IntroductionWelcome| 00:03 | Hi! I'm David Franz.
| | 00:05 | Welcome to Pro Tools 10 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 of the concepts and techniques
| | 00:16 | necessary for recording, editing,
mixing, and mastering in Pro Tools.
| | 00:22 | Specifically, I'll cover how to set up
your Pro Tools studio and explore all
| | 00:26 | facets of the Pro Tools interface.
| | 00:29 | I'll show you how to record and edit
audio in MIDI, in a Pro Tools session.
| | 00:33 | I'll explain how to work with virtual
instruments, plug-ins, and video, as well
| | 00:38 | as how to comp tracks with playlists and
import and export any kind of data into
| | 00:43 | and out of your Pro Tools session.
| | 00:44 | I'll also show you how to utilize
Automatic Delay Compensation to keep your
| | 00:49 | tracks time-aligned,
| | 00:51 | Elastic Audio for time and pitch
manipulation, and how to create a musical score
| | 00:55 | with the Score Editor.
| | 00:57 | Finally, I'll show you how to use Pro
Tools for mixing and mastering and how to
| | 01:01 | archive a Pro Tools
session for backup and storage.
| | 01:04 | This course is applicable to all
versions of Pro Tools and the techniques I
| | 01:08 | teach in this course will show you
how to use Pro Tools for any aspect of
| | 01:12 | music and post-production.
| | 01:14 | So let's dive into the videos
and get started with Pro Tools 10
| | 01:18 | Essential Training.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring the different versions of Pro Tools| 00:00 | There are two main versions of Pro Tools.
| | 00:02 | First there is the Project Studio
version simply called Pro Tools.
| | 00:06 | The second version of
Pro Tools is Pro Tools HDX.
| | 00:10 | That version is used with Avid's higher-end
studio interfaces and is considered the
| | 00:15 | professional version.
| | 00:16 | Pro Tools HDX utilizes PCI
cards installed in your computer.
| | 00:21 | That is, the older HD cards, an HD
Native card, and the newer HDX cards.
| | 00:27 | They all work with Pro Tools HDX.
| | 00:29 | The HDX software also includes some
more advanced features used for video
| | 00:33 | and surround sound.
| | 00:34 | That said, I know many producers and
engineers that are using the Project
| | 00:38 | version of Pro Tools for
professional, that is, paid work.
| | 00:42 | You may also see other versions of Pro
Tools listed on Avid's site that offer
| | 00:46 | limited feature sets.
| | 00:48 | But all versions are
extremely similar in operation.
| | 00:51 | Thus the concepts and techniques
described here in the videos in this course
| | 00:55 | apply to both main versions of
Pro Tools unless otherwise noted.
| | 01:00 | The main differences between Pro
Tools and Pro Tools HDX involve the track
| | 01:04 | count, number of input and output
channels, and supported hardware.
| | 01:08 | For example, Pro Tools can support up to
32 input channels and Pro Tools HDX can
| | 01:13 | support up to 160 input channels.
| | 01:17 | The Project Studio version of Pro
Tools can be upgraded with the Complete
| | 01:21 | Production Toolkit, which enables
many of the Pro Tools HDX features, like
| | 01:25 | increasing the available track
count all the way up to 256, increasing
| | 01:30 | the instrument, aux, and video
track counts, as well as offering more
| | 01:34 | advanced features.
| | 01:36 | Also, the CPT extends the disk cache,
which enables Pro Tools to load and run an
| | 01:42 | entire session, audio files
and all, into your computer's RAM.
| | 01:47 | You can find a complete list
of features on Avid's web site.
| | 01:51 | Pro Tools HDX can be upgraded to
include the HEAT package, which adds analog
| | 01:56 | warmth and color emulation to
simulate running your tracks through an
| | 01:59 | analog mixing console.
| | 02:02 | Pro Tools 10 works on Macs running
compatible versions of OS X, as well as
| | 02:07 | Windows computers running Windows 7.
| | 02:10 | Be sure to check the compatibility
between your operating system and the
| | 02:13 | current version of Pro Tools on Avid's
web site before installing Pro Tools or
| | 02:18 | updating your OS software.
| | 02:21 | The session files you create in Pro
Tools are interchangeable between Macs and
| | 02:25 | PCs, as well as between
different versions of Pro Tools.
| | 02:28 | For instance, you can create a session
in Pro Tools on a PC running Windows 7
| | 02:34 | and then open that same session
on a Mac running Pro Tools HDX.
| | 02:39 | Because the versions of Pro Tools are
so similar and there's parity between Pro
| | 02:43 | Tools on Windows-based computers and
Macs, every technique you learn in this
| | 02:47 | course is applicable to
every Pro Tools 10 system.
| | 02:50 | It should be noted that Pro Tools 10
session files are saved in the .ptx
| | 02:56 | file format, which is different than
previous versions of Pro Tools that
| | 03:00 | used the .ptf file format.
| | 03:04 | The new .ptx file format is not
backwards compatible with Pro Tools 9
| | 03:08 | and earlier versions.
| | 03:10 | If you are Pro Tools 9 user who is
upgraded to Pro Tools 10, you may find it
| | 03:15 | helpful to check out the differences
between Pro Tools 10 and Pro Tools 9 in our
| | 03:19 | Pro Tools 10 New Features course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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.
| | 00:06 | Before installing Pro Tools, check to
make sure that your computer meets the
| | 00:10 | requirements to run Pro Tools.
| | 00:12 | Go to the avid.com site and
choose Support & Services.
| | 00:16 | I've chosen in here, this is the page.
| | 00:19 | Now on the right side, under Pro
Tools Support choose Knowledgebase.
| | 00:24 | Use this site to check that your
computer specs, operating system, hard drive,
| | 00:29 | audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces, plug
-ins, and third-party devices are all
| | 00:33 | compatible with Pro Tools 10.
| | 00:36 | The biggest issues I've seen as a Pro
Tools instructor involve incompatibility,
| | 00:40 | and I absolutely recommend checking
out this site before purchasing any
| | 00:44 | additional hardware or software
that you plan on using with Pro Tools,
| | 00:47 | especially if you're buying a new computer.
| | 00:50 | So let's look at where you want to
find information on compatibility.
| | 00:54 | If you scroll down this menu
right here, you can see Compatibility.
| | 00:58 | If we choose that and then hit
Search, we'll see a whole list of system
| | 01:02 | requirements, approved devices, and more.
| | 01:05 | Let's click on the Pro
Tools 10 System Requirements.
| | 01:09 | On this page, you can check to make
sure that you're running a compatible
| | 01:12 | version of your computer's operating
system, as well as having the total system
| | 01:17 | RAM necessary and an Avid-qualified computer.
| | 01:21 | Minor version differences between the OS
and Pro Tools can be all the difference
| | 01:25 | between whether Pro Tools can
run on your computer or not.
| | 01:29 | Be sure to check this site often, as
it will get updated as new hardware and
| | 01:33 | software become available.
| | 01:35 | Before installing Pro Tools, there are
a few things that you can optimize on
| | 01:39 | your computer to make sure that it
runs really smoothly with Pro Tools.
| | 01:43 | On a Mac, you should turn
off the Software Update.
| | 01:46 | You don't want the operating system to
update automatically to a version that's
| | 01:49 | not compatible with Pro Tools.
| | 01:52 | You should turn off the Energy Saver
setting so that your computer and Pro
| | 01:55 | Tools never go to sleep.
| | 01:57 | Also, Pro Tools uses some keyboard
shortcuts that are automatically assigned to
| | 02:01 | the Mac operating system.
| | 02:03 | So I recommend disabling or
reassigning those shortcuts so that Pro Tools
| | 02:07 | can use them.
| | 02:09 | I would also disable Spotlight Indexing
and Time Machine so that those processes
| | 02:14 | aren't automatically running in the
background because they can reduce the
| | 02:17 | performance of Pro Tools.
| | 02:20 | I'd also enable Journaling which
can yield higher performance from your
| | 02:23 | hard drives.
| | 02:24 | The specific steps on how to do
these actions are listed in the Pro Tools
| | 02:28 | installation instructions.
| | 02:30 | Note that some of these steps may
change as the Mac OS gets updated.
| | 02:35 | To optimize a Windows system for Pro
Tools, you should disable the User Account
| | 02:40 | control and configure the system
standby and power management settings to get
| | 02:44 | the higher performance setting.
| | 02:47 | You can also adjust the processor
scheduling and disable Startup items to
| | 02:51 | achieve even better performance.
| | 02:53 | The specific steps on how to do these
actions are also listed in the Pro Tools
| | 02:57 | installation instructions.
| | 02:59 | Note that some of these steps may
change as the Windows OS gets updated.
| | 03:04 | Here are few more recommended
optimizations that are applicable to both Mac
| | 03:08 | and Windows systems.
| | 03:09 | You should turn off any
program that runs in the background.
| | 03:13 | You should quit any program that's
unneeded while running Pro Tools.
| | 03:17 | And turn off any unused FireWire
devices and nonessential USB devices.
| | 03:22 | There may also be a few more that are
listed on avid.com, so you should check
| | 03:26 | their site for the latest info.
| | 03:28 | Now let's talk about hard drives.
| | 03:30 | Here's a list of approved hard
drives to use with Pro Tools.
| | 03:40 | Avid strongly advises not to record
audio to the internal system hard drive
| | 03:44 | on your computer.
| | 03:45 | That will reduce the performance of
Pro Tools and can also interfere with the
| | 03:49 | performance of your computer in
general, not just with Pro Tools.
| | 03:53 | Mixing hard drive types in your
setup can cause performance issues.
| | 03:57 | And SSD drives are not yet tested or
qualified to use with Pro Tools at the time
| | 04:02 | of this course's release.
| | 04:03 | Although it's likely that they
will in fact be qualified soon.
| | 04:08 | Again, check the compatibility
page on Avid's site for the latest
| | 04:11 | recommendations, and set the
optimizations as shown here to get the best
| | 04:15 | performance from your Pro Tools system.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Troubleshooting| 00:00 | If at any time you come across a problem
with setting up, installing, or using Pro
| | 00:04 | Tools, there are a number of
resources you can access from the web.
| | 00:09 | The knowledgebase on avid.com
may be your first point of contact.
| | 00:13 | On the Support & Services page
click on the Knowledgebase under Pro
| | 00:17 | Tools Support.
| | 00:20 | On this page just type in some key
words about your issue into the search
| | 00:24 | box and you'll often get an answer on
the first page of the search results, I've
| | 00:30 | used this countless times for my own
studio and almost everyday for helping
| | 00:33 | out my students.
| | 00:35 | A helpful page on Avid's site is the
Find Support page, which you can access
| | 00:40 | right here, and here you can actually
enter in your product or choose a type of
| | 00:46 | support.
| | 00:47 | Finding answers, registering or
activating a product, downloading
| | 00:51 | updates, checking in about warranties
and repairs and finding a forum, which
| | 00:58 | I'm going to click on right now.
| | 01:00 | Down below we can find a number of
forums to help us answer our questions.
| | 01:06 | The one that I use the most is located
here, the Pro Tools User Community, and
| | 01:11 | it's actually more commonly known as
the Digidesign User Conference, or more
| | 01:16 | lovingly as the DUC or the "duck".
| | 01:19 | On this site you can do a search for
any troubling topic, just click down here
| | 01:23 | and type in your issue, you can also
join in the conversations and comment on
| | 01:28 | other posts, as well as help
other people with their issues too.
| | 01:32 | You can find all the different forms down below.
| | 01:35 | There are tons of resources on here
for any kind of Pro Tools system that you
| | 01:41 | have, and if all this fails and you can't
find what you need in the Avid web site
| | 01:46 | or on the DUC, you're going to have
to contact Avid's tech support, you can
| | 01:52 | click this link in the DUC to go back
to the Find Support page, or if we go back
| | 01:57 | to the Support & Services page on
Avid's site, we can go down under Pro Tools
| | 02:02 | Support and choose either the Support
Center or Contact Support, and here you've
| | 02:08 | got all the contact information for Avid.
| | 02:11 | So hopefully you won't need tech support,
but if you do, I've shown you a bunch
| | 02:15 | of different options for
troubleshooting here in this video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you're a premium member of lynda.com
Online Training Library, or if you're
| | 00:04 | watching this tutorial on a DVD-ROM,
you have access to the exercise files used
| | 00:09 | throughout this title.
| | 00:11 | Be sure to copy the exercise files
onto the hard drive that you'll be using
| | 00:14 | with Pro Tools.
| | 00:16 | That drive should not be an internal
drive in your computer that's running your
| | 00:19 | applications, instead it should be an
external drive or a separate hard drive
| | 00:24 | installed inside your computer.
| | 00:26 | Watch the connecting your Pro Tools
system video for more information about
| | 00:30 | hard drives.
| | 00:31 | Also note that if you're using a DVD,
the Pro Tools files will not playback from
| | 00:36 | the DVD itself, you'll definitely
need to copy those onto your hard drive.
| | 00:42 | Each chapter of this course has
a folder for its exercise files.
| | 00:46 | Inside each chapter you'll see
sessions and folders for each video that has
| | 00:50 | exercise files associated with it.
| | 00:52 | The Pro Tools session files for each
exercise are located inside of each of
| | 00:57 | these exercise folders.
| | 01:00 | The .ptx file is the Pro Tools session file.
| | 01:03 | I am going to double-click
on this one and open it up.
| | 01:08 | Now you may run into a few dialog
boxes or warning windows like this when you
| | 01:12 | open up the session files.
| | 01:15 | This one says, Some bus paths were made
inactive because their mapped output
| | 01:19 | paths are unavailable.
| | 01:21 | Please visit the I/O Setup
dialog for more information.
| | 01:24 | Now that's just saying that the
signal routing in your computer system is
| | 01:29 | different from the one
that is on my computer system.
| | 01:33 | So we don't really need to worry about
that and so when it says, would you like
| | 01:37 | to save a detailed report? You can
just click NO, and not worry about it.
| | 01:41 | When the session opens up, you
might see this Missing Files dialog.
| | 01:46 | Keep the Automatically Find
& Relink button highlighted.
| | 01:51 | This means the Pro Tools will
automatically search your hard drives and find and
| | 01:55 | relink the audio files in the session.
| | 01:58 | This speeds up the process of getting
your session up and running, so I'm going
| | 02:01 | to press OK, and you'll see the audio
files become relinked in the session
| | 02:06 | really quickly.
| | 02:09 | Now if you don't have access to these
exercise files, the videos in this course
| | 02:13 | will be more than adequate to
demonstrate the concepts and techniques needed to
| | 02:16 | use Pro Tools 10 effectively.
| | 02:19 | You can also create your own
sessions to mimic what I do in the videos to
| | 02:23 | further enhance your understanding.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
1. Getting StartedInstalling and authorizing Pro Tools| 00:00 | Whether you have a Pro Tools installer
DVD, or you've downloaded Pro Tools from
| | 00:04 | 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, then
install Pro Tools according to Avid's
| | 00:17 | instructions, which you'll find with
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 will supply you with an
authorization that you'll need to install on
| | 00:31 | 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'll need to
setup an account on ilok.com in order for
| | 00:48 | 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 | Pro Tools authorization enables you
to run Pro Tools on a supported Mac
| | 01:08 | or Windows computer
| | 01:09 | with a Pro Tools audio interface, an M-
Audio audio interface, or any third-party
| | 01:15 | audio interface with supported CoreAudio (Mac)
or ASIO (Windows) drivers.
| | 01:21 | That means if you have a Mac,
you can run Pro Tools without any
| | 01:25 | additional hardware.
| | 01:26 | The same holds true if you have a
Complete Production Toolkit authorization.
| | 01:31 | A Pro Tools HD authorization lets you
run Pro Tools HD on a supported Mac or
| | 01:36 | Windows computer with Pro Tools HD hardware.
| | 01:39 | It also lets you run Pro Tools
with the Complete Production Toolkit
| | 01:42 | functionality on supported Mac and
Windows systems without Pro Tools
| | 01:47 | HD hardware.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Connecting your Pro Tools system| 00:00 | In this video I'm going to show you
how to connect the pieces of your Pro
| | 00:03 | Tools system.
| | 00:05 | First, if you haven't already, install
Pro Tools according to the directions it
| | 00:09 | 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 hard drive to
record audio on to, plug that in first,
| | 00:22 | plug in the power, and turn it on,
then connect it to your computer.
| | 00:27 | You can record to several different
types of external hard drives, including
| | 00:31 | eSATA, USB on a Windows
system, or FireWire on a Mac system.
| | 00:37 | You can also record to SATA or SAS internal
hard drives if they have the speed
| | 00:41 | of 7200 RPM or more.
| | 00:44 | Thunderbolt and SSD drives have not
been officially supported by Avid at the
| | 00:48 | time of this recording, but
will likely be supported soon.
| | 00:53 | Note that slower hard drive systems such
as USB hard drives and RAID systems can
| | 00:58 | be used with Pro Tools HDX and Pro
Tools with the Complete Production Toolkit,
| | 01:03 | because these systems load all the
audio for a session into your computers RAM,
| | 01:07 | and thus the speed of the
drive does not come into play.
| | 01:11 | However, if you're running the regular
native version of Pro Tools, you should
| | 01:15 | run your sessions off of a fast
internal or external drive. You should avoid
| | 01:21 | recording audio to the internal system
drive on your computer, this keeps your
| | 01:25 | operating system and the audio
files separated, and also improves the
| | 01:29 | performance of your system.
| | 01:32 | If necessary, format your hard
drive according to the instructions for
| | 01:35 | your computer type.
| | 01:37 | Should you partition the drive?
| | 01:40 | I personally don't think so.
| | 01:41 | Partitioning is not necessary these
days as the gains really aren't worth
| | 01:45 | the cost.
| | 01:46 | I don't recommend doing it.
| | 01:48 | Check Avid's compatibility page
online for specific hard drive
| | 01:52 | compatibility information.
| | 01:54 | Also be sure to backup your data
regularly, you don't want to lose one of your
| | 01:58 | musical ideas or your client's projects.
| | 02:01 | Next in the set of procedures is
connecting your interface, if you're using one.
| | 02:06 | Pro Tools doesn't actually
require to use an audio interface.
| | 02:10 | However, if you're using one that
requires power, like the 003, plug in the
| | 02:16 | power first before connecting it to
your computer, then turn it on. Only a few
| | 02:21 | interfaces require power.
| | 02:23 | Even though many of the interfaces come
with power cables, most interfaces can
| | 02:27 | get enough power from the USB or the
FireWire port on your computer, and don't
| | 02:32 | need to be plugged into
your external power supply.
| | 02:35 | Now connect your interface to the
computer. Use the USB or FireWire cable that
| | 02:40 | came with your interface.
| | 02:42 | If you only have one FireWire port
and you've connected your hard drive to
| | 02:45 | that port, connect your interface to
the hard drive instead of directly to
| | 02:49 | your computer.
| | 02:51 | Most FireWire drives have two FireWire ports.
| | 02:54 | If your interface has a FireWire 400
connection and your computer or hard drive
| | 02:59 | only has a FireWire 800 connector,
you'll need to purchase a cable or an
| | 03:04 | adapter that has a FireWire 400
connection on one end, and a FireWire 800
| | 03:09 | connection on the other end.
| | 03:11 | With the interface connected,
now you can launch Pro Tools.
| | 03:16 | Let's talk about connecting
instruments and mics to your interface.
| | 03:20 | If you want to record with a mic, plug
it into one of the mic preamps on the
| | 03:24 | interface, choose mic as the
input type on the interface.
| | 03:28 | If it's a condenser mic, be sure to
turn on the phantom power button and that's
| | 03:32 | usually labeled with a 48V,
either above or below the button.
| | 03:36 | This powers the microphones diaphragm,
without this added power the mic will
| | 03:40 | not function.
| | 03:41 | If you want to record an instrument
directly, like an electric guitar or
| | 03:45 | bass, choose DI as the input type
and plug directly into the DI input on
| | 03:50 | your interface.
| | 03:51 | If you've a MIDI controller, you can
plug it into the MIDI ports on your
| | 03:55 | interface, or if the controller has a
USB connection, you can plug it into
| | 03:59 | your computer directly.
| | 04:01 | Plug your headphones into the headphone
input and connect your stereo monitors
| | 04:05 | to the monitor outputs.
| | 04:08 | If you have a USB powered interface,
like the Mbox 2, use the mix knob on the
| | 04:13 | front of the interface to mix the
output signal from Pro Tools with the input
| | 04:17 | signal from whatever you've
got plugged into the interface.
| | 04:21 | If you have any further questions about
how to connect any device in your studio
| | 04:25 | setup, consult the guides at Avid or
your third-party manufacturer has provided
| | 04:29 | with your interface.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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,
third, turn on your audio interface
| | 00:18 | if you're using one, unless it draws
power from your computer via USB or
| | 00:23 | FireWire, then turn on your computer,
flip on your monitors, and then it's
| | 00:27 | 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 then power down
your monitors, then you can turn off your
| | 00:38 | 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.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Choosing the Playback Engine and Hardware settings| 00:00 | After you've setup 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.
| | 00:07 | As you can see here, I've already
launched Pro Tools and now I'm going to go up
| | 00:11 | to the Setup menu and choose Playback Engine.
| | 00:17 | In this dialog box we can choose
from any of the peripherals that are
| | 00:20 | connected to our system.
| | 00:21 | A peripheral refers to a device that
you can use to listen through and record
| | 00:25 | with while running Pro Tools.
| | 00:27 | If you have a specific Avid or M-Audio
interface such as the 003 shown here, you'll
| | 00:32 | probably want to choose that.
| | 00:33 | However, you can also choose a third-
party device or any of the other ones that
| | 00:37 | are shown here in the peripherals' list.
| | 00:40 | And as you can see we have a number
shown here, and your list or lack thereof,
| | 00:45 | will certainly look a
little bit different than this.
| | 00:49 | Along with the interfaces made by
Avid and M-Audio, you can instead use a
| | 00:53 | third-party device with Core Audio
software drivers on Mac computers.
| | 00:58 | Core Audio connects the audio streams
between third-party audio hardware and
| | 01:02 | software applications like Pro Tools.
| | 01:05 | On a PC, Steinberg's Audio Stream Input/Output,
or ASIO drivers, provide the same
| | 01:11 | function as Core Audio on a Mac.
| | 01:13 | Thus you can use third-party
interfaces with a PC with Pro Tools as well.
| | 01:18 | The Pro Tools Aggregate I/O is an
option that enables you to use any of the
| | 01:23 | available built-in input and
output channels on your computer.
| | 01:26 | This is only a Mac feature, and I'll
talk about this later in this video.
| | 01:30 | Now that I've chosen the playback
engine that I want, the 003, I'm going to
| | 01:35 | choose OK and then go back up to the
Setup menu and choose Hardware, and in this
| | 01:42 | dialog we have a few
options that we can choose from.
| | 01:46 | First we have the Clock Source.
| | 01:48 | The Clock Source is the timing
reference that all the digital gear in your Pro
| | 01:52 | Tools system has to sync up with to
ensure accurate playback and recording.
| | 01:57 | The majority of the time you'd
probably want to leave this as internal when
| | 02:00 | using Pro Tools as the SyncMaster.
| | 02:03 | The only time to change this option is
when you're syncing to another device
| | 02:07 | that you want to have
provide the timing reference.
| | 02:10 | Below the Clock Source is the Sample
Rate, and this is set when you create
| | 02:14 | the session.
| | 02:16 | Because the 003 has an Optical input
and output connection, we can choose what
| | 02:21 | type of connection we want that to act as here.
| | 02:24 | We can choose between ADAT and S/PDIF or SPDIF.
| | 02:30 | The ADAT setting let's you use eight
channels, while the SPDIF limits the
| | 02:35 | connection to just two channels of audio.
| | 02:37 | When using many other
interfaces you won't have this option.
| | 02:42 | Below that we have the Footswitch Control.
| | 02:44 | If your Pro Tools interface supports a
Footswitch you can tell Pro Tools what
| | 02:48 | you want to do with it.
| | 02:49 | Whether you want to use it to a record,
punching in and out, or using it for
| | 02:55 | playback to start/stop.
| | 02:57 | Let's click OK and go
back to the Playback Engine.
| | 03:05 | Now I'm going to change the Playback
Engine to Pro Tools Aggregate I/O. If
| | 03:10 | you're using just a Mac laptop computer
and no other Pro Tools interface, this
| | 03:15 | is what you want to choose
as your hardware interface.
| | 03:17 | It allows you to use the built-in
input and output channels on your computer.
| | 03:22 | When I click on this, Pro Tools is going
to actually need to reconfigure itself,
| | 03:27 | and it shows you this dialog right here.
| | 03:30 | Selecting this playback engine will
automatically Save and Close your session.
| | 03:34 | The session will be reopened
when you are done changing settings.
| | 03:38 | Are you sure you want to proceed?
| | 03:39 | I'll click Yes, and Pro Tools
will close down, and we'll have the
| | 03:44 | Playback Engine here.
| | 03:46 | We'll keep the same playback as
we've chosen, Pro Tools Aggregate I/O and
| | 03:50 | click OK.
| | 03:51 | Pro Tools will restart, and let us
know that our I/O setup has changed.
| | 03:57 | We can click No, because we
don't need a detailed report.
| | 04:01 | Now Pro Tools is open and ready to
use with the new interface selection.
| | 04:05 | So let's go up to Hardware, when using
the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O and M-Audio
| | 04:11 | interface, or any other third-party
interface with Pro Tools, you should click on
| | 04:16 | the Launch Setup App button to
configure the hardware settings.
| | 04:20 | The Launch Setup App button will start
up the program or driver appropriate for
| | 04:24 | your connected device.
| | 04:25 | There are a variety of these but the
one that shows up for the Pro Tools
| | 04:29 | Aggregate I/O on a Mac is the Audio MIDI setup.
| | 04:32 | Now I'm going to click the Launch
Setup App button and you'll see the Audio
| | 04:36 | MIDI setup.
| | 04:39 | I'm going to click over to the Audio
Devices page, and in this window you can
| | 04:44 | adjust the Clock Source between the Built
-in Line Input, the Built-in Output and
| | 04:50 | the Built-in Line Output.
| | 04:51 | You can also adjust the Sampling Rate,
but I would recommend letting Pro Tools
| | 04:57 | do that and not changing it here.
| | 04:59 | And you may see a variety of Audio
Device options here for you depending on
| | 05:03 | your computer system layout.
| | 05:05 | You can choose to tell Pro Tools
what you want to use with this setup by
| | 05:09 | activating or deactivating
these particular audio devices.
| | 05:13 | Check any of the audio
devices that you will be using.
| | 05:15 | In this case I just want to use these three.
| | 05:20 | In this window you can even configure
your speakers using this button down here.
| | 05:28 | When you're done, you can quit this app.
| | 05:29 | So I am going to go ahead and do that.
| | 05:33 | And then click OK, and Pro Tools
will be setup to use your Pro Tools
| | 05:37 | Aggregate I/O system setting.
| | 05:40 | So with Pro Tools you can use a
wide variety of devices, even your own
| | 05:44 | computers' built-in audio devices
as your interface for Pro Tools.
| | 05:49 | Use the Playback Engine and Hardware
Setup to make the appropriate settings
| | 05:53 | for your interface.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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 the 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
| | 00:42 | left 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
| | 01:08 | 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, 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
| | 01:36 | shown here.
| | 01:37 | The hardware buffer size is the
amount of audio data and 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 responds.
| | 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 96 kHz
sampling rate is half as long as 128 samples
| | 02:48 | at 48 kHz sampling rate.
| | 02:51 | These calculations may be over your
head at the moment, and if they are,
| | 02:54 | 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 on to 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 one.
| | 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 | Under Host Engine, most of the time
you want to keep the Ignore Errors During
| | 03:41 | Playback/Record unchecked.
| | 03:43 | Because if you do check it, it says this
down here, may cause clicks and pops in
| | 03:49 | your playback and recording.
| | 03:51 | And suppressing errors requires at
least 128 Samples of additional buffering
| | 03:56 | on some systems.
| | 03:58 | However, when checked, this
setting enables Pro Tools to playback and
| | 04:01 | record even if the session's
processing requirements exceed the selected
| | 04:06 | CPU usage limit.
| | 04:09 | If you do check it, the Minimize Additional I/O
Latency check box appears, when checked,
| | 04:15 | any additional latency due to
suppressing errors is minimized to 128 samples,
| | 04:21 | regardless of what it set
in the Hardware Buffer Size.
| | 04:24 | While this setting may cause worst
performance on slower computers, check this
| | 04:29 | if you're using a fast
computer, but only if needed.
| | 04:33 | Below the Host Engine we have the
Delay Compensation Engine, and I'm going to
| | 04:37 | discuss that in another video.
| | 04:40 | The Plug-in Streaming Buffer setting
determines the amount of memory allocated
| | 04:44 | for streaming playback from virtual
instruments samplers like Structure.
| | 04:49 | In fact, this option only appears if
some version of the Avid Virtual Instrument
| | 04:53 | structure is installed on your system.
| | 04:56 | Now Structure FREE comes with all Pro
Tools systems, so it's likely that it is
| | 05:01 | installed on your system.
| | 05:03 | Low values here free up system
resources for other uses, while higher values
| | 05:08 | yield better sample playback reliability
from Structure, even though they take
| | 05:13 | up more system resources.
| | 05:15 | Usually keeping the default value here
is fine, only change this value if you're
| | 05:20 | experiencing problems with the
reliability of streaming playback from Structure.
| | 05:25 | Check the Optimize for streaming content on audio
drives check box if you're playing back
| | 05:30 | samples from the same hard drive, as
where the audio files are playing back
| | 05:35 | from in your session.
| | 05:36 | Now if this is a bit over your head,
don't worry, this section is for
| | 05:40 | more advanced users.
| | 05:42 | Keep the default settings and Pro
Tools will perform well in most cases.
| | 05:47 | In fact, some of the other settings
and terminologies explained here in this
| | 05:50 | video might not make
complete sense to you right now.
| | 05:53 | However, they will as you
move forward using Pro Tools.
| | 05:58 | Revisit this video after getting
more familiar with Pro Tools and you'll
| | 06:01 | understand it more deeply.
| | 06:04 | That said, for the purposes here, I
would recommend maximizing your CPU usage,
| | 06:09 | adjusting your Hardware Buffer Size
to a lower number, and setting your Host
| | 06:14 | Processors to one below the maximum amount.
| | 06:17 | Leave the rest of the
settings at their defaults.
| | 06:20 | These settings will increase the
power and optimize your performance of Pro
| | 06:24 | Tools on your computer.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC)| 00:00 | When you add a real-time plug-in or
hardware insert to a track, it takes Pro
| | 00:04 | Tools a little bit of
time to process the signal.
| | 00:07 | That little bit of time can cause
latency or delay when playing back and
| | 00:11 | recording tracks in Pro Tools.
| | 00:13 | Automatic Delay Compensation or ADC,
helps to manage the delays created
| | 00:18 | from plug-ins and hardware inserts,
and keeps all the tracks in the session
| | 00:22 | time aligned.
| | 00:24 | How does it work?
| | 00:25 | Pro Tools adds the exact amount of
delay necessary to each track, so that they
| | 00:30 | all have the same amount of delay,
thus keeping them all time-aligned.
| | 00:35 | We can adjust the delay compensation
within the playback engine, if we go to
| | 00:39 | Setup > Playback Engine.
| | 00:42 | We can see right here Delay Compensation Engine.
| | 00:44 | We can choose from four different values.
| | 00:49 | The Short ADC value uses less
processing power than longer ADC values, and
| | 00:54 | should be find for any session that
only has a few plug-ins on it and that
| | 00:58 | don't induce much delay.
| | 01:01 | Note that the number of samples per
channel of delay shown here depends on the
| | 01:05 | session's sample rate.
| | 01:06 | At higher sampling rates, the number
of samples of delay will be larger.
| | 01:11 | But the same amount of delay
compensation from the time perspective will be
| | 01:15 | applied regardless of the sampling rate.
| | 01:17 | For instance, on the short setting
shown here, there are 1023 samples of delay.
| | 01:24 | At a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz,
which is what we have for our session.
| | 01:29 | If we create a session with the
sampling rate that's double that, at 88.2 kHz,
| | 01:35 | the Short ADC setting will be 2047 samples.
| | 01:39 | Double the number of samples, but
equal to the same length of time,
| | 01:43 | because the sampling rate is also doubled.
| | 01:47 | The Long ADC value allocates a
larger amount of resources for
| | 01:50 | delay compensation.
| | 01:52 | You should use this in sessions where
there are a lot of plug-ins causing a
| | 01:55 | large amount of delay.
| | 01:57 | The Maximum setting should be used when
the long setting just isn't long enough.
| | 02:02 | Note that Pro Tools HD systems do
not have this setting due to limitations
| | 02:07 | with the TDM hardware.
| | 02:09 | When you activate Delay Compensation,
Pro Tools needs to reset itself and will
| | 02:14 | save and close your session.
| | 02:16 | Let's check it out, and choose the
Maximum value, and we get this dialog,
| | 02:21 | Selecting this playback engine will
automatically save and close your session.
| | 02:25 | The session will be reopened
when you are done changing settings.
| | 02:28 | Are you sure you want to proceed?
| | 02:29 | Choose Yes, and if we want to change
anything in here, we can, but we're happy
| | 02:34 | with it, so I want to click OK,
and Pro Tools will reopen.
| | 02:38 | And now we can see the Delay
Compensation is on, we can see it right here.
| | 02:44 | With it on, now we can go to the
Options menu, and choose whether we want to
| | 02:48 | keep it on or turn it off.
| | 02:50 | So if I check this, now I have
actually turned off the Delay Compensation.
| | 02:55 | We don't see it here anymore.
| | 02:58 | I can go back to the Options menu,
click Delay Compensation, and it will turn
| | 03:02 | it back on.
| | 03:04 | Now you don't need to activate Delay
Compensation when you're recording your
| | 03:07 | first tracks in a session.
| | 03:09 | However, once your session starts to
become a little more complicated, when you've
| | 03:13 | got a bunch of plug-ins, effects
loops, virtual instruments, using ADC will
| | 03:18 | become a necessity to keep
all of your tracks time-aligned.
| | 03:22 | I recommend enabling Automatic Delay
Compensation during most playback and
| | 03:26 | mixing sessions, and also
during many recording situations.
| | 03:30 | I'll discuss much more about ADC in
the recording and mixing chapters in
| | 03:34 | this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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.
| | 00:24 | Each tab opens up a
different page of preferences.
| | 00:28 | When you just getting started using Pro
Tools, you might want make sure to keep
| | 00:31 | the Tool Tips on, so that when you mouse
over a button in Pro Tools, you can see
| | 00:37 | 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 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 in
| | 01:09 | the middle of your session.
| | 01:10 | So save yourself by enabling the
Session File Auto Backup, just check this box
| | 01:17 | and setup th 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
2 minutes and keeping 10 is probably
| | 01:28 | 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
| | 01:52 | RAM, and so if you actually want to
save on your processing power in your RAM,
| | 01:57 | you can reduce this number and then
Pro Tools won't have to remember as many
| | 02:00 | steps of undo, and that will open up
more processing power for plug-ins or
| | 02:05 | virtual instruments.
| | 02:06 | And if you think about it this way, if
you set up your Auto Backup to happen
| | 02:10 | every 2 minutes, you probably can't
even get in 32 edits in those 2 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 might as well just keep it
| | 02:22 | 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
| | 02:30 | specific preferences in other videos
in this course, when they're relevant.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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, Pro Tools
| | 00:08 | opens up the New Session
dialog, and offers you a few options.
| | 00:13 | We can create a session from a template.
| | 00:16 | We can choose from a variety of different
templates, and once we choose the type,
| | 00:22 | we can choose from a variety of styles,
so here we have ballad guitar, blues
| | 00:26 | guitar, metal guitar, rock guitar, or
we can choose to create a blank session.
| | 00:32 | Now let's talk about the session
parameters we have for each session.
| | 00:36 | First, let's discuss sample rate.
| | 00:38 | Now there are two primary determinants
in the accuracy of digital recording,
| | 00:44 | Sample Rate and Bit Depth.
| | 00:46 | Photography is a helpful
metaphor for discussing sample rate.
| | 00:50 | Digital recording is like taking
pictures of audio waveforms at a speed
| | 00:54 | determined by the sample rate.
| | 00:55 | If the sample rate in your session is 44.1
kHz, Pro Tools takes 44,100 pictures
| | 01:03 | all of your audio input every second.
| | 01:07 | Each picture captures the amplitude,
or the level of the audio signal at
| | 01:11 | that moment.
| | 01:12 | The more pictures that you take, the
more accurate the representation of
| | 01:16 | the audio waveform is.
| | 01:17 | Thus, the higher the sampling rate, the
more accurately Pro Tools can re-create
| | 01:23 | an analog waveform with digital samples.
| | 01:26 | Higher sampling rates also
require more hard drive space.
| | 01:29 | For example, audio files recorded at 96
kHz are twice as big as those recorded
| | 01:36 | at 48 kHz, all other factors being equal,
simply because there are twice as much
| | 01:42 | information being recorded.
| | 01:44 | Moving movie over to bit depth, each
sample is digitally mapped to an exact
| | 01:49 | digital amplitude value and
converted into binary digits or bits.
| | 01:54 | The number of bits in a system
is referred to as the bit depth.
| | 01:57 | 16 bit recordings offer roughly 66,000
different amplitude levels, while 24 bit
| | 02:05 | recordings offer over 16 million
different levels, thus, the higher the bit
| | 02:10 | depth, the more accurate the digital
representation of the analog sound.
| | 02:15 | Note that 24 bit recordings take up one and
a half times more hard drive space than a
| | 02:20 | 16 bit recording does.
| | 02:23 | And as a reference, CDs are recorded at
16 bit 44.1 kHz, while DVDs are recorded
| | 02:30 | at 24 bit 96 kHz for the audio.
| | 02:35 | Pro Tools has that 32 Bit Float option as well.
| | 02:38 | This high-res bit depth takes up more
disk space and requires more computer
| | 02:43 | power, for audio streaming.
| | 02:45 | But the audio recorded at this
depth can sound better and also provide
| | 02:50 | more headroom.
| | 02:51 | Now let's talk about interleaved files.
| | 02:54 | In all Pro Tools versions up to
Version 9, audio could only be used in a Pro
| | 02:59 | Tools session in mono format.
| | 03:02 | Pro Tools would split up
stereo and multi-channel files into
| | 03:05 | individual components.
| | 03:07 | Like a stereo file will become two mono
files, one for the left and one for the
| | 03:11 | right side of the stereo image.
| | 03:13 | If you check Interleaved here,
Pro Tools will create and utilize
| | 03:17 | interleaved files.
| | 03:19 | So any stereo or other multi-channel
files you create, will be maintained in
| | 03:23 | their original state and not be
split into separate mono files.
| | 03:29 | The I/O settings refer to the signal
routing options within Pro Tools and via
| | 03:34 | the interface that you're using with Pro Tools.
| | 03:37 | You can simply use the Last Used
settings or choose from any of the other
| | 03:41 | settings that you have made previously,
or some of the default settings that
| | 03:44 | come with Pro Tools.
| | 03:46 | I discuss how to make custom I/O
settings in a video later in this course.
| | 03:51 | Finally, we have the Audio File Type.
| | 03:55 | And we can choose between WAV and AIFF.
| | 03:58 | It really doesn't matter which one
you choose, as they are both compatible
| | 04:02 | with Macs and PCs.
| | 04:04 | So once you've chosen all your
session parameters, click OK and save the
| | 04:09 | session, name it, choose where
you want it to go and click Save.
| | 04:14 | When you press save, Pro Tools creates
a new blank session file, and we'll
| | 04:18 | cover the interface and the elements
of a Pro Tools session in other videos
| | 04:22 | in this course.
| | 04:23 | Now you know what all the parameters of
a Pro Tools session mean, and how to use
| | 04:28 | them effectively when creating a new session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Identifying elements in a session folder| 00:00 | When you create a new session file, Pro
Tools actually creates an entire folder
| | 00:04 | that contains many subfolders that hold
all of the files related to the session.
| | 00:09 | So I am going to hide Pro Tools
and look at this new session folder.
| | 00:16 | Here it is, the new session folder.
| | 00:18 | And here are all the contents, Audio
Files, Clip Groups, New Session, Session
| | 00:24 | File Backups, Video Files and the WaveCache.
| | 00:27 | The new session.ptx file is the session file.
| | 00:31 | That stores all the session data
but it does not store audio or video.
| | 00:36 | It only points to the audio and
video files on your hard drive.
| | 00:40 | The audio files are kept in a
separate Audio Files folder.
| | 00:43 | This is very important to understand,
they are not part of the session.
| | 00:48 | They exist separately in this folder and
the session file simply references back
| | 00:54 | to them and tells the hard drive
what parts of the files to playback.
| | 00:59 | The same goes for Video Files.
| | 01:01 | And I'll discuss Clip Groups in another video.
| | 01:05 | The Waveform Cache file stores all of
the waveform display data for the session.
| | 01:10 | This allows Pro Tools to open more quickly.
| | 01:13 | If you delete this file,
Pro Tools can just rebuild it.
| | 01:16 | When you activate the Auto Backup
preference, in the Operations preference page
| | 01:20 | in Pro Tools, Pro Tools creates backup
copies of your session automatically.
| | 01:26 | Those backups are stored in
the Session File Backups folder.
| | 01:29 | Now there are two things that you
should know by seeing the session folder
| | 01:34 | setup here.
| | 01:35 | First, when you record audio, import
video, 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 an
| | 01:46 | 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 tiny
| | 01:57 | little pieces of them in the session,
and play them all back at once or in
| | 02:02 | succession.
| | 02:04 | Second, it's important to understand
that editing an audio file in Pro Tools
| | 02:08 | is nondestructive.
| | 02:10 | Because the audio files are separate
from the Pro Tools session, almost anything
| | 02:14 | you do to the audio file in the session
will not harm the original audio file.
| | 02:20 | So now you know that a Pro Tools
session actually pulls data from multiple
| | 02:24 | sources, all contained in separate
files and folders within the overall
| | 02:28 | session folder.
| | 02:30 | I recommend keeping them all together
within the session folder, so that Pro
| | 02:34 | Tools can find them easily.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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
| | 00:08 | to create them.
| | 00:09 | If you go to the Track menu and choose
New, you'll see the New Tracks dialog.
| | 00:15 | Here is where you are going to
create all of your new tracks.
| | 00:19 | You can also access this New Tracks
dialog with the shortcuts, Command+Shift+N
| | 00:23 | on a Mac, or Ctrl+Shift+N in Windows.
| | 00:28 | When you open up the New Tracks dialog,
it automatically defaults to this, Create
| | 00:33 | 1, new Mono, Audio Track in Samples format.
| | 00:39 | So we can choose the number of tracks we want.
| | 00:41 | We can also choose the format;
| | 00:44 | here we have Mono or Stereo.
| | 00:47 | Mono is 1 track and stereo is 2, left and right.
| | 00:52 | If you have the complete production
toolkit or Pro Tools HDX, you'll also see
| | 00:56 | surround sound types here,
offering many multi-channel options.
| | 01:00 | You can also choose the track type.
| | 01:03 | You can choose from Audio Track, Aux
Input track, Master Fader, MIDI Track
| | 01:10 | and Instrument Track.
| | 01:11 | If you have the complete production
toolkit or Pro Tools HDX, you'll also see
| | 01:16 | VCA Master and Video Tracks as options here.
| | 01:20 | Now let me tell you a little bit
about these different track types.
| | 01:24 | Audio tracks are use to record and
arrange recorded or imported audio files
| | 01:29 | and clips.
| | 01:30 | And it's important to remember that Pro
Tools session documents don't actually
| | 01:34 | contain the audio files.
| | 01:36 | The session references them from the hard drive.
| | 01:40 | Audio Tracks can be mono,
like a single voice track.
| | 01:44 | Stereo like a piano track, or multi-
channel surround tracks on HD systems or Pro
| | 01:51 | Tools systems with complete production toolkit.
| | 01:54 | Aux Input tracks are used for effect
returns, sub mixing and a variety of other
| | 01:59 | signal routing tasks.
| | 02:01 | Master Fader tracks are most often used
to control the overall level of all the
| | 02:06 | audio signals routed
through the main output paths.
| | 02:09 | For instance, if you have 12 audio
tracks all routed to analog outs 1 and 2;
| | 02:16 | a Master Fader track with its output
assigned to analog outs to 1 and 2 will
| | 02:20 | control the combined output level,
of all twelve of those audio tracks.
| | 02:25 | Master Fader tracks can be
mono, stereo or multi-channel.
| | 02:29 | I highly recommend putting a stereo
Master Fader track into any Pro Tools music
| | 02:35 | session that you create, so that you
can monitor the overall output level.
| | 02:39 | Because without a stereo Master
Fader track, you can't tell what the
| | 02:43 | overall output level is.
| | 02:46 | MIDI Tracks are used to record MIDI
performance data, that is, notes, velocity,
| | 02:51 | pitch bend etcetera.
| | 02:53 | Because no audio passes through them,
there is no option for mono, stereo
| | 02:58 | or surround.
| | 03:02 | Instrument Tracks are essentially a
combination of a MIDI track and aux input.
| | 03:07 | They allow MIDI recording as well as
audio monitoring of an inserted software or
| | 03:11 | hardware instrument on the track.
| | 03:15 | In another video in this course, I'll
explain the differences between Ticks and
| | 03:19 | Samples, so I won't get into that here.
| | 03:22 | So now I am going to go ahead
and create a number of tracks.
| | 03:26 | First I have a Mono Instrument Track ready here.
| | 03:29 | And I am going to hit this little plus
button, and it's going to allow me to add
| | 03:33 | or subtract tracks from the new tracks dialog.
| | 03:37 | So I'll create another Mono Audio
Track here and let's do a Stereo Master
| | 03:43 | Fader, and I will create a MIDI Track.
| | 03:47 | Hit Create and all those
tracks will show up in your session.
| | 03:52 | So now you know how to create tracks
and what the differences are between
| | 03:56 | each type of track.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
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 have got the Edit
toolbars, and right now if I go to the Edit
| | 00:19 | Toolbar menu, you'll see that I have
just a minimal setting and that consists of
| | 00:25 | the edit modes, the edit tools, the
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 and the Transport.
| | 00:47 | I can actually go down and click All, and
that will extend even beyond the screen
| | 00:52 | what we can see here.
| | 00:54 | Now if you want to see some of these
that are beyond the view, you can press
| | 00:58 | Command on the Mac, or Ctrl on a PC and
click and drag them and move them around.
| | 01:07 | Below the Edit toolbars we have the
Universe window and that's this small group
| | 01:12 | of colored lines, we can show or hide
that, and that just represents all the
| | 01:19 | tracks that are down here in the Edit
window, you'll also see the color coding
| | 01:24 | that matches up with the
markers that are shown here.
| | 01:28 | We can show and hide those particular
things over here in the Edit toolbar
| | 01:32 | menu as well, you'll also see in the
menu the Tracks List, the Clips List and
| | 01:37 | the MIDI Editor.
| | 01:39 | The MIDI Editor shows up
at the bottom of the screen.
| | 01:42 | If you've MIDI tracks, you'll see
some tracks in there and I'll activate
| | 01:45 | that now.
| | 01:46 | We'll talk about this in a later video,
but I just wanted to show you that
| | 01:52 | it's here.
| | 01:53 | You can hide it by clicking this
button right here.
| | 01:55 | On the left side of the Edit window,
we have the tracks and the groups lists.
| | 02:02 | The tracks list show all the tracks
that are in the session. If we click on one,
| | 02:07 | it highlights the name of the track.
| | 02:10 | The tracks list also contains the Tracks
menu where we can show all tracks, show
| | 02:15 | only a few tracks, hide all
the tracks and sort the tracks.
| | 02:20 | Below the tracks list is the
group's list. You can group multiple
| | 02:24 | tracks together to create a group,
and then work on the tracks in that
| | 02:28 | group simultaneously.
| | 02:29 | There is a group list pop-up where you
can create new groups, display different
| | 02:34 | groups, modify the groups and delete groups.
| | 02:38 | I'll show you more about how to
make a group in a later video.
| | 02:41 | On the right side of the screen we have the
clips list, and this shows all of the
| | 02:46 | audio and MIDI clips that are in the
session, it also has a pop-up menu, and we
| | 02:51 | have a wide variety of things that we
can apply to the clips here and we'll talk
| | 02:55 | more about that in a later video.
| | 02:58 | In the top center, we have all
the rulers, bars, beats, minutes and
| | 03:01 | seconds, samples.
| | 03:04 | We can go over to the Ruler menu and
choose which one that we want to see.
| | 03:12 | Below the rulers we have the Edit
window view selector where we can choose what
| | 03:16 | we want to see on our tracks.
| | 03:19 | Right now, I have got the inserts,
the I/O and the track color showing.
| | 03:22 | If I choose minimal we'll only
see the names of the tracks with the
| | 03:27 | track colors.
| | 03:28 | If I show all, you can barely see any
of the tracks, because we have all of
| | 03:34 | these things that we can view, so we
have the tracks, the comments, or we can
| | 03:38 | type in anything about the track.
| | 03:41 | The Mic Preamp section, the
Instruments section, the Inserts where we put
| | 03:45 | plug-ins and virtual instruments.
| | 03:47 | The Sends, we have 10 different sends,
the I/O, so that's the input and the
| | 03:52 | output, and the volume and panning, and
Real-Time Properties which we can apply to
| | 03:58 | any MIDI or instrument track.
| | 03:59 | I'm going to go back to Minimal.
| | 04:03 | In each track we have the Record
button, Solo and the Mute buttons.
| | 04:09 | We've got the Track View which will
show us all kinds of different views of
| | 04:13 | the track.
| | 04:15 | So in this particular case on this
instrument track, we have the clips view, you
| | 04:20 | can show the notes and a wide variety of
others even down to the audio volume on
| | 04:25 | the track, and these are the automation
views for the track view, you can also
| | 04:32 | show multiple views of this track,
| | 04:34 | if we show and hide the automation lanes.
| | 04:36 | So now we the clips view up here, as the
main view, the velocity is down here and
| | 04:43 | we can add more and choose whatever we want.
| | 04:47 | Below the Track View selector we got
the Patch selector, if we click that we can
| | 04:52 | choose a different patch if we have a
MIDI device connected to this, we'll talk
| | 04:57 | more about that later.
| | 04:58 | We have the Automation mode selector
and we'll talk about this later in a
| | 05:04 | different video, we have the Time-based
selector which we will also cover in a
| | 05:08 | different video, and if you go down
right below the track you'll see how the
| | 05:14 | cursor turns into a double arrow if
you click and drag you can make the track
| | 05:19 | larger or smaller in height, and you
will see that some of the features of the
| | 05:25 | track either get hidden or
become really small buttons.
| | 05:31 | You can also adjust the height by
clicking right here, and that works on any
| | 05:38 | kind of track.
