
| | 04:00 | the track and choose make Inactive and
make it active again by clicking on it again.
| | 04:06 | Now all of these things that I just
mentioned we can actually access by
| | 04:10 | right-clicking on the name of the track.
| | 04:15 | So I just right-clicked, and now we
can hide, we can make inactive, we can
| | 04:18 | rename, we can delete tracks--most of
things that you can do from the Track menu.
| | 04:24 | So knowing all the ways to view and
manipulate your tracks will enable you to be
| | 04:27 | more efficient when using Pro Tools.
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| Selecting inputs, outputs, and buses| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to talk
about how to properly assign the inputs,
| | 00:04 | output, and busses on tracks.
| | 00:06 | Let's first take a look at a mono audio track.
| | 00:09 | We'll go down to the I/O section.
| | 00:11 | You can see that Analog1 is the audio
input path for this particular track.
| | 00:16 | If we click on this Input Path Selector,
you can see that we can choose any of
| | 00:21 | the interface options, so Analog1
through Analog4, and some digital inputs, as
| | 00:26 | well as other analog inputs down here.
| | 00:29 | You can also choose a bus.
| | 00:31 | A bus is an internal Pro Tools signal path.
| | 00:35 | When you record through your interface,
you want to select one of the analog inputs.
| | 00:39 | So if you plug your guitar into Input1
on your interface, you can choose Input1
| | 00:45 | as the input on the track you want
to record on to, as we've got here.
| | 00:50 | The default output path is Analog1 and
Analog2, which is the output path routed
| | 00:55 | to the main outputs on your interface.
| | 00:58 | It's the signal that's going to
your headphones and your monitors.
| | 01:01 | Now I recommend putting a stereo master
fader track into every session that you
| | 01:07 | create, that monitors Analog1 and
Analog2, and that's what we have over here.
| | 01:11 | You'll see that master fader
tracks don't have an input choice.
| | 01:16 | They simply have this output, and
what that does is all of the audio that's
| | 01:21 | routed to that particular output--
Analog1 and Analog2--goes through this
| | 01:26 | master fader track.
| | 01:27 | So let me say that again. All tracks
routed to Analog1 and Analog2 in this
| | 01:32 | session will pass through this
master fader track that's assigned to
| | 01:36 | Analog1 and Analog2.
| | 01:38 | So the master fader mixes and
sums all of the tracks together.
| | 01:42 | That way you can monitor and control
the overall output levels from Pro Tools
| | 01:46 | through this one track.
| | 01:48 | If you decide to route a track
through a bus instead of an output, you can
| | 01:53 | choose it here in the Output Selector.
And we'll choose Bus7 and Bus8, and what
| | 01:58 | that's going to do is route the output
of this track to the Bus7 and Bus8.
| | 02:04 | And in order for Pro Tools to receive that
signal somewhere else in the session, you
| | 02:08 | need to assign an input--like we have
set here--as the same output, so we have
| | 02:13 | Bus7 and Bus8 here, and Bus7
and Bus8 here as the input.
| | 02:17 | So this track will receive
the output from this track.
| | 02:22 | Dealing with the MIDI signal
flow is a little bit different.
| | 02:24 | The input on MIDI track is whatever
receives this signal from your MIDI controller.
| | 02:29 | So if you play a MIDI keyboard, you need
to set the MIDI input to the right MIDI
| | 02:33 | port and channel to
receive that keyboard's MIDI data.
| | 02:37 | However, the default All MIDI input
setting as shown here is often the
| | 02:42 | easiest choice, because it will accept all
incoming MIDI data from any MIDI port and channel.
| | 02:48 | Your choice for the MIDI output has to
be more discerning to make sure that the
| | 02:52 | MIDI signal is routed to the right
virtual instrument or sound module, so we need
| | 02:56 | to choose this specific
instrument and MIDI channel here.
| | 02:59 | I can go down here and choose from
any of these virtual instruments and
| | 03:04 | channels, and I am going to
choose Expand to Channel1.
| | 03:08 | So now the MIDI data on this track is
routed to the Expand to plug-in, which is
| | 03:13 | actually hidden at the time,
| | 03:14 | so let's unhide it. So this track is
routed to this instrument right here.
| | 03:21 | Instrument tracks have both
audio and MIDI inputs and outputs.
| | 03:25 | When you insert a virtual instrument on a
track, the signal routing is set up for you.
| | 03:30 | We've got the MIDI input set to All,
so any MIDI controller that you play
| | 03:34 | will go through here.
| | 03:35 | Then it's automatically routed to the
virtual instrument that's on this track.
| | 03:40 | We go down to the audio input.
| | 03:42 | We don't really need an audio input,
because the sound that we are getting on
| | 03:45 | this track is coming from the virtual
instrument, and then the output is routed
| | 03:50 | to our main outputs.
| | 03:51 | We'll cover more about choosing inputs,
outputs, and busses in the Recording
| | 03:55 | and Mixing chapters.
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| Selecting an I/O Settings file| 00:00 | No matter what hardware you are
using with Pro Tools--whether it's an Avid
| | 00:04 | interface, a third-party interface, or
simply your computer's inputs and outputs--
| | 00:09 | you can utilize the I/O Setup to
customize your signal routing in Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | Go to Setup > I/O. The I/O Setup shows
all of the signal routing available into,
| | 00:20 | within, and out of Pro Tools
in a convenient matrix format.
| | 00:24 | It includes the names and paths for all
the inputs, outputs, buses, inserts, mic
| | 00:30 | preamps, and hardware insert delays.
| | 00:34 | On each page you can rename, reorganize,
create, or delete signal paths within Pro Tools.
| | 00:41 | One good thing to start with is to
actually click on the Default button, which
| | 00:45 | will set up the default
paths for this particular page,
| | 00:49 | the Input page, for your particular interface.
| | 00:53 | You can do that for every page if you want.
| | 00:59 | Let's go back to the Input page.
| | 01:01 | Renaming paths is a great way to
customize your interaction with Pro Tools and
| | 01:05 | make your sessions more organized.
| | 01:07 | That's what I use this window for the most.
| | 01:10 | So I am going to go down to this stereo
input path, click there so I open up the
| | 01:15 | Mono paths within the Stereo path, and
| | 01:18 | I am going to double-click Analog 1.
And let's say I've always got my vocal mic
| | 01:24 | plugged into analog input 1, so I
am going to call this 'Vocal Mic.'
| | 01:28 | I hit Return, and now that
saved as the name of that path.
| | 01:33 | Let's go over to the Bus page.
| | 01:36 | A new feature in Pro Tools 9 is that
you can actually route buses directly to
| | 01:40 | outputs, and we can do that like this.
| | 01:42 | If we go down to bus 1-2, if we click
this right here, we can choose which
| | 01:48 | output that we want this bus to go to,
and let's say Analog 3-4 is where we
| | 01:54 | want this bus to go to.
| | 01:55 | Now this can be useful if we want to
route a specific bus, like bus 1 and 2,
| | 02:00 | directly out to analog 3 and 4, if
we're running it through external processors,
| | 02:06 | or if we are trying to
create multiple headphone mixes.
| | 02:09 | Once you've created a personalized I/O
setup, you may want to export it so you
| | 02:14 | can use it in other sessions.
| | 02:16 | So if we go down to the Export Settings
button--click that--we can save this as
| | 02:22 | our own particular I/O setting.
| | 02:27 | And that's saved in the IO Settings
folder, so it makes it very convenient
| | 02:31 | for us to find them.
| | 02:32 | You can also import settings, and these
will import from the IO Settings folder,
| | 02:39 | where we just saved mine
right here, df_iosettings.
| | 02:43 | And when you click to import you may see
this warning, "Delete existing unused paths?"
| | 02:49 | The default is No, but I often choose Yes,
because if they're unused we don't need them.
| | 02:55 | Every time that you import settings, it
only imports for this particular page.
| | 03:00 | So this would just be for the Bus page.
| | 03:03 | If we want to import input settings
from another I/O settings document, we would
| | 03:07 | have to use the same procedure using
the Import Settings button right here.
| | 03:11 | Now Pro Tools remembers the I/O settings
for your particular system, and the ones
| | 03:17 | saved with your session.
| | 03:18 | You can recall the settings
from either, if they are different.
| | 03:22 | It just depends on whether you check the
Sessions overwrite current I/O Setup when opened.
| | 03:28 | When this box is unchecked, like this,
Pro Tools recalls the I/O settings from
| | 03:33 | the default routing saved with your
system based on your hardware setup.
| | 03:38 | When this box is checked, which is the
default setting, Pro Tools recalls the
| | 03:43 | I/O settings from the
session instead of from the system.
| | 03:47 | And just so you know, buses are always
saved with, and recalled with the session.
| | 03:52 | They are not saved with your system.
| | 03:54 | So it's up to you whether you want
to check or uncheck this, but I would
| | 03:59 | recommend using the default.
| | 04:01 | So as you can see here, Pro Tools
offers a lot of flexibility in its own signal
| | 04:06 | routing using the I/O Setup window.
| | 04:09 | Use it to your advantage to
customize your I/O settings.
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| Understanding signal paths and gain stages| 00:00 | Understanding the signal flow of
audio and MIDI data and the gain stages
| | 00:04 | along the signal path is crucial
knowledge for any musician, recording engineer,
| | 00:08 | and producer using Pro Tools.
| | 00:10 | That knowledge will help you use your
studio gear the way it was intended to
| | 00:14 | work, enabling you to achieve
optimal recording levels and help you avoid
| | 00:18 | clipping or unwanted distortion.
| | 00:20 | You'll also be able to troubleshoot
just about anything in your Pro Tools
| | 00:24 | studio signal flow.
| | 00:26 | Let's follow the signal path from a
vocalist to a set of monitors, that is, the
| | 00:30 | entire input to output signal path.
| | 00:33 | As the vocalist sings into the mic,
the mic picks up that energy and converts
| | 00:37 | the acoustic energy into an electrical current.
| | 00:40 | The signal then travels to the
microphone preamplifier in your audio interface
| | 00:45 | where the signal is boosted in level.
| | 00:48 | Next, the signal is converted from
analog to digital, from electrical current
| | 00:52 | into zeros and ones.
| | 00:54 | It goes into Pro Tools, and is routed
to your hard drive where it's recorded.
| | 00:58 | Pro Tools then routes the signal back
out to a digital to analog converter in
| | 01:02 | your interface, where it's amplified and
sent out to the monitors or headphones.
| | 01:08 | Let's take a minute to discuss gain stages.
| | 01:11 | A gain stage is any device along
the signal path that either boosts or
| | 01:14 | attenuates the level of a signal.
| | 01:16 | Here the potential gain stages
involved in recording an instrument or a voice
| | 01:21 | with the microphone into Pro Tools,
| | 01:23 | both on the input and
output sides of the signal flow.
| | 01:26 | First, we have the dynamics of the
performance: how loudly the singer sings or
| | 01:31 | the player plays its instrument.
| | 01:33 | Then we have the instrument
volume level and amp volume.
| | 01:36 | If there are any effects in the signal
path, those also have gain stages too.
| | 01:41 | Then we have the mic preamp level or
the line or instrument input level.
| | 01:46 | Finally, if you have a compressor in
the signal path or any other post mic
| | 01:50 | preamp effects, those
will affect the input level.
| | 01:53 | Once the track has been recorded into
Pro Tools, there are number of gain stages
| | 01:58 | on the output signal path.
| | 02:00 | Any plug-ins or inserts that you have
on a track have their own gain stages, and
| | 02:04 | if you've set up any effects loops, you
may have send levels or auxiliary track
| | 02:08 | levels that also affect the output levels.
| | 02:11 | Each track has an individual volume fader
that will obviously affect the output volume.
| | 02:16 | The master fader track level
determines the final output level of the mix.
| | 02:20 | And then finally, you have the
headphone or monitor levels that determine how
| | 02:24 | loud you actually hear
the output from Pro Tools.
| | 02:27 | Now let's switch gears and
talk about the MIDI signal path.
| | 02:31 | MIDI performance data is
played on a MIDI controller.
| | 02:34 | The data goes into the MIDI interface,
which may or may not be built into the
| | 02:38 | controller itself, where it is
converted into binary for Pro Tools to
| | 02:42 | recognize and record.
| | 02:43 | At this point the MIDI
performance data still has no sound.
| | 02:47 | Then that data is routed to a sound source.
| | 02:50 | It could be a virtual instrument inside
the computer or an external sound module.
| | 02:55 | If it's a virtual instrument, the
MIDI performance data stays within the
| | 02:59 | computer, where it is
transformed into an audio signal.
| | 03:02 | If using an external sound module,
the MIDI performance data is routed out
| | 03:06 | of Pro Tools, converted back into MIDI data,
and then transformed into an audio signal.
| | 03:12 | That audio signal must then be routed
back into Pro Tools via an audio input.
| | 03:18 | Once it's in Pro Tools, you can monitor
it and record it as an audio signal, and
| | 03:22 | all this happens in a fraction of a second.
| | 03:25 | So, for both audio and MIDI data, the
signal flow is pretty complicated when you
| | 03:30 | really look at it through all the components.
| | 03:33 | Understanding the signal flow and
the gain stages along the way
| | 03:36 | can help you capture higher
quality recordings, as well as troubleshoot
| | 03:40 | almost any signal flow and gain
staging problem during the recording and
| | 03:44 | mixing process.
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| Utilizing keyboard shortcuts and keyboard focus| 00:00 | In this video, I want to show you some
of the most essential keyboard shortcuts,
| | 00:04 | as well as some of my personal favorites.
| | 00:07 | First, let's start with the essentials.
| | 00:10 | The Spacebar--easiest
one: use it for playing and for stopping.
| | 00:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:18 | On a Mac, you can press
Command+Spacebar for recording.
| | 00:21 | Now you may have to disable the Spotlight
key command, so Pro Tools can use this command.
| | 00:26 | On a PC, you can use Ctrl+Spacebar.
| | 00:30 | Probably you're most used
keyboard command will be undo.
| | 00:34 | You can get it from the Edit menu,
but you will probably just want to use
| | 00:38 | Command+Z on a Mac, or Ctrl+Z in Windows.
| | 00:42 | Then your next favorite will probably
be the Save command: Command+S on a Mac
| | 00:48 | or Ctrl+S in Windows.
| | 00:49 | I would recommend getting
to know the Function keys.
| | 00:53 | The first four Function keys--1, 2, 3,
and 4--will take you through the Edit
| | 00:58 | modes. The next six will take us
through the Edit tools, Function 5 for Zoomer,
| | 01:05 | 6 for the Trimmer, 7 for Selector, 8 for
the Grabber, 9 for the Scrubber, and 10
| | 01:11 | for the Pencil tool.
| | 01:13 | You can hit these multiple times to
scroll through the different types of tools.
| | 01:17 | Now I'm going to tell you about the few
of my most favorite keyboard commands.
| | 01:23 | I love the Command+Equals keyboard command
for Mac, or Ctrl+Equals in Windows, and that
| | 01:30 | switches between the Edit
window and the Mix window.
| | 01:33 | You can see that command right up here.
| | 01:38 | Another really useful one is Command+
Shift+N on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+N in
| | 01:43 | Windows, and that's for the New Tracks dialog.
| | 01:48 | I like to hit Command+K on a Mac or
Ctrl+K in Windows to turn on or turn off
| | 01:54 | pre-roll and post-roll.
| | 01:57 | We can see that in the Options menu.
| | 02:00 | I also like Command+E on a Mac, or Ctrl+E in
Windows, which is the Separate Region command.
| | 02:09 | What that does is automatically separates
either audio or MIDI regions, or both, like this.
| | 02:16 | We'll talk more about to separating regions
in the editing videos later in the course.
| | 02:22 | Now let's go over to the Mix window,
and another one of my favorites is
| | 02:26 | Command+Option+M on a Mac
or Alt+Ctrl+M in Windows.
| | 02:31 | That makes the Mix window narrow.
| | 02:35 | You can also access that from the View menu.
| | 02:37 | Here is one more bonus, fun shortcut.
| | 02:42 | If we go down to the track meters
right here and we press Ctrl+Option+Command
| | 02:48 | on a Mac or Start+Alt+Ctrl in Windows
and then click, we can make these meters fatter.
| | 02:58 | Some call these the wide faders.
| | 03:01 | For a list of all the keyboard
shortcuts available in Pro Tools--and it's a
| | 03:05 | ton of them--you can go up to the
Help menu and choose Pro Tools Shortcuts.
| | 03:10 | This will open up a PDF
file of all the shortcuts.
| | 03:14 | Utilizing these shortcuts will make
you more efficient when using Pro Tools.
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|
|
3. Importing into Pro ToolsUsing DigiBase and the Workspace browser| 00:00 | Importing files into an existing Pro
Tools session is a feature that many use
| | 00:04 | on a regular basis. Whether it's to
import a drum loop or find that perfect
| | 00:09 | sound effect for a scene,
| | 00:10 | Pro Tools enables you to import a
wide variety of files using DigiBase and
| | 00:15 | the Workspace browsers.
| | 00:16 | Now, DigiBase is Pro Tools built-in file
management database program, consisting
| | 00:21 | of two main browsers:
| | 00:23 | the Workspace browser and the Project browser.
| | 00:26 | We can get to those from the Window menu.
| | 00:29 | These browsers enable you to search
your computer and attached hard drives for
| | 00:32 | any file that you'd like to
import into a Pro Tools session.
| | 00:36 | The Project browser looks into the
current session's folder, regardless of where
| | 00:40 | the session's associated files are located.
| | 00:43 | So anything associated with this particular
session we can see in this Project browser.
| | 00:48 | Now, there are no associated
files except for this session,
| | 00:51 | so we don't see anything else here, but
you would if there were more associated
| | 00:55 | files with this session.
| | 00:56 | Let's go take a look at the Workspace browser.
| | 01:00 | Now the Workspace browser looks into every
hard drive that's attached to your system.
| | 01:04 | Let's do a search.
| | 01:06 | I am going to go up to
the magnifying glass here.
| | 01:08 | So now we have the Search field, and
I am going to type in "techno drums," and do
| | 01:17 | a search for some drum loops.
And you will see that it might take a few
| | 01:21 | minutes for you to find all of the
loops, but now you can see that the
| | 01:25 | search is complete.
| | 01:27 | So we will go down here and look at
what we've got. We've got a number of drum loop
| | 01:32 | files, and we can see this is a WAV file,
an audio file, and this is the size of it,
| | 01:37 | 1.2 megabytes, and the waveform is
shown, and we can tell how long it is.
| | 01:42 | It's exactly four bars, which is related to
this tempo that it conveniently shows at
| | 01:48 | the beginning of it, 138.
| | 01:50 | We can click on this button
right here to hear the loop.
| | 01:54 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:58 | We have some options for auditioning the
loop, and they are all checked off right now.
| | 02:02 | So we have Loop Preview, which will loop
the whole file. Auto Preview means that
| | 02:08 | if we click the name of the
file, it will start playing.
| | 02:11 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:14 | So we don't actually have to hit the speaker;
| | 02:16 | we could actually hit the name of the
file. And Spacebar Toggles File Preview,
| | 02:20 | so we can use the Spacebar to press
Play and Stop for that particular loop.
| | 02:26 | So the easiest way to get the loop
into Pro Tools is to simply
| | 02:30 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:32 | drag and drop it, and there we go.
| | 02:37 | Let's check it out in Pro Tools.
| | 02:40 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:44 | Now, you'll notice that it's playing
back at the same tempo that it was in the
| | 02:49 | browser window, and that's at 138.
| | 02:52 | However, this session is at 120 BPM.
| | 02:56 | What happens if we actually want to bring
this loop in at this session tempo? No problemo.
| | 03:00 | What we can do is click this button
right here, and that is the Audio Files
| | 03:08 | Conform to Session Tempo button.
| | 03:11 | So now with that on, we can listen to
what it sounds like at the session tempo.
| | 03:15 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:20 | So you'll note that it's slower.
| | 03:22 | If we turn this back off, it
will go back to its original tempo.
| | 03:25 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:30 | So let's put that back on, and
then drag it into our session.
| | 03:40 | You'll notice now that it's exactly four
bars, at our 120 beats per minute tempo.
| | 03:46 | Now, if we highlight this one, it's
less than four bars because it's faster than
| | 03:51 | our tempo, and I will play back both of these.
| | 03:54 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:57 | That's faster.
(Drums playing.)
| | 04:00 | That's slower, but it's in time with our tempo.
| | 04:03 | Pro Tools utilizes elastic audio to
convert this loop into the right tempo, and
| | 04:09 | we will cover elastic audio in
another video in this course.
| | 04:12 | The Workspace browser is a handy way
to find files, audition them, and import
| | 04:17 | them into your session.
| | 04:18 | I'm sure you'll incorporate it
into your workflow with Pro Tools.
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| Importing audio | 00:00 | There are many reasons why you might
want to import individual audio files into
| | 00:04 | a Pro Tools session:
| | 00:06 | maybe a client sent you a reference
vocal track that you need to incorporate
| | 00:09 | into a mix, or maybe you want to import
a sound effect or add a drum loop to a
| | 00:13 | session that you are already working on.
| | 00:15 | Regardless of the reason, I am going
to show you some of the ways to import
| | 00:18 | audio into a session.
| | 00:19 | First, you can go to File > Import > Audio.
| | 00:25 | The Import Audio dialog box will open,
and you can import any audio file
| | 00:29 | contained on the hard drive
connected to your computer.
| | 00:33 | In this case, I have got some audio
files here already listed that I want to
| | 00:36 | bring into the session.
| | 00:37 | So I am going to click on the first
one, and you'll see the information
| | 00:41 | about that actual track.
| | 00:43 | You will see the bit depth and the
sampling rate, and you will see this note.
| | 00:48 | This file must be converted to use
because it has a different Bit Depth than
| | 00:52 | the current session.
| | 00:53 | So if we want to use this
file, we need to convert it.
| | 00:57 | Now I actually want to bring in a few
more files, so I am going to press Shift
| | 01:01 | and click on that fourth one, and now I
have all four of these--both the left and
| | 01:06 | right sides of these two stereo
tracks--in the Regions to Current File.
| | 01:10 | I am going to press Convert All,
and now these are ready to import.
| | 01:17 | You will see down here, we
have Apply Sample Rate Conversion.
| | 01:21 | The Source sample rate is 96K, and the
Destination sample rate of the session is
| | 01:27 | 441, and we can choose the
different quality of sample rate conversion.
| | 01:33 | Now, I would recommend using Tweak Head.
| | 01:36 | Even though it says it's slowest,
it doesn't take very long on computers these
| | 01:39 | days--plus, it's the best quality.
| | 01:42 | So now I can click Done, and you will
choose where you want to import these, and
| | 01:49 | usually it'll come into the Audio
Files folder that's part of your session.
| | 01:53 | It takes a second for us to process the audio.
| | 01:59 | Now, you get this Audio Import Options
dialog where you can choose whether you
| | 02:05 | want to create a new track for the new
audio or just put them into the Regions
| | 02:10 | list, and where you want the tracks to be.
| | 02:13 | So I am going to say new track at the session
start, click OK, and here are our new tracks.
| | 02:20 | Now there is an even easier way
to import audio into your session:
| | 02:25 | if you go to Window > Workspace, and if
you navigate to the files that you want,
| | 02:32 | you can literally drag and
drop them into the session.
| | 02:37 | So I am going to take the electric
piano, left and right, click and drag them
| | 02:43 | in, and Pro Tools automatically
converts them and places them where they were
| | 02:49 | originally in the track.
| | 02:50 | So as you can see here, there are few
ways to import audio into a Pro Tools
| | 02:55 | session, both of which are
relatively straightforward.
| | 02:58 | Choose the technique that suits you best.
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| Importing MIDI| 00:00 | Importing MIDI files into a Pro Tools
session is pretty straightforward, much
| | 00:04 | like importing audio.
| | 00:06 | In this video, I am going to show
you two ways to import MIDI files.
| | 00:09 | The first way is go to File > Import > MIDI.
| | 00:14 | Now you can choose a MIDI file contained on
any hard drive connected to your computer.
| | 00:18 | In this case, I am going to choose the
Mini Grand.mid--mid represents a MIDI
| | 00:23 | file--and I'll choose Open.
| | 00:26 | The MIDI Import Options dialog opens up,
and you can choose where you want it
| | 00:30 | to go, so whether you want to put it on a
new track or just right into the Region List.
| | 00:35 | You can choose the location, whether
you want it to start at the session
| | 00:39 | starting, or spot or use of specific
selection, and we can import the tempo map
| | 00:45 | from the MIDI file, which I want to
do, and I am going to Import the key
| | 00:49 | signature. Because the cursor is at the
very beginning of the session and we've
| | 00:54 | chosen location selection, it's
going to go right to the very beginning.
| | 00:58 | So you see this MIDI region starts
right at the very beginning of the session.
| | 01:02 | You will also note that the tempo
changed from 120, which was the default, to 100,
| | 01:07 | which is the tempo that is
associated with this MIDI file.
| | 01:10 | Let's check out another way to import
MIDI. Let's go to Window > Workspace, and
| | 01:17 | I'm actually going to do a search.
| | 01:21 | "All In" is the name of the file that I'm
looking for, and here's the folder that
| | 01:27 | I want to find it in.
| | 01:28 | I am going to pull in this vacuum.mid
file, and what I want to do is actually
| | 01:34 | just drag and drop it into the session,
and I am going to keep all of this the same.
| | 01:39 | I am going to put them on a new track.
| | 01:41 | It's going to go with the same selection area,
which is the very beginning of the session.
| | 01:46 | And because it's actually from the same
session that the other track was from, I
| | 01:50 | don't need to import the tempo map with
the key signature, and I don't want to
| | 01:54 | remove the existing MIDI regions or tracks.
| | 01:58 | So closing these windows, we can see that
we have a second MIDI track in the session.
| | 02:04 | However, since I created these tracks
with virtual instruments, I'd really like
| | 02:08 | to bring them in on instrument tracks.
| | 02:10 | So how do we do that? Let me show you.
| | 02:12 | I am going to go up to Track > New and
create two stereo instrument tracks.
| | 02:20 | Because we have these regions over here
in the Regions list of these two MIDI
| | 02:25 | tracks, I am going to Shift+Click, get
both of them highlighted, and then click
| | 02:30 | and drag them into the session.
| | 02:32 | Now, all I have to do is insert an
instrument plug-in on both of these tracks,
| | 02:37 | and we'll hear sound.
| | 02:38 | So as you can see, there are a few
ways to import MIDI files into a Pro Tools
| | 02:42 | session. Use the technique that suits you best.
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| Importing session data| 00:00 | A terrific feature of Pro Tools is the
ability to import session data from one
| | 00:05 | session file directly
into another session file.
| | 00:08 | We can do that from the File
menu. Choose Import > Session Data.
| | 00:13 | When you navigate to the right Pro
Tools file, you can double-click on it, and
| | 00:18 | it may give you this warning, but
that's okay. Click OK and we'll get the
| | 00:22 | Import Session Data dialog box.
| | 00:25 | Now this is a pretty busy box
here, and we'll cover it all.
| | 00:28 | At the top, it's talking about the
source properties of the file that were
| | 00:32 | trying to import from.
| | 00:33 | That's all good. We can come down here
to the Audio Media Options, and we can
| | 00:38 | choose where we want to get our files from.
Do we want to copy from the source media?
| | 00:43 | If possible, we would love to link to
the source media, so we don't have to make
| | 00:47 | a new file, but that's not possible here.
| | 00:49 | You can usually just keep it on the
Copy from Source Media, and that's the
| | 00:53 | default, so I'll just choose that.
| | 00:55 | And we are not importing any videos,
so we are not going to worry about that.
| | 00:58 | Up on the top-right, we are not going
to worry about the time code mapping or
| | 01:02 | any offset of the tracks.
| | 01:04 | We are just going to bring it in right
at the beginning of the session. And if
| | 01:07 | we have to apply a sample rate
conversion, then we are going to choose actually
| | 01:11 | the best possible Tweak Head conversion quality.
| | 01:16 | And you'll note that we have to do
sample rate conversion because the original
| | 01:20 | source is at 96 kHz, but
our session here is 44.1.
| | 01:26 | So let's get to what we really need to do.
| | 01:28 | We want to bring in tracks to this session.
| | 01:31 | So I am going to click on
this particular Atmo piano track.
| | 01:34 | I want to bring that in, so I am
going to click and choose New Track.
| | 01:37 | I am going to do that for these top three
tracks, so I want to bring those three in.
| | 01:42 | Now it's go down to the Import section,
and we can choose to import any of these.
| | 01:46 | Now I am going to import the tempo
on the Meter map and the markers.
| | 01:52 | Now we can go over to the Track Data to
Import, and check out this big long list
| | 01:57 | of specific things that we can
choose to bring in or not bring in.
| | 02:01 | If we don't want to bring in the alternate
playlists on these tracks, we can uncheck that.
| | 02:06 | We can also choose to not bring in
the volume automation. And finally, down
| | 02:10 | here we have the main playlist
options. Do you want to import the main
| | 02:14 | playlist on these tracks?
| | 02:16 | Usually you want to do that.
| | 02:18 | If you want to just make a blank track,
you can just say, Do Not Import, and it
| | 02:22 | won't bring in the main playlist.
| | 02:23 | So I am going to hit OK.
| | 02:27 | We get this dialog.
| | 02:28 | It says, "The original disk allocation
for the session cannot be used. Check the
| | 02:31 | disk allocation window to see what's changed."
| | 02:34 | That's basically saying that the
original files that we're importing from is not
| | 02:38 | attached to our system, and we are
just going to use the drives that are
| | 02:42 | connected to our system. That's fine.
| | 02:43 | Do we need the detailed report? No.
| | 02:45 | So Pro Tools is now importing these
tracks, and while this is going on, I am
| | 02:50 | going up to the Window menu and choose
Workspace. And on the workspace we can
| | 02:58 | actually navigate to a session, and do
the same kind of importing session data,
| | 03:03 | if we really want to.
| | 03:06 | So I can navigate into My Folder on
this drive and find that Session and click
| | 03:13 | and drag it, and we'll get this
Import Session Data dialog box again.
| | 03:18 | So there are two ways to
import session data to our session.
| | 03:25 | Importing session data is a great way
to bring tracks from other sessions into
| | 03:29 | the session you're currently working on.
| | 03:31 | Personally, I find it very useful to
import tracks that already have effects
| | 03:35 | plug-ins or virtual instruments on
them that I like to use regularly.
| | 03:38 | I'm sure you'll find this feature
very handy as you begin to use Pro Tools
| | 03:42 | more frequently.
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| Importing tracks from a CD| 00:00 | At some point while you're using Pro
Tools, you'll probably need to import a track
| | 00:04 | from a music CD, maybe to record a
sample or a sound effect from it, or to use as a
| | 00:09 | reference track while mixing or mastering.
| | 00:11 | The steps to do this are pretty
similar to importing any other type of file.
| | 00:15 | Now CDs are recorded at 16-bit/44.1 kHz
sampling rate. Because of that, I want to
| | 00:21 | go check something out first
before we import the file from the CD.
| | 00:25 | I am going to go to Setup >
Preferences and click on the Processing tab.
| | 00:31 | I am going to go down here to the Sample
Rate Conversion Quality and check what
| | 00:35 | we have is our setting.
| | 00:36 | Now I'm always a fan of the TweakHead.
Even though it says it's the slowest, it
| | 00:41 | doesn't mean that your
computer will make it a slow process.
| | 00:44 | Computers are very fast these days.
| | 00:46 | So choose the TweakHead as the
sample rate conversion quality.
| | 00:50 | It's the best quality.
| | 00:52 | Now, we can go up to the
File menu. Choose Import > Audio.
| | 00:57 | And you'll see your audio CD
come up and all of the tracks on it.
| | 01:01 | I am going to click this one, and
you'll see the information about that track,
| | 01:07 | and it will pop into the Regions in
Current File. And it tells you that this
| | 01:11 | must be converted to be used, because
it's not an audio file type that Pro
| | 01:14 | Tools can use directly.
| | 01:15 | What that means is it's a stereo file,
and Pro Tools actually needs to convert it
| | 01:21 | into two mono files so it
can use it in the session.
| | 01:24 | Not only that, we know the sampling
rate is 44.1 kHz. However, our destination
| | 01:31 | sample rate in our session is 48.
| | 01:32 | So we already have our sampling rate
conversion quality set at TweakHead, which is the best.
| | 01:38 | Now we can go hit Done, and Pro Tools is
going to ask us where we want to save this file.
| | 01:45 | It always comes up as the default into
the Audio Files folder for the session,
| | 01:49 | which is totally fine.
| | 01:51 | So I'll click Open, and Pro Tools
will start processing this file.
| | 01:54 | When Pro Tools is done converting it,
it will open up the Audio Import Options
| | 01:59 | dialog, and you can choose whether you
want to create a new track for this song,
| | 02:04 | or if you want to just put
it into the Regions list.
| | 02:07 | And I want to say create a new track,
and we can also say where we want it to
| | 02:11 | be, so I am going to just
have it be at the session start.
| | 02:16 | Click OK, and there is the file.
| | 02:19 | You can also import CD tracks by
going through the Window and then the
| | 02:23 | Workspace, and you'll see the CD here.
And I can literally click and drag into
| | 02:30 | the session, and Pro Tools will take care of
all the conversions, all behind the scenes.
| | 02:35 | So as you can see here, importing a
track from a CD is pretty straightforward.
| | 02:40 | Use either of the two methods
shown here, and you'll be all set.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing video| 00:00 | Importing video into a Pro Tools
session is just as easy as importing any
| | 00:04 | other type of data.
| | 00:05 | Go to the File menu, choose
Import > Video, find your movie file, and
| | 00:14 | you'll see the Video Import Options dialog box.
| | 00:18 | You can choose to put it on a new
track or into the Regions list.
| | 00:22 | You can tell Pro Tools where
you want the video file to start.
| | 00:25 | I'll choose the Session Start.
| | 00:27 | And you can choose to import the
audio from the file. Let's try it.
| | 00:33 | When you choose to import the audio,
Pro Tools wants to know where you want to
| | 00:37 | put the audio files, and you'll usually
just want to stick him right into the Audio
| | 00:41 | Files folder within the session.
| | 00:43 | So now you see the video file on
this video track and the audio file.
| | 00:50 | I am going to press Play, and
you'll just a little bit of it.
| | 00:53 | (Video playing.)
(Male Speaker: Beautiful scenery. Plenty of places to ride.)
| | 01:00 | Now Avid recommends that you
store audio and video files on separate
| | 01:04 | dedicated hard drives.
| | 01:06 | Storing them both on the same drive
might cause performance issues, because
| | 01:10 | that's a lot of data coming from one drive.
| | 01:13 | In this particular case, because we
have such a small files, it's not really
| | 01:16 | that big of a deal. But if you start
working with larger files, definitely keep
| | 01:21 | them on separate drives.
| | 01:23 | If for some reason you want to
actually import the audio from a video file
| | 01:27 | without importing the video,
you can do that as well,
| | 01:30 | if you go to File > Import > Audio.
And you'll see the left and the right side,
| | 01:39 | and you can import them
through this Import Audio dialog box.
| | 01:44 | After you've Added both of them to the
Regions to Import, click Done, and we'll
| | 01:50 | tell Pro Tools to add them to a
new track at the session start.
| | 01:56 | And you'll see they're exactly the
same files as what we brought in before.
| | 02:00 | You can also import files used in video post-
production, including AAF, MXF, and OMF sequences.
| | 02:08 | Importing an entire AAF or OMF
sequence can be done with the File > Import >
| | 02:13 | Session Data command, or you can
choose Open Session from the File menu.
| | 02:18 | You can also drag and drop
from your DigiBase browser.
| | 02:22 | When you import individual Avid or MXF
video files, you can do this with the
| | 02:27 | File > Import > Video command, or you can
also drag and drop from the DigiBase browser.
| | 02:33 | When you want to import individual OMF
audio files, you can do that with the
| | 02:37 | File > Import > Audio command, or you can
also drag and drop from the DigiBase browser.
| | 02:42 | I'll cover more techniques about working
with video files in Pro Tools in other
| | 02:47 | videos in this course, but now you know
how to import video and audio from video
| | 02:51 | files into a Pro Tools session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Recording AudioRecording audio| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to show you the
steps involved in recording audio into Pro Tools.
| | 00:05 | I'll start from the very beginning,
as if I'm coming to Pro Tools with a
| | 00:09 | brand-new song idea.
| | 00:11 | First, we need to create a new session,
so I'll go to File > New Session. And we
| | 00:17 | could start with the session from a
template if we wanted, but I'm actually
| | 00:21 | going to go to a blank session.
| | 00:25 | So I'll choose WAV as my audio file
type, I'll choose 16-bit/44.1 kHz as the
| | 00:31 | sampling rate, and I'll use
my last used I/O settings.
| | 00:35 | I'm going to name this.
| | 00:38 | I'm actually saving this to the
Desktop, but usually I would save this to
| | 00:44 | an external FireWire hard drive.
But the desktop is fine, just for this
| | 00:48 | initial idea right now.
| | 00:49 | So here we have the Edit window,
completely blank, with no tracks.
| | 00:53 | So I am going to create a new track.
| | 00:57 | And I'm going to be recording an
acoustic guitar, so I'm just going to create one
| | 01:01 | new mono audio track,
| | 01:05 | make it larger, by going to the bottom
of the track here, and you'll see the
| | 01:08 | icon for the cursor is this double arrow.
| | 01:11 | If I click and drag, I can make it taller.
| | 01:14 | And while I'm here, I'm going to double
-click the track name and change it to
| | 01:19 | Ac Gtr, so that now when I
start recording, the audio files will
| | 01:24 | actually be called Ac Gtr, as opposed to Audio 1.
| | 01:28 | Once I've created my track, I need to
plug in my instrument into the interface,
| | 01:33 | which in this case is the back of a 003,
and I'll be going into the DI input.
| | 01:38 | If you're recording with a
microphone, obviously you go into the
| | 01:42 | microphone input here.
| | 01:44 | The next step for me is choosing the
proper input type on the 003 itself.
| | 01:48 | So I'm going to press the Mic/DI button
to toggle the input to the DI setting,
| | 01:54 | which is the one with the light illuminated.
| | 01:57 | That tells the 003 what type
of input signal to expect.
| | 02:00 | You may have a different
process for this for your interface.
| | 02:04 | Now back in Pro Tools, I want to
check out that this track is set up for the
| | 02:08 | right input and output.
| | 02:10 | So I'm going to choose the I/O on this
track, and check that we're plugged into
| | 02:15 | the Analog 1 input path.
| | 02:18 | So I've plugged into the Input 1 of
the 003, and that is the same input is
| | 02:23 | Analog 1 shown here in Pro Tools.
| | 02:26 | And the default output, Analog 1-2, is
the one that will be going to my monitors
| | 02:31 | and my headphones, so that's totally fine.
| | 02:34 | And again, if you don't see this I/O
section on the track, you can go over to
| | 02:38 | this button right here, and choose it,
or you can go up to View > Edit Window
| | 02:44 | View, and choose I/O. The next step
is that I want to go and check our
| | 02:50 | hardware buffer size.
| | 02:51 | So I want to go up to Setup > Playback
Engine, and the hardware buffer size I
| | 02:56 | want to make as small as possible. And
in this case, I can make it 32 samples.
| | 03:02 | It's a very short amount of time, and
what that does is reduce the amount of
| | 03:06 | latency that happens when I'm recording.
| | 03:09 | For those of you recording into a
USB-powered interface, like an Mbox 3, you
| | 03:14 | should turn the Mix knob all the way
to the left to the Input side, to achieve
| | 03:18 | zero latency monitoring.
| | 03:20 | On some third-party USB devices,
this Mix Control is software driven.
| | 03:25 | In that case go to Setup > Hardware, and
click on the Launch Setup App button to
| | 03:31 | adjust the mix level.
| | 03:33 | Pro Tools users with FireWire interfaces,
like the 003--which is what I'm using
| | 03:38 | here--can actually choose Low
Latency Monitoring from the Options menu.
| | 03:45 | This will reduce the latency to the
least amount that you can possibly have
| | 03:49 | while using one of these types of interfaces.
| | 03:51 | Now I'm going to cover latency in much
more detail in another video in this course.
| | 03:56 | The next step is to choose the Monitoring mode.
| | 03:59 | We can choose that from the Track menu.
| | 04:01 | There are two options:
| | 04:02 | we have Input Only
Monitoring and Auto Input Monitoring.
| | 04:06 | The one that you see here is
not the one that is active.
| | 04:10 | It's a little confusing, but if we
choose this one now, Input Only
| | 04:14 | Monitoring will be active.
| | 04:17 | And you can see that indicated right here.
| | 04:20 | That's the one that we actually
want to be active at the moment;
| | 04:24 | we don't want Auto Input Monitoring active,
| | 04:26 | so we're going to just get
away from that and not choose it.
| | 04:29 | It's a little confusing for sure, but
we can at least check this over here and
| | 04:34 | know which status we're in.
| | 04:35 | So we're in Input Only Monitoring.
| | 04:37 | I am going to talk in much more detail
about the monitoring modes in another
| | 04:42 | video in this course, but for this
particular purpose, let's keep it in Input
| | 04:46 | Only Monitoring mode.
| | 04:48 | So we're almost ready to record.
| | 04:50 | The next step is to
actually record-enable the track.
| | 04:54 | So we go over to the Record button
and we hit the red Record button.
| | 05:00 | Now we need to adjust our input level,
so we need to set our recording level,
| | 05:04 | and that means that you need to start
playing or singing into the microphone to
| | 05:08 | see how large our signal is.
| | 05:10 | (Guitar playing.)
| | 05:15 | All right, that seems like a pretty good level.
| | 05:17 | We don't want to peek it out, and
we don't want it to be too soft.
| | 05:21 | If you need to, adjust the gain knob,
turning it up or down for the Input level
| | 05:26 | on the track on your interface.
| | 05:28 | So the last step now is to actually record.
| | 05:31 | So let's go over to the Record button,
click that, and then I'll hit the Play
| | 05:35 | button, and Pro Tools will start recording.
| | 05:38 | When you're done, you can hit the
Stop button or press the Spacebar.
| | 05:41 | (Guitar playing.)
| | 05:55 | Well, it wasn't the perfect take,
but it will do, as a rough idea.
| | 06:01 | Now, this may seem like a lot
of steps just to start recording.
| | 06:04 | However, these steps will become second
nature to you very quickly, and you'll
| | 06:08 | be able to record into Pro Tools within
just a minute of launching the program.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Playing back audio| 00:00 | Playing back audio seems like a
no-brainer function in Pro Tools.
| | 00:04 | Press the Play button on the
Transport controls, and you're good to go.
| | 00:08 | Well, there are some additional
playback options to consider that can be very
| | 00:11 | helpful, and that's what I'll
be discussing here in this video.
| | 00:14 | So yes, you can press Play in the
Transport controls and Pro Tools will play back.
| | 00:20 | So let's do that that.
| | 00:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:26 | Press the Stop button, and
that will stop Pro Tools.
| | 00:29 | You can also use the Spacebar...
(Music playing.)
| | 00:34 | for stopping and starting,
and you can press Play
| | 00:38 | and Stop on a control surface.
| | 00:41 | Now each time I've been playing so far
in this video, we've been starting from
| | 00:45 | the very beginning of the session.
| | 00:46 | But what if we want to go
somewhere else in this session?
| | 00:49 | We can do that in a few different ways.
| | 00:51 | First, I am going to select the
Selector tool, and then I can place the cursor
| | 00:57 | anywhere in the session, and
Pro Tools will start from there.
| | 01:00 | So, now I've put my cursor here and
clicked, and now I am going to hit the
| | 01:04 | Spacebar to start playing from that spot.
| | 01:06 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:10 | From this spot, we can also hit the
Fast-Forward and Rewind buttons, and they
| | 01:16 | will jump ahead by a measure each time we click.
| | 01:19 | (Music playing.)
I can also bounce backwards with the Rewind.
| | 01:25 | You can go into the Counter and type
in the time that you want Pro Tools to
| | 01:29 | start playing, and that will
relocate the cursor, and then we can press
| | 01:33 | Play from that spot.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:37 | We can select a specific area for
playback in a number of ways as well.
| | 01:42 | With the Selector tool still selected,
I can click and drag, and that will
| | 01:47 | select this area as the playback area.
| | 01:50 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:54 | We can adjust the timeline
selection start and end markers--these little
| | 01:58 | blue arrows--by clicking and dragging
on them, and then play back just that
| | 02:04 | selected area.
| | 02:06 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:09 | I can also choose to Time Grabber tool,
and if we click on a region, that will
| | 02:15 | highlight the region, and that
will become the playback area.
| | 02:18 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:22 | And we can even go up in here and choose
an area that we want to have playback.
| | 02:28 | So when you enter in the time here,
type in the number, and hit Return. And now
| | 02:34 | we have one bar down here that's selected.
| | 02:36 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:40 | Now, let's talk about edit window scrolling.
| | 02:43 | If we go to the Options menu, and look
at this list of options for Edit Window
| | 02:49 | Scrolling, we can see No Scrolling,
After Playback, Page, and Continuous.
| | 02:53 | Let me tell you what those mean.
| | 02:55 | If you're playing back Pro Tools and
the playback cursor reaches the right side
| | 03:00 | of the screen on the Edit window--
| | 03:02 | that is, right over here--Pro Tools
will respond differently depending on what
| | 03:07 | scrolling option you've selected.
| | 03:09 | With No Scrolling, you'll
see what happens right here:
| | 03:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:17 | The cursor goes beyond the screen,
and you don't see it anymore.
| | 03:21 | However, if we choose After
Playback, let's see what happens.
| | 03:27 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:30 | It actually moves the whole view of the
Edit window and centers the cursor right
| | 03:36 | in the middle of the Edit window.
| | 03:38 | What happens if we choose Page?
| | 03:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:46 | Pro Tools slides the entire page over
as soon as the cursor hits the end of the
| | 03:51 | page. And finally, Continuous,
let's check this one out.
| | 03:56 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:02 | The playback cursor is
continually centered in the Edit window.
| | 04:05 | I am going to scroll back to the
beginning, and you'll see because of the
| | 04:10 | Continuous setting that we have here,
the playback cursor is at the very
| | 04:13 | beginning of the session, but it's centered
so we have this whole gray area to the left.
| | 04:18 | If I hit the Return button, that's
the return to 0 button--same as up here--
| | 04:24 | which sets the cursor to the very
beginning of the session, and I am going to
| | 04:28 | press Play, and you are
going to see what happens.
| | 04:29 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:34 | So the Continuous Edit Window scrolling
starts sliding all the material to left.
| | 04:39 | Now, let's talk about the playback modes.
| | 04:42 | If we go over to the Play button
and right-click it, you'll see four
| | 04:47 | different playback modes.
| | 04:48 | Let's choose Loop, and I'm
actually going to go back to No Scrolling.
| | 04:56 | So we have Loop Playback chosen and what
that means is if we select an area, Pro
| | 05:01 | Tools will loop that selected area.
| | 05:03 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:09 | It loops it back around, and there's a number
of ways to get in and out of Loop Playback.
| | 05:15 | As I just showed you, you can
right-click the Play button,
| | 05:19 | you can choose it in the Options menu,
| | 05:21 | there is also key commands where
if you do Command+Shift+L on a Mac or
| | 05:27 | Ctrl+Shift+L on Windows then
you can start Loop Playback.
| | 05:32 | Finally, if you Contol+Click the Play
button on a Mac or if you Start+Click the
| | 05:37 | Play button in Windows, then
you can toggle the Loop Playback.
| | 05:41 | So, I am hitting Control on the Mac
here and toggling between Loop Playback
| | 05:46 | and regular playback.
| | 05:47 | I am going to right-click the Play
button again and choose Half-Speed playback.
| | 05:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:01 | That's kind of a fun option.
| | 06:03 | What's happens here is the audio is played
back at an octave lower, and it's half speed.
| | 06:09 | However, MIDI, as you heard with the beat track,
is not slowed down, nor is it pitch-shifted.
| | 06:15 | What you can do to activate half-speed
playback is press the Shift button and
| | 06:20 | then press the Spacebar, or you can
actually Shift+Click the Play button.
| | 06:25 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:31 | Do you hear the difference?
| | 06:33 | Now, you can use this Half-Speed
playback if you want to learn fast passages of
| | 06:37 | music, so maybe you want to learn a
really fast guitar lick. Try this out.
| | 06:42 | Another option for playback
is the Prime for Playback.
| | 06:46 | I am going to select that here.
| | 06:49 | When do you want to use Prime for Playback?
| | 06:51 | Well, when you have a large number of
tracks in a session, Pro Tools might take
| | 06:55 | a little bit longer to
start playback than usual.
| | 06:58 | To avoid this, you can use
the Prime for Playback mode.
| | 07:02 | So you see that the Stop button is
lit up, and the Play button is flashing.
| | 07:07 | All you have to do is hit the Spacebar
now, and Pro Tools will start playing.
| | 07:12 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:15 | Now, there is not too much
difference here in the session, because this is
| | 07:19 | kind of a small session.
| | 07:21 | But if you had a lot of tracks, and it
was causing Pro Tools to react a little
| | 07:24 | slowly, this would be a great option for you.
| | 07:27 | You can also Option+Click the Play
button on a Mac or Alt+Click the Play button
| | 07:32 | in Windows to enact Prime for Playback.
| | 07:35 | The final play option that we have in
Pro Tools is called the Dynamic Transport.
| | 07:39 | We can choose that here again by
right-clicking the Play button.
| | 07:43 | When you turn that on, you'll notice that
the main timescale here, which happens to
| | 07:47 | be bars and beats, expands to double its size.
| | 07:51 | That means that we can actually grab
this Play Start Marker right here and move
| | 07:56 | that separately from what's
selected as the playback area.
| | 08:02 | Conveniently, we don't
lose the playback selection.
| | 08:05 | So what's cool about this is that I
can start playing back at the end of the
| | 08:09 | loop here and see how it sounds
cycling back to the front of it like this.
| | 08:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:18 | So I can hear what the transition is
from the end of this loop back to the
| | 08:22 | beginning, and it sounds pretty smooth.
| | 08:25 | Again, there are options for activating this.
| | 08:27 | We can go to Options and hit Dynamic Transport.
| | 08:32 | You can also hit Control+Command+P
on a Mac or Start+Ctrl+P in Windows to
| | 08:37 | activate or deactivate the Dynamic Transport.
| | 08:41 | You should note that enabling the
Dynamic Transport mode automatically activates
| | 08:45 | Loop Playback mode and deactivates
Linked Timeline and Edit Selection.
| | 08:49 | We'll talk more about that in another video.
| | 08:52 | There is one more button in this area
that I want to cover regarding playback,
| | 08:56 | and that's called Insertion Follows Playback.
| | 08:59 | So, I am going to turn off Dynamic
Transport and go to the Insertion
| | 09:05 | Follows Playback button.
| | 09:07 | I am going to activate that
and put the cursor right here.
| | 09:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 09:16 | Now, something's different.
| | 09:18 | The cursor actually moved to the
end of where we stopped playing.
| | 09:23 | (Music playing.)
| | 09:26 | When insertion follows playback, it
actually follows where you ended the last playback.
| | 09:32 | If we turn this off again,
you'll see the opposite is true.
| | 09:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 09:38 | Playback stays where you
were initially started it.
| | 09:41 | So just be aware of this button, because
it can affect how you play back your tracks.
| | 09:46 | So, as you've seen in this video,
there are many more options for playback in
| | 09:51 | Pro Tools than it may seem.
| | 09:53 | You'll probably be utilizing most of
these options in your normal workflow the
| | 09:57 | more you are familiar with Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a click track| 00:00 | A click track in Pro Tools is a steady
beat that is in sync with the session's tempo.
| | 00:05 | Recording to a click track is a very
common practice, and offers the promise of
| | 00:09 | aligning tracks that may not
have been recorded at the same time.
| | 00:13 | Being a drummer, I usually have to
record to a click in every recording
| | 00:17 | session that I'm in.
| | 00:18 | But I recommend recording to a click or
a drum loop at a steady tempo, even when
| | 00:23 | you are simply laying down a
rough song idea. So let's do that.
| | 00:27 | Let me create a new track, one mono audio
track, and I am going to create a click
| | 00:34 | track, which I can go to
Track > Create Click Track.
| | 00:37 | I will expand that out.
| | 00:41 | You can see that the Click Track plug-in
is already inserted on this auxiliary track.
| | 00:47 | Let's open that up.
| | 00:50 | This is what the Click Track plug-in
looks like. And if I press Play, we are
| | 00:54 | going to hear what it sounds like.
| | 00:56 | (Click track playing.)
| | 01:00 | The reason we can hear that is
because we have this click or the
| | 01:05 | Metronome button activated.
| | 01:08 | That's in the MIDI controls.
| | 01:09 | They are shown up here. Also
right here in the Options menu,
| | 01:15 | if we deactivate the Click, that is
also deactivated here in the MIDI controls,
| | 01:21 | and we'll turn that back on.
| | 01:23 | If we go to this button right here,
the factory default setting is that
| | 01:28 | sound that we just heard.
| | 01:29 | However, there are a few
other options if we want.
| | 01:33 | We can choose Cowbell 3, and I'll press Play.
| | 01:36 | (Click track playing.)
| | 01:40 | I'm not really sure how
that's a cowbell, but okay.
| | 01:45 | I like the factory default
sound a little bit better.
| | 01:48 | Actually, there's a couple of other ways
that we can turn off the click track if
| | 01:51 | we don't want to hear it.
| | 01:52 | I am going to press Play
and show you the two options.
| | 01:54 | So you can hit the Bypass button,
(Click track playing.)
| | 02:03 | or you can hit the Mute button on the click track.
