Pinnacle Systems Pro Tools - 10.1 Reference Guide

Pro Tools Reference Guide

Version 10.1

Legal Notices

This guide is copyrighted ©2011 by Avid Technology, Inc., (hereafter “Avid”), with all rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this guide may not be duplicated in whole or in part without the written consent of Avid.

003, 96 I/O, 96i I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 192 I/O, 888|24 I/O, 882|20 I/O, 1622 I/O, 24-Bit ADAT Bridge I/O, AudioSuite, Avid, Avid DNA, Avid Mojo, Avid Unity, Avid Unity ISIS, Avid Xpress, AVoption, Axiom, Beat Detective, Bomb Factory, Bruno, C|24, Command|8, Control|24, D-Command, D-Control, D-Fi, D-fx, D-Show, D-Verb, DAE, Digi 002, DigiBase, DigiDelivery, Digidesign, Digidesign Audio Engine, Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction, Digidesign TDM Bus, DigiDrive, , DigiTest, DigiTranslator, DINR, DV Toolkit, EditPack, Eleven, HD Core, HD Process, Hybrid, Impact, Interplay, LoFi, M-Audio, MachineControl, Maxim, Mbox, MediaComposer, MIDI I/O, MIX, MultiShell, Nitris, OMF, OMF Interchange, PRE, ProControl, Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, QuickPunch, Recti-Fi, Reel Tape, Reso, Reverb One, ReVibe, RTAS, Sibelius, Smack!, SoundReplacer, Sound Designer II, Strike, Struct ure, SYNC HD, SYNC I/O, Synchronic, TL Aggro, TL AutoPan, TL Drum Rehab, TL Everyphase, TL Fauxlder, TL In Tune, TL MasterMeter, TL Metro, TL Space, TL Utilities, Transfuser, Trillium Lane Labs, Vari-Fi, Velvet, X-Form, and XMON are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. Xpand! is Registered in the U.S. Pat ent and Trademark Office. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice.

Guide Part Number 9329-65196-00 REV A 11/11

Documentation Feedback

At Avid, we are always looking for ways to improve our documentation. If you have comments, corrections, or suggestions regarding our documentation, email us at techpubs@avid.com.

Part I Introduction to Pro Tools

Chapter 1. Welcome to Pro Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Pro Tools Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Conventions Used in Pro Tools Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

System Requirements and Compatibility Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

About www.avid.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2. Pro Tools Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Hard Disk Audio Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Pro Tools Nonlinear Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

DAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Core Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

ASIO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Synchronization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Surround Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Pro Tools Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Tick-Based and Sample-Based Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

System Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

DigiBase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

AAF, MXF, and OMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Embedded Media and Linked Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 3. Keyboard and Mouse Sho rtcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Mouse Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Global Key Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Keyboard Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Toolbar Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Numeric Keypad Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Contents iii

Chapter 4. Using Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Accessing the Help System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Help Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Using the Contents and Index Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Using the Search Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Search Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Copying from a Help Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Printing Help Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Part II System Configuration

Chapter 5. Pro Tools Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Pro Tools Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Pro Tools HD with HDX Hardware Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Pro Tools HD with Pro Tools|HD Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Pro Tools HD Software with HD Native Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Supported Avid HD Audio Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Playback, Recording, and Voice Limits with Pro Tools HD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Avid HD Audio Interface Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Additional Pro Tools Hardware Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Additional Pro Tools HD Hardware Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Pro Tools HD Software Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Complete Production Toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Checking for Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 6. System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Starting Up or Shutting Down Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Checking an Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native System with DigiTest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Configuring Pro Tools System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Configuring MIDI Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Configuring Pro Tools Hardware Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Configuring Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native Hardware Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

System Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Pro Tools Reference Guideiv

Chapter 7. I/O Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Pro Tools Signal Paths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

I/O Setup Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

I/O Setup Signal Path Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

I/O Setup Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

I/O Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Customizing I/O Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Configuring Hardware in I/O Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Signal Path Routing for Audio Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Signal Path Routing for Audio Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Creating New Paths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Creating New Sub-Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Editing Paths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Assigning Paths to Hardware I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Valid Paths and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Configuring Busses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

I/O Settings Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Session Interchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Chapter 8. Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Global and Local Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Display Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Operation Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Editing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Mixing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Processing Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