| | 05:41 | On audio tracks we have the current
elastic audio plug-in if there is one in
| | 05:46 | this area and down here we have the
polyphonic one showing, we'll talk more
| | 05:51 | about that in another video, and while
we are down here in this corner, let's
| | 05:55 | look at the Show and Hide buttons.
| | 05:57 | Right here we can show or hide or vice versa.
| | 06:01 | We can toggle between showing and hiding the
tracks and groups lists, and we have
| | 06:06 | the same button over here where we
can show or hide the Regions list.
| | 06:11 | Right around this buttons are some
zooming buttons, we can zoom in and out
| | 06:17 | and make things taller or shorter, and
MIDI zoom in and out right here with
| | 06:22 | audio zoom in and out.
| | 06:24 | And finally the last button here we
have the Keyboard Focus button and we'll
| | 06:29 | describe how that works
in another video as well.
| | 06:31 | So as you can tell from this video, you
can do about everything that you need to
| | 06:35 | do to your tracks here in the Edit
window, I'll get into the specifics of all
| | 06:40 | the features in this window in many
of the other videos in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring the Mix window| 00:00 | The Mix window mimics a mixing
console displaying each track as a
| | 00:04 | vertical channel.
| | 00:06 | Although you can actually access
almost every Mix window feature from the
| | 00:09 | Edit window,
| | 00:10 | I find working in the Mix window while
mixing, and even recording, can be more
| | 00:15 | intuitive, plus it's nice
to see the tall faders here.
| | 00:19 | Let's start on the left side with the
tracks list. Just like in the Edit window,
| | 00:23 | we can see all of the different
tracks here and we've got the Tracks List
| | 00:27 | pop-up, where we can hide all of the
tracks, show all the tracks, or show only
| | 00:34 | certain type of tracks.
| | 00:37 | Below the Tracks list is the Group's
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. Let's look at the
| | 00:48 | 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, so that's an audio track, this is
| | 01:26 | an instrument track, 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
| | 01:36 | channel, but the mic preamp section up
here, the instrument section, the inserts
| | 01:42 | and you'll see that we have 10 inserts,
5 at the top, A-E, and then F-J, and that's
| | 01:49 | where we can put virtual
instruments and plug-ins.
| | 01:52 | We have 10 sends as well, A-E and F-J,
and as I scroll down here you remember the
| | 01:59 | I/O section, and below the name of the
track, we have the delay compensation
| | 02:05 | 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 of
| | 02:28 | the tracks much more narrow and this
works out really well, if you have a very
| | 02:32 | large session with a ton of tracks.
| | 02:34 | That way you can see a lot
more tracks in your Mix window.
| | 02:37 | We'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+Option+Command on a
| | 02:49 | Mac, or Alt+Start+Ctrl on a PC and
click the meter to make them fatter,
| | 02:55 | check it out.
| | 02:57 | The vertical channel layout of the
mix window makes it fairly intuitive to
| | 03:01 | use once you know what all the buttons,
knobs and menus do. I'll get into the
| | 03:05 | specifics of all the features in this
window and many of the other videos in
| | 03:09 | this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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.
| | 00:18 | Here we're 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 have got the Online
button, click this only if you're trying
| | 00:30 | to sync with another playback device,
like an external tape machine or video
| | 00:35 | editing deck.
| | 00:36 | Then we have the regular controls,
return to zero, rewind, fast forward, go
| | 00:42 | to the end.
| | 00:43 | And then the most obvious ones,
the stop, play and record enable.
| | 00:48 | If you right-click the play button, you
will see half-speed, prime for playback,
| | 00:53 | loop playback and dynamic transport.
| | 00:55 | We will cover those later in a different video.
| | 00:59 | And also, if you right-click the
Record Enable button, you will see four
| | 01:02 | different types of recording we can do.
| | 01:05 | And we will cover that in other 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'm going to
| | 01:22 | expand the Transport to show even more.
| | 01:27 | Below the Transport Controls we've
got Pre-roll and Post-roll, type in a
| | 01:32 | number here, hit return and
you'll have Pre-roll activated.
| | 01:37 | To the right, we have the Play Length
Selections and we have the Online and
| | 01:42 | Generate MIDI Time Code buttons.
| | 01:44 | To the right of that we have the
Main and Sub Counters, and finally the
| | 01:48 | MIDI Controls.
| | 01:49 | We can set up a count off and
activate it by clicking this button.
| | 01:53 | You can see the meter and
the tempo in the session.
| | 01:57 | And then we have four MIDI Controls down here.
| | 01:59 | We have Wait for Note, the Metronome,
MIDI Merge and the Conductor Track.
| | 02:05 | And we will 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're far away from your screen,
you can actually blow this up really big
| | 02:26 | and tell where you are in the session.
| | 02:30 | And if we change the timescale,
you'll note that the timescale will
| | 02:35 | change here in the Big Counter and on
the Transport and up here in the Edit
| | 02:39 | 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.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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 will discuss
the Color palette and the window
| | 00:09 | arrangement features.
| | 00:11 | If you choose Window > Color Palette,
the Color palette opens up.
| | 00:16 | And you'll see that you can apply
colors to tracks, clips, groups and markers.
| | 00:21 | If you drag the Brightness control, you
can increase or decrease the brightness.
| | 00:27 | Click the apply to channel strip
button right here, and you can adjust the
| | 00:31 | saturation, how deep the colors are.
| | 00:37 | You'll notice here in the Tracks menu,
I have these two tracks highlighted.
| | 00:40 | You can also see that their
names are highlighted down here.
| | 00:46 | When they're highlighted, I can choose
to change their track color by choosing
| | 00:51 | Tracks from this menu and changing the color.
| | 00:54 | I actually prefer the original.
| | 00:56 | So I am going to undo that.
| | 00:59 | You can also go back to the Default,
which it's actually set at right now, or
| | 01:04 | choose None by clicking these buttons.
| | 01:08 | You can further customize the way
Pro Tools handles colors, by going to
| | 01:12 | the Preferences.
| | 01:14 | In the Display page, we have
this whole section on color coding.
| | 01:19 | I personally like the
defaults that we have here.
| | 01:22 | The Default Track Color Coding for just the
Track Types, and the Default Clip
| | 01:26 | Color Coding for Tracks and MIDI Channels.
| | 01:28 | But you can change them up if you like.
| | 01:32 | Now let's check out the window arrangements.
| | 01:34 | If you go to Window > Arrange, you can
see that we can adjust how we look at the
| | 01:40 | different windows in Pro Tools.
| | 01:42 | Right now, we have the Mix
window open and that's all we see.
| | 01:45 | But we choose to Tile Horizontal, we'll
see both the Edit and the Mix on
| | 01:51 | top of each other.
| | 01:53 | We can Tile them Vertically so they are
side-by-side, or we can cascade them, so
| | 02:00 | one is in front of the other but
it's easy to switch back and forth.
| | 02:04 | The color controls in the Color
palette are certainly nice features for a
| | 02:08 | few reasons.
| | 02:09 | First, the colors help to organize your session.
| | 02:12 | Also making Pro Tools less bright is
beneficial if you have to stare it for
| | 02:16 | many hours in a row, as many of us do.
| | 02:19 | The window arrangement options
enable you to see more information on your
| | 02:23 | screen at once, or simplify your
workflow by only showing what you need to
| | 02:27 | show at any one time.
| | 02:30 | Use the Color palette and window
arrangements to personalize how you
| | 02:33 | interact with Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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
| | 00:17 | 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, new, open, close and all
| | 00:30 | these saving options.
| | 00:31 | We also have the Bounce to Disk
command, which you'll see is pretty
| | 00:35 | important later on,
| | 00:37 | and the import and export functions.
| | 00:40 | In the Edit menu, it's pretty
logically organized as well, where we have only
| | 00:45 | editing functions like cutting, copying,
pasting, clearing, even duplicating,
| | 00:50 | inserting silence,
separating clips and creating fades.
| | 00:54 | In the View menu, we can customize the
way that we look at Pro Tools and what we
| | 00:59 | see in each of the windows.
| | 01:00 | You can check out what we see in
the Mix window or the Edit window.
| | 01:04 | We can change our ruler displays,
we can even change what our waveforms
| | 01:09 | look like.
| | 01:11 | In the Track menu, we can create new
tracks, duplicate them, make them inactive
| | 01:15 | and even delete them.
| | 01:17 | We can change our monitoring
mode and even create a click track.
| | 01:22 | The Clip menu lets us do
anything we want to do to a clip.
| | 01:25 | We can lock them, we can group them,
we can loop them, we can rename them, we
| | 01:29 | can even adjust their elastic properties.
| | 01:33 | The Event menu lets us do
anything time or event related.
| | 01:37 | So we have Time Operations where we
can change the meter or insert time.
| | 01:41 | Tempo Operations and Event Operations,
where we can alter the quantization,
| | 01:47 | or the transposition.
| | 01:50 | We can even use Beat Detective here.
| | 01:53 | The AudioSuite menu shows us
a list of AudioSuite plug-ins.
| | 01:57 | We can apply any of these to
any audio clip in non-real-time.
| | 02:02 | We'll cover more about these
in some plug-in videos later.
| | 02:05 | The Option menu gives us all kinds of
options for recording, setting pre-roll and
| | 02:11 | post-roll or playback style
even activating our click.
| | 02:16 | The Setup menu shows us how to setup
our hardware, playback engine and disk
| | 02:20 | allocation, as well as our I/O
settings and our session settings.
| | 02:25 | You can even access the preferences here.
| | 02:29 | The Window menu shows us
our window configurations.
| | 02:32 | We can arrange our windows differently here
and we can open any of the
| | 02:36 | various Pro Tools windows.
| | 02:38 | Next, we have the Marketplace where
you can access your account online
| | 02:43 | through Avid's web site.
| | 02:45 | You can also look at buying some new
plug-ins, getting support and training or
| | 02:49 | upgrading your system.
| | 02:51 | Finally, in the Help menu, you can
search for help from a variety of
| | 02:55 | sources, including accessing the
online Knowledgebase or pulling up the Pro
| | 03:00 | Tools Shortcuts document.
| | 03:02 | Like any mature software program, there
are a lot of menu items to choose from.
| | 03:06 | Many of the items are duplicated as
buttons in one or more of the windows and
| | 03:11 | most have keyboard shortcuts too.
| | 03:13 | So there's many ways to get things
done in Pro Tools but knowing the right
| | 03:16 | menu to select for the command you are
looking for, will certainly make you more
| | 03:20 | efficient, when using Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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 sessions 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
| | 00:24 | see that it's ticks,
| | 00:26 | 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
| | 00:33 | sample rate.
| | 00:34 | For example, 44.1 kHz as the sampling rate,
where each sample is placed at
| | 00:40 | an exact and absolute location in
the session and only moves, if you move
| | 00:45 | 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 | And we can see ticks right up here
shown in the main counter, and there are 960
| | 01:21 | subdivisions, 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.
| | 01:49 | MIDI performance data is tick based by
default, because MIDI events are locked
| | 01:52 | to 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.
| | 02:07 | 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 it all.
| | 02:29 | 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, and
| | 02:44 | choose polyphonic, and Pro Tools
analyzes this now, and if we go and change the
| | 02:50 | tempo, both the MIDI and the audio
changed, to 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
co-exist in the Pro Tools session.
| | 03:09 | However each track must be either one
or the other, not both at the same time.
| | 03:14 | And obviously, as you saw here, you can
change a track's time base at any point
| | 03:18 | while working in the session, by
toggling the Time Base Selector button.
| | 03:22 | Now you understand the
difference between a sample and a tick.
| | 03:25 | I recommend keeping the default time
base for each track when you first create
| | 03:29 | the tracks, but then you can
change them later if you really need to.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Viewing and manipulating tracks| 00:00 | Once you've created some tracks in
Pro Tools, there's a lot of ways to view
| | 00:03 | and manipulate those tracks before,
during, and after you record material
| | 00:07 | onto them.
| | 00:09 | Let's start with the tracks list.
| | 00:11 | As you notice, when I click a name of
a track in the tracks list, the name of
| | 00:16 | the track gets highlighted here,
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, where you can show
| | 00:29 | only certain types of tracks, you can
hide, select the 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
| | 01:00 | audio files or the MIDI regions that
you record, will be named the generic name
| | 01:05 | shown here, Audio 1.
| | 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 Audio 1 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 an electric
guitar amp with the Shure SM57 mic,
| | 01:31 | 1 inch from the left speaker, then
those comments can show up in the comments
| | 01:35 | field and they will be both
the Edit and the Mix window.
| | 01:39 | So let's name this El Gtr, and
I'm going to hit the Tab key to go down
| | 01:44 | into the comments field, and I will say
SM57 on left speaker 1 inch from grill,
| | 01:56 | press Return, and that will
show up in the comments field.
| | 02:00 | We can access that here, and I'm
going to drag this down to make the
| | 02:06 | 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 commands 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 will 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'm 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 will
see that it automatically names the track
| | 02:51 | El Gtr.dup1.
| | 02:54 | I would definitely rename this, and
you might need to touch up the comments
| | 02:58 | 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 | And unfortunately, this cannot be undone.
| | 03:09 | 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 guitar
| | 03:17 | track again. One of the coolest
features in Pro Tools is the ability to make
| | 03:22 | a track inactive.
| | 03:24 | If you go to Track > Make Inactive,
you'll see that the entire track has
| | 03:29 | been grayed out.
| | 03:30 | You can still see it but you won't
hear anything on it and will not take up
| | 03:35 | any computer resources.
| | 03:37 | However, all of the settings for the
track, and any audio or MIDI data that's on
| | 03:41 | the track will be saved with the session.
| | 03:44 | 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 the
| | 04:00 | track, and choose Make Inactive and Make
it Active again by clicking on it again.
| | 04:06 | Now all these things that I just
mentioned, we can actually access by
| | 04:10 | right-clicking on the name of the track.
| | 04:13 | 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
| | 04:22 | Track menu.
| | 04:24 | So knowing all the ways to view and
manipulate your tracks will enable you to be
| | 04:28 | more efficient when using Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting inputs, outputs, and busses| 00:00 | In this video I'm going to talk
about how to properly assign the inputs,
| | 00:03 | outputs, and busses on tracks.
| | 00:06 | Let's first take a look at a mono audio track.
| | 00:09 | If you go down to the I/O section, you
can see that Analog 1 is the audio input
| | 00:14 | 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 Analog 1
through 4, and some digital inputs, as well
| | 00:26 | as other analog inputs down here.
| | 00:29 | We can also choose a bus. A Bus is an
internal Pro Tools signal path, but when
| | 00:35 | you record through your interface, you
want to select one of the analog inputs.
| | 00:39 | So if you plug your guitar into Input 1
on your interface, you can choose Input
| | 00:44 | 1 as the input on the track you want
to record on to, as we've got here.
| | 00:50 | The default output path is Analog 1
and 2, which is the output path routed to
| | 00:55 | 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 Analog 1 and 2,
and that's what we have over here.
| | 01:11 | You'll see that master fader tracks
don't have an input choice, they simply have
| | 01:17 | this output, and what that does is
all of the audio that's routed to that
| | 01:23 | particular output, Analog 1 and 2,
goes through this master fader track.
| | 01:27 | So let me say that again, all tracks
routed to Analog 1 and 2 in this session
| | 01:33 | will pass through this master fader
track that's assigned to Analog 1 and 2.
| | 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 Bus 7-8, and what
| | 01:58 | that's going to do is route the
output of this track to the Bus 7-8.
| | 02:03 | And in order for Pro Tools to receive
that signal somewhere else in the session,
| | 02:07 | you need to assign an input like we
have set here, as the same output, so we
| | 02:13 | have Bus 7-8 here, and Bus 7-8
here as the input, so this track will
| | 02:18 | receive the output from this track.
| | 02:22 | Dealing with the MIDI signal
flow is a little bit different.
| | 02:24 | The input on a MIDI track is
whatever receives the signal from your
| | 02:28 | 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 keyboards 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
| | 02:47 | port and channel.
| | 02:48 | Your choice for the MIDI output has to
be more discerning to make sure that the
| | 02:52 | MIDI signals routed to the right
virtual instrument or sound module.
| | 02:56 | So we need 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 channels
| | 03:04 | and I'm going to choose Xpand2 > channel 1.
| | 03:08 | So now the MIDI data on this track is
routed to the Xpand2 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
| | 03:28 | for you.
| | 03:30 | We've got the MIDI Input set to All, so
any MIDI controller that you play will
| | 03:34 | go through here, then it's
automatically routed to the virtual instrument
| | 03:39 | that's on this track.
| | 03:40 | We go down to the audio input, we don't
really need an audio input, because the
| | 03:44 | sound that we're getting on this track
is coming from the virtual instrument,
| | 03:48 | and then the output is
routed to our main outputs.
| | 03:51 | And we'll cover more about choosing
inputs, outputs, and busses in the recording
| | 03:55 | and mixing chapters,
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting an I/O settings file| 00:00 | No matter what hardware you're using
with Pro Tools, whether it's an Avid
| | 00:04 | interface, a third-party interface,
or simply your computer's inputs and
| | 00:08 | outputs, you can utilize the I/O
setup to customize your signal routing in
| | 00:13 | Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | Go to Setup > I/O.
| | 00:17 | The I/O Setup shows all of the signal
routing available into, within, and out of
| | 00:21 | Pro Tools in a convenient matrix format.
| | 00:24 | It includes the names and paths for
all the inputs, outputs, busses, inserts,
| | 00:30 | mic preamps, and hardware insert delays.
| | 00:34 | On each page you can rename,
reorganize, create or delete signal paths
| | 00:39 | 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, the Input page, for your
| | 00:51 | 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,
that's what I use this window for the most.
| | 01:10 | So I'm going to go down to this stereo
input path, click there, so I open up the
| | 01:15 | mono paths within the stereo path.
| | 01:18 | I'm 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'm
going to call this Vocal Mic, and hit return,
| | 01:30 | and now let's saved as the name of that path.
| | 01:34 | Let's go over to the Bus page, here we
can route busses directly to outputs, and
| | 01:40 | 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 you
| | 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 1-2
| | 02:00 | directly out to Analog 3-4, if
we're running it through external processors,
| | 02:06 | or if we're 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 them 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've just saved mine
right here, df_iosettings.
| | 02:43 | And when you click to import, you
may see this warning, Delete existing
| | 02:47 | unused paths?
| | 02:49 | The default is No, but I often
choose Yes, because if they're unused, we
| | 02:53 | don't need them.
| | 02:55 | Every time that you import settings, it
only imports for this particular page so
| | 03:00 | this would just be for the Bus page.
| | 03:03 | If we want to import input settings
from another I/O settings document, we'll
| | 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
| | 03:16 | ones saved with your session.
| | 03:18 | You can recall the settings
from either if they're different.
| | 03:21 | It just depends on whether you
check the Sessions overwrite current I/O
| | 03:26 | 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, and just so you
| | 03:47 | know, busses are always saved with, and
recalled with the session, they are not
| | 03:53 | 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.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding signal paths and gain stages| 00:00 | Understanding the signal flow of audio
and MIDI data, and the gain stages along
| | 00:04 | the signal path, is crucial knowledge
for any musician, recording engineer, and
| | 00:08 | 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.
| | 00:21 | 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 0s and 1s.
| | 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 are the potential gain stages
involved in recording an instrument or a
| | 01:20 | voice with a microphone into Pro Tools,
both on the input and output sides
| | 01:25 | 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 his 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/instrument input level.
| | 01:46 | Finally, if you have a compressor in
the signal path or any other post mic
| | 01:50 | preamp affects, 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 setup 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
| | 02:15 | output volume.
| | 02:16 | The master fader track level determines
the final output level of the mix, and
| | 02:20 | then finally, you have the headphone or
monitor levels that determine how loud
| | 02:24 | 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, then that data is
| | 02:48 | routed to a sound source.
| | 02:50 | It could be a virtual instrument
inside the computer or an external
| | 02:54 | 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
| | 03:05 | routed out of Pro Tools, converted
back into MIDI data, and then transformed
| | 03:10 | 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 can help you
| | 03:36 | capture higher quality recordings, as
well as troubleshoot almost any signal flow
| | 03:41 | and gain staging problem during
the recording and mixing process.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing keyboard shortcuts and Keyboard Focus| 00:00 | In this video I want to show you some
of the most essential keyboard shortcuts,
| | 00:05 | as well as some of my personal favorites.
| | 00:07 | First, let's start with the
essentials, the spacebar, easiest one;
| | 00:12 | use it for playing and for stopping.
| | 00:14 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:17 | On a Mac you can press Command+Spacebar
for recording, now you may have to
| | 00:22 | disable the Spotlight key command,
so Pro Tools can use this command.
| | 00:27 | On a PC, you can use Ctrl+Spacebar.
| | 00:30 | Probably your most used keyboard
command will be undo, you can get it from the
| | 00:36 | Edit menu, but you'll probably just
want to use Command+Z on a Mac, or
| | 00:40 | Ctrl+Z in Windows.
| | 00:42 | And then your next favorite will probably
be the save command, Command+S on a
| | 00:47 | Mac, or Ctrl+S in Windows.
| | 00:49 | I would recommend getting to
know all the function keys.
| | 00:54 | The first four function keys 1, 2,
3, and 4 will take you through the
| | 01:00 | edit modes.
| | 01:01 | The next six will take us through the
edit tools, F5 for zoomer, F6 for the
| | 01:06 | Trim tool, F7 for selector, F8 for the
grabber, F9 for the scrubber, and F10
| | 01:12 | for the Pencil tool.
| | 01:14 | You can hit these multiple times to
scroll through the different types of tools.
| | 01:18 | Now I'm going to tell you about a few
of my most favorite keyboard commands.
| | 01:23 | I love the Command+Equals keyboard
command for Mac, or Ctrl+Equals in
| | 01:29 | Windows, and that switches between
the Edit window and the Mix window.
| | 01:34 | You can see that command right up here.
| | 01:38 | Another really useful one is the
Command+Shift+N on the Mac, or Ctrl+Shift+N
| | 01:42 | in Windows, and that's for the New Tracks dialog.
| | 01:46 | I like to hit Command+K on the Mac, or
Ctrl+K in Windows to turn on or turn
| | 01:53 | off pre-roll and post-roll.
| | 01:56 | You can see that in the Options menu.
| | 01:58 | I also like the Command+E on a Mac,
or Ctrl+E in Windows, which is the
| | 02:03 | separate clip command.
| | 02:05 | What that does is automatically
separates either audio or MIDI clips or
| | 02:10 | both like this.
| | 02:14 | We'll talk more about separating
clips in the editing videos later in
| | 02:18 | this course.
| | 02:20 | Now let's go over to the Mix window, and
another one of my favorites is
| | 02:23 | Command+Option+M on a Mac, or Alt+Ctrl+M
in Windows, and that makes the Mix
| | 02:30 | window narrow.
| | 02:31 | We can also access that from the View menu.
| | 02:36 | And here's one more bonus fun shortcut.
| | 02:38 | If we go down to the track meters right
here, and we press Ctrl+Option+Command
| | 02:44 | on a Mac, or Start+Alt+Ctrl in Windows,
and then click, we can
| | 02:51 | make these meters fatter.
| | 02:54 | Some call these the Wide Faders.
| | 02:57 | For a list of all the keyboard shortcuts
available in Pro Tools, and it's a ton
| | 03:02 | of them, you can go up to the Help
menu and choose Pro Tools Shortcuts.
| | 03:06 | This will open up a PDF
file of all the shortcuts.
| | 03:11 | Utilizing these shortcuts will make
you more efficient when using Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. ImportingUsing 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 and database program consisting
| | 00:21 | of two main browsers, 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 attach hard drives for
| | 00:33 | any file that you like to
import into a Pro Tools session.
| | 00:36 | The Project browser looks into the
Current Sessions folder regardless of where
| | 00:40 | the sessions associated files are located.
| | 00:43 | So anything associated with this
particular session, we can see in this
| | 00:47 | Project browser.
| | 00:48 | Now, there are no associated files,
except for this session, so we don't see
| | 00:52 | anything else here, but you would if
there were more associated files with
| | 00:55 | this session.
| | 00:56 | Let's go take a look at the Workspace
browser. Now the Workspace browser looks
| | 01:02 | into every hard drive that's
attached to your system, let's do a search.
| | 01:06 | I'm going to go up to the magnifying
glass here, so now we have this Search
| | 01:09 | field, and I'm going to type in techno
drums, do a search for some drum loops, and
| | 01:16 | you'll see that it might take a few
minutes for you to find all of the loops,
| | 01:21 | but now you can see that the search is complete.
| | 01:24 | So we'll go down here
and look at what we've got.
| | 01:28 | Got a number of drum loop files and we
can see this as a WAV file, an audio
| | 01:32 | file, and this is the size of it, and
the waveform is shown and we can tell
| | 01:37 | how long it is.
| | 01:38 | It's exactly 4 bars, which is related
to this tempo that it conveniently shows
| | 01:44 | at the beginning of it, 138.
| | 01:46 | We can click on this button
right here to hear the loop.
| | 01:49 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:54 | Now we have some options for
auditioning the loop, and they're all checked
| | 01:57 | off right now.
| | 01:58 | So we have Loop Preview,
which will loop the whole file.
| | 02:02 | Auto Preview means that if we click the
name of the file, it will start playing.
| | 02:08 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:10 | So we don't actually have to hit the
speaker, we could actually hit the name of
| | 02:13 | the file, and Spacebar Toggles File
Preview, so we can use the spacebar to press
| | 02:18 | play and stop for that particular loop.
| | 02:21 | So the easiest way to get the loop
into Pro Tools is to simply drag and drop
| | 02:27 | it, and there we go.
| | 02:28 | And let's check it out in Pro Tools.
| | 02:33 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:38 | Now you'll notice that it's playing
back at the same tempo that it was in the
| | 02:43 | Browser window, that's at 138.
| | 02:45 | However this session is at 120bpm.
| | 02:49 | What happens if we actually want to
bring this loop in at this session tempo?
| | 02:54 | No problemo. What we can do is click
this button right here and that is the
| | 03:01 | audio files conform to session tempo
button, so now with that on we can listen
| | 03:06 | to what it sounds like at the session tempo.
| | 03:09 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:14 | So you note that it's slower.
| | 03:16 | If we turn this back off, it
will go back to its original tempo.
| | 03:18 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:24 | So let's put that back on and
then drag it into our session.
| | 03:31 | And you'll notice now that it's
exactly 4 bars at our 120 beats per
| | 03:37 | minute tempo.
| | 03:38 | Now if we highlight this one, it's less
than 4 bars because it's faster than our
| | 03:43 | tempo, and I'll playback both of these.
| | 03:46 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:48 | That's faster.
| | 03:49 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:52 | That's slower, but it's in time with our tempo.
| | 03:55 | Pro Tools utilizes elastic audio to
convert this loop into the right tempo, and
| | 04:00 | we'll cover elastic audio in
another video in this course.
| | 04:04 | The Workspace browser is a handy way
to find files, audition them and import
| | 04:08 | them into your session, and I'm
sure you'll incorporate it into your
| | 04:11 | workflow with Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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're already working on.
| | 00:15 | Regardless of the reason, I'm 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, the Import Audio dialog box will
| | 00:27 | open, and you can import any audio file
contained on a hard drive connected to
| | 00:31 | your computer.
| | 00:33 | In this case I've got some audio
files here already listed that I want to
| | 00:36 | bring into the session.
| | 00:37 | So I'm going to click on the first
one, and you'll see the information
| | 00:41 | about that actual track.
| | 00:43 | You'll see the bit depth and the
sampling rate, and you'll see this note,
| | 00:47 | This file can be added directly to
the current session but it will playback
| | 00:51 | at the wrong speed.
| | 00:53 | So if we want to use this file in
the session we need to convert it.
| | 00:56 | Now I actually want to bring in a few
more files, so I'm going to go press Shift
| | 01:01 | and click on that fourth one.
| | 01:02 | And now I have all four of these, both
the left and right sides of these two
| | 01:06 | stereo tracks in the clips in current file list.
| | 01:10 | I'm going to press Convert All, and now
these are ready to import, and you'll see
| | 01:16 | down here we have Apply Sample Rate Conversion.
| | 01:20 | 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 | I would recommend using Tweak Head,
even though it says it's slowest, doesn't
| | 01:37 | take very long on computers these
days, plus it's the best quality.
| | 01:41 | So now I can click Done, and you'll
choose where you want to import these, and
| | 01:48 | usually it will come into the Audio
Files folder that's part of your session.
| | 01:56 | It takes a second for Pro
Tools to process the audio.
| | 02:01 | Now you get this Audio Import Options
dialog where you can choose whether you
| | 02:04 | want to create a new track for the new
audio or just put them into the clips
| | 02:08 | list, and where you want the tracks to be.
| | 02:11 | So I'm going to say new track at the
session start, click OK, and here are our
| | 02:17 | new tracks.
| | 02:20 | Now there is even an easier way
to import audio into your session.
| | 02:24 | If you go to Window > Workspace, and if
you navigate to the files that you want
| | 02:31 | you can literally drag and
drop them into the session.
| | 02:36 | So I want to take the Electric Piano,
left and right, click and drag
| | 02:41 | them in, and Pro Tools automatically
converts them and places them where they
| | 02:47 | were originally in the track.
| | 02:49 | So as you can see here, there are a
few ways to import audio into a Pro Tools
| | 02:54 | session, both of which are relatively
straightforward, choose the technique
| | 02:58 | that suits you best.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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'm going to show
you two ways to import MIDI files.
| | 00:09 | The first way,
| | 00:10 | is to go to File > Import > MIDI.
| | 00:13 | Now you can choose a MIDI file
contained on any hard drive connected to
| | 00:17 | your computer.
| | 00:19 | In this case I'm going to choose Mini
Grand.mid, MID represents a MIDI file,
| | 00:25 | and I'll choose Open.
| | 00:27 | The MIDI Import Options dialog opens
up and you can choose where you want it
| | 00:31 | to go.
| | 00:32 | So whether you want to put it on a new
track or just right into the clips list.
| | 00:37 | You can choose the location, whether
you want it to start at the session
| | 00:40 | starting point or spot, or use a
specific selection, and we can import the tempo
| | 00:46 | map from the MIDI file, which I want
to do, and I'm going to import the key
| | 00:51 | signature as well.
| | 00:53 | Because the cursor is at the very
beginning of the session, and we've
| | 00:57 | chosen location selection, it's going to go
right to the very beginning.
| | 01:02 | So you see this MIDI clip starts right
at the very beginning of this session.
| | 01:06 | You'll also note that the tempo change
from 120, which was the default, to 100,
| | 01:12 | which is the tempo that is
associated with this MIDI file.
| | 01:15 | Let's check out another way to import MIDI.
| | 01:17 | Let's go to Window > Workspace and
I'm actually going to do a search;
| | 01:24 | all in is the name of the file that I'm
looking for, and here's the folder that
| | 01:30 | I want to find it in.
| | 01:30 | I'm going to pull in this Vacuum.mid
file, and what I'm going to do is actually
| | 01:37 | just drag and drop it into the session.
| | 01:40 | And I want to keep all of this the same;
| | 01:42 | I'm going to put in a new track,
it's going to go with the same selection
| | 01:46 | area, which is the very
beginning of the session.
| | 01:49 | And because it's actually from the same
session that the other track was from, I
| | 01:52 | don't need to import the tempo map with
the key signature, and I don't want to
| | 01:57 | remove the existing MIDI clips or tracks.
| | 02:00 | So closing these windows, we can see
that we have a second MIDI track in
| | 02:04 | the session.
| | 02:06 | However, since I created these tracks
with virtual instruments, I'd really like
| | 02:10 | to bring them in on instrument tracks.
| | 02:13 | So how do we do that? Let me show you.
| | 02:15 | I am going to go up to the Track > New
and create 2 stereo instrument tracks.
| | 02:22 | Because we have these clips over here
in the clips list on two MIDI tracks, I'm
| | 02:26 | going to Shift+Click and get both of
them highlighted, and then click and drag
| | 02:32 | them into the session.
| | 02:34 | Now all I have to do is insert an
instrument plug-in on both of these tracks
| | 02:38 | and we'll hear sound.
| | 02:39 | So as you can see, there are a few
ways to import MIDI files into a Pro
| | 02:44 | Tools session.
| | 02:46 | Use the technique that suits you best.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing session data| 00:00 | A terrific feature of Pro Tools is the
ability to import session data from one
| | 00:04 | session file directly into another session file.
| | 00:08 | You can do this for any type of track,
including audio, instrument, auxiliary,
| | 00:12 | master fader tracks, etcetera.
| | 00:14 | And I like to use this feature to
import tracks that have settings that I
| | 00:18 | really like on them.
| | 00:19 | Like for example, if I've dialed in a
nice vocal signal path with effects and EQ
| | 00:24 | and compression, and I want to duplicate
that into a new session, or if I want to
| | 00:29 | bring an instrument track that already
has some notes on it or something that I
| | 00:32 | really want also in this new session,
this is the way to do it, using the import
| | 00:37 | session data option.
| | 00:39 | If you go to File > Import > Session Data,
here we can choose which session that
| | 00:46 | we want to import from, and I'm going
to just go ahead and double-click on
| | 00:50 | Composing_With_Vls, and that opens up
our Import Session Data dialog box.
| | 00:56 | At the top we've got the source properties
and these are the properties that have
| | 01:00 | to do with the session that we are trying to
import from, and that all looks good.
| | 01:06 | Down below we have the Audio Media
Options, and here this is talking about
| | 01:11 | linking or copying or bringing in your
audio files into this new session, and we
| | 01:17 | have a variety of options here.
| | 01:19 | Link to source media means that it
won't copy the audio it'll actually link to
| | 01:24 | the original files wherever they are in
your hard drives, or you can choose to
| | 01:28 | copy and make a new copy for your new
session, we have these other options
| | 01:33 | here too.
| | 01:35 | The same goes for Video Media Options,
we're not going to working with video
| | 01:38 | here, but we do have some different choices.
| | 01:40 | Up here on the top right we have the
Timecode Mapping Options, and this is mainly
| | 01:47 | for working with video and helping to
align the audio correctly with the video,
| | 01:52 | and we have some different options here,
don't worry about that too much now.
| | 01:57 | We can also add a Track Offset, so if we
want the audio that we were bringing in
| | 02:02 | to start at a different bar or beat, we
can do that or at a different timecode
| | 02:08 | or different sample number, we can
do that here.
| | 02:10 | We also have the Sample Rate Conversion
Options, and in this particular case the
| | 02:17 | sampling rate in the session that
we're importing from is the same as the one
| | 02:21 | we're importing to, so we don't really
need to sample rate convert, but if we
| | 02:25 | decide to anyway, we can check this
off, and we can set the different sampling
| | 02:29 | rates and we can also
set the conversion quality.
| | 02:33 | Usually I go for the best called the
Tweak Head, it says it is the slowest, but
| | 02:39 | really with the computers these days,
it goes really fast anyway, and it is the
| | 02:43 | best quality, so I would choose that,
and you'll also noticed that when we do
| | 02:46 | the sample rate conversion, the Audio
Media Option changes to force to target
| | 02:52 | session format, and that just means that
we have to force our new audio files to
| | 02:57 | the new session format that
we're deciding on right here.
| | 03:00 | So now let's get to what we really
need to do, we want to bring tracks into
| | 03:04 | this session.
| | 03:05 | So I'm going to go down here and
choose which ones that I actually want to
| | 03:09 | bring in.
| | 03:10 | We've got the source tracks from the
original session and the destination, so
| | 03:15 | I'm going to just click here and
choose New Track, and the same for this one.
| | 03:19 | So now I've got these two tracks that
I want to bring into our new session.
| | 03:25 | We can also bring in some other
information from the session that
| | 03:27 | we're importing from.
| | 03:28 | If you go down here to the Import area,
we've got tempo/meter map which I'm
| | 03:34 | actually going to check off so that
the tempo of the session matches what we
| | 03:40 | originally recorded these tracks at.
| | 03:41 | We can also bring in the key signature
and the chord map, markers and memory
| | 03:46 | locations, window configurations and
mic preamp settings.
| | 03:49 | Over here on the right we can
choose which data to import and there's a
| | 03:54 | long list.
| | 03:56 | We can bring in anything from the
track really, alternate playlists or clip
| | 04:01 | gain or volume automation, plug-in
settings, input and output assignments,
| | 04:07 | comments, even mixed groups.
| | 04:10 | And for the Main Playlist Options we
can import what's already on the main
| | 04:15 | playlist, or we can choose not to
import anything and have a blank playlist and
| | 04:20 | that's what I'm going to do right now.
| | 04:23 | So when we go ahead and hit OK, and Pro
Tools is going to bring those files in,
| | 04:29 | and it needs to look for the
original audio file, so I'm going to say
| | 04:33 | Automatically Find & Relink,
and while it's looking for them,
| | 04:37 | I'm going to go up and show you
the other way to import session data.
| | 04:40 | If you go to Window > Workspace, and
if we navigate to a Pro Tools session
| | 04:51 | file, we can simply click and drag it
into the session and it will open up the
| | 04:59 | Import Session Data dialog box, and we
can do the same thing here, we can bring
| | 05:03 | in new tracks and import anything else
that we want from that session in this
| | 05:08 | dialog box.
| | 05:09 | I am going to cancel that.
| | 05:11 | So now you know two different ways to
import session data into a new
| | 05:15 | session, and this is a great way for
bringing in tracks from other sessions and
| | 05:21 | personally I find it very useful to
import tracks that already have effects
| | 05:25 | plug-ins or virtual instruments on
them that I use regularly, and I'm sure
| | 05:29 | you're going to find this feature
very handy as you begin to use Pro Tools
| | 05:33 | more frequently.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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 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.
| | 00:24 | I'm 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 as our setting.
| | 00:36 | Now I'm always a fan of the TweakHead
even though it says is 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, it's the
| | 00:50 | best quality.
| | 00:52 | Now we can go up to the File menu,
choose Import > Audio, and you'll see your CD
| | 00:58 | come up with all the tracks on it.
| | 01:00 | I'm going to go click this one and
you'll see the information about that track,
| | 01:04 | and it'll pop into the clips in the
current file list, and it tells you that
| | 01:10 | this must be converted to be used, because
it's not an audio file type that Pro
| | 01:14 | Tools can use directly.
| | 01:16 | What that means is it's a stereo file
and Pro Tools actually needs to convert it
| | 01:21 | into two mono files, so that it can use
it in the session, because we didn't
| | 01:26 | initially setup the session to
accept stereo interleaved files.
| | 01:31 | Not only that, we know the sampling
rate is 44.1 kHz, however, our destination
| | 01:37 | sample rate in our session is 48.
| | 01:39 | So we already have our sampling rate
conversion quality set at TweakHead,
| | 01:44 | which is the best.
| | 01:45 | Now we can go hit Done, and Pro Tools
is going to ask us where we want to
| | 01:50 | save this file.
| | 01:51 | It always comes up as the default
into the Audio Files folder for the
| | 01:55 | session, which is totally fine, so
I'll click Open and Pro Tools will start
| | 01:59 | processing this file.
| | 02:01 | When Pro Tools is done converting
the file, it'll open up the Audio Import
| | 02:06 | Options dialog, and you can choose whether
you want to create a new track for the
| | 02:10 | song, or if you want to just put it in a
clips list, and I want to say create a
| | 02:15 | new track, and we can also say where we
want it to be, so I'm going to just have a
| | 02:20 | be at the session start,
click OK and there's the file.
| | 02:25 | You can also import CD tracks by
going through the Window menu and then
| | 02:28 | Workspace, and you'll see the CD here,
and I can literally click and drag to
| | 02:37 | the session, and Pro Tools will take
care of all the conversions, all behind
| | 02:41 | the scenes.
| | 02:42 | As you can see here, importing a track
from a CD is pretty straightforward, use
| | 02:47 | 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.
| | 00:06 | Go to the File menu, choose Import > Video.
| | 00:10 | Find your movie file, and you'll see the
Video Import Options dialog box, you can
| | 00:16 | choose where to put it onto a new track,
and I'll choose the session start, and
| | 00:21 | you can choose to import the
audio from the file, let's try it.
| | 00:27 | When you choose to import the audio,
Pro Tools wants to know where you want to
| | 00:30 | put the audio files, and you'll usually
just want to stick them right into the
| | 00:34 | Audio Files folder within the session.
| | 00:39 | So now you see the video file on
this video track, and the audio file.
| | 00:44 | I am going to press play and
you'll see just a little bit of it.
| | 00:47 | (Video Playing)
| | 00:54 | Now Avid recommends that you store
audio and video files on separate
| | 00:58 | dedicated hard drives.
| | 01:00 | Storing them both on the same drive
might cause performance issues, because
| | 01:04 | that's a lot of data coming from one drive.
| | 01:07 | In this particular case because we
have such small files, it is not really
| | 01:10 | that big of a deal, but if you start
working with larger files, definitely
| | 01:14 | keep them on separate drives.
| | 01:16 | If for some reason you want to
actually import the audio from a video file
| | 01:20 | without importing the video,
you can do that as well.
| | 01:23 | If you go to File > Import > Audio, and
you'll see the left and right side of the
| | 01:29 | audio file and you can import them
through this Import Audio dialog box.
| | 01:33 | After you've added both of them to
the clips to import list, click Done and
| | 01:40 | we'll tell Pro Tools to add them to a
new track at the session start, and you'll
| | 01:45 | see that they're exactly the same
files as what we've brought in before.
| | 01:50 | You can also import files used in
video post-production, including AAF, MXF
| | 01:56 | and OMF sequences.
| | 01:58 | Importing an entire AAF or OMF
sequence can be done with the File > Import >
| | 02:03 | Session Data command, or you can
choose Open Session from the File menu.
| | 02:08 | You can also drag and drop
from your DigiBase browser.
| | 02:12 | When you import individual Avid or MXF
video files, you can do this with the
| | 02:17 | File > Import > Video command, or
you can also drag and drop from the
| | 02:21 | DigiBase browser.
| | 02:23 | When you want to import individual
OMF audio files you can do that with the
| | 02:27 | File > Import > Audio command, or you
can also drag and drop from the DigiBase
| | 02:31 | browser.
| | 02:32 | I'll cover more techniques about
working with video files in Pro Tools in other
| | 02:37 | videos in this course, but now you
know how to import video and audio, from
| | 02:41 | video files into a Pro Tools session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Recording AudioRecording audio| 00:00 | In this video, I'm going to show you
the steps involved in recording audio
| | 00:04 | 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.
| | 00:20 | But I'm actually going to go to a blank session.
| | 00:25 | So I'll choose WAV as my audio file type,
I'm going to choose 16 bit and 44.1 kHz
| | 00:30 | as the sampling rate, and I'll use my
last used I/O settings.
| | 00:35 | I'm going to name this.
| | 00:40 | I'm actually saving this to the desktop,
but usually I would save this to an
| | 00:44 | external FireWire hard drive, but the
desktop is fine just for this initial
| | 00:48 | idea right now.
| | 00:49 | So here we have the Edit window
completely blank with no tracks, so I'm going
| | 00:55 | to create a new track.
| | 00:57 | And I'm going to be recording an acoustic
guitar, so I'm just going to create 1
| | 01:01 | new mono audio track, make it larger by
going to the bottom of the track here,
| | 01:08 | and you see the icon for the
cursor is this double-arrow.
| | 01:11 | If I click and drag, we can make it taller.
| | 01:13 | 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 as Analog
| | 02:23 | 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 | Views, 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'm going to go up to Setup > Playback Engine,
and the hardware buffer size, I
| | 02:56 | want make as small as possible.
| | 02:58 | In this case, I can make it 32 Samples.
| | 03:02 | It's a very short amount of time.
| | 03:03 | And what that does is reduce the
amount of latency that happens when
| | 03:08 | 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 the Setup > Hardware,
and click on the Launch Setup App
| | 03:30 | button to 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
| | 03:55 | this course.
| | 03:56 | The next step is to choose the
monitoring mode, and we can choose that from
| | 04:00 | 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 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, so we're going to just get away from
| | 04:28 | that and not choose it.
| | 04:30 | 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.
| | 04:36 | So we're in Input Only Monitoring.
| | 04:37 | I'm going to talk in much more detail
about the monitoring modes in another
| | 04:42 | video in this course.
| | 04:43 | But for this particular purpose, let's
keep it in Input 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.
| | 05:02 | So we need to set our recording level
and that means that you need to start
| | 05:06 | playing or singing into the microphone to
see how loud your signal is.
| | 05:10 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:15 | All right! That seems like a pretty good level.
| | 05:17 | We don't want to peak 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 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:56 | Well, it wasn't the perfect take,
but it'll 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 be
| | 06:09 | able to record into Pro Tools within
just a minute of launching the program.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Playing back audio and Edit window scrolling| 00:00 | Playing back audio seems like a
no-brainer function in Pro Tools.
| | 00:04 | You press play 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 go over to the
Transport controls and press the Play button.
| | 00:18 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:22 | And Pro Tools will play.
| | 00:24 | You can also hit the spacebar or use the
Play button on a control surface, like
| | 00:29 | the 003.
| | 00:30 | To stop playback, you can use the Stop
button here on the Transport controls.
| | 00:34 | You can also use the spacebar or the
Stop button on your control surface.
| | 00:40 | Now each time I've been playing so far
in this video, I've been starting from
| | 00:43 | the very beginning of the session.
| | 00:46 | But if we want to go somewhere else
in the session, we can do it a number
| | 00:48 | of different ways.
| | 00:50 | So I've got the Selector tool chosen
here, and I can click anywhere in the
| | 00:55 | session, press play and it'll start
right from where I have the selector.
| | 01:00 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:05 | I can also use the Fast
Forward and Rewind buttons.
| | 01:09 | Clicking them once will move ahead
or move back the cursor by one bar.
| | 01:16 | And if you click and hold, then they'll
move continuously forward or backwards.
| | 01:20 | You can also go up into the counters
and enter a time that you wanted to
| | 01:25 | start playing back.
| | 01:26 | And so I'm going to hit 9, and hit enter
or return, and it'll take the cursor to
| | 01:32 | Bar 9 and we can start playing back right there.
| | 01:35 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:37 | To select a specific area for
playback, we can use the Selector tool to
| | 01:42 | click and drag.
| | 01:43 | So if I click and drag, Pro Tools
will play back this particular area.
| | 01:48 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:52 | I can adjust this selection by clicking and
dragging the timeline in and out
| | 01:57 | points, these blue arrows up here, to
extend or shorten the selection time.
| | 02:03 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:06 | I can also use the Grabber
tool to select a clip to playback.
| | 02:10 | So if I choose the Grabber right here
and click on this clip and playback,
| | 02:15 | we hear.
| | 02:16 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:21 | And again up in the counters, we
can choose the start and end times.
| | 02:25 | So if I type in 7 here and hit Return,
and 9 and hit Return, now those two bars
| | 02:32 | from 7 to 9 are selected and
we'll play back that selection.
| | 02:37 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:41 | Now let's talk about Edit window scrolling.
| | 02:43 | If we go up to the Options menu and
choose Edit Window Scrolling, we have
| | 02:49 | four options:
| | 02:51 | No Scrolling, After
Playback, Page, and Continuous.
| | 02:54 | With No Scrolling selected, we're
going to see that the Edit window does not
| | 02:59 | move once we get to the end of
what we can see on the Edit window if
| | 03:04 | playback continues.
| | 03:05 | So I'm going to get the Selector tool
again and choose an area right here near
| | 03:10 | the end of the Edit window, and
press play and see what happens.
| | 03:13 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:17 | You see the cursor disappears off the screen.
| | 03:21 | If you want to change that, you can go
up to Edit Window Scrolling, and let's
| | 03:26 | check out After Playback.
| | 03:28 | I'll start playing it back
here and we'll see what happens.
| | 03:31 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:37 | When I press stop, then the cursor is
actually placed right in the center of the
| | 03:41 | screen and the Edit window
scrolls, but only after playback.
| | 03:47 | Let's choose Page as our edit
window scrolling and see what happens.
| | 03:52 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:59 | The whole page of the Edit window
moves ahead as soon as it hits the edge of
| | 04:04 | the Edit window.
| | 04:06 | And finally, we have Continuous.
| | 04:11 | And what that does is moves the cursor
right into the center of the screen and
| | 04:18 | we can follow along as it moves
continuously through the session.
| | 04:21 | I'm going to hit return, and take us all
the way back to the start of the session
| | 04:26 | and this is what we have.
| | 04:27 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:32 | There's a big gray area to the left
because there's nothing to the left of the
| | 04:37 | very beginning of the session.
| | 04:38 | So now you know a bunch of different
ways to playback audio in your session and
| | 04:43 | how the Edit window will scroll during playback.
| | 04:46 | In the next movie, we'll explore the
playback modes, including loop playback and
| | 04:50 | the dynamic transport.
| | 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
| | 00:04 | 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 am in.
| | 00:18 | But I recommend recording to a click or
a drum loop at a steady tempo even when
| | 00:23 | you're simply laying down a rough song idea.
| | 00:25 | So let's do that.
| | 00:27 | I am going to create a new track, 1
mono audio track and I am going to create a
| | 00:33 | click track, which I can go
to Track > Create click track.
| | 00:39 | Expand that out, and you can see that the
click track plug-in is already inserted
| | 00:44 | on this auxiliary track.
| | 00:47 | And 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 | (Audio Playing)
| | 01:01 | The reason we can hear that is
because we have this click or the Metronome
| | 01:05 | button activated, and that's in the
MIDI controls that are shown up here, also
| | 01:13 | 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's a few
other options if we want.
| | 01:32 | We can choose Cowbell 3 and I'll press play.
| | 01:36 | (Audio Playing)
| | 01:40 | I'm not really sure how that's a cowbell,
but, okay, I like the factory default
| | 01:46 | sound a little bit better.
| | 01:47 | And actually there's a couple of other
ways that we can turn off the click track
| | 01:51 | if we don't want to hear it.
| | 01:52 | I am going to press play
and show you the two options.
| | 01:53 | (Audio Playing)
| | 01:58 | So you can hit the Bypass button.
| | 02:00 | (Audio Playing)
| | 02:03 | Or you can hit the Mute
button on the click track.
| | 02:07 | But the whole point of us putting the
click track on here is to hear it, so
| | 02:11 | let's record something to the click track.
| | 02:14 | Before we do that I want to actually
change the tempo of the song, I don't
| | 02:18 | 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 typed
| | 02:30 | in 86 with the resolution of a quarter note.
| | 02:34 | I'll click OK, and you see the grid change
here due to our change in tempo,
| | 02:43 | and now let's listen to the click
and it's at a different tempo.
| | 02:45 | (Audio Playing)
| | 02:50 | We can also change the meter if we
want and you can choose that here, you
| | 02:55 | can add a meter change.
| | 02:57 | Now I don't actually want to change
the meter, but if you wanted to you could
| | 03:00 | type in 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.
| | 03:09 | If you click on that little arrow here
and open up the Tempo Change box, but I'm
| | 03:14 | happy with just keeping it 86.