(Click track playing.)
| | 02:07 | But the whole point of us putting
the click track on here is to hear it.
| | 02:10 | So let's record something to the click track.
| | 02:14 | Before we do that, I want I
should change the tempo of the song.
| | 02:17 | I don't want to record at 120.
| | 02:20 | The song that I want to do is
actually going to be at about 86 BPM.
| | 02:25 | So by double-clicking this button here,
I get the Tempo Change window, and I
| | 02:30 | typed in 86, with the resolution of a 1/4 note.
| | 02:34 | I click OK, and you see the grid
change here, due to our change in tempo.
| | 02:42 | Now, let's listen to the click,
and it's at a different tempo.
| | 02:46 | (Click track playing.)
| | 02:50 | We can also change the meter if we
want, and you can choose that here.
| | 02:54 | You can add a meter change.
| | 02:57 | Now, I don't actually change the meter,
but if you wanted to, you could type in
| | 03:01 | something here and put it
to a different location.
| | 03:05 | You can also create a tempo change at
some other bar than the beginning, if you
| | 03:09 | click on that little arrow here
and open up the Tempo Change box.
| | 03:13 | But I'm happy with just keeping it at 86.
| | 03:17 | So now, first I am going to rename this
Ac gtr and record enable the track, and I
| | 03:25 | am going to lay down my
acoustic guitar to the click track.
| | 03:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:01 | So, I just laid down my acoustic
guitar track in time with the click.
| | 04:05 | Now, let me show you a few more things
about the click track before we get out of here.
| | 04:11 | If we go to the Setup menu, and down
to the Click/Countoff, we can tell Pro
| | 04:17 | Tools when we want the click to happen.
| | 04:19 | We can say during play and record, only
during record, only during count-off, and
| | 04:25 | we can have a countoff that
happens only when we are recording.
| | 04:29 | We can also choose a
different output for the click.
| | 04:34 | We can use virtual instruments here or
just have the simple click plug-in, and we
| | 04:38 | don't have to change this output at all.
| | 04:40 | But I just want you to be aware of
this Click/Countoff Options box.
| | 04:45 | Also, if we go Setup > Preferences and
we click in the MIDI tab, we can check
| | 04:52 | this off in the Basics, Automatically
Create Click Track in New Sessions.
| | 04:57 | I like to have that on,
so I'll keep that checked.
| | 05:00 | So anytime you open a new session, Pro Tools
will automatically create a new click track.
| | 05:07 | Recording to a click ensures that you
play along with a steady tempo, which is
| | 05:12 | often a good idea when you're trying to
flush out an idea to share with others
| | 05:16 | or when you're going to be
recording other rhythmic parts on the song.
| | 05:19 | I highly recommend that you record
almost everything with a click track as
| | 05:23 | a reference.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Overdubbing and using the record modes| 00:00 | Pro Tools has several record modes.
| | 00:03 | The main ones are Nondestructive,
Destructive, Loops, and QuickPunch.
| | 00:07 | The current record mode is indicated by
the Record button icon in the Transport
| | 00:12 | Controls, right over here.
| | 00:15 | If you right-click, you can
see all four modes listed.
| | 00:19 | You can also choose them from the
Options menu, right here at the top.
| | 00:23 | You'll usually record in
Nondestructive, a.k.a. Normal mode.
| | 00:28 | I don't recommend using Destructive mode
because it records over existing audio,
| | 00:33 | erasing whatever it records over.
| | 00:35 | Recording in Normal nondestructive mode
does not erase over existing material.
| | 00:40 | So let's get to recording.
| | 00:43 | I want to add a chimey single note
guitar part over my original guitar idea,
| | 00:48 | which I've double-tracked here on
these two tracks with two acoustic guitars,
| | 00:53 | and I've panned each one left and right.
| | 00:56 | So I am going to add a new track, a mono
audio track, and we'll change the input
| | 01:04 | because I'm still plugged into Analog 1.
| | 01:07 | I am going to name the track Lead gtr,
and I am going to do one more fun thing.
| | 01:14 | I am going to add a plug-in into the
Insert section. I am going to add the AIR
| | 01:18 | Multi-Delay plug-in, and I am
going to choose this Crazy Dots preset.
| | 01:25 | I will close that window.
| | 01:28 | There's one more thing that I
want to do before I start recording.
| | 01:31 | I am going to activate the count off.
| | 01:34 | So I am going to choose the MIDI
Controls over here, and it looks like the count
| | 01:39 | off is actually already on.
| | 01:40 | We can't really see how many bars it is,
| | 01:42 | so I am going to hit the Command key
and move that over here, and I am going to
| | 01:49 | get rid of the Grid and Nudge
and move that over there.
| | 01:52 | So now we can see that the count off is
two bars, and it's activated, and we still
| | 01:57 | have access to all the controls
of the Transport that we need.
| | 02:01 | You'll also notice that the
metronome, or the click, is on as well.
| | 02:04 | So now I am going to record enable this
track and start recording this new part.
| | 02:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:11 | Okay, so that wasn't too bad of a take.
| | 03:13 | Definitely a couple of miss notes here
and there, but that's why we can overdub
| | 03:18 | and we can edit this.
| | 03:20 | To do that, let's try out
some of the other record modes.
| | 03:23 | So I am going to Loop record mode, and
I believe that there was a little mess-
| | 03:29 | up in this area here.
| | 03:32 | So I'm going to loop these three
bars and trying and pick that up.
| | 03:38 | What happens when we loop record is
that we are actually going to record
| | 03:41 | multiple nondestructive takes over the same
section of music while that section repeats.
| | 03:48 | This repetition creates a little bit of
a comfort level, or it gives the artist
| | 03:52 | a little bit more flow.
| | 03:54 | Since we have the count off still active,
we'll get two bars before this comes in.
| | 03:59 | So let's try it out.
| | 04:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:43 | All right, so I got a number of takes there.
| | 04:46 | I think that last couples were pretty decent.
| | 04:48 | The reason why it shows three bars in
this particular case was because it was
| | 04:52 | actually easier to play.
| | 04:53 | I didn't have to do a slide up on the guitar.
| | 04:56 | So it was easier to go between the
different chords that I had to play.
| | 05:00 | So as you watched this record,
there were a number of regions that got
| | 05:04 | recorded in this area.
| | 05:06 | If we right-click on this area, we
can go down to Matches and see these
| | 05:12 | different takes listed right here,
and these were what we loop-recorded.
| | 05:16 | I can switch between the different
ones by choosing the different matches.
| | 05:23 | You'll also see that these regions are
over here in the Regions list, and each
| | 05:27 | time I change, the one
that's highlighted shows up here.
| | 05:30 | Now, I am actually going to cover loop
recording in a little bit more detail in
| | 05:34 | another video in this course, but
this shows you the basics of it.
| | 05:39 | Now I want to talk about QuickPunch mode.
| | 05:41 | Now punching means to drop a track
into record while it's playing back.
| | 05:46 | In QuickPunch mode, you can Record
Enable a track, press Play, and then punch in
| | 05:51 | when you want to fix a part of a
previously recorded performance.
| | 05:55 | So, let's go up to the Record button.
| | 05:58 | I'm going to right-click it and choose
QuickPunch, and you'll see the little P in
| | 06:02 | the middle of the Record button.
| | 06:04 | That means we are in QuickPunch mode.
| | 06:06 | I am going to place the cursor over here,
and we are going to go along this track
| | 06:12 | and punch in a few little bits.
| | 06:15 | Before we do that actually, I want
to go to the Track menu, and change to
| | 06:20 | Auto Input Monitoring.
| | 06:22 | That's going to mean that we are going
to be able to hear what's on the track
| | 06:25 | previous, and then when we punch in,
we'll hear the new part of the track and
| | 06:30 | when we punch out, we'll hear the old
part of the track again. So, what do we do?
| | 06:34 | We actually hit Play, and then we
will click the Record button to punch in
| | 06:40 | and out for QuickPunch.
| | 06:41 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:58 | Now, I wasn't actually playing along there.
| | 07:01 | It's kind of hard to quick punch
yourself in and out while you're playing an
| | 07:05 | instrument, unless, of course, you have a
foot pedal connected to your interface.
| | 07:10 | But I don't have that one here at the moment.
| | 07:12 | But you get the point of being able to
punch in like this, and you can do this
| | 07:15 | up to a hundred times
during playback of one track.
| | 07:20 | One thing you should note about
Quick Punch is Pro Tools actually begins
| | 07:23 | recording a new audio file as soon
as you start playing back the track.
| | 07:28 | It doesn't only record just at the
punch points, which are down here.
| | 07:33 | It actually records continuously
throughout this whole time period.
| | 07:37 | It only shows us the sections
on the track that are punched in.
| | 07:41 | So what this does is it enables an
instantaneous punch in and out time, and
| | 07:47 | if you miss an exact spot for the
punch, you can actually trim back the
| | 07:51 | punch region like this.
| | 07:53 | Let me go to the Trimmer
tool and trim the punch point.
| | 08:02 | So you'll never miss a punch again.
| | 08:05 | One final note about QuickPunch:
| | 08:07 | I wouldn't keep it on all the time, as
it records continuously, and that can eat
| | 08:11 | up a lot of hard drive space.
| | 08:12 | Now, I'll discuss some additional punching
techniques in another video in this course.
| | 08:18 | I recommend that you get to know
these recording modes. Aside from
| | 08:22 | Destructive mode, Normal, Loop and
QuickPunch modes all have their place in
| | 08:26 | recording sessions.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording with playlists and Loop Record| 00:00 | Playlists are one of my
favorite features in Pro Tools.
| | 00:03 | They can act as virtual recording tracks for
recording additional takes of a performance.
| | 00:09 | In this session, I've got two
acoustic rhythm guitar tracks, panned left and
| | 00:13 | right, and a lead chimey guitar part,
and I am going to add a bass track.
| | 00:16 | Now I have recorded one track already--
| | 00:19 | it's right down here--and now I
am going to add a new playlist.
| | 00:24 | You do that by clicking this
little Playlist button here.
| | 00:27 | I am going to say New,
and it asks you for a name.
| | 00:32 | I am just going to say OK.
| | 00:34 | Now, my bass track just disappeared, or did it?
| | 00:38 | If we go back to the Playlist
selector, you can see that it didn't
| | 00:43 | actually disappear. It's just hidden.
| | 00:46 | So it's go back to the empty playlist,
and I'm going to record another take.
| | 00:55 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:28 | So, now I've got two playlists, two
different takes of this bass part, and I can
| | 01:33 | switch between them. And I can actually
switch between them in real time while
| | 01:37 | playing back if I want to.
| | 01:39 | But let me show you one other thing.
| | 01:42 | I want to set this into Loop record mode.
| | 01:44 | I am going to select this amount of
time, and I'm going to go up to Setup >
| | 01:49 | Preferences, into the Operations page.
| | 01:53 | I am going to check this off, Automatically
Create New Playlists When Loop Recording.
| | 01:59 | Let me go up to the Record
Enable button and choose Loop.
| | 02:04 | So, now this area that I've selected is
going to loop around, and each time that
| | 02:10 | I play through it, I am going to
create a new take, and Pro Tools is
| | 02:14 | automatically going to
put it onto a new playlist.
| | 02:17 | So, let's try it out.
| | 02:19 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:57 | So, I've just recorded two loops, so
when I go look at the playlist selector, I
| | 03:03 | see that I have another playlist there.
| | 03:05 | Now, I recorded over the original
one, and I have the second new one.
| | 03:10 | So, now we have three
different playlists to choose from.
| | 03:12 | Here is the original.
| | 03:17 | The first take of the last one I just did,
and the second take of the last one I just did.
| | 03:23 | As you can see here, I can switch between the
playlists and listen back to them separately.
| | 03:28 | Later on, I'll show you how to edit
between these different playlists to
| | 03:32 | create a master take.
| | 03:33 | I'll show you how to do that in another movie.
| | 03:36 | One last thing I can show you here is
playlist view, so if I choose the track
| | 03:41 | view to be playlists, and I scroll
down here, I can see all three of the
| | 03:46 | playlists that are available on this track.
| | 03:49 | So, recording with playlists is a
great feature because not only it does make
| | 03:54 | recording multiple takes very easy, it
also makes editing together the different
| | 03:58 | takes very quick, as you'll see
in another video in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Punch recording and using the monitoring modes| 00:00 | When recording, the Monitor mode
determines what you hear on a track when it's
| | 00:04 | record-enabled or in Playback mode.
| | 00:07 | There are two options:
| | 00:09 | Auto Input monitoring, and Input Only
monitoring. And you can switch between the
| | 00:13 | two using the key command Option+K on
a Mac, or Alt+K on a Windows machine.
| | 00:19 | You also can choose them in the Track menu.
| | 00:24 | The one that is showing in the Track
menu is actually the one that's not chosen.
| | 00:29 | So although it's a little confusing,
we can tell more easily by this
| | 00:34 | indicator right here.
| | 00:35 | When it's green, this means that it's
an Input Only monitoring, and you can see
| | 00:41 | that when you have the tooltips on,
it says Input Monitor Enabled.
| | 00:47 | Now this status applies
to all tracks in Pro Tools.
| | 00:52 | However in Pro Tools HD, you can set
this mode on each track individually, and
| | 00:57 | that area is found right here on the track.
| | 01:01 | So let's check this out.
| | 01:02 | We are in Input Only monitoring, and
when I record-enable the lead gtr track,
| | 01:09 | Input Only monitoring allows you only
to hear the input signal, not what's
| | 01:13 | recorded on the track already.
| | 01:15 | So I can play and hear the guitar
right now when Pro Tools isn't playing, and
| | 01:19 | then when I press Play, you'll also only
hear what I'm planning on the guitar, as
| | 01:24 | opposed to what's already recorded.
| | 01:26 | Check it out, and I am going to
solo this to make it really obvious.
| | 01:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:52 | So as you can see, when I press Play with
Input Only Monitoring on, you only hear
| | 01:57 | what's coming from the input signal.
| | 01:59 | You don't hear what's
actually shown on the track there.
| | 02:03 | In contrast, if I switch over to Auto
Input, that changes what happens on this track.
| | 02:10 | When I press Play, you'll actually
hear what's recorded on the track, not
| | 02:14 | me playing the guitar.
| | 02:16 | However, when Pro Tools is
stopped, you can hear my input.
| | 02:19 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:37 | Auto Input monitoring is the mode
often used when punching in and out.
| | 02:41 | Let me show you an example.
| | 02:43 | I am going to highlight a few bars
here, and I am going to go up and
| | 02:48 | activate the pre-roll.
| | 02:49 | We've got two bars of pre-roll, and I'm
going to deactivate Loop Record and just
| | 02:55 | go to Normal record.
| | 02:57 | Now what you going to hear are the
first two bars before this highlighted area,
| | 03:02 | and those first two bars are going to
play back what's already on this track.
| | 03:06 | Then Pro Tools is going to
automatically punch me in at this point, and I'm
| | 03:11 | going to record up until this end point,
when Pro Tools will automatically stop.
| | 03:15 | Let's check it out.
| | 03:16 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:36 | I call this method 'automated punching'
because Pro Tools does the punching in and
| | 03:40 | out for you automatically.
| | 03:42 | This is a handy punching method,
especially if you're recording by yourself, but
| | 03:46 | I use it all the time when
I'm working with clients too.
| | 03:49 | So let's recap the technique.
| | 03:51 | First, you locate the punch in and
punch out points, you select the area
| | 03:55 | in between them, you record-enable the track,
and set the pre and post-roll if needed.
| | 04:01 | Then you press Record and Play, and you let Pro
Tools do the punching in and out automatically.
| | 04:06 | So, in general, it's often best to use
Auto Input monitoring when punching but
| | 04:11 | leave the monitoring mode in
Input Only for all other applications.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Dealing with latency and ADC| 00:00 | When you record audio into Pro Tools,
the time it takes your computer to
| | 00:04 | receive the input signal, record it,
process it, and send it back out to an
| | 00:09 | output is called latency.
| | 00:11 | Latency values can be as low as zero
or higher than 50 milliseconds on up,
| | 00:16 | which is quite noticeable, and will
most likely negatively affect your
| | 00:19 | performance while recording. I'll show you why.
| | 00:22 | I you go to Setup > Playback Engine, we
can set the hardware buffer size, and
| | 00:28 | this is a major
determinant of what your latency is.
| | 00:31 | If we bring it down to the minimum, 32
Samples, that's really unnoticeable. I'm going to
| | 00:39 | record-enable this base track.
| | 00:41 | I am going to play a few notes, and
you won't be able to distinguish when I
| | 00:45 | actually hit the string and when
the note comes back from Pro Tools.
| | 00:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:54 | However, if I change this H/W Buffer
Size to 1024 Samples, now you are going to
| | 01:03 | be able to hear the difference between
when I actually strikes the note and when
| | 01:06 | it comes back from Pro Tools.
| | 01:08 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:14 | This latency can certainly affect
your performance, and will most likely not
| | 01:18 | enable you to play in time
with the rest of the music.
| | 01:21 | So that's why you want to reduce the
latency, that is reducing the H/W Buffer
| | 01:26 | Size, down to the minimum when you're recording.
| | 01:29 | Those of you recording into a
USB-powered interface, like an Mbox 3, can
| | 01:34 | achieve zero latency monitoring by
turning the Mix knob all the way to the
| | 01:38 | left on the input side.
| | 01:40 | This routes the input signal right
back out of the interface before it's even
| | 01:43 | converted from analog to
digital; thus there's no latency.
| | 01:47 | On those USB-powered interfaces, to
hear your input track along with the other
| | 01:51 | tracks that have already been recorded
into Pro Tools, you need to put the Mix
| | 01:55 | knob into the middle.
| | 01:56 | In this case, you'll hear the input
signal with zero latency and the playback
| | 02:00 | from Pro Tools, which will
have a little bit of latency.
| | 02:03 |
With a small H/W Buffer
Size, this is manageable.
| | 02:07 | However with the larger buffer, the
latency causes too much delay between the
| | 02:11 | pre-recorded track and the track
currently being recorded, which will negatively
| | 02:15 | affect the timing of your recorded performance.
| | 02:18 | On some M-Audio and third-party USB
devices, the Mix control is software driven.
| | 02:24 | In this case, you can go to the Setup >
Hardware and launch the setup application.
| | 02:30 | In there, you'll find the
controls to adjust the mix level.
| | 02:34 | FireWire interfaces like the 003 and
the Mbox 3 Pro handle digital audio and
| | 02:39 | latency in a slightly different way.
| | 02:41 | For those devices, the minimum latency
is not zero; it's actually three milliseconds,
| | 02:46 | because it takes 1.5 milliseconds to
convert an analog signal to digital and
| | 02:52 | another 1.5 milliseconds to
convert it back from digital into analog.
| | 02:56 | This A to D to A conversion
takes a total of three milliseconds.
| | 03:01 | FireWire interfaces can utilize a
feature called Low Latency Monitoring, which is
| | 03:06 | turned on or off from the Options menu.
| | 03:08 | It's right down here at the bottom.
| | 03:10 | When it's on, the latency is three milliseconds.
| | 03:13 | However, there are some
accompanying limitations.
| | 03:16 | All plug-ins and sends on record-enabled
tracks are automatically bypassed,
| | 03:20 | so when using LLM you can't record
with any real-time effects on the
| | 03:25 | record-enabled tracks.
| | 03:26 | Let me turn this on, and
you will see what I mean.
| | 03:30 | If I record-enable this lead
guitar track, this delay plug-in will
| | 03:34 | have to be bypassed, and
it happens automatically.
| | 03:39 | In practice, I've found that working
with low buffer sizes is totally fine
| | 03:43 | for recording even the most time
sensitive material, and so I don't really use
| | 03:47 | Low Latency Monitoring very often.
| | 03:50 | Once you've done recording, you can go
back to the playback engine and change it
| | 03:54 | to a higher buffer size if needed.
| | 03:55 | But when you're recording, I
recommend knocking it down to the smallest
| | 03:59 | hardware buffer size available.
Now, you can record with Automatic Delay
| | 04:03 | Compensation active as well.
| | 04:05 | Delay Compensation will be applied to
all tracks in the session, except the
| | 04:10 | tracks that are record-enabled.
| | 04:12 | You can turn on delay
compensation right down here.
| | 04:17 | Pro Tools will tell you to open the
Playback Engine dialog in order to enable
| | 04:21 | Delay Compensation, and
you can choose yes, of course.
| | 04:24 | Here you can choose
between None, Short, and Long.
| | 04:30 | Regardless of what you choose, Pro
Tools automatically compensates for any
| | 04:34 | timing discrepancies between the
material being recorded and the delay-
| | 04:38 | compensated tracks.
| | 04:40 | When the newly recorded tracks are
played back, they are correctly time-aligned
| | 04:43 | with the other delay-compensated tracks.
| | 04:46 | So, Pro Tools will manage the delay
compensation for you automatically while
| | 04:50 | recording, but it's up to you to
manage the latency by adjusting the proper
| | 04:55 | parameters shown in this video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a group| 00:00 | A group consists of one or more
tracks that are grouped together.
| | 00:04 | Groups are useful for editing or mixing
several tracks in the same way at the same time.
| | 00:09 | To create a group in Pro Tools, we can
highlight multiple track names--so I am
| | 00:14 | going to click one and then Shift+Click
the second one--or we can go up to the
| | 00:20 | Link Track and Edit Selection, and if we
come down here with the Selector tool,
| | 00:26 | click and drag--and I just clicked and
dragged across these two tracks, and it
| | 00:31 | selected those two names--
| | 00:34 | we can go up to Track and Group.
| | 00:38 | Now you also notice that you can use
the key commands Command+G on a Mac or
| | 00:42 | Ctrl+G in Windows to create a group.
| | 00:46 | When you create a group, the Create
Group dialog opens up, and you've got a lot
| | 00:50 | of options here to look at.
| | 00:52 | First, you can name the group.
| | 00:53 | I'm going to call this Ac gtrs.
| | 00:57 | You can tell it what
Type of group you want make.
| | 01:00 | We can have an Edit, a Mix or a Mix and
Edit group, and usually that's what you
| | 01:05 | want is groups for both Windows.
| | 01:08 | You can choose an ID number, and you
can choose whether it has VCA associated
| | 01:13 | with it and whether you
want it to follow the globals.
| | 01:18 | The globals are shown on this page,
and that means that the volume, the mute,
| | 01:25 |
| | 01:25 | the panning and all of these other
insert, controls and bypass and mix
| | 01:30 | attributes, record-enables, solos and
automation modes--all of those will be
| | 01:35 | linked to all of the tracks within the group.
| | 01:39 | So that's what a global means.
| | 01:41 | Now let's go back to the Tracks.
| | 01:43 | We will see that the available other
tracks that are in the session that are
| | 01:48 | not in the group are shown here. So we
could actually add the click track, if we
| | 01:53 | wanted to put it into the current
group, or we can remove it. And in the
| | 01:58 | Attributes section, this is the same
as the globals, except when you have
| | 02:03 | Follow Globals here this turns off because
it's following the Globals that you have here.
| | 02:10 | If we turn this off, you can set up your
own attributes for this particular group.
| | 02:14 | I'm going to turn this Follow Globals
back on and click OK to accept that group.
| | 02:22 | Now you can see this group down in the
Groups list, and we can see the groups in
| | 02:27 | action when I go up here. And I am
going to click this Mute button and the mute
| | 02:31 | occurs for both of these tracks.
| | 02:34 | Now, what's interesting is if I hit the
Solo button, I didn't include the solo in
| | 02:40 | the globals for this track. And now
let's go back and actually modify this
| | 02:47 | group, so I am going to right-click
it and choose Modify from this list.
| | 02:54 | And since I have the Globals on, I am going
to go over the Globals page, and you'll see
| | 02:57 | down here Mix Attributes.
Solos was not part of that.
| | 03:00 | So now I am going to check that off
and hit OK, and now when I go back, I can
| | 03:07 | solo both of these tracks at the same time.
| | 03:11 | So these tracks will follow each
other in a lot of different ways.
| | 03:13 | So if I grab the Volume, both the
tracks move to the same volume level.
| | 03:20 | If I change the track view from
waveform to volume, both tracks follow. And if I
| | 03:27 | create a new playlist, both
tracks will get new playlists.
| | 03:31 | Let's go over to the Mix window.
| | 03:33 | Now you see that the groups list is
not actually shown here, so I am going to
| | 03:40 | hit this button and slide over the
track so we make room for the tracks on the
| | 03:44 | Groups list. And you'll notice in
this area right here that we have a color
| | 03:50 | coding for the group and we have it listed here,
| | 03:54 | Ac gtrs, and if you click on
that you can get this menu, so we
| | 03:58 | cam see what tracks are in it, we
can modify it, duplicate and delete.
| | 04:02 | We could hide the tracks or show only
those tracks in the group. I like this one.
| | 04:08 | So that hides everything else
except for the tracks in the group.
| | 04:12 | This is pretty handy when you're mixing.
| | 04:13 | While we are talking about groups,
let's check out the group list pop-up.
| | 04:18 | Here, we can create a new group, we can
display all the groups, or just the edit
| | 04:23 | or mix groups. We can suspend all
groups, which means that they become inactive,
| | 04:30 | and we can modify some groups. And of
course, we can delete the active group too.
| | 04:35 | If we want to delete this though,
understand that this is a not-undoable event.
| | 04:42 | So, any track can be part of a
group or multiple groups at one time.
| | 04:46 | Use groups to make your workflow
more efficient while recording, editing,
| | 04:50 | and mixing.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding effects while recording | 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to show you
how to add effects plug-ins to a track, as
| | 00:04 | well as how to set up an
effects loop to use while recording.
| | 00:08 | In previous videos in this chapter,
we've recorded this lead guitar and had a
| | 00:12 | multi-delay plug-in on there.
| | 00:14 | Now I want to keep that on there, but I'm
actually going to slide it down one insert.
| | 00:20 | So now I'm going to add one more in
ahead of it, and we can choose from a
| | 00:25 | whole slew of different ones here, but what
I'm going to choose is this AIR Fuzz-Wah (mono).
| | 00:32 | And the great thing about adding plug-
ins while you're recording is that it can
| | 00:36 | inspire your performances.
| | 00:38 | So creating a cool sound, instead of just the
dry track, can really make you be more creative.
| | 00:44 | So now we've got this Fuzz-Wah and
this multi-delay on this track, and what
| | 00:50 | happens is the signal is
processed from top to bottom.
| | 00:54 | So, this guitar track here is processed
through the Fuzz-Wah, and then it goes
| | 01:00 | to the multi-delay, and then
it's out to the main outputs.
| | 01:04 | Over here, I'm going to
choose one of the presets.
| | 01:08 | I happen to like this Sixteenth Pulse.
It sounds interesting with these tracts.
| | 01:13 | So let's take a quick listen.
| | 01:15 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:31 | These effects are
processing the track in real-time.
| | 01:35 | These are called RTAS plug-ins,
| | 01:37 | Real Time Audio Suite plug-ins.
| | 01:40 | If we want to bypass them, we can
actually hit Command or Ctrl and click on them,
| | 01:47 | or we can bypass them in the actual
Plug-in window up with this Bypass button.
| | 01:52 | Now I'm going to talk a lot more about
plug-ins and specific controls within the
| | 01:57 | plug-ins in later videos in this course,
but I wanted to just show you a few
| | 02:02 | here and help you get
creative in the recording process.
| | 02:06 | Now I want to set up an effects loop,
and I'm going to switch over to the Mix
| | 02:11 | window to show you how to do this.
| | 02:15 | So first, I'm going to create a new
track, a stereo auxiliary track, and what
| | 02:24 | I want to do is route both of these
acoustic guitar tracks through a reverb plug-in.
| | 02:30 | So I'm going to create an
effects loop. How do we do that?
| | 02:33 | Well first, I want to show the sends,
and what I'm going to do is bus these two
| | 02:41 | tracks over to this auxiliary track.
| | 02:45 | So I need to create a bus.
| | 02:50 | Bus 1-2, I'm going to do the same here
Bus 1-2. And to make things easier, I'm
| | 02:58 | going to go up to the View menu and
choose Sends A, and now I can see all their
| | 03:05 | controls right here.
| | 03:07 | So I'll boost these levels and if you
want to go straight to zero, you can press
| | 03:12 | Option on a Mac or Alt on a PC, and
that'll take this right to zero. And now I'm
| | 03:18 | going to pan one left and one right.
| | 03:22 | So now a copy all of these acoustic
guitar signals are going out of these sends.
| | 03:29 | However, they're not being received
anywhere, so we need to set the input of this
| | 03:34 | auxiliary track to the same bus.
| | 03:36 | The final step is that we need to
choose a plug-in, and I'll choose the D-Verb
| | 03:41 | plug-in, and I'll just keep it
on the hall in the large size.
| | 03:46 | So now, both of these acoustic guitar
tracks are routed to this auxiliary track
| | 03:54 | through the Bus 1-2, which will process
them with the D-Verb, and all of this will
| | 03:59 | be routed out to the analog 1 and 2, so
you here a mix of the dry tracks from
| | 04:04 | here and the affected tracks here, and
let's check out what this sounds like.
| | 04:11 | First, we'll hear the acoustic
guitars by themselves soloed.
| | 04:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:38 | So you can control the overall reverb
level with this fader on the auxiliary
| | 04:44 | track, and you can also adjust the
individual send levels right here.
| | 04:49 | So when you're recording, you can
utilize individual effects on certain tracks
| | 04:55 | to inspire, or you can set up affects
loops to help create a different vibe
| | 05:01 | while you're recording.
| | 05:02 | You know, a lot of vocalists like to
hear reverb or delay on their vocals, and so
| | 05:06 | you can set up reverb and delay effects
loops like this while you're recording
| | 05:10 | them. And I'm going to cover even more
about using effects in the videos about
| | 05:15 | mixing in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a headphone (cue) mix| 00:00 | When you record into Pro Tools,
you'll often be wearing headphones.
| | 00:04 | Creating a good headphone mix is
imperative to helping you capture the best
| | 00:08 | performances while recording.
| | 00:10 | For the most basic headphones setup,
plug in your headphones to the headphone
| | 00:14 | jack on your interface.
| | 00:16 | Some interfaces have two
headphone jacks, like the 003.
| | 00:20 | Turn the headphone Volume knob all
the way down at first. Then press play in
| | 00:24 | Pro Tools and turn up the headphone
volume to a level that is comfortable, neither
| | 00:28 | too loud nor too soft.
| | 00:30 | The headphone jacks on your
interface receive the main output.
| | 00:33 | In this particular case, and in
most cases, it's Analog 1 and 2.
| | 00:37 | However, at the moment, we can't really
tell what the overall volume level is
| | 00:43 | coming out of Pro Tools.
| | 00:44 | What we need to do is create a stereo
master fader track, so let's do that;
| | 00:51 | New > Stereo > Master Fader.
| | 00:56 | Now we can tell what the overall
volume is from this session, and we can
| | 01:00 | control it with this fader right here,
and this is the level that will feed
| | 01:06 | your headphone jacks.
| | 01:08 | Monitoring the Analog 1-2 output is usually
fine for just recording one person at a time,
| | 01:14 | but getting the levels of each
track in the mix is very important.
| | 01:18 | When you record, the mix of the
headphones can either help or hinder the person
| | 01:22 | recording in a few different ways.
| | 01:24 | For example, if a vocalist's voice is
too prominent in the headphone mix, the
| | 01:29 | vocalist might sing a
little flat and with less energy.
| | 01:32 | However, if the vocalist's voice is
too low in the mix, they might push their
| | 01:37 | voices and go sharp to rise above
the other instruments in the mix.
| | 01:41 | So try to get a good balance between
instruments in the mix, and most likely
| | 01:45 | you'll have to boost the instrument
that you're recording just a little so it
| | 01:48 | can be heard above the mix.
| | 01:51 | Adding effects to the headphone mix can
give a special energy to the instrument
| | 01:56 | or create an inspiration for
the instrumentalists or vocalists.
| | 02:00 | Vocalist in particular like to have
some reverb and/or some delay on their
| | 02:05 | voices while they are recording, so I
recommend setting up an effects loop for this purpose.
| | 02:10 | We've already got one set
up in here, so check it out.
| | 02:13 | These tracks are bussed on a send to
this auxiliary track, where it's being
| | 02:19 | affected by this D-Verb, which is a
reverb plug-in. And you can set up
| | 02:23 | multiple effects loops in this similar style
for any kind of affects that you want to add.
| | 02:28 | So what happens if you want to record
more than one person at a time, and they
| | 02:32 | each want their own personal headphone mixes?
| | 02:35 | Well, you can make as many
separate headphone mixes as you like.
| | 02:38 | The only limitation is the number of
separate outputs you have on your interface.
| | 02:43 | Let's say you're recording a guitar
player and a bass player at the same time,
| | 02:47 | and they each want their
own separate headphone mixes.
| | 02:51 | We can use the main mix through
Analog 1-2 for one of them and mix it the
| | 02:56 | way that they want it.
| | 02:57 | But let's set up a separate
second mix for the other player.
| | 03:02 | What I'm going to do is show sends F
through J, and I'm going to up here,
| | 03:09 | press Option on a Mac or Alt on a PC,
and choose Output 3-4. That's Analog
| | 03:16 | output three and four.
| | 03:19 | Go up to View and Sends F-J and choose
Send J, so we can see the controls for
| | 03:25 | each one of these tracks. And now I can
build a completely separate second mix
| | 03:31 | for the guitar player, and I can
bring these levels up however we want.
| | 03:40 | The final step here is to create a
New Stereo Master Fader track, and it
| | 03:48 | automatically goes to Analog 3-4, and
we will use this track to adjust the
| | 03:53 | overall output for this second headphone mix.
| | 03:57 | So to recap, we've got all these
tracks with sends being routed to Analog 3-4,
| | 04:03 | the second output, and that's for our
second separate headphone mix. And all of
| | 04:07 | these send levels can be different than
the main mix levels, so that's how you
| | 04:11 | get a second headphone mix.
| | 04:14 | Creating a good headphone mix--whether
it's simply getting the right balance
| | 04:17 | between the tracks for one person,
adding effects, or even creating multiple
| | 04:21 | different mixes for multiple people
recording at once--is important for capturing
| | 04:26 | the best recorded tracks that you can.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Assigning disk allocation| 00:00 | Every audio track you record in Pro
Tools is stored on either an internal or an
| | 00:04 | external hard drive. And when you create
a new session, that's when you initially
| | 00:09 | tell Pro Tools where you want to save the files.
| | 00:12 | However, after you open the session,
you can tell Pro Tools exactly where to
| | 00:16 | record each track by specifying the
location in the Disk Allocation dialog box.
| | 00:22 | And we can access that by hitting the
Setup menu, choosing Disk Allocation.
| | 00:28 | For each audio track that's in your
session, you've got a root media folder
| | 00:32 | where the file is stored.
| | 00:34 | But we can change it if we want.
| | 00:36 | So I've just clicked on this up and
down arrow, and we can choose a different
| | 00:41 | hard drive, or we can select a different folder.
| | 00:46 | One of the main reasons that I use
this window is if a hard drive runs out of
| | 00:51 | space. Then you can specify where you
want additional takes of the track to be
| | 00:56 | recorded onto, and you should note that
reassigning tracks to different drives
| | 01:00 | doesn't affect any
previously recorded audio files.
| | 01:04 | All those previously recorded tracks
will be on the original drive where
| | 01:08 | they were recorded.
| | 01:09 | As another option, you can go down to
the Custom Allocation Options and change
| | 01:15 | the root media folders
for any files that you want.
| | 01:21 | You can also create subfolders for audio,
video and fade files, and you can use
| | 01:27 | the round robin allocation for new tracks.
| | 01:30 | Now round robin will automatically
distribute any newly created tracks among the
| | 01:35 | hard drives connected to your system.
| | 01:37 | By default, the system drive is not
included in round robin allocation, and Avid
| | 01:43 | does not recommend
recording to the system drive--
| | 01:46 | that is, the drive that contains
your computer's operating system.
| | 01:49 | Although you can see some options
for spreading out the audio files over
| | 01:53 | different drives here,
| | 01:54 | I usually keep all my
audio files on one hard drive.
| | 01:58 | Drives are so fast these days that
spreading out the files isn't really a
| | 02:02 | necessity to improve performance,
unless you're working with huge sessions.
| | 02:07 | Plus, saving all your audio files on
one drive is easier for organization
| | 02:11 | and transportation.
| | 02:12 | Still, you should be aware of the
options in the Disk Allocation window.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Editing AudioUnderstanding nondestructive editing and region types| 00:00 | Pro Tools is best known for its audio
editing capabilities, and the reason that
| | 00:05 | digital audio editing is so
amazing is that it's nondestructive.
| | 00:09 | Let's say I start with a perfectly
good guitar part here, and let me play
| | 00:12 | a little bit for you.
| | 00:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:27 | And then I chop it up and move parts around
so it looks like this, and it sounds like this.
| | 00:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:48 | Now the edits in the second track
don't affect the underlying audio file.
| | 00:53 | The edits are nondestructive.
| | 00:55 | Pro Tools does not actually touch the
audio files; it just tells the hard drive
| | 00:59 | when to play back certain
parts of each audio file.
| | 01:02 | In other videos in this course, I will
show you how to make it just like this.
| | 01:05 | But here, I want to explain what audio
regions are and how audio regions work in Pro Tools.
| | 01:12 | In Pro Tools speak, each track, or
section of a track, is called a region, and
| | 01:17 | you see these little pieces as
a region in the Regions list.
| | 01:21 | There are several types of regions
that you'll see in a Pro Tools session,
| | 01:24 | the first of which is highlighted here,
and this is called a whole file region.
| | 01:29 | These are displayed in bold in the
Regions list, and they're created when you
| | 01:33 | record, import, or consolidate.
| | 01:36 | They reference an entire
audio file on your hard drive.
| | 01:39 | The region up above this whole file
region, the one that I renamed A stutter, is a
| | 01:44 | region called the user-defined region.
| | 01:46 | They are made when you actually edit
something yourself and then name the region yourself.
| | 01:51 | Down here, you'll see an auto-created region.
| | 01:54 | These are shown in regular text, like
the user-defined regions, except that
| | 01:58 | they're created automatically when you make
an edit, like separating or trimming a region.
| | 02:03 | A region type that's not shown here is called
an off-line region, and it shown in italics.
| | 02:08 | They are regions that cannot be located,
or are unavailable when opening a session.
| | 02:13 | We don't have any of those here in the session.
| | 02:15 | Like this drum loop down here,
reference multiple audio files for stereo or
| | 02:20 | surround soundtracks, they are shown
as one region in the regions list.
| | 02:24 | But there's little triangle that I'm
mousing over right here, and that's next to
| | 02:28 | their name, and you can click this to
show the individual regions that make up
| | 02:32 | the multi-channel region.
| | 02:34 | When you click a region in the Regions
list like this it will highlight in the
| | 02:38 | Edit window and vice versa--that is, if
the Region is actually showing on any of
| | 02:43 | the tracks currently.
| | 02:45 | So if I double-click that,
you'll see that this highlights here.
| | 02:49 | So now you know about the
nondestructive nature of audio editing in Pro Tools,
| | 02:53 | and about the different types of regions,
and how they interact with the Regions list.
| | 02:57 | This knowledge will help you
understand the editing techniques shown in other
| | 03:00 | videos in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Selector and Grabber tools| 00:00 | The Selector and Grabber tools are
probably going to be your most used edit
| | 00:04 | tools for editing, manipulating, and
playing back track material in Pro Tools.
| | 00:08 | To activate the selector, click
the Selector button or press F7.
| | 00:14 | You can move the Selector tool to a
track and click anywhere, and that'll lay
| | 00:18 | down the playback cursor.
| | 00:20 | If you press the Spacebar, Pro Tools
will begin playing right from that location.
| | 00:24 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:27 | You can also click and drag to make a
selection, and playback will just be
| | 00:31 | in that selected area.
| | 00:32 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:37 | If you place the cursor and then press
Shift and click again, you'll highlight
| | 00:42 | an area, and that will be the playback area.
| | 00:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:48 | You can also double-click a region, and
it'll highlight the entire region for playback.
| | 00:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:56 | If you triple-click on a track, it will
select all of the material on the entire track.
| | 01:02 | Let's move on to the Grabber tool.
| | 01:04 | You can click it up here or press F8.
| | 01:07 | The Grabber tool comes in three flavors:
| | 01:10 | the time grabber, separation
grabber, and object grabber.
| | 01:14 | We can right-click and see all three of these.
| | 01:16 | You'll probably use the time grabber most often.
| | 01:21 | Its primary function is to select
or move entire audio or MIDI regions.
| | 01:26 | So if I click on this MIDI region
once, it highlights the whole region.
| | 01:30 | If I click and drag it, I can
just move it wherever I want.
| | 01:35 | The same goes for audio.
| | 01:39 | You can also move specific MIDI events.
| | 01:41 | So I'm going to switch this instrument
track over to Notes view, and when you
| | 01:46 | see the little pointer, you can click and
drag, and you'll move individual MIDI notes.
| | 01:53 | You can also move conductor track events.
| | 01:56 | So I can come up here to this Tempo
event, click and drag it, and move it.
| | 02:04 | And the last thing you can do with the
time grabber is to go to the automation
| | 02:07 | lanes and insert and edit automation breakpoint.
| | 02:11 | If I come down here to this
volume automation, I can click and make
| | 02:16 | individual break points.
| | 02:17 | I can also click and drag to move them.
| | 02:20 | Now I want to talk about the separation grabber.
| | 02:22 | First, I'm going to go to the
selector, and I'm going to click and drag a
| | 02:27 | selection. Note that the
selection that I made here is not already a
| | 02:32 | pre-existing region.
| | 02:34 | So now I'm going to go up to the
grabber, and choose Separation Grabber.
| | 02:39 | When I come down here to the selected
area, if I click it once and drag it, it
| | 02:46 | automatically separates and moves
that entire area that was selected.
| | 02:50 | Now, let's go to the object grabber,
choose that up here, and I can click
| | 02:58 | multiple regions while pressing Shift,
and they're non-contiguous. And then,
| | 03:03 | with them all selected, I
can click and drag them all.
| | 03:07 | This even works across multiple tracks.
| | 03:09 | So if I go back to regions view here
and I Shift+Click multiple regions on
| | 03:14 | different tracks, I can move them altogether.
| | 03:17 | The Selector and Grabber tools enable
you to manipulate regions, notes, and
| | 03:22 | automation to your heart's content.
| | 03:23 | Get to know them well, and you'll become
very efficient at editing in Pro Tools.
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| Using the Trimmer and Scrubber tools| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to cover what
the Trimmer and Scrubber edit tools do.
| | 00:04 | I'll start with the trimmer.
| | 00:05 | This is the trimmer here, and if you
click on it, right-click it, or click and
| | 00:10 | hold, you'll see that it
comes in four different flavors:
| | 00:13 | Standard, TCE, Scrub, and Loop.
| | 00:16 | The scrub trimmer is only a feature
for Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with the
| | 00:21 | Complete Production Toolkit 2.
| | 00:23 | You can also press F6 to scroll
through these different Trim tools, and let's
| | 00:28 | start with the Standard Trim tool.
| | 00:30 | The trimmer's main function is to
shorten or expand a region or a loop.
| | 00:34 | If I bring it down here, and click and
drag, I can shorten this or extend it.
| | 00:40 | If you press Option on a Mac, or Alt in
Windows, you can reverse the direction
| | 00:45 | of the Trimmer tool.
| | 00:46 | So see the Trimmer tool reversing right there.
| | 00:50 | And then if I click, it'll
chop the region like that.
| | 00:53 | You can also use the trimmer to
lengthen and shorten MIDI notes.
| | 00:56 | So let's take a look at this one and
expand the length of that MIDI note.
| | 01:04 | You can also use the trimmer to
scale automation and controller data.
| | 01:08 | So first, I'm going to go to the
selector, I'm going to select this area of the
| | 01:13 | volume automation on this track, I'll go
back to the trimmer, and I'll click and drag.
| | 01:19 | You'll see what's going on here.
| | 01:20 | You see the number -12.1 db.
| | 01:23 | That means the volume that this has
gone down to, and then you'll see the delta,
| | 01:27 | or the difference, which is that
little triangle, and that says -10.9 db.
| | 01:33 | So that means that this overall
has been scaled down -10.9 db.
| | 01:38 | Now let's check out the time
trimmer, or the TCE trimmer.
| | 01:43 | The time trimmer uses the Time Shift
AudioSuite plug-in to alter the length of
| | 01:47 | an audio region and create a new audio file.
| | 01:51 | You can use it to time compress or
expand a region, and this is useful for
| | 01:55 | matching the length of another region,
for aligning a region to a tempo grid, or
| | 02:00 | for just a special effect. Let's try it out.
| | 02:02 | I'm going to compress this piano
region and we'll take a listen to it.
| | 02:06 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:15 | So, you can hear that it's a lot faster
now, and there are few little artifacts
| | 02:20 | in there, but it sounds kind of neat.
| | 02:22 | One thing you should know when you use
the TCE Trimmer tool is that this creates
| | 02:27 | a brand-new audio file.
| | 02:29 | So, what I would recommend doing before
you actually process a track like this
| | 02:34 | is you should go and
create a duplicate playlist,
| | 02:37 | so then you can always have the original
playlist underneath, and you can always
| | 02:41 | access the unaltered version.
| | 02:43 | Now, we can choose the default settings
for the Time Shift plug-in or change the
| | 02:47 | default plug-in to a different time
compression or expansion plug-in, and we do
| | 02:52 | that up here, in the Setup >
Preferences, and the Processing page.
| | 02:57 | You can see there are few
plug-ins that we can choose from.
| | 03:01 | Time Shift is the default.
| | 03:02 | If you have X-Form, you
might want to choose that;
| | 03:05 | that might be a little higher
quality than Time Shift, but Time Shift is
| | 03:08 | definitely a better choice than
the old Digidesign TC/E plug-in.
| | 03:13 | Now obviously, if you have any of these
third-party ones, you can choose those too.
| | 03:16 | You can also set the
default settings and look at that:
| | 03:19 | we have a piano setting if we want it.
| | 03:22 | Usually the default, which is the
Stereo Mix Default, is probably the best
| | 03:26 | choice for your overall TC/E needs.
| | 03:28 | So, I'm going to cancel out of this.
| | 03:30 | Now, we can create our own TCE settings,
| | 03:34 | if we go to AudioSuite > Pitch Shift >
Time Shift, and this is actually the Time
| | 03:41 | Shift plug-in that will be doing the
processing for our TCE Trimmer tool.
| | 03:46 | You can create your own settings here
and then save them, and I'm going to talk
| | 03:49 | about using this in another video.
| | 03:52 | Let's move on to the loop trimmer.
| | 03:56 | With the loop trimmer, if you position
the cursor over the top half of a region,
| | 04:01 | the loop trimmer comes out.
| | 04:03 | If you bring it down to the bottom half of
the region, the standard trimmer will be there.
| | 04:07 | So, if you click and drag with the
loop trimmer, you create multiple loops of
| | 04:13 | the trimmed region, and you can see
that those are created with this little
| | 04:17 | icon that's down here.
| | 04:19 | Finally, we have the scrub trimmer,
and this feature is only available in Pro
| | 04:25 | Tools HD and Pro Tools systems
with the Complete Production Toolkit.
| | 04:29 | What this lets you do is
trim and scrub at the same time--
| | 04:33 | that is, you can listen to the
audio as you trim the region.
| | 04:36 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:43 | And from the scrub trimmer, this is a
perfect segue into using the Scrubber tool.
| | 04:47 | Let's go up and click that.
| | 04:48 | Now, scrubbing is a technique used in
analog tape editing, where an engineer
| | 04:53 | rolls the tape back and forth over
the playhead at slow speeds with his or
| | 04:57 | her hands, to find a particular location on
the tape, usually the location for a splice.
| | 05:03 | The purpose of the scrubber in Pro Tools is to
emulate the scrubbing process on digital audio.
| | 05:08 | By scrubbing over an edit point, you can
find the exact edit point, which may not
| | 05:13 | be obvious just by looking at the waveform.
| | 05:16 | To access the Scrubber tool, obviously
can just click on it, or you can press
| | 05:20 | F9, and let's go down here and scrub.
| | 05:23 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:29 | So obviously, you can go backwards
and forwards, and if you scrub over the
| | 05:33 | middle of a stereo track,
you can hear both sides.
| | 05:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:39 | But if you scrub over just one half
of it, you'll only hear that side.
| | 05:42 | Now, let's zoom in really close,
and go back to the scrubber.
| | 05:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:56 | When you zoom in close, the scrubber
will only scrub just a small little piece
| | 06:00 | of the audio, and so usually you'll hear
the pitch go down, and you'll hear just
| | 06:05 | a little bit of the audio.
| | 06:06 | If we zoom back out by double-clicking
the Zoomer tool, I can actually simulate
| | 06:12 | zooming in with the scrubber, by
hitting the Command key on a Mac, or Control in
| | 06:17 | Windows, and this will allow me to
scrub at a finer resolution without zooming.
| | 06:24 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:29 | If you want to scrub at speeds faster
than regular speed, you can press the
| | 06:33 | Option key on a Mac, or Alt in Windows,
while you're dragging, and you'll see the
| | 06:37 | cursor change its icon slightly.
| | 06:39 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:46 | This is called Scrub/Shuttle mode.
| | 06:48 | You use the Scrub/Shuttle mode to
scroll through a long track to find a
| | 06:52 | specific part of that track.
| | 06:54 | Aside from being able to scrub
audio, you can also scrub MIDI.
| | 06:58 | So if I go up to this instrument track,
I can scrub on this Mini Grand track.
| | 07:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:12 | Let's say you're using the Selector
tool, and you want to scrub something.
| | 07:16 | Well, if you take the selector into
the middle of a region, and you press
| | 07:20 | Control on a Mac, or Start on PC, you'll see
that the selector will change to a scrubber.
| | 07:26 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:33 | You can also access Scrub/Shuttle mode,
if you press Control+Option on a
| | 07:37 | Mac, or Start+Alt on a PC.
| | 07:41 | We'll come down to this audio track.
| | 07:43 | I'm going to press Control+Option.
| | 07:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:53 | So, there're a few useful key commands
that you can use to access the scrubber
| | 07:57 | from the Selector tool.
| | 07:59 | Now, I find the scrubber to be my least
used editing tool, but the features it
| | 08:04 | does offer are cool and
helpful from time to time.
| | 08:07 | On the other hand, I use the trimmer all
the time to edit regions, and I imagine
| | 08:11 | you will too, once you get the
hang of using all its features.
