Pro Tools Quick Tips

ASIO Interface and Windows/PC Audio

2016-11-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

This video will show you how to disable your ASIO interface from being the Default Audio Device for Windows, and conversely, how to enable your ASIO interface to be the Default Audio Device for Windows.

I usually suggest that you keep your ASIO interface from being the default sound device for your computer. Meaning, you should only use the ASIO interface to hear sounds coming from your DAW, like Pro Tools, and use the integrated sound system for your PC sounds, like YouTube, SoundCloud, Windows Media Player, ect....

The reason for this is Windows can hold the ASIO driver hostage and prevent you from changing sample rates when creating a new Pro Tools session. This is because Windows needs a defined sample rate to playback audio, and if you are using the same interface/driver for your DAW, then it too will need a defined sample rate for your session, but since Windows has already defined it, you are stuck on the current sample rate.

This video will give you some ideas to try if your interface is not working properly for your DAW. I'm not saying you can't use your ASIO interface for Windows, but in my 9+ years of experience, it's usually best to avoid using your ASIO interface as the default audio device for Windows. There are other ways to use your ASIO device as your Windows sound device that cause less possible problems, such as routing a cable from your PC to an input of your interface.

Of course all ASIO interfaces are different and some ASIO drivers work better than others, but these are steps you will need to know if you are operating an ASIO interface on a Windows PC.

The easiest way to get to the Windows Sound settings is to right-click the speaker icon in the tray, and choose Playback Devices.

Then right-click and DISABLE every entry that references your ASIO device, in my case, Eleven Rack.

Click over to the Recording tab and DISABLE all the ASIO entries there as well.

If you want to use your ASIO interface for Windows sounds, just reverse these steps and Enable your ASIO interface and set it as the Default Device, then restart the PC.

PRO TOOLS - HOW TO COLOR GROUPS AND DEFAULT COLOR COLOR SETTINGS

2016-09-29T13:24:00.004-07:00

In this video I'll show you how to color Groups and then we'll look deeper at the Default Color settings.

First open the color palette. Either double-click on a color strip of a track, or go to WINDOW - COLOR PALETTE.

Choose GROUPS from the drop down, select your Group by selecting the radio button next to the name, and choose your color.

To create a Group, select your tracks and press Control+G (WIN) or Command+G (MAC)

Press Control/Command + Shift + G to quickly turn Groups on/off.

Color your Groups to help differentiate between them and speed editing.

Default Color Settings

In SETUP - PREFERENCES - DISPLAY, you will find the Default Color settings for Tracks and Clips. By setting the default, you could, for example, have tracks, clips, and groups default to the same color. Or, default to different colors. The default settings can help you color a session just the way you want.

Be sure to make use of the DEFAULT and HOLD buttons in the color palette.

When you trash preferences you will need to reset your color options.

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PRO TOOLS - HOW TO COLOR MARKERS AND HOW TO ADD MARKERS

2016-09-29T13:19:00.003-07:00

In this video I'll show you how to color markers in Pro Tools. And, if you don’t know how, I'll also show you how to add markers.

First open the color palette. Either double-click on a color strip of a track, or go to WINDOW - COLOR PALETTE.

Choose MARKERS from the drop down, select your Marker, and choose your color.

In SETUP - PREFERENCES - DISPLAY, you will find an option to ALWAYS SHOW MARKER COLORS, make sure that option is selected.

Be sure to make use of the DEFAULT and HOLD buttons in the color palette.

Color your Markers to quickly recognize the sections of your song/session.

When you trash preferences you will need to reset your color options.

Of course, in order to see your Markers and add color, you must have the Marker bar showing.

Add Markers

To add a Marker, use the ENTER KEY on the NUM Pad keyboard. Or, press the "+" button on the Marker bar. Or, hold START (WIN), CONTROL (MAC), and hover over the Marker bar. You should see a hand with a "+", click the Marker bar to add your marker.

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PRO TOOLS - HOW TO COLOR CLIPS

2016-09-29T13:14:00.001-07:00

In this video I'll show you how to color clips in Pro Tools, look at how the color palette works, and go over how our default settings effect clip color in Pro Tools.

First open the color palette. Either double-click on a color strip of a track, or go to WINDOW - COLOR PALETTE.

Choose CLIPS IN TRACKS from the drop down, select your clip, and choose your color. Select contiguous tracks by holding SHIFT. We also take a quick look at how to color CLIPS IN CLIP LIST.

In SETUP - PREFERENCES - DISPLAY, you will find the Default color settings for clips. I go into this option in this video, and expand upon it in another video.

Be sure to make use of the DEFAULT and HOLD buttons in the color palette.

Color your clips to quickly recognize the kind of content you are working on.