| | 03:17 | So now, first I am going to rename
this Ac Gtr, and record enable the
| | 03:24 | track and I 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 a click track before we get out
| | 04:09 | of here.
| | 04:11 | If we go to the Setup menu, and down to
the Click/Countoff, we can tell Pro Tools
| | 04:18 | when we want the click to happen.
| | 04:19 | We can say during play and record, only
during record, only during countoff and
| | 04:25 | we can have a countoff that
happens only when we're 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 wanted you to be aware
of this Click/Countoff Options box.
| | 04:45 | Also, if we go to 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
| | 05:04 | new click track.
| | 05:07 | Recording to a click ensures that you
play along with the steady tempo which is
| | 05:12 | often a good idea when you're trying to
flesh 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 the click track as
| | 05:23 | a reference.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Overdubbing and using the record modes| 00:00 | Pro Tools has several record modes,
the main ones are non-destructive,
| | 00:04 | destructive, loop and QuickPunch.
| | 00:07 | The current record mode is indicated by
the Record button icon in the Transport
| | 00:11 | controls which is right over here.
| | 00:14 | If I right-click, I can see all four modes.
| | 00:18 | You can also choose the record
mode up here in the Options menu.
| | 00:23 | Now you'll usually record in non-
destructive, a.k.a. normal mode.
| | 00:27 | I don't recommend using destructive
mode because it records over existing audio
| | 00:32 | erasing whatever it records over.
| | 00:34 | So recording in normal non-destructive mode
does not erase over existing
| | 00:39 | material, and we are going to cover
these other types of recording modes later
| | 00:43 | in this movie.
| | 00:44 | So, let's get to recording.
| | 00:46 | What I want to do is add a chimey
single note guitar part over my original
| | 00:50 | guitar parts down here.
| | 00:52 | So I've got two acoustic guitar tracks
and they are panned out left and right.
| | 00:56 | So I am going to add a new
track, a mono audio track.
| | 01:00 | Let's go up here and choose Track > New,
single mono audio track, and I am going
| | 01:07 | to name it Lead gtr.
| | 01:14 | And I need to change the input, to
Analog 1, because that's where I'm plugged
| | 01:18 | in, and I am also going to do something a
little fun, I'm going to choose to put a
| | 01:23 | plug-in on here, the delay plug-in,
the AIR Multi-Delay, and I am going to
| | 01:28 | choose this Crazy Dots preset.
| | 01:33 | Now I'll close this window.
| | 01:34 | So one more thing that I want to do
before I start recording, I am going to
| | 01:38 | activate the countoff, so I am going
to go over to the MIDI controls here and
| | 01:44 | put them into the Edit window.
| | 01:45 | Now I can see that the countoff is
actually active, but I can't tell how long
| | 01:49 | it is.
| | 01:50 | So I am going to hit the Command key
here on the Mac, or Ctrl on Windows and
| | 01:54 | click and drag this over to the left.
| | 01:58 | And I'm also going to click and drag
the grid and nudge value over to the
| | 02:02 | right, so we can see the
Transport and all the MIDI controls.
| | 02:06 | And now we can see that the countoff is
two bars, and that's what I want it to be,
| | 02:10 | and it's active because this is
green, when it's off it's not green.
| | 02:14 | And while we are here, we can notice
that the metronome is actually on 2, so
| | 02:17 | we're going to hear that as
we play and record along.
| | 02:19 | So now I am going to record enable
this track, and we'll start recording a
| | 02:25 | new part.
| | 02:30 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:28 | Okay, so that wasn't too bad of a take,
definitely a couple of missed notes here
| | 03:32 | and there, but that's why we
can overdub and edit it here.
| | 03:35 | And to do that let's try
some of the other record modes.
| | 03:38 | So I am going to go over to the loop
record mode, so I am going to right-click
| | 03:42 | on the record enable
button and choose Loop Record.
| | 03:45 | You will see that the icon changes, and
now I am going to go down to this area
| | 03:50 | here, I know there was a slight little
mess up right around this area, so I am
| | 03:55 | going to highlight these three bars
right here, and try to re-record those.
| | 03:59 | Now what happens when we loop
record is that we are actually going to
| | 04:02 | record multiple non-destructive
takes over this same section of music,
| | 04:07 | while this section repeats.
| | 04:09 | And this repetition can create more of
a comfort level and give the artist a
| | 04:13 | little bit more flow while they're recording.
| | 04:16 | Now let's see that the countoff is
still active, so we're going to have two
| | 04:20 | bars at the beginning before
we actually start recording.
| | 04:23 | So let's try it out.
| | 04:28 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:11 | All right, so I got a number of takes
there, I think the last couple were pretty
| | 05:15 | decent, and now, by the way, the
reason I chose to record three bars here is
| | 05:19 | because it was actually easier
to play than a longer passage.
| | 05:23 | I didn't have to do a slide up on the
guitar to move between finger positions.
| | 05:28 | And as you watched this record, there
were a number of clips that got recorded
| | 05:31 | onto the track.
| | 05:33 | And if we go down here and right-click
on a clip, we can choose the matching
| | 05:37 | alternatives and choose
any of them from this list.
| | 05:42 | I can switch between the
different ones by choosing their names.
| | 05:48 | You'll also see that these clips over
here in the clips list highlight along
| | 05:52 | with what you choose down here
in the matching alternatives.
| | 05:55 | Now I am actually going to cover loop
recording in a bit more detail in another
| | 06:02 | video on this course, but
this shows you the basics of it.
| | 06:05 | Now I want to talk about QuickPunch mode.
| | 06:08 | Punching means to drop a track into
record while it's playing back, and in
| | 06:13 | QuickPunch mode you can record enable
a track, press play and then punch in
| | 06:17 | where you want to fix a part of a
previously recorded performance.
| | 06:21 | So I am going to go up to the Record
button and choose QuickPunch, you'll see
| | 06:26 | the little p show up in the middle of
the Record button, and that means that
| | 06:29 | we're in QuickPunch mode.
| | 06:31 | And now I am going to go ahead and
place the cursor right over here and we are
| | 06:36 | going to go along this track
and punch in a few little bits.
| | 06:40 | But before we start recording, I am
going to go up to the Track menu and choose
| | 06:44 | Auto Input Monitoring.
| | 06:46 | That's going to mean that we are going
to be able to here what's on the track
| | 06:49 | previous to the punch, and every time
that we punch in we'll hear the new audio
| | 06:53 | and then when we punch out we'll
hear what's on the track already.
| | 06:56 | So I'll choose that, and now what happens
is I'll hit play, and then we can click
| | 07:03 | the record button to punch
in and out for QuickPunch.
| | 07:06 | (Music Playing)
| | 07:23 | Now I wasn't actually playing along there.
| | 07:25 | It's kind of hard to QuickPunch
yourself in and out while you're playing an
| | 07:28 | instrument, unless of course you have a
foot-pedal connected to your interface.
| | 07:31 | I don't have one of those here at the
moment, but you get the point of being
| | 07:35 | able to punch in and out like this.
| | 07:37 | One thing you should note about
QuickPunch is Pro Tools actually begins
| | 07:41 | recording a new audio file as soon
as you start playing back the track.
| | 07:46 | It doesn't only record just at the
punch points, which are shown down here on
| | 07:50 | the track, here.
| | 07:52 | It actually continuously records
throughout the whole time period of
| | 07:56 | recording, and it really only just
shows us these sections of the track that
| | 08:00 | are punched in.
| | 08:02 | So what this does is it enables us to
instantaneously punch in and out, but if
| | 08:07 | you miss an exact spot for your punch,
you can actually trim back the punch on
| | 08:12 | the clip itself, like this.
| | 08:14 | I am going to go to the Trimmer tool,
and click and drag, and you'll see that
| | 08:20 | there's actually other material under here.
| | 08:23 | So what this means is that you'll
never miss a punch again when you're
| | 08:26 | using QuickPunch.
| | 08:28 | One final note about QuickPunch, I
wouldn't keep it on all the time as it
| | 08:32 | records continuously and that can
eat up a lot of hard drive space.
| | 08:36 | I'll discuss some additional punching
techniques in other videos in this course.
| | 08:40 | And I recommend that you get to know
your recording modes as they are shown
| | 08:44 | here in the video.
| | 08:45 | Aside from destructive mode, normal,
loop and QuickPunch modes, all have their
| | 08:49 | place in 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
| | 00:07 | a performance.
| | 00:08 | In this session, I've got two acoustic
guitar rhythm tracks, panned left and
| | 00:12 | right, and a lead guitar
track as well as a bass track.
| | 00:17 | Now I've recorded one bass track
already, but I want to actually add a new
| | 00:22 | playlist and record a
new take of the bass track.
| | 00:25 | To do that I can click the Playlist
selector button, and choose new, and Pro Tools
| | 00:31 | asks you for the name of your new
playlist, I'm actually just going to keep it
| | 00:35 | as its default there.
| | 00:36 | And now my bass clip just disappeared,
or did it?
| | 00:40 | Well if we go back to the original
playlist, you can see that it's actually
| | 00:45 | still there, it's just hidden and we can
toggle between the playlists right here
| | 00:50 | on the Playlist selector button.
| | 00:51 | I'll go back to my new playlist, the
empty playlist, and now I am going to
| | 00:56 | record another take.
| | 00:58 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:31 | So, now I've got 2 playlists, two different takes
of the bass part, and we can
| | 01:37 | see those here, if I click the
Playlist selector, I can choose between making
| | 01:42 | either one of these active on the track.
| | 01:44 | I can actually switch between these
in real time while playing them back if
| | 01:48 | I want to as well.
| | 01:48 | Let me show you one other thing.
| | 01:50 | I'll go over here to the Record Enable
button, and activate Loop Recording, and I'm
| | 01:55 | going to come down to the track and I
want to press Shift and make sure I
| | 02:01 | highlight this area that I want to loop.
| | 02:03 | Now I am going to go up to the Setup
menu and choose Preferences, and in the
| | 02:09 | Operation tab I want to make sure that
the Automatically Create New Playlists
| | 02:15 | When Loop Recording check box is checked.
| | 02:18 | And what this does is creates a new
playlist for every time that you do a
| | 02:22 | loop recording.
| | 02:23 | So every time that it loops around,
you get a new playlist created.
| | 02:27 | So now let's do some loop recording and
creating multiple playlists as we do so.
| | 02:32 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:11 | So, I've just recorded two loops.
| | 03:13 | Now, when I go look at the Playlist
selector, I see that I have another
| | 03:17 | playlist there.
| | 03:19 | So what actually happened here is I
recorded over a part of the second playlist
| | 03:23 | and then created a third playlist
where I recorded this section here.
| | 03:27 | So now I have three playlists to
choose from and I can listen back to
| | 03:31 | them separately.
| | 03:33 | Later on in the course, I'll show
you how to edit between these different
| | 03:36 | playlists to create a master take.
| | 03:38 | And one last thing I can show
you here is the playlist view.
| | 03:41 | If I go down here to the Track View
selector and choose playlists, now if I
| | 03:48 | scroll down you can see all three
playlists shown right on the Edit window.
| | 03:53 | So, recording with playlist is a great
feature, because not only does it make
| | 03:57 | recording multiple takes very easy, it
also makes editing together the different
| | 04:01 | takes very quick, and you'll see
this in another video in the 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, Auto Input Monitoring
and Input Only Monitoring, and you
| | 00:12 | can switch between the two using the
key command Option+K on a Mac, or Alt+K on
| | 00:18 | a Windows machine.
| | 00:20 | 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 its green this means that it's in
Input Only Monitoring, and you can see
| | 00:41 | that when you have the Tool Tips
on it says Input Monitor Enabled.
| | 00:47 | Now this status applies to all tracks
in Pro tools, however in Pro Tools HD
| | 00:54 | you can set this mode on each track
individually, and that area is found right
| | 00:58 | here on the track.
| | 01:01 | So let's check this out, we're in
Input Only Monitoring, and when I record
| | 01:06 | enable the Lead gtr track, Input Only
Monitoring allows you only to hear the
| | 01:11 | input signal, not what's
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 will also
only hear what I'm playing on the guitar,
| | 01:24 | as opposed to what's already recorded,
check it out, and I am going to solo this
| | 01:28 | 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
| | 01:57 | hear what's coming from the input
signal, you don't hear what's actually
| | 02:01 | shown on the track there.
| | 02:03 | In contrast, if I switch over to
Auto Input, that changes what happens on
| | 02:09 | 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)
| | 02:35 | Auto Input Monitoring is the mode often
used when punching in and out, and let me
| | 02:40 | show you an example.
| | 02:41 | I'm going to highlight a few bars here,
and I'm going to go up and activate the
| | 02:46 | Pre-roll, we've got two bars of Pre-roll,
and I'm going to deactivate Loop Record
| | 02:53 | and just go to Normal Record.
| | 02:55 | And now what you are going to hear
are the first two bars before this
| | 02:58 | highlighted area, and those first
two bars are going to playback what's
| | 03:02 | already on this track.
| | 03:04 | Then Pro Tools is going to automatically
punch me in at this point and I'm going
| | 03:09 | to record up until this end point
when Pro Tools will automatically stop.
| | 03:13 | Let's check it out.
| | 03:14 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:33 | I call this method automated punching,
because Pro Tools does the punching in
| | 03:38 | and out for you automatically.
| | 03:40 | This is a handy punching method,
especially if you're recording by yourself.
| | 03:44 | But I use it all the time when
I'm working with clients too.
| | 03:47 | So let's recap the technique.
| | 03:49 | First, you locate the punch in and
punch out points, you select the area
| | 03:53 | in between them, you record enable
the track and set the pre and post-roll
| | 03:58 | if needed.
| | 03:59 | Then you press record and play and
you let Pro Tools do the punching in and
| | 04:02 | out automatically.
| | 04:04 | So in general, it's often best to use
Auto Input Monitoring when punching.
| | 04:08 | But 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 0 or
higher than 50 milliseconds on up, which
| | 00:16 | is quite noticeable and will most
likely negatively affect your performance
| | 00:19 | while recording.
| | 00:20 | I'll show you why.
| | 00:22 | If we 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.
| | 00:37 | I'm going to record enable this bass track.
| | 00:41 | I'm 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.
| | 00:49 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:54 | However, if I change this hardware
buffer size to 1024 Samples, now you're
| | 01:02 | going to be able to hear the difference
between when I actually strike the note
| | 01:06 | and when 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 hardware
| | 01:25 | buffer 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 0 latency monitoring by
turning the mix knob all the way to the left
| | 01:38 | 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 0 latency and the playback from
| | 02:01 | Pro Tools, which will
have a little bit of latency.
| | 02:03 | With a small hardware
buffer size this is manageable.
| | 02:07 | However, with the larger buffer, the
latency causes too much delay between the
| | 02:11 | prerecorded 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
| | 02:29 | 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 0, it's actually 3 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 3 milliseconds.
| | 03:01 | FireWire interfaces can utilize a
feature called Low Latency Monitoring, which
| | 03:06 | is 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 3 milliseconds.
| | 03:13 | However, there are some
accompanying limitations.
| | 03:16 | All plug-ins and sends on record
enabled tracks are automatically bypassed, so
| | 03:20 | when using LLM you can't record with
any real-time effects on the record
| | 03:25 | enabled tracks.
| | 03:26 | And let me turn this on
and you'll see what I mean.
| | 03:30 | If I record enable this lead guitar
track, this delay plug-in will have to be
| | 03:35 | bypassed and it happens automatically.
| | 03:39 | In practice, I've found that working
with low buffer sizes is totally fine for
| | 03:43 | recording even the most time sensitive
material, and so I don't really use Low
| | 03:48 | Latency Monitoring very often.
| | 03:50 | Once you're done recording, you can go
back to the Playback Engine and change it
| | 03:54 | to a higher buffer size if needed,
but when you're recording, I recommend
| | 03:57 | knocking it down to the smallest
hardware buffer size available.
| | 04:00 | Now, you can record with Automatic
Delay 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.
| | 04:25 | Here you can choose between
none, short, long, and maximum.
| | 04:30 | Regardless of what you choose, Pro
Tools automatically compensates for
| | 04:34 | any timing discrepancies between
the material being recorded and the
| | 04:37 | delay compensated tracks.
| | 04:40 | When the newly recorded tracks are
played back, they're correctly time-aligned
| | 04:44 | 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
| | 00:08 | the same time.
| | 00:09 | To create a group, first we've got
to select the tracks that we want in
| | 00:12 | our group.
| | 00:13 | So I'm going to go down here and click
on this acoustic guitar track, and now
| | 00:18 | I'm going to Shift+Click on this other track.
| | 00:19 | So I'm going to press the Shift key and click.
| | 00:23 | Now both of these tracks are highlighted.
| | 00:25 | Another way to do that is to go up
to the Link Track and Edit Selection
| | 00:29 | button, click that, and now if I click
and drag across these tracks, the track
| | 00:35 | names become highlighted.
| | 00:36 | So now I actually just want these two
tracks highlighted, and now I'm going
| | 00:41 | to create a group.
| | 00:43 | Track > Group, and the
Create Group dialog box opens.
| | 00:49 | You can also use the key commands,
Command+G on a Mac, or Ctrl+G in Windows
| | 00:54 | to open this dialog box.
| | 00:56 | You can see that we've got a lot of
options here in this dialog box and you
| | 01:01 | should note that Pro Tools HD users
and those with the Complete Production
| | 01:05 | Toolkit will have some additional
options inside of this dialog too.
| | 01:09 | So first we can name the group and
I'm going to type in Ac Gtrs.
| | 01:15 | Then we can choose the type of group
and we can have it just be an edit group,
| | 01:19 | a mix group, or both, and usually
that's what you want to choose is edit and
| | 01:24 | mix group.
| | 01:26 | We can set the group ID, or we can
just have Pro Tools choose it for us, and
| | 01:31 | I'll just use the default.
| | 01:33 | And then we can tell Pro Tools what we
want linked within that group, so mutes,
| | 01:37 | solos, send mutes, send levels.
| | 01:41 | And finally, we can decide
which tracks we want in the group.
| | 01:44 | Currently we have the acoustic
guitar and acoustic guitar 2 tracks.
| | 01:49 | If we wanted another one in there,
we could just click on the name of the
| | 01:53 | track and hit Add.
| | 01:55 | Or if we want to remove it, we
can click it here and click Remove.
| | 01:59 | I'm going to go ahead and click
the OK button and create our group.
| | 02:03 | Our new group shows up here in the
group's list and it's highlighted, which
| | 02:11 | means that it's active.
| | 02:12 | And now if I go up to one of the
tracks in our group to the Mute button
| | 02:16 | here, I'm going to click mute, and
you'll see both of the tracks in the
| | 02:20 | group are muted.
| | 02:22 | I can also adjust the volume on one
track and all the tracks in that group will
| | 02:27 | be adjusted as well.
| | 02:29 | And if I change the track view, say
from waveform to volume, all tracks in the
| | 02:36 | group do the same thing.
| | 02:38 | Now, if you temporarily want to
suspend the group so that you can change
| | 02:41 | something only on one track that's part
of a group, you can hit the Ctrl key on
| | 02:46 | a Mac or the Start key on
Windows and adjust this parameter.
| | 02:50 | So I'm going to hit the Ctrl key here,
or the Start key, and click this Mute
| | 02:55 | button, and you'll see that this track
up here stays muted, but the track that I
| | 03:01 | just want to suspend from the
group temporarily, is unmated.
| | 03:05 | Now let's go down to the
group's list for a minute.
| | 03:08 | You'll see that not only do we have this
acoustic guitars group that we created,
| | 03:12 | we also have the ALL group, and
that's present in every single session.
| | 03:17 | We can just click it once to turn it on
or click it once again to deactivate it.
| | 03:23 | And when you right-click on a group,
you get a menu that shows up down here.
| | 03:28 | I'm going to come back to that in one second.
| | 03:30 | I want to go over to the Mix window and
I'm just going to use my Key command to
| | 03:35 | get over there, Command+= on the Mac,
or Ctrl+= on a PC, and now we're looking
| | 03:40 | at the Mix window.
| | 03:42 | And when a group is active in the Mix
window, you'll see it listed here, and
| | 03:48 | there's even a color that's
associated with the group that's shown here.
| | 03:53 | Now, if you simply click on this button,
you'll see that menu that we saw on the
| | 03:58 | Edit window as well.
| | 04:00 | And we've got a number of things
that we can apply to the groups.
| | 04:03 | So we can choose which tracks, we can
choose some attributes, and one of the
| | 04:08 | ones that you'll probably use often,
which I do, is the modify command.
| | 04:13 | So if I click that, the Modify Groups
dialog opens up, and let's say that we
| | 04:18 | want to actually have the
solos be linked within the group.
| | 04:22 | So I'm going to check that off, and
now hit OK.
| | 04:26 | And so when I hit the solo, both of
these tracks in the group are now soloed.
| | 04:31 | Now, in this case, in the Mix window,
we don't actually see the mix groups.
| | 04:36 | So I'm going to go down to this button
here, the Mix Window View selector and
| | 04:40 | click that, so it opens up the
mix groups and now we can see them.
| | 04:43 | Now, if I right-click on this
group name, again this menu shows up.
| | 04:49 | And one of the things that I really
like to use here is the show only tracks
| | 04:53 | in group.
| | 04:54 | If I click that, now only the two
tracks in the current group that I'm using
| | 04:59 | are showing up.
| | 05:00 | And sometimes this can be pretty handy
if you're working on a session that has a
| | 05:04 | lot of tracks and you just
want to focus in on the group.
| | 05:07 | So I'm going to go back down here and
right-click, and choose show all tracks to
| | 05:14 | show everything in the session now.
| | 05:16 | And while we're here talking about the
groups, let's check out the group's list
| | 05:19 | pop-up menu, and you'll see
that we have a few options here.
| | 05:23 | We can create a new group;
| | 05:25 | we can display only the edit groups
or only the mix groups or all groups;
| | 05:30 | we can suspend the groups, which
means that the groups become inactive;
| | 05:34 | and we can modify groups, which will
open up the Modify Groups dialog box.
| | 05:38 | We can also delete active groups.
| | 05:41 | And so if I choose this to get rid
of our group, you'll see this little
| | 05:45 | dialog box.
| | 05:46 | And deleting a group is not undoable.
| | 05:50 | So if you're sure you want to delete
it, then we can, and I'm going to go
| | 05:54 | ahead and do that.
| | 05:55 | So any track can be part of a
group or multiple groups at one time.
| | 06:00 | You should use groups to make your
workflow more efficient while recording,
| | 06:03 | editing, 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.
| | 00:07 | In previous videos in this chapter,
we 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
| | 00:18 | one insert.
| | 00:20 | So now I'm going to add one more in ahead of it.
| | 00:24 | And we can choose from a whole slew of
different ones here, but what I'm going
| | 00:28 | to choose is this AIR Fuzz-Wah.
| | 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
| | 00:43 | be more creative.
| | 00:45 | 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 to
| | 01:00 | the multi-delay, and then
it's out to the main outputs.
| | 01:04 | And over here I'm going to
choose one of the presets;
| | 01:08 | I happen to like this Sixteenth Pulse,
sounds interesting with these tracks.
| | 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,
Real-Time AudioSuite plug-ins.
| | 01:40 | If we want to bypass them, we can
actually hit Command or Ctrl and click on
| | 01:45 | them, or we can bypass them in the
actual plug-in window up with this
| | 01:51 | Bypass button.
| | 01:52 | Now, I'm going to talk a lot more
about plug-ins and specific controls within
| | 01:56 | the plug-ins in later videos in this
course, but I wanted to just show you a few
| | 02:01 | here and help you get
creative in the recording process.
| | 02:05 | 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.
| | 02:22 | And what I want to do is route both
of these acoustic guitar tracks through
| | 02:28 | a reverb plug-in.
| | 02:29 | So I'm going to create an effects loop.
| | 02:32 | How do we do that?
| | 02:32 | Well, first, I want to show the sends,
and what I'm going to do is bus these two
| | 02:40 | tracks over to this auxiliary track.
| | 02:45 | So I need to create a bus, Bus 1-2.
| | 02:49 | I'm going to do the same here, Bus 1-2.
| | 02:54 | And to make things easier I'm going to
go up to the View menu and choose Sends A,
| | 03:01 | and now I can see all their
controls right here.
| | 03:06 | So I'll boost these levels.
| | 03:08 | And if you want to go straight to 0, you
can press Option on the Mac or Alt on a
| | 03:14 | PC and that will take this right to 0.
| | 03:16 | And now I'm going to pan one left and one right.
| | 03:22 | So now a copy of these acoustic guitar
signals are going out of these sends.
| | 03:28 | However, they're not being received
anywhere, so we need to set the input of
| | 03:33 | this auxiliary track to the same bus.
| | 03:35 | 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 and the large size.
| | 03:45 | So now, both of these acoustic guitar
tracks are routed to this auxiliary track
| | 03:53 | through the Bus 1-2, which will
process them with the D-Verb, and all of this
| | 03:58 | will be routed out to the Analog 1-2.
| | 04:00 | So you hear a mix of the dry tracks
from here and the affected tracks here.
| | 04:05 | And let's check out what this sounds like.
| | 04:10 | First, we'll hear the acoustic
guitars by themselves soloed.
| | 04:13 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:37 | So you can control the overall reverb
level with this fader on the auxiliary
| | 04:43 | track, and you can also adjust the
individual send levels right here.
| | 04:48 | So when you're recording, you can
utilize individual effects on certain tracks
| | 04:54 | to inspire, or you can set up effects
loops to help create a different vibe
| | 05:00 | while you're recording.
| | 05:01 | You know a lot of vocalists like to hear reverb
or delay on their vocals and so you can
| | 05:06 | set up reverb and delay effects loops
like this while you're recording them.
| | 05:10 | And I'm going to cover even more
about using effects in the videos about
| | 05:14 | 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. Creating
| | 00:05 | a good headphone mix is imperative to helping
you capture the best
| | 00:08 | performances while recording.
| | 00:10 | For the most basic headphone setup plug
in your headphones to the headphone jack
| | 00:14 | on your interface, 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 Pro
| | 00:24 | 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, in this
| | 00:34 | particular case, and in most
cases, it's Analog 1-2.
| | 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,
| | 00:52 | 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
| | 01:12 | at a time, 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 the
instruments and 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 vocalist.
| | 02:00 | Vocalists in particular like to have some
reverb and or some delay on their voices
| | 02:04 | while they're recording.
| | 02:05 | 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 bused on a send to
this auxiliary track, where it's being
| | 02:19 | affected by this D-Verb,
which is a reverb plug-in.
| | 02:22 | And you can setup multiple effects
loops in the similar style for any kind of
| | 02:27 | effects 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, the only
| | 02:39 | limitation is the number of separate
outputs you have on your interface, let's
| | 02:44 | say you're recording a guitar player and
a bass player at the same time, and they
| | 02:48 | 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
| | 02:56 | the way that they want it, but let's
set up a separate second mix for the
| | 03:01 | other player.
| | 03:02 | What I'm going to do is show Sends F-J,
and I'm going to go up here press Option on
| | 03:10 | a Mac or Alt on a PC, and choose
output 3-4, that's Analog output 3 and 4.
| | 03:19 | Go up to View > 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,
| | 04:02 | the second output, and that's for
our second separate headphone mix and all
| | 04:07 | of 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
| | 04:25 | capturing 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
| | 00:05 | external hard drive, and when you
create a new session, that's when you
| | 00:09 | initially 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 where
| | 00:32 | the file is stored, but we can change
it if we want, so I have just clicked on
| | 00:37 | this up and down arrow, and we can
choose a different hard drive, or we can
| | 00:43 | 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, all those previously
| | 01:05 | recorded tracks will be on the
original drive where they were recorded.
| | 01:09 | As another option, you can go down to
the custom allocation options and change
| | 01:16 | 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, 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 and
| | 02:11 | 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
| | 00:04 | digital audio editing is so
amazing is that it's nondestructive.
| | 00:08 | Let's say I start with a perfectly good
guitar part right here and I am going to
| | 00:12 | play a little bit of it for you.
| | 00:13 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:26 | And then on the track below, I've got
this chopped up and moved around version
| | 00:31 | of the original, and let's
hear what that sounds like.
| | 00:35 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:47 | Now the edits in the second track don't
actually 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
| | 01:00 | when to play back certain
parts of each audio file.
| | 01:03 | In other videos in this course I'll
show you how to make edits like this, but
| | 01:07 | here I just want to explain what the
audio clips are and how audio clips work
| | 01:11 | in Pro Tools.
| | 01:13 | In Pro Tools speak, each track or
section of the track is called the clip and
| | 01:18 | you see each of these little pieces on
this track right here, these are all clips.
| | 01:23 | Each clip shown here appears in the clips list.
| | 01:28 | These new clips are created when you
record or edit a track by cutting, pasting,
| | 01:32 | separating, moving, or a variety of
other editing tasks and there are several
| | 01:37 | types of clips that you'll
see in a Pro Tools session.
| | 01:41 | The first, which is highlighted here, is a
whole file clip and these are displayed
| | 01:46 | in bold in the clips list. They're
created when you record, import, or consolidate
| | 01:52 | a track and they reference an
entire audio file on your hard drive.
| | 01:56 | The clip up above called A stutter is
one that I've actually named myself, and
| | 02:02 | it's called a user-defined clip, and
they're made when you actually edit
| | 02:06 | something yourself, and
then you name it yourself.
| | 02:08 | Down below here we have auto created
clips, and they're shown in regular text
| | 02:14 | like the user-defined clips, except they
are created automatically when you make
| | 02:18 | an edit, like when you separate or trim a clip.
| | 02:21 | And there's a clip type that's not
shown here is called an offline clip, and
| | 02:25 | that's shown in italics.
| | 02:26 | There are clips that cannot be located
or are unavailable when opening a session and
| | 02:31 | we don't have any of those here in this session.
| | 02:34 | Down here we have a multi-channel clip,
and this references multiple audio files
| | 02:39 | for stereo or surround tracks. These
are shown as one clip in the clips list,
| | 02:44 | but there is triangle next to their
name that you can click and show the
| | 02:48 | individual clips that make
up this multi-channel clip.
| | 02:51 | You'll note that when you click on a
clip in the clips list like this, the clip
| | 02:56 | will be highlighted in the Edit window
here and if you choose one here in the
| | 03:01 | Edit window, you can see it
highlighted here in the clips list.
| | 03:04 | So now you know about the nondestructive
nature of audio editing in Pro Tools,
| | 03:08 | and about the different types of
clips and how they interact with the clips
| | 03:12 | list, this knowledge will help you
understand the editing techniques shown in
| | 03:16 | other videos in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Selector and Grabber tools| 00:00 | The Selector and Grabber tools are
probably going to your most used edit tools
| | 00:04 | for editing, manipulating and
playing back track material in Pro Tools.
| | 00:08 | Just click the Selector button or press
F7 button to activate the Selector tool,
| | 00:13 | then you can move the Selector tool to
any point in the track and just click
| | 00:17 | once and Pro Tools will begin
playback when you press the spacebar.
| | 00:22 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:25 | Obviously, with the Selector
tool you can select an area to play.
| | 00:28 | So if I click and drag, we've
selected this area and that's the part that
| | 00:32 | will playback.
| | 00:34 | Similarly, if I click once, press Shift
and click again, this area is selected.
| | 00:39 | If you double-click on a clip
it'll highlight the entire clip.
| | 00:44 | And if you triple click on a track,
it'll select all of the material on
| | 00:48 | the entire track.
| | 00:49 | Let's move on the Grabber tool, go
up here, choose the Grabber tool.
| | 00:53 | And the Grabber tool actually
comes in three different flavors.
| | 00:57 | The Time Grabber, Separation
Grabber and Object Grabber.
| | 01:00 | If we right-click this, you'll
see all three of these.
| | 01:04 | Now you will probably use the Time
Grabber most, and we'll choose that one
| | 01:07 | here to start with.
| | 01:09 | You can also press F8 to choose the
Grabber tool, and if you hit F8 multiple
| | 01:14 | times, it will cycle through
the different Grabber tools.
| | 01:17 | Now the primary function for the
Time Grabber is to actually select and
| | 01:21 | move things.
| | 01:22 | So we will go down here, and I'm
going to click once on this clip and it
| | 01:27 | selects the entire clip.
| | 01:29 | And now, if I click once and
drag, I can just move that clip.
| | 01:34 | Another thing the Time Grabber is
good for, is for moving actual events like
| | 01:39 | MIDI events.
| | 01:40 | So if I change the Track view
attracting here to notes, I can see
| | 01:43 | individual notes.
| | 01:45 | When I mouse over a certain note, I
can see that it turns into a pointy
| | 01:49 | finger there.
| | 01:50 | I'm clicking once on it and now I'm
just dragging to move that note around.
| | 01:56 | We can also use the Time Grabber to
move conductor track events around.
| | 02:01 | So if I actually wanted to move our
start position here, I could click and drag
| | 02:05 | on it, and move it wherever I want.
| | 02:07 | And the last thing you can do with
the Time Grabber is to go the automation
| | 02:11 | lanes and insert an edit automation breakpoints.
| | 02:14 | Here if I click on the volume automation
line, I can insert breakpoints, and now
| | 02:19 | if I click and drag any of the
points, I can move them around.
| | 02:22 | So now I am editing the volume automation.
| | 02:27 | Now I want to talk about the Separation
Grabber, but first, I am going to go to
| | 02:31 | the selector and select an area on this track.
| | 02:34 | Note that the selection that I made
is not already a pre-existing clip,
| | 02:38 | it's within this clip.
| | 02:40 | And that's important, once we go up
and we choose the Separation Grabber,
| | 02:44 | because now I can come down to the
selection and simply click and drag it, and
| | 02:52 | it'll automatically separate it
and move it to this new location.
| | 02:56 | Now let's go the Object Grabber, I'll
choose that, and I am actually going to
| | 03:02 | change this tracks view back to clips.
| | 03:05 | And now with the Object Grabber I
can actually click on clips and I can
| | 03:11 | highlight multiple ones,
even when they're noncontiguous.
| | 03:14 | So I am going to press the Shift
button now and I can click on these
| | 03:17 | different clips and highlight
multiple ones, and now if I click and drag, I
| | 03:22 | can move all of them together.
| | 03:25 | As you can see here the Selector and
Grabber tools enable you to manipulate
| | 03:29 | clips, notes and
automation till your hearts content.
| | 03:31 | Get to know them well and you will
become very efficient at editing in
| | 03:35 | Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Trim and Scrubber tools| 00:00 | In this video I am going to cover what
the Trim and Scrubber edit tools can do.
| | 00:04 | I will start with the Trim tool,
this is the Trim tool right here, and if
| | 00:08 | you right-click on it you can see
the three different varieties, we have
| | 00:12 | the Standard Trim tool, the TCE or Time
Compression Expansion Trim tool and the
| | 00:18 | Loop Trim tool.
| | 00:19 | We will star with the Standard Trim tool.
| | 00:21 | Now this Trim tool's main function is
to shorten or lengthen a clip or a loop,
| | 00:26 | let me show you how do that.
| | 00:28 | All you got to do is mouse down to a
clip, and you can click once and it will
| | 00:33 | trim right where you position the cursor.
| | 00:35 | You can also click and drag to adjust
the length, and if you want to reverse
| | 00:42 | the direction of the Trim tool, you can
hit the Option key on a Mac or the Alt
| | 00:46 | key in Windows, and it will change the
direction and then click once, and you
| | 00:50 | can trim it like that.
| | 00:51 | You can also use the Trim tool to
lengthen or shorten MIDI notes, and I'm in
| | 00:56 | Notes view here on this track, so I
am going to mouse over one of these
| | 00:59 | notes and click and drag.
| | 01:01 | And so now I am extending
that note, or I can shorten it.
| | 01:06 | You can also use the Trim
tool to adjust the clip gain.
| | 01:09 | I am going to go up here to the View
menu and show the Clip Gain Line, as well
| | 01:14 | as the Clip Gain Information.
| | 01:18 | And now if I mouse down to the Clip
Gain Line, I can click and drag and adjust
| | 01:24 | the gain for that particular clip.
| | 01:27 | You can also scale automation
and controller data up and down.
| | 01:31 | And let me show you a cool way to do this.
| | 01:33 | I am going to go to the Selector,
and select this automation line.
| | 01:37 | Now I am going to go to the Trimmer,
and if I click and drag I can adjust the
| | 01:43 | entire automation curve, and you will
see that we've got the value that it's at,
| | 01:48 | plus the delta, which is a little triangle,
and that is the difference between the
| | 01:53 | original and the new
value that you've chosen here.
| | 01:57 | The Time Trim tool uses the time shift
AudioSuite plug-in to alter the length
| | 02:02 | of an audio clip and
creates a brand-new audio file.
| | 02:05 | Let's choose that, that's the
TCE or the Time Compression Expansion
| | 02:09 | Trim tool.
| | 02:10 | So we can use this to time, compress or
expand a clip, and let me show you that.
| | 02:16 | I'm going to go down to this clip here
and before I do anything actually let me
| | 02:20 | play this, so you can hear the original.
| | 02:22 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:28 | And now go back to the TCE Trim
tool, and I am going to change this up
| | 02:34 | massively compress it.
| | 02:36 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:40 | So you can use this for creating a
special effect like in this case, or you
| | 02:44 | can use it to align a clip to a
tempo grid, or for matching the length to
| | 02:48 | another clip.
| | 02:49 | Now you should also note that this
creates a brand new audio file and you can
| | 02:54 | see that over here in the clips list,
and it's noted with this TISH which is
| | 02:58 | short for Time Shift, and that's
the new region that it has created.
| | 03:02 | So what I would recommend is creating a
duplicate playlist before doing any Time
| | 03:07 | Compression Expansion.
| | 03:08 | Let's do that, to create a new playlist,
you just go over here to the Playlist
| | 03:13 | button and you create a duplicate or
a new one, but I would probably use a
| | 03:18 | duplicate first and then do your processing.
| | 03:22 | Another thing you should be aware of is
that there are default settings for the
| | 03:25 | Time Shift plug-in, but you can change
them, and if we go up to Setup > Preferences,
| | 03:31 | and in the Processing tab
we can choose which TCE plug-in that we
| | 03:37 | want to use, Time Shift is the default,
we could use the older Digidesign TC/E
| | 03:42 | plug-in but the Time Shift one sounds better.
| | 03:45 | And if you have other third-party ones
that are listed here, you can also choose
| | 03:49 | from them if they're available.
| | 03:51 | And now with the default settings, we
can choose from a number of different
| | 03:54 | ones here.
| | 03:55 | For this particular one we could
choose piano and it might sound a little
| | 03:58 | better than the factory default, and
the factory default is actually the stereo
| | 04:02 | mix default.
| | 04:04 | So that's what you are using
when you use the factory default.
| | 04:09 | Finally, we have the Loop Trim tool and
what's interesting about this is that on
| | 04:15 | the top half of the region, it will be
the Loop Trim tool and on the bottom half
| | 04:20 | it's the Standard Trim tool.
| | 04:23 | So if I click and drag on this region,
I am going to create multiple loops of
| | 04:26 | this region, check it out.
| | 04:29 | Each loop is shown here by this little
icon and you can tell also in the clip
| | 04:34 | gain that can adjust each
one of these individually too.
| | 04:37 | Now let's talk about the Scrubber
tool and that's this guy right here.
| | 04:41 | Now scrubbing is a technique used in
analog tape editing where an engineer rolls
| | 04:46 | the tape back and forth over the
playhead of the tape machine at slow speeds
| | 04:51 | with his or her hands to find a
particular location on the tape, usually the
| | 04:55 | location for a splice.
| | 04:57 | The purpose of the Scrubber in Pro
Tools is to emulate this scrubbing process
| | 05:01 | on digital audio.
| | 05:03 | So we can scrub over an edit point and
we can find the exact edit point which
| | 05:08 | might not be obvious just
by looking at the waveform.
| | 05:12 | And obviously to choose this tool we
can click on it, or we can press F9, and
| | 05:16 | let's go listen to it.
| | 05:18 | So if scrub this area,
| | 05:19 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:23 | Notice that's coming from the left side,
| | 05:25 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:28 | That's coming on the right side of
your headphones or your speakers, if we go
| | 05:32 | to the center.
| | 05:33 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:37 | We get the stereo image.
| | 05:38 | I'm going to zoom in, and now we are
back to the Scrubber tool, playing on a
| | 05:44 | zoomed in the area, it will playback slower.
| | 05:47 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:52 | You can also press Command on Mac or
Ctrl on Windows to scrub it in even finer
| | 05:57 | resolution without zooming.
| | 05:59 | So if I actually do that here,
it's going to be really slow.
| | 06:02 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:13 | And if you want to scrub at speeds
faster than regular speed you can press
| | 06:17 | Option on a Mac, or Alt on PC while dragging.
| | 06:20 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:25 | This is called Scrub Shuttle mode, you
can use this mode to scroll through a
| | 06:29 | long track to find a
specific part of that track.
| | 06:32 | In addition to scrubbing audio, you can
scrub MIDI on instrument tracks, so if I
| | 06:37 | go up to this Mini Grand track, I
can actually scrub on these MIDI notes.
| | 06:40 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:48 | Now I find the Scrubber tool
to be my least used editing tool.
| | 06:52 | But the features it does offer are
pretty cool and helpful from time to time.
| | 06:56 | On the other hand, I use the Trim tool
all the time to edit clips and I imagine
| | 07:01 | you will too, once you get the
hang of using all of its features.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Zoomer tool and zoom presets| 00:00 | The Zoomer tool is mostly used like
a magnifying glass, just as its tool
| | 00:04 | icon indicates.
| | 00:06 | You can use it to view the fine details
of a track, or in the opposite way to
| | 00:10 | look at the big picture of a
track in a session by zooming out.
| | 00:13 | I am going to go here and click on the
Zoomer tool, and if I go down into the
| | 00:17 | track material and I click
once, I will zoom in one level.
| | 00:21 | Now if I press the Option key on a Mac,
or the Alt key in Windows, you'll see
| | 00:26 | inside of the Zoomer tool, that you go from a
plus to a minus, and that means now with
| | 00:32 | this key pressed, I'll zoom out one level.
| | 00:35 | If you click and drag with the Zoomer
tool, then you'll zoom in on just the
| | 00:40 | area that you've selected.
| | 00:42 | A cool feature that's right below
the Zoomer tool is called Zoom Toggle.
| | 00:46 | And this enables you to define and
toggle between a current zoom state and a
| | 00:50 | saved zoom state that includes track
height, track view, MIDI and audio zoom in
| | 00:55 | and out, horizontal zoom and the grid setting.
| | 00:58 | And we can set that in the preferences.
| | 01:01 | So if to go to Setup > Preferences, and
in the Editing tab go down here to the
| | 01:08 | Zoom Toggle area, we can setup our
Vertical MIDI Zoom our Horizontal Zoom, our
| | 01:13 | Track Height, and let's do that.
| | 01:15 | Let's choose fit to window, and we will
actually change the track view to either
| | 01:22 | waveform or notes
depending on the type of track.
| | 01:24 | And we have some other options down here,
but let's just keep these to show this
| | 01:29 | off pretty easily, I'll click OK.
| | 01:32 | And now I'll highlight this Mini Grand
track and we will see that it's showing
| | 01:37 | clips right now and it's at this
particular track height, and when I hit the
| | 01:41 | Zoom Toggle, it expands to fit the
entire window, and you'll also see that the
| | 01:47 | track view has changed from clips to notes.
| | 01:50 | I will click the Zoom Toggle again,
and it will go back to the way it
| | 01:54 | was previously.
| | 01:56 | Zoom Toggle has a keyboard shortcut,
if you press Ctrl+E on a Mac or Start+E
| | 02:00 | in Windows computer, you can toggle
between the Zoom Toggle view and the
| | 02:04 | regular view.
| | 02:05 | Even easier, if you go to the keyboard
focus button and that's right over here,
| | 02:10 | click this to make it active.
| | 02:12 | Now all you need to do is press the E
key and that will access the commands
| | 02:15 | keyboard focus command for the Zoom Toggle.
| | 02:18 | Taking this one step further, if we
select an area on a track and we hit the
| | 02:23 | Zoom Toggle, it blows up that
area that we have just selected.
| | 02:26 | So let's do that.
| | 02:28 | There we go, and we'll
go back to our regular view.
| | 02:34 | Now there are two versions of the
Zoom tool, there's the single zoom and
| | 02:38 | the normal zoom.
| | 02:40 | The normal zoom just stays active
allowing you to do multiple zooms in a row.
| | 02:45 | However, if you're using another tool
doing some other editing and then use the
| | 02:49 | single zoom, Pro Tools will actually
return you to the previous editing tool
| | 02:54 | after using the single zoom once.
| | 02:57 | So let's check this out, let's say we're
doing some selecting, we go to the
| | 03:02 | single zoom, we zoom in a little bit,
then you'll notice that Pro Tools
| | 03:07 | automatically goes back to the Selector tool.
| | 03:10 | And as usual, we have a keyboard
command for selecting the Zoom tool.
| | 03:14 | If we select F5, we can get to the
Zoom tool and we can cycle through single
| | 03:19 | zoom and normal zoom by
hitting a F5 multiple times.
| | 03:22 | Now I want to talk about the Zoom
Controls, and those are shown right here.
| | 03:27 | If you don't see these, then you need
to go to the Edit window toolbar and make
| | 03:32 | sure that they're checked off here in this menu.
| | 03:36 | So what we have here are the zoom
buttons and five horizontal zoom presets.
| | 03:41 | The zoom presets are pre-programmed
and the first one is a pretty big scale
| | 03:46 | view, usually it lets you see all
the stuff that's in your session.
| | 03:50 | As we go up in numbers, we are zooming
in closer and closer and by zoom preset
| | 03:56 | 5, we are zoomed in all
the way to the sample level.
| | 04:01 | We'll zoom back out to the big picture.
| | 04:04 | Up above, we have the horizontal zoom in
and out, and what's great is that we can
| | 04:08 | click and drag right here
to do a continuous zoom.
| | 04:11 | So check this out, I am clicking and
dragging my mouse to the right, and now to
| | 04:18 | the left, and we have got
this cool accordion zoom effect.
| | 04:23 | With the audio zoom in and out buttons,
we can make the waveform shorter or
| | 04:27 | higher, so check out this Atmo Pno
track, as I make the waveform shorter
| | 04:34 | and larger.
| | 04:35 | I can also do the same with MIDI, and
if we show the notes track view, I am
| | 04:40 | going to zoom up and make
them smaller, make them larger.
| | 04:47 | Without having to open the Zoom Controls,
in fact, let's hide them, we can use
| | 04:53 | these buttons to do those same tasks.
| | 04:55 | So there we go, reducing and enlarging
the MIDI notes, and finally, I want to
| | 05:01 | mention my two most favorite zoom features.
| | 05:04 | If you go up to the Zoom tool and just
double-click it, you can bring the entire
| | 05:09 | session into view, that is the
entire length of the session.
| | 05:12 | You won't see every track potentially,
if you have more than just two, but
| | 05:17 | you'll see the entire
length of what's in your session.
| | 05:21 | My second favorite one is using the R
and T keys to zoom in and out, and we can
| | 05:28 | use those when the commands
keyboard focus button is active.
| | 05:31 | You press R to zoom out and T to zoom in.
| | 05:38 | So as you can see here there are tons
of zooming options, from using the Zoomer
| | 05:42 | tool to using the zoom presets,
to using zoom keyboard shortcuts.
| | 05:47 | Use them all in combination to
get around Pro Tools really quickly.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Pencil tool| 00:00 | When editing audio, the Pencil tool
has one function, to redraw waveforms.
| | 00:06 | Often this is done to repair waveforms,
such as to eliminate an unwanted pop
| | 00:10 | or click on the track.
| | 00:12 | To do this we need to zoom in all the
way on to the audio track, so that the
| | 00:16 | waveform becomes a single line.
| | 00:19 | So we can use the Zoom tool to do that,
by clicking like this, or what's even
| | 00:24 | easier is that we can hit the zoom
memory location number 5 and that will take
| | 00:28 | us all the way down to the waveform level.
| | 00:31 | Now if we switch over to the
Pencil tool, and we can just draw our new
| | 00:35 | waveform, and to do that I just simply
clicked and dragged my pencil across
| | 00:41 | the waveform there.
| | 00:43 | You can undo this drawing, which I'm
going to do, but if you do end up saving
| | 00:49 | the changes to this original waveform,
the audio file is permanently changed.
| | 00:55 | So back to the Pencil tool, if we right
-click on that, we can see that there
| | 00:58 | are actually seven flavors of the
Pencil tool, Free Hand, Line, Triangle,
| | 01:03 | Square, Random, Parabolic and S-curve,
and we can use the F10 key to go through
| | 01:08 | all of them.
| | 01:11 | Now with all these different shapes
there are actually a lot of uses for
| | 01:14 | the Pencil tool.
| | 01:16 | However, not a lot of them
are audio editing related.
| | 01:19 | So I am just going to mention a few of
them here quickly and then cover them
| | 01:23 | with more examples in other movies.
| | 01:25 | So first I am going to zoom out,
and I am going to grab the Free Hand
| | 01:29 | Pencil tool.
| | 01:30 | Now I am going to go down to this
automation line, the volume, and I can click
| | 01:35 | and drag and that creates new automation.
| | 01:40 | I can also go into the Tempo editor
here and click and drag and that will
| | 01:46 | make tempo events.
| | 01:48 | If I go down into this instrument track,
I can actually add notes, and let me
| | 01:52 | zoom in to show this a little bit more.
| | 01:53 | I am going to switch over to a notes
view as well, and back to the Pencil tool.
| | 02:00 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:05 | And what's really cool about the
Pencil tool here is that it actually kind of
| | 02:08 | acts like a smart tool.
| | 02:10 | So if you mouse over a note, it turns
into a Trimmer here at the edge, so I can
| | 02:15 | click and drag, and extend or shorten that note.
| | 02:19 | It becomes a Grabber if I mouse into the
middle of the note, and now I can click
| | 02:24 | and grab it and move it somewhere else.
| | 02:26 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:29 | And I can also erase MIDI
notes with the Pencil tool.
| | 02:32 | If I press the Option key on a Mac or
the Alt key on a Windows machine, and
| | 02:37 | the Pencil tool will flip around and
turns into an eraser so you can erase the
| | 02:41 | notes.
| | 02:42 | If I click on this now, the note will be gone.
| | 02:45 | And finally with the Pencil tool, if I
switch this over to velocity, I can edit
| | 02:52 | these velocity stocks,
just by clicking and dragging.
| | 02:59 | So as you can see here, the
Pencil tool has a lot of functions.
| | 03:03 | I use it for editing audio, MIDI and
automation in almost every session I work
| | 03:08 | on, and I'm sure you will too.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Smart tool| 00:00 | The Smart tool combines the best
parts of the Trimmer, Selector and Grabber
| | 00:04 | tools, all into one.
| | 00:06 | To make the Smart tool active just
click on the bar above those three tools.