MIDI Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Synchronization Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 9. Peripherals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Synchronization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Machine Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

MIDI Controllers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Ethernet Controllers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Mic Preamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Satellites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

VENUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Contents v

Chapter 10. Configuring MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

MIDI Studio Setup (Mac). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

MIDI Studio Setup (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Part III Sessions & Tracks

Chapter 11. Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Quick Start Session Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Creating a New Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Bit Depths and Sample Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Mixed Audio File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Interleaved Multichannel Versus Multi-Mono Audio Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Session Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Opening a Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Opening Recent Sessions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Opening a Session with Plug-Ins Deactivated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Saving a Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Saving a Copy of a Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Session Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Closing a Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Exiting or Quitting Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Chapter 12. Pro Tools Main Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Mix Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Edit Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Transport Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

MIDI Editor Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Score Editor Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Eleven Rack Control Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

DigiBase Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

In-Application Web Browser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Managing Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

How Window Configurations Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Window Configuration Commands and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Tool Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Pro Tools Reference Guidevi

Chapter 13. Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Track Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Track Channel Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Track Controls and Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Edit Window Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Track Level Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Adjusting Track Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Creating Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Track Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Setting Track Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Track Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Track List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Track Name Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Assigning Audio Inputs and Outputs to Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Track Priority and Voice Assignment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Assigning MIDI Inputs and Outputs to Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Soloing and Muting Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Making Tracks Inactive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Color Coding for Tracks, Clips, Markers, and Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Chapter 14. Grouping Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Grouping Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Group Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Working with Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Setting Group Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Enabling Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Grouped Control Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Chapter 15. The Clip List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Clip List Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Sorting and Searching in the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Selecting Clips in the Clip List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Previewing Clips in the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Stereo and Multichannel Clips in the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Naming and Displaying Clips in the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Managing Clips in the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Clip Name Right-Click Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Contents vii

Chapter 16. DigiBase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

DigiBase Data Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Performance and Transfer Volumes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

DigiBase Browser Windows and Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Working wIth Items in DigiBase Browsers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Indexing DigiBase Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

DigiBase Browser Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

DigiBase Browser Panes and Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Column Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Selecting Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Moving, Copying, Duplicating, and Deleting Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Searching Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Entering Data for Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Waveforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Elastic Audio Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Previewing Audio in DigiBase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Preview Controls and Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Preview Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Linking and Relinking Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Transfer Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Missing Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Relink Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Workspace Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Catalogs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Task Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Chapter 17. Importing and Exporting Session Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Importing and Exporting Data to and from a Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Audio Conversion on Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Importing Files with Drag and Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Importing Audio Files and Clips Using the Import Audio Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Importing Audio from Audio CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Importing ACID and REX Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Importing Multichannel Audio Files from a Field Recorder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Import Options and Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Exporting Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Pro Tools Reference Guideviii

Importing MIDI Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Exporting MIDI Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Exporting Sibelius Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Importing Session Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Import Session Data Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Importing AAF and OMF Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Import Options when Importing AAF or OMF Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Media Composer Export Options for Audio and Video Mixdowns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Audio File Format Compatibility Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Exporting Pro Tools Tracks as AAF or OMF Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Exporting Pro Tools Tracks as MXF Audio Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Export Options when Exporting to AAF or OMF Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Export Selected Tracks as New Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Exporting Sessions as Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Export Session Info as Text Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Importing and Exporting Clip Group Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Send via DigiDelivery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Chapter 18. File and Session Management and Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Audio File Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

WAV File Compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Sharing Sessions Created on Different Computer Platforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Sharing Sessions Created on Different Pro Tools Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Sharing Sessions Created on Different Pro Tools Software Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Language Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Chapter 19. Mac HFS+ Disk Support Option (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Installing the Mac HFS+ Disk Support Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Media Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Session Compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Viewing Mac Drive and File Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Viewing Multisession and Dual-Format Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Setting the File Naming Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Partitioning Mac Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Initializing Mac Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Mac HFS+ Disk Support Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Contents ix

Part IV Playback and Recording

Chapter 20. Playing Back Track Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Playback Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Setting the Playback Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Scrolling Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Playing Selections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Playing Timeline and Edit Selections with the Playhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Playback Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

