The new Import Session Data window. The interface has been streamlined, the window is resizable, and the filtering options take full advantage of the newly updated PTX file format.
Updates to the Pro Tools Session file format have made the Import Session Data window even more powerful.
One source of frustration among Pro Tools users is the fact that you can only have one Pro Tools Session open at a time. It’s standard practice when working in almost all other applications to have multiple projects, documents or whatever open at once, and to be able to copy and paste, or drag and drop content from one to another. This isn’t possible in Pro Tools, but that isn’t to say that you can’t transfer content from one Session to another, and the place you go to access the contents of a Pro Tools Session other than the one you’re in is the Import Session Data window.
It’s fair to say this window has had too much squeezed into too little space for quite some time. It’s been ripe for an overhaul, and in Pro Tools 2024.6 that is exactly what it received. The changes are more than superficial; there has been a serious amount of work done. In this workshop, we’ll have a look at some of the things that have changed.
Data Crunching
Many pros rely on this powerful window, which can be used to import anything from plug‑in settings, audio clips and automation data to markers, memory locations and window configurations. There are alternative ways of sharing some of these attributes between sessions; if for example you regularly use the same plug‑in settings, they can be saved as plug‑in presets. Or if you reuse plug‑in chains or even entire tracks or groups of tracks complete with media, you can do so by saving them as track presets or in template sessions. However, the Import Session Data window offers the ability to access and reuse almost anything from another session, with some handy time‑saving features such as Match Tracks, which imports to tracks of the same name between sessions.
In use, however, the window could feel cramped, like wallpapering the hall through the proverbial letterbox, and the Import Session Data window was an intimidating place for newbies. What the overhaul has set out to achieve is to update the UI, make it more usable, and add some under‑the‑bonnet work on the Pro Tools Session file format to allow comprehensive filtering, so that the more streamlined interface can display a customised set of data on which to work. Here are some of the highlights.
One of the biggest improvements over the old, cramped window is that it is resizable, meaning you can now expand it horizontally to display longer track names and vertically to accommodate more tracks. The old central ‘letterbox’ window for displaying tracks, and inevitable scrolling of the list, has been moved over to the right, with the tab for markers also moved to the same location. The same options are presented, but the information has been reorganised. The Source Properties pane, which always felt very oversized in such a crowded window, now has the option of being collapsed, containing as it does no editable parameters. The Track Data to Import button, which previously opened an over‑long drop‑down multi‑select menu, now opens a floating window, which features five quick preset buttons as found elsewhere in Pro Tools. These are particularly useful for long menus like this.
But it’s in the right‑hand pane, which replaces the old track and ruler display area, where things have really changed. Having more space courtesy of the new layout and the resizable window is of course welcome, while the slightly anachronistic use of text to describe the track type in the tracks list has been replaced by the track type icons, which should be familiar from the Mix and Edit windows. Track colours have also been introduced to the list.
Into The Fold
There was previously a potential issue with the import behaviour of Folder tracks: the member tracks weren’t included. This new window displays the Folder track structure in an easily readable branching format, and provides the option to import all member tracks of a folder, even with the Folder track folded shut. A circle icon next to the Folder track can be used as a button while simultaneously displaying the selection status of the enclosed tracks. In much the same way as the dots next to Mix and Edit Groups in the Mix and Edit windows, sidebars display the selection status of member tracks. A solid circle indicates all member tracks are selected, and a dot with a circle indicates some but not all tracks are selected. The Folder track button follows the same convention, but if you click on it, it toggles the selection status of all the member tracks.
PTX files already contained information about things like track type, track width and track name, and by adding additional information, important new operations have been made possible.
The changes to the layout and display in the window are welcome, but the real power in this overhaul comes from work Avid have done in the Session file format itself. The import experience using the new window with legacy session files saved in older versions of Pro Tools is much improved, but some new features are only available in sessions saved using a version of Pro Tools from 2024.6 onwards. The way the Import Session Data window works is that it accesses special summary data stored in the PTX file. This is how the window is able to display information about the session without opening it. PTX files already contained information about things like track type, track width and track name, and by adding additional information, important new operations have been made possible — for example, filtering by track colour, hidden state, frozen state, and by the presence of clips on the track.
The Show Only options. Note that the tracks in the list now also have icons showing what type they are.
This new summary data makes it possible to identify inactive tracks, a crucial piece of information when importing only the content relevant to a project. Likewise, tracks without any clips on them may be unnecessary. Once you can identify these properties, you can filter them out of your tracks list prior to import.
Sessions from earlier Pro Tools versions won’t show all the new filtering options until they’re saved on v2024.6.If you open a legacy‑format Pro Tools Session in the Import Session Data window you’ll see a warning that some track list filtering options are unavailable. In the filtering list, you’ll find that the top six options for filtering (hidden, frozen and inactive tracks, and tracks without clips, automation and markers) are all unavailable. This is due to the relevant summary data not being included — saving the Session using 2024.6 resolves this. Track types that are not present in the target session will also be greyed out.
When suitably filtered, the relevant tracks can be assigned a destination in the currently open session, either manually or using Match Tracks, which assigns by matching the track names. Tracks can be filtered by track name and further filtering operations can then be performed on filtered results so you can, for example, filter by track name ‘Guitar’ and then filter the results by track type to omit the folder tracks, leaving only the audio tracks that are active.
Down The Lane
As you dig into the detail there is more to learn about the Import Session Data window. If you work collaboratively, and especially on complex or large sessions, you’ll find more benefits to the new features, but to close I’ll instead point out some of the ways this refresh of the Session format and summary data helps elsewhere in Pro Tools.
You can now choose to automatically display automation lanes with automation — handy for sprawling Foley sessions!
In the Track Show and Hide menus (accessed from the disclosure triangle at the top of the Tracks List in the sidebars of the Edit and Mix windows) are two new entries, each giving the option to show or hide tracks with clips, or tracks with clips within the timeline selection. In a similar way to displaying additional automation lanes underneath the main playlist (as opposed to displaying a single automation playlist on the main playlist lane), it is now possible to automatically display automation lanes with automation, or automation lanes with automation within the selection. The last of these is particularly welcome as it can sometimes be time‑consuming to track down stray automation in old or inherited sessions. This feature will really speed that up.
The methods used to deploy the search and filtering in Pro Tools can be leveraged in multiple places throughout the application, and the improved summary data being of use in more places than just the Import Session Data window is an excellent example of this.
What Else Is New?
Pro Tools 2024.6 was a big update, and the headline billing went to the six new ARA 2 integrations. Adding to the Melodyne integration we already had, these had been anticipated for some time; for music production, the major new additions are Sound Radix’s Auto Align 2 phase alignment tool, and Synchro Arts’ VocalAlign and RePitch, which offer doubling, take alignment and tuning for vocals. If you need even more forensic control, Synchro Arts’ Revoice Pro is also now integrated, as is iZotope’s RX Spectral Edit. There is a lot here, and it rightly received the lion’s share of the attention, but for busy professionals, the updates to the Import Session Data window might be most important.