| | 00:10 | You could also press the F6 and F7
button at the same time to activate the
| | 00:14 | Smart tool.
| | 00:15 | With the Smart tool active, when you
mouse down into a clip, you see that the
| | 00:20 | Smart tool takes the shape of the
Selector on the top half of the clip and the
| | 00:24 | Grabber on the bottom half.
| | 00:26 | When you go to a clip boundary,
you'll see that it turns into a Trimmer on
| | 00:30 | either side, and if you're on an audio
track, it can turn into the Fade tool.
| | 00:36 | If you're at the top, either a fade out
here or a fade in, and if you're down at
| | 00:42 | the bottom, it will turn into a
crossfade tool.
| | 00:44 | And now if I click and drag, I can
create a crossfade, and that crossfade,
| | 00:51 | or fade, will follow the default fade
settings that you have set up in your
| | 00:54 | preferences.
| | 00:55 | Let's go check that out.
| | 01:00 | In the Editing page we have got default
fade settings, and we can click on any of
| | 01:05 | these and if we hit crossfade, we
can set up what we want this to be.
| | 01:09 | Now I am going to talk about fades
and crossfades in another video in
| | 01:12 | this course.
| | 01:13 | So let's not worry about it here.
| | 01:15 | So you can see here that the Smart
tool can do a lot of things all at once.
| | 01:20 | It's definitely the edit tool that I
use the most, and once you get familiar
| | 01:24 | using it, I'm sure it will be the same for you.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the Edit modes| 00:00 | The Edit modes, Shuffle, Slip, Spot
and Grid, determine how clips behave when
| | 00:07 | edited by the Edit tools.
| | 00:09 | Let's checkout Slip mode
first with the Grabber tool.
| | 00:13 | So if I come down to this clip, I can
click and drag it and it's not constrained
| | 00:19 | by the grid at all, I can freely move
it wherever I want, and I can overlap a
| | 00:24 | clip, or I can leave space between the clips.
| | 00:27 | If I use the Trimmer, it's similar in
that it's not constrained in any way.
| | 00:35 | In contrast, if we use the Shuffle
edit mode and I'll go back to the Grabber
| | 00:40 | tool, if I take this clip, it's
constrained to snap to one end or the other
| | 00:46 | of another region.
| | 00:48 | So if I let this go now, it snaps to
the end of this region to connect it.
| | 00:53 | Same thing here, you will see this
yellow line and it will snap to the
| | 00:57 | clip boundary.
| | 00:58 | Similarly, with the Trimmer tool if
I click and drag you will see all the
| | 01:04 | regions on the right move to the
left and make up that empty space that
| | 01:09 | was trimmed away.
| | 01:10 | Now one thing you should also notice is
that when you're trimming these clips,
| | 01:14 | the automation, which you can
see here, is also being edited.
| | 01:18 | So let me just show you one more time
here, when I click and trim this, the
| | 01:24 | automation also gets edited.
| | 01:26 | Now let's move on to the Spot edit mode.
| | 01:30 | And I'll go back to using the Grabber,
and even if I just click on a clip, the
| | 01:36 | Spot Dialog opens up, and it asks me
where I want to spot or place the clip.
| | 01:42 | Right now, it's telling me where it is
actually located, but I could type in,
| | 01:46 | let's say, bar 20 and hit OK.
| | 01:51 | And Pro Tools moves it to that particular bar.
| | 01:54 | If I try it again, I can say, hey,
let's go back to the original timestamp,
| | 01:59 | where it was originally recorded.
| | 02:00 | I will hit that button;
| | 02:02 | it loads it up here, OK.
| | 02:06 | And Pro Tools moves it to
where it was originally recorded.
| | 02:09 | Note that you can change the
timescale here and move it to an exact time
| | 02:14 | location or time code or sample number.
| | 02:16 | Now let's go to the Grid mode, and we'll
use the Grabber tool, and now when I
| | 02:23 | move this clip you'll see that it's
moving in increments, and that was our
| | 02:27 | increments of the grid.
| | 02:30 | The grid is actually set up here and
it's at a quarter note, but let's make
| | 02:35 | it more obvious, I will set it to a
bar, and you'll see the increments going in
| | 02:40 | much bigger steps.
| | 02:42 | And since our timescale is bars and beats,
everything that we select and move in
| | 02:48 | Grid mode will move to the
beginning of a grid line, and this goes for
| | 02:55 | trimming as well.
| | 02:56 | You should note that there
are two types of Grid mode.
| | 03:01 | There's Absolute Grid and Relative Grid.
| | 03:04 | Absolute Grid snaps each clips start to
the nearest gridline, and that's what we've
| | 03:09 | been in so far.
| | 03:12 | Relative Grid is a little bit different
though. In Relative Grid, the clips move
| | 03:16 | in increments of the grid value, but
the clip start point doesn't have to be on
| | 03:21 | the grid, it will still
move in increments of the grid.
| | 03:24 | So let me show you this in action.
| | 03:26 | First I am going to zoom in here a
little bit, onto this region, and then I am
| | 03:31 | going to go into Slip mode and trim this.
| | 03:34 | So now it's trimmed so
that it's not on the grid.
| | 03:39 | Now I want to go back to Relative Grid
mode, and use the Grabber tool, and let's
| | 03:46 | notice the time placement right here.
| | 03:48 | As I start moving this, it's going to
move in increments of the grid, but it's
| | 03:52 | going to keep its relative
position within the grid, check it out.
| | 04:00 | It's moving up or moving back by one bar
at a time, but it's not snapping to the
| | 04:06 | beginning of the grid.
| | 04:07 | As with most things in Pro Tools, we
have some shortcuts that can help us get
| | 04:11 | around using the Edit modes.
| | 04:13 | You can choose F1 for Shuffle mode,
F2 for Slip, F3 for Spot and F4 for the
| | 04:20 | Grid modes, and we can toggle between
the two grid modes, by just hitting F4
| | 04:25 | multiple times.
| | 04:29 | Now if you are in Grid mode and you
want to temporarily suspend Grid mode, and
| | 04:33 | switch over to Slip, while you're
dragging the clip, all you need to do is press
| | 04:37 | the Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key
in Windows, and you won't be constrained
| | 04:42 | by the grid as you drag the clip.
| | 04:44 | I am going to press Command on this
Mac or Ctrl in Windows, and now I'm in
| | 04:50 | Slip mode.
| | 04:55 | There's one other key command that I
like a lot that's called Shuffle Lock.
| | 04:59 | This mode disables all key
commands and control surface switches for
| | 05:02 | Shuffle mode.
| | 05:03 | Thus it prevents you from
entering Shuffle mode ever.
| | 05:07 | And I actually think that's pretty
handy sometimes because Shuffle mode can
| | 05:11 | really mess with your timing of your
clips, and if you end up trimming something
| | 05:16 | or moving something round in Shuffle
mode, your timing of your music can get
| | 05:20 | all screwed up.
| | 05:22 | So to turn on shuffle lock, all you
need to do is Command+Click on a Mac or
| | 05:26 | Ctrl+Click it in Windows.
| | 05:28 | And now you see this little lock appear
next to the Shuffle mode, that means that
| | 05:33 | shuffle lock is active.
| | 05:35 | So there you have it, the
power of the Edit modes.
| | 05:38 | Understanding the Edit modes is
extremely important when learning how to edit
| | 05:41 | in Pro Tools.
| | 05:42 | I recommend spending some time working
with them and follow the examples here in
| | 05:46 | this video several times, to
really grasp their different powers.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Arranging clips| 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,
| | 00:08 | cutting, copying, pasting, clearing,
duplicating, moving and nudging
| | 00:11 | audio clips.
| | 00:12 | First let's talk about separating an audio clip.
| | 00:15 | Separating means to chop a clip
into two pieces or to create a separate
| | 00:19 | clip within a clip.
| | 00:20 | Let me show you how to do it.
| | 00:22 | I am going to start with the Selector
tool and I am just going to place the
| | 00:25 | cursor right here in the middle of this region.
| | 00:28 | Now I am going to go up to the
Edit menu and choose Separate Clip >
| | 00:33 | At Selection.
| | 00:35 | When I do that, you'll notice that
Pro Tools has split this big clip into
| | 00:39 | two separate clips.
| | 00:41 | I like to use key commands for this specific
command, so Command+E on a Mac, or
| | 00:46 | Ctrl+E in Windows is
the separate clip command.
| | 00:50 | And as you can imagine, you can also do
a selection, so I am going to click and
| | 00:54 | drag here, and if I want to make this
a new clip, all I got to do is hit my
| | 01:00 | Command+E or Ctrl+E, and Pro
Tools will create this new clip.
| | 01:06 | Cutting, copying, pasting and
clearing in Pro Tools is just like doing any
| | 01:10 | of those actions in any other
software program, except here that we are
| | 01:13 | working with audio clips.
| | 01:16 | So up in the Edit window that's where
these live, Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear,
| | 01:22 | and because we have this clip
highlighted, if I choose Cut, it just cuts it
| | 01:26 | out of there.
| | 01:27 | I can go back up here and paste it back
in, and as you can imagine there are key
| | 01:34 | commands for this, the standard Command+X
or Ctrl+X, Command+C or Ctrl+C,
| | 01:39 | Command+V or Ctrl+V, and Command+B or Ctrl+B,
depending on whether
| | 01:45 | you are using a Mac or a Windows machine.
| | 01:48 | Now I want to talk about
master views here for a second.
| | 01:52 | On an audio track, let's
look at the track views.
| | 01:56 | Waveform and Blocks view
are considered master views.
| | 02:00 | If you edit a clip in one of those two
views, the edits apply to all data on the
| | 02:05 | track, including automation.
| | 02:07 | For example, if you clear a part of a
waveform in a clip, the underlying volume
| | 02:12 | data will also be cleared.
| | 02:14 | Let me show you that.
| | 02:15 | So I am going to select this area here,
and you'll notice that this waveform
| | 02:21 | has some volume automation down here.
| | 02:23 | If I go up here and choose Clear, the
volume automation is also gone, as well
| | 02:30 | as the waveform.
| | 02:31 | If I undo that, and then simply
select the automation and choose Clear, the
| | 02:43 | waveform still exists,
however the automation has gone.
| | 02:47 | So the master views on an audio track
are waveform and blocks, blocks looks
| | 02:52 | like this.
| | 02:53 | I rarely use this master view,
but it's here if you like it.
| | 02:56 | Let's go back to the waveform view,
and on MIDI and instrument tracks, the
| | 03:02 | master views are clips, notes and blocks.
| | 03:07 | So any edits you do to the clips,
notes or blocks view on a MIDI track or
| | 03:11 | instrument track will affect all of
the other automation and controller data.
| | 03:16 | And one more quick word
about editing automation.
| | 03:19 | In addition to the regular cut, copy,
paste and clear commands, Pro Tools has
| | 03:25 | Cut Special, Copy Special, Paste Special
and Clear Special commands that help in
| | 03:30 | editing automation playlists like volume,
mute, pan and plug-in automation, as
| | 03:35 | well as MIDI controller data.
| | 03:36 | Now we're actually going to
cover these in a later video about
| | 03:39 | editing automation.
| | 03:41 | So let's get back to editing audio clips now.
| | 03:44 | Let's talk about moving an audio clip.
| | 03:47 | So I am going to choose a Grabber tool,
and really the easiest way is to use the
| | 03:52 | Grabber tool, and simply click and drag it.
| | 03:56 | Now you'll notice that the MIDI region
up here is also moving and that's because
| | 04:00 | we've got these grouped, these
two tracks are in the same group.
| | 04:03 | I am going to go ahead and undo that.
| | 04:06 | And now I want talk about and nudging.
| | 04:09 | Nudging is a great feature if you want
to line up a stray bass note with a kick
| | 04:13 | drum note for solid downbeat, or in this case,
I'm going to align a downbeat of a
| | 04:18 | sitar track with the piano.
| | 04:20 | And let's zoom in and check
out what we are looking at here.
| | 04:29 | So we have this sitar track, and you
will see this note is a little bit late in
| | 04:33 | comparison to the grid, and so what I
want to do is move this note so that it
| | 04:38 | lines up with the grid and
with the piano at this point.
| | 04:41 | So I am going to go to the Grabber tool
here, and select this clip, and now I want
| | 04:47 | to check on my Nudge value.
| | 04:49 | So I can go up here and look
that we have it set at 10 ms.
| | 04:54 | This is my favorite value for nudging,
because it's not too small, like 1 ms is
| | 05:00 | really small, and then these higher
ones are a little bit too big and make for
| | 05:04 | more drastic changes.
| | 05:07 | You can also use bars and beats, and any
of these other timescales, but I find that
| | 05:11 | minutes and seconds are the best.
| | 05:12 | So let's use this 10 ms, and now we'll
use some key commands to nudge this
| | 05:19 | forward and back, so that we can align
this note better to the grid and align
| | 05:23 | it with the piano.
| | 05:25 | So if you have a numerical keypad you
can press the Plus button to nudge it
| | 05:30 | forward, or the Minus
button to nudge it backwards.
| | 05:33 | So here I am hitting the Plus button and
it's moving it forward in time, and the
| | 05:38 | Minus button is moving it back in time.
| | 05:41 | Now if you have a laptop without a
numerical keypad, you can press Ctrl+Period
| | 05:48 | or Ctrl+Comma on a Mac, or you can
use Start+Period or Start+Comma on a
| | 05:55 | Windows computer to use the nudge function.
| | 05:59 | So now I have got this sitar track
aligned with the grid and with the piano
| | 06:03 | part, but there's one thing I want to
mention about nudging, be careful when
| | 06:07 | using this technique, because you can
kind of go crazy trying to align every
| | 06:11 | single note, killing way too much time
while you're doing it, and taking away
| | 06:15 | from the real performance of the part.
| | 06:18 | My suggestion is, if the part needs that
much fixing where you are nudging stuff
| | 06:22 | all over the place, you might
want to consider rerecording it.
| | 06:25 | So as you can see here, editing audio in
Pro Tools, using these commands, is pretty
| | 06:31 | straightforward and you can apply your
knowledge of almost any other software
| | 06:35 | program you know to the
intuitive editing techniques here.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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 may be your
best friend in Pro Tools, well, maybe
| | 00:08 | beyond Auto Save feature.
| | 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 just do a bunch of
edits here and we can take a look at undoing
| | 00:20 | them after I have done them.
| | 00:22 | So I am just going to move some things
around, I am going to trim some stuff.
| | 00:28 | All right, so we've got a bunch of
edits just happened here, and you probably
| | 00:38 | already know this, but if you press
Command+Z on a Mac or Ctrl+Z in Windows,
| | 00:43 | you can undo things.
| | 00:45 | And you see that up here in the Edit
menu, Undo Trim Clip, Command+Z, we can
| | 00:51 | do that a few times here with key the
command, and you'll see some of the
| | 00:55 | edits being undone.
| | 00:56 | The Redo command is Shift+Command+Z
on a Mac or Shift+Ctrl+Z in Windows.
| | 01:02 | And you can repeat this for multiple redos.
| | 01:05 | So if I do Shift+Command+Z, some of
those edits that I undid are now redone,
| | 01:11 | and you can review all of the edits
that you've made by going to the Undo
| | 01:15 | History window.
| | 01:16 | So let's go to the Window menu and
choose Undo History, and this opens up all of
| | 01:22 | the things that we've done here so far,
and all the things that we can undo.
| | 01:27 | So if I click and drag through here, I
can undo do all of them simply just by
| | 01:34 | clicking and dragging.
| | 01:38 | If you go to the Undo History menu up
here, we can show the creation times of
| | 01:43 | when those edits were made, we can
undo all, and we can clear the undo queue.
| | 01:49 | Now I don't want to do that because then
I wouldn't be able to undo these edits.
| | 01:55 | One other thing I want to show you about
undoing is if you go to the Setup menu,
| | 02:00 | choose Preferences and in the Editing
tab we have down here at the bottom the
| | 02:05 | levels of undo, the maximum number is
32 and that means that we have 32 steps
| | 02:11 | that we can go back and undo.
| | 02:12 | Now we can reduce the levels of undo, so
we could type in here say 10, and that's
| | 02:19 | going to save us some RAM processing
power, but is it really worth the price of
| | 02:23 | not having the ability to
undo a bunch of steps back?
| | 02:26 | I don't really think so, so I am
going to change this back to 32, and use
| | 02:30 | our maximum value.
| | 02:31 | So obviously the Undo command is
one of the most important commands in
| | 02:35 | Pro Tools.
| | 02:36 | Use the undo shortcut or the Undo
History window when you need to rethink some
| | 02:41 | 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 clips in Pro Tools, you
| | 00:04 | should utilize fades at most clip
beginnings and endings and crossfades
| | 00:09 | between adjacent clips.
| | 00:11 | Fades and crossfades are used to
prevent pops, clicks and sudden changes in
| | 00:14 | sound at clip boundaries, as well as
to smooth transitions between clips and
| | 00:19 | create special audio effects.
| | 00:21 | Let's listen to where we need to
apply some fades and crossfades in
| | 00:24 | this session.
| | 00:25 | Let me start by playing this clip down here.
| | 00:28 | And what you're going to hear is the
sound of it going from empty space right
| | 00:34 | into this sound, and let's hear what happens.
| | 00:37 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:40 | Did you hear the little click
that happens right at the beginning?
| | 00:42 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:45 | That's an unwanted sound and
I'll tell you why it's made.
| | 00:48 | Let's zoom in even closer.
| | 00:52 | Ideally the waveform would start at a
zero crossing, so somewhere right in here;
| | 00:57 | and this is the zero crossing line right
in the middle of the waveform, and this
| | 01:01 | is the left and right sides, so
really the line exists on both parts of the
| | 01:06 | file, the left and right side.
| | 01:08 | And any time that the waveform strays
from the center line, then it means it has
| | 01:13 | amplitude or volume, and
that's what we are seeing here.
| | 01:17 | So the problem is that we're going
from no amplitude whatsoever here,
| | 01:21 | automatically up to this higher amplitude.
| | 01:25 | And when that instantaneous change
happens that's when you hear the click sound.
| | 01:29 | And that's why we use a fade in
to eliminate that click sound.
| | 01:33 | So with the Selector tool here I am
going to the click and drag, and now go to
| | 01:39 | the Edit menu, choose Fades > Create,
and the Fades dialog box opens up, and here
| | 01:48 | this is what our fade is going
to look like when we apply it.
| | 01:51 | We can click and drag in here and
adjust it ourselves, or we can choose some
| | 01:57 | pre-existing curves that they have here.
| | 02:00 | I will just go back to the standard shape.
| | 02:04 | There is also a slope, equal power and
equal gain, and I'll explain those a little
| | 02:08 | bit later in this movie.
| | 02:09 | So I am going to hit OK,
and now our fade is created.
| | 02:14 | And you'll note that the waveform starts at
zero now and fades in, and let's take a
| | 02:20 | listen to what that sounds like.
| | 02:21 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:24 | Notice how there's no
click sound at the beginning.
| | 02:27 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:32 | Now let's check out a fade out.
| | 02:33 | I'm going to zoom in on the end here.
| | 02:36 | I'm going to play this back and we
will hear what it sounds like without
| | 02:41 | a fade.
| | 02:42 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:44 | It's pretty harsh, it just drops right off.
| | 02:46 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:47 | What I want to do instead is create a
fade out, so that that's not as harsh of
| | 02:52 | a dropout.
| | 02:53 | So I'm actually going to use the
Smart tool, which we have selected here, go
| | 02:58 | up to the top of the
waveform and click and drag.
| | 03:03 | And here we have our waveform that
is being faded out automatically;
| | 03:08 | we didn't have to open up the fades dialog box.
| | 03:11 | If we do, we'll see what are
settings are, and we'll see that that is the
| | 03:16 | default setting.
| | 03:17 | I am going to talk about how
to set the default in a minute.
| | 03:20 | So let's a take a listen to this.
| | 03:23 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:27 | Not too bad.
| | 03:28 | Now if we wanted to extend this, we
can use the Trimmer as part of the Smart
| | 03:32 | tool to extend or shorten this fade out.
| | 03:35 | So I am going to just position it here,
and click and drag, and that extends out
| | 03:41 | the fade out, if I want it.
| | 03:43 | Now I can actually shorten that as well,
if I need to bring it back down to being
| | 03:48 | very short, and that's pretty handy
way to edit the length of our fade out.
| | 03:53 | Now I want to talk about making a crossfade.
| | 03:56 | So I am going to zoom back out, and we
are going to take a look at what happens
| | 03:59 | between these two clips.
| | 04:01 | Since I've already got the Smart
tool highlighted, I'm going to go
| | 04:05 | down here between the two clips and
click and drag, and I am going to create a
| | 04:11 | crossfade.
| | 04:13 | One thing you will note about this
are the colors and how they overlap, and
| | 04:18 | we can either turn on or off by
going to the View menu > Waveforms >
| | 04:23 | Overlapped Crossfades.
| | 04:25 | If I turn it off, then that's what we
see, not as interesting as showing the
| | 04:30 | overlap crossfades, so let's show those.
| | 04:33 | And now to access the Fades dialog box,
I can mouse down here and with the
| | 04:37 | Grabber tool on the bottom half of the
waveform, I can double-click, and that
| | 04:42 | opens up the Fades dialog box.
| | 04:44 | And while we are checking this out,
I want to talk more about some of these
| | 04:47 | buttons in here.
| | 04:48 | We have got link parameter, which
enables you to choose the fade out and fade in
| | 04:52 | curves used in a crossfade
and have them be linked together.
| | 04:57 | That's usually what you'll want to have happen.
| | 05:00 | And then we have some options for that,
we have Equal Power, you choose Equal
| | 05:04 | Power when you're creating a crossfade
between two completely different types
| | 05:07 | of musical material, so that there's
no volume drop, as their might be with an
| | 05:12 | Equal Gain crossfade.
| | 05:13 | You should choose Equal Gain when
creating a crossfade between two identical
| | 05:18 | types of musical material, like
repeated drum loops, and this is to avoid
| | 05:22 | clipping that might happen if
you use an Equal Power crossfade.
| | 05:26 | Now I have actually found that the
opposite works well in certain circumstances
| | 05:29 | too, so you should experiment between these two.
| | 05:32 | You can also choose None when you
want to edit the fade out and the fade in
| | 05:36 | separately, meaning, that there is no link.
| | 05:40 | Let's touch on a few more of
the buttons in this window.
| | 05:43 | You can change the size of the
waveform to look more at the details by
| | 05:48 | using these buttons.
| | 05:50 | We can show what the two waveforms mixed
together looks like, and we can take the
| | 05:55 | waveforms out of it altogether, not
really sure why you'd want to do that, but
| | 05:59 | there is the option.
| | 06:01 | Finally, we have the Audition button;
| | 06:02 | you can use this to take a listen to
what our crossfade is going to sound like.
| | 06:06 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:20 | Now if you were paying attention to that,
you heard that there were two notes
| | 06:24 | that crossed over and were happening
at the same time, and that's usually
| | 06:28 | something that you wouldn't want to
have happen on your bass track, and what
| | 06:31 | that means is the crossfade is too long.
| | 06:34 | So I am going to cancel this, and I
am going to adjust the length of this
| | 06:41 | crossfade, bring it way down.
| | 06:44 | Now let's take a listen to it.
| | 06:46 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:51 | Still too long, so let's go in here
and I'm actually going to select it, hit
| | 06:57 | the Delete key and get rid of it
altogether, and now I will go in and create a
| | 07:03 | very short crossfade.
| | 07:06 | Now let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 07:08 | (Music Playing)
| | 07:12 | That works a little better, so
we have no overlap of the notes.
| | 07:15 | When we are using the Smart tool to
create crossfades and fades, it relies on
| | 07:20 | the fade preferences that we have set,
and we can set those up in the Setup >
| | 07:24 | Preferences > Editing tab, and right
here in the fade section, down here we have
| | 07:30 | the Default Fade Settings, and if I
click into crossfades, I can say, oh, we
| | 07:35 | want Equal Power, these are the
shapes that we want and hit OK.
| | 07:39 | And then, whenever I create a crossfade
with the Smart tool, that is the setting
| | 07:44 | that it's going to use.
| | 07:45 | Another thing that you might want to
keep checked is the Preserve Fades when
| | 07:48 | Editing, what that means is if you
decide to trim a clip, the fade will stay
| | 07:53 | with the clip, so that you
don't have to make a new one.
| | 07:55 | So I am going to hit OK.
| | 07:58 | So as you may know, the reason that we
can make a crossfade is because there's
| | 08:03 | audio material that extends
beyond the clip's boundaries.
| | 08:06 | So in this particular region, there is
audio that extends over what is hidden
| | 08:12 | underneath this red region, the
same goes in vice versa this way.
| | 08:17 | Now if we don't have the audio that's
underneath or extends beyond the regions,
| | 08:22 | then we can't make a crossfade and
that's what happens over here, let's take
| | 08:28 | a look.
| | 08:30 | With the Trim tool I am going to
try to extend this clip, and Pro Tools
| | 08:35 | won't let me.
| | 08:36 | That's because there's no more audio
that extends beyond this clip's boundary.
| | 08:41 | So what happens if I try to make a crossfade?
| | 08:44 | I'm going to use this Smart tool here,
click and drag, Pro Tools brings up this
| | 08:50 | warning, it says, One or more fade
requests are invalid due to insufficient
| | 08:54 | audio data within the fade bounds.
| | 08:57 | You may skip the invalid fade request(s)
or adjust the balance for those
| | 09:01 | fades where possible.
| | 09:02 | So if we skip it, then Pro Tools will
pretend like we never asked it to make
| | 09:07 | a crossfade.
| | 09:08 | However, if we adjust the bounds, Pro
Tools intelligently tries to create a
| | 09:14 | crossfade if there's audio
material available to do so.
| | 09:17 | So let's see what happens
when I had Adjust Bounds.
| | 09:21 | So it looks like there was audio
material over to the left, so this blue clip
| | 09:26 | had some audio beyond its clip boundary.
| | 09:29 | And here we have our new crossfade.
| | 09:32 | So as you can tell here fades and crossfades
are essential tools for editing
| | 09:36 | digital audio. 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
| | 00:04 | the best parts of several takes into
one master take, is a quick process using
| | 00:09 | playlists in Pro Tools.
| | 00:11 | Let's take a look at this session.
| | 00:13 | We've got two guitar tracks here,
we've got a lead guitar here and a harmony
| | 00:17 | track, and I've got three recorded
playlists of this harmony track.
| | 00:23 | And we can see that because we're
looking at the Playlist view and it's
| | 00:26 | showing all three takes.
| | 00:28 | So to get a handle on starting to
edit these, I want to actually loop the
| | 00:32 | playback so I can hear each one of them.
| | 00:35 | And what I want to do is comp together
the best harmony guitar track that we can
| | 00:40 | make from these three playlists.
| | 00:42 | So I'm going to go up to the Play
button, right-click it and choose
| | 00:46 | Loop playback.
| | 00:47 | I'm going to highlight by
double-clicking this clip.
| | 00:52 | And now when I begin playback, I'm
going to listen through to all three of
| | 00:56 | these takes, and I will solo them using
the Solo button, that'll allow each one
| | 01:03 | of those takes to play.
| | 01:05 | Or what I can do is click once inside
of the clip and use the keyboard command
| | 01:10 | Shift+S and that will activate the
Solo button for this particular playlist.
| | 01:18 | So now I'm going to play back the
track with Loop playback and then cycle
| | 01:22 | through all the playlists and pick out
some pieces that I like to build my comp.
| | 01:26 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:09 | Okay, so I've got some pieces from
each playlist that I want to edit together
| | 02:12 | into the master comp track.
| | 02:14 | So how do we do that?
| | 02:16 | First I want to create a duplicate
playlist, and I'll do that right here, and I'm
| | 02:23 | going to call it Harm COMP, so
that I know that it's the comp track.
| | 02:29 | And what that does is it pushes down
this Harm1.01 track down here, and now
| | 02:35 | we have a duplicate copy of that one here.
| | 02:38 | And I want it to keep this particular
clip right here on the comp track and
| | 02:43 | you'll see that it's already copied up
there because I duplicated that playlist.
| | 02:47 | But I want to bring some other pieces
like these three pieces up into the comp.
| | 02:52 | And how do we do that?
| | 02:54 | There's a few ways.
| | 02:55 | So I've highlighted this now, I double-
clicked on it, and I can use this button
| | 03:00 | which is Copy Selection To The Main Playlist.
| | 03:02 | Click that once and it moves it
automatically up into the main playlist.
| | 03:07 | I can do that here again.
| | 03:10 | And even simpler, if we double-click
on the clip, I can now right-click and
| | 03:15 | choose Copy Selection To Main
Playlist, and it moves it up there.
| | 03:19 | So now I've created my entire comp right here.
| | 03:23 | Now there's one more feature that I'm
going to tell you about that might help
| | 03:27 | you build comps, especially if you're
working with a lot of playlists and you
| | 03:32 | get kind of confused
about which performances are best.
| | 03:34 | Well, you can actually use a rating
system and you can rate each of these clips
| | 03:39 | to help you remember which ones are good.
| | 03:41 | So first, I'm going to go to the
View menu, Clip > Rating.
| | 03:47 | And now you can see that the ratings
are shown here and there's no ratings
| | 03:51 | on any of these clips.
| | 03:54 | And I'm going to double-click this
clip, and go up to Clip > Rating and I can
| | 04:00 | choose whatever I want here.
| | 04:02 | I'm going to choose 5, and
we'll say that 5 is the best.
| | 04:06 | You can also, once you've selected a
clip, right-click it and go all the way
| | 04:11 | down to this rating right here and choose that.
| | 04:15 | And let's do one more for good measure.
| | 04:19 | Choose 5 right there.
| | 04:21 | Now if you want to rate a clip while
you're actually playing back a recording,
| | 04:26 | you can press all three of the
main modifiers, then press 1-5.
| | 04:31 | So that would be Command+Option+Ctrl on
a Mac or Control+Alt+Start in Windows.
| | 04:37 | And then if you really want to get
fancy, you can right-click the track name
| | 04:41 | which I'll do right here,
and you can filter the lanes.
| | 04:47 | And that means that we can show only
lanes with clips rated 1-5, and then we
| | 04:52 | can choose 5 and that just cuts it down
to the playlists that only have ratings
| | 04:57 | of 5.
| | 04:58 | So that can really help you filter out
everything except the best performances.
| | 05:04 | This comping process I think is pretty slick.
| | 05:07 | Recording to and editing with
playlists are part of my usual music
| | 05:10 | production technique.
| | 05:12 | And I strongly encourage you to add
these features to your production arsenal
| | 05:15 | as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Locking and muting clips| 00:00 | After you've recorded or edited a clip
and you don't want to unintentionally
| | 00:04 | move that clip, you can lock the clip in place.
| | 00:08 | There are two ways to lock a clip.
| | 00:10 | The first is called an Edit Lock.
| | 00:12 | So I'm going to go down here with the
Grabber tool, select these two regions, go
| | 00:17 | up to Clip and choose Edit Lock.
| | 00:21 | And you'll notice now that these two
regions have these little locks, solid
| | 00:26 | locks, as little icons in the lower left corner.
| | 00:29 | If I try to click and drag these,
move them around, you get this warning:
| | 00:36 | This command will affect
one or more locked clips.
| | 00:39 | So you can choose to either Allow it or
Cancel it, but at least you'll know that
| | 00:44 | this clip is locked and you won't
accidentally or unintentionally move the clip.
| | 00:48 | So I'm going to cancel that.
| | 00:50 | Now, I'm going to switch over to the
Trim tool and try to do the same thing.
| | 00:56 | And I get the same warning.
| | 00:58 | Cancel.
| | 00:59 | And like usual, there is a keyboard
shortcut for this command, Command+L on a
| | 01:03 | Mac or Ctrl+L on Windows
will Edit Lock this clip.
| | 01:07 | Time Lock is a slightly
more lenient type of locking.
| | 01:11 | The clip will be locked in time, but
you can edit it as long as the edits don't
| | 01:15 | move the clip in time.
| | 01:17 | And you should note that Time Lock
doesn't have the same allow feature as
| | 01:22 | the Edit Lock does.
| | 01:23 | So let's take a look at this.
| | 01:24 | So I'm going to first get rid of the
Edit Lock, and now add the Time Lock, and
| | 01:31 | you'll see the lock is slightly different.
| | 01:35 | Now if I try and trim this, I actually
can trim it, because it doesn't actually
| | 01:41 | move the clip at all in time,
it just cuts off some of it.
| | 01:46 | However, if I use the Grabber and I
try to move it, it doesn't move at all.
| | 01:53 | Now let's talk about muting a clip.
| | 01:55 | Muting a clip simply means to
make it silent, but not delete it.
| | 01:58 | Let's say you want to drop out this
sitar part for 8 bars in the middle of
| | 02:03 | the song.
| | 02:04 | So all we need to do is just mute
that section.
| | 02:07 | All you've got to do is go up to the
Edit menu and choose Mute Clips, and
| | 02:15 | that mutes it out.
| | 02:17 | And of course there is keyboard
shortcuts for this, Command+M on a Mac or
| | 02:21 | Ctrl+M in Windows.
| | 02:23 | Muting is a great way to help build
the song arrangement in loop-based music
| | 02:27 | production, as well as a simple
tool for creating space in a mix.
| | 02:31 | I also recommend locking your clips
once you've done some editing to a session
| | 02:35 | or at least once you start mixing your song.
| | 02:38 | You don't want to spend time
realigning clips that you might have moved by
| | 02:41 | accident while mixing.
| | 02:43 | I'm sure you'll use these locking
and muting commands a lot while using
| | 02:47 | Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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
very special things in Pro Tools.
| | 00:07 | Let's take a look.
| | 00:09 | We'll go left to right.
| | 00:10 | First we have the Zoom Toggle.
| | 00:12 | Now, we've discussed this in another
video, but what it does is toggles between
| | 00:16 | the current Zoom view and
the preset Zoom Toggle view.
| | 00:20 | So if I click it once, you'll see that
this whole track zooms out and blows up,
| | 00:26 | and then I'll click it again and we go
back to the normal current Zoom view.
| | 00:31 | Next is Tab to Transients, and this
allows you to use the Tab key to navigate
| | 00:36 | from one transient part of an audio
waveform to the next, making it easy to
| | 00:40 | find edit points on drum tracks and
other tracks with obvious transients in
| | 00:44 | their waveforms.
| | 00:45 | Let's take a look at it.
| | 00:47 | With it active, it's blue.
| | 00:49 | When it's disabled, it's not blue.
| | 00:52 | So we'll make it active, and now when I
press the Tab key, you'll see that Pro
| | 00:58 | Tools moves along to each of the transients.
| | 01:00 | Let me zoom in so you can
see that a little better.
| | 01:02 | We're tabbing to each of the transients here.
| | 01:07 | If you want to go backwards, you can
press the Option key on a Mac or the
| | 01:10 | Alt key in Windows.
| | 01:11 | And we'll go backwards.
| | 01:15 | If you want to highlight while you're
tabbing to transients, you can press
| | 01:18 | the Shift key and Tab.
| | 01:21 | And if you want to highlight backwards,
you can press Option+Shift+Tab on a Mac
| | 01:26 | or Alt+Shift+Tab in Windows, and we'll go
all the way back to the beginning of that
| | 01:31 | measure, and we'll highlight
this entire measure right here.
| | 01:34 | So we've got one full measure
highlighted using our tab to transients.
| | 01:40 | And let's take a listen to this loop
based on Tab to Transients and see how
| | 01:43 | it sounds.
| | 01:44 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:52 | Sounds pretty good!
| | 01:52 | Now let's go to the next button.
| | 01:54 | Here we've got Mirrored MIDI Editing,
and we're going to cover this in a video
| | 01:59 | later in this course.
| | 02:01 | So let's move over to Automation Follows Edit.
| | 02:04 | And what that means is, when this
option is enabled, the automation events on a
| | 02:09 | track are affected by the edits made
to the audio clips and MIDI notes on it.
| | 02:13 | However, when it's disabled, automation
events on the track are not affected by
| | 02:18 | edits to the audio clips or MIDI notes.
| | 02:20 | So let's take a look.
| | 02:21 | I'm going to use the Selector tool, and
go down to this section of the track.
| | 02:29 | And with it on, if I delete the audio,
then the automation goes away as well.
| | 02:35 | I'm going to undo that, turn this
option off, select a little bit here.
| | 02:42 | And when I delete the audio here, now
the automation actually stays, and that's
| | 02:49 | what the difference is between
turning this feature on and off.
| | 02:53 | Next we've got the Link Timeline
and Edit Selection button.
| | 02:56 | And this enables you to set the play
and edit ranges by selecting in the
| | 03:00 | track's playlist.
| | 03:02 | And usually you'll want to keep this
linked, like this, when it's blue so that
| | 03:06 | what you choose in the timeline
reflects what you want to edit.
| | 03:10 | So if we look down here, we've
selected this beat and it's also selected up
| | 03:16 | here in the timeline.
| | 03:17 | I'll select an even larger piece.
| | 03:21 | Now if I disable this, and I unlink
the Timeline and Edit Selection, watch
| | 03:26 | what happens.
| | 03:27 | I could go in here and create an
edit selection, meanwhile the timeline
| | 03:34 | selection doesn't change.
| | 03:35 | So it's going to play these three beats,
but I can edit separately down here
| | 03:40 | in the track.
| | 03:42 | So if I press play now, we're going
hear these three beats play, but I can edit
| | 03:47 | separately from that.
| | 03:48 | (Music Playing)
I can make selections like this.
| | 03:56 | (Music Playing)
I can even delete.
| | 04:03 | So that's what it means
to have those two unlinked.
| | 04:06 | I'm going to undo that, and link them
back up, and now when I do that, you'll see
| | 04:11 | that the edit selection and
timeline selection go back to being linked.
| | 04:17 | Next we have the Link Track
and Edit Selection button.
| | 04:20 | And when that's highlighted, you can
select track material and the track name of
| | 04:24 | each associated track gets highlighted too.
| | 04:27 | So if I go down here with the Selector
and I select on this track, and then I
| | 04:31 | go down to this one and keep the
selection going, you see both of these tracks
| | 04:36 | are highlighted.
| | 04:37 | If I go back up to this one and just
click in here, now that's highlighted,
| | 04:42 | only that track.
| | 04:44 | And I like to use this
feature for creating groups.
| | 04:46 | So if I go down here and click
across these tracks, now these are already
| | 04:50 | highlighted, and if I go to make a group,
they're already ready to be grouped.
| | 04:55 | Next up in these Edit buttons we
have the Insertion Follows Playback.
| | 04:59 | Now, I've already discussed this in the
video about playing back audio and I'll
| | 05:03 | just show you a quick
example here of how it works.
| | 05:06 | When it is not active, as it is now, I
press play, Pro Tools will play, and then
| | 05:14 | the cursor will go back to where we started.
| | 05:16 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:19 | So the cursor is here.
| | 05:21 | If I activate this, press play, then
the cursor is going to pick up where we
| | 05:27 | stop and that will be the new cursor position.
| | 05:30 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:33 | So I stopped it here and
the cursor stayed right there.
| | 05:37 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:40 | So that's the difference between
having Insertion Follows Playback on or off.
| | 05:45 | In addition to the regular key commands,
Pro Tools has a feature called Keyboard
| | 05:49 | Focus that enables you to use the Alpha
keys on your computer keyboard to access
| | 05:54 | a wide range of single key shortcuts.
| | 05:56 | And that button is located right over here.
| | 06:00 | In fact, there are three of them in this window.
| | 06:03 | We've got this one here, we've got one
in the clips list, which is right here,
| | 06:09 | and we've got one here in the groups list.
| | 06:12 | But I'm going to highlight the Keyboard
Focus right here, and you'll notice that
| | 06:16 | you can only have one of
these active at one time.
| | 06:20 | All of the commands Keyboard Focus
shortcuts are listed in the keyboard
| | 06:23 | shortcuts document, but here are
just a few of my personal favorites.
| | 06:27 | Look down on this track and I'm going to
hit the Minus key and that switches
| | 06:32 | the track view between waveform and volume.
| | 06:35 | It's pretty handy.
| | 06:37 | Another good one is the zoom toggle,
and that's E. You'll see that the button
| | 06:43 | highlights here every time you hit the E key.
| | 06:46 | I also like to use the R and T keys to
zoom horizontally so I can zoom out, zoom
| | 06:53 | in, and I'm using the R and T keys to do this.
| | 06:57 | And one other personal favorite is the
B key, and that's used to separate clips.
| | 07:03 | So all these special editing buttons
here demonstrate some of the unique power
| | 07:07 | that Pro Tools has for editing audio.
| | 07:10 | If you can master the features of
these buttons, you'll really be an
| | 07:13 | efficient Pro Tools user.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating an audio loop| 00:00 | The process of creating an audio
loop ties in many editing concepts,
| | 00:04 | techniques, and tools.
| | 00:06 | In this session I'm going to start with
several audio tracks and create a loop
| | 00:09 | with all of them at once.
| | 00:11 | So first, I want to go over and
check to make sure that we have the Loop
| | 00:14 | Playback feature on, which we do.
| | 00:17 | I also want to make sure that the ALL
group is selected, and that means that all
| | 00:22 | tracks will be grouped together so that
any edits that I apply to one track will
| | 00:26 | be applied to all of them, and that
also means that when I highlight something,
| | 00:31 | it will be highlighted on all of the tracks.
| | 00:34 | And that's what I've done here is I've
highlighted 4 bars, and that's exactly 4
| | 00:39 | bars because I'm in Grid mode, and you
can see those 4 bars highlighted up here.
| | 00:44 | Now, I know that this music has
been recorded with a click track.
| | 00:46 | So I'm going to press play and see
how this loop goes as it is to the
| | 00:50 | click track.
| | 00:51 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:05 | Now, if you don't want to have to
listen through to the whole loop to find out
| | 01:08 | how the loop cycles back around from
the end back to the beginning, we can just
| | 01:13 | go up to the Options menu
and choose Dynamic Transport.
| | 01:18 | Now I can click this playback marker
here and go towards the end of the loop,
| | 01:24 | and when I press play, it's going to
start here and then loop back around.
| | 01:28 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:33 | That can be really handy
when you're working on loops.
| | 01:36 | For this particular example I'm actually going
to turn it back off, but now you
| | 01:40 | know that's where it is.
| | 01:41 | So I'm pretty happy with
the way that this sounds.
| | 01:44 | So I'm going to go ahead and keep the
highlight the way it is and separate
| | 01:47 | these clips.
| | 01:48 | So I'm going to go to Separate Clip >
At Selection, and now I've got a 4 bar
| | 01:53 | loop here.
| | 01:54 | However, I want to go a little bit deeper here.
| | 01:56 | I want to zoom in and make sure that
this is really tight with the grid, and
| | 02:01 | now zooming in I can see that these
notes right here are actually a little bit
| | 02:05 | ahead of the grid.
| | 02:07 | So I want to smooth that out.
| | 02:08 | I'm going to zoom in just a little bit
more here, and I'm going to go over to
| | 02:13 | the SLIP mode and use the Trimmer tool
and slide this back just a little bit,
| | 02:19 | because I want to make this edit
before the transients on the clip here.
| | 02:23 | It's usually a good idea to trim the
clip, as I've done here, so that it starts
| | 02:27 | immediately before these large transients.
| | 02:31 | If you chop off the beginning of a
transient, then that can affect the impact or
| | 02:35 | the power of that transient.
| | 02:37 | So, because I've trimmed this, now we
actually have the full power of this
| | 02:42 | transient at the beginning of the loop.
| | 02:44 | So what I'll do now is go to Grid mode
and with the Grabber tool I'll slide this
| | 02:49 | over to the beginning of the bar
and now it starts right on the beat.
| | 02:53 | I'm going to zoom back out.
| | 02:55 | And because we've slid this over to
the right, the end of the loop is now not
| | 03:00 | on the grid anymore.
| | 03:03 | So let's fix that.
| | 03:04 | I'm going to use the Trimmer tool and
we're in Grid mode, and chop that back.
| | 03:11 | Now let's take a listen to the loop.
| | 03:12 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:29 | It's a minor change but it certainly
shows off the technique of what you need to
| | 03:33 | do to make sure that your
transients fit within your loops.
| | 03:38 | And this actually sounds pretty good to me.
| | 03:40 | So now we're ready if we want to
actually duplicate this loop and make a few in
| | 03:44 | a row and there's a few ways to do that.
| | 03:46 | First, we can go to the Edit menu and
choose Duplicate, and that creates one
| | 03:53 | new duplicate.
| | 03:54 | Zoom out a little bit here.
| | 03:56 | Another way to do it is to choose
Repeat and we could set up a number of
| | 04:02 | duplicates that we want
here in Number of Repeats.
| | 04:05 | Click OK, and now we've got two more duplicates.
| | 04:08 | And let me undo those just for a second.
| | 04:11 | And now I want to show you probably the
easiest way to do the loops is we go to
| | 04:16 | the Clip menu and choose Loop.
| | 04:20 | We can choose the number of loops that we want;
| | 04:22 | we can set the loop length
and change it if we want to.
| | 04:25 | But the most important one down here
is we can enable crossfades, and so that
| | 04:29 | will actually add crossfades
automatically for us when we loop our clips.
| | 04:34 | And we can set the settings here.
| | 04:37 | Maybe we want our crossfades to be Equal Power.
| | 04:39 | And we can tell Pro Tools where we want
the crossfade to be placed, as well as
| | 04:44 | how long we want it to be, and in this
case 10 milliseconds sounds pretty good.
| | 04:48 | It's pretty short, but that's
actually pretty good for this.
| | 04:51 | So I'm going to click OK.
| | 04:54 | And we'll keep the number of loops as 8,
click OK, and now we've got 8 copies
| | 04:59 | of our loop, and you can see the loops
indicated down here by this little icon,
| | 05:03 | the Loop icon.
| | 05:05 | So now you know the basic steps for
making an audio loop in Pro Tools.
| | 05:09 | As you can see, you can use a lot of
different editing concepts, techniques, and
| | 05:13 | tools for this process.
| | 05:14 | And as you get more familiar with
Pro Tools, you'll be able to make loops
| | 05:17 | like this in no time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing a voiceover| 00:00 | When editing speech for a voiceover, a
monologue, or lead vocals, it's customary
| | 00:05 | to edit the words so that there are no
stuttering, stammering, hesitation, or
| | 00:08 | mistakes in the reading or
the performing of the material.
| | 00:12 | Many times it's also beneficial in
voiceovers to eliminate unnecessary pauses or
| | 00:16 | open spaces between words and sentences.
| | 00:19 | This will increase the pace of the
performance and is done when there's a lot of
| | 00:23 | breathing pauses, or if you want to
intensify the impact of the delivery, like a
| | 00:28 | fast talking radio DJ might do.
| | 00:31 | Overall the idea is to
create a perfect performance.
| | 00:34 | When you're editing speech or vocals,
it's always a good idea to have the
| | 00:38 | script, the text, or the lyrics as a
printed guide for making notes about where
| | 00:43 | to place your edits.
| | 00:44 | In this case, I've included them in
the comments column in the track, right
| | 00:48 | down here.
| | 00:49 | You'll also see that I have
added some markers into the session.
| | 00:53 | These markers indicate a few of the
places that I have identified as some of the
| | 00:57 | good performances in this raw take.
| | 01:00 | Now, learning how to make a marker
isn't part of this video, there's a whole
| | 01:03 | video dedicated to that, so check
that out if you need to learn how to make
| | 01:06 | a marker.
| | 01:07 | So now let's take a listen to
this performance and hear the raw
| | 01:10 | unedited version.
| | 01:11 | (Audio Playing)
| | 02:02 | Okay.
| | 02:03 | So there is the raw track, certainly
not a great performance, but that's why
| | 02:08 | we are here, to edit it.
| | 02:09 | So I am just going to go ahead and go to town.
| | 02:12 | First, I want to create a duplicate
playlist before we start editing, and
| | 02:17 | that way we will always have our
original playlist to reference back to if we
| | 02:22 | need to.
| | 02:23 | And now what I am going to do is make
sure I am in Slip mode, and I'm going
| | 02:26 | to use the Selector tool and I am
going to delete all of the stuff that I
| | 02:30 | know is bad.
| | 02:31 | So I am going to click in here,
highlight all of that, grab that area and delete
| | 02:37 | it, and take this area out, this
bit, and we will leave the rest.
| | 02:42 | Now I'm going to go and use Shuffle
mode and the Grabber tool and slide all of
| | 02:49 | these so that they butt up against each
other, and let's take a listen to what
| | 02:55 | we have got as our new quick edit.
| | 02:58 | (Audio Playing)
| | 03:22 | Okay.
| | 03:22 | So here in the beginning piece, we
actually need to edit some more out, because
| | 03:27 | there's two takes of the same
lines and some stammering there.
| | 03:30 | So I am going to use the Trimmer tool
and simply click and drag, and because we
| | 03:37 | are in Shuffle mode, all of the clips
will move automatically to the left.
| | 03:41 | So now that we have all the pieces
together, now it's up to us to smooth it out.
| | 03:47 | And let's do that by first zooming in.
| | 03:50 | First I am going to use the Trim tool
to chop off any extraneous parts, and
| | 03:55 | I'll go to the Slip mode first and
use the Trimmer, cut off the intro here,
| | 04:02 | zoom out, cut off the ending.
| | 04:05 | Now I will zoom in and take a listen
to the transitions between each of the
| | 04:12 | phrases and see what the breaths are
like in there, because we don't want to
| | 04:16 | have an edit that happens
right in the middle of a breath.
| | 04:18 | (Audio Playing)
| | 04:30 | And right in here it sounds like we
actually have edited right in between
| | 04:34 | two breaths.
| | 04:35 | So I am going to zoom in,
take a listen to that again.
| | 04:41 | (Audio Playing)
| | 04:44 | So it might not be too obvious to you
now listening to this, but if you edit
| | 04:48 | right in the middle of a breath, it
definitely is going to sound unnatural.
| | 04:52 | And that can really become more
obvious when you put the final product out,
| | 04:56 | because often voiceover tracks are
seriously compressed or limited and the
| | 05:00 | output volume can make any
mistake in editing very obvious.
| | 05:04 | So you have got to really pay
attention to the details when you're
| | 05:07 | editing voiceovers.
| | 05:08 | So let's figure this out.
| | 05:09 | Let's listen to it one more time.
| | 05:11 | (Audio Playing)
| | 05:14 | Most of the time we can use the Trim
tool to drag one of the clip boundaries
| | 05:18 | over to the other so that
the breaths don't cross over.
| | 05:22 | Now, in this case, obviously we can't
because there's audio material here.
| | 05:26 | Let's drag this back here, see if
that works.
| | 05:31 | (Audio Playing)
| | 05:34 | And that works pretty well.
| | 05:36 | When you're happy with all the
transitions between each of the phrases and none
| | 05:40 | of the breaths are being chopped off,
and you have all the pieces put together
| | 05:44 | in order that you want them, the next
step is to figure out whether the pacing
| | 05:47 | is right.