MIDI Beat Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

MIDI Beat Clock Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Chapter 21. Record Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Record Setup Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Configuring Pro Tools Hardware I/O for Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Connecting a Sound Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Recording with a Click. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Setting the Session Meter and Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Record Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Configuring Default Names for Audio Files and Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Assigning Hardware I/O on a Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Record Enabling Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Working with Hard Drives for Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Selecting a Record Input Monitoring Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Setting Monitor Levels for Record and Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Reducing Monitoring Latency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Chapter 22. Audio Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Recording Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Prime for Record Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Setting Punch and Loop Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Setting Pre- and Post-Roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Audio Punch Recording Over a Specified Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Recording Additional Takes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Loop Recording Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Alternate Takes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Recording from a Digital Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Half-Speed Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Pro Tools Reference Guidex

Chapter 23. MIDI Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Recording from MIDI Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Enabling Input Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

MIDI Thru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

MIDI Input Filter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Input Quantize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Wait for Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

MIDI Merge/Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Configuring MIDI or Instrument Tracks for Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Recording MIDI and Instrument Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

MIDI Punch Recording Over a Specified Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Loop Recording MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

MIDI Step Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Recording System Exclusive Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Recording Audio from a MIDI Instrument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Chapter 24. Punch Recording Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Introduction to Punch Recording Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Guidelines for Punch Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

QuickPunch Audio Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

TrackPunch Audio Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

TrackPunch Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Using TrackPunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

DestructivePunch Audio Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

DestructivePunch Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Using DestructivePunch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Example TrackPunch and DestructivePunch Workflows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Part V Editing

Chapter 25. Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Track Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Audio Clips and Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

MIDI Clips and MIDI Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Naming Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Displaying Clip Names, Clip Times, and Other Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Multiple Undo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Basic Editing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Editing Across Multiple Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Contents xi

Chapter 26. Edit Modes and Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Edit Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Shuffle Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Slip Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Spot Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Grid Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Edit Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Zooming Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Zoom Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Zoomer Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Zoom Preset Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Zoom Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Zooming with a Scroll Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Using the Trim Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Trim Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

Time Compression/ Expansion Trim Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Scrub Trim Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Loop Trim Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Using the Selector Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Using the Grabber Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Using the Smart Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Using the Scrubber Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Numeric Keypad Set to Shuttle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Using the Pencil Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Edit/Tool Mode Keyboard Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

Chapter 27. Making Selections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Linking or Unlinking Timeline and Edit Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Linking or Unlinking Track and Edit Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Selecting Track Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Timeline Selections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

Auto-Scrolling Tracks in the Mix and Edit Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Universe View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Navigating Your Pro Tools Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Pro Tools Reference Guidexii

Chapter 28. Editing Clips and Selec tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Creating New Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Healing Separated Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Trimming Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Nudging Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Quantizing Clips to Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Editing Stereo and Multichannel Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Clip Gain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

Consolidating Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

Compacting an Audio File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

Processing Audio with AudioSuite Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616

TCE (Time Compression and Expansion) Edit To Timeline Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616

Rating Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Chapter 29. Fades and Crossfades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

About Crossfades and Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

Fades Dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

Creating Fades at the Beginnings and Ends of Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

Creating a Crossfade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629

Using AutoFades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Creating Fades and Crossfades in Batches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Moving and Nudging Fades and Crossfades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632

Separating Clips that Include Fades or Crossfades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634

Trimming Clips that Include Fades or Crossfades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Fade Boundaries and Shapes Displayed in Automation View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636

Chapter 30. Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Working with Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Track Compositing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

Playlists View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Matching Alternate Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

Matching Criteria Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649

Selecting Alternate Takes on Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

Automatically Create New Playlists when Loop Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

Expanding Alternate Takes to New Playlists or Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

Expanding Alternate Channels to New Playlists or Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Contents xiii

Chapter 31. Beat Detective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Beat Detective and Source Material. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Uses for Beat Detective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Beat Detective Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658

The Beat Detective Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659

Beat Detective Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659

Defining a Beat Detective Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Beat Detective Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661

Calculating Tempo with Beat Detective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Generating Beat Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Editing Beat Triggers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

Generating Bar|Beat Markers with Beat Detective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668

DigiGroove Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

Separating Clips with Beat Detective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Conforming Clips with Beat Detective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

Edit Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Detection (Normal) and Collection Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677

Part VI MIDI

Chapter 32. MIDI Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

MIDI Editing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Setting the Grid Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Using the Pencil Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686

Inserting MIDI Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Inserting a Series of Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

Manually Editing MIDI Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

Using the Grabber Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692

Time Compression/Expansion Trim Tool Functionality on MIDI Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

Continuous Controller Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Patch Select (Program and Bank Changes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704

