Pro Tools has many features aimed at post‑production. Could they help you with music production too?
Pro Tools stands out as a DAW that is widely used in both music and post‑production. While some workflows and features might seem exclusive to the latter, the line between these two disciplines is often blurred, and features aimed at post can prove useful for music projects too. This was illustrated by a recent project I worked on, which involved creating promotional video material for social media. The brief was to capture a band’s live performance, and although there was a single full‑length video track in the session, multiple camera angles and B‑roll footage were also available for the video edit. Once the video was sync’ed with the multitrack audio, the mix itself was essentially a straightforward music mix. However, many of the tasks and techniques I used owed something to post‑production workflows.
Post‑production projects can throw up organisational challenges because they often combine material gathered by different people at different times on different devices, and all of this needs to come together at some stage. In this project, audio was captured by the band’s regular sound person using a Soundcraft digital mixer and recorded into Reaper over USB. Since this was effectively ‘location audio’ recorded on a separate device rather than directly into the DAW, there was an extra step of ingesting the audio into Pro Tools, a common task in post‑production.
Importing Audio
The Import Audio dialogue: better than drag and drop.To ensure consistency between sessions, I created a bespoke template, as I wanted to import audio for each track into identical sessions. Consistent sound across multiple sessions was critical, as extracts of each performance were going to be cut into a single showreel. The files I received were neatly organised: stereo files with track names and sequential suffix numbers, which made it easy to identify which files belonged to which song. While many post‑production users might rely on AAF imports through the Import Session Data window, in this case, the Import Audio window was more suitable. This approach allowed me to audition audio files and decide whether to copy them into the session or reference them directly from their original location.
While dragging and dropping files into the session is an option, I find the Import Audio window much more versatile. It provides better control over how files are handled, especially when working with larger projects or organising multiple sessions. To access this window quickly, use the shortcut Command+Shift+I on a Mac or Control+Shift+I on Windows.
Stereo Versus Mono
A recurring issue when exchanging raw multitrack audio files is dealing with stereo bounces of mono sources. For this project, I chose to import audio into the Clips List rather than directly to new tracks. The Clips List provides a more flexible way to handle ‘stereo’ files that contain mono sources, as frequently encountered in live recordings or exchanges between DAWs.
Importing audio into the Clips List is much more flexible than importing directly to a track, especially where you need to split stereo files into mono.
If you import directly to tracks in Pro Tools, you do have the option of the Split Into Mono command, which is accessible by right‑clicking a track name. However, using this on stereo files requires additional steps: importing to a stereo track, splitting onto two mono tracks, and then deleting the stereo and one of the mono tracks. By importing into the Clips List, I could simply reveal the two mono components of a stereo file using the disclosure triangle and drag one directly onto a mono track, which is ready with the required plug‑ins in place as inherited from the template session. For stereo sources like overheads or keyboards, you can drag the stereo clip itself onto an already created stereo track. This method saves time and keeps the session cleaner.
Gain, No Pain
In live recordings, it’s common to leave generous headroom to avoid clipping. This is exactly what you want during capture, but it often results in levels that are too low for optimal plug‑in performance during mixing. Many plug‑ins that emulate analogue hardware are designed to operate with relatively hot input levels, so some gain adjustment is usually necessary.
You can adjust gain across multiple tracks by creating a Mix Group for them, loading a Gain plug‑in on the same insert slot for each channel, and then linking the controls for that insert slot.While Clip Gain is a standard approach for this, I opted to insert the Trim plug‑in into the first insert slot of each track. My reasoning was that the material was consistent across files, and applying a fixed gain adjustment to all tracks would be faster and more efficient. For this, I created a Mix Group for all the tracks, disabled Follow Globals, and linked the plug‑in parameters for insert slot A. By instantiating the Trim plug‑in in this slot across all tracks, I could adjust the gain for all similarly formatted tracks in one operation.