| | 05:48 | So you can check all of the pauses
between the phrases and make sure that it
| | 05:53 | sounds very natural, and if it
doesn't, then we can move all the tracks
| | 05:57 | around just a little bit.
| | 05:58 | So in this particular case, there is a
big pause right here, and if I want to
| | 06:04 | tighten up the pacing of this, a simple
way is just to select the area, we will
| | 06:10 | go back to Shuffle and I am going to
hit Delete, and then that moves everything
| | 06:15 | from the right to the left and
it tightens up that little space.
| | 06:20 | (Audio Playing)
| | 06:24 | And that pause in between
sounds a little bit more natural now.
| | 06:27 | Now, one of the final steps is to
create little crossfades so that we don't get
| | 06:32 | any unwanted clicks or
pops at the clip boundaries.
| | 06:35 | So we can go in, zoom in here, and
use the Smart tool to click and drag and
| | 06:42 | create a little crossfade.
| | 06:44 | Another more handy way to do all of
these crossfades at once is to simply
| | 06:49 | highlight the entire area, and now
you we can choose create fades, and with
| | 06:56 | this dialog box we can apply fades
that will be between each of the clips and
| | 07:00 | do it all at once.
| | 07:02 | And I like the length of 10 milliseconds here
and everything else looks great
| | 07:06 | so I will click OK, and automatically
we have crossfades between each of the
| | 07:11 | clips here.
| | 07:13 | The last point that I want to make
here about voiceover editing is that
| | 07:16 | sometimes when you edit, you'll create
empty spaces between clips, and often you'll
| | 07:21 | want to fill those empty
spaces with what's called room tone.
| | 07:25 | Room tone is the sound of the room
where you're recording a voiceover, but with
| | 07:29 | no other sounds going on.
| | 07:31 | It's the tone of the room that includes
any unintended noise from computer fans
| | 07:36 | or air conditioning units or any other
items that affect the noise in the room.
| | 07:41 | So if we had some empty space, let's
say right in here, and I am going to go
| | 07:47 | ahead and go to Slip mode and
delete this area, just as an example.
| | 07:52 | This empty space, we might want to
fill this empty space with room tone.
| | 07:57 | And it's a pretty common practice
actually in voiceover recordings to record 30
| | 08:02 | seconds to a minute of room tone that
you can use later to fill these voids.
| | 08:07 | So now if I go back to the original
playlist, I can see that I have got some
| | 08:12 | room tone here and I am going
to click and drag and copy this.
| | 08:19 | Now I will go back to the other playlist,
and I will place the cursor here, and I
| | 08:25 | can paste in the room tone.
| | 08:29 | Obviously, I would go in and edit this
so that it fits where we want it to fit.
| | 08:34 | And here is what it would sound like.
| | 08:39 | (Audio Playing)
| | 08:43 | So it keeps the consistency of the sound.
| | 08:46 | but what happens if we actually take this out?
| | 08:48 | (Audio Playing)
| | 08:53 | It's a slightly different sound, and
although it might not be super obvious
| | 08:57 | here, there is room tone that happened
during the recording of this voiceover,
| | 09:01 | and when you take it out, it can be
kind of a stark difference, especially if
| | 09:05 | you add compression or
limiting to the final product.
| | 09:08 | So I am going to keep it in there and
make sure that we have a very consistent
| | 09:13 | performance of the sound for the overall track.
| | 09:16 | So once you are done editing the
voiceover material, you should listen all the
| | 09:19 | way through to the whole track and make
sure it flows and that the pace of the
| | 09:23 | reading and the breaths in
between all sound natural.
| | 09:26 | Alter the timing if you need to and
make sure the fades and crossfades are at
| | 09:31 | the edit points to avoid any
sonic changes between the clips.
| | 09:35 | With all these techniques put together
you now know the process for editing a
| | 09:39 | voiceover track in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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.
| | 00:11 | I'll start with Elastic Time.
| | 00:13 | Elastic Time analyzes audio clips for
transient events, like drum hits or guitar
| | 00:18 | chords, and enables you to conform
those events to the session's tempo, a
| | 00:23 | quantization Time Trim tool, or manually
use the edit tools and warp view.
| | 00:28 | Let's try it out.
| | 00:28 | First I am going to zoom in on
this drum loop that I have got.
| | 00:33 | It's a reggae beat that I have imported,
and you'll note that it's not exactly
| | 00:37 | 4 bars, I can see up here.
| | 00:40 | So I want to use the Time Trim tool
and extend this out so that it's exactly
| | 00:44 | 4 bars.
| | 00:45 | So I'm going to go over here and make
sure that I have got the Time Trim tool
| | 00:49 | selected or the TCE tool.
| | 00:51 | I'm going to go to the end of this,
click and drag, and now it's processed so
| | 00:59 | that it's exactly 4 bars.
| | 01:02 | Now I want to go over to the Time Base
for this track and change it from samples
| | 01:06 | to ticks, I can do that right here.
| | 01:10 | And now I am going to enable Elastic
Audio, so I am going to click here and
| | 01:15 | scroll down to polyphonic.
| | 01:17 | And as soon as I chose that, Pro
Tools, behind the scenes, analyzed the audio
| | 01:22 | waveform for its transient events.
| | 01:25 | In this drumbeat here, it's
pretty easy to pick them out.
| | 01:27 | All right, so let's have some fun.
| | 01:29 | First I am going to play this track
back at the original tempo, and then I am
| | 01:32 | going to try out a bunch of different
tempos, and you are going to notice how
| | 01:36 | the loop conforms to each tempo.
| | 01:37 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:46 | So that's the original.
| | 01:49 | So now I am just going to go up to our
Tempo Event here and double-click it, and
| | 01:53 | I'm going to change it to 130.
| | 01:56 | Now, you'll notice that the grid
got a lot closer together, because the
| | 02:00 | tempo is much faster now, and the
beat automatically conformed to this new
| | 02:04 | tempo, it's still 4 bars.
| | 02:07 | Let's hear what it sounds like.
| | 02:08 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:14 | All right!
| | 02:14 | Let's go slower this time.
| | 02:16 | Let's go down to 70.
| | 02:19 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:28 | You should note that extreme tempo
changes can create some serious unwanted
| | 02:32 | artifacts in your tracks, so be
careful when you are doing some extreme
| | 02:36 | tempo changes.
| | 02:37 | All right!
| | 02:38 | So let's undo this one, go back to
the original, I'll do two undos to get us
| | 02:44 | back to the original.
| | 02:46 | And now I am going to switch over
to Varispeed, so I will click here,
| | 02:51 | choose Varispeed.
| | 02:52 | Now, Varispeed links the time and the
pitch change together, like how a tape
| | 02:58 | machine would react if you
sped up or slowed it down.
| | 03:01 | Let's try these same tempo
changes and hear the different sounds.
| | 03:05 | Here is the original.
| | 03:06 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:12 | Now, if we got to 130 again.
| | 03:16 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:21 | Notice that the pitch changed,
it went up because we got faster.
| | 03:25 | I'll undo that, and now we'll go
to 70, and we should expect this to be
| | 03:31 | lower in pitch.
| | 03:32 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:40 | And indeed it was.
| | 03:41 | I am going to undo that.
| | 03:44 | Now let's look a little closer at
what's going on with Elastic Time.
| | 03:47 | I'm going to go over to the
Track View and choose analysis.
| | 03:52 | Now I am going to zoom in a little
bit more so we can see what's happening.
| | 03:56 | The white lines that we see here
are analysis markers on all of the
| | 03:59 | transients in the beat, and now I am
going to switch back over to Polyphonic
| | 04:04 | actually for this example.
| | 04:06 | I am going to select the Grabber tool
here, so we can actually click and drag to
| | 04:12 | reposition these markers if we want to,
to better align with the Tempo grid, or
| | 04:16 | with the musical performance.
| | 04:18 | However, Pro Tools usually does a
great job of analyzing these transients,
| | 04:22 | specifically on more percussive parts like this.
| | 04:26 | So we don't really need to move them.
| | 04:28 | The only times we may need to move
them is when we're working with audio that
| | 04:32 | doesn't have clear transients, like
synth pads or legato string parts.
| | 04:37 | Now let's switch the track view to warp.
| | 04:41 | And now I can see the warp analysis here,
and this is when it gets interesting.
| | 04:46 | We can double-click to make a warp marker,
and since we've got this on the grid,
| | 04:51 | if we start sliding these, you'll see
that they will conform to the grid values.
| | 05:00 | And it's moving by a beat.
| | 05:01 | Let me make this grid smaller, and it
will be more obvious what we are doing.
| | 05:09 | I am moving everything by a 16th note now.
| | 05:13 | So I can move these warp markers and
they will align right with the grid, and
| | 05:16 | this is a great way to be able to move
pieces of the waveform and align them
| | 05:20 | with the Tempo grid or
with any other audio events.
| | 05:24 | I've used wrap markers like
this to align all kinds of parts;
| | 05:27 | base parts, drum parts,
vocal parts, you name it.
| | 05:30 | Just double-click to create warp markers that
lock to the grid, and then you
| | 05:34 | can move around any of these little
pieces of audio to totally line up
| | 05:37 | performances within the grid.
| | 05:39 | Now let's go back over
to the Elastic Audio menu.
| | 05:42 | When we look down here, we can see
that Pro Tools is processing this
| | 05:46 | Elastic Audio in Real-Time.
| | 05:48 | Now, this can be demanding on your
computer, especially if you have a lot of
| | 05:52 | tracks that are using Elastic Audio.
| | 05:55 | If we switch this to Rendered Processing,
that creates a temporary file, and it
| | 06:00 | isn't Real-Time processing anymore, and
this will save you a lot of processing
| | 06:04 | power for your computer.
| | 06:05 | And you can always go back and
choose Real-Time if you need to.
| | 06:09 | Just click it right here.
| | 06:11 | Let's look at one more
thing related to Elastic Audio.
| | 06:14 | If you go to Setup > Preferences, and
click on the Processing tab, you can
| | 06:21 | see that we have this Elastic Audio
area, and here we can choose what the
| | 06:25 | default plug-in is from any of these
four, for when we instantiate Elastic
| | 06:30 | Audio onto a track.
| | 06:32 | Polyphonic is usually the
best one to keep it on anyway.
| | 06:36 | We can also adjust the default gain, but
I wouldn't touch that, and we can check
| | 06:41 | off Enable Elastic Audio on New Tracks,
so anytime we create a new track, we'll
| | 06:46 | have Elastic Audio on it already.
| | 06:48 | I'm going to keep that unchecked,
because that can take up a lot of
| | 06:51 | processing power.
| | 06:53 | Let's move on to the other half
of Elastic Audio, Elastic Pitch.
| | 06:56 | So I am going to get away from our
reggae beat and look at our acoustic
| | 07:02 | guitar track down here.
| | 07:03 | And what I want to do is
transpose the pitch of this clip.
| | 07:07 | I'm going to play it back first so you
can hear the original pitch, and then
| | 07:10 | we'll get into the Elastic Pitch.
| | 07:11 | (Music Playing)
| | 07:27 | All right!
| | 07:28 | So let's go over here and choose Polyphonic.
| | 07:31 | So now Elastic Audio is active on this track.
| | 07:33 | And you should note that Elastic
Pitch does not work on monophonic Elastic
| | 07:38 | Audio files.
| | 07:40 | So we can't choose Monophonic here
if we want to apply Elastic Pitch.
| | 07:45 | Now let's go up to the Clip
menu and choose Elastic Properties.
| | 07:49 | You'll see down here at the bottom we
have pitch shift, and I'm going to click
| | 07:54 | and drag and go up 2 semitones, that's
one whole step up.
| | 08:00 | Let's press play.
| | 08:02 | (Music Playing)
| | 08:16 | So you can hear that the music is
automatically pitch-shifted up one whole step.
| | 08:22 | And obviously you can change the pitch
shift by any value here, and we can also
| | 08:27 | change the number of cents if
we need to tune it specifically.
| | 08:30 | Let's close that up, and now if we want
to we can go back up to the Clip menu and
| | 08:35 | choose Remove Pitch Shift, and
that gets rid of the pitch shift.
| | 08:40 | So now you know how to use Elastic Pitch
to transpose audio clips and how to use
| | 08:45 | Elastic Time to conform
performances to a new tempo.
| | 08:48 | It's really amazing the power that
you have over your audio clips in Pro
| | 08:51 | Tools with Elastic Audio.
| | 08:52 | And if you notice down here, I've
included several other audio clips in the
| | 08:57 | session, so if you have access to this
exercise file, you can experiment with
| | 09:02 | Elastic Time and Pitch and how they
affect different types of audio clips, like
| | 09:07 | this bass track and a stereo
audio track of an entire song.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Arranging a SessionWorking with clip groups| 00:00 | One of the features of Pro Tools that
makes large-scale editing and song form
| | 00:04 | arrangements so easy is clip groups.
| | 00:07 | A clip group is a combination of
several audio and/or MIDI clips that act
| | 00:11 | like a single clip.
| | 00:13 | Creating a clip group is really easy.
You can simply highlight a bunch of
| | 00:17 | different clips, and I'm going
to go ahead and do that right now.
| | 00:20 | I'm just going to double-click on this
clip and Shift+Click on these, and now
| | 00:26 | I can simply go to Clip > Group, and
it creates this clip group right here.
| | 00:32 | Now, it doesn't really matter if the
clip underneath the highlighted area is
| | 00:35 | actually separated or not;
| | 00:38 | the clip group will actually
include whatever you highlight.
| | 00:40 | So if I undo this and actually add in
some more clip area, go back up to Clip >
| | 00:50 | Group, even some of the stuff that
wasn't separated is now included in this clip group.
| | 00:55 | Now, let's say that this new clip group
comprises one whole verse of a song. So
| | 01:00 | I'm going to use clip
groups as an arrangement tool.
| | 01:04 | If I go up to Shuffle mode and then go
to Edit > Duplicate, it makes a copy of
| | 01:12 | that clip group and pushes all the
rest of these clips over to the right.
| | 01:16 | So doing this, I can check to see what
this would sound like with two verses in a
| | 01:20 | row, as opposed to just one.
| | 01:22 | It's a great technique to test out
different song arrangement ideas.
| | 01:26 | So I'm going to undo that
and then go to GRID mode.
| | 01:30 | Now, this particular clip group
contains both audio and MIDI clips, and that's
| | 01:35 | indicated by this little icon
right down here at the bottom.
| | 01:39 | If I make a clip group with just audio
files, like I'll do here, Clip > Group,
| | 01:47 | now we have a different icon.
| | 01:49 | And this icon shows that the clip group
is split, so that means that there are
| | 01:54 | tracks in between the parts of this clip group.
| | 01:56 | If I move this track, now they're
together and we have this new icon that shows
| | 02:04 | that this is purely an audio clip group.
| | 02:07 | The same goes for MIDI clip groups.
| | 02:08 | I'm going to go and move these
two tracks closer to each other and
| | 02:13 | highlight these two, create a clip
group, and now we have this icon to
| | 02:19 | indicate a MIDI clip group.
| | 02:21 | Now, of course there are
key commands for clip groups.
| | 02:24 | To make a clip group on a Mac, you
can press Command+Option+G; on a PC it's
| | 02:29 | Ctrl+Alt+G. You can also choose to
ungroup a group: Command+Option+U on a Mac or
| | 02:36 | Ctrl+Alt+U in Windows.
| | 02:38 | And if I use that command here,
you'll see that the group gets ungrouped.
| | 02:44 | If you need to edit one clip within the
clip group, you should ungroup the clip
| | 02:48 | group, edit the clip, and then choose Regroup.
| | 02:51 | So let me do that here. I'm going to
edit this particular clip, just shorten it,
| | 02:58 | and now I'm going to remake this group.
| | 03:00 | We'll highlight that, Shift+Click here,
and Regroup. Command+Option+R on a Mac
| | 03:07 | or Ctrl+Alt+R in Windows.
| | 03:10 | Once you make a clip group, it
shows up in the Clips list over here on the right.
| | 03:17 | Here they are.
| | 03:18 | You can see in this particular group,
group-01, we have 8 audio channels and 4
| | 03:24 | MIDI channels as part of that clip group.
| | 03:26 | You can also see the type of clip
group by the icon here. And this is a mixed
| | 03:31 | group, this is a purely Audio
group, and this is a MIDI group.
| | 03:36 | With the clip group you can do all
the same things that you can do with any
| | 03:40 | other type of clip, including selecting,
trimming, separating, naming, moving,
| | 03:44 | cutting, copying, pasting, muting,
locking, adding fades and crossfades,
| | 03:48 | looping, and using Tab to Transients.
| | 03:50 | So for instance, I can trim
this whole clip group like this.
| | 03:54 | There's one last thing about clip
groups that I want to speak about here: Pro
| | 03:58 | Tools can import and export clip
group files, and the file format is CGRP.
| | 04:04 | If I go over to the clips List over
here, into the menu, it says we can export clip groups.
| | 04:12 | We can also import clip groups if we
go to File > Import > Clip Groups.
| | 04:18 | These are great features for
bringing multi-track loops into a session.
| | 04:22 | So as you can see here in this session,
clip groups are helpful organizational
| | 04:26 | tools for arranging the parts of a song.
| | 04:29 | 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. Click it once and
| | 00:18 | 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
| | 00:27 | Timecode, Timecode 2, and Feet+Frames.
| | 00:31 | The time-bases ruler that's highlighted,
in this case the Bars and Beats ruler,
| | 00:35 | is the current main time scale.
| | 00:38 | This determines the time format used
in the Transport window's main counter down here,
| | 00:44 | the pre and post-roll times, the Edit
Selection area up here, and even the
| | 00:50 | 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
time scale, especially if you're working
| | 01:16 | with a click track.
| | 01:17 | I personally only use Minutes and
Seconds as a time reference and rarely concern
| | 01:22 | myself with the Samples ruler.
| | 01:25 | You can change the main time scale in
the session as many times as you want
| | 01:29 | without affecting anything except
what's shown in the main time scale.
| | 01:34 | Below the time-based
rulers are the conductor rulers;
| | 01:37 | you have Tempo, Meter, Key, Chords, and Markers.
| | 01:42 | The Tempo ruler conducts the speed of the song.
| | 01:45 | The Meter ruler conducts the time signature.
| | 01:49 | The Key signature ruler
keeps track of any key changes.
| | 01:53 | The Chord ruler displays any chords,
and the Marker ruler labels specific
| | 01:58 | 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; clicking the
plus will open up the Key Change window.
| | 02:33 | Same with the Chords; you hit the plus,
the Chord Change window will open.
| | 02:40 | And if we hit the Add Marker Memory
Location, we'll get the New Memory
| | 02:43 | Location window, and 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
| | 02:53 | your session? 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
| | 03:08 | or 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.
(tapping)
| | 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 eight or fewer taps.
| | 03:56 | This new BPM value appears in the
Tempo field. Right here we have 133.
| | 04:01 | Now, to make this active in the session,
what I prefer to do is reactivate the
| | 04:07 | conductor track and then either
create a tempo event or double-click on the
| | 04:14 | 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
| | 04:39 | button right here.
| | 04:40 | At this point we can actually use the
Pencil tool and draw in tempo events. So
| | 04:46 | I'm 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
| | 04:55 | session if you go up to the Event
menu and choose Time Operations, where we
| | 05:00 | can change the meter, insert time,
cut time, and move the song start; or in
| | 05:06 | the Tempo Operations--and I'll open
up the Tempo Operations Window--where
| | 05:12 | we can stretch the time, scale it,
create different curves, or make
| | 05:18 | constant tempo changes.
| | 05:19 | Now, I'm 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.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating memory locations| 00:00 | In their simplest form, a memory location
can just be a marker used to denote the
| | 00:05 | beginning or ending of a musical section;
however, memory locations can be used
| | 00:09 | for so much more, as you'll see here.
| | 00:12 | I've 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
| | 00:23 | 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 the Markers
ruler and click the Plus sign.
| | 00:44 | If Pro Tools is stopped, the memory
location is placed at the current cursor
| | 00:48 | position; in this case, it would be
right at the very beginning of the session.
| | 00:54 | If Pro Tools is playing or recording,
Pro Tools will place a memory location
| | 00:58 | right where the cursor is located
without stopping playback or recording. This
| | 01:03 | is called dropping in a memory
location on the fly, and let's try it.
| | 01:07 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:17 | So we have just created a memory
location right in the middle of that playback.
| | 01:21 | I'm going to open up that marker and
take a look at the Memory Location window.
| | 01:25 | 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 & Beats or to Absolute time.
| | 01:48 | When you choose Bars & Beats, it's tick-
based, and in this particular case we have
| | 01:53 | a Bar & Beat marker, and it's
at 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, 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'm going to zoom in here. And if I actually
trim some of this away, you'll see the
| | 02:35 | yellow line extending all
the way through the track.
| | 02:38 | Additionally, markers have
different appearances depending on which
| | 02:41 | time base they are using.
| | 02:43 | As you can see here, chevrons denote
Bar & Beat reference markers, while
| | 02:47 | diamonds indicate absolute markers.
| | 02:50 | So we've got a chevron here and a diamond here.
| | 02:53 | I'm going to click on the Start
marker and bring us back to the start.
| | 02:58 | I'm 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, this
| | 03:07 | stores a highlighted area in your session,
| | 03:10 | like four bars in a song's verse.
| | 03:14 | Like markers, selections can be
referenced either as Bar & 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.
| | 03:32 | 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 this zoom setting.
| | 03:53 | If you would rather have it be more
zoomed in or zoomed out, you should do that
| | 03:57 | before creating the memory location.
| | 04:00 | The Pre/Post Roll Times recalls pre-
and post-roll times but does not indicate
| | 04:05 | whether they are enabled.
| | 04:07 | This option is useful for recording
multiple takes of a solo or vocal part, and
| | 04:12 | you'll see the pre- and post-roll
times indicated down in the Transport.
| | 04:17 | The Track Show/Hide recalls what's
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'm going to cancel out of here. And if
I hit this memory location, it hides all
| | 04:33 | of the audio tracks and
shows only the instrument tracks.
| | 04:36 | I'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 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 mix 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 for
| | 05:21 | this session that we have 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.
| | 05:34 | 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. You can double-click to edit the
| | 06:10 | memory location. And let's take
a look at this organ2 selection.
| | 06:17 | This is a selection memory location,
and you'll see that there is no marker
| | 06:21 | indicated in the Marker ruler.
| | 06:23 | However, we do have a
selection of sixteen 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. It also does not have
| | 06:40 | 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.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
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 the
| | 00:04 | devices--your MIDI controllers, MIDI
interfaces, sound modules, et cetera--and
| | 00:10 | make all the proper MIDI connections.
Then start up your computer in Pro Tools.
| | 00:16 | Within the session, go to
Setup > MIDI > MIDI Studio.
| | 00:22 | The Audio MIDI setup will open up.
| | 00:25 | If you don't see the MIDI page,
choose Window > Show MIDI Window, but we're
| | 00:29 | already seeing it here, so we're all good.
| | 00:32 | Now your computer should automatically
acknowledge that you have certain devices
| | 00:36 | connected to your computer.
| | 00:38 | If a device doesn't automatically
appear in this list, you can click the Add
| | 00:42 | Device icon right here and a
new external device will be added.
| | 00:45 | So we've just created a new external
device. I am going to come down here and
| | 00:50 | double-click on this.
| | 00:51 | What I want to do is create a Korg
Triton, because I've added one to my MIDI setup.
| | 00:59 | So I'm going to just type in the name
here, and we will go to the Manufacturer,
| | 01:06 | choose Korg, and we will find the model, Triton.
| | 01:12 | Once we've created our device, we can
choose an icon for it. So I'm going to
| | 01:16 | choose the Open Icon Browser here, and
we can scroll through a number of things.
| | 01:22 | This kind of looks like one,
so I will choose Apply.
| | 01:25 | Now you can actually use some
other image for the icon if you want.
| | 01:30 | You just need to place a TIFF image file
into the Library/Audio/MIDI Devices/Generic/Images folder.
| | 01:37 | Let me show you that really quick.
| | 01:41 | Library/Audio/MIDI Devices/Generic/Images.
| | 01:46 | So let's go back to the Audio MIDI setup.
| | 01:50 | I'm going to close our Icon browser.
| | 01:56 | We can choose which channels are
transmitting and receiving for your device.
| | 02:00 | The simplest thing to do is just
choose one for transmitting, so I'm literally
| | 02:04 | going to click and drag across these
numbers and it makes them inactive.
| | 02:09 | So now I'm just transmitting on one
MIDI channel, but I'm receiving on all sixteen.
| | 02:14 | You can also change the MIDI ports
if you need to, and we'll apply that.
| | 02:22 | But there's no real reason to do that
right now, so let's not worry about it.
| | 02:26 | So we can close this, and we have
our Korg Triton showing in our MIDI Studio Setup.
| | 02:33 | If you're connecting your device--
let's say this Korg Triton--to an interface
| | 02:37 | via MIDI cables, then you need to click
and drag to make connections like this
| | 02:41 | with virtual cables.
| | 02:43 | So let's connect this to our 003.
| | 02:50 | We will have it going to
both the in and the out ports.
| | 02:53 | Now these match up just like
your real cables do on your devices.
| | 02:58 | To delete a cable just
click on it and press Delete.
| | 03:03 | However, for this example, I actually
do want to connect these virtual cables,
| | 03:07 | so I'm going to put that back there.
| | 03:09 | Now let's go back to Pro Tools.
| | 03:13 | On our MIDI track I'm going to choose
Korg Triton > channel-1 as our output
| | 03:20 | for this MIDI track.
| | 03:22 | That means when we hit a key on our
MIDI controller, the MIDI note will be
| | 03:26 | routed to the Korg Triton to get its sounds.
| | 03:29 | And to choose a particular sound from
the Triton, we can click on the Patch list right here.
| | 03:36 | You'll see that all the Korg Triton
sounds are preloaded in here because in
| | 03:41 | the Audio MIDI setup we chose that
device, and it automatically knows to put
| | 03:45 | these patches in here.
| | 03:47 | Now if we wanted to change to a
different patch name file instead of the Korg
| | 03:51 | Triton, we could hit Change right down here.
| | 03:55 | That takes us to a directory
where we can choose any of the other
| | 03:59 | manufacturers and devices.
| | 04:02 | So repeat these steps as many times as
necessary for each MIDI device that's
| | 04:06 | connected to your system.
| | 04:07 | With your MIDI gear properly connected
and routed through your Audio MIDI setup,
| | 04:11 | Pro Tools will know where your MIDI
data is coming from and recording MIDI data
| | 04:15 | will be much easier.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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:
| | 00:04 | your MIDI controllers, MIDI interfaces,
and sound modules. Then make all the
| | 00:09 | proper MIDI connections. Then you'll want
to start up your computer in Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | Download any necessary drivers for your
MIDI devices, and Windows should let you
| | 00:18 | know if you need them.
| | 00:19 | Once you've started up Pro Tools, you can
go to the Setup menu, choose, MIDI >
| | 00:25 | MIDI Studio Setup.
| | 00:27 | The MIDI Studio Setup, or
MSS, application will open up.
| | 00:31 | I want to create a new device here. I'm
going to click on Create and then choose
| | 00:36 | our instrument name.
I'm going to create a Korg Triton.
| | 00:41 | Now I will go down to the Manufacturer
and find Korg on the list here, and I'll
| | 00:47 | choose the model, Triton.
| | 00:49 | Now I'm going to choose the Input
Port. I'm going to choose my Oxygen 61 keyboard.
| | 00:55 | I'll also choose that as the Output Port.
| | 01:00 | By default, all of the Send Channels and
Receive Channels are active, and you can
| | 01:04 | see those highlighted in blue here.
| | 01:07 | If we wanted to make some of them
inactive, we can click on them and gray them
| | 01:10 | out, but I am going to keep all of them active.
| | 01:13 | These determine which MIDI
channels send and receive MIDI data.
| | 01:17 | With all this information in here,
I can close this and it's saved to the MSS.
| | 01:23 | Now in Pro Tools I will go down to my
MIDI track. I'm going to keep All as the
| | 01:27 | Input Selector, and that means that any
MIDI controller that's connected to my
| | 01:31 | system will be able to control this MIDI track.
| | 01:34 | Now I'm going to go down to the MIDI
Output and choose Korg Triton > channel-1.
| | 01:40 | That will send any MIDI data that's
recorded through this track to the Korg
| | 01:43 | Triton on channel 1.
| | 01:45 | From here we can also choose which patch.
I'm going to click on the Patch List
| | 01:49 | button and now we can see all of the
Korg Triton patches listed right here.
| | 01:56 | So that's how you set up a MIDI
device in Windows for Pro Tools.
| | 01:59 | Repeat these steps as many times as
necessary for each MIDI device that's
| | 02:03 | connected to your system.
| | 02:05 | With your MIDI gear properly connected
and routed through the MIDI Studio Setup,
| | 02:08 | Pro Tools will know where your MIDI
data is coming from, and recording MIDI data
| | 02:12 | will be much easier.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up MIDI in Pro Tools| 00:00 | Once you've added and configured
all of your MIDI devices in your MIDI
| | 00:03 | Studio Setup, there are few things
to take care of in Pro Tools to make
| | 00:07 | using MIDI easier.
| | 00:09 | First, let's go to the Setup menu.
| | 00:11 | Choose MIDI > Input Devices.
| | 00:16 | Here you'll see the MIDI Input Enable
window where all of your devices should be
| | 00:21 | checked off; if they are not, check them.
| | 00:24 | These are the devices that
actually input MIDI data into Pro Tools.
| | 00:28 | You won't see any devices on this
list that are just sound modules and that
| | 00:33 | don't create MIDI data, only devices
that actually create the MIDI data.
| | 00:37 | Your window will probably look a little
different than mine here, with different
| | 00:40 | devices, but just make sure that
they are all checked off. Then click OK.
| | 00:46 | Next, go the Options menu and make
sure that MIDI Thru is checked off.
| | 00:51 | This allows you to monitor
MIDI tracks while recording them.
| | 00:55 | When using MIDI Thru, disable Local
Control on your MIDI devices; otherwise they
| | 01:00 | may receive the same MIDI data twice,
creating stuck notes or a phase-like
| | 01:04 | effect where two notes are
playing almost at the same time. You don't want that.
| | 01:09 | Consult your MIDI controller's manual
for information on how to turn off Local
| | 01:13 | Control on your device.
| | 01:15 | Next, let's go back up to the Setup
menu and choose Preferences. On the MIDI
| | 01:21 | page, go down to the Default Thru Instrument.
| | 01:26 | To hear the audio output from a MIDI
instrument without having to create and
| | 01:30 | record-enable a MIDI track, you can
route your MIDI signal to the default
| | 01:34 | thru instrument.
| | 01:36 | In this case, we can choose from any
of the devices that we have connected to
| | 01:39 | our system or choose
Follows First Selected MIDI Track.
| | 01:44 | This will select the first MIDI or
instrument track that's highlighted in your
| | 01:48 | session. Or if you want to, you can
choose specific channels on specific devices,
| | 01:54 | like channel-1 on this Korg Triton.
| | 01:56 | So I'm going to down here and click OK,
and I'll also go back to the Setup menu
| | 02:02 | again--in this case, the MIDI > Input Filter.
| | 02:09 | In this window you can filter out
any MIDI data that you don't want
| | 02:12 | recorded with your tracks.
| | 02:13 | For example, if you only want to record
the MIDI notes, you could choose Record >
| | 02:19 | Only > Notes and then turn these off.
| | 02:21 | But usually the default that we have
here, record everything except for the
| | 02:29 | Aftertouch, is totally fine, so I'm
just going to leave this and click OK.
| | 02:35 | The four setups I've shown you in
this video will ensure that Pro Tools is
| | 02:38 | handling your MIDI data correctly, and
you should be ready to record and play back
| | 02:42 | MIDI data in Pro Tools now.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording MIDI data| 00:00 | In Pro Tools, there are two types of
tracks that can record MIDI performance
| | 00:04 | data: 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'm 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'm going to go up to the Track
menu, choose New. I'm going to create two
| | 00:30 | new stereo instrument tracks, and
also one stereo master fader track.
| | 00:38 | I always like to have a stereo master
fader track in every session I make.
| | 00:41 | I'm going to extend these out and make
them taller, so I'm going to press the
| | 00:45 | Option key on Mac or the Alt
key in Windows, extend these out.
| | 00:51 | And then I want to add some views here,
so I'm going to add the Inserts view
| | 00:57 | and the Instrument view. And on this
first track I'm going to insert the Mini
| | 01:04 | Grand virtual instrument.
| | 01:05 | You'll notice once this is loaded up
that in the Instrument section the Mini
| | 01:10 | Grand is already set as the MIDI Output,
and the default All setting is set for
| | 01:16 | the MIDI Input, and this means that any
single MIDI controller that's connected
| | 01:21 | to your system can be used for the input.
| | 01:24 | So any note that you hit on any
of the keyboards or any other MIDI
| | 01:27 | controllers that are connected to
your system can be used to send sounds
| | 01:30 | through the Mini Grand plug-in.
| | 01:33 | For the analog in and out over here we
don't actually need an input because the
| | 01:37 | input is already on the track;
it's the software instrument.
| | 01:41 | So we don't need to grab anything from
an input on our interface; we can just go
| | 01:44 | directly through the software. And then
we have the main output selected here,
| | 01:50 | which is ultimately going to route this
signal through our master fader to our
| | 01:54 | headphones or speakers.
| | 01:55 | So this instrument track is ready to go.
| | 01:58 | On the second instrument track, I
want to set it up to utilize an external sound module.
| | 02:03 | So I'm going to go down here to the
MIDI Output and select Korg Triton > channel-1.
| | 02:09 | Again, we have the All setting for
the MIDI input so that any controller
| | 02:13 | that's connected to your system will
be able to control the sounds from the Korg Triton.
| | 02:18 | However, we don't have that sound in
Pro Tools yet, so we actually need to
| | 02:22 | choose an analog input.
| | 02:25 | So I'm going to go down here and choose
interface > Analog 3-4, and that's where
| | 02:31 | I have the analog output from the
Korg Triton routed into my interface.
| | 02:36 | We'll also keep the analog 1-2
main output path the same here.
| | 02:41 | So both of these instrument tracks are
ready for action, and I can actually go
| | 02:45 | up to this track here and record-enable
it, play something, and you'll hear it.
| | 02:49 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:53 | And if I want to start recording,
simply hit the record button and the play
| | 02:58 | button, and I can start recording MIDI notes.
| | 03:00 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:05 | This process of setting up your
instrument tracks to record MIDI will become
| | 03:09 | second nature to you after you've done
these setups shown here just a few times.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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
| | 00:22 | channels, all going to the same Xpand2
plug-in. Xpand2 plug-in is inserted on
| | 00:28 | the auxiliary track, and I've chosen
channel 1, 2, 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.
| | 00:42 | 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.
| | 01:05 | And if we switch over to the Edit
window, you can see that I have already got
| | 01:09 | 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 serious
| | 01:27 | processing power. I am going to show
you one more trick here too. If you want to
| | 01:31 | hear individual instruments by
themselves soloed, we can hit Command on a Mac or
| | 01:37 | Ctrl on a PC and Solo Safe this
auxiliary track, and now if I solo this drum
| | 01:44 | 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
| | 02:04 | instruments, because it requires less
processing power than using multiple
| | 02:08 | instances of the same virtual instruments.
| | 02:12 | You will find that you'll be able to
run a lot more instruments and plug-ins in
| | 02:15 | your Pro Tools sessions.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording options for MIDI| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to explain
some of the MIDI recording features that
| | 00:04 | can make recording MIDI
much easier in Pro Tools.
| | 00:07 | The first one is Wait for Note,
and that's located down here in the
| | 00:10 | Transport window.
| | 00:12 | You can also find it up here at
the top of the Edit window if you're
| | 00:16 | showing your MIDI controls.
| | 00:20 | If you don't see the MIDI controls in
your Transport window, you can choose them here.
| | 00:26 | When you click the button and
turn it blue, that means it's on.
| | 00:29 | And when you enable this Wait for Note
button, Pro Tools won't begin to record
| | 00:33 | until it receives MIDI data, like when
you press a key on your MIDI controller.
| | 00:38 | Use this function if you want the first
MIDI event you play to be recorded at
| | 00:42 | precisely where the playback
cursor is currently located.
| | 00:46 | In this case, I have the cursor
located at bar 3, and that's exactly where I
| | 00:51 | want my first note to be placed.
| | 00:54 | So I am going to record a little bit,
so I will record-enable this track.
| | 00:59 | And as I hit the Record Enable button
and Playback button, you are going to hear
| | 01:03 | the click track going until I hit
the first note on my MIDI keyboard.
| | 01:08 | Then the click will catch up to
what I'm doing and play along as I play my notes.
| | 01:14 | And the first note will be placed
right at the beginning of bar 3. Let's check it out.
| | 01:18 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:28 | If I zoom in here, I can see that the
note is right here at the beginning of bar 3.
| | 01:36 | If you want to use pre-roll when
recording MIDI with Wait for Note enabled, the
| | 01:41 | pre-roll will engage after the very
first MIDI event is received. Then it'll
| | 01:46 | enter into Record mode
after the pre-roll time passes.
| | 01:49 | And this is a pretty handy
feature. Let me show you how it works.
| | 01:51 | First I am going to undo that recording,
and I am going to activate pre-roll
| | 01:56 | down here in the Transport
window, and it's set at 2 bars.
| | 02:00 | So when I hit my first note on the
MIDI keyboard, it's going to start the
| | 02:05 | pre-roll, which will start here right at bar 1.
| | 02:08 | It will roll to bar 3, and then
that's when I'll actually be recording the first note.
| | 02:14 | (Music Playing)
So I am going to hit the first key.
| | 02:19 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:27 | When I zoom in here, I can actually
tell that I didn't play this first
| | 02:31 | note exactly on bar 3.
| | 02:33 | It's a little bit early.
| | 02:35 | And the reason we can tell is
because the MIDI clip starts before bar 3.
| | 02:40 | It starts at bar 2.
| | 02:41 | To help tighten up my
performance, I can use Input Quantize.
| | 02:46 | I can choose that here from the
Event menu. I'll choose Event Operations >
| | 02:52 | Input Quantize.
| | 02:54 | Input Quantize automatically
quantizes all incoming MIDI notes while you play them.
| | 03:00 | And what Quantize really does is
that it aligns the MIDI notes to the
| | 03:05 | rhythmic grid, helping or forcing
them to be more in time, or simulating a
| | 03:10 | particular rhythmic feel.
| | 03:12 | Now I'm going to be covering
quantization in much more detail in other videos
| | 03:15 | in this course, so let's just take a
quick look at some of the basic features
| | 03:19 | of quantizing here.
| | 03:21 | First we need to enable the Input
Quantize, so I'll check this button off.
| | 03:26 | We also need to select the
parameters that we want to use.
| | 03:29 | In this case I'm actually going to
just quantize to this 16th note grid and
| | 03:34 | leave the rest of these other options off.
| | 03:37 | So I am going to try this recording again.
| | 03:39 | First I will undo the previous
recording, and I am going to do another take.
| | 03:44 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:57 | So now I am going to zoom in and we
will see how this performance works out.
| | 04:03 | You will see that the notes are
totally aligned with the grid. In fact, let
| | 04:07 | me show the 16th note grid, and you
will see that each note falls right on the gridlines.
| | 04:13 | I like to use Input Quantize to
immediately make my performances adhere to the
| | 04:18 | grid, and this is terrific when we are
trying to create beats that are totally
| | 04:22 | in time and aligned with the tempo grid.
| | 04:25 | But, you can easily lose the human
touch by relying on this feature all the time.
| | 04:29 | Let's move on to another
feature called MIDI Merge,
| | 04:33 | and that's indicated by this button
down here in the Transport window. We
| | 04:36 | will turn that on.
| | 04:38 | It's also, again, up here.
| | 04:40 | The MIDI Merge function means that if
we want to start recording over top of
| | 04:43 | this performance here, the notes that
we've previously recorded won't be erased,
| | 04:48 | as they normally would be if I try
to record again over top of this.
| | 04:53 | Instead, with MIDI Merge engaged,
these notes will still be here, and any new
| | 04:58 | notes that are added are recorded
and merged with the pre-existing notes.
| | 05:03 | So let's try this out.
| | 05:05 | I'm going to zoom out a little bit, and I
am going to record some more notes.
| | 05:08 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:22 | So as you can see here, the new notes
that I just played are added to this MIDI
| | 05:25 | clip, and the old notes from
the previous take are still here.
| | 05:29 | The notes have all been merged
together, and this is a really great feature,
| | 05:33 | especially when we are building drum
loops, which I am going to cover in another
| | 05:36 | video, or if you're trying to create
multi-note chords, because you can just add
| | 05:40 | one note at a time, building
your chords as you go long.
| | 05:44 | Another simple way to add notes to a
MIDI track or instrument track is to
| | 05:47 | use the Pencil tool.
| | 05:49 | So first I am going to switch over from
clips to notes view, zoom in a little bit,
| | 05:57 | and then go to the Pencil tool.
| | 06:00 | I can come right down onto
the track. Click to add a note.
| | 06:05 | It's that simple.
| | 06:06 | So the Wait for Note, MIDI Merge,
Input Quantize, and inserting notes with the
| | 06:11 | Pencil tool are all terrific
features for creating MIDI tracks.
| | 06:15 | Practice using them and you will be
able to create MIDI parts very quickly,
| | 06:19 | which makes songwriting even more fun.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Step Input| 00:00 | Another useful tool for getting MIDI
notes into Pro Tools is Step Input.
| | 00:04 | This feature enables you to enter
MIDI notes individually from a MIDI
| | 00:08 | controller one step at a time.
| | 00:10 | This is particularly useful for
creating parts that are difficult to play like
| | 00:14 | cool and complex arpeggiated parts.
| | 00:16 | To use Step Input, choose
Event > Event Operations > Step Input.
| | 00:23 | That opens up the Step Input window.
And to enable it, click this Enable check box.
| | 00:29 | And then we have to
choose the destination track.
| | 00:32 | And in this particular case, I
actually want to use the step track, so I
| | 00:37 | will choose that.
| | 00:38 | In the Step Increments section, you
can choose the note value for your steps.
| | 00:43 | We have 16th notes here. We can go all the
way up to whole notes, but I actually
| | 00:47 | want to use 16th notes for this example.
| | 00:50 | You can also create triplets by
checking this Tuplet check box, I don't want to do that here.
| | 00:55 | And we can change the note length and
extend it all the way up to 200% or down
| | 01:01 | to 1% of the initial value.
| | 01:03 | But I am going to keep this at 100%
so we get our full 16th note value.
| | 01:09 | Down below in the Options section,
you can choose how you want the velocity to be recorded.
| | 01:15 | That is, Pro Tools will use the velocity
that you input yourself on your keyboard
| | 01:19 | controller if you choose Use input
velocity, or you can set the velocity of
| | 01:24 | each note to a particular value, and
you can use this Set velocity to and
| | 01:30 | choose it with the slider
what you want that to be.
| | 01:32 | I'll just set mine to 92.
| | 01:34 | You can also Enable Numeric Keypad
Shortcuts, and I am going to show you how to
| | 01:40 | use this later in the video.
| | 01:41 | So let's get going with the Step Input.
| | 01:43 | We move this out of the way just a little bit.
| | 01:45 | Now you should note, you don't have
to record-enable the track to actually
| | 01:49 | create notes with Step Input.
| | 01:52 | So I'm not going to
record-enable this track here.
| | 01:55 | I am simply going to put the cursor
where I want it to start with the steps,
| | 02:00 | which is right at the
beginning, and I've got that set here.
| | 02:03 | So as soon as I play my first note on
the MIDI controller, it will create a
| | 02:08 | note on the track.
| | 02:09 | And then I will play the rest of
the notes for the pattern that I want to create.
| | 02:12 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:14 | So there is our first note on
the first 16th note of that track.
| | 02:18 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:29 | So now I have created sixteen notes
for one whole bar on this track.
| | 02:34 | And as you can tell, I played it very
slowly, but now when I play it back at a
| | 02:39 | tempo of 140, you are going to hear
what it sounds like very quickly, and why I
| | 02:44 | wouldn't be able to
actually play it in at this tempo.
| | 02:46 | So I am going to play, and you
will hear what it sounds like.
| | 02:50 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:53 | Now in this part that I just
created, all the notes are 16th notes.
| | 02:57 | But you are not limited to only
putting notes of the same length on the
| | 03:00 | track with Step Input.
| | 03:02 | You can create multiple different
notes of different note lengths, and let me
| | 03:07 | show you how to do that. So I am going to
open up the Step Input window again.
| | 03:14 | We can choose whatever step increment we want.
| | 03:17 | So if I drop the cursor in
here at bar 2, and hit a note--
| | 03:21 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:23 | --it's going to create one whole note.
| | 03:25 | But we can change these and add
different note lengths just like that. Very simple.
| | 03:31 | You can also add rests in the same way.
And if I hit the Next Step button down
| | 03:36 | here, you'll see that the cursor is
going to go ahead by one quarter note,
| | 03:41 | as it just happened right there,
because our current step increment is a quarter note.
| | 03:46 | The Undo Step button removes the
last note or rest that was entered.
| | 03:51 | So if I click this, it's going to
move the cursor back by a quarter note,
| | 03:54 | getting rid of that rest.
| | 03:56 | If I do it again, it will get rid
of that full quarter note there.
| | 03:59 | And the Redo Step button will actually
put the note back. So it's like undoing
| | 04:04 | and redoing all within the Step Input dialog.
| | 04:10 | If you want to get really fancy,
you can use the numeric keypad on your
| | 04:13 | computer keyboard to enter note values
and control almost all of the commands
| | 04:17 | in the Step Input dialog.
| | 04:19 | Step Input is a handy feature for
inputting MIDI parts that might be hard to
| | 04:23 | play or are very repetitive and rhythmic.
| | 04:27 | Although I honestly don't use it
that often, I definitely can see the
| | 04:30 | advantages of utilizing this feature,
not to mention that it's kind of fun
| | 04:34 | to use as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making a drum loop with MIDI Merge| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to show
you a quick way to create a drum loop using MIDI.
| | 00:04 | Let's start with the stereo
instrument track with Xpand2 on it and a
| | 00:08 | click track.
| | 00:09 | I am going to open up Xpand2 here.
| | 00:12 | We are going to see that I have
the Session Drums preset loaded up.
| | 00:17 | And it's got a Kick, Snares,
Hats+Toms+Cymbals, and some Natural Percussion.
| | 00:23 | Let's take a listen to what we've got.
And this is basically the beat that
| | 00:27 | I want to create.
| | 00:28 | I am going to be using the kick, the
snare and the hi-hat to do something like this.
| | 00:32 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:37 | So the first thing that I want to do
is choose Loop Playback, and that's up here.
| | 00:42 | I am right-clicking in the Transport on
the play button, and I want to make sure
| | 00:46 | that the Loop Playback is chosen.
| | 00:49 | And you should note that this
is Loop Playback not Loop Record.
| | 00:54 | We don't want to use Loop Record for this.
| | 00:56 | I have also got the MIDI control
shown down here, and I am going to have all of them active.
| | 01:01 | So I want Wait for Note, I want to have
the metronome going, I want to have MIDI
| | 01:06 | Merge active, and we will
have the Conductor Track active
| | 01:10 | so that Pro Tools fall as what we have
here as the default tempo and meter.
| | 01:15 | Next I am going to go up to the Event
menu, choose Event Operations > Input
| | 01:19 | Quantize, and I am going
to enable Input Quantize.
| | 01:24 | Then I will change my Quantize grid to
an 8th note, because that's the smallest
| | 01:29 | subdivision of the beat
that I am going to be creating.
| | 01:32 | Next, I am going to highlight two bars,
and that will be our selection that's
| | 01:38 | going to loop around.
| | 01:39 | So now what I am going to do is record
one instrument at a time: the kick, the
| | 01:45 | snare, and then the hi-hat. And I am
going to try to create a beat like this, so
| | 01:49 | I am going to practice just a minute.
| | 01:51 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:56 | But I'm going to actually do each piece
of those individually on a loop, adding
| | 02:01 | them one by one, so that you don't
have to be a drummer to actually create a loop like this.
| | 02:07 | You can record each piece separately,
and here is how we are going to do it.
| | 02:10 | I'm going to record-enable the track. And since Wait
for Note is active, we will initially
| | 02:15 | just hear the click track, and then as
soon as I hit the first note, Pro Tools
| | 02:19 | will store loop-recording
over this two-bar phrase.
| | 02:22 | I will start by adding the kick drum,
then the snare, and then the hi-hat, and then
| | 02:26 | the fourth time through the loop, I
will just let the loop play without adding
| | 02:29 | anything, so you can hear it.
| | 02:33 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:54 | So now we have all three parts here on
the track: the kick notes down here, the
| | 02:58 | snare notes here, and the hi-hat track here.
| | 03:01 | I will press play one more
time, and we will hear it.
| | 03:04 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:09 | Now, how easy was that? We recorded one
instrument at a time, and they are all
| | 03:13 | three here layered on top of each other
because MIDI Merge was active, and they
| | 03:17 | are all aligned to the grid
because we had Input Quantize on.
| | 03:21 | So with just a few steps, you can
create beats that are locked to the Tempo
| | 03:25 | grid and sound great.
| | 03:27 | Practice this technique and revisit
this video if you have any questions about
| | 03:31 | the steps involved, but most
importantly, have some fun making beats.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Composing with virtual instruments| 00:00 | In this movie, I want to show you a
little bit of what you're capable of doing
| | 00:04 | in Pro Tools if you're
composing with virtual instruments.
| | 00:08 | In this session, I've used all of the
virtual instruments that come for free in
| | 00:11 | Pro Tools: Xpand2, Boom, Vacuum,
Mini Grand, DB-33, and Structure Free.
| | 00:17 | Let me play a little bit of this for you.
| | 00:19 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:05 | Now that just gives you a quick
little tease of what this song is all about.
| | 01:09 | And as you can see here, I have got a
four-minute song based around some of
| | 01:13 | these ideas that you've heard in this section.
| | 01:15 | If you want to hear the rest of the
song, just open up this session Composing
| | 01:19 | with VIs, from the exercise files.
| | 01:21 | Let me quickly talk about what
I have got here in the session.
| | 01:24 | I have got Structure Free as an
Electric Piano, Mini Grand with an Atmospheric
| | 01:30 | Piano sound, Xpand2 set up with a
Sitar sound, Vacuum as a Bass Arpeggiated
| | 01:37 | sound, Boom with my Beat, DB-33,
obviously as an Organ, and then I have a stereo
| | 01:46 | master fader track and some reverb and delay.
| | 01:50 | Now well I am not going to dig into the
composition techniques I have used here,
| | 01:54 | I do want to show you an important
practice that I highly recommend you adopt
| | 01:57 | when composing with virtual instruments.
| | 02:00 | I recommend recording all of the
MIDI performance data and sounds onto audio tracks.
| | 02:06 | This ensures that you have a hard copy
of the virtual instrument performance, a
| | 02:10 | safety version in case your software
crashes, or if you end up opening up the
| | 02:15 | session several years later and the
manufacturer has stopped supporting or
| | 02:19 | updating the instrument.
| | 02:20 | So let me show you how to do that.
| | 02:22 | I am going to switch over to the Mix
window, and you'll see on this Mini Grand
| | 02:27 | track, the output is routed to bus 5 and 6.
| | 02:30 | So I am routing the output of that
entire performance over to bus 5 and 6, which
| | 02:37 | is here picked up as the
input on this audio track.
| | 02:41 | So I've recorded each one of these
virtual instrument tracks onto audio tracks
| | 02:47 | simply using bus setups like this.
| | 02:50 | Once you have recorded the virtual
instrument tracks as audio, you can actually
| | 02:54 | go down and make the virtual
instrument tracks inactive.
| | 02:59 | So if I click on this little icon
right here, I can choose Make Inactive,
| | 03:05 | and that turns this whole
track off in the session.
| | 03:09 | You don't lose any of the data, but you
gain back all of the processing power
| | 03:14 | that was taken up by the
virtual instrument and the track.
| | 03:17 | And let me tell you, virtual
instruments can take up a lot of processing power,
| | 03:22 | so in this particular session, I
could literally go and make all of these
| | 03:26 | instrument tracks inactive and
save tons of processing power.
| | 03:32 | To make them active again, simply
click the same button and make them active.
| | 03:37 | Now with all of the free virtual
instruments shown here in Pro Tools, plus all
| | 03:42 | of the third-party instruments that are
available, you are now completely able
| | 03:46 | to compose in any style of
music, all within Pro Tools,
| | 03:50 | so go have some fun with it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Editing MIDIUsing the edit tools for editing MIDI data| 00:00 | When editing MIDI data, each edit
tool assists in different functions.
| | 00:04 | Let's look at what each edit tool can do.
| | 00:07 | I will start with the Grabber.
| | 00:08 | Just like with audio clips, the
Grabber tool can select and move entire MIDI clips.
| | 00:14 | You can just click and drag and
that will move the entire clip over.
| | 00:18 | I am going to undo that.
| | 00:20 | If you press Option on a Mac or Alt
on windows, then you can click and drag
| | 00:24 | copies of a clip, like this.