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| Using the Zoomer tool and Zoom presets| 00:00 | The Zoomer tool is mostly used like a
magnifying glass, just as its tool icon indicates.
| | 00:06 | You use it to view the fine details of a
track, or in the opposite way, to look at
| | 00:11 | the big picture of a track
in a session by zooming out.
| | 00:14 | Here is the Zoom tool.
| | 00:15 | You can press F5, or just
click on this to activate it.
| | 00:20 | With the Zoom tool in the Edit window, if
you click once, you'll zoom in one level.
| | 00:25 | If you press the Option key on a Mac or
the Alt key on a Windows machine, you'll
| | 00:29 | see the inside of the zoomer
switch from a plus to a minus.
| | 00:34 | And if you click once, then
you'll zoom out one zoom level.
| | 00:38 | You can click and drag with the
Zoomer, and the zoomed area fills the
| | 00:42 | entire edit window.
| | 00:46 | A cool feature right below the
Zoomer is called the Zoom toggle.
| | 00:50 | This enables you to define and toggle
between the current zoom state and a saved
| | 00:55 | zoom state that includes track height,
track view, MIDI and audio zoom in and out,
| | 01:00 | horizontal zoom, and the grid setting.
| | 01:02 | And you can set different track
heights for each type of track--that is for
| | 01:06 | instruments, audio, et cetera.
| | 01:08 | So I want to click this once, and
you'll see that the Mini Grand track expands
| | 01:14 | to the full size of the
track area in the Edit window.
| | 01:17 | The reason the Mini Grand did
this is because it was highlighted.
| | 01:20 | Now if I click the Zoom toggle again, it will
go back to the zoom level that it was at before.
| | 01:26 | You can set the Zoom toggle setting, if
you go to Setup > Preferences, and in the
| | 01:31 | Editing page, you'll see the
whole area down here, Zoom Toggle.
| | 01:35 | We can set the vertical MIDI zoom,
horizontal zoom, track height, and you'll see
| | 01:41 | that here is set to fit to window, the
track view, and a few other settings.
| | 01:47 | Zoom toggle has a keyboard shortcut.
| | 01:49 | If you press Ctrl+E on a Mac or
Start+E on a Windows computer, you can toggle
| | 01:54 | between the Zoom Toggle
view and the Regular view.
| | 01:57 | Even easier, if you go to the keyboard
focus button, which is right here, and
| | 02:02 | make that active so that it's yellow,
as you can see it here, then all you
| | 02:07 | need to do is press the E key, and that will
access the keyboard focus command for Zoom toggle.
| | 02:12 | So I'm just pressing the E key now.
| | 02:14 | Taking this one step further, if we
select an area on a track and we hit the
| | 02:18 | zoom toggle, it blows up
that area that we just selected.
| | 02:22 | So I am going to highlight this area,
hit the Zoom toggle, and there you go.
| | 02:29 | And that can be very handy for editing.
| | 02:32 | Now there are two versions of the
Zoom tool: single zoom and normal zoom.
| | 02:37 | Normal zoom just stays active,
allowing you to do multiple zooms in a row.
| | 02:42 | So I can go down here, zoom in, zoom in,
zoom in, zoom out, zoom out, and the
| | 02:49 | Zoomer tool stays active.
| | 02:51 | However, if we choose Single Zoom, Pro
Tools will actually return you to the
| | 02:56 | previous tool that you were using
after you do your single zoom.
| | 03:00 | So if say we're using the grabber and
we're going to move some stuff around with
| | 03:05 | the grabber, we go to the Single Zoom,
we do a single zoom, and it moves us
| | 03:12 | right back to the Grabber tool.
| | 03:14 | There are some other useful zoom
features in Pro Tools, and they're located
| | 03:18 | right over here, in the Zoom controls.
| | 03:21 | If you don't see these in your session,
you can access them from the Edit window
| | 03:25 | toolbar > Zoom Controls, right here.
| | 03:28 | So what we have are the zoom
buttons and five horizontal zoom presets.
| | 03:33 | The zoom presets, I am going to click through.
| | 03:35 | You can see that they're at
various levels of zooming.
| | 03:39 | With the zoom preset 5, it zoomed
all the way in, and zoom present 1 is
| | 03:44 | zoomed all the way out.
| | 03:45 | To save a zoom preset, zoom to the
level that you want and then click and hold
| | 03:50 | one of the Zoom Preset buttons.
| | 03:53 | When you click and hold, you'll see
Recall Zoom preset or Save Zoom preset;
| | 03:59 | choose whichever you want to do.
| | 04:01 | Above the presets, we have the Zoom In and
Out buttons, so you can zoom in/zoom out.
| | 04:07 | We can also make the waveforms taller or
shorter using the Audio Zoom In and Out.
| | 04:13 | We can also make the MIDI notes shorter
and taller, if we choose Notes view, and
| | 04:22 | then click the MIDI Zoom In and Out.
| | 04:24 | One of my favorite features in the
zoom controls is clicking and dragging
| | 04:29 | on these horizontal zoom ins and
outs, and you can kind of create an
| | 04:35 | accordion effect here.
| | 04:38 | And this works for either the
horizontal Zoom In or the Zoom Out button.
| | 04:43 | If we hide the zoom controls, we can
actually do that continuous zooming.
| | 04:49 | If we press Ctrl on a Mac or Start in
Windows, and then we can click and drag on
| | 04:54 | a region. And you'll notice that some
of the zoom controls are actually doubled
| | 05:04 | up here, where we can use
Audio and MIDI Zoom In and Out.
| | 05:08 | My two favorite zoom features are
double-clicking on the Zoomer tool, which
| | 05:13 | brings the entire session into view,
and then the second one is to make sure
| | 05:18 | that the commands keyboard focus is on and
pressing the R and T keys to zoom in and out.
| | 05:25 | So as you can see here, there are tons
of zooming options, from using the Zoomer
| | 05:31 | tool to using the zoomer presets
to using zoomer keyboard shortcuts.
| | 05:36 | Use them all in combination to
get around Pro Tools really quickly.
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| Using the Pencil tool| 00:00 | When editing audio, the Pencil tool
has one function: to redraw waveforms.
| | 00:05 | Often this is done to repair waveforms, such
as to eliminate a pop or a click on the track.
| | 00:10 | To do this, we need to zoom in all the way
so that the waveform becomes a single line.
| | 00:15 | Let's go to the Zoom tool, and we can
click down here to zoom in. Or, what's
| | 00:21 | even faster is we can use this preset
number 5, and it will zoom straight in
| | 00:27 | to the sample level.
| | 00:28 | Now if we go to the Pencil tool,
we'll just choose the Free Hand tool, I can
| | 00:32 | click and drag, and that
becomes the new waveform.
| | 00:38 | If you save the session after
redrawing this waveform, the audio file is
| | 00:42 | permanently changed.
| | 00:43 | However, you can undo this, and
I'm going to do that right now.
| | 00:47 | Now, there are seven flavors of the
Pencil tool: Free Hand, Line, Triangle,
| | 00:53 | Square, Random, Parabolic, and S-
curve, and you can use the F10 key to
| | 00:58 | scroll through these.
| | 01:00 | The Pencil tool has a lot of uses;
| | 01:01 | however, not a lot of them
are audio-editing related.
| | 01:05 | So I'm going to mention just a few of
them here quickly, and then cover most of
| | 01:09 | the features of the Pencil tool in other movies.
| | 01:12 | So first, I'm going to zoom out.
| | 01:14 | So I'm going to double-click the zoomer,
and then go back to the Free Hand Pencil tool.
| | 01:18 | If I take the Pencil tool down to this
automation lane, I can click and drag to
| | 01:24 | draw new automation.
| | 01:26 | I can also go to the Tempo editor
and click and draw in tempo changes.
| | 01:33 | I can insert MIDI notes, so I'll go
to this track and zoom in a little bit,
| | 01:38 | so you can see it. Back to the Pencil tool,
and when I click, it starts adding notes.
| | 01:46 | And what's cool about this Pencil tool
is that it actually is kind of like a
| | 01:49 | smart tool, because as you can see here,
it actually turned into a trimmer when
| | 01:54 | it's near the edge of a MIDI note.
| | 01:55 | So I can click and drag to
extend or shorten that note.
| | 02:00 | It also turns into the grabber, which
you can click and then drag and move
| | 02:06 | those notes around.
| | 02:07 | And what makes it even smarter is that
you can press the Option key on a Mac or
| | 02:12 | the Alt key on a PC, and the Pencil
tool flips around and turns into an eraser,
| | 02:17 | so you can erase notes.
| | 02:19 | If you just click with the
eraser, you can erase those notes.
| | 02:24 | And finally, you can adjust the
velocities of a MIDI performance.
| | 02:28 | So I am going to just click and drag here, and
it's redrawing the velocities for these notes.
| | 02:35 | So as you can see here, the
Pencil tool has a lot of functions.
| | 02:39 | I use it for editing audio, MIDI, and
automation in every session I work on, and
| | 02:44 | I'm sure you will too.
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| Using the Smart tool| 00:00 | The Smart tool combines the best
parts of the Trimmer, Selector, and
| | 00:04 | Grabber tools all into one.
| | 00:06 | To make the Smart tool active,
click the bar above these three tools.
| | 00:11 | You can also press F6 and F7 at the
same time to activate the Smart tool.
| | 00:16 | When you move the Smart tool down into
a region, the Selector tool is active in
| | 00:20 | the top half and the grabber in the bottom half.
| | 00:23 | If you move towards a region boundary,
the trimmer becomes active on either side.
| | 00:29 | And if you go to the top corner,
you'll see the Fade tool right there, for a
| | 00:34 | fade out or fade in.
| | 00:36 | And if you bring it all the way down to
the bottom, you can create a crossfade,
| | 00:41 | all you need to do is click and drag,
and you can create a crossfade.
| | 00:46 | The fades and crossfades will follow
your default fade settings that you can
| | 00:50 | set up in the Preferences.
| | 00:52 | Setup > Preferences > Editing, and
right here, Default Fade Settings, and we'll
| | 01:00 | cover this in another video.
| | 01:02 | Now one thing you should note is that
the Smart tool follows whatever tools
| | 01:08 | you have selected in here, so if you
end up having the separation grabber
| | 01:11 | active and you create the Smart tool, that's
what Grabber tool will be active in the Smart tool.
| | 01:17 | So you can see here that the Smart
tool can do a lot of things at once.
| | 01:21 | It's definitely the edit tool that I
use the most, and once you get familiar
| | 01:25 | using it, I'm sure it will be the same for you.
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| Understanding the Edit modes| 00:00 | The Edit modes shuffle, slip, spot, and
grid determine how regions behave when
| | 00:06 | edited by the Edit tools.
| | 00:08 | Let's check slip first
while using the Grabber tool.
| | 00:12 | In Slip mode, when you click and
move a region, the regions move freely.
| | 00:17 | You can leave empty spaces,
or they can overlap each other.
| | 00:22 | When you trim them, it's the same deal.
| | 00:27 | Also, note that when we move a
region, the automation follows.
| | 00:32 | Now let's go to the Shuffle mode,
and we'll stay with the Grabber tool.
| | 00:36 | Shuffle mode restricts placement of the
regions, so that they snap to each other end-to-end.
| | 00:42 | If I click and drag this, you'll see
the yellow line. That means that these two
| | 00:47 | regions are going to bud up against each other.
| | 00:53 | Right there I just flipped these two,
rearranging them, and I can put that
| | 00:58 | region in between those two.
| | 01:01 | If I use the Trimmer tool, you'll see
how when I trim this, all of these regions
| | 01:07 | back here move forward.
| | 01:09 | Now let's try the Spot mode.
| | 01:10 | I will go back to the Grabber tool.
| | 01:14 | As soon as I click on a region with
the grabber, the Spot dialog opens.
| | 01:19 | In this window, we can tell Pro Tools
where we want the region to be moved to, in
| | 01:24 | Bars and Beats, Minutes and
Seconds, or any of these other options.
| | 01:29 | You can type it in exactly;
| | 01:31 | we can say 25. Or we can use the
original timestamp, and that's the location where
| | 01:36 | this region was originally recorded.
| | 01:38 | I am going to cancel out of here.
And if I use the trimmer, the same happens:
| | 01:44 | the Spot dialog opens, and you can choose
specifically where you want to trim the region.
| | 01:49 | Let's move on to the Grid mode.
| | 01:51 | I will go back to the Grabber tool.
| | 01:53 | When you're in Grid mode, your edits
and selections are constrained to the
| | 01:57 | grid, and it's based on the
time scale and the grid size.
| | 02:00 | So we're in Bars and Beats right now, and
we're looking at a grid value of a quarter note.
| | 02:08 | So that's the grid size.
| | 02:10 | So if I go down here and move this, it's
going to move in increments of a quarter note.
| | 02:15 | You can see that reflected up here.
| | 02:20 | If I switch to the Selector tool, all of
my selections are constrained to the grid.
| | 02:26 | The same goes to the Trimmer tool.
| | 02:28 | When I trim, all of the
trimming is done right to the grid.
| | 02:32 | Now you can see the gridlines in here, and
that's because this button is illuminated.
| | 02:38 | If I click this, it will hide the gridlines.
| | 02:41 | You can do the same by
clicking on the time scale.
| | 02:45 | There are two types of grid modes:
| | 02:47 | there is the Absolute
grid and the Relative grid.
| | 02:50 | Absolute grid snaps region starts to
the nearest gridline, and that's what I
| | 02:55 | was just showing you.
| | 02:56 | Relative Grid is a little bit different.
| | 02:59 | The regions move in increments of the
grid value, but the region start points
| | 03:03 | don't have to be on the grid.
| | 03:05 | It'll still move in increments of the grid.
| | 03:07 | Let me show you an example.
| | 03:09 | First, I'm going to zoom in here, and you'll
see that this region is locked to the grid.
| | 03:15 | Temporarily, I'm going to go to Slip
mode and use the trimmer to trim this so
| | 03:20 | that it's not on the grid.
| | 03:22 | Now I'm going to go back to Relative
grid, and with the grabber, I'm going to
| | 03:27 | slide this, and watch what the motion does here.
| | 03:32 | It's moving in increments of the grid.
| | 03:35 | However, it's not locked to
the beginning points of the grid.
| | 03:41 | So we are moving this in
quarter-note increments right now.
| | 03:44 | There are some easy shortcuts
that apply to the Edit modes.
| | 03:47 | You can use F1 for shuffle, F2 for
slip, F3 for spot, and F4 for grid.
| | 03:55 | You can toggle F4 between absolute and relative.
| | 03:58 | Now if you're in Grid mode and you want
to temporarily suspend the Grid mode to
| | 04:03 | switch over to slip while you're
dragging a region, all you need to do is press
| | 04:07 | the Command key on a Mac or the
Ctrl key on Windows, and you won't be
| | 04:11 | constrained to the grid as you
drag the region. Watch this.
| | 04:14 | There is another key command that I like
a lot, and it's called the shuffle lock.
| | 04:22 | This mode disables all key commands and
control surface switches for Shuffle mode.
| | 04:26 | Thus, it prevents you from
entering Shuffle mode ever.
| | 04:30 | I think it's handy, because sometimes
Shuffle mode can really mess with your
| | 04:33 | timing, if you end up trimming or
moving regions round in Shuffle mode, and
| | 04:37 | you're not aware that
you're actually in Shuffle mode.
| | 04:39 | So to turn on shuffle lock, go up to the
Shuffle button and Command+Click it on a
| | 04:44 | Mac or Ctrl+Click it on a Windows machine.
| | 04:46 | You'll see that this
little lock icon shows up.
| | 04:50 | That means that shuffle lock is active.
| | 04:52 | So there you have it--
| | 04:53 | the power of the Edit modes.
| | 04:55 | Understanding the Edit modes is extremely
important when learning how to edit in Pro Tools.
| | 05:00 | I recommend spending some time working
with them, and follow the examples here
| | 05:04 | in this video several times to
really grasp their different powers.
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| Arranging regions| 00:00 | There's very little that you can't
do while editing audio in Pro Tools.
| | 00:04 | Here we'll talk about some of the most
basic editing tasks: separating, cutting,
| | 00:09 | copying, pasting, clearing,
duplicating, moving, and nudging audio regions.
| | 00:13 | First, let's talk about
separating an audio region.
| | 00:16 | Separating means to chop a region
into two pieces, or to create a separate
| | 00:20 | region within a region.
| | 00:21 | Let me show you how to do this.
| | 00:23 | I am going to drop the cursor in right
there with the Selector tool and then
| | 00:28 | choose from the Edit menu > Separate
Region > At Selection. Pro Tools just made two
| | 00:35 | new regions out of one.
| | 00:37 | You can use a key command for this you can
use Command+E on a Mac or Ctrl+E in windows.
| | 00:44 | So to use that keyboard
shortcut, I'll just do that right there.
| | 00:48 | If we click and drag with the
selector to highlight some area, we can also
| | 00:53 | separate it immediately by
hitting the key command.
| | 00:57 | Cutting, copying, pasting, and clearing
in Pro Tools is just like doing those
| | 01:01 | actions in any other software program,
except that here we're working with audio
| | 01:06 | regions. With this highlighted here, I can
go to the Edit menu and choose Cut, and
| | 01:11 | that will get rid of those regions.
| | 01:14 | If I don't move anything and choose
Paste, it will paste it right back. As you
| | 01:20 | can see here in the Edit menu, we've
got the standardized key commands.
| | 01:25 | So on a Mac, we've got Command+X for cut,
Command+C for copy, Command+V for paste
| | 01:31 | and Command+B for clear, and likewise in
a Windows machine, it's Ctrl+X, for cut,
| | 01:37 | Ctrl+C for copy, Ctrl+V for
paste and Ctrl+B for clear.
| | 01:42 | Now I want to take a minute
and talk about Master views.
| | 01:47 | On an audio track, the Waveform view
as we see here or the Blocks view are
| | 01:53 | considered master views.
| | 01:55 | If you edit a region on one of these
two views, that edits apply to all data on
| | 02:00 | that track, including automation.
| | 02:02 | So, for example, if you clear part of
the waveform on this track, the underlying
| | 02:08 | volume automation will be cleared as well.
| | 02:13 | However, if you go down here and select
the automation data and clear that, the
| | 02:19 | audio doesn't move; the audio still remains.
| | 02:22 | So the master views on an audio track
are waveform of blocks, and on a MIDI, or
| | 02:27 | instrument track they are
regions, notes, and blocks.
| | 02:32 | So any edits you do to the Regions,
Notes or Blocks view on a MIDI or
| | 02:36 | instrument track will affect all of
the underline automation and control
| | 02:40 | our data on that track.
| | 02:42 | And one more quick word about editing
automation: in addition to the regular
| | 02:46 | Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear commands,
Pro Tools has Cut Special, Copy Special,
| | 02:52 | Paste Special and Clear Special
Commands in the Edit menu, that help with
| | 02:56 | editing automation play lists, like
volume, mute, pan, and plug-in automation.
| | 03:01 | You can see those here.
| | 03:02 | We'll actually cover those
in the chapter on automation.
| | 03:08 | Now let's get back to editing audio regions.
| | 03:10 | To move a region in time, the easiest
way is to select the grabber and click and
| | 03:16 | move it. Now, you will notice that
these two tracks are grouped together, so
| | 03:21 | that's why both are selected, and
both are moving at the same time.
| | 03:26 | Similar to just clicking and dragging
to move a region, I want to show you about
| | 03:30 | how to nudge a region.
| | 03:32 | This is a great feature if you want a
lineup or stray bass note with the kick
| | 03:36 | drum note for a solid downbeat. Or, in
this case, I'm going to align the downbeat
| | 03:41 | of the sitar track with the piano.
| | 03:44 | So first, I am going to zoom in here.
And you can see down here that the sitar
| | 03:53 | downbeat is not in line with the grid,
nor with this downbeat on the piano.
| | 03:58 | So here's what I am going to do.
| | 03:59 | I'm going to select the grabber and
then highlight this track, and I'm going to
| | 04:05 | start nudging it. Before I do that, I'm
going to look at the Nudge value, and up
| | 04:10 | here we can see that it's set at 10 ms.
That's actually my favorite Nudge value
| | 04:16 | because it's not too big
but definitely not too small.
| | 04:19 | It makes a difference when you do it.
| | 04:21 | You can obviously choose larger or
smaller values, and you can choose ones that
| | 04:25 | are tied to the bars and beats as well.
But I actually like minutes and seconds
| | 04:30 | 10ms is a great value.
| | 04:33 | We can use key commands for nudging.
| | 04:36 | You can use plus and minus on your
numeric keypad to nudge forward and backwards.
| | 04:40 | So watch this sitar track as I nudge it.
| | 04:45 | If you don't have a numerical keypad,
you can go up to the Commands keyboard
| | 04:51 | focus, activate that, and then uses the
Period and Comma buttons to nudge back and forth.
| | 04:57 | Now one thing that I want to mention
about nudging is that you should be
| | 05:02 | careful using this technique, because
you can't go crazy trying to align every
| | 05:07 | single note, killing way too much
time and also taking away from the real
| | 05:11 | performance of the part.
| | 05:14 | My suggestion is if the part needs a
ton of nudging just to fix it, you might
| | 05:18 | want to consider just rerecording the track.
| | 05:20 | So as you can see here, editing audio in
Pro Tools using these commands is pretty
| | 05:25 | straightforward, and you can apply your
knowledge of almost any other software
| | 05:28 | program you know to the
intuitive editing techniques here.
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| Undoing an edit| 00:00 | It's inevitable that you'll want to
undo something you did in Pro Tools.
| | 00:04 | In fact, the Undo command might be your
best friend in Pro Tools--maybe behind
| | 00:08 | the Auto Save feature, that is.
| | 00:10 | When you do almost anything
in Pro Tools, you can undo it.
| | 00:13 | This is particularly handy when editing.
| | 00:15 | So I am going to go ahead and just do a
bunch of edits really quick, just so we
| | 00:19 | can take a look at undoing them.
| | 00:21 | First, I am going to grab the
trimmer, and trim a few regions.
| | 00:27 | Then I am going to grab the
grabber and move some stuff around.
| | 00:32 | Then I'll take the selector, and make
some new regions by separating them, and
| | 00:39 | that should be good.
| | 00:40 | Now, you probably know this already,
but if you press Command+Z on a Mac or
| | 00:45 | Ctrl+Z in Windows, that will
undo what you've just done.
| | 00:49 | We can see that in the Edit menu up here.
| | 00:51 | What's even more handy is you
can go to the Undo History window.
| | 00:55 | So we go to Window > Undo History.
| | 00:59 | That shows us the history of all
of the edits that we've just made.
| | 01:02 | If I click here and drag, that will
undo everything, and then I can click and
| | 01:09 | drag and pull it all the
way down to redo everything.
| | 01:12 | The Undo History window also has a
menu, where we can show the creation times,
| | 01:18 | we can undo all, or we can clear the Undo
queue, and I am not going to do that right now.
| | 01:26 | One thing also, we can
change the levels of undo.
| | 01:29 | If we go to Setup > Preferences, and in
the Editing tab, down here at the bottom,
| | 01:35 | we have the Levels of Undo.
The maximum number is 32.
| | 01:38 | That means we have 32 steps
that we can go back and undo.
| | 01:43 | We can reduce the levels of undo to
save RAM processing power, but is it really
| | 01:48 | worth the price of not having the ability to
undo a bunch of steps back? I don't think so.
| | 01:53 | So let's keep it at 32.
| | 01:56 | So obviously, the Undo command is one of
the most important commands in Pro Tools.
| | 02:00 | Use the Undo Shortcut or the Undo
History window when you need to rethink some
| | 02:05 | of the last actions you
performed in your session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing fades and crossfades| 00:00 | To create smooth edits while editing
audio regions in Pro Tools, you should
| | 00:05 | utilize fades and crossfades at
most region beginnings and endings.
| | 00:09 | Fades and crossfades are used to prevent
pops, clicks, or sudden changes in sound
| | 00:14 | at region boundaries, as well as to
smooth transitions between regions or create
| | 00:19 | special audio effects.
| | 00:21 | Let's listen to where we need to
apply some fades and crossfades.
| | 00:24 | Let me start by playing this region
here, and you are going to hear a click
| | 00:28 | right at the very beginning of the region.
| | 00:31 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:34 | Did you hear that click right when this bass started playing?
(Music playing.)
| | 00:40 | There is also one at the very end.
| | 00:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:45 | Let me show you what's causing this.
I am going to zoom in very close.
| | 00:52 | You'll see the audio region right here
goes from having no sound to having this
| | 00:58 | waveform right here.
| | 01:00 | Ideally, you would want to start with 0
amplitude, like this area right here at
| | 01:05 | the very beginning, so it
can fade in to the sound.
| | 01:09 | But the pop click sound that you hear
is coming from when you go from 0 sound
| | 01:15 | immediately to a higher amplitude value,
| | 01:18 | so let's create a fade in to avoid that.
| | 01:21 | The first way, we can use the selector,
and highlight an area and go to the Edit
| | 01:27 | menu, choose Fades > Create.
| | 01:30 | That will open the Fades dialog box.
| | 01:33 | Here we can choose the
shape that we want for the fade.
| | 01:39 | We can also choose whether
it's Equal Power or Equal Gain.
| | 01:43 | We'll talk about that a
little bit later in this video.
| | 01:45 | If you want to, you can click and
drag to change the shape of this.
| | 01:51 | So I am going to click OK, and
that's what the fade looks like.
| | 01:58 | Let's zoom out and hear what it sounds like.
| | 02:03 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:05 | There is no more click.
| | 02:06 | Mission accomplished.
| | 02:08 | Now, there are easier ways to make fades.
| | 02:12 | Let's make a fade out for the end of this track.
| | 02:16 | With the Smart tool enabled, we can
simply go to the top of the region, click
| | 02:22 | and drag, and that will create a fade for us.
| | 02:25 | Let's take a listen to that now.
(Music playing.)
| | 02:31 | Well, that's not ideal.
| | 02:33 | I can still hear a little
bit coming out of there.
| | 02:36 | So maybe we make this a little bit longer.
| | 02:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:45 | That's a little bit better,
| | 02:46 | but we can still keep
working on it if we want to.
| | 02:48 | Now, let's go make a crossfade.
| | 02:50 | I'm going to go over to between these
two regions, and let's listen to
| | 02:56 | what's happening here.
| | 02:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:00 | There's a big click pop right in the middle.
(Music playing.)
| | 03:04 | So now I am going to click and drag,
create a fade, and we can use the key command--
| | 03:12 | Command+F on a Mac or Ctrl+F on a PC--
and open the Crossfade dialog box.
| | 03:18 | While we are in here, let me explain a
little bit more about what's in here.
| | 03:23 | In this Link section, we have
Equal Power, Equal Gain, and None.
| | 03:28 | Choose Equal Power when creating a
crossfade between two completely different
| | 03:32 | types of musical material, so that
there's no volume drop as there might be with
| | 03:37 | an Equal Gain crossfade.
| | 03:40 | Choose Equal Gain when creating a
crossfade between two identical types
| | 03:44 | of musical material to avoid clipping that
might occur from an Equal Power crossfade.
| | 03:50 | In most circumstances, I actually
find Equal Power to be the best choice.
| | 03:55 | You can also choose None, if you
want to edit the fade out and fade in
| | 03:59 | separately, but let's keep this as Equal Power.
| | 04:03 | Now, let's listen to the fade
while we are in this window.
| | 04:06 | We can hit the Audition button.
| | 04:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:14 | Well, that's no good.
| | 04:16 | The notes are crossing over each
other and overlapping way too much,
| | 04:20 | so we get two pitches
happening at the same time;
| | 04:22 | the crossfade is too long.
| | 04:24 | So let's cancel this, and instead,
let's go with the Crossfade tool. Click and
| | 04:32 | drag it, and we'll create
a much shorter crossfade.
| | 04:36 | If we use the Smart tool and go to the
Grabber mode, double-click it, and you
| | 04:40 | can open up the fades dialog.
| | 04:43 | Let's audition this again.
| | 04:44 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:50 | That's much smoother.
| | 04:52 | When you create a fade or a crossfade
with the Smart tool, Pro Tools relies on
| | 04:58 | the preferences that you
have set about the fades.
| | 05:01 | So if we go to Setup > Preferences
into the Editing page, we can choose our
| | 05:07 | default settings for our fades.
| | 05:10 | Click on the crossfade.
| | 05:11 | You can see that Equal Power is chosen as
our default, with these standard shapes as well.
| | 05:17 | I like that,
| | 05:18 | so I am going to check OK.
| | 05:21 | Since crossfades are created by fading
between overlapping audio material, a
| | 05:26 | crossfade cannot be performed on
regions that do not contain audio material
| | 05:30 | beyond the region boundaries.
| | 05:33 | Let's take a look at what I am talking about.
| | 05:39 | If we go to this area here--and I've
got the Trimmer tool--if I try to trim and
| | 05:45 | extend that over to the right,
there's no material to extend.
| | 05:50 | So if I go down here to try to create a
crossfade and click and drag, Pro Tools
| | 05:56 | is going to give me this warning,
| | 05:58 | "One or more fade requests are invalid due to
insufficient audio data within the fade bounds.
| | 06:04 | You may skip the invalid fade request(s),
or adjust the bounds for those
| | 06:09 | fades (where possible)."
| | 06:11 | So we can skip them, or we can have Pro
Tools automatically adjust them if there
| | 06:17 | is audio on this side.
| | 06:20 | We know that there is no audio on the
other side of this, beyond this boundary.
| | 06:24 | But if there is audio from this side
that extends beyond the region boundary
| | 06:28 | over here, then we'll be
able to create a crossfade.
| | 06:32 | So let's hit Adjust Bounds,
and see what Pro Tools can do.
| | 06:36 | In fact, there is audio over here,
so Pro Tools automatically shifted the
| | 06:41 | crossfade to earlier in time so that there
was enough material to create the crossfade.
| | 06:47 | One other thing that I want to
mention about fades and crossfades is that
| | 06:50 | they're actually written to your hard
drive and stored in a folder named Fade Files.
| | 06:55 | That's within your session folder.
| | 06:57 | When you play back your track, Pro
Tools reads these files and plays them back
| | 07:01 | from your hard drive.
| | 07:02 | They are actually WAV files.
| | 07:05 | If you end up losing your fade files,
Pro Tools can actually recreate these
| | 07:09 | files from the session file if
they're not present on your hard drive.
| | 07:14 | Fades and crossfades are
essential tools for editing digital audio.
| | 07:18 | Use them well and your audio
edits will be super-smooth.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building a comp track using playlists| 00:00 | Creating a composite track--otherwise
known as a comp--where you edit together the
| | 00:05 | best parts of several takes into one
master take is a quick process using
| | 00:10 | playlists in Pro Tools.
| | 00:12 | Let's take a look at this session.
| | 00:14 | I have got two guitar tracks
up here that are playing cords,
| | 00:17 | I have got a lead guitar track here,
and then I've got three recorded playlists
| | 00:23 | of a harmony guitar track.
| | 00:25 | We know that these are on playlists,
because we're looking at the Playlist Track view.
| | 00:31 | So to get a handle on starting to
edit these, I want to actually loop the
| | 00:35 | playback, so I can hear each one of them.
| | 00:37 | So I am going to go over to the
Play button, right-click, choose Loop.
| | 00:42 | Then I am going to double-click this with
the selector to highlight this whole region.
| | 00:47 | As I start playing this back, I can hit
these Solo buttons, and that will switch
| | 00:52 | over the playlist from the
original to these sub-playlists.
| | 00:57 | Another way to make that happen is to
actually click in the playlist and hit
| | 01:01 | Shift+S, and that'll turn on the Solo button.
| | 01:06 | So first, I am going to start
with the original playlist.
| | 01:09 | Then I am going to go down to this one,
and this one, all during loop playback.
| | 01:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:56 | So I've got pieces from each
playlist that I want to edit together into
| | 01:59 | the master comp track.
| | 02:01 | So how do we do that?
| | 02:03 | First, I am going to go up here to the
Playlist menu, and create a duplicate,
| | 02:09 | and name this "Harm COMP."
| | 02:15 | What happens is the original Harm101
gets moved down, and we have a duplicate of
| | 02:22 | that playlist here, and that's going to
be the beginning of our comp track.
| | 02:26 | And this piece right here, I want
to keep from the Harm101 track.
| | 02:32 | Now, I want to move these
other edits up into the comp track.
| | 02:38 | There's a really easy way to do that.
| | 02:39 | You can hit this Copy
Selection To Main Playlist button.
| | 02:45 | That automatically pushes that
piece of audio up into the comp.
| | 02:49 | I want to get this section too. And
instead of having to go all the way over to
| | 02:53 | this button, we can right-click and say,
Copy Selection To Main Playlist, and
| | 02:59 | that'll push it up there.
| | 03:01 | To finish this, we will do the same
here, and now we have a comp track.
| | 03:06 | There is one more feature that I am
going to tell you about that might help you
| | 03:10 | build comps, especially if you're
working with a lot of playlists and you get
| | 03:14 | kind of confused about
which performances are best.
| | 03:17 | You can use ratings of each of the regions
to help you remember which ones are good.
| | 03:21 | If we go to View > Region > Ratings, we
can see the ratings for every region
| | 03:28 | in the session.
| | 03:31 | With this region highlighted, we can
choose Region > Rating and give it a 5, or
| | 03:40 | we can double-click the region to
select it, and then right-click.
| | 03:43 | If we go down to the bottom,
we can choose the rating.
| | 03:47 | What might be easier and even more
efficient is to rate the regions while it's
| | 03:52 | playing back a recording.
| | 03:54 | To do that, you can use all three of
the main modifiers and press 1 through 5.
| | 03:59 | So on a Mac, that would be Command+Option+
Ctrl and on a PC, that would be Ctrl+Alt+Start.
| | 04:07 | Then if you really want to get fancy,
you can right-click the track name and
| | 04:11 | filter out any lanes that you don't want.
| | 04:13 | So we can filter out everything except the 5s.
| | 04:17 | Filter Lanes > Show Only Lanes
With > Regions Rated with a 5.
| | 04:25 | So it filtered out all of the playlists
that didn't have any regions that were
| | 04:29 | rated with 5s, and this can really
help you filter your playlists, so you can
| | 04:34 | find the best performances.
| | 04:36 | I find this comping process to be pretty slick.
| | 04:39 | Recording to and editing with
playlists are part of my usual music production
| | 04:43 | technique, and I strongly
encourage you to add these features to your
| | 04:47 | production arsenal as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Locking and muting regions| 00:00 | After you've recorded or added a region, you
don't want to unintentionally move that region.
| | 00:05 | To guard against that, you
can lock the region in place.
| | 00:09 | There're two ways to lock a region.
| | 00:11 | The first is called edit lock.
| | 00:13 | I'm going to double-click on these
regions here and then go up to the Region
| | 00:18 | menu and choose Edit Lock.
| | 00:21 | You'll see down in these
regions a solid lock icon.
| | 00:25 | Now if I go to the Grabber tool here
and I try to grab these and move them, I
| | 00:30 | get this warning, "This command will
affect one or more locked regions."
| | 00:35 | You can either cancel or allow it, but
at least you'll know that this region is
| | 00:39 | locked, and you won't accidentally
or unintentionally move that region.
| | 00:43 | I'm going to hit Cancel.
| | 00:44 | There are key commands for edit locking:
Command+L on a Mac or Ctrl+L in Windows.
| | 00:53 | You can toggle any regions that
are locked by using this command.
| | 00:57 | Time lock is a slightly
more lenient type of locking.
| | 01:01 | The region will be locked in time,
but you can edit it as long as the edits
| | 01:05 | don't move the region in time.
| | 01:07 | Let's take a look at that.
| | 01:08 | I'm going to highlight these
regions. Go to Region > Time Lock.
| | 01:16 | You'll notice that the icon is an
outline of a lock, not a solid lock, like
| | 01:21 | the Edit Lock icon.
| | 01:22 | The Time Lock command also has
keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Option+L on a Mac or
| | 01:28 | Start+Alt+L in Windows.
| | 01:30 | So now with these regions time-locked,
I'm going to try and click and drag them,
| | 01:36 | and you can't even do it at all.
| | 01:37 | So time lock doesn't even have the
same Allow feature that edit lock does.
| | 01:42 | However, if I go to the Trim tool, I
can actually trim these regions, because
| | 01:49 | I'm not changing the timing
of what is in this region.
| | 01:52 | Now let's talk about muting a region.
| | 01:55 | Muting a region simply means to
make it silent, but not to delete it.
| | 01:59 | So let's try muting these regions.
| | 02:01 | Hit the Grabber tool, highlight
them, go to Edit > Mute Regions.
| | 02:09 | Since they're locked, it's letting us
know that this command will affect the
| | 02:14 | locked regions, but I'm going to allow it.
| | 02:16 | So they get grayed out, and
that's how you know that they're muted.
| | 02:19 | Now there are key commands for this as
well; Command+M on a Mac or Ctrl+M in
| | 02:24 | Windows will mute or unmute a region.
| | 02:27 | Muting is a great way to help build
the song arrangement of loop-based music
| | 02:32 | production, as well as a simple
tool for creating space in a mix.
| | 02:36 | I also recommend locking your regions
once you've done some editing to a session,
| | 02:40 | or at least once you start mixing your song.
| | 02:43 | You don't want to spend time realigning
regions that you move by accident while mixing.
| | 02:47 | I'm sure you'll utilize these
commands a lot while using Pro Tools.
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| Special Edit window buttons| 00:00 | Residing just below the Edit tools in
the Edit window are a number of buttons
| | 00:04 | that enable you to do some special
things in Pro Tools. Let's take a look.
| | 00:09 | We'll go from left to right.
| | 00:10 | The first one is Zoom toggle.
| | 00:12 | We've discussed that in a video about zooming.
| | 00:15 | Next to Zoom toggle is Tab to Transients.
| | 00:18 | When it's active, the
button is blue, like shown here.
| | 00:22 | Tab to Transients allows you to use the
Tab key to navigate from one transient
| | 00:26 | part of an audio waveform to the next,
making it easy to find edit points on a
| | 00:32 | drum track or other tracks with
obvious transients in their waveforms.
| | 00:36 | Let me show you an example.
| | 00:38 | We have a drum track down here,
and I'm going to hit the Tab key.
| | 00:41 | You'll see that it's bouncing
from transient to transient.
| | 00:47 | Let me zoom in for more detail.
| | 00:53 | To move backwards, you can hit
Option+Tab on a Mac, or Alt+Tab on a PC.
| | 00:58 | You can press Shift+Tab to highlight
and press Option+Shift+Tab on a Mac or
| | 01:10 | Alt+Shift+Tab to highlight backwards.
| | 01:15 | This is a great tool for
defining the area to create a loop.
| | 01:19 | Just highlight from downbeat to downbeat,
separate the region, and you've got a nice loop.
| | 01:25 | Let's try it out.
| | 01:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:43 | Sounds like a tight musical loop to me.
| | 01:46 | Next in our list of buttons is
this one called Mirrored MIDI Editing.
| | 01:50 | Now we're actually going to cover this
in detail in a video about editing MIDI
| | 01:54 | data later in this course,
so we'll skip it for now.
| | 01:58 | Next to that, we've got the Link
Edit and Timeline Selection button.
| | 02:02 | This enables you to set, play, and edit
ranges by selecting in the tracks playlist.
| | 02:08 | Usually, you want to keep this linked,
like this is right now when it's turned blue,
| | 02:12 | so that what you choose in the
Timeline reflects what you want to edit.
| | 02:16 | You can see this right here.
| | 02:18 | We've highlighted this area in the
edit playlist, and it's reflected in
| | 02:22 | the timelines up here.
| | 02:25 | If we click this, we'll unlink those two.
| | 02:28 | Now we can make edit selections
without disturbing the Timeline selection.
| | 02:35 | So notice now we have four beats
highlighted up here and only two beats down here.
| | 02:40 | So what happens when we press Play?
| | 02:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:48 | Playback follows the Timeline.
| | 02:50 | However, we can edit separately
from the playback in the Timeline.
| | 02:56 | This becomes even more useful when we
choose to use the Dynamic Transport.
| | 03:02 | Now I can de-couple the playback's start
location from the edit location as well.
| | 03:07 | So I can bring this all the way over here if I want,
(Music playing.)
| | 03:13 | and begin playback at any
point during the timeline selection.
| | 03:18 | However, I can still edit here.
| | 03:20 | So I'm going to play back this bar
but then edit a smaller portion of that
| | 03:25 | while it's playing back.
| | 03:26 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:41 | Now I usually just keep the Link Edit
and Timeline Selection button highlighted,
| | 03:45 | but when you're recording and editing
loops, it can be handy to unlink it and
| | 03:49 | use the Dynamic Transport mode.
| | 03:52 | Let's go to the next button up here.
| | 03:54 | With the Link Track and Edit
Selection button highlighted, you can select
| | 03:57 | track material and the track names of each
associated track will become highlighted too.
| | 04:03 | So if I go down here, click and drag
with the selector and I go across multiple
| | 04:09 | tracks, you'll see that the names
of the tracks become highlighted.
| | 04:15 | So this makes it pretty slick to be
able to quickly highlight a number of
| | 04:18 | tracks, and then you can apply any
track-level command--such as making all the
| | 04:23 | tracks inactive--all at once.
| | 04:25 | So if I go up to Track > Make
Inactive, the ones that are selected
| | 04:32 | become inactive.
| | 04:36 | The next button is the
Insertion Follows Playback.
| | 04:39 | Now we discussed this in the video on
playing back audio, so I'll just show a
| | 04:43 | quick example of how this works here.
| | 04:46 | First, I want to turn off Dynamic Transport.
| | 04:48 | I'm going to relink like the
Edit and Timeline Selection.
| | 04:54 | So I'll begin playback right here.
| | 04:56 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:04 | With this deactivated, the
playback cursor comes back to where we
| | 05:08 | originally started playing.
| | 05:10 | However, if I activate this,
you'll see something different.
| | 05:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:21 | The playback cursor is now
placed where we stopped the playback.
| | 05:26 | So depending on how you want to work
with Pro Tools, you can either activate or
| | 05:30 | deactivate the Insertion Follows Playback.
| | 05:33 | One final button that I want to talk
about is the Keyboard Focus button, and
| | 05:38 | there are several Keyboard Focus
buttons here in the Edit window.
| | 05:41 | We have one here, one here for the
Regions list, and one here for the Groups list.
| | 05:47 | We'll come back here to this one.
| | 05:50 | These buttons enable you to use the
alpha keys on your keyboard to access a wide
| | 05:54 | range of single key shortcuts.
| | 05:57 | This specific button, the Commands
Keyboard Focus, provides a variety of single
| | 06:01 | key shortcuts for editing and playing.
| | 06:03 | These shortcuts are listed in the
keyboard shortcuts document, but I'm going to
| | 06:07 | show you a few of my personal favorites.
| | 06:09 | When you hit the Minus key, the track
view toggles between volume and waveform.
| | 06:16 | When you hit the E key, we activate Zoom toggle.
| | 06:21 | When you hit the R key,
you zoom out horizontally.
| | 06:24 | When you hit the T key, you zoom in
horizontally, and when you hit the B key,
| | 06:30 | you separate a region.
| | 06:32 | I use those ones all the time.
| | 06:34 | The special editing buttons shown here
demonstrate some of the unique powers
| | 06:38 | that Pro Tools has for editing audio.
| | 06:41 | If you can master the features of
these buttons, you'll really be an
| | 06:44 | efficient Pro Tools user.
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| Creating an audio loop| 00:00 | The process of creating an audio
loop ties in many editing concept
| | 00:04 | techniques and tools.
| | 00:06 | In the session, we're going to start
with several audio tracks and create a loop
| | 00:10 | with all of them at once.
| | 00:12 | To start with, I want to make sure
we have Loop Playback on, and we do.
| | 00:18 | I also want to make sure that we
have All group highlighted, which we do.
| | 00:23 | That means that whenever we select
anything, it will select all of the tracks.
| | 00:29 | That's what I'm going to do right here.
| | 00:31 | I'm going to select four
bars and make a loop from it.
| | 00:34 | Now you'll notice that I'm in Grid mode,
and I've got exactly four bars here.
| | 00:38 | And I know that this music
was recorded to a click track,
| | 00:41 | so I'm hoping that it's
tight with the click track.
| | 00:44 | Let's take a listen.
| | 00:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:55 | That sounds pretty good with the click,
and it actually loops around pretty well.
| | 00:59 | So what I'm going to do is
tighten this loop up even more.
| | 01:03 | So first, I'm going to separate
this four bar region; Edit > Separate >
| | 01:09 | At Selection.
| | 01:11 | Now I'm going to zoom in.
| | 01:13 | So I'm going to take the Normal Zoom
tool, zoom in at the region boundary and
| | 01:18 | make sure that we're at a good editing point.
| | 01:21 | Now, to me, it looks like the guitar is
just a little bit ahead of the beat here.
| | 01:25 | So what I'm going to do is
trim this just a little bit.
| | 01:30 | I need to go to Slip mode, and we'll
bring that just back here like that.
| | 01:36 | Usually it's a good idea to trim
the region, so that the region starts
| | 01:40 | immediately before a large
transient in the waveform.
| | 01:43 | A large transient looks like
this--a big event happening.
| | 01:48 | This is the beginning of a
chord that's on the downbeat.
| | 01:51 | If you chop off the beginning of that,
then that can actually reduce the impact
| | 01:55 | or the power of that transient.
| | 01:57 | So let's get it right
before that large transient.
| | 02:00 | Because we've trimmed this, now
it's not tight with the grid anymore.
| | 02:05 | So what we want to do is go back to
Grid mode, and we'll take the time grabber,
| | 02:11 | select it, and move it towards the grid.
| | 02:14 | Now this loop is starting on the grid again.
| | 02:16 | However, the end of the loop is not on
the grid anymore because we moved it.
| | 02:25 | So let's trim it to the grid.
| | 02:28 | Now we've got a perfect four-bar loop again.
| | 02:31 | We'll zoom back out, and let's take a listen.
| | 02:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:45 | This sounds very tight with the grid,
and there's a smooth transition from the
| | 02:50 | end of the region back to the beginning.
| | 02:52 | So let's duplicate this region, so
we can hear a few loops in a row.
| | 02:56 | We can go up to Edit > Duplicate, and
that'll create one, or we can do Edit >
| | 03:04 | Repeat, and type in the number that we want--
| | 03:07 | we'll type in 2. Or, even better--
| | 03:10 | let's scroll out here--
| | 03:12 | we can go to Region > Loop and we can set the
number of loops that we want, the loop length,
| | 03:20 | we can loop it until the end of the
session or the next region, and very cool
| | 03:24 | feature: we can turn on Enabling Crossfades
and set the crossfades the way that we want them.
| | 03:30 | You'll notice that we can set the
length here too, and I like 10 milliseconds.
| | 03:34 | It's pretty short, but we
don't need a long one here.
| | 03:37 | So I'll click OK, and OK.
| | 03:40 | Now we've got a lot of loops of this
region, and we can see that it's looped with
| | 03:44 | the Loop icon here and each one
of them has crossfades in between.
| | 03:49 | Let's take a quick listen.
| | 03:50 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:58 | These are the basic steps to
making an audio loop in Pro Tools.
| | 04:02 | As you can see, you use a lot of
different editing concepts, techniques, and
| | 04:06 | tools for this process.
| | 04:08 | As you get more familiar with Pro
Tools, you'll be able to make loops like
| | 04:11 | this in no time.
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| Editing a voiceover| 00:00 | When editing speech for a voiceover, a
monologue, lead vocals, et cetera, it's
| | 00:05 | customary to edit the words, so that
there is no stuttering, stammering,
| | 00:09 | hesitation, or mistakes in the
reading or performing of the material.
| | 00:13 | Many times it's also beneficial in
voiceovers to eliminate unnecessary pauses or
| | 00:18 | open spaces between words and sentences.
| | 00:21 | This will increase the pace of the
performance, and is often done when there is a
| | 00:25 | lot of breathing pauses, or when you
want to intensify the impact of the
| | 00:29 | delivery, like a fast-talking Radio DJ.
| | 00:32 | Overall the idea is to
create a perfect performance.
| | 00:36 | When you're editing speech or vocals,
it's always a good idea to have the
| | 00:39 | script, text, or lyrics as a printed guide for
making notes about where to place your edits.
| | 00:45 | In this case, I've included them in the
comments column of the track, right down here.
| | 00:51 | You'll also see that I've
added some Markers in here.
| | 00:54 | These are indicating what I've
identified as a couple of the good
| | 00:57 | performances in here.
| | 00:59 | Now, making markers isn't part of this video.
| | 01:01 | There is a whole video dedicated to that,
so check that out if you need to learn
| | 01:05 | how to make a marker.
| | 01:07 | So let's take a listen to this
performance, and we'll hear with the raw track is.
| | 01:11 | (Male Speaker: Voiceovers can be easy to edit.)