System Exclusive Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709

Note and Controller Chasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

Offsetting MIDI Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

Stuck Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712

Remove Duplicate Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712

MIDI Real-Time Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

Pro Tools Reference Guidexiv

Real-Time Properties Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Real-Time Properties on Tracks and Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Writing Real-Time Properties to Tracks or Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Real-Time Properties In the MIDI Event List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Display of Real-Time Properties Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Chapter 33. MIDI Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Opening a MIDI Editor Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

MIDI Editor Window Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

MIDI Editor Zoom Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

Track List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

Group List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Timebase and Conductor Rulers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Superimposed Notes View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Notes Pane Right-Click Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

Notation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

Velocity, Controller, and Automation Lanes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Chapter 34. Score Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Opening the Score Editor Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

Edit Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

Default Note Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Default Note On Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Play MIDI Notes When Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Link Timeline and Edit Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Mirrored MIDI Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Double Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Cursor Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Score Editor Window Target. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Score Editor Window Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

Customizable Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Track List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Page Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

Score Editor Zoom Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Notation Display Track Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

Score Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Editing Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Contents xv

Score Editor Right-Click Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756

Key Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Meter Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Chord Symbols and Diagrams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758

Exporting Scores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Printing Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Chapter 35. MIDI Event List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

Opening the MIDI Event List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

Inserting Events in the MIDI Event List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

Editing Events in the MIDI Event List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

MIDI Event List Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Part VII Arranging

Chapter 36. Time, Tempo, Meter , Key, and Chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Timebase Rulers and Conductor Rulers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Main Time Scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

The Sub Counter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Tick-Based Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Tick- and Sample-Based Timebases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Song Start Marker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

Graphic Tempo Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Editing Tempo Events in the Tempo Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Changing the Linearity Display Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791

Tempo Operations Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

Identify Beat Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

Meter Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801

Time Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

Change Meter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

Insert Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806

Cut Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808

Move Song Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809

Renumbering Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810

Key Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810

Chord Symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813

Pro Tools Reference Guidexvi

Chapter 37. Memory Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Creating Memory Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Creating Memory Locations During Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817

Properties of Memory Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818

Recalling Memory Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820

Editing Memory Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820

Deleting Memory Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822

Copying Marker Memory Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822

Memory Locations Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

Memory Locations Commands and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

Chapter 38. Arranging Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

Placing Clips in Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

Working with Multiple Items from the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828

Placing Clips at the Edit Insertion Point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829

Aligning Clip Start Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830

Sliding Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

Shuffling Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

Moving Clips with the Grabber Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833

Snapping to the Preceding or Next Clip on a Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833

Slipping Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Spotting Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Sliding Clips in Grid Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

Replacing Audio Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838

Sync Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841

Shift Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842

Locking Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

Muting/Unmuting Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844

Stripping Silence from Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844

Inserting Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847

Duplicating Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

Repeating Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

Chapter 39. Clip Loops and Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

Clip Looping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

Creating Looped Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852

Unlooping Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Editing Looped Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Contents xvii

Clip Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855

Creating Clip Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856

Ungrouping Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

Regrouping Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

Multitrack Clip Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858

Clip Groups on Tick-Based Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859

Editing Clip Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Fades and Crossfades on Clip Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862

Clip Groups and Clip Gain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862

Importing and Exporting Clip Group Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

Part VIII Processing

Chapter 40. AudioSuite Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

AudioSuite Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

AudioSuite Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

AudioSuite Window Header. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

AudioSuite Window Footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

Using AudioSuite Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875

Conditions for AudioSuite Rendering with Handles, Fades, Clip Gain, and Metadata . . . . . 879

Chapter 41. Elastic Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

Example Elastic Audio Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882

Elastic Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887

Enabling Elastic Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887

Disabling Elastic Audio Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

Elastic Audio Track Co ntrols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

Elastic Audio Track Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

Elastic Audio Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

Real-Time and Rendered Elastic Audio Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891

Elastic Audio Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892

Editing in Warp View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897

Warping Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

Editing in Analysis View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 903

Elastic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Elastic Properties Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906

Elastic Audio Clip-Based Pitch Shifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908

AudioSuite Processing and Elastic Audio Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910

Pro Tools Reference Guidexviii

Moving Elastic Audio Between Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 911