I will also undo that.
| | 00:30 | If I switch over to Notes view, I
can highlight particular notes just by
| | 00:36 | clicking on them.
(Music Playing)
| | 00:40 | To select multiple notes, press Shift.
(Music Playing)
| | 00:47 | I can also click and drag to create a
Marquee window that will select multiple
| | 00:52 | notes inside of that window.
| | 00:54 | So if I click and drag, you will
see these notes get highlighted.
| | 00:57 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:00 | Once some notes are selected, I can
click and drag to move them forward
| | 01:04 | or backward in time.
(music playing)
| | 01:09 | I can also change the pitch up or
down by dragging them up or down.
| | 01:13 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:19 | I'll just go ahead and undo that.
| | 01:20 | Now you notice when I am moving these
notes around in this clip that the notes
| | 01:24 | in this clip are also moving, and that's
because I have this button activated up
| | 01:30 | here, Mirrored MIDI Editing.
| | 01:33 | If you have multiple copies of a MIDI
clip in your session, each version of
| | 01:37 | that clip will be edited in the same
way automatically if you have Mirrored
| | 01:41 | MIDI Editing enabled.
| | 01:42 | This is a great way to make global
edits on loops, but you should turn it off if
| | 01:47 | you only want to affect the
current clip that you are working on.
| | 01:50 | So I am actually going
to disable that right now.
| | 01:54 | To transpose a copy of a note or
multiple notes, leaving the original notes
| | 01:58 | where they are, you can come down
here and press Option on a Mac or Alt on
| | 02:02 | windows and then click and drag the notes.
| | 02:04 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:08 | This is an easy way to make one-note
riffs into chord progressions or to add
| | 02:12 | harmonies to melody lines. And to be
sure that these notes stay in time with the
| | 02:17 | original notes, you should press
Shift when you are moving those notes.
| | 02:20 | You should be aware that unlike when you
select an entire MIDI clip, a selection
| | 02:25 | of just a few notes that you make
with the Grabber does not include any
| | 02:29 | underlying controller or
automation data on a MIDI track.
| | 02:32 | For example, down here we
have some modulation data.
| | 02:37 | If I select some notes up here and
then move them, this modulation data
| | 02:46 | doesn't move at all.
| | 02:48 | However, if I go back to Clips view
and highlight and move this clip, then you
| | 02:54 | will see the modulation data move as well.
| | 02:59 | It's all moved. I am going to undo that.
| | 03:03 | Now let's talk about velocity.
| | 03:05 | Velocity is how soft or how
hard a MIDI note is played.
| | 03:09 | The possible values are 0 to 127;
0 is the softest, and 127 is the hardest.
| | 03:17 | When you view the velocity on a track,
like we are looking at here, Pro Tools
| | 03:21 | displays each MIDI note's
velocity value as a stock.
| | 03:26 | The taller the stock, the
higher the velocity value.
| | 03:30 | Higher velocities happen when a
note is played with more force,
| | 03:34 | like when you strike a piano note very hard.
| | 03:36 | With the Grabber tool, we can click and
drag a stock to edit the dynamics of the
| | 03:41 | recorded performance.
| | 03:42 | The notes will play louder or
softer depending on the velocity level.
| | 03:47 | Let's take a listen.
| | 03:48 | I can actually click and drag all of
these notes as we've got them highlighted,
| | 03:53 | and you'll hear them get softer and
louder as I move the Velocity values.
| | 03:57 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:06 | Let's move on to the Pencil tool.
| | 04:08 | I am going to choose Pencil tool (Free Hand),
and now, if I go onto this track in Notes
| | 04:15 | view, I can add new notes.
(Music Playing)
| | 04:22 | The notes that I am adding here are
conforming to what I've got set in the
| | 04:25 | grid value up here.
| | 04:27 | We set it at quarter notes. If I set it
to a whole note, now if go in here and
| | 04:35 | add a note, you will see that
it's set to one full whole note.
| | 04:40 | As I move the Pencil tool closer to
the edge of a note, you will see that it
| | 04:44 | turns into the Trim tool, and now I can
click and drag to adjust the length of
| | 04:48 | this note, and it moves in increments
of the grid because we are set to Grid
| | 04:54 | mode up here.
| | 04:56 | If I move the Pencil tool into the
middle of the note, it becomes a pointer, or
| | 05:01 | a grabber, where I can click and
drag and move this note wherever I want.
| | 05:04 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:08 | If I press Option on a Mac or Alt on
windows, the Pencil tool becomes an eraser,
| | 05:13 | and I can erase any note just by clicking on it.
| | 05:16 | Now one thing I should note: as we
have been making all of these edits here,
| | 05:25 | we are actually hearing all the notes
and they are playing back as we move
| | 05:28 | them around. This is because I have
got this particular feature active, Play
| | 05:35 | MIDI Notes When Editing.
| | 05:36 | I can actually click on this to turn it
off, but I actually like having it on,
| | 05:40 | so I am going to keep it on.
| | 05:41 | Now let's got back to the Pencil tool,
where we can edit velocity values.
| | 05:47 | In Notes view I can come down to the
velocity view and click and drag on any of
| | 05:53 | these stocks and move them around.
(Music Playing)
| | 05:59 | If I switch this over to Clips
view, now check out what happens.
| | 06:04 | I can draw in lines or shapes with
the Pencil tool for the velocities.
| | 06:11 | Let's move on to the Zoomer tool.
| | 06:14 | With the Zoomer, we can click and
drag and select over a certain area, like this.
| | 06:19 | You can also simply just
click and zoom in one level.
| | 06:23 | If I press Option on a Mac or Alt on
windows, the plus sign inside of the Zoomer
| | 06:28 | tool will turn into a negative
sign, and then we can zoom out.
| | 06:33 | All of the zoom features work the same
with MIDI as they do with audio. And let
| | 06:37 | me just highlight one of my favorite
zooming tools to use when editing MIDI
| | 06:41 | data, the Continuous Zoom function.
| | 06:45 | With the Zimmer tool active, if you
press the Start key in windows or Ctrl on a
| | 06:50 | Mac and then drag in the track you can
zoom vertically or horizontally. Check it out.
| | 06:56 | If I switch this over to Notes view,
you will be able to see the notes increase
| | 07:04 | or decrease in height.
| | 07:13 | And one last thing with the Zoomer.
If I double-click on the Zoomer tool, you
| | 07:18 | can zoom all the way out and see all
the data in our session, to the complete
| | 07:22 | length of the session.
| | 07:24 | Now let's move on to the Trim tool.
| | 07:27 | When editing MIDI notes, the Trim tool
is mostly used for changing the start and
| | 07:31 | end points of a note.
| | 07:33 | So I will zoom in a little bit on
this particular note, and now we can start
| | 07:38 | trimming. And the reason it's not
trimming anything right now is because we are
| | 07:43 | in Grid mode and our grid
is set to one whole note.
| | 07:47 | So let's go to Slip and now we
will be able to trim this freely.
| | 07:54 | The Trim tool is also very useful for
trimming MIDI clips. So if I go back to
| | 07:59 | clips view, I can click
and drag and edit that clip.
| | 08:04 | You can also edit clip groups and
looped clips with the Trimmer tool.
| | 08:08 | And one other option is to use the Loop
Trim tool. So I am going to zoom out and
| | 08:13 | choose the Loop Trim tool.
| | 08:16 | Now if I go towards the top half of this
clip and then I click and drag, I will
| | 08:21 | be able to make multiple loops of this clip.
| | 08:24 | And you can see each loop indicated
by this little Loop Indicator icon down here.
| | 08:33 | Now let's check out the Selector tool.
| | 08:36 | With the selector we can select parts
of clips, like this, or if we go into
| | 08:42 | Notes view, we can select particular notes.
| | 08:45 | So let me zoom in here, and let's take
a closer look at what's going on here.
| | 08:49 | When I have this selector and I click
and drag while in the middle of a note, it
| | 08:55 | won't actually highlight that note.
But if you start selecting before or right
| | 09:00 | at the beginning of a note,
then that note will be selected.
| | 09:03 | So I am clicking and dragging, and as
it hits the beginning of the note, that's
| | 09:09 | when it gets selected; however, these
notes aren't selected because I started
| | 09:13 | selected in the middle of them.
| | 09:15 | Let's move on to the scrubber.
| | 09:19 | With the scrubber you can actually
scrub MIDI notes. Basically just click and
| | 09:23 | drag and you will hear these notes.
| | 09:25 | (Music Playing)
| | 09:31 | So you can go forward and backwards,
and the scrubber is helpful for finding
| | 09:37 | stray notes or for finding notes that
are actually missing from a performance.
| | 09:42 | So now we've gone through all the edit
tools, and you can see that they each
| | 09:46 | have their own ways of
helping you edit MIDI data.
| | 09:49 | What's great is that they function
very similarly to how they function
| | 09:53 | when editing audio,
| | 09:54 | so most editing techniques you learn
for audio can also be applied to MIDI,
| | 09:58 | and vice versa.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing MIDI data in the MIDI Editor| 00:00 | Pro Tools has a dedicated window for
editing MIDI and instrument tracks called
| | 00:04 | the MIDI Editor window. It's great
for fine-tuning MIDI performance data.
| | 00:09 | Fortunately, it shares the lot of
common functionality with the regular Edit window.
| | 00:13 | However, the MIDI Editor also offers up
some unique features that you'll probably
| | 00:17 | learn to love. Let's take a look at it.
| | 00:20 | You can access the docked version by
going down to this button right here and
| | 00:25 | clicking on it, and that
expands this whole window.
| | 00:29 | This is the docked version of the MIDI Editor.
| | 00:31 | To close it you can just go back to
this button and click it, and what I really
| | 00:36 | want to show you is how to open
up a separate window for this.
| | 00:39 | So we can go up to Window > MIDI Editor
and this opens up an entire MIDI Editor
| | 00:46 | window, and you'll see that we
have the full-screen version here.
| | 00:50 | Before I show you more about it, I
want to talk to you about some other ways
| | 00:53 | that we can open up the MIDI Editor.
| | 00:55 | If we go up to Setup > Preferences
and on the MIDI page, you can say we can
| | 01:03 | choose Double-Clicking a
MIDI Clip Opens the MIDI Editor.
| | 01:08 | So anytime that you double-click a
MIDI clip anywhere in Pro Tools, the MIDI
| | 01:12 | Editor window will open up.
I am going to click OK.
| | 01:15 | You should also note that you can
right-click on MIDI clip to access the MIDI
| | 01:19 | Editor, and let me show you that really quick.
| | 01:22 | If you go back to the Edit window and I
right-click on this, you can scroll all
| | 01:28 | the way down here and say Open in MIDI Editor.
| | 01:32 | I'll go back to the MIDI Editor window.
So let's take a look at what's going on
| | 01:37 | in this MIDI Editor window.
| | 01:38 | We'll start at the top. We've got the
Solo and Mute buttons, and here we have the
| | 01:44 | Notation Display Enabled button,
which if I click this, you'll see notes
| | 01:48 | instead of the piano roll.
| | 01:51 | So now we have our notation showing
here instead of the regular piano roll.
| | 01:57 | Next we have our edit tools, and you're
familiar with these from previous movies.
| | 02:01 | We've got the zoomer, the trim,
selector, and grabber that are all part of the
| | 02:06 | Smart tool here, the
Scrubber and the Pencil tool.
| | 02:11 | Next, we have the track that's
actually showing here, and it's the
| | 02:15 | Pencil-Enabled track.
| | 02:17 | The Pencil-Enabled track is the one
shown here in the tracks list that has the
| | 02:20 | pencil next to it, and we'll
talk more about that in a minute.
| | 02:25 | Next, we have the MIDI Note Duration
and that's when we add a new note, that's
| | 02:29 | the duration that it will be, and we can
choose from any of these. If we wanted to
| | 02:34 | add a quarter note, then we
can choose quarter note here.
| | 02:39 | Next we have the MIDI Note Velocity,
and that's the velocity that you'll have
| | 02:43 | when you create a new note in this window.
| | 02:45 | And next to that is the play MIDI Notes
When Editing, so anytime that you edit
| | 02:50 | or add a new note, it'll actually be
played and you'll hear it. We can click
| | 02:54 | this on or off. If it's off then
you won't hear when it's edited.
| | 02:58 | And now we have the Mirrored MIDI
Editing and the Link Timeline and Edit
| | 03:03 | Selection buttons, and you're
familiar with these from previous movies.
| | 03:08 | We have the edit modes. We have the Grid
button, which we can show the gridlines
| | 03:14 | or not have them shown, by clicking on that.
| | 03:17 | We got the Grid Size and we can change
that. Maybe we want to see eighth notes.
| | 03:25 | And finally, over in this area, this
indicates the location of where the cursor is.
| | 03:31 | So if I go down here into this track,
it shows the timing and the pitch value,
| | 03:36 | so we have the timing on the
left and the pitch on the right.
| | 03:40 | All the way over here on the right
side we have the target button, and if we
| | 03:46 | deactivate this, then we can actually
open multiple MIDI Editor windows. And
| | 03:52 | finally, we have the MIDI Editor
toolbar menu, and we can change some certain
| | 03:57 | things here, what we want to see in this
window. And you'll see that we have the
| | 04:01 | Tracks list shown here.
| | 04:03 | The Tracks list is over here on the left
side, and this shows us which tracks are
| | 04:09 | shown in the MIDI Editor.
| | 04:11 | Right now, only one of them is shown,
the piano track, and that's indicated
| | 04:15 | by this circle here.
| | 04:16 | If we want to add some additional
tracks in here, we can; just click on the
| | 04:20 | circles, so now we have the
trumpets and the piano shown.
| | 04:24 | The trumpet notes are shown in the
color purple here, whereas the piano is in red.
| | 04:29 | So as I mentioned before, the pencil icon
shown here actually indicates what track
| | 04:36 | we're going to be able to add
notes to, in the MIDI Editor window.
| | 04:40 | So if I go down into the MIDI
Editor and I want to add some notes, I can
| | 04:44 | choose the Pencil tool here, and
click and add a note, and that goes on to
| | 04:50 | the piano track.
| | 04:51 | If I change this and put that pencil
icon on the trumpet track, now I've
| | 04:59 | added a note onto the trumpet track.
| | 05:01 | If I want to add notes to both tracks
at once, I can Shift+Click and have the
| | 05:08 | pencil icon on both tracks, and now
when I create a note, it's going to be on
| | 05:12 | both tracks. Let's take a
look at these two buttons.
| | 05:18 | The top one here is the color coding by
track button. If we activate that, the
| | 05:24 | tracks in the MIDI Editor are
temporarily assigned to one of 16 fixed colors, in
| | 05:29 | the order that they appear on the
Tracks list, and those colors are indicated
| | 05:33 | right here in the Tracks list.
| | 05:35 | Now why would we need to use this
button if the tracks were already colored as
| | 05:41 | they were previously?
| | 05:42 | Well, it's just a matter of how you
set up your color coding in Pro tools.
| | 05:46 | If the tracks and notes are not already
colored, then using this button would be
| | 05:51 | helpful, but since the tracks that I
was showing you here before were already
| | 05:55 | colored, then I don't
really need to use this button.
| | 05:57 | So I'm going to deactivate it.
| | 06:01 | The next button down here is the color
by velocity, and if I click that, you'll
| | 06:05 | see that all of the MIDI notes are all
the same color now, red, and the red on
| | 06:11 | all of the tracks that are displayed.
| | 06:13 | The notes with the lowest velocity are
lighter in color, and the notes with the
| | 06:17 | higher velocities are darker.
| | 06:19 | So if I take this note right here--
I'll use the Grabber tool, in fact, choose
| | 06:25 | that note and I'll grab the velocity,
and turn it way down, you'll see that
| | 06:32 | it's a lot lighter.
| | 06:34 | If I turn it way up, it'll get
darker. So now it's a deep dark red.
| | 06:41 | Now personally, I find this confusing
if you've multiple tracks shown in this
| | 06:45 | window, and I don't really see the point
of using this button anyway, especially
| | 06:50 | if we have our preference set to show velocity.
| | 06:54 | So if we go up to Setup > Preferences
and we look in the Display tab, we already
| | 07:00 | have MIDI Note Color Shows Velocity.
Because we already have this checked off,
| | 07:06 | we don't really need to make use of
this button, because all the velocities are
| | 07:11 | actually shown on each of these notes.
| | 07:15 | So as you can see here, the MIDI Editor
offers a ton of MIDI-editing features.
| | 07:20 | I personally love the ability to add
notes within multiple MIDI and instrument
| | 07:24 | tracks all within this one window.
| | 07:26 | If you write MIDI-based music, I'm
sure you'll enjoy using this MIDI Editor.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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
| | 00:09 | MIDI event, as well as copy, paste,
and delete individual parameters,
| | 00:14 | events, and phrases.
| | 00:15 | There are a few ways to
open up the MIDI Event List.
| | 00:18 | You can press Option on Mac or Alt
on windows and press the Equals key,
| | 00:22 | and 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 the 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'm going to choose the drums first,
and you'll see that we've only got four
| | 00:50 | MIDI events here. All it is is these
four drum loops that are repeated and
| | 00:54 | shown down here on this track.
| | 00:56 | If we switch over to 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'll see the attack and
| | 01:12 | release velocity, and we'll
see the length of the note.
| | 01:15 | You can also choose to show other
information if we go up to the MIDI Event List
| | 01:19 | menu. We could choose Show Note End Time.
And we can also insert particular data,
| | 01:27 | insert at certain playback locations,
we can filter out particular data, we can
| | 01:32 | show subcounters, 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 by
| | 01:40 | double-clicking. So I just double-
clicked in this field, and I can enter a
| | 01:46 | new value. I hit Return and it stays.
And as you heard when I clicked once,
| | 01:52 | you can hear the note.
(Music Playing)
| | 01:56 | As you can see, in this window, you
can edit all the fine details of your
| | 02:00 | MIDI performance.
| | 02:01 | Although, I don't personally use the
MIDI Events List very often, I know some
| | 02:05 | 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.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing MIDI data with Event Operations| 00:00 | While the edit tools and MIDI Event
List enable you to edit specific notes or
| | 00:05 | groups of notes, the editing
possibilities found in the Event Operations window
| | 00:09 | can have even 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. And we've already
| | 00:27 | covered Input Quantize and Step Input
here, but now I'll give explanations of
| | 00:32 | the others, and then I'll dedicate a
separate video to the most enigmatic of
| | 00:36 | 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
| | 01:00 | choose to change the velocity
of the note on or the note off.
| | 01:05 | I can set them all to a particular
value, and I could use this slider or I
| | 01:10 | can type in a value.
| | 01:11 | 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, we can scale it,
| | 01:30 | and we can change the velocity smoothly
by percentages or from certain values.
| | 01:35 | We can also randomize.
| | 01:37 | If I hit Randomize and hit Apply,
you'll see that the velocities are kind of
| | 01:42 | all over the place now.
| | 01:44 | Let's undo that.
Let's move on to the Change Duration window.
| | 01:50 | The Change Duration function is good
for making a MIDI or instrument track more
| | 01:54 | staccato for shorter notes or 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'm 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 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:26 | Now, I'm 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 | (Music 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 or 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 the 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 high hat to a ride cymbal.
| | 03:13 | Now, let's take a listen to this
track before we transpose anything.
| | 03:17 | So I'm going to close this window
first and unsolo that track and then hit
| | 03:24 | Return to go back to the beginning of the song.
| | 03:26 | (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'm 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'm going to undo that now.
| | 04:12 | Now, you note that I did not
transpose the drumbeat, because if you
| | 04:18 | transpose the drum tracks, they'll
move the pitches away from the actual
| | 04:22 | drums that you wanted.
| | 04:24 | They won't actually change the pitch of
the drums; they'll change the samples,
| | 04:28 | and we don't want that here.
| | 04:30 | Let's move on to the Select/Split Notes.
| | 04:35 | The Select/Split Notes function
allows you to select notes based on pitch,
| | 04:39 | velocity, duration, and position,
whether you're a selecting a single note or a
| | 04:43 | range. And this is particularly useful
for altering a single note for the entire
| | 04:47 | length of a clip or track.
| | 04:49 | Let's go back down to the trumpet here,
and in this example, we're going to
| | 04:53 | change an A major chord to an A minor
by selecting the C sharp note and moving
| | 04:59 | it down to C, which creates a
minor third instead of a major third.
| | 05:03 | So, first I'm going to select this
note area that I want, and I want to say
| | 05:09 | notes between C#3 and C#3,
so that only selects this one particular
| | 05:15 | note, and the Action is
going to be Select notes.
| | 05:21 | If I hit Apply, then Pro Tools selects
only the notes that are chosen in here
| | 05:26 | in the Pitch criteria.
| | 05:28 | Now, if I triple-click in this track
to select all the notes and then hit
| | 05:33 | Apply again, you'll see that it'll
select all of the notes on this track just
| | 05:38 | for the C#3.
| | 05:40 | Now, I can take the Grabber tool and
move all of these notes down by a half step.
| | 05:43 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:47 | Now, I've just change this chord from
an A major to an A minor by changing this
| | 05:51 | pitch from C# to C.
| | 05:54 | More advanced than the Select Notes
function, the Split Notes function helps you
| | 05:58 | to divide notes into ranges, and this
is very useful for splitting up parts
| | 06:02 | that were played on a single
track into multiple tracks.
| | 06:06 | Some examples include splitting chords
into individual notes for horn charts
| | 06:11 | or for splitting up a full drum kit
into individual tracks, and let me show you
| | 06:15 | how to do that.
| | 06:16 | I'm going to scroll up to the drum
track here and triple-click in here to
| | 06:22 | select all the notes.
| | 06:24 | Then I'm going to go over to the
Action in the Split/Select Notes function
| | 06:28 | and choose Split notes.
| | 06:30 | I'm also going to choose All
notes in the Pitch Criteria.
| | 06:34 | Then I'm going to choose Copy,
and a new track per pitch.
| | 06:42 | When I hit Apply, you'll see that Pro
Tools automatically splits this track into
| | 06:49 | three new tracks, with one pitch per track.
| | 06:53 | So now I have the kick, snare, and
cymbal separated onto three separate tracks.
| | 06:59 | Let's move on to the
Restore Performance function.
| | 07:04 | The Restore Performance function enables
you to undo any timing, pitch, duration,
| | 07:08 | and velocity edits that you made using
the MIDI-editing functions in the Event
| | 07:12 | Operations window--even
after the session has been saved.
| | 07:16 | It can also be used to remove
quantization that was applied using
| | 07:21 | Input Quantize.
| | 07:22 | However, when you manually move a
MIDI note, the Restore Performance
| | 07:26 | function does not undo the move, and
this includes cutting, copying, pasting, and trimming.
| | 07:31 | Also note that the Restore
Performance command cannot be undone.
| | 07:35 | In this window here, we can choose
what attributes to restore: Timing,
| | 07:40 | Duration, Velocity, and Pitch.
| | 07:43 | Hit the Apply button to restore
the original performance data.
| | 07:46 | Let's move on to Flatten Performance.
| | 07:51 | Once you finalize some or all of the
edits on a MIDI or instrument track, you
| | 07:55 | can choose Flatten Performance
and save the edits permanently.
| | 07:59 | I recommend making a duplicate
playlist of the edited track before flattening
| | 08:03 | it, and I personally don't really see
the need for doing this operation, so I
| | 08:07 | don't really use it--
| | 08:08 | I guess because I always like to have
the option to go back to previous edits if necessary.
| | 08:14 | However, some people might like to
lock in their edits with this function.
| | 08:18 | Here in this video you've seen many
powerful editing features that are part of
| | 08:22 | the Event Operations window, and we
haven't even touched quantization yet. Get to
| | 08:27 | know these features; they can make
potentially cumbersome data manipulation into
| | 08:31 | quick and 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 quantize 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. They're both soloed, and those
| | 00:34 | 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 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:47 | The drumbeat was programmed in using
the Pencil tool to drop these notes in.
| | 00:52 | 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
| | 00:59 | bass track is not.
| | 01:01 | Now, it's simple enough to quantize a
MIDI performance so that each of the
| | 01:05 | nodes lines up perfectly with the beat,
like this drum track. But we don't
| | 01:09 | 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's the kick drum,
and this is the bass note.
| | 01:43 | But before we start quantizing anything,
we need to figure out and describe the
| | 01:48 | 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 of
| | 02:00 | 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.
| | 02:38 | Quantizing the attacks or the Note On
information means that the start point of
| | 02:42 | each note will be moved so that it
aligns with the closest rhythmic grid value.
| | 02:47 | Naturally, quantizing release times
will move the end point, that is, the Note Off,
| | 02:53 | and let's take a look at
that for this particular note.
| | 02:56 | I'm going to select this note and hit
Apply and it will 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 of
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'm going
| | 04:14 | to skip over this, because I
don't really use this that much.
| | 04:17 | Often I'll use Swing to create a
triplet affect 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
| | 04:43 | 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 the note move ahead in time.
| | 04:56 | This moved just slightly ahead, 20 ticks.
| | 04:59 | 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 the
| | 05:05 | beat, and let's say 30 here, hit
Enter, and the note moves back in time.
| | 05:11 | Again, I'll undo that.
| | 05:12 | 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.
| | 05:39 | Let's apply some of this.
| | 05:41 | First, let me show you what 100%
Swing on this bass note 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'm going
to press play before applying any swing.
| | 06:03 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:08 | That's what it sounds like before
we add Swing. Now let's Apply Swing.
| | 06:12 | And you saw these notes move.
Let's hear how that affects the sound.
| | 06:17 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:23 | That's much too much swing in my opinion.
| | 06:25 | So, let's back this down.
| | 06:27 | We'll go to 36%. That sounds good. Apply.
| | 06:32 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:39 | 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 which
| | 06:58 | notes are to be quantized.
| | 07:01 | In most performances, the notes between
the down beats give the performance its
| | 07:05 | 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.
| | 07:24 | So let's move this down here to 20%.
| | 07:27 | So, notes within 10% of the grid
will move to the grid with this setting.
| | 07:37 | So if we choose this note and we
apply it, it's not actually going to move,
| | 07:43 | because it's not within 10% on
either side of this gridline.
| | 07:49 | If we bump this up to say 40% and Apply,
now it'll actually move this note
| | 07:55 | to the grid. 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'm 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 can example.
| | 09:16 | I'm 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'm 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 if you've created a part
| | 09:55 | with the Pencil tool or with Step Input,
because those performances are already
| | 10:00 | 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 work 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 percentage
| | 10:35 | values are useful for adding a
human element to an otherwise mechanical-sounding track.
| | 10:40 | If I use it at all, I might
add 5% or up to a maximum of 10%.
| | 10:46 | Use this parameter with care.
| | 10:48 | And as an example, I'm going to apply
100% randomization to this note, and you'll
| | 10:54 | see that it actually moves
pretty far away from the grid.
| | 10:57 | I find that quantizing a MIDI part
requires some experimentation. Because each
| | 11:03 | recorded MIDI performance is different,
| | 11:05 | you'll usually have to play with the
parameters when you quantize, and each MIDI
| | 11:09 | performance may require
different application of quantization.
| | 11:13 | So for example--I'm going
to zoom out for a second--
| | 11:16 | If you start with a 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 of swing
| | 11:25 | and 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%
| | 11:37 | 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
| | 00:16 | groove templates.
| | 00:17 | If we go to Event > Event Operations >
Quantize, 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'm going to choose this
MPC 57% 16th notes Swing, and you'll see
| | 00:44 | template contains 1 bar(s) of 4/4 time.
I can click on Show Comments, and it'll
| | 00:50 | 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. At a setting of 100%
| | 01:02 | the default setting for timing,
duration, and velocity, the MIDI data will follow
| | 01:07 | the groove template's feel 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're
| | 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, and I'm going to turn
| | 01:53 | this Pre-Quantize off.
| | 01:56 | Choose the Grabber tool and select this
Drum Beat, and before I apply it, I want
| | 02:01 | to press play, so we can
hear the before and after.
| | 02:04 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:14 | So I've already selected this MPC 57%
16th note Swing template, so I'm going to
| | 02:20 | change the timing here to 100% so that
it follows the template exactly, and now
| | 02:25 | I'm going to hit Apply. Let's listen.
| | 02:28 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:38 | That sounds pretty good actually.
| | 02:39 | Now you can make your own groove
templates using Beat Detective. Let's
| | 02:43 | close this up.
| | 02:44 | So if you go to the Event menu and
choose Beat Detective, now Beat Detective
| | 02:50 | can analyze audio and MIDI data to
define dynamic and rhythmic relationships in
| | 02:54 | a performance, and create a
groove template from that information.
| | 02:58 | Beat Detective generates triggers for
bar, beats, and sub-beats that map the
| | 03:02 | rhythmic relationship of a groove, as
well as the amplitude of audio tracks
| | 03:08 | to MIDI velocity.
| | 03:09 | The Beat Detective window has options
for working with both audio and MIDI. Here
| | 03:14 | we'll choose MIDI, and I'm going to
choose Groove Template Extraction, and I am
| | 03:19 | going to create a groove
template from this drum beat.
| | 03:23 | Now I know that we just applied a
groove template to this already, but
| | 03:26 | imagine that we have a track here
than want to extract a groove from, and
| | 03:30 | that's what we're going to do.
| | 03:32 | So we've got the Groove Template
Extraction. We're going to capture the
| | 03:35 | selection and time, so we've
got exactly 16 bars selected here.
| | 03:40 | If you need to change your selection,
you can just go into these fields and change them.
| | 03:47 | Next, we'll go onto the Detection area,
and we'll choose Normal Detection, and
| | 03:51 | we'll 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'm going to click Analyze. Let's go
| | 04:06 | zoom in on this track.
| | 04:09 | Now as I drag this sensitivity slider,
you're going to see Beat triggers up here
| | 04:14 | 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
| | 04:29 | notes. 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 sub-beat
| | 04:38 | trigger shown at this particular 16th note.
| | 04:41 | I'll go up here now and choose Extract.
| | 04:45 | So we have 16 Bars, Time Signature 4/4,
and I'm going to save this to disk, and this
| | 04:53 | automatically puts us
right into the Grooves folder.
| | 04:56 | I am going to create a new groove
folder for my grooves and then call this groove1.
| | 05:04 | So now we've extracted a groove, and if
I go to the Event Operations > Quantize
| | 05:12 | window, you can actually
choose that groove right here.
| | 05:17 | Now I use groove templates a lot.
| | 05:19 | I prefer the MPC style ones mostly.
| | 05:22 | Sometimes I'll make my own from audio
files or from drum loops that I will
| | 05:26 | bring into Pro Tools.
| | 05:27 | They are 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
the session is playing, using the MIDI
| | 00:08 | Real-Time properties.
| | 00:09 | We can access those in the Edit window.
If we go down to the Edit window view
| | 00:13 | selector, I'll click on this
and choose Real-Time Properties.
| | 00:19 | As you can see here, there are five of
them per track: Quantization, Duration,
| | 00:24 | Delay, Velocity, and Transpose.
And these are essentially lite versions of the
| | 00:30 | Quantize, Change Duration, Change
Velocity, and Transpose functions in the MIDI
| | 00:34 | Operations window. Let's
talk about them specifically.
| | 00:38 | First I'll start with Delay.
| | 00:41 | Delay allows you to push the MIDI data
on a track forward or back in time by a
| | 00:45 | specified number of ticks or
milliseconds, and we use this to delay or
| | 00:51 | advance the data.
| | 00:53 | So what I'm going to do here is get
the Grabber tool, select this part of the
| | 00:58 | track, and solo it. I'll start playing
it, and then I'll add some delay, and
| | 01:04 | you'll see the notes move in real time.
| | 01:06 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:23 | Now if you don't actually want to see
how the Real-Time Properties are altering
| | 01:27 | your data, you can go to Setup >
Preferences, and on the MIDI page you can
| | 01:35 | uncheck Display Events as
Modified by Real-Time Properties.
| | 01:40 | However, I like to keep that checked so
that I know what's actually happening in
| | 01:44 | real time on my tracks. I'll zoom out.
Let's talk about some of these other
| | 01:50 | real-time properties.
| | 01:51 | I am going to go to the piano track,
and we'll talk about the Transpose.
| | 01:58 | Let's listen to the piano track for
second, and I'm going to transpose it in real time.
| | 02:03 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:17 | So I just transposed it over a number of
different octaves in real time. You can
| | 02:22 | also transpose by semitones using this field.
| | 02:26 | Now we'll go to Velocity.
| | 02:29 | Velocity enables you to change the
dynamics of the track. So let's check out the
| | 02:34 | Velocity Track view and we'll
see our velocity stocks over here.
| | 02:39 | If I change the velocity percentage
then you'll see how the velocity stocks
| | 02:45 | change in real time and how it
affects the overall sound of the piano part.
| | 02:49 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:08 | As I raise the velocity percentage, the
piano part was played much harder with
| | 03:12 | larger dynamic range, and then when I
brought down the velocity, you could see
| | 03:17 | that the velocity stocks got pretty
short and it was played much quieter.
| | 03:21 | Now I'm going to switch back to Notes
view and scroll up so we can see these
| | 03:25 | notes, I am going to hit the Duration
button, and I'm going to show you how to
| | 03:29 | change the duration of these notes
so they'll be longer or shorter.
| | 03:33 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:50 | When I increase the duration like
you just saw, the notes have a lot more
| | 03:54 | sustain and become less staccato, like
there are in the original performance.
| | 03:59 | Now let's try our quantization.
| | 04:00 | I am going to do that on the drums.
So I'm going to add some swing to this drum track.
| | 04:07 | So I am just going to go ahead and
play this track and we're going to add swing in real time.
| | 04:10 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:29 | So this is a great way to figure out
how much swing to apply to a track in real time.
| | 04:35 | And obviously you can apply all five of
these properties in real time to every
| | 04:39 | single track, if you want to
see how they affect the track.
| | 04:42 | And speaking of that, you can apply
these real-time properties to entire tracks
| | 04:46 | like we've just done here
or only to specific clips.
| | 04:50 | To choose, we can go to Event > MIDI
Real-Time Properties. And we've got the
| | 04:58 | Real-Time Properties window that opens up.
| | 05:00 | Within the Real-Time Properties window,
I can choose to apply these to either
| | 05:05 | clips or the entire track, and when
these real-time properties are applied to an
| | 05:10 | entire track, then you see these
little Ts in each of the clips.
| | 05:15 | However, if I go and change any of
these parameters, you'll see that a little R
| | 05:22 | shows up in the clip, and now I can up
into this window and click Write to Clip,
| | 05:27 | and that will apply that to
this clip. So there you go.
| | 05:31 | Instead of working with the Event
Operations window in non-real time, you can
| | 05:35 | turn these real-time properties on or
off at will, and also alter your MIDI
| | 05:39 | performances while you're
listening to the tracks in real time.
| | 05:43 | So tweak these parameters to your
heart's content, without worrying about
| | 05:46 | permanently affecting the
underlying MIDI performance data.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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.
| | 00:08 | All of the instruments included with
Pro Tools have this feature, as do all
| | 00:12 | other Avid virtual instruments
and some third-party products.
| | 00:15 | Let me show you how it works.
| | 00:16 | I am going to go and open this
Vacuum plug-in and play a note.
| | 00:21 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:23 | So now I'm going to set up MIDI Learn
so my MIDI controller can control the
| | 00:27 | knobs within this virtual instrument.
| | 00:29 | To do that, I can just go and right-click
on any of the parameters, and you'll see
| | 00:34 | the MIDI Learn menu.
| | 00:36 | We can choose Learn MIDI CC, and the CC
stands for Continuous Controller, which
| | 00:43 | is a knob or a slider on your MIDI controller.
| | 00:46 | After choosing that, I can move one of
the knobs on my MIDI controller and it'll
| | 00:51 | control that parameter
within the virtual instrument.
| | 00:54 | So if I a play a note on my MIDI
controller and then twist that knob as well on
| | 00:59 | the controller, you'll see how
it affects the Vacuum plug-in.
| | 01:02 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:08 | Let's go and set up another one.
| | 01:10 | I'm going to choose this Cutoff
frequency. So I'll right-click it and I'll
| | 01:15 | Learn MIDI CC.
| | 01:16 | Now I'm going to twist the knob, and
now I have control over this Cutoff
| | 01:23 | frequency. I'll play another note.
| | 01:25 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:33 | If you happen to notice, there's
another parameter within this plug-in that is
| | 01:36 | mapped to that same knob that I was
twisting, and that's the Drift parameter.
| | 01:41 | So whenever I twist the knob, both
the Cutoff and the Drift move at the same time.
| | 01:47 | Usually you don't want this to happen,
so I'm going to forget my MIDI Learn.
| | 01:52 | So I'll choose this, and now the Drift
is not connected to that knob; only the
| | 01:59 | Cutoff is, as you can see over here.
| | 02:01 | There are some other options in this
MIDI Learn menu. Let's take a look.
| | 02:07 | We have Set Min and Set Max,
as well as Invert range.
| | 02:12 | Set Min stands for Set Minimum, and
Set Max stands for Set Maximum, and these
| | 02:18 | enable you to scale the incoming
MIDI controller data so that the control
| | 02:22 | doesn't go below or above a certain value.
| | 02:25 | For example, in this case if we don't
want the Cutoff frequency control to go
| | 02:29 | above a certain frequency, we can
set the range and then create a smaller
| | 02:35 | spectrum of frequencies for the cutoff filter.
| | 02:37 | So let's go ahead and do that.
| | 02:39 | If I set the minimum right here, it'll
actually choose the value that I've got
| | 02:43 | right here, so that will actually be
the minimum. So what I want to do is twist
| | 02:48 | this up, and now I'll choose that as
the minimum, and then I can choose a
| | 02:55 | different value for the maximum.
| | 02:58 | Now if I twist that knob, you'll see
that it only goes between those two values,
| | 03:04 | the minimum and the maximum.
And let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 03:08 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:14 | There's also one more control in
this list, and it's Invert Range.
| | 03:19 | This enables you to invert the MIDI
controller data so that the chosen
| | 03:22 | controller reacts in the opposite
way as you might think it would.
| | 03:26 | So if I hit Invert Range and then I
twist this knob, now as I'm turning the
| | 03:32 | knob up, the value goes down,
so I've inverted that range.
| | 03:38 | A great example of this feature is
actually if you want to assign the drawbars
| | 03:43 | on the DB-33 Organ so that the MIDI
fader controls act in reverse like the
| | 03:48 | drawbars on a real B3 Organ.
| | 03:51 | So what I'm going to do here is mouse
up to this drawbar, right-click it, and
| | 03:57 | choose Learn MIDI CC. Then I'm going to
grab a fader on my MIDI controller and
| | 04:02 | move it up and down, but the problem is
is that it's moving in reverse for me.
| | 04:07 | When I pull the fader down, the
drawbar goes up, and vice versa.
| | 04:11 | So what I want to do now is choose
Invert Range, and now when I pull the fader
| | 04:17 | down, the drawbar comes down as well.
| | 04:20 | And when I push the fader
up, the drawbar goes up.
| | 04:23 | So Pro Tools will remember everything
that MIDI learned, until you take the
| | 04:28 | virtual instrument off the track
or close the session without saving.
| | 04:32 | If you save the session, Pro Tools will
remember the controller parameters for
| | 04:36 | the next time that you open the session.
| | 04:38 | Another way to ensure that your
settings are saved, if you go up to the Map
| | 04:42 | Options menu and choose Save Map As,
and here you can save your MIDI-learned
| | 04:49 | settings and create your own map file for this.
| | 04:53 | So as you can see here, MIDI Learn is
a super-useful feature that can make
| | 04:58 | working with virtual instruments in Pro
Tools much easier and more interactive.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
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.
There are a few ways to do that.
| | 00:10 | We can go to Window > Score Editor.
| | 00:13 | I can also go to Setup > Preferences >
MIDI, and double-click MIDI Clip Opens
| | 00:21 | the Score Editor. Or we can right-
click on MIDI clip, which I'm going to do
| | 00:27 | right here, slide down at the bottom
here, and choose Open in the Score Editor,
| | 00:33 | and that opens up the Score Editor.
| | 00:36 | You can also use the shortcuts
Option+Ctrl+Equals on a Mac or Alt+Start+Equals in windows.
| | 00:45 | At the top of the Score Editor
you'll notice the toolbars.
| | 00:49 | So we have the edit tools: Zoomer,
Trimmer, Selector, Grabber, and Pencil.
| | 00:53 | We've got the MIDI Note Duration and
Velocity, and also the Play Midi Notes When Editing.
| | 01:00 | Now you've seen a lot of these in the
MIDI Editor window as well, so revisit the
| | 01:05 | video on the MIDI Editor if you
want more information on these things.
| | 01:10 | We've got Mirrored MIDI Editing, which
you'll see in action here in a second, and
| | 01:14 | the Link Timeline and Edit Selection.
| | 01:16 | Finally, we have the double bar line,
and I'll show you what that does in a second.
| | 01:23 | Here we've got the cursor location, so
if I go down here, it will show where we
| | 01:27 | are and what the pitch is up here.
| | 01:29 | We've got the Grid value, and we've got
the Selection Area. And you can see here
| | 01:35 | that eight bars are selected, and
they're actually shown here in the score, and
| | 01:40 | they're highlighted in blue.
| | 01:42 | So let's go back to the tools here.
| | 01:45 | First with the Zoomer, it does the
normal things that we can do with the Zoomer
| | 01:49 | tool in all the other edit windows.
| | 01:51 | We can zoom in by clicking once. Press
Option on the Mac or Alt on windows and
| | 01:58 | you can zoom out one.
| | 01:59 | We can also click and drag to create a
marquee and zoom in just on that area.
| | 02:05 | I'm going to zoom back out by double-
clicking the Zoomer tool. And I'm going to
| | 02:12 | slide over to the first page.
| | 02:13 | We can use the Trimmer to
extend or shorten particular notes.
| | 02:20 | So now I'm going to use the
Trimmer to extend this note.
| | 02:23 | I want to make it into a full whole note.
| | 02:27 | And you'll see because we have Mirrored
MIDI Editing on, that some of the other
| | 02:33 | notes down here were also changed.
| | 02:36 | So if I undo this, you'll see some of
these notes come back as well, because of
| | 02:43 | the Mirrored MIDI editing.
| | 02:45 | If we go to the Note Selector tool, we
can click and select particular notes.
| | 02:51 | So I'm just clicking and dragging and
the notes are selected and shown in blue.
| | 02:56 | And these notes can be deleted, moved,
transposed, or processed with event
| | 03:01 | operations like Quantize.
| | 03:03 | We can also just hit the Delete
button and all the notes will be deleted.
| | 03:08 | Now the Note Selector tool only
includes MIDI note and velocity data; it does
| | 03:13 | not include any other MIDI
or continuous controller data.
| | 03:17 | So I'll recommend, if you're going to
perform large MIDI edits, do that in the
| | 03:21 | Edit window or in the MIDI Editor
window, where all of the data, including
| | 03:25 | continuous controller data
will travel with your edits.
| | 03:29 | So let me undo that delete.
| | 03:32 | Let's go up to the Grabber tool.
| | 03:35 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:42 | With the Grabber tool we can select one
or more notes, and if I click and drag,
| | 03:47 | we can select a number of notes.
| | 03:51 | Once they're selected, if I
click and drag them, I can move them.
| | 03:54 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:01 | Let me go ahead and undo that.
Let's go up to the Pencil tool.
| | 04:07 | With the Pencil tool we can insert
notes, we can select notes, and we can
| | 04:11 | move notes. So--
| | 04:14 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:19 | And now I'm adding notes that are
locked to the grid, and they're exactly a
| | 04:24 | quarter note in length, and that's what
we can do with the freehand Pencil tool.
| | 04:31 | If we go to the Line Pencil tool,
we'll add notes just on one pitch with all
| | 04:36 | the same velocity.
| | 04:37 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:43 | You'll see all the notes around the same pitch.
| | 04:47 | Now the rest of the Pencil tool
shapes are the same, except that they have
| | 04:52 | different velocity
curves depending on the shape.
| | 04:55 | If we choose the Triangle tool, the
velocities will go in a triangle shape.
| | 04:59 | If we choose the Square tool, the
velocities will follow the square shapes, and
| | 05:04 | finally, with Random, the
velocities will be randomized.
| | 05:08 | If you want to delete a note with the
Pencil tool, we can go down to the note
| | 05:13 | and press Option in Mac or Alt in
Windows and click the note, and it's gone.
| | 05:20 | Any notes added or deleted to the Score
Editor as well as any edit will also be
| | 05:25 | reflected in the Edit
window and the MIDI Editor.
| | 05:28 | And also note that the Score Editor
automatically adds rests as needed.
| | 05:33 | You can also move or manually
insert rests if you want to.
| | 05:37 | Now the Score Editor will probably
become an integral part of your MIDI-editing
| | 05:42 | workflow in Pro Tools 9.
| | 05:43 | I'll cover more of the features of
the Score Editor in other videos in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| 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.
| | 00:06 | This means you will learn how to
use the Score Editor very quickly.
| | 00:10 | The Score Editor also offers up some
unique features, many of which we will
| | 00:13 | cover in this video.
| | 00:15 | Let's pick up where we left off in part
one of this topic by looking at some of
| | 00:19 | the other buttons and features at the
top of the Score Editor that I didn't
| | 00:22 | cover in the previous video.
| | 00:24 | Let's start with the Double
Barline button, and that's right here.
| | 00:29 | This places a double bar line at the
end of the score, and you should use this
| | 00:33 | when you're ready to print out your score.
| | 00:34 | So I am going to scroll all the way
to the end of the score and down to the
| | 00:40 | bottom here and we will see this
double bar line, and this indicates the end of the song.
| | 00:46 | When I deactivate this button, Pro
Tools adds on extra bars at the end of the score.
| | 00:52 | And we will see those right here.
| | 00:55 | We have got six here and two extra ones here.
| | 00:59 | That adds up to eight. And that is set
here in the Preferences on the MIDI page,
| | 01:06 | Additional Empty Bars in the Score Editor.
| | 01:08 | Now I am going to scroll back to the beginning.
| | 01:14 | Let's take a look at what
we have got selected here.
| | 01:16 | I have got all these blue notes here.
| | 01:19 | Those are the selection, and that's
tied to a selection that's in the actual Edit window.
| | 01:24 | If we go over here, you can see that
this region is selected, and those notes are
| | 01:31 | selected here on the score.
| | 01:33 | Let's say that we want to transpose these notes.
| | 01:35 | So I am going to take this whole
part and transpose it up a few steps.
| | 01:40 | I will just click and drag.
| | 01:42 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:52 | That's one way to do it.
| | 01:54 | We could also go over to this button
right here and enter in a number or just
| | 02:00 | mouse and scroll and we
can change the transposition.
| | 02:04 | We can also change the note velocity.
| | 02:07 | So if we wanted to bring this whole
part down by a certain amount, we can click
| | 02:11 | and drag this and now the velocity of
all these notes is going to down by 16.
| | 02:17 | As with the toolbars in the Edit
window on the MIDI Editor, we can move these
| | 02:21 | sections around easily
at the top of this window.
| | 02:25 | If we press Command on a Mac or Ctrl on
windows and then click then we can move
| | 02:30 | these sections around.
| | 02:31 | So we can organize our
Score Editor however we want.
| | 02:37 | Over on the left side here,
we have the Tracks List.
| | 02:40 | And right now we are only
viewing this Mini Grand track.
| | 02:43 | But we can add in all of the rest of
the tracks just by clicking these brown
| | 02:49 | buttons, and now we can see the full score.
| | 02:52 | The Tracks List also has a menu where we
can do a few things: Showing and Hiding
| | 02:57 | tracks; we also have these Notation
Display track settings and Score Setup
| | 03:02 | buttons that we are going
to examine in later videos.
| | 03:05 | Now there are few other page
controls that you should be aware of here in the Score Editor.
| | 03:11 | If we go down here, we can scroll
from page to page just by clicking these buttons.
| | 03:18 | Over on the right, we can scroll continuously.
| | 03:24 | We can also zoom vertically, and we
can choose different heights, and we can
| | 03:31 | choose different sizes of the pages if we want.
| | 03:38 | Another very cool feature of the Score
Editor is that we can record MIDI data
| | 03:42 | and it's transcribed right into
the Score Editor in real time.
| | 03:45 | So let's check this out.
| | 03:47 | I am going to scroll all the way to
the end of our score here and then drop the cursor in.
| | 03:55 | So I will use the selector for that.