(Male Speaker coughs.)
| | 01:16 | (Male Speaker: Voiceovers can be easy to edit,
as long as the voiceover talent doesn't screw up--)
| | 01:21 | (Male Speaker coughs)
(Male Speaker: Yeah. Voiceover...Voiceovers can be easy to edit,)
| | 01:28 | (Male Speaker: as long as the voiceover
talent doesn't screw up his lines--)
| | 01:32 | (Male Speaker: As long as the voiceover
talent doesn't screw up his lines.)
| | 01:37 | (Male Speaker: You also need to
be aware of breath sounds.)
| | 01:42 | (Male Speaker: You also need to be aware of breath
sounds because making an edit in the middle of a breath--)
| | 01:48 | (Male Speaker: because making an edit in the middle
of a breath will make your voiceover track sound--)
| | 01:55 | (Male Speaker: will make your voiceover
track sound, well, edited and imperfect.)
| | 02:02 | Okay, so there is the raw track.
Certainly not a great performance, but that's
| | 02:06 | why we're here, to edit it.
| | 02:08 | So I'm just going to go to town.
| | 02:11 | First, I want to create a duplicate playlist.
| | 02:14 | That way I won't touch any
of the original performance.
| | 02:18 | So I am going to go into Slip mode, and
I am going to use the selector first to
| | 02:23 | delete all of the stuff that I know is bad.
| | 02:26 | Let's start there, get rid of that, and I
think it's right in there, up to that point,
| | 02:35 | and up here, we'll keep that breath in
there. Not really sure about that line.
| | 02:43 | Get rid of that, and there. Okay.
| | 02:51 | Now, what I'm going to do is go to
Shuffle mode and take the grabber and put
| | 02:57 | all these together.
| | 03:04 | Now, I go back to Slip mode, and let's go, zoom
in, and take a quick listen to what we've got.
| | 03:12 | (Male Speaker: Voiceovers can be easy to edit,
as long as the voiceover talent doesn't screw up his lines.)
| | 03:17 | (Male Speaker: You also need to be aware of breath
sounds, because making an edit in the middle of a breath)
| | 03:23 | (Male Speaker: will make your voiceover
track sound, well, edited and imperfect.)
| | 03:30 | Okay, so we've got all the pieces there.
| | 03:33 | Now, it's up to us to smooth it out.
| | 03:36 | And we can zoom in, we can use the
trimmer to chop off any extraneous parts, and
| | 03:43 | we should check between the phrases to
see what the breaths sounds like, because we
| | 03:47 | don't want to edit right
in the middle of a breath.
| | 03:50 | (Male Speaker: --to edit, as long as the
voiceover talent doesn't screw up his lines.)
| | 03:54 | (Male Speaker: You also need to be
aware of breath sounds, because making an edit--)
| | 03:59 | Like right here, it sounds like
we've edited between two breaths.
| | 04:02 | (Male Speaker: breath sounds, because making--)
| | 04:05 | So it might not be too obvious to
you now, but if you edit right in the
| | 04:08 | middle of a breath, and it sounds
unnatural, that can really become more
| | 04:13 | obvious when you put out the final
product, because often voiceover tracks
| | 04:18 | are seriously compressed or limited,
and the output volume can make any
| | 04:22 | mistake in editing very obvious.
| | 04:25 | So you've got to really pay
attention to the details when you're
| | 04:28 | editing voiceovers.
| | 04:29 | So let's figure this out.
| | 04:32 | (Male Speaker: breath sounds, because ma--)
| | 04:36 | Usually the idea is to just drag one of
the region boundaries over to the other,
| | 04:42 | so that the breaths don't cross over.
| | 04:46 | (Male Speaker: breath sounds, because making--)
| | 04:49 | That doesn't sound too bad.
| | 04:51 | Let's go to the Smart tool.
| | 04:56 | (Male Speaker: --sounds, because making an edit in
the middle of a breath will make your voiceover track sound,)
| | 05:02 | (Male Speaker: well, edited and imperfect)
| | 05:07 | When you're happy with all the
transitions, none of the breaths are being
| | 05:10 | chopped off, and you have all the
pieces put together, the next step is to
| | 05:14 | figure out whether the pacing is right.
| | 05:16 | So you can check all the pauses
between the phrases and make sure it sounds
| | 05:20 | very natural. And if it doesn't, then we can
move all of the tracks around a little bit.
| | 05:25 | So let's say we think this
pause is a little bit too long here.
| | 05:29 | We can select that region, and I am
going to hit Shift and get all of those
| | 05:34 | together, and now I'm going to click
and slide the regions just a touch.
| | 05:39 | And let's hear this.
| | 05:41 | (Male Speaker: his lines. You also
need to be aware of breath sounds.)
| | 05:45 | Okay, that's sounds a little bit more natural.
| | 05:49 | And one of the final steps is to create
little crossfades, so that we don't get
| | 05:53 | any clicks or pops at the region boundaries.
| | 05:57 | And I think I heard one right in there.
| | 05:58 | (Male Speaker: You also need to be aware--)
| | 06:02 | Now, that's actually a mouth noise, but
rather be safe than sorry, so you can go
| | 06:08 | in and draw in little crossfades
in between the region boundaries.
| | 06:13 | I recommend doing that
for all region boundaries.
| | 06:17 | The last point that I want to make
here about voiceover editing is that
| | 06:21 | sometimes when you edit you'll create
empty spaces between regions and often you
| | 06:26 | want to fill those empty
spaces with what's called room tone.
| | 06:31 | Room tone is the sound of the room
where you're recording a voiceover, but
| | 06:35 | with no other sounds going on.
| | 06:37 | It's the tone of the room that includes
any unintended noise from computer fans,
| | 06:42 | or air conditioning units, or any other
items that affect the noise in the room.
| | 06:47 | So if we had empty space, let's say,
right in here, we might want to fill
| | 06:54 | that with room tone.
| | 06:58 | And it's a common practice to record 30
seconds to a minute of room tone to fill those voids.
| | 07:04 | If I go back to the original playlist,
I have a little bit of room tone at the
| | 07:09 | very beginning here, so I could
literally copy this, so I've selected that area--
| | 07:14 | I'm going to hit Command+C or Ctrl+C on
a PC--copy that, come back over to the
| | 07:20 | edited voiceover, zoom in on this area,
place the cursor down and press paste:
| | 07:29 | Command+V or Ctrl+V on a PC.
| | 07:32 | And I can drop in the room tone, and
obviously I will edit this back with the trimmer.
| | 07:39 | Let's play this.
| | 07:40 | (Male Speaker:--sounds, because making an edit--)
| | 07:44 | If I take this out, it sounds a
little bit different. Let's hear that.
| | 07:48 | (Male Speaker:--sounds, because making an edit--)
| | 07:51 | Although it might not be super obvious
here, there is room tone that happened
| | 07:56 | during the recording of this voiceover,
and when you take it out, it can be kind
| | 08:00 | of a stark difference, especially
if you add compression and limiting.
| | 08:04 | So we'll keep it in there to make
sure that we have a very consistent
| | 08:07 | performance and sound for the overall track.
| | 08:11 | So once you've done editing the
voiceover material, listen through to the whole
| | 08:15 | track and make sure it flows, and that
the pace of the reading and the breaths
| | 08:19 | in between all sound natural.
| | 08:22 | Alter the timing if you need to, and
make sure the fades and crossfades are at
| | 08:26 | the edit points to avoid any
sonic changes between the regions.
| | 08:30 | With all those techniques put together,
you now know the process for editing a
| | 08:34 | voiceover track in Pro Tools.
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| Using Elastic Time and Elastic Pitch| 00:00 | Elastic Audio in Pro Tools refers to
both Elastic Time and Elastic Pitch.
| | 00:05 | I'll explain some of the concepts here,
and then lead you through some exercises
| | 00:09 | to experience the power of Elastic Audio.
| | 00:12 | I'll start with Elastic Time.
| | 00:14 | Elastic time analyzes audio regions
for transient events--like drum hits or
| | 00:19 | guitar chords--and enables you to
conform those events to the session's tempo, a
| | 00:23 | quantization grid, or manually use the
Edit tools in Warp view. Let's try it out.
| | 00:29 | First, I'm going to zoom in on
this drum loop that I've got.
| | 00:33 | It's a reggae beat that I have imported, and
you'll note that it's not exactly four bars.
| | 00:39 | So I want to use the Time Trimmer tool and
extend this out, so that it's exactly four bars.
| | 00:47 | Now I'm going to go over to the Time
Base and change this from Samples to Ticks,
| | 00:54 | and I'm going to enable Elastic Audio.
| | 00:56 | I am going to come down
here and choose Polyphonic.
| | 01:00 | As soon as I chose that, Pro Tools,
behind the scenes, analyze the audio waveform
| | 01:05 | for its transient events.
| | 01:08 | In the drumbeat here, it's
pretty easy to pick them out.
| | 01:11 | Okay, let's have some fun.
| | 01:12 | First, I'm going to play this back at
the original tempo, and then I'm going to
| | 01:15 | try out a bunch of different tempos,
and you're going to notice how the loop
| | 01:19 | conforms to each tempo.
| | 01:20 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:28 | Let's try a different tempo.
| | 01:29 | I am just going to double-click on
this Tempo event, and get the Tempo Change
| | 01:34 | dialog open up, and I want
to type in 130 as the new BPM.
| | 01:40 | Now, you notice the grid got a lot
closer together, because the tempo is much
| | 01:44 | faster, and the beat automatically
conformed to this new tempo. Let's hear
| | 01:49 | what it sounds like.
| | 01:50 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:57 | All right, let's go slower this time.
| | 01:58 | I'm going to go down to 70 BPM.
| | 02:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:10 | All right, let's undo these tempo
changes back to the original here, and now I'm
| | 02:15 | going to switch over to Varispeed.
| | 02:21 | Now, Varispeed links the time and pitch
change together, like how a tape machine would
| | 02:25 | react if you sped up or slowed down the tape.
| | 02:28 | Let's try these same tempo changes
and hear the different sounds, 130.
| | 02:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:39 | Notice that the pitch changed, and
it went up, because we got faster.
| | 02:43 | We'll undo that, and now put in 70, and we
should expect this to be lower in pitch.
| | 02:50 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:58 | And indeed it was.
| | 03:00 | I am going to undo that.
| | 03:01 | Now, let's look a little closer of
what's going on with Elastic Time.
| | 03:05 | Let me go to the Track view and choose
Analysis, and I am going to zoom in a
| | 03:10 | little bit more, so we can
see what's happening here.
| | 03:13 | The white lines that we see here
are analysis markers on all of the
| | 03:17 | transients in this beat.
| | 03:19 | And now I'm going to switch back
over to Polyphonic for this application.
| | 03:24 | So we can actually click and drag to
reposition these markers if we want.
| | 03:30 | However, Pro Tools actually does a
really good job of analyzing these.
| | 03:34 | We probably don't really need to move them.
| | 03:36 | Let's switch the Track view now to
Warp, and we'll see the warp analysis here.
| | 03:43 | We can double-click to make a warp
marker, and since we've got this on grid,
| | 03:51 | if we start sliding these things, you'll see
that they will conformed to the grid values.
| | 03:58 | So I can literally move these warp markers,
and they'll align right with the grid.
| | 04:05 | And this is a great way to be able to
move pieces of the waveform and align them
| | 04:10 | with the tempo grid or
with any other audio event.
| | 04:13 | I've used warp markers like this to
align all kinds of parts: base parts, drum
| | 04:18 | parts, vocal parts--you name it.
| | 04:21 | Just double-click and create warp
markers that lock to the grid, and then you
| | 04:25 | can move around any of these
little pieces to totally line up for
| | 04:29 | performances with the grid.
| | 04:31 | Let's go back over this menu here.
| | 04:33 | When we look at this menu, we can see that
Pro Tools is processing this track in real-time.
| | 04:39 | Now can be demanding on your computer,
especially if you have a lot of tracks
| | 04:43 | that are Elastic Audio-enabled.
| | 04:45 | If we switch this to Rendered Processing,
that creates a temporary file, and it
| | 04:51 | isn't real-time processing anymore.
And this will save us a lot of processing
| | 04:55 | power for your computer. You can
always go back to real-time if you need to.
| | 05:00 | Just click it like that.
| | 05:02 | Let's look at one more
thing related to Elastic Audio.
| | 05:05 | If you go to Setup > Preferences and
in the Processing menu, we've got this
| | 05:11 | Elastic Audio section, and we can choose what
the default plug-in is from any of the four.
| | 05:18 | We can choose a default input gain.
| | 05:20 | I wouldn't mess with that.
| | 05:22 | And you can choose to enable
elastic audio on all new tracks.
| | 05:26 | Now we would leave that unchecked as
well, because it can lead to adding a lot
| | 05:29 | of unnecessary processing power that's
taken up by the Elastic Audio processing.
| | 05:36 | Let's move on to the other half
of Elastic Audio: Elastic Pitch.
| | 05:39 | So I am going to zoom out all the way,
and I'm going to start looking at this
| | 05:45 | track right here, the acoustic_guitar track.
| | 05:50 | So let's transpose the pitch of this region.
| | 05:52 | I'm going to play it back first so we can
hear the original pitch, and then we'll
| | 05:56 | get to the Elastic Pitch.
| | 05:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:10 | So let's go over here and choose Polyphonic,
so now Elastic Audio is active on this track.
| | 06:17 | And you should note that Elastic Pitch does
not work on monophonic Elastic Audio files.
| | 06:22 | So we can't use Monophonic here.
| | 06:24 | We've got to use Polyphonic.
| | 06:25 | Let's go up to Region > Elastic
Properties, and that's going to open up this
| | 06:34 | Elastic Properties window.
| | 06:35 | We can choose which region we want to apply to,
and down here is where the Pitch Shift is.
| | 06:42 | Let's click and drag. I'm going to Pitch
Shift this up one whole step, or two semitones.
| | 06:48 | Now, I am going to hit Play.
| | 06:50 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:03 | And we've got real-time pitch
shifting with Elastic Audio.
| | 07:07 | Obviously, you can change the Pitch
Shift by any value here, and we can use
| | 07:11 | cents too, if you need to
tune it. Close that up.
| | 07:15 | And if we want to we can go up into
the Region menu again, and choose Remove
| | 07:20 | Pitch Shift, and that will
get rid of that pitch shift.
| | 07:23 | So now you know how to use elastic
pitch to transpose audio regions, and how to
| | 07:28 | use Elastic Time to conform
performances to a new tempo.
| | 07:32 | It's really amazing the power that
you have over audio regions in Pro Tools
| | 07:36 | with Elastic Audio.
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|
|
6. Arranging a SessionWorking with region groups| 00:00 | One of the features of Pro Tools that
makes large scale editing and song form
| | 00:04 | arrangement so easy is region groups.
| | 00:07 | A region group is a combination of
several audio and/or MIDI regions that act
| | 00:12 | like a single region.
| | 00:14 | Creating a region group is really easy.
| | 00:17 | We can simply highlight a bunch
of different regions, and I'm just
| | 00:22 | Shift+Clicking these regions. And I can
go to Region > Group, and that's what a
| | 00:28 | region group looks like.
| | 00:29 | Now it doesn't matter if the region is
underneath the highlighted area are
| | 00:33 | actually separated or not, the region
group will include whatever you highlight.
| | 00:38 | Now let's say that your region group
makes up one verse of your song, and
| | 00:43 | I'm going to actually highlight
all the way down here, and include
| | 00:46 | everything in this area.
| | 00:49 | Create a new region group.
| | 00:53 | Let's say this comprises
our whole verse of a song.
| | 00:56 | Now I want to use this region
group as an arrangement tool.
| | 01:00 | So I can go up to Shuffle mode
and then go to Edit > Duplicate.
| | 01:07 | That will create a complete copy of
this region group, immediately after the
| | 01:13 | first one, and push the
rest of the material beyond it.
| | 01:17 | So I can check to see what this would
sound like with say two verses in a row as
| | 01:22 | opposed to just one.
| | 01:24 | This is a great technique just to test
out different song arrangement ideas.
| | 01:28 | Now, I am going to undo
that, go back to Grid mode.
| | 01:34 | Now this particular region group
contains both audio and MIDI regions, and
| | 01:39 | that's indicated by this little icon down here.
| | 01:41 | Now, if we just make a region group
with just audio files, like I'll do up here--
| | 01:48 | Shift+Click these, and
then create a region group--
| | 01:52 | we get a different icon. And if you make
a region group out of just MIDI regions,
| | 01:58 | like we'll do right here, you get
a different icon for that as well.
| | 02:04 | Of course, there are key
commands for region groups.
| | 02:08 | To make a region group on a Mac, you
can press Command+Option+G. On a PC, it's
| | 02:14 | Ctrl+Alt+G. You can also
choose to ungroup a group:
| | 02:19 | Command+Option+U on a Mac or Ctrl+Alt+U
in Windows. And that just returns us to
| | 02:25 | the status that we had before we made the group.
| | 02:27 | So if I click on this and choose Ungroup,
that returns to what we had before we
| | 02:35 | grouped all of those regions.
| | 02:38 | If you need to edit one region within
a region group, you should ungroup the
| | 02:42 | region group, edit the region, and
| | 02:44 | then choose Regroup.
| | 02:46 | There are key commands for that:
| | 02:49 | Command+Option+R on a Mac,
and Ctrl+Alt+R in Windows.
| | 02:55 | Once you make a region group, it shows up
in the Regions list, over here on the right.
| | 03:00 | You can see in this region group that we've
got 10 audio channels, and five MIDI channels.
| | 03:07 | That's what these 10A and 5M stand for.
| | 03:10 | You can see the type of region group
right here with their different icons.
| | 03:14 | Now, with the region group, you can do
all the same things that you can do to
| | 03:19 | any other type of region, including
selecting, trimming, separating, naming,
| | 03:24 | moving, cutting, copying, pasting, muting,
locking, adding fades and crossfades,
| | 03:29 | looping, and using Tab To Transients.
| | 03:32 | So for instance, I could trim this
whole region group, just like that, and
| | 03:37 | I'm going to undo that.
| | 03:38 | Now, what happens if you decide to
record onto a track within a region group?
| | 03:44 | Let me just solo this one and record-enable it.
| | 03:49 | When you record audio or MIDI, new
regions are created over the top of existing
| | 03:53 | region group data instead of
being included in the region group.
| | 03:58 | So if you want to actually record into
this current region group, you should
| | 04:02 | first ungroup it, then record,
then regroup the region group.
| | 04:07 | Let me show you a quick example.
| | 04:10 | Get the Transport up here,
and I am going to record a bit.
| | 04:20 | Okay, so I recorded this
small little region here.
| | 04:24 | Now, if I go back and regroup that,
it's part of this region group.
| | 04:31 | However, if I record directly into this
region group like this, you'll see that
| | 04:42 | this new region is not
part of the region group here.
| | 04:46 | I am going to undo that.
| | 04:49 | Another interesting tidbit about region
groups is that they have the same time-
| | 04:53 | based format--that is, samples or
ticks--as the tracks that they contain.
| | 04:58 | Mixed region groups like the one
we're looking at here, can have both sample-
| | 05:02 | based and tick-based tracks.
| | 05:05 | If you change the tempo in the
session, which I'll do here in a second,
| | 05:13 | when I click OK, you'll see the MIDI
regions slide to the left, but the audio
| | 05:19 | regions won't move at all. So watch this.
| | 05:22 | All the tick-based tracks--that is, the
MIDI region shown here--will adjust their
| | 05:27 | length by moving all included regions
accordingly to the left, but the sample
| | 05:32 | based regions of audio will not move.
| | 05:35 | You'll also notice that changing the
tempo separated the region group between
| | 05:39 | the sample-based and tick-based tracks.
| | 05:42 | You'll see the separated
region group icon right over here.
| | 05:49 | Now, if you need to review the
differences between samples and ticks, check out
| | 05:52 | the video about that
topic earlier in this course.
| | 05:55 | Now there is one last thing about region
groups that I want to speak about here.
| | 05:59 | Pro Tools can import and export region
group files, and the file format is RGRP.
| | 06:07 | If I go to the Regions list over here, to
the menu, I can choose Export Region Groups;
| | 06:14 | likewise, if I go to File > Import,
I can choose Region Groups here.
| | 06:20 | Now, this is a great feature for
bringing multitrack loops into a session
| | 06:24 | because they're usually saved as region groups.
| | 06:27 | So as you can see here in this session,
region groups are helpful organizational
| | 06:32 | tools for arranging the parts of a song.
| | 06:35 | I make use of them all the
time, and I'm sure you will too.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using time, tempo, meter, key, and chord| 00:00 | Near the top of the Edit
window are the time-based rulers.
| | 00:04 | The time-based rulers provide
timing reference for all track material.
| | 00:08 | You can choose to view any or all of
the time-based rulers in the Edit window
| | 00:12 | using the Ruler View
Selector button, which is right here.
| | 00:17 | Click it once and you'll see the whole list.
| | 00:20 | The ones that are checked are
the ones we're viewing here.
| | 00:23 | Now you may not have some of these
options in your system, including the Time
| | 00:27 | Code, Time Code 2, and Feet and Frames.
| | 00:31 | The time-based ruler that's highlighted,
in this case the Bars and Beats ruler,
| | 00:35 | is the current main timescale.
| | 00:38 | This determines the time format used
in the Transport window's main counter,
| | 00:42 | down here, the Pre and Post-Roll Times,
the Edit Selection area, up here, and
| | 00:50 | even the Grid and Nudge values.
| | 00:52 | If I switch this to Minutes and Seconds,
you'll see all of those areas switch to
| | 00:57 | showing minutes and seconds.
| | 00:59 | So you see up here we have minutes and
seconds. The Grid and Nudge also have
| | 01:04 | minutes and seconds.
| | 01:06 | Let's switch back to Bars and Beats.
| | 01:08 | If working with musical material
that aligns with the bars and beats, you
| | 01:12 | should have Bars and Beats as the main
timescale, especially if you're working
| | 01:16 | with a click track.
| | 01:17 | I personally only use the minutes and
seconds as a time reference and rarely
| | 01:21 | concern myself with the Samples ruler.
| | 01:25 | You can change the main timescale in
the session as many times as you want,
| | 01:29 | without affecting anything except
what's shown in the main timescale.
| | 01:34 | Below the time-based
rulers are the conductor rulers:
| | 01:37 | we have Tempo, Meter, Key, Chords, and Markers.
| | 01:42 | The Tempo ruler conducts the speed of
the song, the Meter ruler conducts the
| | 01:47 | time signature, the Key Signature
ruler keeps track of any key changes, the
| | 01:53 | Chord ruler displays any chords, and the Marker
ruler labels specific events or points in time.
| | 02:00 | When you open a brand-new Pro Tools
session, the default tempo is 120 beats
| | 02:05 | per minute, or BPM.
| | 02:07 | To change the tempo of the session,
you can just click on this Plus, and that
| | 02:11 | will open the Tempo Change dialog box.
| | 02:14 | Here you can choose a location and a
different BPM, as well as the resolution.
| | 02:20 | You can change the meter by clicking the
Plus here and inserting a meter change.
| | 02:27 | You can add a key change.
| | 02:28 | Clicking the Plus will
open up the Key Change window.
| | 02:33 | Same with the Chords;
| | 02:34 | if you hit the Plus, the Chord Change
window will open. And if we hit the Add
| | 02:41 | Marker memory location, we get
the New Memory Location window.
| | 02:45 | I'll talk about this in much more
detail in another movie in this course.
| | 02:49 | Now, what happens if you don't actually
know the tempo that you want for your session?
| | 02:54 | Well, you can tap it in.
| | 02:56 | In the Transport window, we want to go
to the MIDI Controls. And if you don't see
| | 03:01 | this in your Transport window, you can
choose View > Transport > MIDI Controls, or
| | 03:07 |
| | 03:09 | use the dropdown menu, and choose
MIDI Controls from the Transport menu.
| | 03:15 | Now, we need to put Pro Tools into
Manual Tempo mode by clicking the Conductor
| | 03:20 | Track button on the Transport
window, so that it's unhighlighted.
| | 03:24 | Now it's unhighlighted. And if we
click into the Tempo area just once, and
| | 03:30 | highlight the tempo, we can now press
the key T on your keyboard at the speed
| | 03:36 | that you want the tempo to be.
| | 03:44 | Instead of tapping the T button,
you can also play a note repeatedly on
| | 03:47 | your MIDI Controller.
| | 03:49 | Either way, after you've tapped several
times, Pro Tools will calculate the BPM
| | 03:53 | using the last 8 or fewer taps.
| | 03:56 | This new BPM value appears in the Tempo field.
| | 03:59 | Right here, we have 133.
| | 04:01 | Now, to make this active in the
session, what I prefer to do is reactivate
| | 04:07 | the Conductor track, and then either
create a tempo event or double-click on
| | 04:13 | the starting tempo marker right here, which
is set to 100, and then type in our new tempo.
| | 04:20 | Notice that the location
is right at the beginning.
| | 04:23 | Any changes made to tempo and meter
are automatically reflected in Pro Tools
| | 04:27 | internal click track.
| | 04:29 | Now, if you'd like to fine-tune
your tempo track and make some very
| | 04:33 | specific tempo changes, we can go into the
Tempo editor by clicking this button right here.
| | 04:40 | At this point, we can actually use the
Pencil tool and draw in tempo events.
| | 04:46 | So I am clicking and dragging
and drawing a bunch of tempo events.
| | 04:51 | You can also create some more complicated
tempo and meter changes in your session,
| | 04:56 | if you go up to the Event menu and
choose Time Operations, where we can change
| | 05:01 | the meter, insert time, cut time, and
move the song start. Or in the Tempo
| | 05:06 | Operations, and I'll open up the Tempo
Operations window, where we can stretch
| | 05:13 | the time, scale it, create different
curves, or make constant tempo changes.
| | 05:19 | Now, I am not going to go into a lot of
these options here, but as you can see,
| | 05:25 | Pro Tools offers limitless
ways to customize your session.
| | 05:30 | Use the Conductor rules to create tempo,
meter, and key changes as well as to
| | 05:34 | display chords and show markers.
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| Creating memory locations| 00:00 | In their simplest form, a memory
location can just be a marker used to denote
| | 00:05 | the beginning or ending of a musical section.
| | 00:07 | However, memory locations can be used
for so much more, as you'll see here.
| | 00:12 | I have already got a few already made
in this session, as you see here in the
| | 00:15 | Markers ruler, and in the
Memory Locations window.
| | 00:19 | To see the Memory Locations window, just go
to the Window menu and choose Memory Locations.
| | 00:26 | There are several ways to
create a memory location.
| | 00:29 | You can hit the Enter key on the
numeric keypad on your keyboard.
| | 00:34 | If you have a Mac laptop, you can press
the Function key, and hit the Return key.
| | 00:39 | You can also go to the Markers
ruler, and click the Plus sign.
| | 00:44 | If Pro Tools is stopped, the memory
location is placed at the current cursor position.
| | 00:50 | In this case, it would be right at
the very beginning of the session.
| | 00:54 | If Pro Tools is playing a recording,
Pro Tools will place a memory location
| | 00:58 | right where the cursor is located
without stopping playback or recording;
| | 01:02 | this is called dropping in a memory
location on the fly, and let's try it.
| | 01:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:17 | So we just created a memory location
right in the middle of that playback.
| | 01:21 | I am going to open up that marker and
take a look at the Memory Location window.
| | 01:26 | We've got a lot of choices to make here.
| | 01:29 | Let's first talk about the time properties.
| | 01:32 | A marker recalls a particular
location in the timeline of your session.
| | 01:36 | The Playback cursor immediately moves to
the marker's location when you recall a
| | 01:41 | marker memory location.
| | 01:43 | Markers are either reference to
bars and beats or to absolute time.
| | 01:48 | When you choose Bars and Beats, it's tick-based.
| | 01:51 | In this particular case, we have
a Bar and Beat marker, and it's at
| | 01:55 | exactly measure 29, beat 3.
| | 02:00 | If I change the session tempo, the
marker will move to follow the tempo change.
| | 02:05 | However, if I choose Absolute, the
marker will be set in an absolute time, and
| | 02:11 | will be sample-based.
| | 02:12 | So if I change the tempo,
the marker will not move.
| | 02:16 | Markers appear in the Marker ruler, with
thin yellow lines extending down through
| | 02:20 | all the tracks in the Edit window.
| | 02:22 | Let's take a look at this.
| | 02:24 | I am going to zoom in here.
| | 02:31 | If I actually trim some of this away,
you'll see the yellow line extending all
| | 02:36 | the way through the track.
| | 02:38 | Additionally, markers have
different appearances depending on which
| | 02:41 | timebase they are using.
| | 02:43 | As you can see here, chevrons denote
Bar and Beat reference markers, while
| | 02:47 | diamonds indicate Absolute markers.
| | 02:50 | So you've got a chevron here and a diamond here.
| | 02:53 | Now, I am going to click on the start
marker, and bring us back to the start.
| | 02:58 | I am also going to double-click on
this to open up that memory location.
| | 03:03 | If instead of choosing marker as the
time property, and we choose selection,
| | 03:07 | this stores a highlighted area in your
session, like four bars in a song's verse.
| | 03:14 | Like markers, selections can be
referenced either as Bar and Beat or as Absolute.
| | 03:19 | A third memory option, None, recalls no
time properties at all, and it's referred
| | 03:25 | to as a General Properties Memory Location.
| | 03:28 | I'll show you more about this type in a moment.
| | 03:30 | Let's move down to the General Properties.
| | 03:33 | The Zoom settings recall horizontal and
vertical zoom values for both audio and MIDI tracks.
| | 03:39 | This option is very useful in switching
between totally zoomed-in and zoomed-out
| | 03:44 | views while editing.
| | 03:45 | So whatever we see here in our Edit
window is what we're going to see if we
| | 03:50 | check the Zoom Setting.
| | 03:53 | If you rather have it be more zoomed in
or zoom out, you should do that before
| | 03:57 | creating the memory location.
| | 04:00 | The Pre and Post Roll Times recalls
pre and post roll times but does not
| | 04:04 | indicate whether they are enabled.
| | 04:07 | This option is useful for recording
multiple takes of a solo or a vocal part,
| | 04:11 | and you'll see the pre and post roll
times indicated down in the Transport.
| | 04:17 | The Track Show/Hide recalls what
tracks are shown or hidden in the session.
| | 04:22 | You can use this property to display
specific tracks for editing and mixing.
| | 04:26 | Let me show you an example.
| | 04:27 | I am going to cancel out of here.
| | 04:30 | If I hit this memory location, it hides
all of the audio tracks and shows only
| | 04:35 | the instrument tracks.
| | 04:36 | We'll go back to the Start memory
location, and I'll double-click it.
| | 04:41 | Track Heights in the general
properties recalls all of the track heights that
| | 04:46 | are shown in the session.
| | 04:47 | This is even more powerful when used in
tandem with zoom settings for editing tasks.
| | 04:52 | Let me just show you an example here.
| | 04:55 | If I hit the Sitar Enters memory location,
you'll see that these tracks here are
| | 05:00 | zoomed in, and have a much higher track height.
| | 05:05 | The Group Enables recalls which
edit and mixed groups are enabled, and
| | 05:09 | Window Configuration recalls any saved window
configurations that you have in your session.
| | 05:14 | Let me show you an example.
| | 05:16 | But first, we see that there are two
possible window configurations available
| | 05:21 | for this session that we've saved.
| | 05:25 | This is the first window
configuration, shown here.
| | 05:28 | If we go to this Organ Enters
memory location, you'll see a different
| | 05:33 | window configuration.
| | 05:35 | The Mix window is showing now,
and the Transport window has moved.
| | 05:40 | Any memory location can store up to a
maximum of 255 characters as a comment,
| | 05:47 | and whenever you mouse over a
marker, those comments show up.
| | 05:52 | Let's take a closer look at
the Memory Locations window.
| | 05:55 | When working in a session with a lot
of memory locations, it's useful to keep
| | 05:59 | this Memory Locations
window open almost all the time.
| | 06:03 | You can click on a
Memory Location to go there.
| | 06:07 | You can double-click to
edit the memory location.
| | 06:12 | Let's take a look at this organ2 selection.
| | 06:17 | This is a selection memory location,
and you'll see that there's no marker
| | 06:21 | indicated in the Marker ruler.
| | 06:23 | However, we do have a
selection of 16 bars, shown right here.
| | 06:30 | If we click on the Mini Grand ZOOM
memory location, that's actually a General
| | 06:35 | Properties memory location,
and it's zoomed all the way in.
| | 06:39 | It also does not have a
marker associated with it.
| | 06:43 | Finally, we can choose from a lot
of different options in the Memory
| | 06:46 | Locations pop-up menu.
| | 06:48 | We can filter what we see, we can show
counters, we can sort by time, we can
| | 06:56 | create, and edit, and delete
markers, and a number of other things.
| | 07:01 | So now you know a ton about memory locations.
| | 07:06 | Use them to quickly organize,
navigate, and edit your Pro Tools sessions.
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|
|
7. Recording MIDI DataSetting up MIDI on a Mac | 00:00 | To set up your MIDI devices to work
with Pro Tools, first plug in all of your
| | 00:04 | devices--your MIDI controllers, MIDI
interfaces, sound modules, et cetera--and
| | 00:10 | make all the proper MIDI connections.
| | 00:12 | Then start up your computer and Pro Tools.
| | 00:15 | Within the Session, go to
Setup > MIDI > MIDI Studio.
| | 00:21 | The Audio MIDI Setup will open up.
| | 00:24 | If you don't see the MIDI page,
choose Window > Show MIDI Window.
| | 00:29 | Your computer should automatically
acknowledge that you have certain devices
| | 00:34 | connected to your computer.
| | 00:36 | If a device doesn't automatically
appear in this window, you can click the Add
| | 00:41 | Device icon right here, and a
new external device will be added.
| | 00:45 | I'm going to double-click on this.
| | 00:48 | We're going to create a new device.
| | 00:50 | I am going to call it a Korg Triton.
| | 00:55 | I am going to choose Korg as the
Manufacturer and scroll down to the
| | 01:04 | Triton right there.
| | 01:07 | I can choose an icon for it.
| | 01:09 | I'm going to click there and choose
from the Icon browser, and that kind
| | 01:15 | of looks like a Triton,
| | 01:17 | so I'll apply that.
| | 01:20 | Close the Icon browser.
| | 01:22 | You can actually use some other
image for the icon if you want.
| | 01:25 | You just need to place a TIFF image file
into the Library > Audio > MIDI Devices
| | 01:32 | > Generic > Images folder.
| | 01:33 | Let me show you that really quick:
Library > Audio > MIDI Devices >
| | 01:39 | Generic > Images.
| | 01:44 | And put a TIFF file in that folder.
| | 01:48 | Let's go back to the Audio MIDI Setup.
| | 01:52 | You can choose what channels you
want the MIDI controller to transmit on--
| | 01:57 | We'll just choose 1 for now--and
what it receives MIDI messages on, and
| | 02:02 | we'll choose all 16.
| | 02:03 | You can also change the
MIDI port if you need to.
| | 02:09 | So this is good to go.
| | 02:10 | I'm going to close this window.
| | 02:12 | Now we have our Korg Triton
listed in our MIDI Studio document.
| | 02:16 | If you're connecting your Korg Triton
to an interface via MIDI cables, then you
| | 02:22 | need to click and drag and make
connections like this, as virtual cables just as
| | 02:29 | they match up with your real MIDI
cables that you've connected to your devices.
| | 02:33 | However, if you've connected your
device via USB, then you don't need to make
| | 02:38 | these virtual cables.
| | 02:39 | In that case, you can click once and hit
Delete, and that'll get rid of the virtual cable.
| | 02:45 | Now in this case, I actually
do want to connect these cables,
| | 02:51 | so I'm going to make those connections there.
| | 02:54 | Now let's go to Pro Tools.
| | 02:58 | On to our MIDI track, I'm going to
choose Korg Triton > channel-1 as the output
| | 03:05 | for this MIDI track.
| | 03:07 | That means that the output of this MIDI track
will be routed to the Korg Triton for sounds.
| | 03:13 | To choose the specific sounds from
the Triton, we can click on the Patch
| | 03:18 | List button right here.
| | 03:19 | You'll see that all of the Korg Triton
sounds are preloaded in here, because in
| | 03:27 | the Audio MIDI Setup
| | 03:28 | we chose that device, and it
automatically knows to put these patches in here.
| | 03:33 | Now if we wanted to change to a
different patch named file instead of the Korg
| | 03:37 | Triton, we can hit Change.
| | 03:39 | That will take us to the directory
where we can choose from any of the other
| | 03:43 | manufacturers and devices.
| | 03:50 | So, repeat these steps as many times
as necessary for each MIDI device that's
| | 03:54 | connected to your system.
| | 03:56 | With Your MIDI gear properly connected
and routed through the audio MIDI setup,
| | 04:00 | Pro Tools will know where your MIDI
data is coming from, and recording MIDI data
| | 04:04 | will be much easier.
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| Setting up MIDI on a PC| 00:00 | To set up your MIDI devices to work with
Pro Tools, plug in all of your devices:
| | 00:05 | your MIDI controllers, MIDI
interfaces, and sound modules.
| | 00:09 | Then make all the proper MIDI connections.
| | 00:12 | Then start up your computer and Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | Download any necessary drivers for your
MIDI devices, and Windows should let you
| | 00:18 | know if you need them.
| | 00:20 | Once you've started up Pro Tools, you
can go to Setup > MIDI > MIDI Studio Setup.
| | 00:28 | The MIDI Studio Setup, or
MSS application, will open up.
| | 00:32 | Now I want to create a new device here.
| | 00:34 | So I'm going to click Create,
and I want to add a Korg Triton.
| | 00:38 | So I'll type that in as the Instrument name.
| | 00:43 | Then I'll go down to the
Manufacturer, find Korg and Triton.
| | 00:49 | Then I'm going to choose the Input Port,
and I want that to be Mbox 2 Pro, and
| | 00:57 | the same for the Output Port.
| | 00:59 | By default, all of the send
channels and receive channels are active.
| | 01:04 | If we wanted to make some inactive, we
can click them and gray them out, but
| | 01:08 | let's keep them all active.
| | 01:10 | These determine which MIDI
channels send and receive MIDI data.
| | 01:14 | Now we can close this,
and we'll go to Pro Tools.
| | 01:17 | Now I've got a MIDI track here.
| | 01:19 | I'm going to choose All as the Input selector.
| | 01:24 | So any MIDI control that's connected to my
system will be able to control this MIDI track.
| | 01:30 | Now I want to choose Korg
Triton > channel-1 as the Output.
| | 01:35 | That'll send any MIDI data that's
recorded through this track to the Korg
| | 01:40 | Triton, on channel-1.
| | 01:42 | We can choose which patch we
want from the Korg right here.
| | 01:45 | You can see all of the Korg
Triton patches listed right here.
| | 01:49 | So that's how you set up a MIDI
device in Windows for Pro Tools.
| | 01:56 | Repeat these steps as many times as
necessary for each MIDI device that's
| | 02:00 | connected to your system.
| | 02:02 | With your MIDI gear properly connected
and routed through the MIDI Studio setup,
| | 02:06 | Pro Tools will know where your MIDI
data is coming from, and recording MIDI data
| | 02:10 | will be much easier.
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| Setting up MIDI in Pro Tools| 00:00 | Once you've added and configured all
of your MIDI devices in the Audio MIDI
| | 00:04 | Setup, there are a few things to take
care of in Pro Tools, to make using MIDI easy.
| | 00:09 | First, let's go to Setup > MIDI > Input Devices.
| | 00:15 | You'll see the MIDI Input Enable window,
where all of your devices should be checked off.
| | 00:20 | If they're not, check them.
| | 00:22 | These are the devices that
actually input MIDI data into Pro Tools.
| | 00:26 | You won't see any devices on this
list that are just sound modules and that
| | 00:29 | don't actually create MIDI data.
| | 00:32 | Your window will probably look
different than mine here, with different devices,
| | 00:35 | but just make sure that they're
all checked off. Then click OK.
| | 00:39 | Next, go to the Options menu and make
sure that the MIDI Thru is checked off.
| | 00:44 | This allows you to monitor
MIDI tracks while recording them.
| | 00:48 | When using MIDI Thru, disable local
control on your MIDI devices; otherwise they
| | 00:53 | may receive the same MIDI data twice,
creating stuck notes or a phase-like
| | 00:58 | effect where two notes
are almost playing in sync.
| | 01:01 | You don't want that.
| | 01:01 | Consult your MIDI controller's manual
for information on how to turn off local
| | 01:06 | control on your device.
| | 01:07 | Next, let's go back to the
Setup menu. Choose Preferences.
| | 01:12 | On the MIDI page, go down to
the Default Thru Instrument.
| | 01:17 | To hear the audio output from a MIDI
instrument without having to create and
| | 01:21 | record enable a MIDI track, you can route
your MIDI signal to the Default Thru Instrument.
| | 01:27 | In this case, we can choose from any
of the devices that we have connected to
| | 01:31 | our system, or what I often like to do is
choose the Follows First Selected MIDI Track.
| | 01:37 | That will select the first MIDI or
instrument track that's highlighted in your
| | 01:41 | session. Or if you want to, you can
choose specific channels on specific devices.
| | 01:49 | The last thing I want to check off
here is up in the Setup menu, in the MIDI,
| | 01:54 | and it's the Input Filter.
| | 01:56 | In this window, we can filter out
any MIDI data that you don't want
| | 01:59 | recorded with your tracks.
| | 02:01 | For example, if you only want to
record MIDI notes and no other MIDI data
| | 02:05 | when you play your notes on your MIDI
controller, you can choose Record > Only > Notes.
| | 02:13 | Usually leaving this on the default
setting, where all MIDI channel messages
| | 02:17 | are recorded and controller data is
recorded, except for the Mono and Polyphonic
| | 02:22 | Aftertouch, is totally fine.
| | 02:24 | So I'm going to leave it at
the default and press Cancel.
| | 02:28 | The four setups shown in this video
will ensure that Pro Tools is handling
| | 02:31 | your MIDI data correctly, and you
should be ready to record and play back MIDI
| | 02:35 | data in Pro Tools now.
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| Recording MIDI data| 00:00 | In Pro Tools, there are two types of
tracks that can record MIDI performance data:
| | 00:05 | instrument tracks and MIDI tracks.
| | 00:07 | Instrument tracks are great for
creating single tracks with most virtual or
| | 00:11 | software instruments, as well as
external or hardware MIDI sound modules.
| | 00:16 | In this video, I am going to go over how
to use Instrument tracks to record MIDI
| | 00:20 | data, using both virtual
instruments and external sound modules.
| | 00:24 | First, I am going to go to
the Track menu and choose New.
| | 00:27 | I am going to create two new
stereo instrument tracks, and one stereo
| | 00:35 | master fader track.
| | 00:36 | I am going to expand these.
| | 00:39 | I am pressing Option as I do
this on my Mac, or Alt on a PC.
| | 00:44 | That expands the track
height on all of the tracks.
| | 00:47 | I am also going to go up here
and choose the Instrument section,
| | 00:51 | so we can see the Instrument and
the I/O sections on these tracks.
| | 00:56 | One more section that we
need to see is the Inserts.
| | 00:59 | I am going to go on to this first
instrument track and insert Mini Grand.
| | 01:08 | Mini Grand is a virtual
instrument that's part of Pro Tools.
| | 01:11 | In the Instrument section of this track,
you will see that the Mini Grand has
| | 01:15 | already been assigned to the MIDI Output, and
the default All setting is set to the MIDI Input.
| | 01:22 | This will mean that any single MIDI
controller that's connected to your system
| | 01:26 | can be used for the input.
| | 01:28 | So any note that you hit on any
of the keyboards or any other MIDI
| | 01:31 | controllers that are connected to
your system can be used to send sounds
| | 01:35 | through the Midi Grand plug-in.
| | 01:37 | For the Analog in and out, we don't
need an input, because the input is already
| | 01:41 | in the track, right here.
| | 01:43 | We have a software instrument,
| | 01:44 | so we don't need to grab
anything from an input on our interface.
| | 01:48 | We can just go directly through the software.
| | 01:51 | Then we've got the main output selected
here, which is ultimately going to route
| | 01:55 | the signal through our master fader
and to our headphones or speakers.
| | 01:59 | So our instrument track is ready to go.
| | 02:02 | On the second instrument track, I want to
set it up to utilize an external sound module.
| | 02:07 | So, I am going to go down here to the
MIDI Output, and I am going to select
| | 02:11 | Korg Triton > channel 1.
| | 02:14 | Again, we have the All setting for
the MIDI Input, so that any controller
| | 02:19 | that's connected to your system will be able
to control the sounds from the Korg Triton.
| | 02:24 | However, we don't have that sound
coming into Pro Tools yet, so we need
| | 02:28 | to choose the input.
| | 02:29 | I am going to go down here
and choose Analog 3 and 4.
| | 02:33 | That's where we have the analog output from
the Korg Triton routed into our interface.
| | 02:39 | We'll keep the default
Analog 1 and 2 output path.
| | 02:42 | So, both of these instrument
tracks are ready to record.
| | 02:45 | I can go up to this track right here,
play some notes on my keyboard,
| | 02:50 | (Piano chord playing.)
| | 02:52 | and if I record enable and play, I will
get sound and record MIDI data.
| | 02:57 | So this process of setting up your
instrument tracks to record MIDI will become
| | 03:02 | second nature to you after you've done
these setups shown here just a few times.
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| Recording multiple MIDI tracks with one virtual instrument| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to show
you how to record multiple MIDI tracks
| | 00:04 | utilizing just one virtual
instrument by making use of MIDI channels.
| | 00:09 | As you can see here in the Mix window,
I have got four MIDI tracks right here,
| | 00:14 | one stereo aux track and a stereo master fader.
| | 00:19 | On each of the MIDI tracks, I have set
the outputs to different MIDI channels,
| | 00:23 | all going to the same Xpand2 plug-in.
| | 00:26 | Xpand2 plug-in is inserted on the
auxiliary track, and I've chosen channel 1, 2,
| | 00:32 | 3, and 4 for these tracks respectively.
| | 00:36 | So, all four of these tracks are
routed through the Xpand2 plug-in on
| | 00:41 | the auxiliary track.
| | 00:43 | And the plug-in is open right here, and
you can see each instrument is assigned
| | 00:48 | to these different MIDI channels within Xpand2.
| | 00:51 | We have the MIDI channel 1 is going to
be the jazz samba drumbeat, MIDI channel
| | 00:56 | 2 is a double bass, MIDI channel 3 is
trumpets, and MIDI channel 4 is a piano.
| | 01:02 | So we've got a whole band going on
here, and if we switch over to the Edit
| | 01:07 | window, you can see that I have
already got some MIDI data in here.
| | 01:10 | I am going to just go ahead and press Play.
| | 01:12 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:22 | Using one instance of the
Xpand2 plug-in in this way saves some
| | 01:27 | serious processing power.
| | 01:29 | I am going to show you one more trick here too.
| | 01:31 | If you want to hear individual
instruments by themselves soloed, we can hit
| | 01:35 | Command on a Mac or Ctrl on a PC and
solo safe this auxiliary track, and now if
| | 01:43 | I solo this drum track,
you'll only hear the drums.
| | 01:46 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:00 | Make use of MIDI channels like this
in any of your multi-channel virtual
| | 02:05 | instruments. Because it requires less
processing power than using multiple
| | 02:08 | instances of the same virtual instruments,
| | 02:11 | you will find that you will be able to
run a lot more instruments and plug-ins
| | 02:15 | in your Pro Tools sessions.