When you trash preferences you will need to reset your color options.

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PRO TOOLS - HOW TO COLOR TRACKS

2016-09-29T13:09:00.002-07:00

In this video we look at how to color tracks in Pro Tools, and take a look at how the color palette works and how default track color settings effect our default track colors.

First open the color palette. Either double-click on a color strip of a track, or go to WINDOW - COLOR PALETTE.
Choose TRACKS from the drop down, select your tracks, and choose your color. Be sure to active the Color Tracks button in you want to apply the color to the whole track, otherwise the color will just effect the strips at the top and bottom of the track. Adjust saturation and brightness to taste. Select contiguous tracks by holding SHIFT. Select non-contiguous tracks by holding CONTROL (WIN), COMMAND (Mac). Hold ALT to select/deselect all tracks.

In SETUP - PREFERENCES - DISPLAY, you will find the Default color settings for tracks. I go into this option in this video, and expand upon it in other videos.

Be sure to make use of the DEFAULT and HOLD buttons in the color palette.

Color your tracks to quickly recognize the type of tracks you want to work on.

When you trash preferences you will need to reset your color options.

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Pro Studio Basics - Backing up your DAW, Plugins, and Serials

2016-09-27T18:09:00.001-07:00

Since everything today is readily available in the cloud, many people fail to backup the installers they need for their DAW, NLE, plugins, ect... While most of the time it's not an issue to re-download an installer, at other times, it is. I have seen many people wanting certain versions of Pro Tools or a plugin that is no longer being hosted by the company. An easy way around this is to always have a backup on-site. This video will give you tips of a backup strategy you may want to employ.

Pro Tools 12 - Set Session Location

2016-07-14T16:07:00.003-07:00

Quick video showing how to set where your Session will be recorded to in Pro Tools 12.

PRO TOOLS | FIRST - AAE ERROR -6117 FIX

2016-07-14T16:06:00.001-07:00

This video will show you how to fix error -6117 when trying to launch Pro Tools | First on Windows.
This video assumes you already have an ASIO interface or ASIO4ALL.

Behringer B-Control BCF2000 w/Pro Tools 12

2016-07-14T16:03:00.002-07:00

The Behringer BCF2000 is a very old control board, but it actually works great with Pro Tools 12. This video will show you how it works!

Pro Tools - How To Change a SESSION (Local) into a PROJECT (Cloud)

2016-07-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

This video will show you have to change a SESSION into a PROJECT when using Pro Tools 12.5 and higher.

Change Where Project Files Are Saved On Your Computer

2016-07-14T16:00:00.001-07:00

This video will show you how to change where Project files are saved on your computer when using Pro Tools 12.5 and higher.

Pro Tools 12 - Where Are Project (Cloud) Files Saved On Your Computer?

2016-07-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

This video will show you where the files are saved when you select a PROJECT (Cloud) in Pro Tools 12.5 and higher.

Pro Tools 12.5 Dashboard - Project or Session

2016-07-14T15:56:00.001-07:00

This video goes over the new options in the Dashboard of Pro Tools 12.5

A Cool Trick To Edit Frozen Files in Pro Tools (Track Freeze)

2015-12-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

Once you freeze a track in Pro Tools 12.4 (or higher), it creates rendered files of audio. You cannot edit these (much) within the Frozen track in Pro Tools, BUT there is a little trick you can use...

Drag the frozen audio files from your Session Folder>Rendered Files Folder into Pro Tools and now you can edit those tracks/files just like any other audio file in Pro Tools.

Yes, you would probably be better off to just COMMIT the track instead of Freezing if you know you want to have full editing capabilities, but, this is a method you could certainly use. Try it out for yourself.

Be sure to watch the Pro Tools Track Freeze Explained video

Pro Tools 12.4 Track FREEZE Explained

2015-12-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

In this video we look at TRACK FREEZE in Pro Tools 12.4 and go over what you can and cannot do to a frozen track. Also, we look at how to freeze/unfreeze tracks, using freeze with Audio Tracks, using freeze with Aux Tracks, and using freeze with Instrument Tracks. We will also go over using Multiple Output Stems from plugins like BFD3 and Kontakt, and how that effects freeze.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/Download/Pro-Tools-12-4-Downloads

By using FREEZE we can render all audio/MIDI through all plugins on a track (or up to a certain insert) in order to save resources. Once frozen, the plugins that were included in the freeze will be deactivated/frozen - meaning they will no longer consume resources. You can add more plugins on a frozen track, but you cannot make any changes to frozen plugins unless you unfreeze the track first.

Editing a frozen track is extremely limited. You can do some basic things like volume, pan, ect... but you cannot add fades, cut it up, move the track, change the tempo of your session, and plenty more. Be sure to read the entire What's New .pdf so you know what you can and cannot do.