And when I click here, Pro Tools
| | 04:00 | smartly puts the cursor on the last
bar before our additional eight empty
| | 04:05 | bars at the end of the score.
| | 04:07 | So now let me go over to the Edit
window and I am going to record-enable this
| | 04:12 | track, go back to the Score Editor,
and I will pull in the Transport window,
| | 04:20 | and we will record some notes, and you
will see them transcribed right onto the score.
| | 04:29 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:41 | I just love that live
transposing while recording.
| | 04:44 | It's great feature.
| | 04:45 | I like how Avid has adapted their
editing tools into this Sibelius-driven Score Editor.
| | 04:52 | After learning what the edit tools do
in the Edit window, the edit tools in the
| | 04:56 | Score Editor are very intuitive,
| | 04:59 | so the learning curve to editing
your score window isn't very steep.
| | 05:02 | I hope you enjoy using this Score Editor.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up a score| 00:00 | The Score Editor is where you
see your MIDI performances shown as music notation.
| | 00:05 | After you are done recording and
editing your performances, you can fine-tune
| | 00:08 | how 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, or 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 will choose the C chord.
| | 00:33 | That adds it right here. 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 the special window where
we can look at each track and make some
| | 00:47 | decisions about what we want the clef
to look like, the display transposition,
| | 00:51 | and what some of the other
attributes are for the track.
| | 00:55 | So we have 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 we had a different
instrument, you could choose a different clef.
| | 01:06 | We will also keep the transposition
at the regular C see for the key that
| | 01:12 | 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,
so they would play this part a major
| | 01:21 | 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 Global 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.
| | 01:43 | We can choose to straighten
swing and this will unswing swung notes.
| | 01:49 | And this is good if you have some
swung 8th notes in your score that are
| | 01:52 | shown 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 a
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,
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 it 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 one
| | 03:27 | staff, and it's much easier to read.
| | 03:31 | Now let's go over to Attributes.
| | 03:33 | If you want to set up different
attributes for selected tracks than what are in
| | 03:37 | the Global 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 am going to close this.
| | 03:54 | Now let's choose one more thing
from the right-click menu, Score Setup.
| | 04:00 | You can also choose this from
the File menu. File > Score Setup.
| | 04:07 | In here we can add a title, and we can
add the composer. And let me scroll over
| | 04:18 | to the beginning of the track here,
and you will see that the score is
| | 04:23 | 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 didn't want to show the title and
| | 04:31 | composer, I could turn that off.
| | 04:33 | We can set up the spacing of the
score and set up the layout as well.
| | 04:38 | And I will leave these to you to set
it up, but this is where you can do it.
| | 04:44 | So there you go.
That's how you set up a score in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Printing and exporting a score| 00:00 | In addition to editing MIDI notes in
Pro Tools, the Score Editor enables you
| | 00:04 | to export the score to Sibelius, an
advanced notation software program, for
| | 00:09 | 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.
| | 00:29 | Right now, we've got all of the
tracks shown, but maybe we just want to
| | 00:33 | print out the piano part.
| | 00:35 | So all we need to do is click
these circles to either include or not
| | 00:39 | include them in the score.
| | 00:41 | If you'd like to do some fine-tuning
or tweaking to the score or individual
| | 00:45 | parts, you may want to use
Sibelius notation program to do this.
| | 00:49 | You can export this file directly to
Sibelius to utilize the more advanced
| | 00:53 | notation function in the program,
| | 00:55 | if you go to File > Export > Sibelius.
| | 01:00 | Here you can save it as something
and then import it into Sibelius.
| | 01:05 | For an even more direct route, if
you want to send this file directly to
| | 01:09 | Sibelius that's open on your computer
right now, you can go to File > Send to Sibelius.
| | 01:18 | Now we don't have Sibelius on this
computer, so it won't let us do it.
| | 01:21 | But if you did, you could go up to it right here.
| | 01:24 | Finally, if we want to print out the
score directly from Pro Tools, we can
| | 01:28 | choose File > Print Score.
| | 01:32 | Doing this will print exactly what
appears on the screen and the Score Editor
| | 01:36 | window, nothing more or nothing less.
| | 01:39 | Now you know how to notate MIDI
performances and set up a score in Pro Tools,
| | 01:44 | and you can even export and print
that score directly from Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. AutomationWriting and editing automation| 00:00 | In Pro Tools, you can automate
just about any parameter you want.
| | 00:03 | You can program Pro Tools to remember
volume, muting, panning, send levels' mute
| | 00:09 | and panning, plug-in parameters, and
even MIDI, velocity, muting, and continuous
| | 00:15 | controller data, such as Mod Wheel and Sustain.
| | 00:19 | Now automation data is stored on
automation playlists on each track.
| | 00:23 | To view the automation playlist, you
can select from the Track View Selector
| | 00:27 | here, and we will choose volume.
| | 00:30 | You see this line right here. That
indicates what the volume level is for the track.
| | 00:34 | We can adjust that here, and you
will see the line move up and down.
| | 00:39 | Now we can show multiple automation
lines by clicking this little triangle here
| | 00:45 | and then adding additional ones if we
want. So we have got volume and mute
| | 00:49 | being shown down here.
| | 00:51 | There are five main automation
modes in Pro Tools, and we will see those right here.
| | 00:56 | We have off, read, touch, latch, and write.
| | 00:59 | Automation off turns the
automation off on the track.
| | 01:03 | The automation lane names get grayed
out and become italicized, as you can see here.
| | 01:09 | Auto read tells Pro Tools to read the
automation data that's on the track, and
| | 01:13 | that's the default automation mode.
| | 01:15 | There are also several modes that you
can use to create automation data: auto
| | 01:19 | write, auto latch, and auto touch.
| | 01:22 | Pro Tools HD and the complete
production toolkit enable you to have a couple of
| | 01:26 | other modes that we are
not going to cover it here.
| | 01:28 | So let's talk about these three.
| | 01:30 | Auto write is used for the first time
that you are creating automation data on a
| | 01:34 | track, or when you want to completely
write over a track's existing automation.
| | 01:40 | Auto touch writes automation only
while a fader or switch is touched or
| | 01:44 | clicked with the mouse.
| | 01:46 | Faders and switches return to any
previously automated position after
| | 01:50 | they've been released.
| | 01:52 | And auto latch writes automation
data only if you move or touch a fader or switch.
| | 01:57 | However, you don't to need to keep
touching the controls after you've moved them
| | 02:01 | like you would with auto touch.
| | 02:03 | The automated parameter stays in the
position where you have released it rather
| | 02:07 | than reverting to previously saved data.
| | 02:09 | I am going to show you how all these work here.
| | 02:11 | Let's create some
automation data on this bass track.
| | 02:14 | So I am going to switch over to auto
write, and then I want to make sure that
| | 02:18 | I have all of my automation enabled so
that we can write any automation that we want.
| | 02:22 | So I am going to go up to
Window and choose Automation.
| | 02:28 | If all of these are lit up red like this,
that means that all of the parameters
| | 02:32 | are enabled to record.
| | 02:34 | This is the default setting.
| | 02:35 | However, if I click on one of these, it
turns gray, and that means that it's not
| | 02:39 | armed for recording.
| | 02:40 | So I am going to move this out of the
way here. And now I am going to open up the
| | 02:47 | fader on this track, so I am going
to click this little button here.
| | 02:51 | And now I can control this
volume fader with my mouse.
| | 02:55 | To create and record automation data
on a track, you don't actually have to press record.
| | 02:59 | If the automation parameter is
activated, you only have to press play in Pro
| | 03:03 | Tools and move the automation controls
with your mouse or your control surface.
| | 03:08 | So that's what I want to do here.
| | 03:09 | I am going to press play and
| | 03:10 | not record and then move the
automation controls via the mouse or my control
| | 03:14 | surface to write the data.
| | 03:15 | In this case, I am going to automate
the bass track's volume, which is this
| | 03:19 | line right here. Here we go.
| | 03:22 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:35 | All you've got to do is press the
stop button when you're done writing
| | 03:37 | the automation.
| | 03:39 | Now you will notice that Pro Tools
automatically switched over to Latch mode
| | 03:43 | after writing that automation, and
that's because of a preference that we've
| | 03:47 | chosen in the Mixing page.
| | 03:48 | If we go to Setup > Preferences and
on the Mixing page, we have After Write
| | 03:54 | Pass, Switch to Latch.
| | 03:57 | I could choose Touch or No
Change, but I'll keep it at Latch.
| | 04:01 | And why do we care about this?
| | 04:02 | Well, let me show you.
| | 04:05 | If I were to press play right now with
auto write mode, it would just write over
| | 04:10 | everything that we just recorded.
| | 04:12 | However, if the writing mode switches
over to latch or to touch, then we actually
| | 04:16 | have to move the fader or the mouse to
change this data, thus we won't overwrite
| | 04:21 | the data by accident.
| | 04:23 | But now, I'm actually going to
overwrite it on purpose using the Latch mode.
| | 04:27 | And let me show you what that looks like.
| | 04:30 | So I will go back over to the fader
here and I'll grab it as it's playing along,
| | 04:34 | and you'll see that when I let go of
the mouse that's controlling the fader,
| | 04:38 | the automation will stay at one value
and create a solid line until I move it again.
| | 04:43 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:58 | So you can see these straight lines
are here, and that's where the latch was activated.
| | 05:03 | Now I am going to try auto touch.
| | 05:06 | Now watch as the automation data
reverts back to the pre-written data that's
| | 05:10 | already here when I let go
of the mouse on the fader.
| | 05:14 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:27 | Each one of these peaks that I created
is when I grabbed the mouse and moved
| | 05:31 | the fader, but then it reverted back
to the pre-existing automation data that was there.
| | 05:37 | When you create automation, you
create a series of break points on the
| | 05:41 | automation playlist.
| | 05:43 | And although, the automation data may
look like a line at some points, it's
| | 05:46 | actually made up of individual
points that are finite values for the
| | 05:49 | automation parameter.
| | 05:50 | Let's zoom in and actually take a look at this.
| | 05:53 | You see all these breakpoints here?
| | 05:57 | One of the limitations of Pro Tools is
that all edit playlists on a single audio
| | 06:01 | track share the same automation data.
| | 06:04 | So if we have multiple playlists of
this bass track, which in fact we do, all of
| | 06:09 | them share the same automation data.
| | 06:12 | If you want to try out different
automation on a track, you can duplicate the
| | 06:15 | track using the Track > Duplicate
command, and then try out new automation on
| | 06:20 | that duplicate track.
| | 06:22 | Creating automation data during
real-time playback is a lot of fun.
| | 06:26 | It also can add a lot of energy to
your mix and can actually turn the mix
| | 06:29 | process into more of a performance.
| | 06:31 | Definitely get to know your
automation modes and how to use them;
| | 06:35 | your songs will sound butter when you
utilize them to add dynamic elements to your mixes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Drawing automation with the Pencil tool| 00:00 | Having worked tediously with other
types of automation systems on analog mixing
| | 00:04 | boards, I think graphical editing
of automation data is one of the best
| | 00:08 | features of Pro Tools.
| | 00:10 | Here I will show you how to use the
Pencil tool to edit or draw new automation.
| | 00:14 | Any of the top five pencil
shapes can be used to draw automation.
| | 00:19 | Let's start with the Freehand tool.
| | 00:20 | I'm going to go down to the bass
track here and draw in a fade-out.
| | 00:25 | So I am just going to click and drag.
| | 00:29 | And let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 00:31 | (Music Playing)
| | 00:38 | Yep, that's a fade-out.
| | 00:39 | Now let's try the Line Pencil tool and
we will draw in some automation for a
| | 00:44 | gradual pitch-bend on a drum track.
| | 00:46 | Pitch-bend on a drum track?
| | 00:48 | Well, why not?
| | 00:49 | So I am going to just click here and
drag all the way up, and now let's check
| | 00:54 | out what this sounds like.
| | 00:55 | So I just hit Return and we will
go back to the top and press Play.
| | 00:58 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:05 | That sounds kind of cool.
| | 01:07 | Now let's use the Square shape and draw
some automation on the acoustic guitar
| | 01:11 | track for muting it.
| | 01:14 | So I am going to switch to Track View
to mute and now I can go in and draw
| | 01:22 | my automation.
| | 01:23 | Now that's a lot of data going on there,
so I am going to zoom in so we can see
| | 01:27 | what's actually going on.
| | 01:28 | So it's muting right along with the grid,
and it's adding a value of a 16th note
| | 01:33 | that we have set up here in the grid.
| | 01:36 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 01:39 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:46 | Okay, cool.
| | 01:47 | Let's try something different.
| | 01:48 | I am going to go down to the organ track
here, the DB-33 track, and I'm going to
| | 01:55 | create some modulation data.
| | 01:56 | So I am going to open this up, and we
are going to take a look at creating some
| | 02:01 | modulation automation to affect the
rotation of the rotary speaker, and that's
| | 02:06 | going to affect what we have down here,
the Slow and Fast and Break settings.
| | 02:11 | So what I am going to first do is
change the grid value to 1 bar, and then I am
| | 02:18 | going to choose the Triangle pencil shape,
and let me zoom out a little bit too.
| | 02:22 | We've already chosen mod wheel as
our continuous controller that we want
| | 02:29 | to adjust, so I can just go in here
and click and drag and I am creating
| | 02:34 | some automation.
| | 02:36 | Now let's have a listen.
| | 02:37 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:51 | So as you can see down
here, the modulation data is affecting
| | 02:54 | the rotation of the speaker.
| | 02:56 | Now let's try using the Random
shape for creating some crazy panning.
| | 03:00 | So I am going to choose Random and
go to this synth track, and I am just
| | 03:06 | going to click and drag.
| | 03:08 | So we have got a lot of randomized
whole-note panning on panning of the
| | 03:12 | left side of this track.
| | 03:13 | Let me switch the grid up just so
this is a little bit more noticeable and
| | 03:18 | then switch over to the panning on the
right side, click and drag, and look at
| | 03:22 | all that.
| | 03:23 | It's a lot of random information,
and now we will take a listen to what
| | 03:27 | that sounds like.
| | 03:28 | So I am going to press play and take a listen.
| | 03:32 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:41 | So that Random shape
creates panning affects that moves the
| | 03:44 | synth track randomly all
over the stereo field here.
| | 03:47 | And hopefully you are listening in
headphones, because it will be much
| | 03:50 | more obvious if you are.
| | 03:52 | Now drawing automation with the
Pencil tool can be a very creative process
| | 03:56 | as you have seen here.
| | 03:58 | Have fun with it and use it to add
some more motion and life to your mixes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing automation with the Trim and Grabber tools| 00:00 | The Trim tool and the Grabber
tool are both very handy for editing
| | 00:03 | automation data. Let's check it out.
| | 00:05 | I am going to zoom in on some volume
automation on this bass track here and I am
| | 00:10 | going to get the Grabber.
| | 00:11 | And the Grabber is great for
creating and moving individual break points.
| | 00:16 | When you bring the Grabber down onto
an automation like this, it turns into a
| | 00:19 | pointer, and now with the pointer,
I can click and add break points.
| | 00:24 | I can also click and drag and
move those break points around.
| | 00:30 | With the Trim tool, you can
actually move entire sections of the automation data.
| | 00:34 | So I am going to choose the Trim tool
here, and if I click and drag on this line
| | 00:38 | right here, you'll see the volume going
down, and we see the actual volume level
| | 00:43 | and we see the difference from where it was.
| | 00:46 | The little triangle that we
see here, that's the delta.
| | 00:49 | It's the difference between the
original value and the trimmed value.
| | 00:52 | Si if I let go of that, it brings
that whole volume automation line down.
| | 00:57 | With the Trim tool, you can also bring
the overall track level up or down, while
| | 01:01 | keeping all of the relative automation data.
| | 01:04 | So I am going to zoom out, and now I am
going to select an area right here and
| | 01:11 | then use the Trimmer to bring
that entire automation line down.
| | 01:16 | So I click and drag and all the
volume automation data goes down relative to each other.
| | 01:21 | So you see that I brought
this entire line down -12.5 dB.
| | 01:27 | So the shape of the automation stays the same.
| | 01:30 | If we go over to the edge of the
selected region--and I will zoom in on it here--
| | 01:34 | you see that there's a break point there.
| | 01:36 | Now if you don't select a clip with
end points like we did here, Pro Tools
| | 01:40 | will create a new end point before and
after the selected area, as it's done right here.
| | 01:45 | If I undo our trim automation, you are
going to see that data point go away.
| | 01:51 | And if you want to suppress the
creation of these break points, you can press
| | 01:55 | Alt in Windows or Option on the Mac
while you are using the Trim tool. I'll
| | 01:58 | show you this.
| | 01:59 | I am going to zoom out and now bring
this down while I am pressing the Option
| | 02:04 | key on the Mac or the Alt key in
windows, and you'll see that this area won't
| | 02:08 | get a break point;
| | 02:09 | it will actually go over to this
breakpoint and be based on that, check it out.
| | 02:13 | Click and drag. So I have suppressed
the break point being created here.
| | 02:19 | Now if you want to raise the volume of
one entire clip, you can use the Clip
| | 02:23 | Gain function. And let's switch over
to waveform view here, and we will show
| | 02:29 | the Clip Gain Line.
| | 02:32 | Now with the Trimmer, we can literally
go and trim this entire clip gain line
| | 02:37 | and this is separate from our volume automation.
| | 02:41 | So we can retain both the
volume automation and the clip gain.
| | 02:46 | As you can see here, the Trim tool and
the Grabber tool both have a lot of uses
| | 02:50 | in the realm of automation.
| | 02:52 | Practice using them with the techniques
I have showed you here and you be able
| | 02:55 | to edit automation very quickly.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Cutting, copying, pasting, and clearing automation| 00:00 | There are many ways to cut, copy,
paste, and clear, or delete automation data in Pro Tools.
| | 00:05 | For instance, let's look at some of
the ways to delete automation data.
| | 00:09 | You can remove a single break point by
Option+Clicking on the Mac or Alt+Clicking
| | 00:13 | in Windows with the Grabber
or the Pencil on a break point.
| | 00:16 | So I will take the Grabber here.
| | 00:18 | If I go down to this break point here,
press the Option or the Alt key,
| | 00:23 | you see the little negative sign show
up by the Grabber pointer, and now if I
| | 00:26 | click it, that data point goes away.
| | 00:29 | Same goes for the Pencil tool.
| | 00:31 | If I go down to an automation break point
and I press the Option key or the Alt
| | 00:35 | key, the pencil switches over to the
eraser and now if I click on any points
| | 00:40 | here, that will be erased.
| | 00:43 | You can remove several break points at
once or all of them by selecting a range
| | 00:48 | of break points with the selector and
then pressing the Backspace or Delete key.
| | 00:52 | So I am going to select some here,
press Delete, and all of the data points are gone.
| | 00:59 | You can remove all the automation for
all of the automation playlists on a
| | 01:02 | track, by selecting a range of
break points with the selector and then pressing
| | 01:06 | Ctrl+Backspace in Windows
or Ctrl+Delete on a Mac.
| | 01:11 | So you could highlight this, use
the key commands, and delete all of the
| | 01:15 | automation that exists for
every type of automation right here.
| | 01:20 | In contrast to the deleting automation
data, removing data with the Cut command
| | 01:24 | creates anchor break points at the
boundaries of the remaining data.
| | 01:28 | Let's look at the difference.
| | 01:29 | If I select this area right here and now
choose Cut, you will see that Pro Tools
| | 01:36 | adds in break points at the end of
the selected area, right in here.
| | 01:40 | I will zoom in and we can take a look.
| | 01:44 | Now if I undo that, you will see that
those break points didn't exist before
| | 01:49 | we cut the data.
| | 01:51 | Now, if I decide to delete this data,
Pro Tools connects the dots between the
| | 01:55 | two closest automation data
points, but does not create new ones.
| | 02:00 | It's a slight difference, but
one that you should be aware of.
| | 02:03 | And note that when you cut, copy, or
paste a section of the track while you're in
| | 02:07 | the Master view, that is, waveform or
block on an audio track, all automation
| | 02:14 | data associated with that
track's section goes with the track.
| | 02:18 | So for instance, if I select this area
of the waveform and choose Cut, and then
| | 02:25 | I paste it over here, the automation
data travels with that cut and paste. So
| | 02:33 | now I go back to the volume and you can
see that the automation data here came
| | 02:37 | along with this cut clip.
| | 02:40 | In addition to the regular Cut, Copy,
Paste, and Clear commands, Pro Tools has
| | 02:45 | Cut Special, Copy Special, Paste
Special and Clear Special Commands in the Edit menu.
| | 02:50 | These are used specifically
for editing sutomation playlists.
| | 02:54 | Let's look an example.
| | 02:55 | What I want to do here is scroll down to
this area on the synth track. And we are
| | 03:02 | looking at panning data, so what I am
going to do is select this area and now go
| | 03:08 | to Copy Special > Pan Automation.
| | 03:11 | Now I am going to go to later in
the track and select this whole area,
| | 03:17 | go back up to the Edit menu and choose
Repeat to Fill Selection, and now you can
| | 03:24 | see that Pro Tools has pasted in that
previous data from here and has basically
| | 03:28 | looped it all the way to
the end of the selection.
| | 03:32 | The Paste Special command also allows
you to paste to current automation type,
| | 03:36 | which pastes any type of automation
data or MIDI controller data to any other
| | 03:40 | type of automation or controller data type.
| | 03:43 | So with this all highlighted, I am
going to choose Copy and now I am going to
| | 03:49 | switch to the Volume Automation
playlist and then choose Paste Special to
| | 03:55 | Current Automation Type.
| | 03:58 | And as you can see, that pastes the
panning automation onto the volume
| | 04:02 | automation playlist.
| | 04:03 | So there are many ways to
edit automation in Pro Tools.
| | 04:06 | Use the techniques and features
shown here to creatively fine-tune
| | 04:10 | your automation data.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Turning automation on and off| 00:00 | In this video, I am going to
cover how to turn on and off certain
| | 00:03 | automation features.
| | 00:04 | As you know, to play back the
automation on a track, you put the track into
| | 00:08 | auto read mode.
| | 00:10 | That's the default setting.
| | 00:13 | And choose auto off if you want to
turn off the automation for all automated
| | 00:17 | controls on the track, and you can
see that indicated here where the volume
| | 00:21 | automation is actually
grayed out and is italicized.
| | 00:25 | Moving beyond these basic automation
modes, you can also suspend the writing
| | 00:30 | or playback of specific types of
automation data on all tracks or individual tracks.
| | 00:35 | Now, why would you want to do that?
| | 00:36 | Well, in case you don't want to hear
certain types of automation while you play
| | 00:40 | it back, or you don't want to
accidentally write over existing automation data.
| | 00:45 | To suspend automation writing on all
tracks, you can go to Window > Automation.
| | 00:52 | And we can hit the Suspend button, and
that suspends all automation writing on all tracks.
| | 00:58 | If you only want to suspend certain
types of automation, like volume, mute, et
| | 01:02 | cetera, all you need to do is
click on those individual ones here.
| | 01:07 | Now I am going to enable
these back and close this window.
| | 01:12 | To suspend the playback and writing of
automation on individual tracks, first
| | 01:17 | you need to set the Track View
selector in the Edit window to display the
| | 01:20 | automation parameter that you want to suspend.
| | 01:23 | So I will keep it on Volume here
and then turn this back on to Read.
| | 01:27 | But now, I actually want to
suspend just the volume automation.
| | 01:31 | So what I can do is Command+Click on
a Mac or Ctrl+Click in Windows on the
| | 01:36 | parameter name to suspend the
writing and playback of only the displayed
| | 01:40 | automation parameter.
| | 01:42 | And this action obeys edit
groups except for pan automation.
| | 01:45 | So as you can see here, the volume gets
grayed out and is italicized, and now the
| | 01:50 | volume automation is
totally deactivated on this track.
| | 01:53 | To reverse this action, just Command+
Click or Ctrl+Click on the parameter and
| | 01:58 | it activates it again.
| | 01:59 | Now if I Command+Shift+Click on a Mac
or Ctrl+Shift+Click in Windows any of
| | 02:04 | these parameter names, I will suspend
writing and playback on all automation
| | 02:08 | parameters on that track.
| | 02:09 | So I will go ahead and do that.
| | 02:12 | And now if I switch to Mute, you
will see that it's also grayed out and
| | 02:16 | italicized, so that means it's disabled.
| | 02:18 | And this is the same as
selecting auto off on a track right here.
| | 02:23 | So I am going to undo that.
| | 02:26 | Finally, if I Command+Option+Click on a
Mac or Ctrl+Alt+Click in Windows on one
| | 02:32 | of these parameters, I will suspend
the writing and playback of only that
| | 02:35 | displayed automation parameter on all tracks.
| | 02:38 | So let me show you this.
| | 02:40 | I am going to show the mute here on
this track, and I will press the Key command,
| | 02:46 | and you can see that the mute here and
here and even on these audio tracks up
| | 02:50 | here, they've all been disabled.
| | 02:53 | However, the volume is still active.
| | 02:57 | Now let's switch over to the Mix
window. Similar to the Suspend Automation
| | 03:04 | commands I just mentioned, you can
also put outputs, sends, and plug-ins into
| | 03:09 | Automation Safe mode to protect their
automation data from accidentally being
| | 03:13 | overwritten while automating
other parameters on that track.
| | 03:16 | If I go to the Output button here on
this track, I can click on this button
| | 03:20 | called Automation Safe.
| | 03:22 | And this means that the output is
put into Automation Safe mode and the
| | 03:27 | automation data on the track's level,
mute, et cetera, can't be changed.
| | 03:31 | The same goes for sends and plug-ins,
where if I go into this send, I can
| | 03:36 | hit the Automation Safe button, or I
can go into this plug-in and choose the Safe button.
| | 03:44 | So use the Suspend Automation and
Automation Safe features to assist you in
| | 03:49 | writing and saving
automation data in your sessions.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Automating plug-ins and virtual instruments| 00:00 | In addition to being able to automate
track parameters, you can also automate
| | 00:04 | any parameter in a
plug-in or virtual instrument.
| | 00:07 | The quickest way to enable automation
on all of the plug-in's parameters is to
| | 00:11 | do it automatically, by choosing
Setup > Preferences, and in the Mixing page,
| | 00:18 | choosing Plug-in Controls
Default to Auto-Enabled.
| | 00:22 | Now when you open a plug-in for the
first time--I will open up an EQ here--
| | 00:28 | you'll see that all of the parameters
are ready to be automated, and that's
| | 00:32 | indicated by these little green dots here.
| | 00:35 | If the parameter wasn't ready to be
automated, then these dots wouldn't be lit up green.
| | 00:41 | Now if you don't want use that
preference and be overwhelmed with all of the
| | 00:44 | parameters that you can automate,
here's how to enable individual automation
| | 00:48 | parameters on a plug-in.
| | 00:50 | I am going to open up this Filter Gate
plug-in, and now I'm in going to go up to
| | 00:55 | this button right here, the Plug-In
Automation Enable button, and in this window,
| | 01:00 | you can choose one of the parameters
here on the left, click Add, and now it's
| | 01:06 | added to this list of
five automatable parameters.
| | 01:10 | I will click OK and all five of
these parameters would be automatable.
| | 01:15 | And let's go take a look
at that in the Edit window.
| | 01:20 | Now everything that I have shown you
here regarding plug-in automation also
| | 01:24 | applies to virtual instruments too.
| | 01:26 | And you can see on this track,
the synth track, I have the Xpand2 virtual instrument.
| | 01:32 | And there's some
automation for that instrument here.
| | 01:36 | So we have got three automated
parameters for Xpand2 and then several more for
| | 01:42 | the AIR Filter Gate down here.
| | 01:44 | And you should notice that there's no
difference in appearance between the types
| | 01:47 | of automation for a
plug-in and a virtual instrument.
| | 01:50 | They are just like what they
look like on an audio track as well.
| | 01:53 | And what that means is that we can
actually write and edit automation on
| | 01:58 | plug-ins and virtual instruments in
just the same way as you have done for
| | 02:01 | volume and mute and any other
truck parameter on an audio track.
| | 02:06 | So let's hear what some of this
automation data on the plug-ins and virtual
| | 02:09 | instrument sounds like.
| | 02:10 | I am going to open up Xpand2 here,
slide it down, and then I want to show the
| | 02:18 | Smart Knobs here moving around in Part A.
So watch those as I start playing this
| | 02:23 | back. And I'm also going to open up the
Filter Gate, so let me click the target
| | 02:29 | button, so I can have
multiple plug-ins open at once.
| | 02:31 | I will move that up here and watch
the parameters here, the ones in green,
| | 02:37 | that are automated.
| | 02:38 | (Music Playing)
You will see the Cutoff opening up here.
| | 02:48 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:52 | Modulation Depth is changing.
| | 02:53 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:57 | Now we are adding in the filter gate.
| | 02:59 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:10 | Changing the cutoff.
(Music Playing)
| | 03:15 | Adjusting the Gate and
Release as the drums come in.
| | 03:20 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:29 | Now aside from the drum loop, the only
instrumentation on this track was the two
| | 03:34 | notes being held on the Xpand2 plug in.
| | 03:37 | All of the automated parameters changed
the sounds pretty drastically from the
| | 03:41 | beginning to the end.
| | 03:43 | As you get more familiar with mixing
using automation, you'll see how useful
| | 03:47 | each of these automation features are
and how creative you can get with them.
| | 03:51 | 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
to eight tracks for surround playback.
| | 00:09 | The goal of any mix is to create a
total sound that helps support the purpose
| | 00:13 | of the song, putting the listener
into an appealing acoustical space by
| | 00:18 | adjusting the volume levels, panning, EQ,
and effects of individual sounds in a
| | 00:22 | creative and appealing way, while giving
each element its own place in the final soundscape.
| | 00:28 | Before starting the mix, I
recommend listening to some reference mixes.
| | 00:33 | Listen to songs that you know very
well. Most professional mixers have a
| | 00:37 | number of songs that they know
intimately, and they reference these from time
| | 00:40 | to time when mixing.
| | 00:42 | In fact, you may even want to import
the reference tracks into your mix session
| | 00:46 | for a direct comparison.
| | 00:48 | You can use the File >
Import > Audio command for this.
| | 00:50 | Check out the videos in this
course about importing audio if you need more details.
| | 00:56 | Second, I'll recommend choosing some
songs that sound similar to your current
| | 01:00 | project, or that have a sound
that you're aiming for in your mix.
| | 01:03 | For example, listen to the levels of
certain instruments, such as where the vocal
| | 01:07 | sits. Is it deep in the mix or is
it riding on top of the instruments?
| | 01:11 | Also listen to particular stylistic
effects like how much reverb is used on
| | 01:15 | the snare drum.
| | 01:17 | Now let's go back to Pro Tools
and get a session ready for mixing.
| | 01:21 | One of the first things I'd like
to do when starting a mix is to
| | 01:23 | actually check my edits.
| | 01:25 | I want to use fades and cross-fades
to make sure that there are no stray
| | 01:28 | clicks or pops at any edit point.
| | 01:30 | So I can zoom in--I'll zoom in on
this track right here--and I can see that
| | 01:35 | there's no fade-in on this track,
| | 01:38 | so I'll use my Smart tool, click and
drag and create a short little fade-in.
| | 01:42 | This assures that there's no click or
pop that happens when this goes from no
| | 01:47 | audio at all to audio in this clip.
| | 01:50 | Once you've put all of your fades and
cross-fades in, and if you have multiple
| | 01:54 | clips on the track, you may consider
consolidating all of the clips into one to
| | 01:59 | create one new whole-file clip.
| | 02:01 | To do that all you need to do is click
and highlight. Now all these clips are
| | 02:07 | highlighted, and we can choose Edit >
Consolidate Clip, and that creates one
| | 02:13 | brand-new file for all of those edits.
| | 02:16 | And this saves processing
power, and it also looks cleaner.
| | 02:19 | Now usually before I do that I would
create a duplicate playlist and then make
| | 02:24 | that consolidated clip
on the duplicate playlist.
| | 02:27 | So I can always go back to my
unconsolidated playlist if I need to.
| | 02:32 | Along with consolidated audio files,
it's good to organize your Pro Tools
| | 02:35 | sessions so that your tracks are in a
logical order, so you can move quickly
| | 02:39 | in the session.
| | 02:40 | Make sure that you've labeled the
tracks well, so if you haven't labeled them,
| | 02:44 | just click on the name of the track
and label it here. And you can move them
| | 02:49 | around just by clicking
and dragging to reorder them.
| | 02:53 | If you don't already have one in your
session, make sure to create a stereo
| | 02:57 | master fader track, so that you can
monitor the stereo output from the session
| | 03:01 | and control it with just one fader.
| | 03:03 | All tracks routed to the main output
will go through the stereo master fader
| | 03:07 | track and whatever we've
chosen as the output for that.
| | 03:12 | On our session here, I have Analog 1-2,
and you can see that all of the tracks
| | 03:17 | in this session are routed to
Analog 1-2, and that means that they all are
| | 03:21 | routed through this track, and this
fader controls the output level of the entire session.
| | 03:27 | Another good tool for organizing
your mix session is creating groups.
| | 03:30 | Now I recommend putting all like
instruments next to each other in the session
| | 03:35 | and then grouping the tracks together.
| | 03:37 | And you can make micro and macro groups,
so you can solo or mute them and check
| | 03:41 | out what the mix sounds
like with or without them.
| | 03:43 | So what I'm going to do here is put the
Atmo Piano, the Organ, and the Electric
| | 03:49 | Piano into a group, and I just press
Shift as I clicked on these track names.
| | 03:53 | And now I can go to Track > Group and
these are all of my keyboard tracks, so
| | 04:00 | I'm going to call them keys.
| | 04:02 | Now if you want more information about
using groups, you can watch the video
| | 04:05 | about them earlier in the course.
| | 04:07 | But one of the main reasons I talk about
using groups here is because of a great
| | 04:12 | feature that you can use when mixing
to show just the tracks in one group.
| | 04:16 | To do that, you can Ctrl+Click both in
Mac or in Windows on that group. So if I
| | 04:22 | go down here into the Groups list,
press Ctrl+Click, and now it's just showing
| | 04:28 | these three tracks that are in
that group. I love this shortcut.
| | 04:33 | To show all the tracks again I just want
to hit Ctrl+Click on the All group.
| | 04:38 | And one other thing that I like to set
up usually while I'm recording or when
| | 04:42 | I'm starting a mix is effects loops.
| | 04:44 | And I'll show you why we use them and
how to set them up in a separate video,
| | 04:48 | but you can see them over here. I have a
reverb and a delay on these aux tracks,
| | 04:53 | with sends routed to them.
| | 04:55 | Now you may also consider adding EQ and
compression plug-ins onto the individual
| | 05:00 | tracks where you think they're going to
be used in the mix, and you can just go
| | 05:03 | ahead and do that straightaway, right
at the beginning of the mix session.
| | 05:07 | Having EQ and compression on tracks
is a pretty standard feature on analog
| | 05:11 | mixing boards, so we can
mimic that here in Pro Tools.
| | 05:14 | One cool thing you can do is go to
Setup > Preferences and on the Mixing page,
| | 05:20 | we can choose our default EQ
and default dynamics processors.
| | 05:25 | And if we do that--I am going to
choose Channel Strip here and this
| | 05:29 | Compressor/Limiter here--and when we
do that those two plug-ins are going to
| | 05:33 | show up at the top of the list as our
defaults basically in our Plug-ins list.
| | 05:38 | So I will go OK. And when I click
to insert here, you'll see these two
| | 05:43 | plug-ins straightaway right here, so we
don't have to navigate through multiple
| | 05:47 | menus to get to them.
| | 05:51 | And finally, if you like to use a
compressor or EQ on your overall mix, you
| | 05:55 | should add it to the stereo master
fader before you even start mixing, so that
| | 06:00 | you know how the mix sounds with it
on from the very beginning of your mix.
| | 06:04 | Otherwise if you add the effect in
later, your entire mix will change, and you
| | 06:08 | might have to redo a bunch of work.
| | 06:10 | Now let's talk about some mixing terms.
| | 06:13 | Stereo panning is used to play sound
sources on the left side, right side or
| | 06:17 | anywhere between the two speakers.
| | 06:20 | You have stereo panning
controls on most of the tracks here.
| | 06:23 | You click and drag to change their position.
| | 06:27 | Oftentimes you'll have stereo tracks
that are panned completely left and
| | 06:30 | completely right; however, you can
change that if you want of course, and on
| | 06:35 | mono tracks they usually start in the
middle but then you can pan left or right
| | 06:40 | for each one of those.
| | 06:41 | Now I recommend spreading out the
instruments in the stereo field and envision
| | 06:45 | what it would look like maybe on the
stage with all of these instruments
| | 06:48 | playing at once.
| | 06:49 | Usually lead vocals, lead instruments,
kick drum, and snare drum are all panned
| | 06:54 | to the center, but there are
no rules for any type of track.
| | 06:58 | Another key term in mixing is EQ positioning.
| | 07:02 | EQ positioning means adjusting the
frequency content of the tracks in your
| | 07:05 | session so that they don't
interfere with each other very much.
| | 07:09 | This is sometimes referred to as
carving EQ holes, and I'll discuss this
| | 07:13 | technique in another video on this course.
| | 07:16 | The third mixing term that
I want to discuss is depth.
| | 07:19 | Depth refers to the feeling that a
sound source is close to or distant from the listener.
| | 07:24 | Depth is created using reverb and delay
effects and I'll be discussing those in
| | 07:28 | another video in his course as well.
| | 07:31 | Use these three dimensions to envision
the physical layout of all the tracks in
| | 07:35 | your Pro Tools session and to
balance the sound sources visually.
| | 07:40 | So when you're mixing in Pro Tools,
here's the general procedure for how you
| | 07:43 | want to go about it.
| | 07:45 | Use this list as a loose
guide for the mixing procedure.
| | 07:48 | Note that the steps here don't need to
be performed in this particular order and
| | 07:53 | that some steps will
probably overlap each other.
| | 07:56 | First you want to create a rough
balance using volume levels and panning.
| | 08:00 | Then you should apply EQ, making
room in the frequency spectrum for each instrument.
| | 08:04 | You should add dynamic processing,
compression, limiting, gates, and expansion.
| | 08:09 | Add depth and special effects like
reverb, delay, chorus, and flange. Then you
| | 08:15 | can set your final volume levels and
use automation whenever is necessary.
| | 08:19 | Then it's time to bounce down the mix
and take a listen to what you've got, and
| | 08:23 | you should check your mix against
reference mixes and on all different types
| | 08:27 | of playback systems, like in your car,
on your friend's stereo, through your ear buds, etc,
| | 08:33 | and then revisit the mix to fix any
issues, but always keep your original mix
| | 08:37 | using the File > Save As
command for each new mix that you do.
| | 08:41 | If you can keep your mix process
loosely aligned with the steps outlined here,
| | 08:46 | 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 Views, Sends A-E.
| | 00:43 | There is also Sends F-J, so we
have a total of ten 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 Sends control.
| | 00:58 | In this Send control
we've got a lot of options.
| | 01:01 | I am just going to adjust a
couple of them really quick.
| | 01:03 | First, I am going to adjust the panning.
| | 01:05 | I am going to pan this exactly the same
as what the track is over here, all the
| | 01:10 | 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.
| | 01:25 | 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.
| | 01:42 | So if we choose Bus 1, that's just a
mono bus, but we have Bus 1 and 2 and that
| | 01:48 | gives us panning controls right here.
| | 01:52 | 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 and 2, so the signal is returning
| | 02:23 | into the mix on Bus 1 and 2, and this Aux
track is routed to Analog 1 and 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 and 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 onto 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.
| | 03:38 | And we can also adjust how much signal
from the acoustic guitar tracks gets sent
| | 03:43 | 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 we go to View > Sends A-E, right
now it's set to Assignment so we can see
| | 03:59 | all five sends, but if we choose Send A,
then we can open up these controls and
| | 04:06 | not 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 | Now 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 the session.
| | 04:56 | So let me show you.
| | 04:58 | I am going to press play and you
are 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.
| | 05:34 | 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 this signal onto
the bus before the signal is affected by
| | 06:03 | the volume fader, the Solo button or
the Mute button, whereas signals that are
| | 06:09 | routed post-fader are affected by the
volume fader, Solo button and Mute button.
| | 06:15 | So why would you want to make a send
either a pre-fader or a post-fader?
| | 06:18 | Pre-fader sends are the default
because in most instances you will want the
| | 06:23 | levels of the unaffected or the dry
tracks and the affected or the wet tracks to
| | 06:29 | 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. 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.
| | 06:59 | (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 what we are going to hear.
| | 07:22 | (Music Playing)
| | 07:31 | Now we are hearing just the
reverbed effect on the guitars.
| | 07:36 | 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
| | 07:51 | this pre-fader.
| | 07:52 | Now I am going to actually want to
create this ghost-in-the-machine effect, and
| | 07:57 | 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 it 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 are only left with the wet
| | 08:19 | or reverbed version. Let's check it out.
| | 08:21 | (Music Playing)
| | 08:44 | You can create some pretty cool
effects with this signal routing.
| | 08:46 | Now you should also note that all
inserts affect both pre-fader and
| | 08:50 | post-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.
| | 09:04 | 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
| | 09:23 | signal 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, I want to show you that we have
ten inserts or ten places where you can put
| | 00:13 | plug-ins onto one individual track.
| | 00:16 | Right now, we are just showing inserts
A-E, but if we go to View > Mix Window
| | 00:22 | Views > Inserts F-J, we can show all 10.
| | 00:27 | And as we add inserts down this row,
that's how they are 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, let's say an EQ, then the track
| | 00:45 | goes 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
| | 01:30 | window, it will open with
the target already deactivated.
| | 01:33 | So I am going to press Shift and
click on Xpand here. You will see that the
| | 01:38 | Target button is already
deactivated. Close that.
| | 01:42 | If you Option+Click on a Mac or
Alt+Click in Windows on the Close button in a
| | 01:47 | plug-in, a virtual instrument, send,
or an output window, all of each type
| | 01:52 | will close like this.
| | 01:53 | Let me go to the Close button and press
Option on the Mac or Alt on the PC and
| | 01:59 | 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
| | 02:09 | position 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
| | 02:20 | another track, assuming that
it's the same number of channels.
| | 02:24 | So I have two mono tracks here, as you
can see by their fader, and thus I can
| | 02:30 | drag from one to the other.
| | 02:32 | If I press Option on a Mac or Alt in
Windows and then drag, it will make an
| | 02:37 | exact 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 inactive
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 | Let me go up here to the phaser,
and I am going to right-click, and here
| | 03:27 | I can choose Bypass or Make Inactive.
| | 03:30 | I am going to choose Make Inactive.
| | 03:33 | This is indicated here on the track
by italicizing the name of the plug-in
| | 03:37 | and graying it out.
| | 03:39 | 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, and now it's
| | 03:48 | 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,
| | 03:58 | just 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
| | 04:04 | or 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.
| | 04:20 | If we open up the window, it
just tells you that it's inactive.
| | 04:25 | Use these button pushes and key
commands to become more efficient when using
| | 04:29 | plug-ins, virtual instruments,
and sends while you are mixing.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing ADC while mixing| 00:00 | In this video I want to talk about
using Automatic Delay Compensation.
| | 00:04 | Host-Based RTAS and AAX plug-ins,
as well as HD-only TDM plug-ins, are
| | 00:10 | all real-time effects.
| | 00:12 | It takes a little time for your
computer to process the audio signals that pass
| | 00:15 | through them. This processing delay
can be measured in number of samples or
| | 00:19 | milliseconds, and it can add up
to a significant amount of time.
| | 00:24 | Now some plug-ins, like the stock EQ
plug-ins in Pro Tools, require very little
| | 00:28 | processing power and have zero delay.
| | 00:31 | 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-
| | 00:40 | reduction plug-ins can
have much larger delay times.
| | 00:44 | For example, one instance of the maxim
plug-in has 1024 samples of delay, and the
| | 00:50 | delay literally adds up.
| | 00:52 | The total delay of a track is equal to
the sum of all the delays from all the
| | 00:56 | plug-ins on that track.
| | 00:58 | So if you have three maxim plug-ins
on one track, that's going to cause over
| | 01:02 | 3000 samples of delay.
| | 01:04 | Now let's listen to this example.
| | 01:06 | First I'm going to play back the track
with no delay, and we'll hear what it
| | 01:11 | sounds like. And you'll see that I
actually have two acoustic guitar tracks
| | 01:16 | here. These are double-tracked, two
different guitar performances but played in
| | 01:20 | time with each other.
| | 01:21 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:34 | Now you notice that they both have EQ
plug-ins on them, and I'm going to bypass
| | 01:39 | this one, and I'm going to play it back,
and we'll see if you can hear any delay.
| | 01:43 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:53 | The two tracks are very tight still,
because the EQ plug-ins don't cause any delay.
| | 01:59 | However, I want to make these maxim
plug-ins active now, so I have three maxim
| | 02:05 | plug-ins, and now let's hear the
difference between the left and the right side
| | 02:09 | of this guitar track.
| | 02:10 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:23 | Now we can obviously hear the
difference in timing, because this track is
| | 02:29 | playing back over 3000
samples later than this top track.
| | 02:35 | To combat delay, Pro Tools can add the
same amount of delay to each track, and
| | 02:40 | this is called automatic delay compensation.
| | 02:43 | So if I go up to the Options menu here
and come down to Delay Compensation, I'll
| | 02:48 | choose that, and Pro Tools wants this
to open up the Playback Engine dialog in
| | 02:53 | order to enable this, so I'll click OK.
| | 02:56 | In the middle of this dialog box
you'll see the Delay Compensation Engine, and
| | 03:00 | it's set to None right now.
| | 03:01 | If I click this, we have three
other options: Short, Long and Maximum.
| | 03:06 | The Short setting allocates the
smallest amount of resources for ADC, or
| | 03:11 | automatic delay compensation, and
this is more efficient than the long and
| | 03:15 | maximum settings for our computer.
And we can use this smaller value when
| | 03:21 | we don't have very many plug-ins or
if we know that the delay is less than this number.
| | 03:25 | I can choose Long to allocate more
resources to ADC, and we should use this when
| | 03:32 | the session requires more than the
short amount, but not the maximum.
| | 03:36 | And then the maximum, which is quite a
large number, we can choose this and we'll
| | 03:41 | get over 16,000 samples per channel.
| | 03:44 | Now you should note that these ADC
values differ depending on the sampling rate.
| | 03:49 | If you double the sampling rate, say
from 48 kilohertz to 96 kilohertz, the
| | 03:55 | number of samples for ADC will also
double, but both settings are equal to the
| | 04:00 | same amount of delay compensation.
| | 04:02 | So this session right here is
actually a 44.1 kilohertz session.
| | 04:07 | If we were to double this to 88.2, we
would see twice as many samples here, but
| | 04:12 | it would actually equal the same amount of time.
| | 04:14 | So I'm going to choose the Long
setting. And Pro Tools is asking us whether we
| | 04:20 | want to proceed here, which means that
we need to close the session. And it'll
| | 04:24 | save automatically--go ahead and do that.