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| Recording options for MIDI| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to explain some
of the MIDI recording features that can
| | 00:04 | make your MIDI life easier.
| | 00:06 | The first one is Wait for Note,
and that's located down here in the
| | 00:10 | Transport window, right here.
| | 00:12 | If you click that button,
make it blue, that means it's on.
| | 00:16 | When you enabled the Wait for Note button,
Pro Tools won't begin to record until
| | 00:21 | it receives MIDI data, like when you
press a key on your MIDI controller.
| | 00:25 | Use this function if you want the
first MIDI event you play to be recorded at
| | 00:29 | precisely where the playback
cursor is currently located.
| | 00:33 | So let me record, and I
will show you an example.
| | 00:39 | First I am going to record enable this track.
| | 00:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:54 | The very first note that I played is
exactly at the beginning of this bar,
| | 01:00 | where the cursor was placed, and Pro Tools
waited for me until I pressed that first note.
| | 01:06 | If you want to use pre-roll when
recording MIDI with Wait for Note enabled, the
| | 01:10 | pre-roll will engage after the
first MIDI event is received,
| | 01:15 | then enter record mode after the pre-roll
time passes, which is a pretty handy feature.
| | 01:19 | Let me show you how.
| | 01:21 | First, I am going to undo that recording,
and I am going to activate pre-roll.
| | 01:25 | I've got two bars of pre-roll, and now,
we now I record enable and get Pro Tools
| | 01:32 | recording, it's going to go through two
bars after I press the first key, and
| | 01:37 | then it will start recording.
| | 01:38 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:50 | You can actually tell here that I
didn't play this note exactly on bar 3.
| | 01:55 | It's a little bit early.
| | 01:56 | You can see it here, and you can tell
because the region starts at the previous bar line.
| | 02:03 | To help tighten up your
performances, you can use Input Quantize;
| | 02:08 | we can choose that here in the Event menu.
| | 02:10 | You go to Event Operations
and choose Input Quantize.
| | 02:18 | Now Input Quantize automatically
quantizes all incoming MIDI notes while you
| | 02:23 | play them, and what quantizing does is
that it actually aligns your MIDI notes
| | 02:28 | to the rhythmic grid, helping, or forcing
them to be more in time, or simulating a
| | 02:35 | particular rhythmic feel.
| | 02:37 | I will be covering quantization in much
more detail in other videos in this course,
| | 02:41 | so let's just take a quick look at some
of the basic features of quantizing here.
| | 02:46 | To enable Input Quantize, we
need to check off the button to do so.
| | 02:50 | You also need to select the
parameters that you want to use, and in
| | 02:54 | this case I do actually want to
quantize to the 16th note grid.
| | 02:58 | So I am going to keep that, and I am not
going to touch any of these others yet.
| | 03:02 | So let's try our recording again. I am going
to undo this, and we will get to recording.
| | 03:09 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:20 | Well, I flubbed the first note,
but at least it's in time.
| | 03:25 | Let's zoom in and see how we are doing.
| | 03:27 | I want to make our grid 16th notes.
| | 03:33 | Now we can see the lines through here.
| | 03:36 | You can see that the notes are
lining up exactly with the grid.
| | 03:40 | Now I like to use Input Quantize to
immediately make my performances adhere to
| | 03:44 | the grid, and this is terrific for when
you're trying to create beats that are
| | 03:48 | in time and totally aligned to the tempo grid.
| | 03:51 | Let's move on to another
feature called MIDI Merge.
| | 03:54 | Down in the Transpose window, we have
the MIDI Merge button, and it's right here.
| | 03:59 | Click it to activate it and turn it blue.
| | 04:02 | The MIDI Merge function means that
if we start recording over top of this
| | 04:06 | performance here, these notes won't be
erased as they normally would be if we
| | 04:12 | did record over them. Instead, with MIDI
Merge engaged, these notes will still be
| | 04:17 | there and the new notes that we are
playing on top of it will also be there--
| | 04:21 | that is, they will be merged together.
| | 04:23 | So let's try it out.
| | 04:24 | I am going to zoom back out, and
we will record some more notes.
| | 04:28 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:41 | So as you can see here, the new notes
that I just played are added to this MIDI
| | 04:46 | region, and the old notes from
the previous take are still here.
| | 04:50 | The notes have all been merged
together, and this is a really great feature,
| | 04:55 | especially when you are building
drum loops--which I am going to cover in
| | 04:58 | another video--or if you're trying to
create multi-note chords, because you can
| | 05:02 | just add one note at a time,
building your chords as you go along.
| | 05:07 | Another simple way to add notes to your
MIDI track or to an instrument track is
| | 05:11 | to use the Pencil tool.
| | 05:13 | And first, I am going to switch over
to Notes view on this track and go to
| | 05:18 | the Pencil tool, click on that, and
now I can just go o to the track and
| | 05:24 | click in add notes.
| | 05:28 | The Wait for Note, MIDI Merge, Input
Quantize, and inserting notes with the
| | 05:32 | Pencil tool are all terrific
features for creating MIDI tracks.
| | 05:36 | Practice using them and you will be
able to create MIDI parts very quickly,
| | 05:40 | which makes song writing even more fun.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using step input| 00:00 | Another useful tool for getting MIDI
notes into Pro Tools is Step Input.
| | 00:05 | This feature enables you to enter
MIDI notes individually from the MIDI
| | 00:08 | controller one step at a time.
| | 00:10 | This is particularly useful for
creating parts that are difficult to play, like
| | 00:15 | cool and complex arpeggiated parts.
| | 00:18 | To use Step Input choose
Event > Event Operations > Step Input.
| | 00:26 | Click the Enable button to make sure
that Step Input is enabled and then choose
| | 00:30 | the Destination track.
| | 00:32 | In this particular case, I
want to use the Step track.
| | 00:36 | In the Step Increment section, you
can choose the note value for the steps.
| | 00:41 | I'm going to keep this at 16th notes,
and I'm not going to choose the Tuplet.
| | 00:47 | I'm also going to keep the note length
equal to exactly 100% of the 16th note value.
| | 00:54 | In the Options section, you can choose
how you want the velocity to be recorded--
| | 00:58 | that is, Pro Tools will use the velocity
that you input yourself on your keyboard
| | 01:03 | controller if you choose 'Use input
velocity,' or you can set the velocity of each
| | 01:09 | note to a particular value, and you
can use this slider to choose the value.
| | 01:13 | You can also enable numeric keypad
shortcuts, and I'm going to show you how to
| | 01:18 | use that later in this video.
| | 01:20 | So let's get this going on.
| | 01:21 | I'm going to move this window out of the way.
| | 01:24 | Now note, you don't have to record-enable
this track to actually import the notes.
| | 01:30 | So I'm not going to record-enable it,
and I'm going to have the cursor where I
| | 01:33 | want it to start with the steps,
which is right at the beginning.
| | 01:37 | As soon as I play my first note on the
MIDI controller, it will create a note
| | 01:41 | on the track, and then I'll play the rest of
the notes for the pattern that I want to create.
| | 01:47 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:59 | You can see here on this track that
Pro Tools automatically created all the
| | 02:04 | notes to go into that section. And I
was able to play it very slowly, but now
| | 02:09 | you'll hear, at a tempo, of
140 what this sounds like.
| | 02:13 | I hit Return, back to the
beginning of the song and Play.
| | 02:17 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:22 | In that part that I just made, all the
notes were 16th notes, but you're not
| | 02:26 | limited to only putting notes of the
same length on a track with Step Input.
| | 02:31 | If you want to change the length of a
note while using Step Input, there are
| | 02:34 | a few ways to do it.
| | 02:35 | Let me open back up the Step Input dialog.
| | 02:39 | I'm going to place the cursor at
bar 3 and create some new notes.
| | 02:45 | So now if I hit a note and I hold it
down, I can choose a new length
| | 02:53 | for that note.
| | 02:56 | To really exaggerate this, I'm going to
hit the whole note, and then I'm going to
| | 02:59 | hit the Increment button, and you'll
see that the note is actually created for
| | 03:04 | that full length, plus our
16th note, and there it is.
| | 03:10 | You can also add rests in the same way.
| | 03:13 | If I hit Next Step, then that moves the
cursor ahead by the same amount of time
| | 03:17 | as our previous step, and you can see
where the cursor is at now. It's at 5, 1, 240.
| | 03:24 | So it moved ahead a whole note from
where it finished on this previous note, and
| | 03:29 | so that added a whole note rest.
| | 03:31 | Undo Step removes the last note entered.
| | 03:34 | I'm going to do that for both of those.
| | 03:37 | It takes us back two steps. And the
Redo Step will actually put the note back.
| | 03:42 | So it's like undoing and redoing,
all within the Step Input dialog.
| | 03:47 | If you want to get really fancy,
you can use the numeric keypad on your
| | 03:51 | computer keyboard to enter note values
and control almost all other commands in
| | 03:56 | the Step Input page.
| | 03:58 | Step input is a handy feature for
inputting MIDI parts that might be hard to
| | 04:03 | play, or are very repetitive and rhythmic.
| | 04:06 | Although I don't use it that often,
I definitely can see the advantages of
| | 04:09 | utilizing this feature--not to mention
that it's kind of fun to use as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making a drum loop with MIDI Merge| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to show you a
quick way to create a drum loop using MIDI.
| | 00:05 | Let's start with the stereo instrument
track with Xpand2 on it and a click track.
| | 00:11 | I'll open up Xpand here, and you're
going to see that I have the Session Drums
| | 00:16 | preset in here, and it's got a kick,
snare, cymbals loaded up and other
| | 00:23 | natural percussion.
| | 00:25 | Let's take a listen to what we've got.
| | 00:27 | (Drums playing.)
| | 00:31 | Those will be the primary sounds that we'd
be using: the kick, the snare, and the hi-hat.
| | 00:38 | So the first thing that you want to do
is choose Loop Playback, and I'm going to
| | 00:43 | right-click the Play
button here and choose the Loop.
| | 00:46 | Now, note that this is Loop
Playback, not Loop Record.
| | 00:51 | We don't need Loop Record for this.
| | 00:53 | Now you notice that I've got the MIDI
controls showing here in the Transport window.
| | 00:59 | All of these are active.
| | 01:01 | We've got Wait for Note, we've got the
metronome on, we've got the MIDI Merge
| | 01:07 | and the Conductor track as active.
| | 01:09 | So we're following the tempo and
the meter that are in the session.
| | 01:13 | We're set at 120 and a meter of 4/4.
| | 01:18 | Finally, let's go up to Event >
Event Operations and Input Quantize.
| | 01:25 | We'll enable the Input Quantize, and we'll
set the Quantize Grid to 16. That's fine.
| | 01:33 | So now I'm going to highlight two
measures, and I'm going to create a two-bar
| | 01:40 | drum loop, recording one instrument at
a time: kick, snare, and then hi-hat.
| | 01:46 | So let me practice just a second.
| | 01:50 | (Drum playing.)
| | 01:55 | So I want it to sound like that,
but I'm going to do each instrument
| | 01:59 | individually and show you how you don't
have to play that all at once, just one
| | 02:03 | instrument at a time.
| | 02:04 | So this track is record-enabled.
| | 02:05 | I'm just going to go over here.
| | 02:09 | You'll see that Wait for Note is active,
so initially we'll just hear the click
| | 02:13 | track, and then as soon as I hit the
first note, we'll be in, and we'll be loop
| | 02:18 | recording over this two-bar phrase.
| | 02:21 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:43 | The fourth time that you heard it play
around, just that last time through, I
| | 02:47 | wasn't playing any notes.
| | 02:49 | It was playing back the track by itself.
| | 02:52 | So now we have all three parts here on the
track: the kick, the snare and the hi-hat.
| | 02:59 | I'll press Play, and
we'll hear it one more time.
| | 03:02 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:07 | Now, how easy was that?
| | 03:08 | We recorded one instrument at a time,
and they're all three layered on top of
| | 03:13 | each other because MIDI Merge was active.
| | 03:16 | They're all aligned to the grid
because we had Input Quantize on.
| | 03:20 | So with just a few steps, you can
create beats that are locked to the tempo
| | 03:24 | grid and sound great.
| | 03:26 | Practice this technique and revisit
this video if you have any questions about
| | 03:30 | the steps involved, but most
importantly, have some fun making beats.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Composing with virtual instruments| 00:00 | In this session, I've used Xpand2, Boom,
Vacuum, Mini Grand, DB-33, and Structure
| | 00:06 | Free as my only instruments.
| | 00:08 | All of these come for free in Pro Tools 9.
| | 00:12 | Let's play a little bit of this.
| | 00:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:51 | That gives you just a quick tease of
what this song is all about.
| | 00:55 | As you can see, I've got a four-minute
song based around some of the ideas that
| | 00:59 | you heard in that section there.
| | 01:00 | So I'm going to switch over to the Mix
window, and I'm going to talk about what I did.
| | 01:05 | I actually recorded all of the
MIDI data onto audio tracks as well.
| | 01:11 | And the way that that was done, as you
can see here on this instrument track, I
| | 01:14 | set the Output to Bus 5-6, right here
and then set the Input of this audio
| | 01:22 | track to receive Bus 5-6.
| | 01:27 | If you record enable this track and play
back this track, it will be recorded as
| | 01:32 | audio on this audio track.
| | 01:36 | So next to each instrument track,
there's an audio track that has the audio
| | 01:41 | version of the MIDI data
that's on the instrument track.
| | 01:44 | Now why do I do this?
| | 01:46 | Well, I think it's a really good idea to
record the audio version of any MIDI or
| | 01:50 | instrument track, so that you
always have a hard copy of it.
| | 01:54 | Then if you really need to, you can
go back and make edits on the MIDI or
| | 01:58 | instrument track and then re-recorded
it as audio if you need to, and you can
| | 02:03 | also make the instrument track inactive.
| | 02:06 | If you go down to the little icon
here, the Track Type icon, and you
| | 02:11 | right-click, you can say Make
Inactive, and that makes this entire track
| | 02:17 | inactive, and you're saving all the
processing power that was going into this track.
| | 02:22 | Let me tell you, virtual
instruments take up a lot of processing power,
| | 02:26 | so in this particular session, I
could literally go and make all of these
| | 02:31 | instrument tracks inactive and
save a ton of processing power.
| | 02:37 | So with all the free virtual
instruments in Pro Tools 9, plus all of the
| | 02:42 | third-party instruments that are
available, you're now completely able to
| | 02:46 | compose in almost any style
of music, all within Pro Tools.
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|
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8. Editing MIDIUsing the edit tools for editing MIDI data | 00:00 | When editing MIDI data, each edit
tool assists in different functions.
| | 00:05 | Let's look at what each edit tool can do.
| | 00:08 | I'm going to choose grabber first.
| | 00:10 | And just like with audio regions,
the Grabber tool can select and move
| | 00:14 | entire MIDI regions.
| | 00:16 | So I can click on this and slide it over.
| | 00:19 | I'm going to undo that.
| | 00:21 | You can also press Option on a Mac or
Alt in Windows and then click and drag
| | 00:27 | copies of a region, like this.
| | 00:32 | If I go over to Notes view, I
can click a note to select it.
| | 00:36 | I can also Shift+Click multiple notes.
| | 00:40 | I can also can also click
and drag and create a marquee.
| | 00:48 | So I'm going to click and drag here.
| | 00:53 | That selects just those notes.
| | 00:55 | Once some notes are selected, I can
click and drag them to move them forward
| | 00:59 | or backward in time.
| | 01:05 | I can also change the pitch up
or down by dragging up or down.
| | 01:07 | (Piano playing.)
| | 01:15 | Now you'll notice that when I am
moving these notes, the notes over in this
| | 01:19 | region are also moving, and that's
because I have this button activated, the
| | 01:24 | Mirrored MIDI Editing.
| | 01:27 | If you have multiple copies of a MIDI
region in your session, each version of
| | 01:31 | that region will be edited in the
same way automatically if you have MIDI
| | 01:36 | Mirrored Editing enabled.
| | 01:38 | This is a great way to make global edits
to loops, but you should turn it off if
| | 01:43 | you only want to affect the
current region that you're working on.
| | 01:46 | So I'm going to disable that right now.
| | 01:50 | To transpose a copy of a note, or
multiple notes, leaving the original notes
| | 01:55 | where they are, you can press Option
on a Mac or Alt on Windows and then
| | 01:59 | click and drag the notes.
| | 02:01 | This is an easy way to make one-note
riffs into chord progressions or to add
| | 02:06 | harmonies to melody lines.
| | 02:08 | (Piano playing.)
| | 02:11 | So you see that all these
notes are now harmonies
| | 02:14 | to the original notes down here.
| | 02:18 | You should note that any selection of
notes that you make with the grabber does
| | 02:21 | not include underlying controller
and automation data on the MIDI track.
| | 02:26 | For example, we've got modulation data
down here, and if I select this note over
| | 02:32 | here and bring it over somewhere else,
you're not going to see the modulation
| | 02:37 | data travel with it.
| | 02:38 | So I'm going to click on this and
drag it to a different location.
| | 02:45 | The Modulation data does not change.
| | 02:48 | However, if you move a region, the
controller and automation data do come along.
| | 02:52 | Now let's talk about velocity.
| | 02:54 | Velocity is how soft or how
hard a MIDI note is played.
| | 02:59 | The possible values are zero to 127.
| | 03:03 | Zero is the softest, and 127 is the hardest.
| | 03:07 | When you view the velocity on the
track, Pro Tools displays each MIDI note's
| | 03:12 | velocity value as a stock.
You can see those right here.
| | 03:16 | The taller the stock, the higher the value.
| | 03:19 | With the Grabber tool, we can click and
drag a stock to edit the dynamics of the
| | 03:24 | recorded MIDI performance.
| | 03:26 | The notes will play how those sound
at the velocity level. Let's listen.
| | 03:30 | (Piano playing.)
| | 03:39 | Let's move on to the Pencil tool.
| | 03:41 | If I choose Pencil tool (Free Hand),
I can insert new notes onto the track.
| | 03:48 | (Piano playing.)
| | 03:52 | The notes that I am adding here are
conforming to what I've got in the grid.
| | 03:55 | So I am adding quarter notes.
| | 03:58 | I could add a half note if
choose a different grid value.
| | 04:04 | If you move the Pencil tool towards the
edge of a note, it becomes the trimmer.
| | 04:08 | I can click and drag to
adjust the length of this note.
| | 04:15 | If you move the Pencil tool into the
middle of the note, it becomes a pointer, or
| | 04:20 | a grabber, where I can click and drag
and move this note wherever I want.
| | 04:27 | If you press Option on a Mac or Alt
in Windows, the Pencil tool becomes an
| | 04:32 | eraser, and you can erase any
note just by clicking on it.
| | 04:35 | Now you'll notice that we're
hearing these notes as I'm adding them.
| | 04:41 | This is because I've got
this checked off right here.
| | 04:43 | This is the Play MIDI Notes When Editing.
| | 04:46 | If for some reason we don't want to hear the
notes when we're adding them or editing them,
| | 04:51 | we can simply turn it
off by clicking the button.
| | 04:54 | With the Pencil tool, we
can also edit velocity values.
| | 04:58 | So if I come down here and click and
drag, I can draw in velocity values.
| | 05:05 | I can also adjust automation data and
controller data, like this mod wheel data down here.
| | 05:10 | If I click and drag, I can draw in new data.
| | 05:15 | Let's move on to the Zoomer tool.
| | 05:19 | With the Zoomer, we can click and drag
and select a certain area to zoom in on.
| | 05:24 | We can also simply just
click and zoom in one level.
| | 05:28 | If we press Option on a Mac or Alt in
Windows, the Plus sign inside of the
| | 05:33 | Zoomer tool will turn into a
Negative sign, and then we can zoom out.
| | 05:37 | We can also use this Zoom Toggle button.
| | 05:40 | This is great for editing MIDI notes,
| | 05:43 | in Notes view. I'm going to
hit the Zoom Toggle button.
| | 05:46 | That blows up the size of this track because
I've set the Zoom toggle to a large track size.
| | 05:53 | You can do that here: Setup > Preferences and
down here on the Editing page, the Zoom toggle,
| | 06:00 | I've got Track Height set to Extreme.
| | 06:03 | I'm going to undo the Zoom toggle.
| | 06:10 | One of my favorite zooming tools
to use when editing MIDI data is the
| | 06:14 | continuous zoom function.
| | 06:16 | With the Zoomer tool active, if you
press Start in Windows or Ctrl on Mac and
| | 06:21 | then drag in the track, you can zoom
vertically or horizontally. Check this out.
| | 06:27 | I'm going to press Ctrl, and
I am clicking and dragging.
| | 06:36 | So we can do that horizontally, or if I
mouse up and down while holding Ctrl on a
| | 06:41 | Mac or Start in Windows, then you'll
see the notes get bigger or smaller.
| | 06:52 | Note that you can't zoom
horizontally and vertically at the same time.
| | 06:57 | One last thing with the Zoomer: if we
double-click on the Zoomer tool, we can
| | 07:02 | zoom all the way out and see
all the data in our session.
| | 07:06 | Let's move on to the trimmer.
| | 07:08 | When editing MIDI notes, the Trimmer
tool is mostly used for changing the start
| | 07:12 | and end points of notes.
| | 07:14 | The trimmer is also very useful for
trimming MIDI regions, region groups,
| | 07:18 | and looped regions.
| | 07:20 | So if we go into Regions view with the
trimmer, you can just click and drag and
| | 07:26 | trim that region right up.
| | 07:29 | Another option is the loop trimmer.
| | 07:33 | We could easily create a bunch of
loops that are copies of this particular
| | 07:37 | region simply by clicking and dragging.
| | 07:40 | You'll notice the trimmer icon has the
loop arrow on it when I'm up here in the
| | 07:46 | top-half of the region.
| | 07:48 | If I go down to the bottom half, it
turns into the standard Trimmer tool.
| | 07:51 | Now I'm going to click and drag and
pull this all the way out, and you'll see
| | 07:58 | that I've created multiple looped
regions of this particular MIDI 4-01 region.
| | 08:05 | Now let's go to the Selector tool.
| | 08:06 | I'm going to zoom in just a little
bit here and switch over to Notes view.
| | 08:18 | With the Selector tool, you
can select a bunch of notes.
| | 08:21 | I'm going to click and drag here.
| | 08:25 | I'm in Grid mode, so it's selecting
everything within this region because
| | 08:28 | everything is tight with the grid, but
let me switch over to Slip mode, and you'll
| | 08:32 | see something slightly different here.
| | 08:34 | If I clicked right here and drag, you'll
note that the notes that I started with in
| | 08:42 | here are not highlighted.
| | 08:44 | This is because the selector only selects
notes that include the beginning of the note.
| | 08:50 | So that's why here at the end, even
though I haven't selected the entire note,
| | 08:54 | the beginning is selected, so
this entire note is selected.
| | 08:57 | Let's go to the scrubber.
| | 09:00 | You can actually scrub MIDI
notes with the Scrubber tool.
| | 09:05 | Basically, you just click and drag, and
you'll hear what these notes sound like.
| | 09:09 | (Piano playing.)
| | 09:18 | So as you can see, you can go
forward and backwards with the acrubber.
| | 09:21 | The acrubber is helpful for finding
notes that might be stray notes or the
| | 09:26 | notes that are actually
missing from the performance.
| | 09:28 | So now we've gone through all the edit
tools, and you can see that they each
| | 09:32 | have their own ways of
helping you edit MIDI data.
| | 09:35 | What's great is that they function
very similarly to how they function
| | 09:39 | when editing audio.
| | 09:41 | So most editing techniques you learn
for audio can be applied to MIDI, and
| | 09:45 | vice versa.
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| Editing MIDI data in the MIDI Editor| 00:01 | Pro Tools has a dedicated MIDI and
instrument track editing window called
| | 00:05 | the MIDI Editor window.
| | 00:07 | It's great for fine-
tuning MIDI performance data.
| | 00:10 | Fortunately, it shares a lot of common
functionality with the regular Edit window.
| | 00:15 | However, the MIDI Editor also offers
up some unique features that you'll
| | 00:19 | probably learn to love.
| | 00:20 | Let's take a look at it.
| | 00:22 | You can access the docked version by
going down to this button down here,
| | 00:27 | right at the bottom, near the left side,
clicking on that, and it expands this whole window.
| | 00:33 | This is the docked version of the MIDI Editor.
| | 00:36 | To close it, you can go back to
this downward arrow and click it.
| | 00:41 | However, I want to open up
a separate window for this.
| | 00:46 | We can go to Window > MIDI Editor.
| | 00:50 | This opens up the entire MIDI
Editor window, and you'll see we have the
| | 00:53 | fullscreen version here.
| | 00:56 | Before I show you more about it, I
want to talk to you about some other ways
| | 00:59 | that we can open up the MIDI Editor.
| | 01:01 | If we go to Setup > Preferences, and on
the MIDI page, we can say Double-Clicking
| | 01:09 | a MIDI Region Opens: the MIDI Editor.
| | 01:13 | So, if we were to double-click a MIDI
region anywhere in Pro Tools, this MIDI
| | 01:19 | Editor window will open up.
| | 01:21 | You can also right-click a MIDI
region to access the MIDI Editor.
| | 01:25 | So let's talk about what's
going on here in the toolbar.
| | 01:29 | So we've got our Solo button, Mute button.
| | 01:33 | We've got the Notation display enable,
which if I click this you'll see instead
| | 01:39 | of the piano roll, you'll see notes.
| | 01:42 | So now you can see the actual
music notation for this part.
| | 01:48 | Next, we have the Edit tools: the
zoomer, trimmer, selector, grabber,
| | 01:53 | scrubber, and pencil.
| | 01:54 | We've selected the Smart tool right here.
| | 01:59 | Next, we have the track that's showing, Piano.
| | 02:02 | We've got the note duration, which we
could change to any size that we want.
| | 02:11 | That indicates, if we add a note,
that's the size that it'll be.
| | 02:16 | So if we say quarter note, we can
go down here and add a quarter note.
| | 02:21 | This is the default MIDI note velocity.
| | 02:23 | If we had a new note, the velocity will be 80.
| | 02:28 | This button is the Play MIDI Notes When Editing.
| | 02:30 | If we want to hear the notes when
we're inserting them or editing them,
| | 02:33 | we'll keep this active.
| | 02:35 | If we don't, click on it to turn it off.
| | 02:39 | Next is the Mirrored MIDI Editing button.
| | 02:41 | We use this button if we want to edit
one MIDI region and have all the same
| | 02:46 | edits applied to every other instance
of that same MIDI region in our session.
| | 02:52 | Next, we have the Link Timeline and
Edit Selection button, and this functions
| | 02:57 | exactly the same way as it does in the
Edit window where the timeline and the
| | 03:03 | editing selections that you make are linked.
| | 03:06 | We can unlink this if we want to have
separated timeline and edit selections.
| | 03:12 | Usually, we will just keep this linked.
| | 03:15 | Now we have the edit modes:
Shuffle, Spot, Slip and Grid.
| | 03:19 | This area indicates the
location of where we are.
| | 03:22 | So if I put the cursor down into this
track, you see exactly where I am with the
| | 03:27 | time, that is the Bars and Beats in
this particular case, and also the pitch.
| | 03:32 | So I am in E5 right now, and you see
that indicated on the keyboard over here,
| | 03:38 | as well as up here in this box.
| | 03:42 | Next, we have the Grid value,
and the gridlines are showing.
| | 03:45 | If I click that, I'll turn off the gridlines.
| | 03:48 | This shows the Grid value, and we
can choose whatever we want for that.
| | 03:53 | Just like in the Edit window, we can
use the Command key on a Mac, or the Ctrl
| | 03:59 | key on Windows, and move these parts around.
| | 04:03 | So if I click and drag, I can adjust
these Edit toolbars to appear the way
| | 04:08 | that I want them to.
| | 04:10 | Over to the right, we can
access the MIDI Editor Toolbar menu.
| | 04:14 | If we need to change
anything here, we can do that.
| | 04:18 | Now, you'll see that we've
got the Tracks list checked off.
| | 04:21 | Let's go, check out the Tracks list.
| | 04:23 | Tracks list is over here.
| | 04:26 | Right now, we are viewing
just one track, the Piano track.
| | 04:30 | You can see that by this circle that's active.
| | 04:34 | We can add additional tracks to
show by clicking on these circles.
| | 04:38 | Now the trumpets are showing up on here.
| | 04:41 | You'll see that the notes are
superimposed in a different color.
| | 04:46 | So now we've got the trumpet and the
piano showing up on this same track.
| | 04:51 | The pencil icon indicates which track
that we would actually add notes on to
| | 04:56 | with the Pencil tool.
| | 04:58 | So if I were to go in with the
Pencil tool now and add a note, it will go
| | 05:03 | onto the Piano track.
| | 05:07 | If I switch this over to the
trumpet track, it creates a trumpet note.
| | 05:15 | Let's take a look at
these two buttons right here.
| | 05:18 | This is the Color Coding by Track button.
| | 05:21 | If we activate that, the tracks in the
MIDI Editor are temporarily assigned one
| | 05:26 | of 16 fixed colors, in the order
that they appear in the Tracks List.
| | 05:30 | They are indicated by
these colors shown right here.
| | 05:37 | Now why would we need to do that if
the tracks are already colored the way
| | 05:41 | that we have them here?
| | 05:43 | Well, we don't really have to.
| | 05:45 | It's just a matter of how you set up
your color coding for Pro Tools in general.
| | 05:49 | If the tracks and notes are not already
colored, then using this button would be
| | 05:53 | helpful. But since my tracks are
already colored here, I don't need to do that.
| | 05:59 | The next button down here
is the Color by Velocity.
| | 06:03 | If I click that, you'll see that the
MIDI notes are all the same color, red, on
| | 06:09 | all the tracks displayed here, and
the notes with the lowest velocities are
| | 06:13 | lighter in color, and the notes
with the higher velocities are darker.
| | 06:17 | So if I end up taking this note and
making it very quiet, you'll see that it's
| | 06:26 | very light in color; however,
these other ones are darker.
| | 06:31 | Now personally, I don't really see the
point of using this, especially if we
| | 06:37 | have our preference set to show velocity.
| | 06:40 | So if we go to Setup > Preferences >
Display, and we have this set: MIDI Note
| | 06:47 | Color Shows Velocity. And if I turn
this off, you'll see that the velocity is
| | 06:55 | already showing because
this is lighter in color.
| | 06:58 | If I end up dragging this velocity up,
you'll see this note become darker.
| | 07:06 | So personally, I don't really
use these two buttons at all.
| | 07:11 | Let's go back to the Pencil tool.
| | 07:14 | If I want to add notes to a
track, we can simply click on them.
| | 07:21 | The Pencil icon here shows us
which track that we're going to add to.
| | 07:26 | Now if I want to add notes to
multiple tracks, I can Shift+Click.
| | 07:31 | Now, I have got the pencil icon
showing on both of these tracks.
| | 07:34 | If I add a note, it'll be added
to both the piano and the trumpets.
| | 07:38 | If I want to also add to the drums, but
not to the bass, I actually have to hit
| | 07:47 | the Command key in Mac or the Ctrl key
in Windows and then click here, and now I
| | 07:53 | can add notes for all three of these tracks.
| | 07:57 | So as you can see here, the MIDI Editor
offers a ton of MIDI editing features.
| | 08:02 | I personally find all the right-click
options to be incredibly helpful, as well
| | 08:06 | as the ability to add notes within any MIDI
or instrument track all within this one window.
| | 08:12 | If you write MIDI-based music, I'm
sure you'll enjoy using the MIDI Editor.
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| Working with the MIDI event list| 00:00 | When you really want to fine-tune your
MIDI data, edit using the MIDI event list.
| | 00:05 | This powerful window allows you to
precisely edit any parameters of a MIDI event
| | 00:10 | as well as copy, paste, and delete
individual parameters, events, and phrases.
| | 00:15 | There are few ways to
open up the MIDI event list.
| | 00:18 | You can press Option on a Mac, or Alt
in Windows, and press the Equals key, and
| | 00:23 | that opens up the MIDI event list.
| | 00:25 | You can also choose Window > MIDI event
list, or you can right-click on the name
| | 00:32 | of a track and choose Open in MIDI event list.
| | 00:38 | The MIDI event list shows all of the
MIDI events that happen on a particular
| | 00:42 | track, and we can choose
which track to view right here.
| | 00:46 | So I am going to choose the drums
first, and you'll see that we've only got
| | 00:49 | four MIDI events here.
| | 00:51 | All it is is these four drum loops that are
repeated and shown down here on this track.
| | 00:56 | If we switch over the Bass track,
we'll see a lot more information.
| | 01:00 | We can see the start time.
| | 01:03 | This quarter note symbol
indicates that this is note data.
| | 01:07 | Next to the Note icon, we'll see the
note's pitch, and we will see the attack and
| | 01:12 | release velocity, and we'll
see the length of the note.
| | 01:15 | We can also choose to show other information.
| | 01:18 | If we go up to the MIDI event list menu,
we can choose Show Note End Time, and
| | 01:23 | we can also insert particular data,
insert at certain playback locations.
| | 01:29 | We can filter out particular data.
| | 01:32 | We can show sub-counters.
| | 01:33 | We can do all kinds of
different stuff from this menu.
| | 01:36 | Now, most of the data that's
shown in here can be edited simply
| | 01:40 | by double-clicking.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:44 | So I just double-clicked in this field,
and I can enter a new value, and hit
| | 01:49 | Return, and it stays.
| | 01:51 | As you heard when I clicked once, you can hear the note.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:57 | As you can see in this window, you can edit
all the fine details of your MIDI performance.
| | 02:02 | Although I don't personally use the
MIDI events list very often, I know some
| | 02:06 | people who prefer editing
using this type of list.
| | 02:09 | So the option is here in Pro
Tools if you want to use it.
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| Editing MIDI data with event operations| 00:00 | While the Edit tools and MIDI event
list enables you to edit specific notes
| | 00:04 | or groups of notes,
| | 00:06 | the editing possibilities found in the
Event Operations window can have even
| | 00:10 | more impact on your MIDI and instrument tracks.
| | 00:14 | Let's go up to Event > Event Operations.
| | 00:17 | The operations in the Event Operations
window enable you to enter and alter the
| | 00:22 | pitch, dynamics, timing, and phrasing
of any MIDI performance. Now we have
| | 00:27 | covered Input Quantize and Step Input here,
| | 00:30 | but now I'll give explanations of the
others, and then I'll dedicate a separate
| | 00:34 | video to the most enigmatic of
these operations--quantization.
| | 00:38 | Let's start with Change Velocity.
| | 00:41 | The Change Velocity function adjusts
the attack and release velocities for
| | 00:45 | selected MIDI Notes.
| | 00:47 | It's useful for creating dynamic
changes that weren't recorded with the
| | 00:51 | original MIDI data.
| | 00:55 | So if I were to select these notes right
here on the trumpet track, I can choose
| | 01:00 | to change the velocity of
the Note On, or the Note Off.
| | 01:05 | I can set them all to a particular value.
I could use the slider, or I can type in a value.
| | 01:14 | Now I just hit Return, and
that changed all of these to 100.
| | 01:19 | Let's open that back up and
look at some of the other options.
| | 01:24 | We can add an amount or
subtract an amount from the velocity.
| | 01:28 | We can scale it, and we can change
the velocity smoothly by percentages or
| | 01:33 | from certain values.
| | 01:35 | We can also randomize.
| | 01:37 | If I hit Randomize, and hit Apply, you
will see that the velocities are kind of
| | 01:42 | all over the place now. Let's undo that.
| | 01:46 | Let's move on to the Change Duration
window. The Change Duration function is
| | 01:52 | good for making a MIDI or instrument
track more staccato, for shorter notes, or
| | 01:57 | more legato for longer, smoother phrasing.
| | 02:00 | You can also use it to remove
overlapping notes and transform sustain pedal data
| | 02:05 | into duration data, which can be
helpful if a piano player is too heavy on the
| | 02:09 | sustain pedal while recording MIDI Data.
| | 02:12 | In this case, I am going to change
this short staccato trumpet part into a
| | 02:16 | more legato performance.
| | 02:18 | First, let's listen to it once as it is.
| | 02:21 | (Trumpet playing.)
| | 02:25 | Now I am going to change this to
legato, and keep all of this the same and hit Apply.
| | 02:34 | Now you see that these notes have
become much longer, and let's listen to this.
| | 02:38 | (Trumpet playing.)
| | 02:42 | Changing the durations here can
affect the whole feel of this track.
| | 02:47 | Next, let's move on to Transpose.
| | 02:51 | The Transpose function moves
selected notes up and down in pitch.
| | 02:55 | This is what you want to use if you
want to change the key of a part without
| | 02:58 | rerecording a part, or to move the
MIDI part up or down an octave to make it
| | 03:03 | sound in a better range, or to change
a triggered sample on a repeated note.
| | 03:09 | So we could use this to change the
sound of a hi-hat to a ride cymbal.
| | 03:14 | Let's take a listen to this track before
we transpose anything. So I am going to
| | 03:17 | close this window first, and un-solo
that track, and then hit Return to go back
| | 03:25 | to the beginning of the song.
| | 03:27 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:35 | So that's the original key.
| | 03:36 | If we go up here to Transpose, Open
that up, you'll see that we've got the
| | 03:43 | transposition set here at three semitones,
and I am going to apply that to all of
| | 03:51 | these notes here in the bass, trumpets
and piano. And you saw all the notes move
| | 03:57 | here, and now let's press Play and hear this.
| | 04:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:08 | That's an easy way to try out
a different key for your song.
| | 04:11 | I am going to undo that now.
| | 04:12 | Now you note that I did not transpose
the drumbeat, because if you transpose
| | 04:19 | the drum tracks, they'll move the pitches
away from the actual drums that you wanted.
| | 04:24 | They won't actually
change the pitch of the drums;
| | 04:26 | they'll change the samples,
and we don't want that here.
| | 04:30 | Let's move on to the Select and Split
Notes. The Select/Split Notes function
| | 04:36 | allows you to select notes based on
pitch, velocity, duration and position,
| | 04:41 | whether you're selecting a single
note or a range. And this is particularly
| | 04:45 | useful for altering a single note for
the entire length of a region or track.
| | 04:51 | Let's go back down to the trumpet here,
and in this example we are going to
| | 04:55 | change an A major chord to an a minor
by selecting this C# note, and moving it
| | 05:02 | down to C, which would create a
minor third instead of a major third.
| | 05:05 | So first, I am going to select this note
area that I want, and I and going to say
| | 05:10 | notes between C#3 and C#3 is that only
selects this one particular note, and the
| | 05:19 | action is going to be Select notes.
| | 05:23 | If I hit Apply, then Pro Tools selects
only the notes that are chosen in here
| | 05:28 | in the Pitch criteria.
| | 05:29 | Now if I triple-click in this track
to select all the notes, and then hit
| | 05:35 | Apply again, you'll see that it will select
all of the notes on this track just for the C#3.
| | 05:42 | Now I can take the Grabber tool and
move all of these notes down by a half step.
| | 05:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:48 | Now I have just changed this chord
from an A major to an a minor, by changing
| | 05:53 | this pitch from C# to C. More advanced
than the Select Notes function, the Split
| | 05:59 | Notes function helps you to divide
notes into ranges, and this is very useful
| | 06:03 | for splitting up parts that were played
on a single track into multiple tracks.
| | 06:08 | Some examples include splitting chords
into individual notes for horn charts,
| | 06:12 | or for splitting up a full drum kit
into individual tracks, and let me show
| | 06:17 | you how to do that.
| | 06:18 | I am going to scroll up to the Drum
track here, and triple-click in here to
| | 06:24 | select all the notes. And then I am
going over to the Action in the Split Select
| | 06:29 | Notes function and choose Split notes.
| | 06:32 | I'm also going to choose all
notes in the Pitch Criteria.
| | 06:36 | Then I am going to choose Copy,
and a new track per pitch.
| | 06:44 | When I hit Apply, you'll see that Pro
Tools automatically splits this track into
| | 06:51 | three new tracks, with one pitch per track.
| | 06:55 | So now I have the kick, snare, and
cymbal separated onto three separate tracks.
| | 07:01 | Let's move on to the
Restore Performance function.
| | 07:05 | The restore performance function enables
you to undo any timing, pitch, duration,
| | 07:10 | and velocity edits that you made using
the MIDI editing functions in the Event
| | 07:14 | Operations window, even after
this session has been saved.
| | 07:18 | It can also be used to remove
quantization that was applied, using Input Quantize.
| | 07:24 | However, when you manually move a
MIDI note, the Restore Performance
| | 07:28 | function does not undo the move, and this
includes cutting, copy, and pasting, and trimming.
| | 07:33 | Also note that the Restore
Performance command cannot be undone.
| | 07:37 | In this window here we can choose
what attributes to restore: timing,
| | 07:42 | duration velocity and pitch. Hit the Apply
button to restore the original performance data.
| | 07:48 | Let's move onto Flatten Performance.
Once you've finalized some or all of the
| | 07:55 | edits on a MIDI or instrument track,
you can choose Flatten Performance and
| | 07:59 | save the edits permanently.
| | 08:00 | I recommend making a duplicate
playlist of the edited track before flattening
| | 08:04 | it, and I personally don't really see
the need for doing this operation, so I
| | 08:09 | don't really use it,
| | 08:10 | I guess because I always like to
have the option to go back to previous
| | 08:13 | edits if necessary.
| | 08:16 | However, some people might like to
lock in their edits with this function.
| | 08:20 | Here in this video, you've seen many
powerful editing features that are part of
| | 08:24 | the Event Operations window, and we
haven't even touched Quantization yet.
| | 08:28 | Get to know these features;
| | 08:29 | they can make potentially
cumbersome data manipulation into quick and
| | 08:33 | easy edits.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Quantizing MIDI tracks| 00:00 | Quantizing is the process of aligning
MIDI notes to a rhythmic grid to get them
| | 00:05 | more in time, or to change the
rhythmic feel of a performance.
| | 00:10 | Some notes may be moved forward in time,
while others might be moved back, and
| | 00:14 | some notes will be more
dramatically affected than others.
| | 00:18 | A quantized grid determines the beat
boundaries to which notes are aligned, and
| | 00:22 | we can use a grid with note values
from whole notes up to 64th notes, with any
| | 00:28 | tuplet divisions in between.
| | 00:30 | In this session we've got a drumbeat
and a bass, and they're both soloed, and
| | 00:34 | those are the two tracks that
I'm going to be working with here.
| | 00:37 | Let's listen to what we have so far.
| | 00:39 | (Drums playing.)
| | 00:47 | The drumbeat was programmed in using
the pencil tool to drop these notes in;
| | 00:51 | meanwhile the bass track was
actually played on a MIDI keyboard.
| | 00:56 | So the drum track is very much already
aligned to the grid, while the bass track is not.
| | 01:01 | Now it's simple enough to
quantize a MIDI performance
| | 01:04 | so that each of the notes lines up
perfectly with the beat, like this drum
| | 01:08 | track. But we don't really want to do that
most times because this will sound mechanical.
| | 01:13 | Let me zoom in really quick, and you can
see that this beat is completely on the grid.
| | 01:21 | Now, I want to actually add some human
elements to this, even including some
| | 01:25 | inconsistencies and imperfections.
| | 01:29 | We can see here on the bass track that these
notes do not align with the grid perfectly.
| | 01:36 | The second note here is pretty early
in comparison to where the kick drum is,
| | 01:40 | so here is the kick drum, and this
is the bass note. But before we start
| | 01:45 | quantizing anything, we need to figure out and
describe the rhythmic feel that we want to create.
| | 01:51 | Often feels are expressed as being
ahead of the beat for a pushed, or excited,
| | 01:55 | or driving song, or behind the beat
for a laid-back or relaxed or even kind
| | 02:00 | of a dragging feel.
| | 02:02 | It also could be right on the beat for a
steady song that's really in the pocket.
| | 02:06 | In this particular case, I want the
bass to drive the song a little bit, but I
| | 02:11 | don't want it to be too far ahead of the drums.
| | 02:13 | So let's look at the quantize
parameters that we can alter.
| | 02:16 | Let's go to Event > Event Operations > Quantize.
| | 02:23 | First we need to choose what to Quantize.
| | 02:26 | To create a particular rhythmic feel,
you should start by choosing to quantize
| | 02:30 | the attack. That's the starting
point of the note, or the Note On.
| | 02:35 | Also, you should preserve the note
duration. Quantizing the attacks, or the Note
| | 02:40 | On information means that the start
point of each note will be moved so that
| | 02:44 | it aligns with the closest rhythmic grid value.
| | 02:47 | Naturally, quantizing release times will
move the endpoint, that is the Note Off.
| | 02:53 | And let's take a look at
that for this particular note.
| | 02:56 | I am going to select this note and hit
Apply, and it'll quantize the Note On and
| | 03:02 | the Note Off and watch how
it changes this note length.
| | 03:06 | It cuts it down so that it starts exactly
on the grid and ends exactly on the grid.
| | 03:14 | Usually you don't want this type of
quantization, where you quantize both the
| | 03:17 | Note On and the Note Off, because
quantizing the note duration can suck the life
| | 03:22 | out of a performance.
| | 03:24 | Most often you want to just check
Note On and Preserve note duration.
| | 03:30 | So let's undo the Note Off, and I'm
going to choose Undo on this and get
| | 03:35 | our normal note back.
| | 03:37 | Now we have the original note duration,
and it hasn't been quantized yet.
| | 03:41 | So if I hit Apply, it moves the entire
note duration and aligns it with the grid.
| | 03:49 | When quantizing, the next thing we need
to do is choose the Quantize Grid value.
| | 03:53 | In most cases, you want to choose the
smallest subdivision of the beat that you
| | 03:57 | want to quantize to.
| | 03:59 | In this particular case, you can see
that the grid is set at 16th notes, and
| | 04:04 | that's the smallest subdivision off this
beat, and we'll keep it as 16th notes.
| | 04:10 | One way to create a triplet sounding
effect is to use the Tuplets. And I am
| | 04:14 | going to skip over, because I don't
really use this that much, often I'll use
| | 04:18 | Swing to create a triplet effect,
and I'll get to swing in just a minute,
| | 04:23 | But first, let's talk about the Offset grid.
| | 04:26 | This parameter enables you to move the
overall MIDI performance data ahead or
| | 04:30 | behind the beat by
fractions of the beat, or by ticks.
| | 04:33 | For example, if I want this bass
track to be pushing or driving, I can set
| | 04:39 | this to be a negative value, and that will move
all the notes up by a certain number of ticks.
| | 04:45 | In this particular case, I've got this
one note selected. And if I go in here
| | 04:50 | and hit -20 and hit Enter,
you'll see that move ahead in time.
| | 04:56 | This moved just slightly ahead
20 ticks. I'm going to undo that.
| | 05:00 | If we want to create a more laid back
feel, we can put it on the back side of
| | 05:05 | the beat, and let's say 30 here, hit
Enter, and the note moves back in time.
| | 05:11 | Again, I'll undo that.
| | 05:13 | Now let's move down to Swing.
| | 05:16 | The Swing parameter actually alters
the quantize grid to help you create a
| | 05:20 | triplet-like swing or shuffle feel.
| | 05:23 | The higher the percentage you choose,
the more swing is added, and using negative
| | 05:27 | swing percentages can remove
swing from a MIDI performance.
| | 05:31 | Often it's useful to apply different
swing percentages to different tracks
| | 05:35 | within a session to give the
impression that the different tracks were played
| | 05:38 | by different players.
| | 05:40 | Let's apply some of this.
| | 05:41 | First let me show you what 100%
swing on this bass now will do.
| | 05:45 | It actually moves this particular note
back in time to add a little bit of swing.
| | 05:52 | I'm going to undo that, and let's
apply swing to this entire drum track.
| | 05:57 | So let's solo it, and first I am going
to press Play before applying any swing.
| | 06:02 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:08 | That's what it sounds like before
we add swing. Now let's Apply swing.
| | 06:12 | Now, you saw these notes move.
| | 06:15 | Let's hear how that affects the sound.
| | 06:17 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:23 | That's much too much swing in my
opinion, so let's back this down.
| | 06:27 | We'll go to 36%. That sounds good. Apply.
| | 06:33 | (Audio playing.)
| | 06:38 | That's got a nice feel to it.
| | 06:42 | Let's go back down to the Bass track and
talk about some of these other options.
| | 06:49 | The Include within, Exclude within,
and Strength parameters are often
| | 06:53 | collectively called the sensitivity
in other sequencers, and they determine
| | 06:58 | which notes are to be quantized.
| | 07:01 | In most performances, the notes between
the down beats give the performance its
| | 07:06 | style, and sometimes even its rhythmic feel.
| | 07:09 | You can use these parameters here to
quantize the notes closest to the grid and
| | 07:14 | leave the notes in between alone.
| | 07:15 | For example, to quantize the notes that
are 10% away from the grid or more, we
| | 07:21 | can choose 20% as the Include within value.
| | 07:25 | So let's move this down here to 20%.
So notes within 10% of the grid will move
| | 07:33 | to the grid with this setting.
| | 07:37 | So if we choose this note and we apply it,
it's not actually go to move, because
| | 07:44 | it's not within 10% on
either side of this grid line.
| | 07:49 | If we bump this up to say 40% and apply,
now it'll actually move this note to the grid.
| | 07:56 | Let's undo that.
| | 07:59 | Instead, if we choose Exclude within,
this works in the opposite way.
| | 08:04 | When Exclude within is selected,
attacks and releases are not quantized if
| | 08:09 | located within the specified
percentage of the quantize grid.
| | 08:13 | So if we choose 18% here, that means
that notes that are within 9% of the
| | 08:21 | quantize grid are not touched.
| | 08:23 | So if we apply this, the note will
actually move, because it's outside of that 9%.
| | 08:28 | I am going to undo that. And if we bump
this up to 41% and we hit Apply, then it
| | 08:36 | does not move, because it's
within 20% on either side of the grid.
| | 08:42 | Both the Include within and Exclude
within parameters are useful, depending on
| | 08:47 | what performance you are quantizing,
and often you won't use them together.
| | 08:51 | You'll just use one or the other.
| | 08:53 | Let's talk about Strength now.
| | 08:57 | Like a magnet, the Strength parameter
determines how close MIDI notes are pulled
| | 09:01 | to the quantization grid.
| | 09:03 | 100% strength means that every note
will be pulled all the way to the closest
| | 09:07 | grid value, while a 50% strength value
only draws the notes halfway towards the
| | 09:12 | grid from their current position.
| | 09:14 | Let me show you an example.
| | 09:16 | I am going to zoom in even closer on
this note, and we'll watch how the Strength
| | 09:21 | determines how close this gets to the grid.
| | 09:24 | If I hit Apply, the note moves
completely right to the start of the grid.
| | 09:28 | I am going to undo that. And if we choose
50% here, you'll see the note just move
| | 09:36 | halfway to the grid.
| | 09:39 | Personally, I think the Strength
parameter can be used on almost every part that
| | 09:42 | was recorded live, and that needs to
be quantized, but you don't need to use
| | 09:47 | 100%. Using a smaller percentage
will keep more of a human feel.
| | 09:52 | Also, you don't need to
use the Strength parameter
| | 09:54 | if you've created a part with the
pencil tool or with step input, because those
| | 09:59 | performances are already 100% on the grid.
| | 10:02 | Now let's talk about the Randomize function.
| | 10:06 | It's funny that Randomize is a
quantization parameter, because it essentially
| | 10:09 | mucks up the works that all the
previous quantization parameters performed on
| | 10:14 | the MIDI performance.
| | 10:15 | A value of 0% means that
there is no randomization.
| | 10:19 | A value of 100% means that some notes
can be moved up to 50% away from the
| | 10:24 | quantization grid on either side.
| | 10:26 | Usually, this will sound terrible,
because the rhythms will be way off.
| | 10:30 | Although musicians don't often
play randomly, small randomized
| | 10:34 | percentage values are useful for
adding a human element to an otherwise
| | 10:38 | mechanical-sounding track.
| | 10:40 | If I use it at all, I might add 5%
or up to a maximum of 10%. Use this
| | 10:46 | parameter with care.
| | 10:48 | And as an example, I am going to
apply 100% randomization to this note, and
| | 10:54 | you'll see that it actually
moves pretty far away from the grid.
| | 10:57 | I find the quantizing a MIDI part
require some experimentation. Because each
| | 11:03 | recorded MIDI performance is different,
you'll usually have to play with the
| | 11:07 | parameters when the quantize, and each
MIDI performance may require different
| | 11:11 | application of quantization.
| | 11:13 | So, for example--I'm going
to zoom out for a second--
| | 11:16 | if you start with the track that's
right on the grid, like this drum track here
| | 11:20 | where I entered the notes with the
pencil tool, I would add a touch a swing and
| | 11:25 | a little bit of randomization, so
that this would sound more human.
| | 11:29 | So I'd go in here and apply Swing,
and maybe up to about 9% or 10% of Randomization.
| | 11:38 | In contrast, if I was working on this
bass track, I would probably go in and use
| | 11:44 | the Include within or the Exclude within,
| | 11:47 | I would adjust the Strength, and
potentially add some Swing and maybe even some
| | 11:51 | Randomization, if I wanted
to, onto this bass track.
| | 11:54 | It might take a little more work to get
this tidied up, but you definitely want
| | 11:58 | to keep it sounding human.
| | 12:00 | So as you can see here, quantizing in
Pro Tools is very powerful, and you're
| | 12:05 | just going to have to get in
there and try out these parameters.
| | 12:08 | Ultimately, quantization in Pro Tools
offers many powerful ways to improve the
| | 12:13 | quality of your MIDI performances.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and using groove templates| 00:00 | If you want to quantize a MIDI
performance, and you're not confident in your
| | 00:03 | quantization skills, or you prefer
the sound of pre-made quantization maps
| | 00:08 | derived from real musical
performances, you can use groove quantization.
| | 00:12 | You can choose from a variety of pre-made
groove quantization maps or groove templates.
| | 00:17 | If we go to Event > Event Operations >
Quantize, and go down into the Quantize
| | 00:24 | Grid, we can see the groove
templates listed in these folders.
| | 00:28 | Now it's difficult for me to describe
how these templates will affect the sound
| | 00:32 | of your track, but fortunately you can
get some information about the template
| | 00:36 | if you click the Show Comments button.
| | 00:38 | So first I am going to choose this MPC 57
% 16th note Swing, and you see template
| | 00:45 | contains 1 bar of 4/4 time.
| | 00:48 | I can click on Show Comments, and it will show
some more information about this template.
| | 00:53 | By adjusting the timing, duration,
velocity, and other parameters, you can alter
| | 00:57 | how the groove templates
affect your MIDI performance data.
| | 01:00 | At a setting of 100%--the default
setting for timing, duration, and velocity--the
| | 01:06 | MIDI data will follow the
groove templates field exactly.
| | 01:09 | At 0%, the MIDI notes will not be
altered from their original state; thus the
| | 01:14 | groove template will have no effect.
| | 01:16 | At 200%, the MIDI notes will be
altered twice as much as the groove template
| | 01:20 | would usually alter them.
| | 01:22 | Velocities and durations will become
exaggerated versions of the groove template
| | 01:25 | settings, and the timing of the notes
will be moved to twice the difference
| | 01:29 | between the original note locations
and where they would normally be placed
| | 01:33 | within the groove template.
| | 01:34 | You can also choose to pre-quantize
the MIDI notes, which hard quantizes the
| | 01:39 | notes to a 16th note grid
before applying groove quantize.
| | 01:43 | This is a great thing to use if the
rhythm of the MIDI performance that you are
| | 01:46 | trying to quantize is a
little dodgy to begin with.
| | 01:49 | So let's apply a groove
template to some MIDI notes.
| | 01:52 | And I am going to turn this Pre-Quantize off,
| | 01:56 | choose the Grabber tool and select
this Drum Beat. And before I apply it I am
| | 02:01 | going to press Play, so we
can hear the before and after.
| | 02:04 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:14 | So I have already selected this
MPC 57% 16th note Swing template.
| | 02:18 | So I am going to change the timing here
to 100%, so that it follows the template
| | 02:24 | exactly, and now I am going
to hit Apply. Let's listen.
| | 02:28 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:38 | That sounds pretty good actually.
| | 02:39 | Now you can make your own groove
templates using Beat Detective.
| | 02:43 | Let's close this up, so if you go to
the Event menu and choose Beat Detective--
| | 02:48 | Now Beat Detective can analyze audio
and MIDI data to define dynamic and
| | 02:53 | rhythmic relationships in a performance and
create a groove template from that information.
| | 02:58 | Beat Detective generates triggers for
bars, beats, and sub-beats that map the
| | 03:02 | rhythmic relationship of a groove, as well as
the amplitude of audio tracks to MIDI velocity.
| | 03:09 | The Beat Detective window has options
for working with both audio and MIDI.
| | 03:14 | Here we will choose MIDI, and I am
going to choose Groove Template Extraction,
| | 03:19 | and I am going to create a
groove template from this drumbeat.
| | 03:23 | Now I know that we just applied a
groove template to this already, but imagine
| | 03:27 | that we have a track here that we
want to extract a groove from, and that's
| | 03:30 | what we are going to do.
| | 03:32 | So we have got the Groove Template Extraction.
| | 03:34 | We are going to capture the selection
and time, so we have got exactly 16 bars
| | 03:39 | selected here. If you need to change
your selection, you can just go into these
| | 03:44 | fields and change them.
| | 03:47 | Next we will go on to the Detection area,
and we will choose Normal detection,
| | 03:51 | and we will choose to analyze the lowest note.
| | 03:54 | So this will have Pro Tools focus on
the kick drum from the groove to give us
| | 03:59 | the basis for this groove template.