If you know you will want to further edit your audio, it may be better to use COMMIT instead of FREEZE. Also, you can COMMIT a frozen track.

The FREEZE files are stored in the RENDERED FILES sub-folder within your session folder. These are cleaned up when you close your session.

Use the keyboard shortcut ALT and click the FREEZE icon to freeze ALL tracks. Use ALT + SHIFT and click the FREEZE icon to freeze ALL SELECTED tracks.

(*ALT=Option on Mac)

Think of ALT as an ALL key and SHIFT as SELECTED. This holds true throughout much of Pro Tools.

The plugins used in this video are:
Avid Eleven MKII
AIR Dynamic Delay
Avid Eleven Studio Reverb
Avid Reverb One
iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced
Toontracks EzMix2
Native Instruments Kontakt 5
FXpansion BFD3
Boz Digital Labs Bark Of Dog

By the end of the video you should have a good grasp on how FREEZE works in Pro Tools and how to use it with Audio tracks, Aux tracks, Instrument tracks (MIDI), and how to use Auxiliary Output Stems/Sends with FREEZE.

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Intro 0:00
The Info 0:41
The Demo 4:42
The part showing Freeze with Virtual Instruments (MIDI) 11:12
The part showing Keyboard Shortcuts for Freeze 18:59
The more about MIDI with Freeze part 25:04
The part showing where Freeze files are stored 29:35
The part showing what happens to Freeze files when PT is closed 31:00
The Wrap-up 32:37

What Gets Frozen
The following track data is rendered when freezing
a track any track by track type:
• Plug-ins and automation for all plug-ins (except
for any plug-ins remaining active when using
Freeze to Insert)
• Clip Gain
• HEAT (if set to pre-insert)
• Elastic audio

The following track controls are maintained and
are not rendered with track freeze:
• Volume
• Volume Trim
• Mute
• Pan
• Send Level
• Send Level trim
• Send Mute
• Plug-in automation for plug-ins that are not frozen
(when using Freeze to Insert)

Editing Restrictions on
Frozen Tracks
Frozen tracks disallow most editing functions. To
edit a frozen track, unfreeze it, make your edits, and
then re-freeze the track.
The following editing actions are not allowed on
frozen tracks:
• Editing clips or clip contents is disallowed.
• Elastic Audio is disallowed.
• AudioSuite rendering is disallowed on frozen
tracks.
• Tempo changes, Song Start changes, and enabling
or disabling the Conductor Track are not
allowed when there are frozen tracks in the session.
• Insert and Cut Time operations are disallowed in
a session if there are frozen tracks.
• HEAT is unavailable for frozen Auxiliary Input
and Instrument tracks.
• Instrument Tracks are removed from the MIDI
Editor window while frozen and MIDI parameters
including Real Time Quantize settings cannot
be adjusted until the track is unfrozen.
• Clips used on a source playlist for a frozen track
cannot be removed from the session until the
track is unfrozen.

The following editing actions are allowed on frozen
tracks:
• Editing and writing of all basic track automation
parameters including sends.
• Editing and writing of automation on unfrozen
plug-ins as well as addition and removal of
plug-ins on unfrozen inserts (when using the
Freeze Up to This Insert functionality)
• Changing the track output path.

Pro Tools - Fade In/Out with MIDI and Other Automation Tips

2015-11-29T12:42:00.003-08:00

This video shows how to make a Fade In or Fade Out on MIDI/Instrument tracks in Pro Tools, plus I cover a bunch of other automation tips.

Drawing a Fade is simple with Audio, but different when using MIDI. Your first option is to Commit or Record your VI to an Audio track and draw your fade in that way.

If you want to stay in the MIDI realm, then you will want to draw in your fade with the Pencil Tool on the Audio Volume automation lane of your Instrument Track or Volume Lane of your AUX Track (depending on how you are hosting your VI's).

You also have the option to Write In the Fade by controlling the fader on your track with WRITE mode enabled.

No matter which method you choose, drawing in a fade in or fade out with MIDI is pretty simple once you understand how to do it.

This video was recorded on a Windows computer. When I call out a shortcut that starts with 'Control' (Ctrl), the relative key on Mac is 'Command' so keep that in mind.

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Pro Tools - Creative Uses for Pan and Volume Automation w/the Pencil Tool

2015-11-29T12:40:00.001-08:00

In this video we look at some basic ideas you need to know about automation with the pencil tool in Pro Tools and how we can use these ideas in a creative way.

Since we are focusing on music, our Grid ruler is set to Bars|Beats. You can change the ruler type and resolution type (i.e. Samples/10 Samples) and the same rules apply to how our pencil tool responds.