So it closes the session, and then it
| | 04:28 | needs to reopen with the delay
compensation on, so I click OK and here we have
| | 04:34 | it reopened with the
automatic delay compensation on.
| | 04:38 | Now there is a way to check how much
delay compensation is needed, and that is
| | 04:43 | here in the Mix window down at the
bottom. And to show that if you don't see it,
| | 04:48 | we go to View > Mix Window
Views > Delay Compensation.
| | 04:53 | So you can see on this track
with the EQ, we have 0 delay.
| | 05:01 | However with the maxims, we have three
maxim plug-ins here, and that's causing
| | 05:06 | over 3000 samples of delay.
| | 05:09 | You'll notice that the color down here
on this track is orange, and that means
| | 05:13 | that delay is enabled, and this track
has the longest delay of all the tracks
| | 05:18 | in the session.
| | 05:19 | The green tracks mean also that delay
is enabled, but we're not exceeding the
| | 05:25 | ADC level on these tracks and they're
not the maximum track like this one is.
| | 05:31 | When the amount of delay exceeds the
ADC limit then this is going to turn red.
| | 05:37 | So what happens if we add
this last maxim in here?
| | 05:42 | And you'll see that this exceeds our
maximum amount, and that number is actually
| | 05:46 | 4095, so we're over by one sample here.
| | 05:52 | Down here on each of the tracks, you
can see that these are actually being
| | 05:55 | compensated by 4095 samples.
| | 05:59 | So that's to push them back so
that they line up with this track.
| | 06:03 | Now below the Delay indicator here we
have a user offset, and that enables us to
| | 06:08 | manually adjust the ADC if we want to
add in a user offset, and the only reason
| | 06:14 | we do this is if it's not sounding
quite right because maybe the plug-in is
| | 06:19 | incorrectly reporting the delay amount
or if you just want to manually adjust
| | 06:24 | the timing or the feel of the track.
| | 06:28 | And here you'd enter a positive
number for more delay compensation or a
| | 06:31 | negative number for less.
| | 06:33 | If for some reason we want to hear with
this track sounds like without the delay
| | 06:37 | compensation, you can press
Start+Ctrl+Click in Windows or Command+Ctrl+
| | 06:42 | Click on Mac on the user offset, and
that will turn off the user offset. And if
| | 06:49 | you click on the delay then
that will turn of the delay.
| | 06:52 | There is another way to deactivate
the delay compensation. If we go up to
| | 06:57 | Options and uncheck Delay Compensation,
that turns it off, as you can see down
| | 07:05 | here. We'll turn it back on.
| | 07:10 | Now in addition to accounting for
delays caused by plug-ins, automatic delay
| | 07:15 | compensation also accounts for delays
in internal mixer routings, due to using
| | 07:20 | buses and sends, as well as from
hardware inserts, and this is called the System Delay.
| | 07:25 | If we go up to Setup > Session, we can
see here that the total system delay is
| | 07:33 | actually 4146 samples, and that's a
little bit more than what we have down here.
| | 07:40 | In fact, it's 50 samples more
than what the plug-ins cause.
| | 07:45 | So what do you do if your total
delay on a track exceeds your ADC limit?
| | 07:51 | Well, it's pretty simple here.
| | 07:54 | If it's set to Short then you should
choose Long, and if it's set to Long then
| | 07:59 | we can choose Maximum.
| | 08:01 | So in this case we would actually go to
the Playback Engine and choose Maximum
| | 08:08 | and click OK twice. We'll open this up,
and you'll see now that this is set to
| | 08:14 | orange, so we're not
exceeding our maximum level anymore.
| | 08:20 | If somehow you end up exceeding the
maximum, you should just bypass this and
| | 08:25 | actually physically move the track.
| | 08:28 | So if we go back to the Edit window--
so we can literally click and drag this
| | 08:36 | track and manually nudge the audio data
on the track earlier in the session by
| | 08:41 | the amount of delay time reported in
the track's Delay Indicator, and we can get
| | 08:46 | specific about that by zooming in and
taking a look at that, but we're not
| | 08:50 | going to cover that here.
| | 08:52 | So Automatic Delay Compensation is a
great feature and can really help to make
| | 08:57 | your mixes sound more accurate and time aligned.
| | 08:59 | I recommend activating ADC every time
that you play back a session in Pro Tools,
| | 09:05 | and most importantly, when
you're working on a 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 | But first I want to talk
about the reasons for applying EQ.
| | 00:19 | The first reason is to improve the tonal
quality or the timbre of an instrument.
| | 00:23 | You can also use EQ to create special
effects, like a telephone vocal sound.
| | 00:29 | You can use EQ to help a track stand
out in a mix. You can use it to fix mic
| | 00:34 | choice and placement problems like
frequency or leakage or noise issues.
| | 00:39 | You can use EQ to make up for
inadequacies in the recording equipment.
| | 00:44 | You can use EQ to create a better
blend of instruments, and you can use it to
| | 00:49 | improve the overall sound of your mix.
| | 00:52 | Most home and car stereos
have some form of equalizers.
| | 00:56 | Even the simplest bass and
treble controls are equalizers.
| | 00:59 | Their purpose is the same as the EQ
plug-ins you use to mix in Pro Tools.
| | 01:04 | However, our Pro Tools mixing EQs are
more advanced and give us more control
| | 01:08 | over the EQ parameters, allowing us
to alter specific and controllable frequency ranges.
| | 01:14 | Let me show you how to apply EQ.
| | 01:16 | We'll start by using a stock 7-Band EQ.
| | 01:20 | I have got it already on this track here.
| | 01:23 | This is a parametric EQ, which
enables us to control three parameters:
| | 01:28 | the central frequency or FREQ for short,
the boost or cut, GAIN down here, and
| | 01:35 | the Q, which is the width of
the affected frequency range.
| | 01:41 | The central frequency is the
frequency that you want to adjust.
| | 01:44 | For example, say I want to reduce the
low-end muddy frequencies on this acoustic
| | 01:49 | guitar part. So I can adjust this
frequency to around 300 hertz, which is where
| | 01:55 | a lot of the mud lives in a mix, and
when I move this dial, you will see that
| | 02:01 | this orange circle moves.
| | 02:03 | So I will do that more radically here
and you can see it move around. And that's
| | 02:08 | the center frequency.
| | 02:11 | The gain is the amount of increase or
decrease in amplitude that you want to
| | 02:15 | apply to this center frequency.
| | 02:17 | So if you want a slight reduction in
your guitar part here, you can cut maybe
| | 02:21 | 1 to 3 DB; for more drastic changes,
bring it down to 6, or 9 or even deeper if you want.
| | 02:32 | The third parameter, Q, is the width
of the boost or cut region around the center frequency.
| | 02:39 | So it is pretty wide here at one,
but if I increase this number, the cut
| | 02:45 | becomes more narrow.
| | 02:47 | So the Q really determines the degree
to which frequencies near the center
| | 02:51 | frequency are boosted or cut.
| | 02:53 | High Q values yield narrow
widths for affecting a small range of
| | 02:57 | frequencies, while low Q values
provide expanded widths to encompass a large
| | 03:03 | range of frequencies.
| | 03:06 | So let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 03:08 | I am going to solo the guitar part, and
I am going to adjust the gain actually
| | 03:12 | back down to 0, and then I will press
play and change the gain and we'll see how
| | 03:17 | this affects the sound.
| | 03:19 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:44 | Did you hear how muddy it got when I
really boosted the gain? And when I had a
| | 03:48 | low Q value in a cut, a lot of the
frequencies were taken out, and it really
| | 03:52 | thinned out the sound of the acoustic guitar.
| | 03:54 | So you have a lot of control
over your sound when using EQ.
| | 03:58 | Now let's talk about the
technique of applying EQ.
| | 04:01 | When you are looking for the
frequency that you want to adjust, try this technique.
| | 04:05 | We call it the boost-and-twist technique,
and what you do is once you have an EQ
| | 04:10 | on your track like this, you increase
the gain significantly on one of the
| | 04:15 | parametric bands, and then you make
the Q value really high so it's a very
| | 04:19 | narrow value, and then you
sweep across the frequency range.
| | 04:24 | So let's play this, and I am going to do
that. You'll hear what this does is picks out
| | 04:30 | the frequencies that we want to
adjust and make some much more noticeable.
| | 04:33 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:56 | So let's say that I actually want to
get rid of some of the nasally tone that's
| | 04:59 | right around the 600 to 700 hertz area.
| | 05:02 | Now that I know that that's the
frequency area, what I can do is just bring
| | 05:07 | the gain down and then adjust my Q
accordingly to see how wide I want the
| | 05:12 | bandwidth to be on that cut.
| | 05:14 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:27 | Now it's a subtle but noticeable
change, and it's useful to use the Bypass
| | 05:31 | button to AB this effect,
| | 05:33 | that is, to listen to the track with
the EQ in and with it out, so let's try that.
| | 05:39 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:46 | Let's make this more noticeable.
| | 05:47 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:02 | So use that AB technique with the
Bypass button to check out how your EQ is
| | 06:07 | affecting the track.
| | 06:10 | One other thing that you will
notice that we are doing here is that we
| | 06:12 | are listening in Solo.
| | 06:14 | This acoustic track is soloed, so we
don't actually want to EQ only while we are in solo.
| | 06:20 | We also need to listen to the track
with the rest of the tracks in the session.
| | 06:25 | We could make this track sound amazing
by itself, but it might not sound good in the mix.
| | 06:29 | So don't ever EQ in a vacuum
by keeping the track in solo.
| | 06:33 | Make sure you listen to what it
sounds like in the entire mix.
| | 06:38 | Now let's move on and discuss another
common mixing practice called carving EQ holes.
| | 06:42 | For example, let's say that we have
this acoustic guitar track and a vocal track as well.
| | 06:48 | Often it's a good idea to cut out some
of the mids of the guitar to allow the
| | 06:52 | vocals to have more room in the
frequency spectrum where they sound the best,
| | 06:57 | like between 1 and 4 kilohertz.
| | 06:59 | So let's cut out 3
kilohertz from the guitar signal.
| | 07:02 | We are going to carve a little EQ for
the vocals to poke through the guitars in
| | 07:07 | this area. So I am going to dial in 3
kilohertz or thereabouts and reduce the
| | 07:15 | gain, and of course I need to un-bypass this.
| | 07:18 | And actually I am going to take out
this low-mid frequency range by clicking
| | 07:24 | this IN button, and that actually takes it out.
| | 07:27 | So now I have only got this cut here,
and I will just kind of narrow it up a little bit.
| | 07:34 | So now we have 4 dB cut at 3 kilohertz
with a Q of about 3 to 4. And what this
| | 07:43 | is doing is taking out a little area
to let the vocals poke through the mix.
| | 07:48 | And because we have taken out the EQ
here, we might actually be able to boost
| | 07:52 | some frequencies in the guitar in another range.
| | 07:55 | So we could do that up here around 6
kilohertz and add a little bit of shine
| | 08:00 | back to the guitar sound in that area.
| | 08:02 | And this frequency range on the
guitar is mostly out of the way of the main
| | 08:06 | vocal frequencies anyway.
| | 08:08 | So let's boost this up. I am going to
choose this Peak button right here, and
| | 08:13 | that turns this band of
the EQ into a peak filter EQ.
| | 08:18 | So now I'll adjust my Q and move my
frequency about to 6 and then add a little
| | 08:24 | gain right there, and I probably
will make it a little more narrow too.
| | 08:28 | So now the acoustic guitar will have
some shine up here at 6k, and we'll have a
| | 08:34 | little bit of a cut here at 3k.
| | 08:35 | Let's check out what this sounds like.
(Music Playing)
| | 08:49 | I will make it more dramatic for you.
| | 09:00 | Now I wouldn't recommend usually going
to this extreme of a gain boost or cut for
| | 09:06 | these frequencies, but I wanted to
exaggerate it here for you to hear it.
| | 09:10 | Another thing here. I am not suggesting
that each instrument should have its own
| | 09:13 | dedicated frequency range in the mix.
| | 09:16 | Instruments are always going to
share frequencies, but clearing a path for
| | 09:20 | the predominant frequencies of
certain instruments can make your mix sound much clearer.
| | 09:25 | Also be aware that any EQ settings
that you change on a particular instrument
| | 09:29 | will affect not only its sound but
also how the sound of that instrument
| | 09:33 | interacts with all the others in the mix.
| | 09:36 | Now let's take a look at some of the
more radical EQ effects you can add to
| | 09:40 | tracks in Pro Tools.
| | 09:41 | I am going to close this up and solo
the bass track and then take a look at
| | 09:49 | the AIR Kill EQ.
| | 09:52 | Now this, the AIR Kill EQ, is a three-
band EQ with kill switches on each band
| | 09:58 | right here. So we have kill
switches on the low, mids, and highs.
| | 10:02 | And with this plug-in you can cut off
those ranges for some really cool effects,
| | 10:08 | so let's take a listen.
| | 10:08 | So I am going to play this track
back and demonstrate some of the sonic
| | 10:12 | possibilities for this plug-in, by
tweaking the controls as well as loading up
| | 10:15 | some of the presets.
| | 10:16 | (Music Playing)
| | 11:03 | So you can have a lot of fun with this one.
| | 11:04 | Let's try one more. And I am going
to bypass the AIR Kill EQ and open up the Vintage filter.
| | 11:13 | Now a filter is just another word for EQ.
| | 11:17 | The Vintage filter here is basically
an EQ that can be manually adjusted or
| | 11:21 | modulated over time using the built-in
Low Frequency Oscillator, or LFO, and an
| | 11:27 | envelope follower to create
resonances at certain frequencies.
| | 11:31 | I will just put this on here for fun
and load up some presets and tweak some
| | 11:34 | knobs, and I encourage you to do the
same thing, using some of your own music.
| | 11:39 | Experiment with all these cool plug-
ins to find your own unique sounds.
| | 11:43 | (Music Playing)
| | 12:20 | Well, that was kind of fun.
| | 12:21 | Now I know I haven't explained
what any of these parameters do within this plug-in.
| | 12:25 | I would recommend checking out our
Foundations of Audio series to learn more
| | 12:29 | about these types of plug-ins and effects.
| | 12:32 | So now you know how to use the
boost-and-twist method to EQ a track and you can
| | 12:37 | also get creative by sonically
sculpting your tracks with these EQ plug-ins,
| | 12:41 | 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 parts of a
track, which helps to manage instruments
| | 00:11 | with wide dynamic ranges like vocals
and bass and helps the quietest bits of
| | 00:16 | these tracks become easier to hear.
| | 00:18 | Let's take a look at the standard
Compressor/Limiter Dynamics plug-in here
| | 00:22 | in Pro Tools.
| | 00:23 | Within this plug-in, you can see
we've got a lot of parameters over here.
| | 00:27 | And first, what I want to do is put all
of these down to their lowest values, so
| | 00:32 | I'll set the Ratio 1:1 and
the Threshold down to 0 dB.
| | 00:36 | We'll start with that.
| | 00:37 | And the Threshold parameter is
where I want to start our discussion.
| | 00:40 | When a signal comes into a compressor
beneath the Threshold, nothing is done
| | 00:44 | to it.
| | 00:45 | So if I have a Threshold of 0 dB,
that's the highest it can possibly be, so no
| | 00:50 | signal is going to cross that.
| | 00:51 | However, if I bring this down and I
press play on this bass track--I've got it
| | 00:57 | soloed here--you're going to see the
signal coming in, and it'll turn red when
| | 01:02 | it is above this threshold here.
| | 01:04 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:07 | So it's red here;
| | 01:08 | it's above the threshold.
| | 01:09 | If I raise this up here, now when it's
white, it hasn't crossed this threshold
| | 01:16 | level that we've set here.
| | 01:17 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:24 | So now the signal is
crossing the threshold pretty regularly,
| | 01:28 | at this setting here.
| | 01:29 | However, no compression is occurring
yet, because our ratio is set to 1:1.
| | 01:34 | A 1:1 ratio means that what comes in is
also what comes out of the compressor.
| | 01:39 | The ratio dictates how
much the signal is compressed.
| | 01:42 | So if I increase this ratio up to 3:1,
we'll say, then a signal that comes in at
| | 01:49 | 6 dB above the threshold will
come out of the compressor at 2 dB.
| | 01:54 | For another example, a signal that
comes in at 12 dB over the threshold will be
| | 01:58 | reduced to 4 dBs over,
according to this Ratio setting.
| | 02:02 | Compressors with ratios of 10:1 or
higher are considered limiters, and we're
| | 02:06 | going to talk about limiters a
little bit later in this movie.
| | 02:09 | Now with this ratio set here, I'm going
to increase the threshold all the way to
| | 02:13 | the top, and then I'll press play and
bring the threshold down, and you'll hear
| | 02:17 | the bass starting to be
compressed at this ratio of 3:1.
| | 02:21 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:30 | And you can see
that the output level is lower than the
| | 02:33 | input level.
| | 02:35 | And we can look here at the gain
reduction--that's the GR meter right here--at
| | 02:38 | how much the signal is actually being reduced.
| | 02:42 | So it's in between 6 and 12 here.
| | 02:45 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:49 | If I raise the
threshold, then we have very little
| | 02:52 | compression going on.
| | 02:53 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:57 | If I increase the
threshold and bring it way down, then the
| | 02:59 | signal is very much compressed here.
| | 03:01 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:06 | Now let's talk
about some of these other parameters.
| | 03:08 | When a signal crosses the threshold,
the compressor reacts and clamps down on
| | 03:12 | the signal according to the
attack speed that we have set here.
| | 03:16 | And this is measured in milliseconds,
or it can be even in microseconds, if I
| | 03:21 | roll this all the way down
here to the left in microseconds.
| | 03:24 | The Knee parameter also affects
how quickly the compression kicks in.
| | 03:29 | A low knee number indicates a hard
knee setting, meaning that the compression
| | 03:33 | will take effect very quickly,
applying the maximum amount of compression,
| | 03:37 | while a soft knee means the
compressor will ease into the maximum amount of
| | 03:41 | compression.
| | 03:42 | So let's take a look on the graph here.
| | 03:44 | With 0 setting, this is a hard knee,
and it's a very angular look here, if I
| | 03:50 | twist this, then it becomes more
rounded, and that's a soft knee setting
| | 03:53 | right there.
| | 03:54 | We'll talk a little bit more
about these in just a minute.
| | 03:57 | Now let's talk about the Release parameter.
| | 04:00 | So a signal will stay compressed
until it falls below the volume threshold.
| | 04:04 | And once the signal is below the
threshold, it's still compressed until being
| | 04:08 | let go at the release time, and then
it's allowed to return to its regular
| | 04:12 | uncompressed volume.
| | 04:13 | So once a signal is below the threshold,
in this case, it'll stay compressed for
| | 04:18 | 80 milliseconds, even
though it's below the threshold.
| | 04:21 | And our last parameter is Gain over here.
| | 04:24 | The compressor's gain will be
applied to the output level of the signal,
| | 04:27 | regardless of whether the
signal is compressed or not.
| | 04:30 | That means that the uncompressed
softer parts of the track are increased in
| | 04:34 | relation to the compressed louder parts,
creating a track with a more uniform
| | 04:39 | volume level and less of a dynamic range.
| | 04:41 | And that's the whole point of
using a compressor or a limiter.
| | 04:45 | So how do we really
apply compression to a track?
| | 04:48 | First, ask yourself if you actually
think that the track needs compression.
| | 04:52 | If you think that it does because the
dynamic range is too wide, first, we want
| | 04:56 | to dial in a threshold, and you can set
it high if you only want to affect the
| | 05:01 | peaks, or we can set it lower if we
want to affect the entire track, and that
| | 05:06 | will keep the track constantly compressed.
| | 05:08 | So I'm going to press play and
then continue talking about these
| | 05:11 | parameters here.
| | 05:12 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:14 | So now we've got constant compression.
| | 05:16 | You'll see that the signal is
constantly compressed because this is red.
| | 05:21 | If we raise this up and only wanted
to give the peaks, we could do that.
| | 05:25 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:28 | I'm going to bring this down.
| | 05:29 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:33 | Now we can adjust our
ratio, and a ratio of 2:3 is a good number
| | 05:42 | for light compression.
| | 05:44 | If we raise this up to 4:6, then
that's a little more volume leveling.
| | 05:49 | And if we take it up to 10 or above,
then that's considered limiting, and
| | 05:53 | it squashes the track.
| | 05:55 | So I'm actually going to bring this
down to about 6, and I'm going to stop
| | 05:58 | it here.
| | 05:59 | And now we want to set our attack
and release times, and this requires
| | 06:03 | some thought.
| | 06:04 | The attack time determines how
quickly the compressor reacts to a signal
| | 06:08 | that's over the threshold.
| | 06:09 | So you actually need to consider the
type of instrument and the part that
| | 06:12 | you're compressing and whether or
not you want to compress the initial
| | 06:15 | transient of the instrument.
| | 06:17 | So for example, the initial transient
on a drum track is always very fast.
| | 06:23 | So if you want to compress the
initial transient on the drum, the
| | 06:26 | compressor's attack has to be
extremely short, and that's when we bring it
| | 06:29 | down into these microseconds here.
| | 06:31 | However, if you want the drum's
transient to come through the compressor before
| | 06:35 | compression is applied, set the Attack
time to allow enough time for the initial
| | 06:39 | drum transient to pass through
before the signal is compressed.
| | 06:43 | So in this case, we would
increase the attack time.
| | 06:46 | The Release parameter on a compressor is
just as important as the Attack because
| | 06:50 | it determines how long the compressor
stays active once a signal falls below the
| | 06:54 | compressor's threshold.
| | 06:56 | Short release times let the compressor
cut out more quickly on notes that fall
| | 07:00 | below the threshold.
| | 07:01 | To make the compressor really work,
set the release time at about 20
| | 07:05 | milliseconds or less.
| | 07:06 | For a smoother sound, use values over
100 milliseconds and even longer releases
| | 07:12 | on bass tracks like this one.
| | 07:14 | So I'm going to increase this even more.
| | 07:16 | Finally, move over to the Gain, and
this is often called makeup gain because
| | 07:21 | it's the output gain on the compressor,
and it's used to make up the gain that's
| | 07:25 | been compressed out of the
loudest parts of the signal.
| | 07:28 | If a signal comes into the
compressor and is reduced by 6 dB, you can
| | 07:32 | increase the output gain to add 6 dB
back to the signal without the loudest
| | 07:36 | parts clipping.
| | 07:37 | Let's take a listen and compare, and
I'll use the Bypass button to show you what
| | 07:41 | it sounds like with the
compression and without it.
| | 07:43 | So I'm going to play this
and adjust these parameters.
| | 07:46 | (Music Playing)
| | 07:48 | First I'm going to increase the
Threshold to give us about 6 dB of
| | 07:52 | gain reduction.
| | 07:53 | (Music Playing)
| | 08:01 | And I'll keep all these
the same for now and adjust the Gain to
| | 08:04 | give us our gain back.
| | 08:06 | (Music Playing)
| | 08:23 | So I'll bring this down
just a little bit, and you can tell that
| | 08:26 | these levels are just about the
same when we bypass and un-bypass.
| | 08:30 | (Music Playing)
| | 08:36 | Now I'm hearing a
little bit of distortion here, so what I'm
| | 08:39 | going to do is actually increase the
release time, and that kind of smoothes
| | 08:42 | out the sound.
| | 08:43 | (Music Playing)
| | 08:52 | And obviously, if you
have other parameters that you want to
| | 08:54 | adjust while you're working on the
sound, you can go on and do that, but I'm
| | 08:58 | kind of happy with the
way this sounds right now.
| | 09:00 | Now aside from just controlling the
dynamics of the track, you can actually use
| | 09:04 | compression as a special effect.
| | 09:05 | For instance, you can use the Squash
technique to really mess with the sound
| | 09:09 | of a track.
| | 09:10 | I'm going to go up to the
Presets here and choose Steamroller.
| | 09:14 | And look at this setting here.
| | 09:15 | We've got a ratio of 100:1, we've got a
really short release time, and a lot of
| | 09:21 | gain, and a deep threshold.
| | 09:23 | So let's take a listen to what
this sounds like on the bass.
| | 09:26 | (Music Playing)
| | 09:31 | And I'm going to increase the gain.
| | 09:32 | (Music Playing)
| | 09:42 | It sounds very
distorted, and we're using this compression to
| | 09:46 | create that distortion.
| | 09:48 | It's by this deep threshold
and this short release time.
| | 09:51 | Now let's try one that actually sounds good.
| | 09:53 | I'll switch over to the Bass
Guitar preset, and let's take a listen.
| | 09:57 | (Music Playing)
| | 10:13 | That's pretty smooth.
| | 10:14 | Getting away from compressing a
single track, I want to talk about another
| | 10:18 | popular technique that's
called parallel compression.
| | 10:21 | And this adds a compressed copy of a
track to the original to increase the punch
| | 10:26 | of the overall sound.
| | 10:28 | It's a common technique that we
use on vocals, guitars, and drums.
| | 10:31 | So let's take a look at
what I've got set up here.
| | 10:33 | I have these two acoustic guitar tracks,
and I've bussed them out to Bus 1 and
| | 10:37 | 2, which is picked up at aux track down here.
| | 10:41 | I've got this compressor on the
track with a setting called Fatten.
| | 10:45 | So what we're going to hear in this
mix is the dry unaffected tracks and the
| | 10:50 | compressed copy of the tracks
mixed together in the overall mix.
| | 10:54 | So first, I'm going to solo these, and
we'll hear the acoustic guitar tracks by
| | 10:58 | themselves, and then I'll add in
the parallel compression track.
| | 11:02 | (Music Playing)
| | 11:11 | Now I'm going
to add in parallel compression.
| | 11:13 | (Music Playing)
| | 11:28 | So you can hear that
there's obviously a volume difference, but
| | 11:31 | there's also a sonic difference too.
| | 11:33 | It gives the tracks a bit more power
with the parallel compression in there, and
| | 11:37 | also some clarity, but it still has the
dynamics left over from the dry tracks.
| | 11:42 | Now let's quickly talk about limiters.
| | 11:44 | Limiters are essentially
compressors with ratios of 10:1 or higher.
| | 11:48 | These large ratios are used to prevent
transient signal peaks from exceeding
| | 11:52 | a chosen level.
| | 11:54 | Because of this, limiters, like
compressors, allow you to increase the overall
| | 11:58 | track level while avoiding clipping,
and you can select up to 100:1 on the
| | 12:02 | Dynamics 3 Compressor/Limiter plug-in.
| | 12:04 | That means that a signal that's 100 dB
over the threshold will come out of the
| | 12:08 | limiter at 1 dB over the threshold.
| | 12:11 | Limiters are useful on many types of
tracks and are used most often on the same
| | 12:15 | types of tracks that compressors are,
such as vocals and electric bass.
| | 12:19 | Limiters can be used in cooperation
with compressors to take care of the
| | 12:23 | peaks, while the compressor performs
the main compression duties on the rest
| | 12:26 | of the non-peaked signal.
| | 12:28 | Now let's take a look at this Maxim plug-in.
| | 12:31 | Limiters, like this Maxim plug-in, are
often used on submixes and almost always
| | 12:36 | in mastering applications to make
sure that the tracks don't peak and cause
| | 12:40 | unwanted distortion.
| | 12:42 | So check out how adding this Maxim
limiter to the master fader track in the
| | 12:46 | session can boost the output's signal by
reducing the dynamic range of the song,
| | 12:50 | but without creating distortion.
| | 12:52 | (Music Playing)
| | 13:11 | If I bring the
ceiling way down, then the volume level goes
| | 13:14 | down, and ultimately, what I
want to set this at is -0.1.
| | 13:19 | (Music Playing)
| | 13:37 | Now why do
I want to set it at -0.1?
| | 13:39 | That's just in case we have a potential
over or a clip at 0.0, and we just want
| | 13:46 | to make sure that we don't have that
so that we don't clip our MP3 file or
| | 13:50 | create an over for a CD that
might potentially make it skip.
| | 13:53 | So that just gives us 0.1
dB of headroom, just in case.
| | 13:57 | So as you can see here in this movie,
adding compression and limiting into
| | 14:01 | your mix correctly takes some
knowledge of the parameters as well as some
| | 14:05 | focused listening.
| | 14:06 | As you're learning, be sure to try out
some of the presets, tweak the knobs, and
| | 14:10 | listen to the effects on
a variety of instruments.
| | 14:13 | Revisit this video to review the
explanations of the compression parameters
| | 14:17 | if needed.
| | 14:18 | Used correctly, compression can make
your mixes sound more powerful, more
| | 14:22 | balanced, and more radio-ready.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using delay effects| 00:00 | In this video, I want to discuss how
delay effects work and how to apply them in
| | 00:04 | your Pro Tools sessions.
| | 00:07 | Delay effects record a signal, then
play it back at a user-selected delay time,
| | 00:11 | often called delay time or delay length.
| | 00:14 | A single delay of less than 35
milliseconds is called a double, because this
| | 00:19 | effect makes the tracks sound like
there are two of the same part being played
| | 00:23 | or sung at basically the same time.
| | 00:26 | A slapback delay is a single repeat with
the delay time of over 35 milliseconds.
| | 00:32 | Slapback delay times of 35 to 75
milliseconds are good for thickening vocal or
| | 00:37 | instrumental tracks,
| | 00:38 | while delays of 125 to 350
milliseconds are useful for making a vocal or
| | 00:44 | guitar track sound large.
| | 00:47 | Let's go over to the Mix window, and
I am going to open up this extra long delay plug-in.
| | 00:53 | Now it's usually a good idea to set
the delay time in relation to the beat
| | 00:57 | and tempo of the song.
| | 00:59 | The rhythm you create with the
delay can add a nice groove element.
| | 01:02 | To do this, make use of the Tempo Sync
feature, which will synchronize the delays
| | 01:07 | to the session tempo.
| | 01:09 | It's this button down here.
| | 01:11 | Just click this little icon to
activate or deactivate Tempo Sync.
| | 01:16 | When it's yellow like this, it's activated.
| | 01:19 | In this part of the Plug-in window, we
can tell the tempo of the session, which
| | 01:23 | is set right here, 90 BPM, and if
you want to change our delay time to
| | 01:28 | represent a different subdivision of
the beat, we can simply click on the note
| | 01:31 | values just down here.
| | 01:32 | So we've got eighth note, quarter note,
half note, whole note, but I am going to
| | 01:38 | choose a 16th note here.
| | 01:40 | Now if we don't want to have Tempo Sync
on, we can turn this off and then use
| | 01:45 | this slider to select our tempo, but I
am going to turn this back on and utilize
| | 01:50 | the 16th note value here.
| | 01:52 | So let's listen to an example.
| | 01:53 | I'll move this over the side here, and
we can see here that we've got an effects
| | 01:57 | loop set up where I have bussed these
two acoustic guitar tracks up to 5 and 6,
| | 02:02 | and they're being received here on
this track, which is an aux track that has
| | 02:06 | this extra long delay plug-in on it.
| | 02:08 | So right now I press play, and we'll
just hear the solo guitars without the effect.
| | 02:14 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:27 | Now let me bring in the effect.
| | 02:28 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:41 | So you can hear that there's a
single 16th note delay going onto the signal here.
| | 02:45 | Let me play this one more time,
and I'll pop the effect in and out.
| | 02:48 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:01 | So let's talk about some of the parameters here.
| | 03:04 | The Gain is the volume level, and
usually you'll just want to keep that as 0 db.
| | 03:10 | If you feel like bringing it down,
you can, to lessen the volume of the delay effect.
| | 03:15 | We'll just keep it at 0 here.
And notice that we're working with a stereo
| | 03:19 | effect here, so we have controls for
both the left and right sides here in
| | 03:23 | the Plug-in window.
| | 03:24 | The mix percentage is how much of the
original signal is being delayed, and
| | 03:29 | usually when you set up an effects loop,
you want this to stay at 100, but you
| | 03:34 | can reduce it if you want.
| | 03:35 | The further that you bring it down
the more of the original track or the
| | 03:39 | unaffected track will be
going through this plug-in.
| | 03:42 | So usually you just want to keep it at
100%, keeping the dry tracks and the wet
| | 03:47 | or the effected tracks separate in the mix.
| | 03:49 | Next, we have the LPF, or the Low Pass
Filter, and we use this to filter out any
| | 03:54 | of the high end so that it doesn't
build up when we're using a lot of feedback.
| | 03:59 | So we can bring this down lower than 10
kHz if we want. I mean we could bring it
| | 04:03 | all the way down to 10 Hz, and we
wouldn't hear anything. But I'll just bring it
| | 04:08 | back up to 10 kHz and now
everything above 10 kHz is filtered out.
| | 04:13 | Next, we have the delay length or the
delay time, and this is equal to 166.67 ms,
| | 04:21 | which is conveniently equal to
1 16th note at a tempo of 90 BPM.
| | 04:28 | If I change this to an eighth note
then that'll double and a quarter note, it
| | 04:33 | will double again.
| | 04:35 | The depth and rate of modulation
creates slight pitch variations, and we'll use
| | 04:40 | these parameters to create
chorus, phaser, or flanger effects.
| | 04:44 | We're going to leave those off for now.
| | 04:46 | Finally, feedback sends the delayed
signal back into the delay input, creating a
| | 04:52 | delay of the delayed signal.
| | 04:54 | The higher the feedback level the
more delays are added, and when you add
| | 04:59 | feedback to a delay, this can smooth
out the sound of a track or give it an
| | 05:04 | infinite or never-ending feel.
| | 05:05 | So I'm going to go ahead and press play
and add some feedback here, and you'll hear
| | 05:10 | what it does to the signal.
| | 05:12 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:28 | So as you can hear from the delay
trail, there was a lot of feedback going on there.
| | 05:33 | One other cool feature that we have
down here is the Groove, and we can use this
| | 05:38 | to add swing to our delay time. And as
you see, when I slide this, the delay time
| | 05:45 | is changing, and that adds a
little bit of the swing to the repeats.
| | 05:50 | Now in Pro Tools there are a number
of delay plug-ins available, and I've got
| | 05:54 | another one loaded up in here;
| | 05:55 | it's the Dynamic Delay.
| | 05:57 | So let me open that up. I'm going to mute
this one this one and open up the Dynamic Delay.
| | 06:04 | Now let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 06:05 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:18 | Now that sounds pretty similar to
what we just were listening to in the other delay.
| | 06:22 | Let's look at why that's true.
| | 06:24 | First, we have the delay set for 16th
notes, we've got feedback at a similar
| | 06:31 | percentage to what we had in the
other delay, we've got our mix at 100%, and
| | 06:36 | we've got it synced to the tempo.
| | 06:38 | The delay parameters I have discussed
in both the extra long delay and the
| | 06:42 | dynamic delay are fairly standard in
all delay plug-ins and should be a great
| | 06:47 | starting point to create any delay
effect you want to make in Pro Tools.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying AudioSuite plug-ins| 00:00 | Most plug-ins in Pro Tools have a real-
time version that you can insert on the
| | 00:04 | track and work in real time
during playback and recording.
| | 00:07 | Most of them also have non-real-
time versions that we simply call the
| | 00:11 | AudioSuite version.
| | 00:13 | AudioSuite plug-ins process audio
while Pro Tools is stopped, not playing or recording.
| | 00:19 | The advantage of the non-real-time
processing is that it doesn't take any
| | 00:22 | processing power while
you're playing back or recording.
| | 00:25 | To apply an AudioSuite plug-in to an
audio clip, first we need to highlight the
| | 00:30 | clip, and then we choose the plug-in
that we want from the AudioSuite menu. So I
| | 00:34 | can simply go up to the AudioSuite
menu here, and I'm going to choose Chorus.
| | 00:40 | A lot of AudioSuite plug-ins have presets,
so I'm going to choose EvenSlo Flange
| | 00:48 | here, and that changes the settings here.
| | 00:52 | And now if I want to hear this, I
can click the Preview button, which is right down here.
| | 00:58 | Let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 00:59 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:13 | With the Bypass button on, we hear
what the track normally sounds like.
| | 01:16 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:23 | If we actually like that sound--
| | 01:25 | that's kind of crazy--but if we do like
it then all we need to do really is hit
| | 01:29 | the Render button and Pro Tools will
create a brand-new audio file that renders
| | 01:34 | that effect into the
acoustic guitar track that we have.
| | 01:37 | If you look over here on the Clips
list, we can see this new clip right here.
| | 01:44 | We can always tell that it has been
rendered by an AudioSuite plug-in because
| | 01:47 | it will have a little
abbreviation of that effect right here.
| | 01:51 | So the A stands for AudioSuite
and the CHR stands for chorus.
| | 01:55 | So as we can tell here in the Clips
list, this piece of audio is bold here, and
| | 02:01 | that indicates that it's
a whole-file audio clip.
| | 02:04 | Now before rendering a clip with an
AudioSuite plug-in, I highly recommend making
| | 02:09 | a duplicate playlist on the track so
that you can always go back to the original
| | 02:13 | unrendered clip if needed.
| | 02:16 | So in this particular case, I'm
actually going to choose Undo, then create a
| | 02:22 | duplicate playlist, and I'm actually
going to name this "chorus," and now I can
| | 02:31 | render this effect. And now I have this
playlist with the chorus effect, and I can
| | 02:36 | always go back to the original if needed.
| | 02:40 | A good time to use the AudioSuite
version of a plug-in is when you're running
| | 02:43 | out of processing power from
using so many real-time plug-ins.
| | 02:47 | In that case, save the plug-in
settings that you're using in the real-time
| | 02:50 | version, then take that plug-in off
the track, and then finally apply the
| | 02:55 | AudioSuite version like this. Let me
show you how. Go over to the Mix window. And
| | 03:00 | I have got this EQ plug-in on this
bass track, so what I'm going to do is
| | 03:07 | actually save this setting as df bass EQ.
| | 03:12 | So now I can actually take this
plug-in off the track completely.
| | 03:16 | I can have no insert, or I can simply
make it inactive. And what I did there was
| | 03:22 | press Ctrl+Command on the
Mac or Start+Ctrl in Windows.
| | 03:28 | Now I'll switch back over to the
Edit window, and I'm going to go down here--
| | 03:32 | I will actually close this window--
and double-click on the bass track.
| | 03:37 | Now I'll go to the AudioSuite plug-in
and choose my settings here on this EQ.
| | 03:44 | I can find them right here, df bass EQ.
| | 03:48 | It loads up my EQ curve, and I can
press Render and that creates a whole new
| | 03:55 | audio track for my bass that is
rendered with the EQ processing on it.
| | 04:00 | You can also use the AudioSuite
plug-ins for creative effects.
| | 04:03 | I like to use the Reverse AudioSuite
plug-in to render a track in reverse.
| | 04:08 | Let's check it out.
| | 04:08 | I am going to highlight this guitar
track and choose AudioSuite > Other >
| | 04:16 | Reverse, and let's hear what this sounds like.
| | 04:18 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:30 | Pretty cool. Let's say that we just want
to render part of this track.
| | 04:34 | So I'll highlight this
section and choose Render.
| | 04:38 | So what we have here to the left of
the Render button is the handle length
| | 04:43 | for rendered clips.
| | 04:45 | Now handles are a specified amount of
time outside the current edit selection
| | 04:50 | that enable you to trim clips beyond
their originally rendered selection after
| | 04:54 | they've been processed.
| | 04:56 | So down here we have this selection;
however, when this is set to 2 we have 2
| | 05:02 | seconds on either side that will give
us some handles that we can extend this
| | 05:07 | audio clip out left or right.
| | 05:10 | Now handle length can be up to 60
seconds on either side to the left or the
| | 05:14 | right, if there is enough material in
the originally referenced whole file.
| | 05:18 | You can also choose to make the handle
the entire whole file referenced by the
| | 05:22 | clip, and you can choose
that in the plug-in here,
| | 05:26 | except we actually
have to change our preference.
| | 05:29 | So we go to Setup > Preferences and
here in the Processing page we've got the
| | 05:35 | Default Handle Length, and
we'll choose Whole File.
| | 05:39 | One other thing we have to change
here is that we want to create individual
| | 05:42 | files, and now we can select Whole File
here. And what that does when we render it
| | 05:48 | is that we'll see and hear this part
being rendered, but actually this entire
| | 05:54 | whole clip will be rendered. So let's do it.
| | 05:57 | I will render it, and literally I can
go down here and drag this out and it'll
| | 06:02 | actually be rendered with our Reverse plug-in.
| | 06:06 | I'll play it here, and you can hear it.
| | 06:07 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:12 | Very cool! So as you can see here, you can use the
AudioSuite plug-ins for creative effects
| | 06:17 | like this Reverse plug-in, and you can
use them to help lessen the processing
| | 06:22 | load when you doing a large mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding reverb to your mix| 00:00 | Reverb, short for reverberation, is a
sonic effect that occurs when many random
| | 00:06 | reflections of a sound blend
together and reach the listener more than 10
| | 00:10 | milliseconds after the
direct sound from a sound source.
| | 00:13 | As an effect, Reverb gives character
to direct dry sound by placing it in
| | 00:18 | some sort of acoustical environment,
like a church or a gymnasium or a tiled bathroom.
| | 00:23 | Let's hear a few examples using the
D-Verb plug-in on a percussion track.
| | 00:27 | In the D-Verb plug-in, I'm going
to just to mix control while we're listening back.
| | 00:31 | When the mix is set up 100%, that means
that 100% of the track that's coming into
| | 00:36 | the plug-in is being affected by the reverb.
| | 00:39 | If we reduce this down to 0, that means
that there is no reverb effect at all, and
| | 00:44 | the track will be completely dry.
| | 00:46 | So listen as I adjust the wet/dry mix
and change between some of the presets
| | 00:51 | on this plug-in.
| | 00:53 | When I change the algorithm imagine
being in the acoustical environments that
| | 00:57 | the plug-in is simulating.
| | 00:58 | (Music Playing)
| | 01:30 | When a sound is made, we hear the
direct sound waves' early reflections, and
| | 01:34 | reverberation in that order.
| | 01:36 | Let me show you an example.
| | 01:38 | The direct sound reaches our ears
without bouncing off any surface.
| | 01:43 | Early reflections reach our ears
between 10 and 30 milliseconds later than the
| | 01:48 | direct sound, after they've
bounced off one or more surfaces.
| | 01:53 | Because these reflections arrive so
quickly they're perceived as part of
| | 01:57 | the direct sound.
| | 01:58 | Reverberation actually occurs when a
sound reflects off of many surfaces and is
| | 02:04 | mixed with other reflections,
creating a denser blend of reflected sound.
| | 02:08 | These reflections begin to fade away,
or decay, as they're observed into the
| | 02:12 | material of the acoustical space.
| | 02:15 | The longer a sound takes to decay the
larger and more hard surfaced to the
| | 02:20 | acoustical environment is perceived to be,
and the farther from the sound source
| | 02:24 | the listener is or seems to be.
| | 02:26 | In Reverb plug-ins in Pro Tools we can
control the parameters that determine
| | 02:31 | what a reverb will sound like, through
its progression from the first to the
| | 02:34 | last reflection. Here's a list of common
reverb effect parameters.
| | 02:39 | The wet/dry mix is the mix of the
direct or the dry signal with the affected or wet signal.
| | 02:46 | Pre Delay is the time
delay before reverb is heard,
| | 02:50 | that is, after the original sound was
made and before the reflections are heard.
| | 02:54 | Decay time is the time it takes for a
sound to disappear, that is, the total
| | 02:59 | effect time, including the
length of the reverb tail.
| | 03:02 | Diffusion is the space
between reflections or repeats.
| | 03:06 | Density is the initial buildup of
short delay times, or reflections.
| | 03:11 | The room size is the size of the
acoustical space, and the width is the amount of
| | 03:16 | spread across the stereo field.
| | 03:18 | You can make a reverb sound
very narrow or extremely wide.
| | 03:23 | Like delay, reverb is used in
mixing to create a sense of depth.
| | 03:27 | When applying reverb to tracks the wet/
dry mix parameter sets the overall amount
| | 03:32 | of depth, or how far away a
sound is from the listener.
| | 03:35 | In addition to the decay time, the
longer the pre-delay time, or the time before
| | 03:40 | reverb, heard the larger the
perceived size of the acoustical space.
| | 03:45 | Let's listen to an example.
| | 03:47 | If I choose the Church setting here, this
has a lot more pre-delay. As you can see
| | 03:52 | here, it's got 39 milliseconds.
| | 03:55 | So if I choose Hall, it
actually has a pre-delay of 0.
| | 03:59 | These rooms also have a pre-delay of 0.
| | 04:01 | So let's take a listen between the Hall
and the Church and see how we can hear
| | 04:07 | the difference in the pre-delay.
| | 04:09 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:23 | With the Church setting we don't hear
the reverb kick in until 39 milliseconds
| | 04:28 | after the original sound was made, and
this is a big determinant for simulating
| | 04:33 | large acoustical spaces with reverb.
| | 04:35 | Now reverb effects can be used on
pretty much any kind of sound source in your mix.
| | 04:40 | However, here are a couple
of tips for applying reverb.
| | 04:44 | First, I don't recommend using reverb
on bass instruments, because if you use
| | 04:48 | reverb on a low frequency, it can
tend to really make the mix muddy.
| | 04:53 | If you do find that your reverb plug-
in is making your mix a little muddy, you
| | 04:57 | can use the high-filter cut or the
low-pass filter on almost any kind of
| | 05:00 | reverb plug-in to help sculpt the
sound and tighten up your frequency range
| | 05:04 | for the reverb output.
| | 05:06 | Second, reverb often sounds more
impressive if it's used in stereo as opposed to mono.
| | 05:12 | While mono reverbs have their place,
stereo reverb effects create a much
| | 05:16 | wider stereo image.
| | 05:18 | Pro Tools comes with several reverb
plug-ins, including D-Verb, AIR Reverb, Non
| | 05:22 | Linear Reverb, and Spring Reverb.
| | 05:25 | Let me show you these.
| | 05:26 | Let's open up the AIR Reverb, and I'm
going to bypass the D-Verb and activate the AIR Reverb.
| | 05:31 | I've got this set up for the Gas Tank setting.
| | 05:34 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:42 | So that's what drums might sound like
if we're listening to them in a gas tank.
| | 05:47 | Pretty cool reverb effect.
| | 05:49 | Let's move on to the non-linear
reverb, and here we're going to listen to
| | 05:54 | a gated reverb sound.
| | 05:55 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:02 | What that's doing is
cutting off the reverb tail.
| | 06:06 | Now let's go over to the Spring
reverb and I am going to be using this Big
| | 06:10 | and Busy preset.
| | 06:11 | (Music Playing)
| | 06:20 | That's a pretty appropriate name for
that preset, as there's a lot of reflections
| | 06:24 | going on there and a big, long reverb tail.
| | 06:27 | So as you can tell, there are a lot of
cool presets in these reverb plug-ins
| | 06:31 | in Pro Tools.
| | 06:32 | I recommend going in and tweaking all
the parameters now that you know what they
| | 06:36 | all do, because reverb effects are
essential tools for mixing in all styles of
| | 06:41 | music and post-production.
| | 06:43 | Learn how to use the parameters and
you'll be able to create the depth,
| | 06:46 | atmosphere, and sonic
character that you want for your mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Bouncing down a mix| 00:00 | Bouncing means to combine all of the
tracks in your Pro Tools session into one
| | 00:05 | file, usually a stereo file, so that
you can burn it onto a CD or make an MP3 to post online.
| | 00:12 | When you bounce in Pro Tools
what you hear is what you get.
| | 00:15 | If a track is muted, it
won't be in the bounced file.
| | 00:19 | If you've soloed a track, that's all
that you're going to get in your bounce.
| | 00:23 | MIDI clips and instrument tracks don't
need to be converted to audio tracks.
| | 00:28 | As long as you can hear the tracks on
playback, they will be in the bounce.
| | 00:31 | So let me show you how to bounce a track.
| | 00:34 | First, in the Edit window highlight
the length of time that you want your song to be.
| | 00:39 | What I usually like to do is create
markers at the start and end, and then it
| | 00:44 | makes it really easy to just click on
one of the markers, press Shift, and then
| | 00:49 | click on the other, and that
highlights the entire range of time that I want to bounce.
| | 00:55 | If you leave it open ended then Pro
Tools is going to bounce until the very
| | 00:59 | last piece of information, and that
could be a piece of automation that's way out here.
| | 01:06 | In fact, if we had a piece here, it
would bounce all the way out to here.
| | 01:11 | So we don't want that.
| | 01:13 | So we want to highlight the entire
amount of time, but nothing more or nothing
| | 01:17 | less than what we really want.
| | 01:18 | So now let's go to Bounce to > Disk
from the File menu and the Bounce to >
| | 01:24 | Disk window opens up.
| | 01:26 | Let's pick the right settings here, and
we'll choose settings that will create a
| | 01:29 | file that can be burned onto an audio CD.
| | 01:33 | First, we'll set the Bounce
Source, and that's our main outputs.
| | 01:36 | That looks good here. And that what we
can see down here is what we've routed
| | 01:40 | everything through on this master fader track,
| | 01:43 | So we know that's correct.
| | 01:44 | then we'll choose the file type
and we can choose from a number of
| | 01:48 | different ones here.
| | 01:49 | I like WAV files the best,
| | 01:51 | so we'll set that.
| | 01:52 | We could also choose AIFF or MP3
if we wanted to make an MP3 file.
| | 01:59 | Next, we'll choose our format, and
most of the time you want to choose
| | 02:02 | Interleaved, and that creates a stereo track.
| | 02:06 | Next, we'll choose our bit depth and in
this case if we want to burn it onto a
| | 02:10 | CD, it needs to be 16-bit,
so we will choose that. And our sampling rate.
| | 02:17 | We like 44.1 kHz.
| | 02:19 | That's what the CD standard is.
| | 02:21 | Because the audio in this session is
already at 16-bit and 44.1 kHz, we don't
| | 02:27 | need to convert it. But if we were
changing it to something else, we could
| | 02:31 | choose a conversion quality, but
usually you will want to keep it at the best
| | 02:35 | one, which is Tweak Head.
| | 02:36 | Even though it says it's slowest.
| | 02:38 | On our computers these days
it's really not slow at all.
| | 02:42 | So anyway let switch this back to
44.1 kHz, and now we have a few other
| | 02:47 | options down here.
| | 02:48 | I always choose Convert After Bounce.
| | 02:51 | When you choose Convert After Bounce,
Pro Tools converts the bounce track to the
| | 02:56 | desired file type after the
bounce process takes place.
| | 02:59 | If you choose Convert During Bounce,
that can eat up a lot of system resources
| | 03:04 | and could reduce the number of plug-ins
that you can use while you're bouncing.
| | 03:08 | That's why I always choose
this setting, Convert After Bounce.
| | 03:11 | Now we have a few more settings down
here, and I am going to cover that in the
| | 03:13 | next movie, but now let's
just go to the Bounce button.
| | 03:17 | After clicking the Bounce button, we
need to name the file and choose a
| | 03:21 | location to save it.
| | 03:23 | And I usually like to save it one file
folder above the audio file so it doesn't
| | 03:28 | get lost in my Audio Files folder.
| | 03:30 | I'm just going to name it "bounce" and click Save.
| | 03:35 | Once I hit Save, Pro Tools will begin
the real-time bounce, and this is a great
| | 03:41 | opportunity to do a quality check
while listening to the mix in real time.
| | 03:44 | (Music Playing)
| | 04:00 | So there you go.
| | 04:01 | That's the process for bouncing down
an audio file so that you can burn it onto a CD.
| | 04:06 | You can also bounce to an MP3 file and
bring that into your iTunes library or
| | 04:11 | post to SoundCloud, and I'll show
you how to do that in the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making an MP3 for iTunes and SoundCloud| 00:00 | In this video I'm going to show you
how to bounce down an MP3 file and then
| | 00:04 | how to automatically add it to your
iTunes Library and also share it with your
| | 00:08 | SoundCloud account.
| | 00:09 | First, let's create the MP3.
| | 00:12 | So I'm going to click and drag, just to
highlight a small portion of this track,
| | 00:17 | and then choose File > Bounce to > Disk.
| | 00:22 | In this window I want to make sure
that we choose the File Type as MP3, and
| | 00:27 | everything else looks good here.
| | 00:28 | We want an interleaved file, and we
want it to go out of our main outputs.
| | 00:33 | You notice that the Bit Depth is grayed,
out and that's because the MP3 encoder
| | 00:38 | automatically sets this resolution.
| | 00:41 | Also, the Sample Rate that you choose
will be the base sample rate for the
| | 00:44 | encoder, and I usually choose 44.1 kHz,
just so the file will be compatible with
| | 00:50 | a CD if I want to burn them later.
| | 00:52 | Now let's go down here and check
off Add To iTunes Library, and Share with SoundCloud.
| | 00:57 | I'm going to click Bounce, and here in the
MP3 settings dialog we can set the title of the track.
| | 01:06 | We can choose what the artist name is.
| | 01:09 | We can set other metadata in here.
| | 01:10 | We can also choose the bitrate, and
128 is the default, and that's a pretty
| | 01:17 | good compromise between quality and
size, where each minute of a song roughly
| | 01:21 | equates to about 1 MB in file size.
| | 01:24 | This is good for streaming on the
Internet; however, MP3s with higher bit
| | 01:28 | rates will sound better.
| | 01:30 | So now I'm going to go down here and
click OK, and let's bounce the track.
| | 01:35 | But first we have to name it. I'll
call it bounce_MP3, and we'll save it to
| | 01:41 | this folder here, Chapter 11,
save, and now we see this window, Share
| | 01:46 | with SoundCloud.
| | 01:47 | We've got our title here, we can give
it a description, we can choose what
| | 01:53 | kind of license we want, we can
choose the type of track it is, and give it some tags.
| | 02:00 | We can even send it privately to
certain people through their email.
| | 02:05 | So now I'm going to click
share and we'll start to bounce.
| | 02:09 | (Music Playing)
| | 02:18 | So once the bounce is completed, the
track is automatically imported into your
| | 02:22 | iTunes, so the next time that you
launch iTunes, it will be right there. Or if
| | 02:27 | iTunes is already opened,
then it will appear immediately.
| | 02:30 | If I go over to iTunes,
you'll see it right here.
| | 02:37 | And if you're sharing it to
SoundCloud, you'll be asked to log in to your
| | 02:40 | SoundCloud account if you're not
already logged in, and your file will be
| | 02:44 | automatically posted to your account.
| | 02:47 | So now you know how to bounce down your
MP3 and share it with the world through
| | 02:51 | iTunes and SoundCloud.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up a session for mastering| 00:00 | Mastering is the last stage in the
production process, and it takes place after
| | 00:04 | you're 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 songs sound good on all playback
| | 00:18 | systems, from one's speaker clock radios,
to hi-fi stereos, to your car stereo.
| | 00:24 | In the mastering process the volume
level of all of the tracks are made to be
| | 00:28 | competitive with other mastered recordings.
| | 00:31 | Also, the EQ and the volume of each
song are tweaked so that they create a
| | 00:35 | cohesive final prod |
|
|