One detail to note is that Pro Tools treats mono and stereo Trim plug‑ins as different plug‑ins, so you cannot link parameters across mono and stereo tracks in a Mix Group. The workaround is to adjust a mono and a stereo Trim plug‑in manually to ensure all tracks are balanced. If more than 12dB of gain is needed, Clip Gain, which offers up to +36dB of adjustment, is an alternative. For those looking for a similar third‑party solution, Blue Cat Audio offer a free Gain plug‑in with extended boost capabilities and built‑in grouping functionality, which is ideal in this application.
Keeping Sync
One of the most post‑production‑centric tasks in this project was sync’ing the multitrack audio to the video. In a typical music DAW workflow, sync’ing isn’t much of a concern, as the audio tracks are usually aligned during recording. However, this project required sync’ing live audio to a single video track, which needed to stay locked to the audio throughout.
I was working in Pro Tools Ultimate, which supports multiple video tracks, though Pro Tools Studio, which supports one video track, would have been sufficient for this task. Pro Tools Artist and Intro do not support video. To keep the video track and its corresponding audio in sync, I created a Clip Group by selecting both the audio and video and hitting Command+Option+G (Control+Alt+G on Windows) to group them. This grouping ensures that the two elements stay aligned if moved.
To keep the video track and its corresponding audio in sync, I created a Clip Group by selecting both the audio and video and hitting Command+Option+G (Control+Alt+G on Windows) to group them.
Professional workflows often rely on timecode for sync’ing, but for this project, a simpler method sufficed. As long as camera sound is available, it’s easy to identify a transient event (such as a snare hit or guitar chord) to use as a sync reference. The key is to avoid manual adjustments in Slip Mode, which can be imprecise and time‑consuming.
Tabbing Out
To align the multitrack audio and video quickly, I use Tab to Transients. This tool locates the start of transient peaks, such as drum hits, making it ideal for pinpointing sync points. After identifying a suitable transient in the video’s audio track, I’ll use the A key to trim the clip at that location (I can always trim back later to reveal material preceding the sync point). I’ll then repeat the process on the multitrack audio, selecting the clearest track for reference, marking this point so I can find it easily in the next step.
To move the video’s audio clip to the correct location, place the insertion point at the point you want to move the clip to and use the Grab tool with Control+click (Start+click on a PC) to align the clip to the insertion point precisely. Fast and accurate.
Spot Mode
A more elegant alternative uses one of the most overlooked features among music users, but which is indispensable in post‑production: Spot mode. This mode allows placement of clips based on their precise timeline ruler position. While it’s less commonly needed in music workflows, it can save significant time when sync’ing or repositioning clips.
Spot mode is extremely useful for keeping audio and video in sync, and can also help you out if you’ve gone too far in your editing and need to move audio back to its original time stamp position.
For instance, if a clip is accidentally moved out of its original position and is out of time with the rest of your audio, you can quickly restore it to its original time stamp position. Simply grab the clip in Spot mode, select the Original Time Stamp field in the dialogue box, and hit OK. This restores the clip to its exact original location.
Using sync points — special markers created within clips — in conjunction with Spot mode is really fast and accurate. After identifying the desired location for your clip’s start, end or sync point, place your insertion point and copy the exact time from the main counter. You need an extended keyboard for this: hit * on the number pad to copy the location from the main counter, and paste this into the Sync Point field in the Spot mode dialogue box to align the clip perfectly.
By borrowing from post‑production workflows, music producers can tackle complex tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy.
Post Hoc
Although these techniques originated in post‑production workflows, they are equally valuable in music projects. For example, Spot mode is excellent for placing reverse swells and risers, where the start time of the clip isn’t what’s important. The project that inspired this article reminded me how versatile these techniques can be. By borrowing from post‑production workflows, music producers can tackle complex tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy. Whether it’s sync’ing audio to video or managing multitrack imports, these techniques are powerful additions to any Pro Tools user’s skill set. And at the end of the day they are all just features of your DAW of choice. If a feature of Pro Tools helps you get a project done, learn it and use it.