This video focuses on PAN and VOLUME Automation, but, you will use these same concepts for other types of automation in Pro Tools.

You can combine these ideas with plugins or other types of automation to create very sophisticated sounds, sample production, sound design, and of course as a compositional mixing tool.

Learn more about Pro Tools
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http://www.avidblogs.com/tag/pro-tools/

Pro Tools COMMIT TRACK WITH MIDI - New in PT 12.3

2015-11-29T12:38:00.003-08:00

In this video we take a quick look at the new COMMIT feature in Pro Tools 12.3

COMMIT will allow you to quickly render effects/instruments to audio in a fast and efficient way. COMMIT works with Audio and MIDI tracks, however, in this video we focus on the MIDI aspect.

I find this feature to be indispensable and I've only been using 12.3 for 2 days! It's a huge time saver and it works flawlessly. When you are running several virtual instruments in a session, your computer can start to slow down and throw errors. This is a huge problem when you still have much more work to do and you need to add more virtual instruments. In the past when you started getting clicks and pops and you had already maxed out your buffer, you would need to bus your VI's to an audio track and record the audio and then make the VI tracks inactive.

With COMMIT, you can make Pro Tools do all the heavy lifting for you, and it can do it in faster than real time. So this means when your audio starts glitching out on you - simply COMMIT a few tracks and make those VI's INACTIVE, and quickly get back to being creative. As long as you do not delete the Source Tracks, you can always go back later on and make any changes you want to your Virtual Instrument and then COMMIT it again. Or use COMMIT for other types of workflows, like for sampling, backup, session sharing, or if you just like working with audio instead of MIDI.

This is not FREEZE Track. That is a different feature that Avid is still planning to implement in the future. But, this new COMMIT feature will no doubt become as vital to your workflow as it has become to mine.

www.avid.com

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/download/Pro-Tools-12-3-Downloads

The VI's used in this video were STROBE2 and TREMOR from
www.fxpansion.com Go check 'em out if you need a cool synth and an awesome drum synth machine with tons of sequencing options built in.

Pro Tools - Trash Preferences

2015-10-14T15:51:00.003-07:00

The very first troubleshooting step in almost every Pro Tools problem is Trashing Preferences. In this video I walk you through the steps on Windows, and then talk about some of the changes that are made when you trash preferences.

This video is focused on Pro Tools 11 and 12 on Windows. For Mac, or older versions of Pro Tools, check these links:

http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/how-do-i-trash-my-pro-tools-preferences/

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/troubleshooting/en367983

Pro Tools - How to create a click track

2015-10-12T10:13:00.001-07:00

In this video you learn the basics about creating a click track (metronome) in Pro Tools.

The best way to create a click track is to have Pro Tools auto create one when you create a new session (as shown in the video). Also, we dive a little deeper and look at how to turn ON the click, and discuss the "Count Off" function.

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Pro Tools - Horizontal Scroll With The Mouse Wheel (Side to Side Scroll)

2015-10-08T12:15:00.002-07:00

In this video I show you the simple keyboard shortcut to scroll horizontally in Pro Tools using your mouse scroll wheel.

If you simply move the scroll wheel, you will scroll vertically. But if you hold SHIFT and then scroll, you will scroll horizontally. This is a basic command you need to know to make the most out of Pro Tools and many other programs.

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Pro Tools - Easiest Way To Find Your Plugins

2015-10-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

In this video we look at the options we have to display plugins in Pro Tools and I show you the best way to set it up so you can always find the exact plugin you are looking for, quickly and easily.

The Ultimate EQ Cheat Sheet for Common Instruments

2015-06-08T10:19:00.004-07:00

The people over at Sonic Bids have put together a very useful EQ sheet for every common instrument. It's a great starting point to help narrow in on what frequency to look for while mixing. It covers everything, bass, guitar, piano, drums, ect... go check it out

http://blog.sonicbids.com/the-ultimate-eq-cheat-sheet-for-every-common-instrument

Troubleshooting Pro Tools 12 - Slow, Lagging, or Unresponsive

2015-04-13T14:26:00.003-07:00

One possible cause for Pro Tools taking an extremely long time to launch (on Windows) is if you happen to have a CD/DVD in your CD/DVD drive, and possibly if you have a mounted ISO.

Simply remove/unmount the disc, and Pro Tools should launch normally.

This short video will walk you through the problem

Use Windows Audio with Pro Tools 12

2015-04-13T14:22:00.002-07:00

Pro Tools 12 gives us the ability to you our integrated Windows audio! This is a great new feature for Windows users. This means you won't have to use an ASIO interface, or an ASIO driver like ASIO4ALL.

This video shows exactly how to take advantage of this great new feature in Pro Tools 12

More info about Pro Tools 12
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