And now I am going to click Analyze.
| | 04:05 | Let's go zoom in on this track.
| | 04:09 | Now as I drag this sensitivity slider,
you are going to see beat triggers up
| | 04:13 | here on the beats and sub
beats of your selection.
| | 04:17 | Bar trigger lines are the thick lines
and beat triggers are medium lines, and
| | 04:22 | the sub-beats are thin lines.
| | 04:24 | Now since we chose the lowest note, it's
really only analyzing these lower notes.
| | 04:31 | And to show you this,
| | 04:33 | so the thick line here is at the
bar line, bar 2, and this thin line is a
| | 04:38 | sub-beat trigger shown at
this particular 16th note.
| | 04:40 | I'll go up here now and choose Extract.
So we have 16 bars, Time Signature 4/4.
| | 04:47 | Now I am going to save this to disk.
| | 04:53 | And this automatically puts us right
into the Grooves folder. I am going to
| | 04:57 | create a new groove folder for my
grooves and then call this groove1.
| | 05:04 | So now we have extracted a groove.
| | 05:08 | And if I go to the Event Operations >
Quantize window, I can actually choose
| | 05:15 | that groove right here.
| | 05:17 | Now I use groove templates a lot.
I prefer the MPC style1s mostly.
| | 05:22 | Sometimes I'll make my own from
audio files or from drum loops that I'll
| | 05:26 | bring into Pro Tools.
| | 05:27 | They're a terrific way to get your
MIDI tracks quantized really quickly using
| | 05:32 | proven quantization feels.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing real-time properties| 00:00 | Many of the MIDI editing features
found in the MIDI Operations window can
| | 00:04 | also be edited in real-time while
this session is playing, using the MIDI
| | 00:08 | Real-Time Properties.
| | 00:10 | We can access those in the Edit window,
| | 00:12 | if we go down to the Edit Window
view selector and choose Real-Time
| | 00:17 | Properties. There are five of them
per track: quantization, duration, delay,
| | 00:23 | velocity, and transpose.
| | 00:25 | These are essentially light versions
of the Quantize, Change Duration, Change
| | 00:30 | Velocity, and Transpose
functions in the MIDI Operations window.
| | 00:34 | Delay enables you to push the MIDI data
on a track forward or back in time by a
| | 00:39 | specified number of ticks, or milliseconds.
| | 00:42 | Let's check it out.
| | 00:43 | We will go on to the Bass track, and
I am going to zoom in, so we can see
| | 00:48 | some of these notes.
| | 00:50 | And if I add 40 ticks and hit Enter,
you will see the notes move back in time.
| | 00:57 | Now if you don't actually want to
see how the real-time properties are
| | 01:00 | altering your data, you can go to
Setup > Preferences, and on the MIDI page
| | 01:08 | you can uncheck this.
| | 01:09 | This is Display Events as
Modified by Real-Time Properties.
| | 01:13 | Uncheck that and you won't see
how the data is altered by your
| | 01:17 | Real-Time Properties.
| | 01:18 | But I want to keep it checked here.
| | 01:24 | Transpose allows you to change the octaves or
the semitones of the MIDI data on this track.
| | 01:32 | Velocity enables you to change the dynamics.
| | 01:36 | Duration allows you to change the
duration of the notes, and Quantization
| | 01:41 | obviously you can use to add swing.
| | 01:44 | Let's go up to the drum track
and enable the quantization.
| | 01:47 | And the great thing here is that we don't
have to do this while the track is stopped.
| | 01:51 | We can change it while the track is playing.
| | 01:52 | So I am going to zoom out here and
select everything on this track, solo the
| | 02:00 | track and then start adding swing.
| | 02:03 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:17 | Now this is a great way to figure
out how much swing to apply to a track.
| | 02:21 | And obviously you can apply all five of these
in real-time to see how they affect the track.
| | 02:27 | Now you can apply these Real-Time
properties to entire tracks or only
| | 02:32 | to specific regions.
| | 02:34 | We can go down to Event > MIDI Real-
Time Properties, and we will open up the
| | 02:39 | Real-Time Properties window,
and this is where you can do that.
| | 02:42 | I'm going to choose the Grabber tool, and I am
going to go down here to Bass region, and
| | 02:48 | you will see that all of these are active.
| | 02:49 | They are matching what's down here on
the track. And I can choose here whether
| | 02:55 | to apply it to specific
tracks or specific regions.
| | 03:00 | And when you apply a real-time property
to a region, a small R is displayed in
| | 03:05 | the upper-right corner.
| | 03:06 | But when it's applied to an entire
track, a small T is displayed in the
| | 03:10 | upper-right corner of the regions on the track.
| | 03:13 | And because these real-time properties
are applied to the entire track here,
| | 03:17 | you see little Ts here.
| | 03:19 | But since I've got this region
selected here, and I am going to change a few
| | 03:23 | things, and I am going to write to
this region, now this is just written to
| | 03:30 | this particular region, and the
other regions on the track have these
| | 03:35 | parameters applied to them.
| | 03:37 | So there we go. Instead of working
with the Event Operations window in
| | 03:41 | non-real-time, you can use these real
-time properties to alter your MIDI
| | 03:46 | performances while you're
listening to the tracks.
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| Using MIDI Learn| 00:00 | MIDI Learn is a function that enables
you to map the knobs and sliders of your
| | 00:04 | MIDI controller to the parameter
knobs and sliders in a virtual instrument.
| | 00:09 | All of the instruments included
with Pro Tools have this feature,
| | 00:12 | as do all other Avid virtual
instruments, and some third-party products.
| | 00:16 | Let me show you how it works.
| | 00:19 | Let me go ahead and open up this
vacuum plug-in, and I want to play a note.
| | 00:22 | (Note playing.)
| | 00:25 | Sounds great. So to set up MIDI
Learn, you can go down to parameter and
| | 00:30 | right-click on it and get the MIDI Learn menu.
| | 00:33 | So I'm going choose Learn MIDI CC, and
CC stands for Continuous Controller, which
| | 00:40 | is a knob or a slider on your MIDI controller.
| | 00:43 | Now choose that, and then I'll move one
of the knobs on my MIDI controller, and
| | 00:48 | now that knob is
controlling the range value in Vacuum.
| | 00:53 | So if I play the note and then twist
that knob you'll hear how this affects
| | 00:58 | the Vacuum plug in.
[00:0:59.54]
(Note playing.)
| | 01:06 | Let's go and set up another one.
| | 01:07 | We'll go to the Cutoff > Learn MIDI CC,
and I'm going to twist this knob on my
| | 01:14 | controller, and now I'm
controlling this cut off frequency.
| | 01:17 | (Note playing.)
| | 01:25 | If you want Pro Tools to unlearn the
connection between this knob here in the
| | 01:29 | instrument and the one on your MIDI
controller, you can choose Forget MIDI CC.
| | 01:35 | I'm not going to do that here yet.
| | 01:38 | Now you notice that there are some
other options in this MIDI Learn menu.
| | 01:41 | We have got the Set Min and Set Max.
These enable you to scale the incoming MIDI
| | 01:47 | controller data, so that the control
doesn't go below or above a certain value.
| | 01:52 | For example, if we don't want the cutoff
frequency control to go above a certain
| | 01:56 | frequency, and we can set the range
here and create a smaller spectrum of
| | 02:00 | frequencies for the cutoff filter.
| | 02:02 | So I'm going to go ahead and do that.
If I had Set Min right now, it's going to
| | 02:07 | set the value that we have on the
knob at the moment for the minimum.
| | 02:11 | So I'm going up here and twist the knob
just a little bit, and now I'm going to
| | 02:15 | set my minimum. And I'm going to click and
drag, right-click and set my maximum, and
| | 02:24 | now I want to twist the knob on my
MIDI controller, it only goes between the
| | 02:28 | minimum and maximum values.
And let's hear that sounds like.
| | 02:31 | (Note playing.)
| | 02:37 | There is also one more control in
this list, and it's Invert Range.
| | 02:43 | This enables you to invert the MIDI
controller data so that the chosen
| | 02:46 | controller reacts in the opposite
way as you might think of would.
| | 02:50 | So if we hit that, and I twist this
knob, now as I'm turning the knob up, the
| | 02:55 | value is going down and vice versa,
so I've inverted this range.
| | 02:59 | A great example for this feature is if
you want to assign the drawbars on the
| | 03:04 | DB33 organ instrument to set a MIDI
fader controls so that the faders work in
| | 03:10 | reverse like the drawbars on a real B3 organ.
| | 03:13 | Now Pro Tools will remember everything
that it MIDI-Learned until you change
| | 03:18 | the instrument patch, take a virtual
instrument off the track, or close the
| | 03:22 | session without saving.
| | 03:24 | If you save the session, Pro Tools will
remember the controller parameter maps
| | 03:28 | for the next time when you open the session.
| | 03:30 | However if you change the
instrument's patch you'll lose the map.
| | 03:35 | So what I would recommend doing is
using the Save Settings or Save Settings
| | 03:39 | as command, so that you can save the
controller parameter map assigned with the patch.
| | 03:45 | MIDI Learn is a super useful
feature that can make working with virtual
| | 03:48 | instruments in Pro Tools much
easier and more interactive.
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|
|
9. ScoringExploring the Score Editor| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to go over how
to use the Score Editor window to create
| | 00:04 | and edit MIDI notes.
| | 00:06 | First let's open up the Score Editor.
| | 00:08 | There are a few ways to do that.
| | 00:11 | We can go to Window > Score Editor.
| | 00:16 | We can go to Setup > Preferences, MIDI
and double-click MIDI Region opens the
| | 00:23 | Score Editor. Or, we can right-click a
MIDI region, which I'm going to right
| | 00:31 | here, slide down to the bottom here
and choose Open in Score Editor, and that
| | 00:38 | opens up the Score Editor.
| | 00:40 | You can also use the shortcuts
Option, Ctrl+Equals on Mac, or
| | 00:46 | Alt+Start+Equal sign in Windows.
| | 00:50 | At the top of the Score Editor, you'll
notice the toolbars, so we have the edit
| | 00:54 | tools: Zoomer, Trimmer,
Selector, Grabber and Pencil.
| | 00:58 | We've got the MIDI note duration and
velocity and also the Play MIDI notes
| | 01:05 | when editing. Now you've seen a lot
of these in the MIDI Editor window as
| | 01:09 | well, so revisit the video on the MIDI Editor
if you want more information on these things.
| | 01:13 | We have got Mirrored MIDI Editing, which
we'll see in action here in a second, and
| | 01:19 | the Link Timeline and Edit Selection.
| | 01:21 | Finally, we have the double bar line, and
I'll show you what that does in a second.
| | 01:28 | Here we've got the Cursor Location, so
if I go down here, it'll show where we are
| | 01:32 | and what the pitch is up here.
| | 01:34 | We've got the Grid Value, and we've got
the Selection Area. And you can see here
| | 01:40 | that eight bars are selected, and they're
actually shown here in the score, and they
| | 01:45 | are highlighted in blue.
| | 01:46 | So let's go back to the tools here.
| | 01:50 | First with the Zoomer, it does the
normal things that we can do with the Zoomer
| | 01:54 | tool in all the other edit windows.
| | 01:56 | We can zoom in by clicking once. Press
Option on a Mac or Alt in windows, and
| | 02:03 | you can zoom out one.
| | 02:04 | You can also click and drag to create a
marquee and zoom in just on that area.
| | 02:10 | I'm going to zoom back out by double-
clicking the Zoomer tool, and I'm going to
| | 02:17 | slide over to the first page.
| | 02:18 | You can use the Trimmer to
extend or shorten particular notes.
| | 02:25 | So now I'm going to use the
trimmer to extend this note.
| | 02:28 | I want to make it into a full
whole note, and you'll see, because
| | 02:34 | we've Mirrored MIDI Editing on, that some of
the other notes down here were also changed.
| | 02:40 | So if I undo this, you'll see some of
this notes come back as well, because of
| | 02:47 | the Mirrored MIDI Editing.
| | 02:50 | If we go to the Note Selector tool, you
can click and select particular notes.
| | 02:56 | So I'm just clicking and dragging, and
the notes are selected and shown in blue.
| | 03:01 | And this notes can be deleted, moved,
transposed or processed with event
| | 03:06 | operations like quantize.
| | 03:07 | You can also just hit the Delete
button, and all the notes will be deleted.
| | 03:13 | Now the Note Selector tool only
includes MIDI, Note, and Velocity data.
| | 03:18 | It does not include any other
MIDI or Continuous Controller data.
| | 03:22 | So I recommend if you are going to
perform large MIDI edits, do that in the Edit
| | 03:26 | window or the MIDI Editor window,
where all of the data, including Continuous
| | 03:31 | Controller data will travel with your edits.
| | 03:34 | So let me undo that Delete.
| | 03:37 | Let's go up to the Grabber tool.
| | 03:41 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:49 | With the Grabber tool, we can select
one or more notes, and if I click and drag,
| | 03:54 | I can select the number of notes.
| | 03:59 | Once they're selected, if I
click and drag them, I can move them.
| | 04:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:09 | I'm going to go ahead and undo that.
| | 04:10 | Let's go up to the Pencil tool. With the
Pencil tool, we can insert notes, we can
| | 04:17 | select notes, and we can move notes.
(Notes playing.)
| | 04:25 | Now, I'm adding notes that are
locked to the grid, and they are exactly
| | 04:32 | coordinal in length, and that's what
we can do with the Free hand Pencil tool.
| | 04:38 | If we go to the Line Pencil tool, we'll add
notes just on one pitch with all the same velocity.
| | 04:44 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:51 | You'll see all the notes are on the same pitch.
| | 04:54 | Now the rest of the Pencil tool
shapes are the same, except that they have
| | 04:59 | different velocity curves depending
on the shape. If we choose the Triangle
| | 05:03 | tool, the velocities will go in a
triangle shape. If we choose the Square tool,
| | 05:09 | the velocities will follow square
shapes, and finally with Random, the velocities
| | 05:14 | will be randomized.
| | 05:15 | If you want to delete a note with the
Pencil tool, you can go down to the note
| | 05:20 | and press option in Mac or Alt in
Windows and click the note, and it's gone.
| | 05:28 | Any notes added or deleted to the Score
Editor, as well as any edit, will also be
| | 05:32 | reflected in the Edit window and the
MIDI editor. And also note that the score
| | 05:37 | editor automatically adds rests as needed.
| | 05:41 | You can also move or manually
insert rests if you want to.
| | 05:44 | Now the Score Editor will probably
become an integral part of your MIDI editing
| | 05:49 | workflow in Pro Tools 9.
| | 05:50 | I'll cover more of the features of
the Score Editor in other videos in
| | 05:54 | this course.
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| Using the Score Editor| 00:00 | The Score Editor shares a lot of
common functionality with the regular Edit
| | 00:04 | window and the MIDI Editor window.
| | 00:07 | This means you'll learn how to
use the Score Editor very quickly.
| | 00:10 | The Score Editor also offers up some
unique features, many of which we'll
| | 00:14 | cover in this video.
| | 00:16 | Let's pick up where we left off in part
one of this topic by looking at some of
| | 00:20 | the other buttons and features at the
top of the Score Editor that I didn't
| | 00:24 | cover in the previous video.
| | 00:26 | We've got the double bar line button,
and this places a double bar line at
| | 00:31 | the end of the score. You should use
this when you're ready to print out your score.
| | 00:35 | So I'm going to scroll over to the end
of the score and take a look, and notice
| | 00:41 | that we don't have a double bar line here.
| | 00:44 | If I click this, you'll see the Pro
Tools adds a double bar line, which
| | 00:49 | basically ties off the end of this part.
| | 00:52 | When this not active, Pro Tools adds a
number of empty bars at the end of the score.
| | 01:00 | You can see them here.
| | 01:02 | We can set the number in our Preferences.
| | 01:05 | If we go to Setup >
Preferences > MIDI, you can see here:
| | 01:10 | Additional Empty Bars in the Score Editor, 8.
| | 01:14 | That's exactly what we're
seeing here, these eight bars.
| | 01:17 | Let's scroll back to the beginning.
And you can see where our cursor is right on
| | 01:24 | this note here, and we have a
few notes that are selected.
| | 01:29 | Right up here, we can
actually change the MIDI note pitch.
| | 01:33 | So this is transposing.
| | 01:36 | We can click and drag, or
we can type in a number.
| | 01:42 | We can also change the note velocity.
| | 01:45 | Click and drag to increase
or decrease the velocity.
| | 01:51 | As with the toolbars in the Edit window
and the MIDI editor, we can move these
| | 01:56 | around to make this look
like the way that you want it to.
| | 02:00 | So I can press Command on a Mac or Ctrl
in Windows, and move these sections around.
| | 02:09 | Over on the left, we have the Tracks list.
| | 02:11 | Right now, we're only
viewing this Mini Grand track.
| | 02:14 | If we clicked these circles,
we can add additional tracks.
| | 02:18 | We can go up into the Tracks list menu,
| | 02:25 | and select which tracks we want to show or hide.
| | 02:28 | We can also look at the Notation
Display Track Settings or the Score Setup.
| | 02:33 | We're going to discuss some of
those in later videos in this course.
| | 02:37 | A few other page
controls you should be aware of.
| | 02:41 | We've got scrolling of the pages down
here, and we can scroll continuously
| | 02:49 | with these buttons.
| | 02:51 | We also have this button here that
allows you to choose a different size
| | 02:55 | percentage, or how the pages fit on the screen.
| | 02:58 | You can also zoom vertically.
| | 03:04 | A very cool feature of this Score
Editor is that we can record MIDI data and
| | 03:10 | it's transcribed right into the Score
Editor in real-time. So check this out.
| | 03:15 | I am going to scroll all the way to the end
and drop the cursor in here at this point.
| | 03:21 | I am going to jump over to the Edit
window for a second and record-enable
| | 03:27 | this Mini Grand track.
| | 03:30 | Then I'll go back to the Score Editor,
and now I'm going to record and actually
| | 03:36 | see the notes pop right into the score.
| | 03:38 | So let me open up the transport window.
| | 03:43 | (Music playing.)
Pretty cool.
| | 03:59 | One last thing: the Target button.
| | 04:01 | Unlike the MIDI editor, you can only
have one Score Editor window open at once.
| | 04:06 | Thus, the Target button on the Score
Editor has a different purpose than the
| | 04:10 | one on the MIDI Editor.
| | 04:12 | When the target is enabled, the
navigation in the Edit window will be mimicked
| | 04:16 | in the Score Editor.
| | 04:18 | So if I go over to the Edit window
now, and we see we are at bar 160,
| | 04:22 | we'll also be at bar 160
here in the Edit window.
| | 04:29 | And you can see that right here.
| | 04:33 | If we scroll over, you'll see that
the playback is happening right here.
| | 04:40 | If we go back to the Score Editor and
disable the Target button, the Score
| | 04:48 | Editor does not follow the
navigation in the Edit window.
| | 04:51 | Now I like how Avid has adapted
their editing tools into this Sibelius-
| | 04:56 | driven Score Editor.
| | 04:58 | After learning what the Edit tools do
in the Edit window, the Edit tools in the
| | 05:02 | Score Editor are very intuitive.
| | 05:04 | So the learning curve to edit in
your Score window isn't very steep.
| | 05:08 | I hope you enjoy using your Score Editor.
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| Setting up a score| 00:00 | The Score Editor is where you see your
MIDI performances shown as music notation.
| | 00:05 | After you're done recording and editing
your performances, you can find-tune how
| | 00:08 | they look as you set up your score in Pro Tools.
| | 00:11 | Let's check out some of the options
that we have for setting up your score.
| | 00:16 | If we right-click, we can add
a lot of different things here.
| | 00:20 | We can insert key signatures,
meters, and chord symbols.
| | 00:25 | Let's go ahead and do that.
| | 00:26 | Let's say we want to add a chord symbol
right here, and we'll choose the C chord.
| | 00:33 | That adds it right here. It looks good.
| | 00:36 | Another thing that we can choose
from the right-click menu is Notation
| | 00:40 | Display Track Settings.
| | 00:43 | This opens up this special, window where
we can look at each track and make some
| | 00:47 | decisions about what we want to clef
to look like, the display transposition,
| | 00:51 | and what some of the other
attributes are for the track.
| | 00:55 | So we've got the Mini Grand
track, and we can choose the clef.
| | 00:59 | Now it makes sense to have
the piano on a grand staff.
| | 01:03 | However, if you have a different
instrument, you can choose a different clef.
| | 01:06 | We'll also keep the transposition at the
regular C for the key that the song is in.
| | 01:13 | However, let's say you want
a trumpet to play this part.
| | 01:16 | Well, a trumpet is a B-flat instrument.
| | 01:19 | So they would play this part a
major second below where it's written.
| | 01:23 | We can transpose this part up a major
second to D, if we want the trumpet to
| | 01:28 | play this part as it is written.
| | 01:31 | Down in the Globals section, we can
choose what the Display Quantization is.
| | 01:38 | This only affects the display;
| | 01:40 | it doesn't actually move any notes.
| | 01:42 | We can choose to straighten the swing,
and this will unswing swung notes.
| | 01:49 | This is good if you have some swung
eighth notes in your score that are shown
| | 01:52 | as being swung, but you might actually want
them to show up as being straightened out.
| | 01:57 | For example, jazz musicians would
rather see the unswung version, and then they
| | 02:03 | would add their own swing by reading the notes.
| | 02:07 | Let's talk about Allow Note Overlap.
| | 02:10 | By default, Pro Tools only shows us
single rhythmic line on a single staff.
| | 02:15 | Thus, if two notes that start at
different times overlap, the first note will be
| | 02:20 | truncated when the second note begins.
| | 02:23 | So we can look up right here and see how
this is notated before we Allow Note Overlap.
| | 02:29 | When we activate the Note Overlap, Pro
Tools displays the full length of any
| | 02:35 | overlapping notes using tied notes.
| | 02:37 | So you see a lot more ties in here.
| | 02:40 | That makes this part much more tricky to read.
| | 02:44 | Plus, it makes your score
look much more congested.
| | 02:46 | So I usually keep this unchecked.
| | 02:50 | Finally, we can set the Split Point.
| | 02:52 | By default, it's usually fixed at C3.
| | 02:56 | However, you can choose Automatic,
and Pro Tools will split up the way it
| | 03:00 | feels like it should.
| | 03:02 | If we look at the top staff here, this
could be pretty confusing to read a piano
| | 03:06 | part that's split up like this.
| | 03:09 | So we might want to choose a different
fixed value, maybe something lower than
| | 03:14 | C3, so that all the notes are up on the
same staff to make it easier to read.
| | 03:22 | With C2 as the fixed split point, you
can see all of the notes up here on this
| | 03:27 | one staff, and it's much easier to read.
| | 03:31 | Now let's go over to the attributes.
| | 03:33 | If you want to set up different
attributes for selected tracks than what are in
| | 03:37 | the Globals settings, then you can do that here.
| | 03:41 | So instead of choosing Follow Globals,
we can set for this Mini Grand different
| | 03:46 | settings than we could for a different track.
| | 03:50 | I'm going to close this, and now
let's choose one more thing from
| | 03:56 | the right-click menu: Score Setup.
| | 04:00 | You can also choose this from the File menu:
| | 04:03 | File > Score Setup.
| | 04:07 | In here we can add a title,
and we can add the composer.
| | 04:12 | Let me it scroll over to the beginning
of the track here, and you'll see that
| | 04:22 | the score is automatically
updated with this information.
| | 04:25 | We can also choose what to display here.
| | 04:28 | We can turn certain things off, like
if I don't want to show the title and
| | 04:31 | composer, I could turn that off.
| | 04:33 | We can set up the spacing in the
score and set up the layout as well.
| | 04:38 | I will leave these to you to set it up, but
this is where you can do it. So there you go.
| | 04:45 | That's how you set up a score in Pro Tools.
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| Printing and exporting a score| 00:00 | In addition to editing MIDI notes in
Pro Tools, the Score Editor enables you to
| | 00:04 | export the score to Sibelius,
| | 00:06 | an advanced notation software
program, for further tweaking.
| | 00:10 | You can also print out the
score directly from Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | Before printing or exporting, you
might want to rename the tracks, and to do
| | 00:19 | that it's very simple.
| | 00:20 | You can just go up to the name
of the track and double-click.
| | 00:23 | You also may want to alter the
tracks that are shown on the score.
| | 00:30 | Right now, we've got all of the tracks
shown, but maybe we just want to print
| | 00:34 | out the piano part.
| | 00:36 | So all we need to do is click
these circles to either include or not
| | 00:40 | include them in the score.
| | 00:42 | If you'd like to do some fine-tuning
or tweaking to the score, or individual
| | 00:46 | parts, you may want to use
Sibelius notation program to do this.
| | 00:50 | You can export this file directly to
Sibelius to utilize the more advanced
| | 00:54 | notation function in the program, if
you go to File > Export > Sibelius.
| | 01:02 | And here you can save it as something
and then import it into Sibelius.
| | 01:06 | For an even more direct route, if
you want to send this file directly to
| | 01:10 | Sibelius that's open on your computer
right now, you can go to File > Send
| | 01:17 | to Sibelius.
| | 01:19 | Now, we don't have Sibelius on this
computer, so it won't let us do it, but if
| | 01:22 | you did, you could go up to it right here.
| | 01:25 | Finally, if we want to print out the
score directly from Pro Tools, we can
| | 01:29 | choose File > Print Score.
| | 01:33 | Doing this will print exactly what
appears on the screen in the Score Editor
| | 01:37 | window--nothing more or nothing less.
| | 01:40 | Now you know how to notate MIDI
performances and set up a score in Pro Tools, and
| | 01:45 | you can even export and print
that score directly from Pro Tools.
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|
|
10. AutomationWriting and editing automation| 00:01 | In Pro Tools, you can automate
just about any parameter you want.
| | 00:04 | You can program Pro Tools to remember
volume, panning, muting, send levels, send
| | 00:10 | trims, send mute, send panning, as
well as any MIDI data, such as velocity,
| | 00:17 | volume, muting, panning, pitch bend,
program changes, and a variety of others.
| | 00:24 | In this video, I am going to show you
how to create and edit automation data in
| | 00:27 | real-time while the session is playing back.
| | 00:31 | Automation data is stored on
automation playlists in each track.
| | 00:35 | You can view the automation playlists
by selecting the automation type from the
| | 00:39 | Track View selector.
| | 00:41 | So, here if I want to choose volume,
I can choose that, and the volume line
| | 00:46 | shows up as a straight line before
we've added any automation to it.
| | 00:50 | If we adjust this level, the volume goes down.
| | 00:56 | You can also show multiple automation
lanes by clicking on the Plus button right
| | 01:01 | over here and adding other lanes of automation.
| | 01:05 | There are five main
automation modes in Pro Tools:
| | 01:08 | automation off, read, touch, latch and write.
| | 01:13 | Touch/latch and trim are two features
that are only specific to the Complete
| | 01:19 | Production Toolkit and Pro Tools HD,
and we are not going to get into those here.
| | 01:23 | So let's focus on the other five.
| | 01:26 | Auto off turns off the automation on a track.
| | 01:29 | The automation lane names get grayed out
and become italicized, as you can see here.
| | 01:35 | Auto read tells Pro Tools to read the
automation data that's on the track.
| | 01:39 | That's the default automation mode.
| | 01:42 | There are three ways that we are
going to cover that you can use to create
| | 01:45 | automation data, and that
is touch, latch, and write.
| | 01:50 | Auto write is used for the first time
you create automation data on a track, or
| | 01:54 | when you want to completely write
over a track's existing automation.
| | 01:59 | Auto touch writes automation data only
while a fader or switch is touched or
| | 02:04 | clicked with the mouse.
| | 02:06 | Faders and switches return to any
previously automated position after
| | 02:10 | they've been released.
| | 02:12 | Auto latch writes automation data only
if you touch or move a fader or switch.
| | 02:17 | However, you don't need to keep
touching the controls after you've moved them
| | 02:22 | like you would in auto touch.
| | 02:23 | The control stays in the position
where you released it, rather than reverting
| | 02:28 | to previously saved data, and I am going to
show you how all of these work here in a second.
| | 02:33 | So, let's create some
automation data on this bass track.
| | 02:37 | First, we want to go to
Window and choose Automation.
| | 02:42 | This opens up the Automation window.
| | 02:45 | Here we want to make sure that the
automation type that we want to record is armed.
| | 02:50 | When these buttons are red like this,
it means they are enabled to record.
| | 02:55 | If we click one, and it turns gray,
then that means that it's not armed for
| | 03:00 | recording automation.
| | 03:02 | Now, we should choose an automation
mode, and I am going to go to auto write,
| | 03:06 | and I am going to automate the volume,
so I am going to open up this right here
| | 03:12 | and use this fader to control the volume.
| | 03:16 | To create and record automation data,
you don't actually have to press Record.
| | 03:20 | You only have to press Play and move the
automation controls with your mouse or
| | 03:24 | your control surface.
| | 03:25 | So, now I am going to press Play and move this
fader and adjust the volume on the bass track.
| | 03:31 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:46 | All you've got to do is press Stop
when you finished, and you've written
| | 03:50 | your automation data.
| | 03:51 | Now, you notice that Pro Tools
automatically switched over to Auto latch mode
| | 03:56 | after writing the automation, and
that's because of a preference that you can
| | 04:00 | choose in the Mixing page of the Preferences.
| | 04:02 | If we go to Setup > Preferences > Mixing
page > After Write Pass, Switch to Latch.
| | 04:12 | Now, we could also choose Touch or No
Change if we want, but we'll keep it as Latch.
| | 04:16 | Now, why do we care about this?
| | 04:19 | Well, let me show you.
| | 04:21 | If I were to press Play right now, and
this were in auto write mode, it would
| | 04:27 | completely write over
everything that we just created.
| | 04:31 | However, if the writing mode switches
over to latch or touch, then we actually
| | 04:36 | have to move the fader or grab the
mouse to actually change this data;
| | 04:39 | thus, we won't overwrite this data by
accident. But now I am actually going to
| | 04:44 | overwrite it in latch mode and
show you what that looks like.
| | 04:47 | So I am going to switch back to latch mode,
and again, I am going to use this fader.
| | 04:53 | You'll see that if I let go of
the mouse while I am writing this
| | 04:57 | automation, the automation will stay
at one value and create a solid line
| | 05:02 | until I move it again.
| | 05:03 | So, I am going to press Play
and record some automation.
| | 05:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:21 | So you can see over here, where
I applied the latch automation.
| | 05:25 | I brought it down to this level and
let it go, and it stayed there, and then I
| | 05:29 | moved it up here, and it stayed at that value.
| | 05:32 | Now, I am going to try auto touch, and
watch as the automation data reverts back
| | 05:37 | to the prewritten automation data
when I let go of the mouse on this Fader.
| | 05:41 | Switch it to touch.
| | 05:46 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:00 | So you can see in these little
peaks here, I raised the volume, and Pro
| | 06:05 | Tools automatically brought it back
down to this latched value that I'd
| | 06:10 | recorded previously.
| | 06:11 | Now, when you create automation, you
create a series of break points on the
| | 06:16 | automation playlists.
| | 06:18 | Although the automation data may
look like a line, it's actually made up of
| | 06:21 | individual points that are finite
values for the automation parameter.
| | 06:26 | Let's zoom in and take a look.
| | 06:27 | So you can see the breakpoints right here.
| | 06:35 | One of the limitations of Pro Tools is
that all edit playlists on a single audio
| | 06:39 | track share the same automation data.
| | 06:43 | So if we had multiple playlists of this
bass track, which in fact we do, each of
| | 06:48 | the performances share
the same automation data.
| | 06:51 | Now, if you want to try out different
automation on a track, make a duplicate
| | 06:56 | track using the Track > Duplicate
command up here: Track > Duplicate.
| | 07:03 | Creating automation during real-
time playback is a lot of fun.
| | 07:07 | It also can add a lot of energy to a mix
| | 07:08 | and can actually turn the mix
process into more of a performance.
| | 07:12 | Definitely get to know your
automation modes and how to use them.
| | 07:16 | Your songs will sound better when you
utilize them to add dynamic elements
| | 07:19 | to your mixes.
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| Drawing automation with the Pencil tool| 00:01 | Having worked tediously with other
types of automation systems on analog mixing
| | 00:05 | boards, I think graphical editing
of automation data is one of the best
| | 00:09 | features of Pro Tools.
| | 00:12 | Here I'll show you how to use the Pencil
tool to edit or draw new automation data.
| | 00:17 | Any of the top five pencil shapes
can be used to draw or edit automation.
| | 00:22 | Let's use the Free Hand tool first.
| | 00:24 | I am going to go down to this
bass track, and just click and draw.
| | 00:29 | I am going to draw in a fade out.
| | 00:34 | Pretty simple. Let's
hear what that sounds like.
| | 00:39 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:47 | Let's try out the Line Pencil
tool to draw in some automation
| | 00:51 | for a gradual pitch bend on the Drum track.
| | 00:55 | Go back to the beginning of the track,
and now let's hear what this Drum track
| | 01:02 | sounds like with a pitch bend going on.
| | 01:03 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:12 | That sounds kind of cool.
| | 01:14 | Now, let's use the Square tool to create
some automation on the acoustic guitar tracks.
| | 01:22 | We'll go to the mute, and I am going
to draw in--just by clicking and dragging--
| | 01:31 | some mute automation.
| | 01:33 | You'll see a lot of lines in here, and
they are actually following this grid
| | 01:36 | value of 16th notes.
| | 01:37 | Let me zoom in, and you
can see what's going on here.
| | 01:42 | So it's muting every 16th note.
| | 01:46 | Let's take a listen to what that sounds like.
| | 01:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:58 | Let's try something different.
| | 02:00 | Let's go down to the B3 track
here, and I am going to create some
| | 02:05 | modulation wheel data.
| | 02:06 | Now, the mod wheel automation
actually affects the rotation of the rotary
| | 02:11 | speaker on the organ. And it will
affect the slow, brake, and fast settings.
| | 02:16 | So what I am going to do is actually
change the Grid value to 1 bar, and then
| | 02:26 | use the Triangle Pencil tool to draw
in some triangular-shaped automation by
| | 02:34 | clicking and dragging across the track.
| | 02:39 | Let's take a listen to that.
| | 02:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:55 | You can see this control right
here following this modulation data.
| | 02:58 | Now let's try one more thing.
| | 03:00 | I'll come down to the Synth track, and
we'll use the Random pencil shape to draw in
| | 03:08 | some panning effects.
| | 03:11 | So as it set now, it's still on whole note.
| | 03:16 | Now let's go over to the panning of the
right side, and I am going to change the
| | 03:21 | grid back to 16ths, and you'll see the
random panning being a lot more active.
| | 03:28 | Let's press Play and hear what it sounds like.
| | 03:31 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:42 | So that track is bouncing all over the
stereo field. And this effect will be
| | 03:46 | much more noticeable if you
are listening in headphones.
| | 03:49 | Drawing automation with the Pencil
tool can be a very creative process.
| | 03:53 | Have fun with it by adding some
more motion and life to your mixes.
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| Editing automation with the Trimmer and Grabber tools| 00:00 | The Trimmer and Grabber tools are both
very handy for editing automation data.
| | 00:05 | The grabber is great for creating
and moving individual breakpoints.
| | 00:09 | Let's zoom in on this track really
quick, and I'll get the Grabber tool.
| | 00:14 | You'll see the grabber turns into a
pointer when it gets close to automation data.
| | 00:19 | I can click on the track and create data points.
| | 00:24 | If I click and drag a point,
then I can move it all around.
| | 00:30 | This is really great for
fine-tuning your automation data.
| | 00:34 | With the trimmer, you can actually move
entire sections of the automation data.
| | 00:39 | So if I click and drag right here,
you'll see that Pro Tools shows you the
| | 00:45 | volume level as well as the difference.
| | 00:47 | The difference is that little triangle,
or the delta value, and you'll see right
| | 00:52 | here it's that -9.2 dB.
| | 00:55 | That's the difference between what the
original value was and where it's at now.
| | 01:00 | With the Trim tool, you can bring the
overall track level up or down while
| | 01:04 | keeping all of the relative
level automation. Let me show you.
| | 01:08 | I am going to zoom out all the way and
choose the Selector tool, select this
| | 01:14 | whole area, and then go back
to the trimmer, click, and drag.
| | 01:21 | You'll see that the shape of all of
the automation stays the same relatively,
| | 01:26 | but it's all moving down by 10.9 dB.
| | 01:29 | Now you'll notice at the end of the
selected area new automation break points
| | 01:34 | were made, and that's clear over here.
| | 01:37 | I'll zoom in on it, so you can see it.
| | 01:39 | This is a new automation data
point that Pro Tools created.
| | 01:43 | If you want to suppress the creation of
these break points, you can press Alt in
| | 01:48 | Windows or Option in Mac
while using the trimmer.
| | 01:52 | So if we actually undo this trim
automation, you'll see there's no data point
| | 01:58 | there, and I'll zoom back out.
| | 02:00 | I am going to press Option on the Mac
or Alt in Windows, and I'll bring this
| | 02:05 | down, and you see at the beginning,
over here, the break point was not created;
| | 02:11 | instead, the automation goes back to the very
beginning level where there is a break point.
| | 02:16 | The Trimmer and the Grabber tool certainly
have a lot of uses in the realm of automation.
| | 02:21 | Practice these techniques, and you'll
be able to edit automation very quickly.
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| Cutting, copying, pasting, and clearing automation| 00:00 | There're many ways to cut, copy, paste, and
clear--or delete--automation data in Pro Tools.
| | 00:06 | For instance, let's look at some of
the ways to delete automation data.
| | 00:10 | You can remove a single breakpoint by
Option+clicking in Mac, or Alt+clicking in
| | 00:14 | Windows, the breakpoint with
the Grabber or the Pencil tool.
| | 00:17 | I'm going to take the grabber, come down
here and press Option, and you'll see a
| | 00:23 | little Negative sign.
| | 00:24 | That means that if we click it,
that data point will go away.
| | 00:29 | With the Pencil tool, same deal. If I
press Option on a Mac or press Alt in
| | 00:34 | Windows, the pencil turns upside
down into an eraser, and I can click and
| | 00:40 | delete automation points.
| | 00:42 | You can remove several breakpoints at
once, or all of them, by selecting a range
| | 00:47 | of breakpoints with the selector and
then choosing Delete or pressing Backspace.
| | 00:52 | So here, I have selected some
data points. Boom! They're gone.
| | 00:56 | You can remove all automation for
all automation playlists on a track by
| | 01:00 | selecting a range of breakpoints with
the selector and pressing Ctrl+Backspace
| | 01:05 | in Windows or Command+Delete on a Mac.
| | 01:09 | In contrast to deleting automation
data, removing data with the Cut command
| | 01:13 | creates anchor breakpoints at the
boundaries of the remaining data.
| | 01:17 | Let's look at the difference.
| | 01:19 | If I select this area and choose Cut,
you'll see that the Pro Tools adds in
| | 01:25 | breakpoints at the ends of the selected area.
| | 01:27 | So I'll go up here and choose Cut.
| | 01:29 | I'll zoom in on that.
| | 01:32 | So you'll see the breakpoints
that Pro Tools added at that cut area.
| | 01:38 | If I undo that, and then decide just to
delete it, Pro Tools connects the dots
| | 01:44 | between the two closest automation
data points, but does not create new ones.
| | 01:49 | It's a slight difference, but
one that you should be aware of.
| | 01:52 | Note that when you cut, copy, or paste
a section of the track while you are in
| | 01:56 | the master view--that is waveform
or block view on an audio track...
| | 02:00 | we'll go to Waveform view--all of
the automation data associated with that
| | 02:06 | track section goes with the track.
| | 02:08 | So if I cut this and then paste it
over here and go back to the volume
| | 02:18 | automation, you'll see that the volume
automation was taken away from here, and
| | 02:23 | then it was cut and pasted over here.
| | 02:26 | In addition to the regular Cut, Copy,
Paste, and Clear commands, Pro Tools
| | 02:31 | has Cut Special, Copy Special, Paste
Special, and Clear Special, right down
| | 02:37 | here in the Edit menu.
| | 02:39 | These are used especially for
editing automation playlists.
| | 02:43 | Let's look at an example.
| | 02:44 | I'm going to go down here to the synth
track and check out the panning data that
| | 02:51 | we have here. I'm to going to the
select this area of the panning data and
| | 02:56 | choose Copy Special > Pan Automation.
| | 03:01 | Then I'm going to go down to this area,
select and highlight this whole big spot
| | 03:09 | and choose Paste Special > Repeat to
Fill Selection, and you can see that Pro
| | 03:16 | Tools pastes in multiple copies, in
a row, of that panning automation.
| | 03:22 | The Paste Special command also allows
you to paste to the current automation
| | 03:26 | type, which pastes any type of
automation data or MIDI controller data to any
| | 03:31 | other type of automation
or controller data type.
| | 03:34 | So with this data highlighted, I'm
going to choose Copy, switch over to audio
| | 03:42 | volume and choose Paste
Special > To Current Automation Type.
| | 03:49 | Now, that panning data is
pasted here as volume data.
| | 03:53 | There are many ways to
edit automation in Pro Tools.
| | 03:56 | Use the techniques and features
shown here to creatively fine-tune
| | 04:00 | your automation data.
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| Turning automation on and off| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to
cover how to turn on and off certain
| | 00:03 | automation features.
| | 00:05 | As you know, to play back the
automation on a track, you put the track into
| | 00:09 | Auto Read mode, and Auto Off mode
turns off automation for all automated
| | 00:13 | controls on the track.
| | 00:15 | If I turn that to off, then this gets grayed out.
| | 00:19 | Moving beyond these basic automation
modes, you can also suspend the writing
| | 00:24 | or playback of specific types of
automation data on all tracks or individual tracks.
| | 00:30 | Now why would you want to do that?
| | 00:31 | Well, in case you don't want to hear
certain types of automation while you play
| | 00:35 | it back, or you don't want to
accidentally write over existing automation data,
| | 00:40 | to suspend automation writing on all
tracks, select Window > Automation and
| | 00:47 | then click on Suspend to suspend all
automation writing on all tracks. Or you
| | 00:53 | can click on specific types of automation to
suspend writing of that type of automation.
| | 01:03 | To suspend the playback and writing of
automation on individual tracks, first
| | 01:07 | set the track view selector in the
Edit window to display the automation
| | 01:11 | parameters that you want to suspend.
| | 01:12 | So in this case, I'm going
to show volume and muting.
| | 01:21 | I'm also going to show volume
on these Acoustic Guitar tracks.
| | 01:25 | I want to make these smaller,
so we can see more on the screen.
| | 01:30 | You should note that these acoustic
guitar tracks are grouped, and that's going
| | 01:34 | to come in to play here in the second.
| | 01:36 | So now we can Command+click on a Mac
or Ctrl+click in Windows on a parameter
| | 01:41 | name to suspend writing and playback of
only the displayed automation parameter,
| | 01:47 | and this action of bass edit
groups, except for pan automation.
| | 01:50 | So I'm going to go up here and Command+
click, and that's on a Mac, and you can
| | 01:56 | Ctrl+click in Windows.
| | 01:57 | You will see that this gets grayed out,
and italicized and so now the volume
| | 02:02 | automation is deactivated.
| | 02:04 | To activate it again, I
just reverse what I just did.
| | 02:07 | So I'll Command+click or Ctrl+click.
| | 02:11 | Now it's active again.
| | 02:12 | If I Command+Shift+click on a Mac
or Ctrl+Shift+click in Windows any
| | 02:17 | parameter name, I'll suspend
writing and playback of all automation
| | 02:21 | parameters on that track.
| | 02:23 | So, we'll go down here and do that.
| | 02:26 | You'll see that all of the automation
parameters are now grayed out and italicized.
| | 02:32 | So they're not active.
| | 02:34 | Now we'll undo that using the
Command+Shift+click in the Mac or
| | 02:38 | Ctrl+Shift+clicking in Windows.
| | 02:41 | Finally, if we Command+Option+click on
a Mac or Ctrl+Alt+click in Windows on a
| | 02:46 | parameter name, we'll suspend the
writing and playback of only the displayed
| | 02:51 | automation parameter on all tracks.
| | 02:53 | So I'm going to do that here on the
bass track, and you'll see that the
| | 02:57 | volume automation on the acoustic
guitar as well as the bass and all the
| | 03:00 | other tracks is deactivated.
| | 03:02 | I'm going to undo that.
| | 03:05 | Now let's pop over to the Mix window.
| | 03:08 | Similar to the suspend automation
commands we just mentioned, you can also put
| | 03:12 | outputs, sends and plug-ins into
automation safe mode to protect their
| | 03:17 | automation data from accidentally
being overwritten while automating other
| | 03:20 | parameters on the track.
| | 03:22 | I'm going to click right here on this Output
Window button and click on the Safe button.
| | 03:28 | This means that the output is put into
automation safe mode and automation data
| | 03:33 | on the track's level, mute,
et cetera can't be changed.
| | 03:37 | The same goes for sends and plug-ins.
| | 03:39 | So if I open up this send and hit Safe,
now it's on automation safe and up here,
| | 03:47 | I can hit Safe, and
that's in automation safe mode.
| | 03:51 | So use these suspend automation and
automation safe features to assist you in
| | 03:56 | writing and protecting
automation data in your sessions.
