The Preview feature lets you try out different automation passes without deleting the underlying data. To hear your preview, simply Command‑click on the Preview button.
We round up some handy Pro Tools shortcuts and time‑saving techniques.
This article was inspired by a recent conversation I had with some fellow Pro Tools users about things that would have saved us a great deal of time if we’d known them sooner. There is no theme to the material presented in this month’s article beyond all of these things being very useful, so hopefully there’s something new here for everyone. Certainly in the conversation I was having there were examples where the reaction of seasoned users went everywhere from sagely nodding agreement through to outright astonishment.
I’ll start with some useful tips which will benefit you before you even get into your session. These tips use Mac modifiers. PC users should substitute Option with Alt, Command with Control, and Control with Start.
Window Pain
We’ve all had the fun of clicking away notifications and warnings, usually without reading them and often with some irritation. Opening a session in Pro Tools and turning away for a moment while it opens, only to find a warning that something has suspended the process, is an irritation. When you get a whole series of warnings about the same thing, it gets downright annoying. To get rid of the current warning and all subsequent warnings, just Option‑click the first one. To get a handle on the circumstances where this applies, just give it a try. You’ll soon understand how it works.
I/O Silver Lining
We’ve all experienced the frustration of opening a session created on a system other than the one we are currently using. If you’re presented with silence when you hit Play, there might be a really simple fix, like the output the session is addressing not being available. In that case, a quick trip to the I/O Setup window and selecting an output bus which is available will be all you need to do. However, if things are more complex than that and you just want to get things working, the path of least resistance is just to level the I/O and start again.
The quick way to do this is to open the I/O Setup window, go to the Output tab and hit Default. If you want to nuke the I/O Setup altogether, then just add Option while clicking Default and all of the tabs will be reset to the defaults for the interface you’re currently using.
Automation Shortcuts
Automation in Pro Tools is sophisticated and can get complicated. Of the Advanced Automation features of Pro Tools (which used to be restricted to Ultimate but are now available in Pro Tools Studio), one of the most useful is Preview. It’s simple enough in theory: it lets you try alternative automation moves in context with underlying automation. It allows you to hear these moves in the proper context, but without going so far as to actually overwrite any automation until you’re sure that it’s the right choice.
My early experiments with Preview were frustrated by the fact that I didn’t understand how to toggle between my new automation, which was in the Preview buffer, and the underlying automation. The temptation is to click on the green Preview button to hear your underlying automation, but actually what you need to do is Command‑click on that button — this is absolutely crucial to getting to know this very powerful feature.
Another tip, which was completely transformative for me when I learned it, is that rather than switching manually between Waveform view and the different automation playlists, you can go directly to the playlist for any automation‑enabled parameter by Command+Control‑clicking on the parameter you wish to view. To go back to Waveform view, click the track name with the same modifiers.
Need to wipe all the automation from a session? Simply create an Edit Selection along the entire timeline and go to Edit / Clear Special / All Automation. The Clear Pan Automation command just below is also handy for removing pan moves from Atmos sessions.
Something else I’ve found myself wanting to do on occasion is level a mix which already contains automation. This can be laborious to do manually, and if it’s someone else’s mix, it can be difficult to track down all the automation present in a mix in the first place. The quick way to eliminate all the automation on a track, or group of tracks, is to make an Edit Selection along the entire timeline and go to Edit / Clear Special / All Automation. There is a complementary command, Clear Pan Automation, which is particularly useful. When experimenting with Atmos it’s not unusual to want to strip out all of the pan automation, which can of course be across several playlists, but to leave everything else in place. This command is what you need at these times.
Final Destination
It is not unusual to want to send audio to more than one place simultaneously. We do this all the time with sends. The point of a send is that it allows you to route audio to an alternative destination at a different level to the main fader. This is very useful when setting up headphone mixes or using reverbs and delays, but there are many occasions when we just want the same level as the main fader, but going to more than one place at a time. Many people use a send for this purpose, and if the send is set to unity gain and post‑fade, it fulfils that function. With 10 sends available it’s unlikely that you’re going to run out, but a neater and simpler solution is to hold Control and route to another output or bus. The output of the channel will go to both destinations simultaneously. This is denoted by a ‘+’ in front of the output label, while ticks in the selector menus reveal the routing. You can route to many output and busses simultaneously if that’s what you need.
Despite being 20 years old, EQ3 features a very useful Band Solo mode.
Plug‑in Power
EQ3 is a very old plug‑in, but I still favour it over Avid Channel Strip because it offers some features the Channel Strip does not. One feature that they do both share, which is extremely useful, is a band‑pass mode. Many people use the ‘narrow boost and sweep’ method for tracking down specific frequencies for surgical cuts, but a much more efficient alternative is to hold Control+Shift (or Start+Shift on a PC) to momentarily switch to a Band Solo mode, where you can audition that band of the EQ in isolation while manipulating the frequency or Q. These Band Solo features are common in premium EQs nowadays but EQ3 is nearly 20 years old!
If you have a troublesome session which refuses to open, it is very possible that the issue has been caused by a specific plug‑in. If you hold Shift while opening a session it will open with all of its plug‑ins inactive. This enables you to work through the session figuring out exactly what is wrong. Or, if you just need to get into the session and export some assets without needing the processing, you can just avoid the issue altogether. You can make individual plug‑ins active by holding Command+Control and clicking on the plug‑in. If you want to speed things up, you can add Option to this combination and activate plug‑ins across the whole session row by row.
There are some powerful features built into Pro Tools for toggling the visibility of tracks, allowing you to control exactly what you’re displaying in your session at any time.
Hide & Seek
There are some powerful features built into Pro Tools for toggling the visibility of tracks, allowing you to control exactly what you’re displaying in your session at any time. For example, Memory Locations and Screen Configurations offer powerful and recallable session management features, but sometimes you just need quick on‑the‑fly toggling of track visibility, and a great way to do this is by toggling by Group.
Combine Pro Tools’ Groups feature with its extensive Show/Hide options, and you’ll never get lost in a sea of tracks again.
Mix and Edit Groups in Pro Tools are used to gang together functions across several tracks. The Groups are displayed as a list in the Mix and Edit windows in the bottom left‑hand corner of the window. If you Control+Click on a Group in this list you will hide all tracks other than the members of the clicked Group. An All Group is created by default in every session, and Control+Clicking on this All Group can be a useful way to revert to a view of all of your tracks again; however, if your session contains inactive tracks which are hidden, Control+Clicking the All Group will make these visible too, as the All Group contains every track in the session regardless of status. If you like working this way it is a good idea to create an ‘All Active’ Group to use for this purpose. You can do this very quickly by clicking the disclosure triangle at the top of the Tracks menu and selecting Hide Inactive Tracks, and then creating your All Active Group.
I hope there was something new for you in this list, or a reminder of a forgotten trick. Many other tips and features came up in the same conversation, so expect a follow‑up article in the near future!