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| Automating plug-ins and virtual instruments| 00:00 | In addition to being able to automate
track parameters, you can also automate any
| | 00:04 | parameter in a plug-in or virtual instrument.
| | 00:08 | The quickest way to enable automation on
all of a plug-in's parameters is to do
| | 00:12 | it automatically by choosing Setup >
Preferences, and on the Mixing page,
| | 00:18 | choosing Plug-in Controls
Default to Auto-Enabled.
| | 00:23 | So when you go to open up a plug-in
for the first time, you'll see that all of
| | 00:28 | the plug-in parameters
are enabled to be automated.
| | 00:31 | And you can tell in this one by all
these green dots and all these green boxes.
| | 00:37 | That means that all of these
parameters are ready to be automated.
| | 00:40 | If you don't want to use that
preference, here is how to enable individual
| | 00:45 | parameters on a plug-in.
| | 00:46 | I am going to open up this filter
gate, and then I am going to hit the
| | 00:51 | Automation enable button in the Plug-in window.
| | 00:55 | This window enables you to select the
parameters that you want to automate for
| | 00:58 | each plug-in on that track.
| | 00:59 | You can select the parameter over here
on the left, click the Add button, and
| | 01:05 | then it will be added over
on the column on the right.
| | 01:07 | Now all five of these
parameters are ready to be automated.
| | 01:11 | When you're done, you can click OK.
| | 01:15 | To skip this step and enable all of a
plug-ins parameters for automation, you
| | 01:19 | can press Command+Option+Ctrl on a Mac
or Ctrl+Alt+Start in Windows, and click
| | 01:26 | on the Plug-in Automation enable button.
| | 01:29 | Everything thing that I've shown you
here regarding plug-in automation applies
| | 01:33 | to virtual instruments too.
| | 01:34 | Let's take a look at the Edit window
here for a second and check out all
| | 01:38 | the automation that I've got going
to here, for both a plug-in and a
| | 01:42 | virtual instrument.
| | 01:45 | You'll notice that the first two
automation lines are for the Xpand2 virtual
| | 01:48 | instrument, and then down further I have
some parameters for the AIR filter gate.
| | 01:53 | Notice that there is no difference
in appearance between the types of
| | 01:56 | automation for a plug-in and a virtual
instrument; they're just like what they
| | 02:01 | look like on an audio track.
| | 02:03 | What that means is that we can actually
write and edit automation on plug-ins and
| | 02:07 | virtual instruments in just the same way
as you've done it for say volume and mute
| | 02:12 | on any other type of track.
| | 02:14 | So let's hear some of this
automation data on the plug-in and the virtual
| | 02:18 | instrument, and we'll watch the
virtual instrument and the plug-in parameters
| | 02:21 | change as the track plays.
| | 02:22 | So I am going to open up Xpand,
bring this down, and you'll see the plug-in
| | 02:30 | parameters change here in the smart knobs.
| | 02:32 | Then I want to open up this filter gate,
and I need to switch this to part A in
| | 02:42 | the Xpand to watch the right
parameters change. Here we go.
| | 02:46 | (Audio playing.)
| | 03:32 | Aside from the drum loop, all you heard
here in this session was two notes being
| | 03:36 | held on the Xpand to plug-in
routed through the filter gate plug-in.
| | 03:41 | All of the automated parameters
changed the sound pretty drastically from the
| | 03:45 | beginning to the end.
| | 03:46 | As you get more familiar with mixing
using automation, you'll see how useful
| | 03:50 | each of these automation features are,
and how creative you can get with them.
| | 03:54 | The power you have over
your music is truly incredible.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. Mixing and MasteringSetting up a session for mixing| 00:00 | A mix is the combination of the
recorded tracks in a session, reduced to two
| | 00:04 | tracks for stereo playback, or to six
or eight tracks for surround playback.
| | 00:10 | The goal of any mix is to create a
total sound that helps support the purpose
| | 00:14 | of the song, putting the listener
into an appealing acoustical space by
| | 00:17 | adjusting the volume levels, panning,
EQ, and effects of individual sounds in a
| | 00:23 | creative and appealing way, while giving each
element it's own place in the final soundscape.
| | 00:28 | Before starting a mix of your own song
in Pro Tools, I recommend listening to
| | 00:32 | some reference mixes; listen to
songs that you know very well.
| | 00:36 | Most professional mixers have several
CDs of music that they know intimately,
| | 00:41 | and they reference these
from time to time when mixing.
| | 00:43 | In fact, you may even want to import
the reference tracks into your mix session
| | 00:47 | for a direct comparison using
the File > Import > Audio command.
| | 00:52 | Check out the videos about
importing audio if you need more details.
| | 00:55 | Second, I recommend choosing some
songs that sounds similar to your current
| | 00:59 | project, or that have a sound
that you're aiming for in your mix.
| | 01:02 | For example, listen to the levels of
certain instruments, such as where the
| | 01:06 | vocal sits. Is it deep in the mix or
is it riding on top of the instruments?
| | 01:11 | Also, listen to the particular
stylistic effects, like how much reverb is
| | 01:14 | used on the snare drum.
| | 01:16 | Once you've got some reference mixes in
mind, we can go to Pro Tools, and we'll go
| | 01:21 | to the Edit window here.
| | 01:22 | The first thing you should do before
starting your mix is check your edits.
| | 01:26 | You should use fades and crossfades to
make sure there are no stray clicks
| | 01:29 | and pops at any edit point.
| | 01:31 | So, for example, if I zoom in here, you can
see that there is no fade here, so I am
| | 01:36 | going to go up to the smart tool here
and click and drag and create a fade-in.
| | 01:42 | So that makes sure that there is no
click or pop at the beginning of this region.
| | 01:47 | You may also consider consolidating
multiple regions on one track into one region.
| | 01:52 | This can save on processing
power, and it also looks cleaner.
| | 01:56 | So I'm going to zoom out, and on this
particular track, I'm going to select all
| | 02:01 | of the material, so I'm going to Shift+Click.
| | 02:04 | Before consolidating, I am going to
make a duplicate playlist, so that I always
| | 02:09 | have the original playlist underneath.
| | 02:11 | So now it's ready to consolidate, so
I'll choose Edit > Consolidate Region, and
| | 02:19 | Pro Tools will create a brand-
new whole file audio region.
| | 02:22 | Now let's go over to the mix window.
| | 02:24 | I want to make sure there
our session is organized nicely.
| | 02:28 | Having your tracks in a logical order
makes it easier for you to move around
| | 02:32 | your session when you're mixing.
| | 02:34 | So first you want to make sure that
your tracks are labeled, and if you need to
| | 02:38 | rename any track, you can just
double-click on it and name it.
| | 02:42 | And also make sure that you have a
stereo master fader track in the session,
| | 02:46 | which I have right here.
| | 02:47 | This track allows you to monitor the
stereo output from the session and control
| | 02:51 | it with just one fader.
| | 02:53 | You can see all the tracks here have
their outputs set to Analog 1 and 2, and the
| | 02:58 | master fader receives Analog 1 and 2.
| | 03:00 | So all of the signals from all of the
tracks here are routed through this master
| | 03:04 | fader track, so we can use this fader
volume to adjust the overall output level.
| | 03:10 | Another good tool for organizing
your mix session is creating groups.
| | 03:14 | And we can go down here. I'm going to
select all three of these tracks. I'm
| | 03:18 | pressing Shift as I click on the name of
the tracks. I'm going to choose Track >
| | 03:23 | Group, and call this Keys, so these are
all the keyboard tracks. I'll just hit OK.
| | 03:31 | And you've seen the video before on
the groups. If you need more information,
| | 03:34 | check out that video.
| | 03:36 | And one of the great features that I
like about using groups is that you can go
| | 03:40 | down here into the Groups list and hit
Ctrl--either on Mac or Windows--and show
| | 03:46 | just this group in the mix window.
| | 03:49 | This makes it really easy to
focus in just on this group.
| | 03:52 | I am going to go back to showing
all by Ctrl+Clicking the All group.
| | 03:56 | And one other thing that you see up
here in this session already is that I've
| | 04:00 | got some effects loop setup.
| | 04:01 | You can set these up for any reverb,
delay, or chorus effects, and I am going to
| | 04:05 | show you how to do this in a separate video.
| | 04:08 | And finally, as one of the last steps
before you begin your mix, you might
| | 04:11 | consider adding EQ and compression plug-
ins onto a lot of the individual tracks,
| | 04:17 | where you think that you're going to use them.
| | 04:18 | Having EQ and compression on tracks
is a standard feature on analog mixing
| | 04:22 | boards, and we can mimic that here in Pro Tools.
| | 04:26 | First, let's go up to the Setup >
Preferences, and on the Mixing page, we can
| | 04:30 | choose the default EQ and dynamics plug-ins.
| | 04:34 | From this menu, I am going to choose EQ
3 7-Band, and I'm also going to choose
| | 04:40 | the Compressor/Limiter Dyn 3.
| | 04:42 | Now these are our default EQ and
dynamics, and let me show you where they
| | 04:47 | show up in the mix page.
| | 04:49 | If we go up to the Inserts, and on
the first insert, I'm going to click on
| | 04:54 | Insert A, and you'll see right here at
the top, these are our defaults, so they
| | 04:59 | are right at the top of the list.
| | 05:01 | This saves us from having to go through
the whole list of choosing plug-ins, so
| | 05:06 | we can choose to insert these
plug-ins right on the tracks.
| | 05:10 | Also, if you like to use compression or
EQ on your overall mix, you should add it
| | 05:15 | onto the stereo master fader before you
even start mixing, so that you know how
| | 05:20 | the mix sounds with it on from the
very beginning of your mixing session.
| | 05:24 | Otherwise, if you add the effect in
later, your entire mix will change, and you
| | 05:28 | might have to redo a bunch of work.
| | 05:30 | Now, let's talk about some mixing terms.
| | 05:33 | Panning is used to play sound sources
on the left side, right side, or anywhere
| | 05:37 | in between two speakers.
| | 05:39 | In our session here, we can use these
pan pots to adjust the panning of any
| | 05:43 | track in our session.
| | 05:44 | We've the left pan knob and the right
pan knob, and this is for a stereo track.
| | 05:48 | If we have a mono track, we'll have one
knob that will place the track anywhere
| | 05:52 | from the left side to the
right side in the stereo image.
| | 05:55 | Now, I recommend spreading out the
instruments in the stereo field, and kind
| | 05:59 | of envisioning what it would look like with
all these instruments playing at once onstage.
| | 06:04 | Usually vocals, lead instruments,
kick drum, and snare, are panned to the
| | 06:08 | center, but there really are no
panning rules for any type of track.
| | 06:12 | Another key term in mixing his EQ positioning.
| | 06:15 | EQ positioning means adjusting the
frequency content of the tracks in your
| | 06:19 | session so they don't
interfere with each other very much.
| | 06:22 | This is sometimes referred to as
carving EQ holes, and I'll discuss this
| | 06:26 | technique in another video on
the course about applying EQ.
| | 06:30 | The third mixing term that
I want to discuss is depth.
| | 06:33 | Depth refers to the feeling that a sound
source is close to or distant from the listener.
| | 06:38 | Depth is created using reverb and delay
affects, and I'll be discussing those in
| | 06:42 | another video in this course.
| | 06:44 | Use these three dimensions to envision
the physical layout of all the tracks in
| | 06:48 | your Pro Tools session, and to
balance the sound sources visually.
| | 06:52 | So when you're mixing in Pro Tools,
here is the general procedure of how you
| | 06:56 | want to go about it.
| | 06:57 | Note that these steps don't need to be
performed in this particular order, and
| | 07:01 | that some steps will
probably overlap each other.
| | 07:03 | First, you want to create a rough
balance using volume levels and panning.
| | 07:07 | Then you should apply EQ, making
room for each instrument in the
| | 07:11 | frequency spectrum.
| | 07:12 | Next, you can add dynamic processing, which is
compression, limiting, gates, and expansion.
| | 07:17 | Follow that with adding depth and
special effects, like reverb, delay,
| | 07:21 | chorus, and flanging.
| | 07:23 | Then you can set your final levels and
use automation wherever it's necessary.
| | 07:27 | Then you can bounce down your mix and
check it against reference mixes and on
| | 07:31 | different playback systems.
| | 07:33 | Finally, revisit the mix to fix any issues.
| | 07:36 | I recommend keeping your original mix
and using the File > Save as command for
| | 07:41 | any new mix that you create.
| | 07:43 | If you can keep your mix process
loosely aligned with the steps outlined here,
| | 07:47 | you'll be on the path to creating
excellent sounding mixes in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up an effects loop| 00:00 | Knowing how to set up an effects loop
is a key mixing technique often used for
| | 00:05 | adding reverb or delay to a mix.
| | 00:07 | An effects loop enables multiple tracks
to access one effects processor or plug-in.
| | 00:12 | This saves a lot of computer processing power.
| | 00:15 | It also gives you a lot of control over
the sound of the mix and can unify the
| | 00:19 | overall sound of a mix.
| | 00:21 | Let's talk about the
components used in an effects loop.
| | 00:24 | First, we have the send.
| | 00:25 | A send makes a copy of the track
and routes it to an output or a bus.
| | 00:30 | Let's go create one.
| | 00:32 | On this particular track I am going to
go to SEND A, and if you don't see the
| | 00:36 | sends on your track, you can go to
View > Mix Window shows sends A-E.
| | 00:43 | There is also sends F-J, so we
have a total of 10 sends per track.
| | 00:47 | So I am going to go down here to send
A > click and choose bus 1-2, and that
| | 00:56 | opens up the Send control.
| | 00:58 | In the Send control, we've got a lot of options.
| | 01:02 | I am just going to adjust a
couple of them really quick.
| | 01:03 | First, I am going to adjust the
panning. I am going to pan this exactly the
| | 01:08 | same as what the track is over here all the way
to the left, and I am going to boost the level.
| | 01:13 | We will go up to about 8.9.
| | 01:18 | As you can see here, I have got
sends on both the acoustic guitar tracks,
| | 01:22 | both routed to bus 1-2. Now what's a bus?
| | 01:26 | A bus carries a signal
somewhere, usually to another track.
| | 01:30 | I like to think of a bus as a pipeline,
or a path to get a signal somewhere else.
| | 01:35 | When you choose your bus, you can
actually choose mono or stereo, and we can
| | 01:40 | look at that here, Bus. So if we
choose bus 1, that's just a mono bus, but we
| | 01:46 | have bus 1-2, and that gives
us panning controls right here.
| | 01:51 | The third component of creating
an effects loop is called a return.
| | 01:56 | A return receives the signal that's on
the bus, and then it affects that signal
| | 02:02 | and routes the signal somewhere
else, usually to the main outputs.
| | 02:05 | I am going to close this really quick,
and we can look over here at the aux
| | 02:09 | track, and this is our return.
| | 02:13 | Notice how these sends are routed to bus 1-2.
| | 02:15 | Well this aux track, the input is
receiving bus 1-2, so the signal is returning
| | 02:23 | into the mix on bus 1-2, and this aux
track is routed to Analog 1-2, so it's
| | 02:29 | going to the main outputs.
| | 02:31 | So to recap, these tracks, the acoustic
guitar tracks, a copy of their signal is
| | 02:37 | being routed out to bus 1-2.
| | 02:40 | That signal is received here at the
aux track, and because we have up here a
| | 02:46 | D-Verb plug-in, we are
getting reverb on to the copies.
| | 02:51 | So this is a copy of both of the
acoustic guitar tracks coming through here,
| | 02:56 | sent through the reverb, and
let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 02:59 | I am going to solo the acoustic guitars
first, and then I'll add in the effect.
| | 03:04 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:30 | As you could hear when I was playing
this back, the auxiliary track fader
| | 03:35 | brought in and out the level of reverb.
And we can also adjust how much signal
| | 03:40 | from the acoustic guitar tracks gets
sent here, and that's in the Send controls.
| | 03:47 | We can use this level to send a
different amount to the auxiliary track.
| | 03:51 | Let me show you one cool little thing.
| | 03:53 | If you go to View > Sends A-E, right
now it's set to Assignment, so we can see
| | 03:59 | all 5 sends, but if we choose Send A
then we can open up these controls and not
| | 04:06 | really need these big send faders.
| | 04:09 | So we can create a little mix of how
much signal goes to the auxiliary track.
| | 04:13 | And the whole idea behind an effects
loop is to have both the affected, or the
| | 04:19 | wet signal which is coming from this
auxiliary track, as well as the unaffected
| | 04:25 | signal, which is coming from these two
tracks out of the main output, and mixing
| | 04:31 | those two together at the main output,
so you can control the level of both the
| | 04:35 | wet and the dry signals separately in the mix.
| | 04:38 | One other little Pro Tools trick here:
instead of having to solo the auxiliary
| | 04:43 | track, we can press Ctrl and click the
Solo button, and that makes it so that
| | 04:48 | it's grayed out, and that's called solo
safe, and that means that this aux track
| | 04:53 | will always be active even if I
solo other tracks in this session.
| | 04:56 | So let me show you.
| | 04:58 | I am going to press Play, and
you're still going to hear the effect.
| | 05:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:14 | Effects loops can either
be pre-fader or post-fader.
| | 05:19 | By default, any new send that you
assign in a session is set to post-fader.
| | 05:24 | However, you can change that by clicking
the Pre-button or this little P button.
| | 05:30 | This makes the send 'pre' if you choose it.
| | 05:33 | Let me explain this.
| | 05:36 | A signal routed through a send can
either be affected by the volume on the
| | 05:40 | track's volume fader down here, or not.
| | 05:44 | When it's affected by this fader down
here, it's called a post fader send.
| | 05:50 | If you hit the Pre button here, this
volume level on the track does not affect
| | 05:55 | how much signal is sent out onto this bus.
| | 05:58 | Pre fader sends route the signal onto
the bus before the signal is affected by
| | 06:03 | the volume fader, the Solo
button or the Mute button.
| | 06:07 | Whereas signals that are routed post
fader are affected by the volume fader,
| | 06:12 | Solo button and Mute button.
| | 06:15 | So why would you want to make a
send either a pre-fader or post-fader?
| | 06:19 | Pre-fader sends are the
default because in most instances
| | 06:23 | you'll want the levels of the unaffected
or the dry tracks and the affected or the
| | 06:28 | wet tracks to be controlled at the same time.
| | 06:31 | In our example here, if I mute the
guitar tracks, the dry guitar track is muted
| | 06:37 | and the reverbed wet signal is muted too.
| | 06:40 | That way you won't get a ghost in the
machine: a wet track without its dry counterpart.
| | 06:46 | Let's listen.
| | 06:47 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:51 | Oops, I am going to have to undo this.
| | 06:55 | Let's listen to these tracks in post
fader, so let me unclick that.
| | 07:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:03 | When the acoustic guitar tracks are
muted, the reverb effect is also muted
| | 07:09 | because there is no signal
being sent to it from these buses.
| | 07:13 | However, if we choose Pre so that both
of these are Pre fader, and we keep this
| | 07:20 | muted, now listen to what we are going to hear.
| | 07:22 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:31 | Now we are hearing just the
reverbed effect on the guitars.
| | 07:35 | Let me show you another cool example of
why we might want to use a pre-fader send.
| | 07:40 | I am going to undo that, unsolo that
and solo the drum track and make this pre -fader.
| | 07:52 | Now I'm going to actually want to
create this 'ghost in the machine' effect.
| | 07:57 | And this is when the original track
and the send copy can be relatively
| | 08:01 | independent of each other.
| | 08:02 | So here I have its set up so that
the drums will slowly disappear into a
| | 08:07 | reverbed background.
| | 08:09 | As I pull down the fader on the drum
track, the reverbed drum signal stays the
| | 08:14 | same level while the dry track fades
away, and you're only left with the wet,
| | 08:19 | or reverbed version.
| | 08:20 | Let's check it out.
| | 08:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:44 | You can create some pretty cool
effects with this signal routing.
| | 08:46 | And you should also note that all
inserts affect both pre-fader and post-
| | 08:51 | fader send signals.
| | 08:53 | So if I look up here, we have got
EQ on both of these guitar tracks.
| | 08:57 | So these EQ plug-ins are going to affect
the sound of the guitars that are sent,
| | 09:02 | no matter if these sends are pre or post-fader.
| | 09:05 | Now I have found that using effects
loops for reverb and delay effects actually
| | 09:10 | sounds better than using reverb and
delay plug-ins on individual tracks.
| | 09:15 | This setup tends to make the
mixes less muddy and have more impact.
| | 09:20 | I'm sure once you learn how to create
effects loops and understand the signal
| | 09:23 | routing involved, effects loops will
become an integral part of your own
| | 09:27 | personal mixing technique.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with plug-ins| 00:00 | Let's have a quick chat about several
plug-in features that are handy to know
| | 00:04 | when mixing, and really when
using Pro Tools in general.
| | 00:08 | First, that I want to show you that
what we have 10 inserts, or 10 places where
| | 00:12 | we can put plug-ins onto one individual track.
| | 00:16 | Right now, we're just showing inserts A-E,
but if we go to View > Mix window shows
| | 00:23 | INSERTS F-J, we can show all 10, and as
we add inserts down this row, that's how
| | 00:31 | they're processed on the track.
| | 00:33 | So the very first one is the
one that is processed first.
| | 00:37 | So if I go down here and add another
plug-in, lets say an EQ, then the track goes
| | 00:46 | through the phaser first, then to
the EQ, and then out the main outputs.
| | 00:54 | When you have a plug-in open and then
you open another plug-in, like this, the
| | 00:58 | first plug-in closes.
| | 01:00 | If you want to have both plug-ins
open at once, all you need to do is click
| | 01:04 | this Target button.
| | 01:06 | Now I can open the second one and have
both of them open at the same time.
| | 01:11 | This also applies to virtual
instruments, sends, and output windows.
| | 01:17 | So if I wanted to have this output
window open, I would need to also deactivate
| | 01:23 | the target to open up the second one.
| | 01:26 | If you Shift+Click on a plug-in, a
virtual instrument, a send, or an output window,
| | 01:30 | it will open with the
target already deactivated.
| | 01:33 | So I'm going to press
Shift and click on Expand here.
| | 01:36 | You'll see that the Target
button is already deactivated.
| | 01:41 | Close that. If you Option+Click on a
Mac or Alt+Click in Windows on the Close
| | 01:47 | button in a plug-in, a virtual
instrument, send, or an output window,
| | 01:51 | all of each type will close like this.
I am going to go to the Close button and
| | 01:56 | press Option on the Mac or Alt
on the PC and both plug-ins close.
| | 02:01 | You can do that also right here.
| | 02:05 | You can click and drag plug-ins, virtual
instruments, and sends from one position
| | 02:10 | on a track to another, or
from one track to another.
| | 02:15 | So I can click and drag this and move it, or
I can click and drag it over to another track,
| | 02:21 | assuming that it's the same number of
channels. So I have two mono tracks here,
| | 02:26 | as you can see by their fader, and
thus I can drag from one to the other.
| | 02:32 | If a press Option on a Mac or Alt in
Windows and then drag, it'll make an exact
| | 02:38 | copy of this plug-in on the other track.
| | 02:41 | Let's open up this plug-
in and talk about bypass.
| | 02:45 | Now bypassing a plug-in takes
the plug-in out of the signal path.
| | 02:49 | So if I hit the Bypass button, you
see that the plug-in turns dark blue.
| | 02:54 | Now you can use this feature to AB the
effect--that is to hear what the track
| | 02:59 | sounds like with and without the effect.
| | 03:02 | But you should note that bypassing a
plug-in does not reduce the processing
| | 03:06 | load on your computer.
| | 03:08 | Conversely, making a plug-in in active
does take the plug-in out of the signal
| | 03:13 | path and does not take up
any processing resources.
| | 03:17 | The plug-in settings are still saved with
the session though, so this is very handy.
| | 03:22 | I am going to go up here to the phaser,
and I am going to right-click, and here I
| | 03:27 | I'm going to choose Make
Inactive. This is indicated
| | 03:34 | here on the track by italicizing the
name of the plug-in and graying it out.
| | 03:38 | So now the plug-in is still on the track,
but it's not taking up any processing
| | 03:43 | power, and we can always just
right-click again and make it active.
| | 03:48 | Now it's back on the track, and
it's taking up processing power.
| | 03:52 | Now you can bypass or make inactive
virtual instruments, sends, and outputs just
| | 03:58 | like you can plug-ins.
| | 04:00 | Now if you don't want to do the right-
clicking, you can press command on a Mac, or
| | 04:04 | Ctrl in Windows, to bypass, or you can
hold down Ctrl and Command on a Mac, or
| | 04:11 | Ctrl and Start in Windows, while
clicking on an insert to make it inactive.
| | 04:16 | Let me show you what an inactive plug-
in looks like, if we open up the window.
| | 04:22 | It just tells you that it's inactive.
| | 04:24 | Use this button pushes and key
commands to become more efficient when using
| | 04:29 | plug-ins, virtual instruments,
and sends while you're mixing.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing ADC while mixing| 00:00 | In this video I want to talk about using
Automatic Delay Compensation, a feature
| | 00:05 | now standard in all versions of Pro Tools.
| | 00:07 | Host-based RTAS plug-ins and HD only
TDM plug-ins are both real-time effects;
| | 00:13 | it takes a little time for your computer to
process the audio signals that pass through them.
| | 00:18 | This processing delay can be measured
in number of samples or milliseconds, and
| | 00:23 | it can be significant.
| | 00:25 | Some plug-ins, like the stock EQ plug-
ins in Pro Tools, require very little
| | 00:29 | processing power and have zero delay.
| | 00:32 | However, processor-intensive plug-ins,
like pitch correction plug-ins, long delay
| | 00:36 | effects, look ahead mastering
limiters like the maxim plug-in, and noise
| | 00:41 | reduction plug-ins can
have much larger delay times.
| | 00:44 | For example, one instance of the maxim
plug-in has 1,024 samples of delay, and
| | 00:50 | the delay literally adds up. The total
delay of a track is equal to the sum of
| | 00:55 | all the delays from all of
the plug-ins on that track.
| | 00:59 | So you have three maxim plug-ins on one
track that will cause over 3,000 samples of delay.
| | 01:04 | Let's listen to an example here. I have
got two guitar tracks that are in sync
| | 01:09 | with each other, and I'll play
him in your hear how they sound.
| | 01:12 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:24 | Now if I go up here and I activate
three maxim plug-ins, now I have got over
| | 01:31 | 3,000 samples of delay time, and
let's hear how that affects the sound.
| | 01:36 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:47 | And you can hear that it obviously
affects the timing. The second guitar track
| | 01:51 | is far behind the first guitar track.
| | 01:55 | To combat this delay, Pro Tools can add
the same amount of delay to each track,
| | 01:59 | and this is called Automatic Delay Compensation.
| | 02:02 | Let's go up to the Options menu
and choose Delay Compensation.
| | 02:07 | Pro Tools will ask you if you want to open
the playback engine in order to enable it.
| | 02:11 | We'll say okay. And right here in the
middle of the window, you can choose
| | 02:15 | between None, Short, and Long.
| | 02:18 | None, allocates any resources
for Automatic Delay Compensation.
| | 02:22 | Short allocates a small amount of
resources for ADC, and it's more efficient
| | 02:27 | than the Long setting.
| | 02:28 | So you should use Short when you have a
smaller session with not very many plug-ins.
| | 02:33 | The Long setting allocates the
maximum amount of resources for ADC;
| | 02:38 | use this with larger
sessions with a lot of plug-ins.
| | 02:42 | Now we can see that 4,095 samples per
channel is the long value, and this value
| | 02:48 | will differ depending on the sample rate
of the session. But for this session, we
| | 02:52 | have 44.1 kHz as the sampling rate,
and that's the number of samples that we
| | 02:57 | have here, 4,095, for that
particular sampling rate in this session.
| | 03:01 | So I am going ahead and choose Long,
and Pro Tools will ask if I want to save
| | 03:07 | the session and then reopen it with
that Automatic Delay Compensation setting,
| | 03:11 | and I'll say yes, and I need to click
the OK button here, and Pro Tools will
| | 03:16 | reopen the session with the
Automatic Delay Compensation on.
| | 03:20 | And you'll notice one thing down here:
| | 03:22 | the delay compensation is shown
at the bottom of these tracks.
| | 03:26 | If you don't see this, you can go
to View > Mix Window Views, and choose
| | 03:31 | Delay Compensation.
| | 03:32 | Now let's talk about what's showing
down here. dly stands for delay, and that
| | 03:37 | shows the total plug-in and
hardware insert delay per track.
| | 03:42 | Green values mean that the delay is
enabled, but the track does not exceed the
| | 03:47 | Automatic Delay Compensation limit.
| | 03:49 | Orange, as we see on this acoustic
guitar track number two, means that the delay
| | 03:54 | is enabled and that particular track
has the longest delay of all the tracks,
| | 03:59 | but it still does not
exceed the maximum ADC limit.
| | 04:03 | If this were red, then it would show
that it's exceeding the ADC limit, and we
| | 04:07 | can do that by activating
this other maxim plug-in.
| | 04:12 | Now it's red, and you'll remember that
the maximum delay for this session was
| | 04:17 | 4,095 for the Long setting.
| | 04:21 | We have 4,096 here, so it exceeds it by one sample.
| | 04:24 | If these values were gray, then that
means that the track delay is bypassed.
| | 04:29 | Down below we have the plus and minus,
and this field enables you to manually
| | 04:33 | adjust the ADC by adding a user offset.
| | 04:37 | Now why would you do this?
| | 04:39 | If you had a plug-in that is incorrectly
recording its delay amount, you can add
| | 04:43 | or subtract values in here. Or if you
want to manually adjust the timing or the
| | 04:49 | feel of the track, you can click in here.
| | 04:51 | So I am going to click in there once,
and I can type in a number, or I can click
| | 04:56 | and move the mouse, or I can use the
up and down arrows to type in a value.
| | 05:02 | Hit Enter or Return to enter that value.
| | 05:05 | Below that we have the Track
Compensation Indicator, and this shows how much ADC
| | 05:10 | is applied to each track.
| | 05:12 | When it's green, that means that the
track does not exceed the ADC value.
| | 05:16 | It will turn blue if the ADC is force-
enabled, like if the track is record
| | 05:21 | enabled and ADC is not suspended.
| | 05:25 | And it will be red, as we can see here,
when the delay exceeds the ADC limit.
| | 05:31 | Again, it will turn gray if the track
delay is bypassed, and I will show you
| | 05:35 | how we can bypass the track
delay in just a few minutes.
| | 05:38 | So we are looking at these delay
compensation values in terms of samples.
| | 05:42 | Now if we wanted to look at it in
terms of milliseconds, we can do that.
| | 05:45 | If we go up to Set Up > Preferences,
and in the Operation page, you can go down
| | 05:51 | to this area, Delay Compensation Time
mode, and switch it to milliseconds.
| | 05:56 | Hit OK, and you'll see the delay
shown in milliseconds instead of samples.
| | 06:02 | And I am going to go up here and take
this last maxim, so that we actually have
| | 06:07 | delay compensation that is
working and is not exceeding the value.
| | 06:12 | And let me play this back for you with
the compensation in there, and you'll
| | 06:15 | hear that these two tracks are totally in time.
| | 06:18 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:30 | We can make the delay compensation
inactive for the moment, by just choosing
| | 06:35 | option Delay Compensation and
unchecking this, and you'll see these be grayed
| | 06:40 | out, and let's listen.
| | 06:41 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:48 | So obviously, we can hear the benefit
of activating the delay compensation.
| | 06:54 | In addition to accounting for delays
caused by plug-ins, Automatic Delay
| | 06:58 | Compensation also accounts for
delays in internal mixer routings due to
| | 07:02 | bussing and sends, as well as from hardware
inserts, and this is called the system delay.
| | 07:08 | We can view that by going to Setup > Session,
and we will see the system delay is shown here.
| | 07:14 | Now you'll notice that it's slightly
larger than the delay that's on these tracks.
| | 07:19 | These delay indicators on the tracks
don't show the entire system delay.
| | 07:23 | So if you really want to see the whole delay,
you've got to go to the Session Setup window.
| | 07:28 | So what happens if the total delay
on a track exceeds the ADC limit?
| | 07:32 | Now let's make that happen.
| | 07:34 | Go over here and activate this maxim
plug-ins, so now we have more delay than
| | 07:40 | can be accounted for by the ADC.
| | 07:42 | Well, if had out ADC setting at Short, we
could make it Long, and that would fix it.
| | 07:48 | Or now because we have it set at Long, there
is a different technique that we have to use.
| | 07:53 | So basically what we need to do is go
and bypass this delay, and I'll use Ctrl+
| | 07:59 | Command on my Mac and click
that, and it will gray it out.
| | 08:04 | On a PC, you would press Start+Ctrl,
and click that value. And then I am going
| | 08:10 | over to the Edit window, and I am going
to look at the beginning of this track.
| | 08:14 | I am actually going to have nudge this
audio data earlier in time, by the amount
| | 08:19 | of delay reported in the Track Delays Indicator;
| | 08:22 | that was 92 milliseconds.
| | 08:24 | So on a separate playlist, I made this happen.
| | 08:28 | I nudged the track ahead in time, and
now we can listen to these two tracks
| | 08:33 | playing in time, even though this has
been nudged, and it has all this delay on
| | 08:38 | it, because of all these maxims,
but they'll play in time together.
| | 08:41 | So I am going to press Play.
| | 08:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:54 | And it works. So Automatic Delay Compensation is a
great feature, and it can really help you
| | 09:00 | make your mix sound more
accurate and time-aligned.
| | 09:03 | I recommend activating ADC every time
you play back a session in Pro Tools, and
| | 09:08 | most importantly, when you're working on mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying EQ| 00:00 | Equalizers, or EQs, are used to boost or
cut selected frequencies within a signal.
| | 00:06 | In this video, I am going to show you
how to apply an EQ to an audio track, as
| | 00:10 | well as demonstrate some of the
more radical EQ plug-ins in Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | There are several reasons to apply EQ:
to improve the tone quality or timbre of
| | 00:18 | an instrument; to create a special
effect, like a telephone vocal sound; to help a
| | 00:23 | track stand out in the mix; to fix
mic choice and placement problems like
| | 00:27 | frequency, leakage, and noise issues;
to make up for inadequacies in the
| | 00:32 | recording equipment; to create a better
blend of instruments; and to improve the
| | 00:36 | sound of the overall mix if
applied to the master output.
| | 00:40 | Most home and car stereos have some
form of equalizers. Even the simplest bass
| | 00:44 | and treble controls are equalizers.
| | 00:47 | Their purpose is the same as the EQ
plug-ins that you use in Pro Tools;
| | 00:51 | however, Pro Tools mixing EQ tools are
more advanced and give us more control
| | 00:55 | over the EQ parameters, allowing us to alter
specific and controllable frequency ranges.
| | 01:01 | Let me show you how to apply EQ.
| | 01:03 | We'll start with the
stock 7-Band EQ in Pro Tools.
| | 01:06 | I've already got it inserted
on this acoustic guitar track.
| | 01:10 | This is a parametric EQ, which
enables us to control three parameters:
| | 01:15 | the central frequency--or freq--the
boost--or cut, the gain--and the width of
| | 01:21 | the effected frequency range--Q.
| | 01:24 | The central frequency is the
frequency that you want to adjust.
| | 01:27 | For example, say you want to reduce
the low end muddy frequencies on this
| | 01:32 | acoustic guitar track.
| | 01:33 | So let's go over here, and I am
going to choose 300 hertz, or thereabouts.
| | 01:38 | So by moving this, I moved this orange
circle, and I've set the center frequency
| | 01:43 | right around 300 hertz.
| | 01:44 | Gain is the amount of increase or
decrease in amplitude that we want to apply to
| | 01:49 | the center frequency.
| | 01:50 | If you want a slight reduction in the
guitar part, let's cut it by 1 to 3 db.
| | 01:55 | Or for a more drastic change, go down to 6 to 9.
| | 02:00 | The third parameter, Q, is the width of the
boost, or cut region, around the central frequency.
| | 02:07 | Right now, it's pretty wide, with a value of 1.
| | 02:11 | If we increase the Q, it
becomes much more narrow.
| | 02:15 | The Q determines the degree to which
frequencies near the center frequency
| | 02:19 | are boosted or cut.
| | 02:20 | As you can see here, a high Q value
yields a narrow width for affecting a small
| | 02:25 | range of frequencies,
| | 02:27 | while low Qs--like closer to 1--
provide expanded widths to encompass a large
| | 02:32 | range of frequencies.
| | 02:34 | So let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 02:36 | I am going to solo the guitar part and
change the gain back to 0, and we'll hear
| | 02:42 | what this sounds like.
| | 02:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:03 | With a low Q value, a lot of
frequencies were taken out, and it really thinned
| | 03:07 | out the sound of that acoustic guitar.
| | 03:09 | When you are looking for the frequency
that you want to adjust, try this technique:
| | 03:13 | it's called the 'Boost and Twist.'
| | 03:14 | So you put an EQ on the track like we
have here, and then you increase the
| | 03:18 | gain significantly.
| | 03:20 | We'll put it up to about 12 db.
| | 03:24 | Then you make the Q very narrow, as we
already have here, and then we can sweep
| | 03:29 | across the frequency range until we find
the frequency that we want to boost or cut.
| | 03:33 | So we can take this Frequency
control and go back and forth.
| | 03:37 | So let's try this out and
hear what it sounds like.
| | 03:40 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:02 | Let's say I want to take out some of
the nasally tone that I found here, right
| | 04:05 | around this frequency: 627 hertz.
| | 04:09 | So now that we've found the frequency,
we'd actually dial the gain back down,
| | 04:14 | and make it into a cut.
| | 04:15 | I can also decrease the Q and make it a
wider cut, and let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 04:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:35 | It's a subtle but noticeable change,
and you'll notice that I actually hit the
| | 04:38 | Bypass button here a few times to AB this.
| | 04:42 | ABing means to go between A and B--that is,
with the effect and without the effect.
| | 04:48 | One thing that we are also doing here
is we are listening to the track in solo.
| | 04:53 | Now, we don't want to EQ just while
we're in solo, so we need to listen to the
| | 04:57 | track with the rest of the tracks in the mix.
| | 04:59 | We can make this track sound amazing
by itself in solo, but it might not
| | 05:03 | sound good in the mix.
| | 05:04 | So you don't want to EQ in a
vacuum by keeping the track in solo.
| | 05:08 | Let's move on and discuss another common
mixing practice called carving EQ holes.
| | 05:13 | For example, let's say we have this
acoustic guitar track and a vocal track.
| | 05:17 | It's often a good idea to cut out some
of the mids in the guitar to allow the
| | 05:21 | vocals to have some more room in that
frequency area where they sound the best,
| | 05:25 | like between 1 and 4 kilohertz.
| | 05:28 | So let's cut out some 3
kilohertz from the guitar track.
| | 05:31 | I am going to boost this up to about 3,
bring the gain down, and make the Q a
| | 05:37 | little bit narrower.
| | 05:39 | So now I have just carved a little EQ
hole for the vocals to come in and shine
| | 05:44 | through over the guitars in this area.
| | 05:47 | Because we've taken out some EQ here,
we might actually be able to boost some
| | 05:51 | guitar frequencies in another range.
| | 05:53 | So I am going to boost this up at
around 6 kilohertz, and turn this into a peak
| | 05:59 | EQ, increase the Q, and increase the gain.
| | 06:05 | Now, we've got a little bump at 6 kilohertz.
| | 06:08 | Let's see what this sounds like.
| | 06:10 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:22 | This takes a little bit of bite out of
the mids that will allow the vocals to
| | 06:26 | shine through but then adds a little
bit of shine to the guitars just above
| | 06:30 | where the vocal range is.
| | 06:31 | Now something you should note here:
| | 06:33 | I am not suggesting that each
instrument should have its own dedicated
| | 06:37 | frequency range in the mix.
| | 06:39 | Instruments will share frequencies,
| | 06:41 | but clearing a path for the predominant
frequencies of a certain instrument can
| | 06:45 | make your mix sound much clearer.
| | 06:47 | Also be aware that any EQ settings you
change on a particular instrument will
| | 06:50 | affect not only its sound, but also how
the sound of that instrument interacts
| | 06:55 | with all of the other instruments in the mix.
| | 06:57 | Now, let's look at some of the more
radical EQ effects you can add to your
| | 07:00 | tracks in Pro Tools.
| | 07:02 | I am going to close this
and solo the bass track.
| | 07:07 | I am going to bring up this AIR
KILL EQ, and currently it's bypassed.
| | 07:12 | Now, the KILL EQ is a 3-band EQ
with kill switches on each band.
| | 07:17 | With this plug-in, you can cut
off the lows, mids, and highs.
| | 07:21 | With the track playing, I will
demonstrate some of the sonic possibilities for
| | 07:25 | this plug-in by tweaking the controls,
as well as loading some of the presets.
| | 07:29 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:02 | Let's try another one.
We've got the vintage filter set up here.
| | 08:08 | This is related to the KILL EQ
but with some different parameters.
| | 08:12 | The vintage filter is a resonant
multimode filter--that is, an EQ--that can be
| | 08:17 | manually adjusted or modulated over
time using the built-in Low Frequency
| | 08:22 | Oscillator, or LFO, and an envelope follower.
| | 08:25 | I am going to press Play and tweak
this a little bit and have a little fun.
| | 08:28 | (Music playing.)
| | 09:10 | We've got a lot of opportunity
to get creative with this plug-in.
| | 09:13 | So now you know how to properly EQ a
track using the Boost and Twist method.
| | 09:18 | You can also sonically sculpture
tracks pretty radically with this EQ plug-ins,
| | 09:22 | available in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding compression and limiting| 00:00 | Compressors and limiters reduce the
dynamic range of signals that exceed a
| | 00:04 | selected volume level, or threshold.
| | 00:07 | They turn down the loudest part of a
track, which helps to manage instruments
| | 00:10 | with wide dynamic ranges, like vocals
and bass, and helps the quietest bits of a
| | 00:15 | track to become easier to hear.
| | 00:17 | Let's take a look at the standard compressor
limiter dynamics 3 plug-in in Pro Tools.
| | 00:22 | I've got one loaded up here on the bass track.
| | 00:26 | If a signal comes into the compressor beneath
the threshold, nothing is done to the signal.
| | 00:33 | Lower volume signals are not touched
except by the Output Gain Adjuster,
| | 00:38 | which is right here.
| | 00:40 | As we decrease the threshold,
signals can be touched by the compressor.
| | 00:47 | Right now, the threshold is set at -30 dB.
| | 00:50 | So if a signal is above
-30 dB, it will be compressed.
| | 00:56 | Now let's try this with
the bass actually playing.
| | 00:59 | I am going to bring the threshold
all the way back to 0 and press Play.
| | 01:03 | As I bring the threshold down, watch the
levels over here, the input, the output,
| | 01:08 | and the gain reduction.
| | 01:09 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:30 | If the signal crosses the threshold,
the compressor reacts according to the
| | 01:35 | attack speed parameter, measured in milliseconds.
| | 01:38 | The ATTACK right now is set at 10 milliseconds.
| | 01:41 | The compressor then begins to reduce
the volume of the signal according to
| | 01:45 | the ratio and the knee.
| | 01:48 | The ratio down here dictates
how much the signal is compressed.
| | 01:52 | For example, a compression ratio of 3 to
1, as we have here, means that an input
| | 01:58 | of 6 dB over the threshold will
come out of the compressor at 2 dB.
| | 02:04 | Compressors with ratios of 10 to 1
or higher are considered limiters.
| | 02:09 | Now, we can boost this ratio
all the way up to 100 to 1.
| | 02:14 | That's pretty steep.
| | 02:17 | Let's talk about the knee
value, which is right up here.
| | 02:20 | A low knee number like this indicates a
hard knee setting, and means compression
| | 02:26 | will take effect very quickly,
applying the maximum amount of compression.
| | 02:31 | If we twist this and create a soft knee
that means the compressor will ease into
| | 02:37 | the maximum amount of compression.
| | 02:39 | You can see this
represented in the graph up here.
| | 02:42 | This is a soft curve right here, a soft knee.
| | 02:46 | However, if we twist this back
down, it becomes much more angular, and
| | 02:51 | becomes the hard knee.
| | 02:53 | A signal will stay compressed until
it falls below the volume threshold.
| | 02:58 | Once the signal is below the threshold,
it's still compressed until being let
| | 03:03 | go at the release time, and it's
then allowed to return to its regular
| | 03:08 | uncompressed volume.
| | 03:09 | So once this signal is below the
threshold, it will still be compressed for 80
| | 03:14 | milliseconds, as shown here, even
though it's below the threshold.
| | 03:18 | The compressor's gain will be
applied to the output level of the signal
| | 03:22 | regardless of whether the
signal is compressed or not.
| | 03:25 | That means the uncompressed softer
parts of the track are increased in relation
| | 03:30 | to the compressed louder parts,
| | 03:32 | creating a track with a more uniform
volume level and less of a dynamic range.
| | 03:38 | And that's the whole point of
using a compressor or limiter.
| | 03:40 | So how do you apply compression to a track?
| | 03:45 | First, you should ask yourself whether you
think the track actually needs compression.
| | 03:48 | If you think that it does because
the dynamic range is too wide, start by
| | 03:54 | choosing the threshold.
| | 03:55 | A high threshold, like this,
only lowers the peaks of the signal;
| | 04:02 | a lower threshold will
constantly compress the track.
| | 04:06 | Obviously, you can choose anywhere in
between, but honestly those are the two
| | 04:10 | common ways to compress: either
compressing the track constantly or just
| | 04:15 | touching the peaks.
| | 04:16 | We'll bring the threshold down.
| | 04:18 | I am going to press Play now, and I am
going to adjust the threshold so that I
| | 04:23 | get a certain amount of gain reduction.
| | 04:25 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:35 | I am going to try to get it to
average around -3dB in the gain reduction.
| | 04:40 | So that means that I am going to set the
threshold right around here, around -18 dB.
| | 04:46 | After setting the
threshold we can set the ratio.
| | 04:49 | You can use a light ratio of 2 to 1
or 3 to 1 for some light compression,
| | 04:54 | boost this up to 4 to 1 or 6 to 1 for
more volume leveling, and anything over 10
| | 05:01 | to 1 is considered limiting,
and that squashes the track level.
| | 05:07 | So let's give it some heavier compression.
| | 05:09 | We'll give it 6 to 1 here, or thereabouts.
| | 05:13 | After you set the ratio move on to
the attack and release times, and this
| | 05:18 | requires some thought.
| | 05:19 | The attack time determines how
quickly the compressor reacts to a signal
| | 05:23 | that's over the threshold.
| | 05:25 | So consider the type of instrument and
part that you're compressing, and whether
| | 05:29 | or not you want to compress the
initial transient of the instrument.
| | 05:32 | For example, the initial transient
on a drum track is always very fast.
| | 05:38 | So if you want to compress the
initial transient on a drum, the compressor's
| | 05:42 | attack time has to be extremely short,
just a fraction of a millisecond, and
| | 05:47 | you can do that here.
| | 05:48 | You can go down to 10 microseconds.
| | 05:53 | However, if you want the drum's
transient to come through the compressor before
| | 05:57 | compression is applied, set the attack
time to allow enough time for the initial
| | 06:01 | drum transient to pass through
before the signal is compressed.
| | 06:06 | The release parameter on a compressor is
just as important as the attack because
| | 06:10 | it determines how long the compressor
stays active once the signal falls below
| | 06:14 | the compressor's threshold.
| | 06:16 | Short release times let the compressor
cut out more quickly on notes that fall
| | 06:20 | below the threshold.
| | 06:22 | To make the compressor really work, set
the release time to 20 milliseconds or less.
| | 06:27 | For a smoother sound, use values of
over 100 milliseconds, or even longer
| | 06:32 | releases on bass tracks.
| | 06:34 | So I am going to increase this.
| | 06:37 | Finally, move over to the gain.
And this is often called makeup gain because
| | 06:42 | it's the output gain on the compressor,
and it's used to make up the gain that
| | 06:46 | has been compressed out of
the loudest parts of the signal.
| | 06:50 | If a signal comes into the
compressor and it's reduced by 8 dB, you can
| | 06:55 | increase the output gain and add 8 dB back to
the signal without the loudest parts clipping.
| | 07:01 | So when I set the threshold, I set it so
that we got about 3 dB of gain reduction.
| | 07:08 | So I could lift this back up to about 3 dB.
| | 07:11 | Let's take a listen to this track.
| | 07:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:24 | Now, you'll see that the gain
reduction was actually more, so I can boost this
| | 07:29 | higher, and now we'll listen and
compare using the bypass button.
| | 07:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:46 | Aside from just controlling the
dynamics of a track, you can actually use
| | 07:50 | compression as a special effect.
| | 07:52 | For instance, you can use the squash
technique to really mess with the sound of a track.
| | 07:57 | Let's go over here and
choose the Steamroller preset.
| | 08:01 | Now, there are a lot of other useful
presets up here; in fact, the bass guitar
| | 08:05 | one actually sounds pretty nice.
| | 08:07 | But we are going to try the
Steamroller and check out how that sounds.
| | 08:10 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:20 | So obviously we are using this preset to
create a distorted tone with the compressor.
| | 08:25 | What about trying the bass guitar setting?
| | 08:28 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:38 | Yeah, that sounds nice, and look at
these parameters, what we are set at.
| | 08:41 | Got a low ratio, a soft knee, pretty
long attack time, and a very long release, a
| | 08:49 | medium threshold, and a lot of gain makeup.
| | 08:53 | Another popular technique is to add a
compressed copy of a track back to the
| | 08:57 | original to increase the
punch of the overall sound.
| | 09:01 | This is called parallel compression,
and it's a common technique used on
| | 09:04 | vocals, guitars, and drums.
| | 09:06 | Let's take a look at what I've
got set up here. Let me close this.
| | 09:10 | Now, I have got these two acoustic
guitar tracks, and I've bussed them out to Bus
| | 09:17 | 1-2, which is picked up by this aux
track right here, Bus 1-2, and I've got a
| | 09:23 | compressor on the aux track.
| | 09:25 | So, what we are going to hear is the
mix between the dry unaffected tracks that
| | 09:30 | are going out the main outputs and a
compressed copy of those tracks mixed
| | 09:35 | together in the overall mix.
| | 09:37 | So I am going to mute the parallel
compression track first, so we can hear just
| | 09:42 | the guitars, and I'll mute the bass as
well. And then I'll unmute the parallel
| | 09:46 | compression, and we'll hear what it sounds like.
| | 09:48 | (Music playing.)
00:10:15.09]
So you can hear that there is
obviously a volume difference here, but there's
| | 10:18 | also a sonic difference too.
| | 10:20 | It gives us a little bit more power
with the parallel compression in there, and
| | 10:24 | some clarity, but also it still has some
dynamics left over from the dry tracks.
| | 10:29 | Now, let's talk about limiters.
| | 10:31 | Limiters are essentially
compressors with ratios of 10 to 1, or higher.
| | 10:36 | The large ratios are used to prevent
transient signal peaks from exceeding a chosen level.
| | 10:42 | Because of this, limiters, like
compressors, allow you to increase the overall
| | 10:46 | track level while avoiding clipping.
| | 10:49 | As you saw before, you can select a
ratio of up to 100 to 1 in the dynamics
| | 10:53 | three compressor limiter plug-in.
| | 10:56 | That means that a signal that's 100 dB
over the threshold will come out of the
| | 11:00 | limiter at 1 dB over the threshold.
| | 11:04 | Limiters are useful on many types of
tracks, and are often used on the same
| | 11:08 | types of dynamic tracks as compressors
are, such as vocals and electric bass.
| | 11:13 | Limiters can be used in cooperation
with compressors to take care of the
| | 11:16 | peaks, while the compressor performs
the main compression duties on the rest
| | 11:20 | of the non-peak signal.
| | 11:22 | I am going to open up the maxim plug-in here.
| | 11:26 | Limiters like maxim here are often
used on submixes and almost always in
| | 11:31 | mastering applications to make sure
that the tracks don't peak or cause
| | 11:35 | unwanted distortion.
| | 11:37 | Let's check out how adding this maximum
limiter to the master fader track in the
| | 11:41 | session can boost the output signal by
reducing the dynamic range of the song,
| | 11:45 | but without creating distortion.
| | 11:48 | We don't want to push it too hard,
or else you will get distortion.
| | 11:51 | But let's hear how this sounds as I
change the threshold and the ceiling values.
| | 11:56 | (Music playing.)
| | 12:43 | So you can hear in this example that
you can bring the threshold down, keep
| | 12:48 | the ceiling high, and get the track to be a
little louder without adding any distortion.
| | 12:54 | However, if you bring the threshold
down too low and keep the ceiling high,
| | 12:58 | it's definitely going to create
distortion on the track because you are trying
| | 13:01 | to push it too hard.
| | 13:03 | Adding compression and limiting to your mix
correctly takes some knowledge of the parameters.
| | 13:08 | As you are learning, be sure to try out
some of the presets, tweak the knobs, and
| | 13:12 | listen to the effects on
a variety of instruments.
| | 13:15 | Revisit this video to review the
explanations of the compression parameters if needed.
| | 13:20 | Used correctly, compression can make
your mixes sound more powerful, more
| | 13:24 | balanced, and more radio-ready.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding depth effects: Delay and reverb| 00:00 | In this video, I want to discuss how
delay and reverb effects work, and how to
| | 00:04 | apply them well in your Pro Tools sessions.
| | 00:07 | I'll start with delay.
| | 00:10 | Delay effects record a signal,
| | 00:12 | then play it back at a user-selected time
delay, often called delay time or delay length.
| | 00:18 | A single delay of less than 35
milliseconds is called the double, because this
| | 00:22 | effect makes the track sound like there
are two of the same part being played or
| | 00:26 | sung at basically the same time.
| | 00:29 | A slapback delay is a single repeat,
with a delay time over 35 milliseconds.
| | 00:35 | Slap back delay times of 35 to 75
milliseconds are good for thickening vocal or
| | 00:40 | instrumental tracks,
| | 00:41 | while delays of 125 to 350
milliseconds are useful for making a vocal or
| | 00:47 | guitar track sound large.
| | 00:49 | I'm going to open up this Extra Long delay
plug-in that we've got here in Pro Tools.
| | 00:53 | Now it's usually a good idea to set the
delay time in relation to the beat and
| | 00:58 | tempo of the song, like an eighth note,
an eighth note triplet, or a 16th note.
| | 01:03 | The rhythm that you create with the
delay can add a nice groove element.
| | 01:07 | To do this, make use of the
Tempo Sync function down here.
| | 01:11 | Most delay plug-ins in Pro Tools have
this, and it'll synchronize the delays
| | 01:15 | to the session tempo.
| | 01:17 | As you can see here, we have 90 BPM
as the tempo, and this is activated.
| | 01:22 | If I un-activate this, then we can use
the slider to adjust whatever we want the
| | 01:28 | delay to be, and to
adjust it to a different tempo.
| | 01:31 | However, I'd rather keep it synced.
| | 01:34 | So let's listen to an example.
| | 01:35 | Let me go over here to the Edit window
and show you that I've got two acoustic
| | 01:40 | guitar tracks here, and back to the Mix
window, through Bus 5 and 6, these are
| | 01:47 | being routed to this aux track that
has the Extra Long delay plug-in on it.
| | 01:53 | So I've got an effects loop with the delay.
| | 01:55 | First, I'm going to play this
session without any delay and just with the
| | 02:00 | guitar tracks soloed.
| | 02:01 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:13 | Now I'm going to add in the delay.
| | 02:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:27 | So you can hear that there is a single
16th note delay going onto this signal.
| | 02:32 | Let me play this one more time,
and I'll pop the effect in and out.
| | 02:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:47 | Let's talk about the parameters that
we have set here in the delay plug-in.
| | 02:51 | First, we've got the gain, and
that refers to the volume level.
| | 02:57 | The mix is how much of the
original signal is being delayed.
| | 03:01 | Now, when we set up an effects loop like
this, you'll usually set the mix to 100%.
| | 03:07 | The further you bring this down,
the more of the original track, or the
| | 03:10 | unaffected track, will be
going through this plug-in.
| | 03:13 | So usually you just want to keep this,
because it's part of an effects loop, at
| | 03:17 | 100% and rely on the track that you get
from these two tracks here for the dry tracks.
| | 03:25 | LPF stands for a Low Pass Filter, and
this is used to filter out the high end,
| | 03:30 | so it doesn't build up when
you're using a lot of feedback.
| | 03:34 | So, I've reduced this down to 10 kHz.
| | 03:37 | So everything above 10 kHz
is going to be filtered out.
| | 03:41 | We can turn this off if we want,
or we can bring it way down and
| | 03:45 | filter everything out.
| | 03:48 | The delay is the length of the delay time.
| | 03:52 | And so, if we un-sync this, you'll
see it change if we change the tempo.
| | 03:58 | Now I'm going to sync that back up,
and it's going to give us 166.67
| | 04:06 | milliseconds, which is exactly
1/16th note at a tempo of 90 BMP.
| | 04:12 |
| | 04:14 | The depth and rate of modulation here
create slight pitch variations, and this
| | 04:20 | can create a chorus,
a flanger, or a phaser kind of effect.
| | 04:23 | Now, I'm going to leave that off
for this particular application.
| | 04:28 | And the Feedback, this sends a
delayed signal back into the delay input,
| | 04:33 | creating a delay of the delayed signal.
| | 04:36 | The higher the feedback level,
the more delays are created.
| | 04:40 | So, adding feedback to a delay can
actually smooth out the sound of a track or
| | 04:44 | give it an infinite, neverending feel.
| | 04:46 | And let me just play with this
just a second to show you an example.
| | 04:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:07 | So, as you can hear from the delay trail,
there was a lot of feedback on there.
| | 05:11 | Now I just hit Option on the Mac and
clicked on this slider to return it to 0.
| | 05:17 | You can also hit Alt on a PC to do the same.
| | 05:21 | So we know about the Tempo Sync button.
| | 05:23 | We can change the meter or we
can also change the note value.
| | 05:27 | So, if I hit this eighth note,
you'll see that the delay time doubles.
| | 05:31 | We can also adjust the groove, if we
want to swing this a little bit, but we're
| | 05:36 | not going to do that in this example.
| | 05:39 | And in Pro Tools, there is a number
of delay plug-ins, and I've got one
| | 05:43 | more loaded up here.
| | 05:44 | So I'm going to load that here.
| | 05:47 | We got the dynamic delay, and
let me just play a second of this.
| | 05:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:04 | It's pretty similar to what we were
just listening to in the other delay, and
| | 06:08 | you'll see that it's synced.
| | 06:11 | We've got a lot of feedback, 100% mix,
and a wide stereo width to make this
| | 06:16 | really big in your headphones.
| | 06:21 | Now let's talk about reverb.
| | 06:23 | Reverb, short for reverberation, is a
sonic effect that occurs when many random
| | 06:27 | reflections of a sound blend
together and reach the listener more than 10
| | 06:31 | milliseconds after the direct
sound from the sound source.
| | 06:35 | As an effect, reverb gives character to
a direct dry sound by placing it in some
| | 06:40 | sort of acoustical environment, like a
church, a gymnasium, or a tiled bathroom.
| | 06:45 | Let's hear a few examples using this
D-Verb plug-in on a percussion track.
| | 06:49 | So I'm going to solo this drum track
right here, as well as this reverb track,
| | 06:59 | and you'll see that we have
another effect loop going on here.
| | 07:03 | We've got this percussion track routed
to Bus 1 and 2 via a send, and it's being
| | 07:08 | picked up here on this aux track and
being effected by this D-Verb plug-in.
| | 07:13 | So I'm going to play this track back
and adjust the mix percentage, and you'll
| | 07:18 | hear the different amounts of reverb.
| | 07:19 | Then I'm going to switch through
different algorithms, and you can hear some of
| | 07:24 | the presets from this plug-in.
| | 07:26 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:05 | So you can hear, we can create a lot of different
acoustical environments with this plug-in.
| | 08:11 | When a sound is made, we hear the
direct sound waves, early reflections, and
| | 08:15 | reverberation in that order.
| | 08:17 | The direct sound reaches our ears
without bouncing off of any surface.
| | 08:21 | Early reflections reach our ears
between 10 and 30 milliseconds later than the
| | 08:26 | direct sound, after they've
bounced off of one or more surfaces.
| | 08:31 | Because these reflections arrive so quickly,
they are perceived as part of the direct sound.
| | 08:36 | Reverberation actually occurs when a
sound reflects off of many surfaces and is
| | 08:41 | mixed with many other reflections,
creating a denser blend of reflected sound.
| | 08:46 | These reflections begin to fade away,
or decay, as they're absorbed into the
| | 08:51 | material of the acoustical space.
| | 08:54 | The longer a sound takes to decay,
the larger and more hard-surfaced the
| | 08:58 | acoustical environment is perceived to be,
and the farther from the sound source
| | 09:02 | the listener is, or seems to be.
| | 09:05 | In reverb plug-ins in Pro Tools,
we can control the parameters that
| | 09:08 | determine what a reverb will sound
like through it's progression from the
| | 09:11 | first to the last reflection.
| | 09:14 | Here is a list of common
reverb effect parameters.
| | 09:17 | We have the Wet/dry mix, which you
just heard in the previous example, and
| | 09:21 | this is the mix of the direct or the "dry"
signal with the effected or the "wet" signal.
| | 09:27 | Pre delay is the time delay
before the reverb is heard.
| | 09:30 | Decay time is the time it
takes for a sound to disappear.
| | 09:34 | That's really the total effect time.
| | 09:36 | Diffusion is the space
between reflections, or repeats.
| | 09:41 | Density refers to the initial buildup
of short delay times, or reflections.
| | 09:46 | Room size is the size of the acoustical space.
| | 09:48 | Width is the amount of
spread across the stereo field.
| | 09:53 | You can make a reverb sound
very narrow or extremely wide.
| | 09:57 | Like delay, reverb is used in
mixing to create a sense of depth.
| | 10:01 | When applying reverb to tracks, the
Wet/dry mix parameter sets the overall
| | 10:05 | amount of depth: how far away
a sound is from the listener.
| | 10:09 | In addition to the decay time, the
longer the pre-delay time--that is the time
| | 10:14 | before reverb is heard--the larger the
perceived size of the acoustical space.
| | 10:19 | Let's listen to an example.
| | 10:21 | If I choose the Church setting here,
this has a lot more pre-delay, as you can
| | 10:26 | see here, 39 milliseconds, than many of
these other settings. The Hall has 0.
| | 10:32 | These Rooms have very small amounts.
| | 10:35 | Actually, they have 0 as well.
| | 10:37 | So let's hear what the pre-delay effect is.
| | 10:40 | (Music playing.)
| | 10:47 | Pre-delay is a big determinant for
creating a large acoustical space with reverb.
| | 10:52 | Now, reverb effects can be used on pretty
much any kind of sound source in your mix;
| | 10:58 | however, I would steer you away from
using it on bass instruments, because if
| | 11:01 | you use reverb on a low frequency, it
can tend to really make the mix muddy.
| | 11:06 | Also, reverb often sounds more impressive
if it's used in stereo as opposed to mono.
| | 11:12 | If you do find that your reverb plug-in
is making your mix a little muddy, you
| | 11:16 | can use the High Filter Cut or the
Low Pass Filter on almost any kind of
| | 11:21 | reverb plug-in to help sculpt sound and tighten
up your frequency range for the reverb output.
| | 11:26 | You'll see in the D-Verb we have the High
Frequency Cut and the Low Pass Filter here.
| | 11:31 | Pro Tools comes with several reverb
plug-ins, including D-Verb, AIR reverb, AIR
| | 11:37 | Spring reverb, and AIR Non-Linear reverb.
| | 11:40 | We've got some of those up here.
| | 11:41 | Let me show you those.
| | 11:43 | Here is the reverb.
| | 11:46 | This is the Gas Tank setting.
| | 11:48 | Let's listen to what this
track sounds like in the Gas Tank.
| | 11:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 11:58 | Now let's switch over to the Non-
Linear reverb and listen to a Gated reverb.
| | 12:04 | (Music playing.)
| | 12:11 | Pretty cool. And the Spring
reverb, the Big And Busy setting.
| | 12:17 | (Music playing.)
| | 12:24 | I recommend trying out some of the
presets and tweaking the parameters, now that
| | 12:29 | you know what they all do.
| | 12:31 | Reverb and delay effects are essential
mixing effects in all styles of music
| | 12:35 | and postproduction.
| | 12:36 | Learn how to use the parameters, and
you'll be able to create the depth,
| | 12:40 | atmosphere, and sonic
character that you want for your mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying AudioSuite plug-ins| 00:00 | Most plug-ins in Pro Tools have a Real-
Time Audio Suite, or RTAS version, and a
| | 00:05 | non-real time version that we
simply call the AudioSuite version.
| | 00:10 | AudioSuite plug-ins process the audio
while Pro Tools is stopped, whereas their
| | 00:14 | RTAS counterparts work in real-time.
| | 00:17 | The advantage of non-real time
processing is that it does not take up processing
| | 00:21 | power while playing back.
| | 00:23 | To apply in AudioSuite plug-in to
an audio region, first highlight the
| | 00:27 | region that you want to process and
then choose the plug-in that you want
| | 00:30 | from the AudioSuite menu.
| | 00:32 | As you can see here, I've already got
the region highlighted, and now I can
| | 00:36 | choose from the AudioSuite menu.
| | 00:37 | I'm going to go down to
Modulation and choose a Chorus effect.
| | 00:43 | This opens up the AudioSuite plug-in,
and now we can go in, and we can
| | 00:46 | choose from any presets that we've got, and
I'm going to choose this one, EvenSlo Flange.
| | 00:52 | We can go down to the Preview button
and press this, and now we'll be able to
| | 00:55 | here the track soloed with that effect on it.
| | 00:58 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:05 | Wow! So you can go in here and tweak
any of the settings that you want.
| | 01:09 | If you're happy with these settings,
then you can hit Process right over here,
| | 01:13 | and Pro Tools will
create a brand-new audio file.
| | 01:16 | Let's look at what Pro Tools called this file.
| | 01:18 | I'm going to open up the
Regions list, expand it out here.
| | 01:22 | We can see that it acoustic guitar 1-A,
which stands for AudioSuite, and then
| | 01:27 | Chr is the chorus affect _01.
| | 01:31 | So we can always tell what this
region is in the Regions list because it's
| | 01:34 | got this little moniker here.
| | 01:36 | Note that this is a brand-new audio file.
| | 01:39 | Now usually what I recommend, before
processing a region with an AudioSuite
| | 01:44 | plug-in, is to create a duplicate
playlist on the track so that you can always go
| | 01:48 | back to the original
unprocessed region, if you need to.
| | 01:52 | So what I'm going to do first is
undo that effect and go here, create a
| | 01:57 | duplicate playlist, and we'll
call this 'Ac Gtr CHORUS.'
| | 02:04 | Now we have the original playlist here, and
the new one that we are about to process here.
| | 02:11 | So now it's simple enough to switch
between the original and the one that we've
| | 02:18 | affected with the AudioSuite plug-in.
| | 02:20 | A good time to use the AudioSuite
version of a plug-in is when you're running
| | 02:24 | out of processing power from
using too many RTAS plug-ins.
| | 02:28 | In that case, you can save the plug-in
setting that you were using in the RTAS
| | 02:32 | version, take that plug-in and off the track,
and apply the AudioSuite version, like this.
| | 02:38 | So here we have an EQ plug-in on this
bass track, and I'm going to save this
| | 02:43 | setting as 'df bass eq.'
| | 02:47 | Now I'm going to make this inactive.
| | 02:49 | So I'm going to right-click
it and choose Make Inactive.
| | 02:53 | Now I can highlight this track, go to
the AudioSuite menu, choose EQ 3, and I
| | 03:02 | can find this right here
in my setting: df bass eq.
| | 03:05 | Then it will load it right up.
| | 03:08 | If I hit process, now I've got this
bass track affected just like it was with
| | 03:14 | the RTAS version, but now we are not
using up in any processing power, because
| | 03:18 | we've inactivated the RTAS plug-in.
| | 03:20 | You can also use AudioSuite plug-ins
for creative effects, like using the
| | 03:25 | Reverse AudioSuite plug-in to
process a track in reverse. Check it out!
| | 03:29 | I'm going to take this acoustic guitar
track and process it with the Reverse
| | 03:35 | plug-in, which we can find in the Other folder.
| | 03:40 | Let's preview this.
| | 03:41 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:50 | Very cool!
| | 03:51 | So if we hit Process, we'll see
that the audio region now is reversed.
| | 03:56 | You can see they lead in now of the
last note that's now become the first note.
| | 04:00 | So as you can see here, you can use
the AudioSuite plug-ins for creative
| | 04:03 | effects, like this Reverse plug-in or
the Chorus one that we saw earlier, or
| | 04:07 | you can use AudioSuite plug-ins to help
lessen the processing load when you're
| | 04:12 | doing a large mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Bouncing down a mix and making an MP3| 00:00 | Bouncing means to combine all of the
tracks in your Pro Tools session into one file,
| | 00:06 | so you can burn it onto a CD
or make an MP3 to post online.
| | 00:10 | When you bounce in Pro Tools,
what you hear is what you get.
| | 00:14 | If a track is muted, it
won't be in the bounced file.
| | 00:17 | If you've soloed a track,
that's all you'll get in the bounce.
| | 00:21 | MIDI regions and instrument tracks don't
need to be converted to audio tracks.
| | 00:26 | As long as you can hear the tracks on
playback, they'll be in the bounce.
| | 00:30 | So let me show you how to bounce a track.
| | 00:33 | First, we need to highlight the
length of time that we want to bounce for.
| | 00:38 | So, I've already setup a start and an
end marker, and since the session is
| | 00:43 | already back at the beginning of the
session, for playback, I'm going to hit the
| | 00:47 | Shift button and click on this End
marker. And now, I've highlighted from the
| | 00:53 | very beginning of the session, the
start marker, to this end marker.
| | 00:58 | That's how long I want the bounce to be.
| | 01:01 | Next, go to File > Bounce to > Disk,
and the Bounce window will open up.
| | 01:09 | For the Bounce Source, we should choose the
main stereo outputs of your Pro Tools system.
| | 01:14 | Usually this comes up as the default, and
we'll just keep it as that: Analog 1-2.
| | 01:21 | The File Type, we can choose WAV, AIFF,
MP3, and a few other options, but let's
| | 01:29 | just choose WAV now, if we're going to
bounce this to a CD, or we would choose
| | 01:34 | MP3, if we want to make an MP3, and
I'll come back to that in a minute.
| | 01:40 | The Format, if we're bouncing to a CD,
we want to use a Stereo Interleaved file,
| | 01:45 | as opposed to a Multiple mono or a Mono file.
| | 01:48 | So, keep it as Stereo Interleaved.
| | 01:51 | The Bit Depth, or resolution, should be
16, if we're bouncing to a CD, and the
| | 01:57 | Sample Rate should be 44.1 kHz, if we're
bouncing to a CD, because those are the CD specs:
| | 02:04 | 16 Bit, 44.1 kHz.
| | 02:07 | Because our session is actually at 16 bit,
44.1, we don't need to convert anything.
| | 02:13 | So, we don't need to choose anything there.
| | 02:16 | And finally, we'll choose Convert After Bounce.
| | 02:19 | When you choose Convert After Bounce,
Pro Tools converts the bounce track to the
| | 02:23 | desired file type after the
bounce process takes place.
| | 02:27 | If you choose Convert During Bounce,
that can eat up a lot of system resources
| | 02:32 | and could reduce the number of
plug-ins that you use while you're bouncing.
| | 02:36 | That's why I was to choose this
setting: Convert After Bounce.
| | 02:41 | When we click bounce, then we need to
choose where we want to save the file, and
| | 02:46 | now I'm just going to call this bounce1.
And I usually like to save my bounces
| | 02:51 | one file folder above the Audio Files.
| | 02:55 | So I'll choose one higher and click Save,
and now Pro Tools is going to go into
| | 03:01 | a real-time bounce, and this is a great
opportunity to do a quality check while
| | 03:06 | listening to the bounce down in real time.
| | 03:08 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:03 | So there you go;
| | 04:04 | that's the process for bouncing down an
audio file so that you can burn it onto a CD.
| | 04:09 | In Pro Tools 9, you can also bounce down to MP3.
| | 04:12 | You don't need any add-on MP3 export
option anymore as you did in previous versions.
| | 04:18 | You can create the MP3 in the same way.
| | 04:21 | We can just go to Bounce to > Disk, and
choose MP3 as the file type, and keep
| | 04:29 | all the other settings the same and
choose Bounce, but then we get an extra
| | 04:33 | window, this MP3 window.
| | 04:36 | Here, we can name the track.
| | 04:39 | We'll call it bounce1.
| | 04:41 | We can put an artist, we
can add in album, comments.
| | 04:45 | We can add a genre and a bunch of other stuff.
| | 04:48 | We can also choose the encoding speed,
and we can choose between Fastest, which
| | 04:53 | is Lower Quality or a Higher Quality
which is slower, and this can take up to
| | 04:57 | five times as long for the
encoding speed if we choose the Highest.
| | 05:02 | We can also choose the Constant Bit
Rate, all the way up to 320kbit/second.
| | 05:08 | Now, 128 is the default, and it's a
good compromise between quality and size.
| | 05:14 | And for this setting, each minute of a
song roughly equals 1 megabyte in file
| | 05:19 | size. And this good for
streaming on the Internet,
| | 05:23 | but MP3s with higher bit rates
will definitely sound better.
| | 05:28 | So, if we click OK and save the file,
it'll start the bounce process again.
| | 05:33 | I won't do that here, but you get the idea.
| | 05:35 | So, now you know how to bounce down your
session to a stereo audio file that you
| | 05:40 | can burn onto a CD or post as an MP3.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up a session for mastering| 00:00 | Mastering is the last stage in the
production process, and takes place after you
| | 00:04 | are done mixing all of the songs in a project.
| | 00:07 | Mastering in Pro Tools can
transform your final mixes into professional
| | 00:11 | sounding recordings.
| | 00:13 | Mastering treats your final mixes so
that the song sounds good on all playback
| | 00:17 | systems, from one-speaker
clock radios to hi-fi stereos.
| | 00:21 | In the mastering process, the volume
level of all the tracks are made to be
| | 00:25 | competitive with other mastered recordings.
| | 00:28 | Also, the EQ and the volume of each song
are put together so that they create a
| | 00:33 | cohesive final product.
| | 00:35 | Other considerations in mastering
are checking and adjusting the left/
| | 00:39 | right balance; phasing and stereo imaging;
listening for and fixing any unwanted noises;
| | 00:45 | adding real or simulated tube or analog
gear into the signal path; dithering and
| | 00:50 | noise shaping; choosing the song order
and spacing between songs to create the
| | 00:54 | best flow for your project; and balancing
down and burning the final masters with
| | 00:58 | their correct track order, timing, and
fades to a CD. Let's set up a mastering
| | 01:03 | session and Pro Tools.
| | 01:05 | Here, I've created a new session with
the same bit depth and sampling rate as my
| | 01:09 | previous mix sessions.
| | 01:11 | That way I can maintain the same high
resolution from the mixes into the mastering.
| | 01:15 | Now we need to bring in our final mixes.
| | 01:17 | So we can either drag and drop files
from the workspace browser or even from the
| | 01:22 | Desktop, or we can go to File > Import > Audio.
| | 01:26 | I am going to go to the Bounced
Final Mixes and choose these tracks.
| | 01:34 | Now you'll note that I have left and right
side files for each of these songs, and
| | 01:43 | that's because I created multiple mono
formatted files when I'm bounced them
| | 01:47 | down as the final mixes.
| | 01:49 | These multi-mono files can be added
directly into the session. In contrast,
| | 01:54 | stereo interleaved files must be converted to
multiple mono files to be used in Pro Tools.
| | 02:00 | I recommend creating multi mono files when
bouncing your final mixes before mastering,
| | 02:05 | so that you don't have to
convert them when importing them here.
| | 02:08 | So I can just hit Add All and no
sample rate conversion is necessary because
| | 02:13 | we're going into the same bit depth
and sampling rate from our mixes into our
| | 02:17 | mastering session. And for the Audio
Import Options dialog, I'm actually going to
| | 02:22 | choose the Regions list so I can put
all the songs into the Regions list and
| | 02:27 | then place them wherever I want them.
| | 02:29 | Next I want to create two new audio
tracks, stereo tracks, and I am going to
| | 02:37 | drag the songs onto the tracks.
| | 02:41 | Let me zoom out here. And usually for
my mastering sessions I like to set up to
| | 02:57 | stereo tracks with the
songs juxtaposed like this.
| | 03:00 | This works well if the mixes are
relatively consistent from song to song.
| | 03:04 | However, if each song needs individual
mastering attention because the mixes are
| | 03:08 | inconsistent, I may place
each song on its own track.
| | 03:12 | Now I have placed these in order to
approximate the spacing between the songs
| | 03:17 | and how it might sound
listening to them in a row on a CD.
| | 03:21 | This can give you a sense of the
cohesiveness of the entire project when you're
| | 03:25 | listening to it from the beginning to
the end. And speaking of that, let's listen
| | 03:29 | to little pieces of each of these
tracks and compare them. We will see how this
| | 03:33 | mixes sound against each other.
| | 03:33 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:58 | Now, you'll probably find that some songs
are louder, or have different overall EQ
| | 04:02 | curves, or stereo images
then others. Take some notes.
| | 04:06 | Listen for unwanted sounds too, like
clicks from bad edits. And after playing
| | 04:10 | these back, I can tell that the Road_to_
Ventura track is a little bit louder than
| | 04:14 | the others. Also, the EQ curves are a
little bit different between the tracks, due
| | 04:19 | to their instrumentation.
| | 04:20 | So I have to do some EQ work on the
individual tracks themselves to make them
| | 04:24 | all into one cohesive, finished product.
| | 04:27 | Now that I've got all the songs
imported, it's time to set up my mastering
| | 04:30 | session, and I'm going to show the
signal routing and all the affects that I use
| | 04:34 | in a mastering session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mastering a session| 00:00 | So, I've got all my final mixes in the
mastering session here, and now I'm going
| | 00:04 | to bring in all of my mastering effects.
And I've created a template for this,
| | 00:09 | and I'm going to import some
tracks from the mastering template.
| | 00:13 | Import > Session Data. I have
this Mastering_Template right here.
| | 00:18 | I'm going to hit the Return key and
add these new tracks to my session.
| | 00:27 | So let's go over to the mix window,
and I'll show you what I've got here.
| | 00:30 | I've added two auxiliary tracks, two
audio tracks, a master fader track, and
| | 00:36 | another stereo audio
track for my reference mixes.
| | 00:39 | The most important part about this is
the signal routing, and let me show you
| | 00:43 | what I'm going to do here.
| | 00:44 | I'm going to set the output of my mixes,
both of these audio tracks, to Bus 1-2.
| | 00:52 | So, my two tracks worth of my final mixes
right here are being routed out of Bus 1-2.
| | 00:59 | That's being picked up here on this
auxiliary track, where it's going to be
| | 01:04 | affected by EQ and compression.
| | 01:06 | Then it's routed out of Bus 3-4 to
this next track where it's going to have a
| | 01:11 | Stereo Width plug-in, the enhancer, and maxim.
| | 01:15 | Then that's routed out to both of
these audio tracks, where I can actually
| | 01:20 | record, and this is where I record a
high-resolution version, where I can
| | 01:25 | compare this with the 2nd pass and do
multiple different versions and compare
| | 01:30 | them back and forth very easily.
| | 01:32 | Then these are routed to the main
outputs, which routes them to this master
| | 01:36 | fader track, where we've got a PhaseScope,
Meter Bridge, and MasterMeter as well
| | 01:42 | as the Dither plug-in.
| | 01:43 | Finally, we have our reference mix
track, where we can import any kind of
| | 01:48 | mastering reference tracks that we want
to listen to, and they are not affected
| | 01:52 | by any of the plug-ins over here.
| | 01:55 | They're just routed through the master
fader, so they don't sound any different
| | 01:59 | than what they would normally sound like.
| | 02:01 | That way it's a true comparison between
the reference master and our final masters.
| | 02:06 | So to actually hear our masters
through the session, we need to record-enable
| | 02:11 | this 1st Pass, and we should set
this to Input Only Monitoring mode.
| | 02:16 | Now, the reason I have this
set up like this is threefold.
| | 02:20 | I want to record a high-resolution
master within the session that I can compare
| | 02:25 | against other mastered versions of the
same song and the reference masters that
| | 02:30 | I'm importing into this session.
| | 02:31 | I also want to create a high-
resolution master before I create a lower
| | 02:36 | resolution file that would be
going onto a CD or as an MP3.
| | 02:41 | Finally, I want to be able to edit
between mastered versions, and I can do
| | 02:45 | that right here on the mastering session,
between the 1st pass and the 2nd pass if I want to.
| | 02:50 | So, for instance, if I like the first
half of master take 1 and the second half
| | 02:55 | of master take two, I can edit them
together right here in the session.
| | 02:59 | So let's examine this signal
flow just a little bit more.
| | 03:02 | We've got our tracks here, our final mixes.
| | 03:06 | They first are going to an EQ, and here we
can adjust the EQ curve of the entire mix.
| | 03:13 | When using EQ in mastering, we want to
boost frequencies that are missing and/or
| | 03:17 | cut frequencies that are too
loud or too present in the mix.
| | 03:20 | We don't want to overload the track with
a massive boost at a certain frequency.
| | 03:24 | Boosting a frequency that peeks out
your EQ can cause digital distortion, and
| | 03:28 | that's a definite no-no
in the mastering process.
| | 03:31 | Remember, cutting frequencies is part of
a good EQing technique too, and is often
| | 03:36 | more beneficial in
mastering than boosting frequencies.
| | 03:39 | So in this particular case, we're
actually cutting some of the low end and
| | 03:43 | boosting a little bit of the high end.
| | 03:45 | A tried and true way to determine
what frequencies to boost or cut while
| | 03:49 | mastering is to listen to the frequency
content of master recordings that you really like--
| | 03:53 | that is your references in the session here.
| | 03:56 | Listen to how they sound on your speakers,
then try to emulate that frequency curve.
| | 04:00 | Whatever EQ you decide to apply to your
track, you should save it as a preset.
| | 04:05 | Let's move on to compression.
| | 04:10 | You'll note that I have multiple
compressors along the signal path here.
| | 04:13 | I've got this CompLimiter. I've got the BF76.
| | 04:17 | I also have the maxim down here.
| | 04:19 | Using multiple stages of compression
along the signal path enables you to spread
| | 04:23 | out your compression and limiting, so
as not to put all the compression and
| | 04:26 | limiting duties onto one plug-in.
| | 04:28 | Spreading out the compression over
several plug-ins can yield a much clearer and
| | 04:32 | more powerful signal.
| | 04:33 | Don't over-compress the track.
| | 04:35 | That can actually make the track
sound less powerful and energetic.
| | 04:38 | Also, allow your songs to breathe by
maintaining some of the dynamic range.
| | 04:43 | I recommend using light overall
compression at the beginning of the
| | 04:46 | mastering signal flow.
| | 04:48 | Like right here, I've just got 3.7:1
ratio and a relatively high threshold.
| | 04:53 | Then you can utilize peak limiting at
the end of the signal flow, like I have
| | 04:57 | here with the maxim, to take
care of the final gain boost.
| | 05:01 | After EQ and compression, you can add
stereo width to the track using this AIR
| | 05:05 | Stereo Width plug-in.
| | 05:07 | You can widen the stereo image
by adjusting this Width control.
| | 05:11 | It's a very cool effect, but be careful with it.
| | 05:13 | Making the stereo image too wide can
make it sound artificial, and actually sound
| | 05:17 | much worse than a focused image.
| | 05:19 | I'm going to play back this
track and adjust the stereo width.
| | 05:22 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:40 | If you're listening on computer
speakers, I recommend plugging in your
| | 05:43 | headphones to check out
that Stereo Width section.
| | 05:46 | I'll go back to the mix window, and
we'll look at this Enhancer plug-in.
| | 05:49 | Now, I have this on here, which is
technically another EQ, and I would
| | 05:54 | probably use this just sparingly, and
only if I want to add a little sparkle
| | 05:58 | to the overall track.
| | 05:59 | Putting in EQ this late in the signal
path, you've got to be careful that you
| | 06:03 | don't add too much, because you can mess
up the sound the you've already created
| | 06:06 | with the EQs and compressors
that are already in the signal path.
| | 06:10 | So here I've just got a little bit of
high gain and just a touch of low gain.
| | 06:14 | Next, we have the maxim plug-in.
| | 06:16 | This is a maximizer.
| | 06:17 | It's a very powerful limiter plug-in.
| | 06:19 | As the last step of compression in the
signal flow, use maxim as a peak limiter
| | 06:24 | to punch up the power and the
output level of your tracks.
| | 06:27 | So we need to set the threshold, and
we'll set the ceiling around -0.1 or -0.2,
| | 06:34 | so that we don't create any clips or overs.
| | 06:37 | Now I recommend against slamming it all
the way to 0db here, because you could
| | 06:41 | create a clip or on over that some CD
players can't handle, and that'll make
| | 06:46 | them either skip or make an
ugly noise that we don't want.
| | 06:49 | So, let me play this, and I'm going
to adjust threshold and the ceiling,
| | 06:53 | and we'll get a sound.
| | 06:54 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:18 | Obviously, this plug-in
is making it a lot louder.
| | 07:21 | Just be sure not to push the
threshold down too low, or else you're going
| | 07:24 | to create distortion.
| | 07:25 | And in this plug-in, we also want to
make sure that the Dither is off and the
| | 07:29 | Noise Shaping is off, because we're
going to cover that in the next video
| | 07:33 | here in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Bouncing down master recordings with Dither and Noise Shaping| 00:00 | In this movie, I want to talk about
all of the plug-ins that I've got on my
| | 00:03 | master fader track in this mastering session.
| | 00:07 | First, I've got the PhaseScope.
| | 00:09 | The PhaseScope meter displays the
relationship between the amplitude and the
| | 00:13 | phase of a stereo signal, enabling you
to monitor your stereo image graphically.
| | 00:18 | I'm going to play back this track.
| | 00:20 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:31 | Now, that looks pretty good.
| | 00:33 | When the audio is panned just to one side,
a diagonal line appears, and we don't
| | 00:37 | want to see that, and we don't.
| | 00:40 | In-phase material is displayed as a
vertical line and we like in-phase material,
| | 00:44 | and we saw a lot of in-phase
material going on in there.
| | 00:47 | Out-of-phase material shows up as a
horizontal line, and we definitely don't
| | 00:52 | want to see a lot of that.
| | 00:54 | So as long as we don't see a diagonal line or
a horizontal line here, then we're pretty good.
| | 01:00 | Let's move on to the next one.
| | 01:03 | The Bomb Factory Essential Meter
Bridge displays the output levels like you
| | 01:07 | would see them appearing on an analog VU meter.
| | 01:11 | Monitoring this way can help you see
RMS, or peak metering, just like you would
| | 01:16 | on a professional tape machine.
| | 01:17 | I'm going to press play.
| | 01:19 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:30 | Now, you can see that we're kind of
pushing the levels here with this -15
| | 01:34 | calibration and set to RMS, Root Mean Square.
| | 01:38 | It means we've got a pretty hot level,
but we see that we're not peaking out on
| | 01:43 | the meters down here, so
we're probably pretty good.
| | 01:47 | The TL MasterMeter is used to identify
any signal clip events or oversampling
| | 01:52 | clip events that might
negatively affect the final master track.
| | 01:56 | Fortunately, we don't see any events in
here, so it looks like we're in the clear.
| | 02:00 | Now, I use all three of these tools
together to make sure that there are no
| | 02:04 | phasing or clipping
problems on the output signal.
| | 02:08 | At the end of the mastering process,
audio files often have to end up as 16-bit,
| | 02:13 | 44.1 kHz tracks so that they
can be burned onto an audio CD.
| | 02:18 | Bouncing audio from a higher bit
depth to a lower one creates unwanted
| | 02:22 | quantization noise that occurs at low
volume levels, like on fade-ins or fade-outs.
| | 02:28 | Dither and noise shaping
reduce quantization noise.
| | 02:32 | The funny thing is dither actually adds a
small amount of noise to an audio signal.
| | 02:37 | However, the noise helps to make
the quantization noise less obvious.
| | 02:42 | Noise shaping utilizes digital filtering
to move the noise that dither adds from
| | 02:47 | frequencies that our ears can hear
the best, such as around 4 kHz, to
| | 02:52 | frequencies that we're less sensitive to.
| | 02:54 | This makes the noise more
difficult for us to hear.
| | 02:58 | Quantization noise is pretty minimal,
but it is noticeable if it's in a
| | 03:02 | sensitive range for our hearing.
| | 03:04 | We can use this Dither
plug-in to help out with that.
| | 03:08 | So we can set the resolution, and we
can turn on noise shaping to help move
| | 03:13 | the noise that dithering creates and push it
into an area that's not sensitive for our hearing.
| | 03:18 | There's another plug-in option for
dithering, and it's the Power Dither, and
| | 03:23 | most Pro Tools systems have both of these.
| | 03:26 | This gives us an option of
three different noise shaping types.
| | 03:31 | Note that when you bounce down to
create an MP3 file, you don't actually need
| | 03:35 | to use dither and noise shaping, as these
parameters are built into the MP3 encoders.
| | 03:41 | Together, dither and noise shaping
should be your last processor on your master
| | 03:45 | fader track for master bounces.
| | 03:47 | Now it's time to bounce your final
masters. So, let's go here, and we'll select
| | 03:55 | the whole amount of time that we want to bounce.
| | 03:58 | We'll go to File > Bounce to > Disk,
and yes, Pro Tools warns us that you can't
| | 04:04 | do a bounce when a track is record-enabled.
| | 04:07 | So we'll un-record-enable that, go
back to the Bounce, and we can choose
| | 04:13 | whatever parameters we want here.
| | 04:15 | Stereo Interleaved file.
| | 04:17 | This is what we would need
to create a track for a CD.
| | 04:21 | We could make higher res or low-res files,
| | 04:24 | we could make an MP3, whatever you
need to make, and then bounce down each
| | 04:29 | one of your tracks.
| | 04:30 | The one thing that Pro
Tools cannot do is burn CDs.
| | 04:34 | So you'll need a third-party
application, like iTunes, for that.
| | 04:38 | After bouncing down your tracks,
listen to them critically in many
| | 04:41 | environments and through many
playback systems to make sure they translate
| | 04:45 | well to all systems.
| | 04:47 | If they do, then you've succeeded in
mastering your tracks using Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Working with VideoImporting and displaying video files| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to show you
how to import a video file and how to
| | 00:04 | manipulate it in Pro Tools.
| | 00:06 | Pro Tools can import QuickTime and Windows Media
video files, as well as AAF, OMF, and MXF files.
| | 00:14 | We're going to import a .mov file here.
| | 00:17 | Let's go to File > Import > Video
and locate the video. It's right here.
| | 00:24 | Double-click it and we get
the Video Imports Option dialog.
| | 00:28 | We're going to put it onto a new track,
and we'll put at the session start;
| | 00:33 | however, you could put it somewhere
else if you wanted. And I'm not going to
| | 00:38 | import the audio, even though we can.
| | 00:41 | Note that you could also bring in a
video file by dragging and dropping from the
| | 00:45 | workspace or the Desktop.
| | 00:47 | Let me expand this track out a little
bit here, and you can see that we have two
| | 00:52 | track views possible on a video track.
| | 00:55 | We have got frames and blocks.
| | 00:57 | We'll choose frames. I'm going to zoom
in on this little bit, and you'll see that
| | 01:02 | Pro Tools shows multiple
frames in this track view.
| | 01:05 | You also see that the video window
opened automatically, so if I press play,
| | 01:11 | we can see the video.
| | 01:18 | We can resize this video window. If we go
down to the corner, you'll see the icon
| | 01:23 | change, and I can click and drag to
make it smaller or larger. I can also
| | 01:29 | right-click in the video window and
choose a different size. If you go up to
| | 01:34 | the Window menu, you can choose
to show or hide the video window.
| | 01:40 | Over by the name of the track, we've got
the Video Online button, and we can toggle
| | 01:45 | this between having the video play
along when it's online or not play along
| | 01:51 | when it's off-line, and we'll see this
little note "QuickTime movie is Offline"
| | 01:55 | in the video window.
| | 01:58 | Pro Tools also automatically shows the
Video Engine rate. Pro Tools determines
| | 02:04 | this from the video when it's imported,
and this video is 23.97 frames per second.
| | 02:09 | Just like any other audio region or MIDI
region, you can use the Grabber tool to
| | 02:14 | click and drag the video
region anywhere on this track.
| | 02:21 | Once you've got the file where you
want it, I recommend locking it in time in
| | 02:25 | the session. And you can do that by
right-clicking on the name of the track and
| | 02:30 | choosing locked. And you'll see a
little icon right here, meaning that it's
| | 02:34 | locked, and that's the basics of what
you need to know to import, display, and
| | 02:38 | manipulate video files in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding music, foley, ADR, and FX| 00:01 | Adding audio to video in
Pro Tools can be a lot of fun.
| | 00:04 | Here I am going to show you a quick
project I created for this course that
| | 00:07 | demonstrates adding audio in various
forms to a video file in Pro Tools.
| | 00:12 | This project ties in many of the
recording, editing, mixing, and mastering
| | 00:15 | techniques that I have
shown you here in this course.
| | 00:17 | So let me show you the
video first without any audio.
| | 00:20 | You can see that it's a bunch of
coastline of California shots with some biking
| | 00:29 | as well, and then there is a guy
speaking, and I had to over-dub my voice in
| | 00:35 | there because the ocean was too loud,
and the recording didn't sound that great.
| | 00:39 | So let me bring some of the music in,
and I'll show you what I started with.
| | 00:45 | So I created a piano track and a
beat, and you will notice that I have
| | 00:49 | routed these through Bus 5-6, so I have
created a little sub-mix down here for the music.
| | 00:55 | I have also created sub-mixes for the
FX and Foley--the sound effects, that is--
| | 01:01 | and the dialog, or the voice-over.
| | 01:03 | So let's hear just the music.
| | 01:05 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:21 | That's a long tail on that piano sound.
| | 01:24 | I am using Xpand2, and this
acoustic piano with effects.
| | 01:29 | And I am using Boom. and I have created
my own little drum-kit and my own little
| | 01:36 | drum part up here in the matrix.
| | 01:42 | Now let's look at the
sound effects that I am using.
| | 01:45 | I've got an ocean sound that is from
Xpand, and I also have this train sound.
| | 01:51 | And let me play just this train sound,
and you will notice that it doesn't
| | 01:56 | really sound like a train at all,
just listening to it by itself.
| | 02:00 | (Audio playing.)
| | 02:08 | However, when you mix it in with the whole
thing it actually does sound like a train.
| | 02:12 | We also have this ocean
sound that goes throughout.
| | 02:15 | (Audio playing.)
| | 02:27 | And it seems to work out pretty well
with the actual waves in the video.
| | 02:33 | Finally, I have the voiceover, and I
am going to play everything together now.
| | 02:38 | So let me un-solo everything, un-mute
everything, and here's the final product.
| | 02:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:49 | (Music playing.)
(Male Speaker: Beautiful scenery. Plenty of places to ride.)
| | 02:54 | (Music playing.)
(Male Speaker: Gorgeous weather. It just doesn't get any better than this.)
| | 03:03 | Let's go over to the mix page, and I will
show you some of the things that I have done here.
| | 03:09 | I have got an EQ on the voice,
with some pretty radical moves here.
| | 03:16 | I'm also compressing it using the
Vocal Comp preset, and I've got a little
| | 03:25 | bit of DSing going on.
| | 03:26 | I'm also sending it to this reverb, where I
have set up this basic small reverb sound.
| | 03:35 | The voiceover track is also being sent
over to this dialog sub-mix, where I've
| | 03:40 | got more EQ and compression.
| | 03:46 | Both of the music tracks are being
routed to Bus 5-6, which is picked up over
| | 03:51 | here, and we also have some EQ and
compression. And you'll note that I've
| | 03:57 | notched out a little bit of EQ, right
around 2.5 kilohertz, and that's to allow
| | 04:01 | the voice to come through a little bit more.
| | 04:04 | I have also done the same on the
effects track, and this is the sub-mix for
| | 04:11 | the effects.
| | 04:13 | Finally, everything is routed through this
master fader, where I have this maxim plug-in.
| | 04:19 | Adding audio to video in these
various ways is called postproduction.
| | 04:23 | Many of the techniques shown here
are used every day in film and TV show
| | 04:27 | production, and now you know how
to do all of them in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Bouncing down video and audio together| 00:00 | Once you've created all the audio that
you want to include with your video, you
| | 00:04 | can marry the two together by bouncing them
down to a QuickTime or Windows Media movie file.
| | 00:09 | First make sure that your mix
is the way that you want it,
| | 00:12 | with all the correct track levels,
no bad, clicky edits, and fade-ins and
| | 00:16 | fade-outs where they're needed.
| | 00:18 | For example, on this voiceover track,
I'm going to zoom in, and we can take a
| | 00:23 | look that I've actually created
fades and crossfades here, so this track
| | 00:28 | should be just fine.
| | 00:29 | We don't have any clicks or bad edits here.
| | 00:33 | We also need to check the master fader
output level and the fade-out as well.
| | 00:37 | We don't want to have the final output
level be too low or too high so that it clips.
| | 00:42 | So we'll do one last listen through,
and we'll watch the master fader level.
| | 00:47 | And I'm going to open up this to give us
even bigger view all of the master fader level.
| | 00:52 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:54 | (Music playing.)
(Male Speaker: Beautiful scenery. Plenty of places to ride.)
| | 01:00 | (Music playing.)
(Male Speaker: Gorgeous weather. It just doesn't get any better than this.)
| | 01:09 | Everything sounds good.
| | 01:11 | Now all we need to do is choose the
length of the time that want to bounce.
| | 01:16 | And I'm going to choose the
entire length of the movie,
| | 01:20 | but one thing I want to check first is
to make sure that the fade-out on the
| | 01:26 | Master Fader is the same
length as what that movie file is.
| | 01:31 | So I'm going to zoom in here, and as it
turns out, the fade-out goes a little bit
| | 01:37 | longer than the movie file, so I'm
going to bring some automation in here to
| | 01:42 | make sure that the fade-out
ends right as the movie file does.
| | 01:46 | I'll zoom back out.
| | 01:48 | So now we should be good to go.
| | 01:51 | We've got the movie file highlighted,
so it's going to be exactly that amount of
| | 01:55 | length for our bounce.
| | 01:58 | So let's go to the File >
Bounce to > QuickTime movie.
| | 02:01 | And here, I want to create a stereo
interleaved file, and I'm also going to
| | 02:06 | bounce it down to 48 KHz as the
sampling rate, which is kind of the standard
| | 02:12 | audio sampling rate, when married with video.
| | 02:15 | And I'm going to use the best
conversion quality to do so, the Tweak Head.
| | 02:21 | And now when I bounce it, I need to save it
as something, and we'll call it 'final_video1.'
| | 02:28 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:31 | (Music playing.)
(Male Speaker: Beautiful scenery. Plenty of places to ride.)
| | 02:36 | (Music playing.)
(Male Speaker: Gorgeous weather. It just doesn't get any better than this.)
| | 02:45 | And that's how you bounce down of
video with audio you created in Pro Tools to
| | 02:50 | a QuickTime movie file.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
13. ArchivingArchiving an entire session| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to cover what
to do when you're done working on a Pro
| | 00:04 | Tools session and you want to archive it--
| | 00:07 | that is, you want to put all of and
only the necessary files for your session
| | 00:11 | into one tightly packed folder.
| | 00:14 | Here are the steps to follow.
| | 00:16 | First, we want to delete unused
playlists, so we can go to any audio track in
| | 00:21 | your session and choose Delete Unused,
go into this list, and select all of
| | 00:28 | them and choose Delete.
| | 00:31 | This will eliminate any playlists
that are not visible in the Edit window.
| | 00:36 | Any playlist that is shown on the
screen and is playing back will not be
| | 00:40 | deleted, and that's a good thing.
| | 00:42 | The next step is to remove unused regions.
| | 00:45 | So we go over to the Regions list
and from the Regions List menu, we
| | 00:50 | choose Select > Unused.
| | 00:53 | Any regions that are not referenced by
any track or playlist in your session
| | 00:58 | will become highlighted.
| | 01:00 | You can see a bunch of them
shown here in the Regions list.
| | 01:04 | Now we go back to the Regions list
menu and choose Clear. And as you can read
| | 01:09 | here, this says the operation clears
selected regions, remove selected regions
| | 01:15 | from this session, or permanently
delete selected source files from disk.
| | 01:19 | Whether you choose to remove or
delete will not affect the size of your
| | 01:23 | archived session, but choosing Delete
will erase the unused audio files from
| | 01:29 | your hard drive permanently. Only choose
delete if you're trying to clean up your hard drive.
| | 01:35 | In this case, I would recommend
choosing Remove, and now you see that all of
| | 01:40 | those unused regions are
gone from the Regions list.
| | 01:45 | The next step is compacting,
and this is an optional step.
| | 01:49 | Compacting deletes unused portions
of audio files to conserve disk space.
| | 01:54 | Although it can save hard drive
space, be warned: compacting is a
| | 01:58 | destructive command.
| | 02:00 | It permanently changes the
original audio file and cannot be undone.
| | 02:04 | Thus, I would only use this step if you
need the archive file to be as small as
| | 02:09 | possible; otherwise skip this step.
| | 02:13 | To compact your session, go to the
Regions list and choose Select All.
| | 02:19 | Now you can go and choose Compact,
and yes, there is a lot to read in
| | 02:25 | this Compact dialog box.
| | 02:27 | It's not very compact at all, is it?
| | 02:30 | Anyway, I would not recommend doing
this unless you're definitely sure you want
| | 02:34 | to do it, so I am just going to cancel this.
| | 02:37 | The next step in archiving is to choose
File > Save Copy in, and that opens the
| | 02:44 | Save Session Copy dialog box.
| | 02:47 | In here we want to check off all the
items that you want to include in your
| | 02:51 | archive, most importantly All Audio Files.
| | 02:56 | Notice that we can set the session
format, and we can go back to earlier
| | 03:00 | versions of Pro Tools.
| | 03:02 | If we want to go back to 5.1 to 6.9 then
we'll need to check off the Enforce
| | 03:07 | Mac/PC Compatibility, but
let's use the latest version.
| | 03:12 | You may also consider copying the
session plug-in settings folders, movie, and
| | 03:17 | video files, and maybe you don't want to
copy the fade files, but I'll just keep
| | 03:22 | everything else as is right here.
And I and going to hit okay and Pro Tools will
| | 03:27 | start the copy, after I name it of course.
| | 03:32 | The Save Copy In command is great
because it creates a duplicate copy of
| | 03:36 | everything that's included in the
session, including audio files, fade files,
| | 03:40 | plug-in settings, even movie
and video files if we want.
| | 03:44 | All of the copied files are put
together in one folder, thus if you have files
| | 03:49 | spread out all over different hard
drives this is the best option for bringing
| | 03:53 | all those files together for archiving.
| | 03:56 | Since this command will copy
everything involved in your session, it may take
| | 04:00 | some time to process.
| | 04:02 | You can now store this tightly
packed folder on a hard drive, DVD, or
| | 04:06 | other storage medium.
| | 04:08 | I recommend making a couple of copies
of the folder and saving the copies on
| | 04:12 | different storage mediums, like one on a
hard drive and one on the DVD, and now
| | 04:18 | you know how to archive an
entire session in Pro Tools.
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ConclusionFurther Recommendations| 00:00 | Congratulations on making it through
the Pro Tools 9 Essential Training course.
| | 00:05 | I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for
hanging out with me here on lynda.com.
| | 00:09 | Don't hesitate to watch any of the
videos in the course again to solidify your
| | 00:13 | knowledge of Pro Tools 9.
| | 00:15 | If you're curious what I'm up to, you
can visit my web site at davidfranz.com,
| | 00:20 | or my artist development and music
studio site at undergroundsun.com.
| | 00:26 | I also recommend keeping up to date
with the latest happenings at Avid through
| | 00:30 | their web site, and you may also want
to visit one of my personal favorite
| | 00:34 | sites, the AIR users blog.
| | 00:37 | if you're interested in further
training on Pro Tools, other audio apps, or any
| | 00:41 | other software program, check out all
the amazing offerings here on lynda.com.
| | 00:46 | I wish you all the best in your
future musical endeavors. Cheers!
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