Approximate Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912

Elastic Audio Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912

Chapter 42. Event Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913

Event Operations Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913

Quantize Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914

Grid Quantize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916

Grid Quantize Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918

Groove Quantize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920

Quantizing Elastic Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925

Quantizing Audio Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926

Quantizing Mixed Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927

Restore Performance Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927

Flatten Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928

Change Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929

Change Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 931

Transpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933

Select/Split Notes Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

Input Quantize Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937

Step Input Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938

Part IX Mixing

Chapter 43. Basic Mixing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943

Mixing Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943

Metering and Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944

Signal Flow by Track Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944

Audio Tracks and Signal Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944

Auxiliary Input Tracks and Signal Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945

Master Fader Tracks and Signal Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946

Instrument Tracks and Signal Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948

VCA Master Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949

Inserts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 952

Configuring Inserts View in the Mix and Edit Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

HEAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

Stereo Pan Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

Views in the Mix and Edit Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954

Contents xix

Audio Input and Output Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957

Sends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960

Configuring Sends View in the Mix and Edit Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963

Sends View Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963

Editing Sends in the Mix and Edit Windows (Individual Send Views) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965

Bus Interrogation Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968

Output Windows for Tracks and Sends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969

Using Output Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973

Signal Routing for Monitoring and Submixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974

Delay Compensation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981

Dither. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989

Using an Ethernet Control Surface with Pro Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990

Using a MIDI Control Surface with Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991

Chapter 44. Plug-In and Hardware Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995

Viewing Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999

Making Inserts Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000

Inserting Plug-Ins on Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001

Plug-In Menu Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002

Moving and Duplicating Plug-In and Hardware Inserts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1004

The Plug-In Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005

Opening Plug-In Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008

Using Plug-In Window Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009

Editing Plug-In Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009

Plug-In Automation and Safe Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010

Side-Chain Input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010

Plug-In Presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011

Plug-In Settings Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014

Plug-In Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017

Bypassing Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023

Linking and Unlinking Controls on Multi-Mono Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023

Using Hardware Inserts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1024

Chapter 45. Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029

Automation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029

Automation Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030

Automation Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1032

Automation Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1036

Pro Tools Reference Guidexx

Viewing Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1038

Writing Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1041

Automating Sends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044

Automating Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045

AutoMatching Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047

Priming Controls for Writing Automation in Latch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1049

Enabling and Suspending Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1052

Deleting Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054

Thinning Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1055

Drawing Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1056

Editing Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1057

Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1061

Glide Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065

Trimming Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066

Writing Automation to the Start, End, or All of a Track or Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068

Writing Automation to the Next Breakpoint or to the Punch Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070

Guidelines for “Write To” Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073

Overwriting or Extending Mute Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074

Creating Snapshot Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076

Previewing Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079

Capturing Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081

VCA Master Track Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084

Coalescing VCA Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085

Chapter 46. Mixdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089

Selecting Audio for Loops, Submixes, and Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089

Using Dither . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1090

Bus Recording to Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091

Bounce to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092

Bounce Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093

Recording a Submix (with Bounce to Disk) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102

Final Mixdown (with Bounce to Disk). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103

Mastering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104

Contents xxi

Part X Surround

Chapter 47. Pro Tools Setup for Surround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

Surround Mixing in Pro Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

Pro Tools Audio Connections for 5.1 Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

7.1 and 7.0 Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1110

Configuring Pro Tools for Multichannel Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1110

Default I/O Selectors in I/O Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115

5.1 Track Layouts, Routing, and Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116

Chapter 48. Multichannel Tracks and Signal Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117

Multichannel Audio Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117

Multichannel Signal Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120

Paths in Surround Mixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123

Example Paths and Signal Routing for a Surround Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125

Chapter 49. Surround Panning and Mixing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129

Introduction to Pro Tools Surround Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129

Output Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1130

Standard Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131

Surround Panner Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132

Panning Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1135

Divergence and Center Percentage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1138

LFE Faders in Multichannel Panners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1140

Pan Playlists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1141

Surround Scope Plug-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1141

Part XI Sync and Video

Chapter 50. Working with Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1145

Pro Tools Synchronization Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1145

Session Setup Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1147

Format Displays and Controls in the Session Setup Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148

SYNC Setup and Timecode Offsets in the Session Setup Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1149

Preparing to Work with SMPTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153

Configuring Pro Tools for SMPTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153

Pull Up and Pull Down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156

Effect of Using Pull Up or Pull Down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158

Pro Tools Reference Guidexxii

Putting Pro Tools Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1159

Generating Timecode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1160

Using MIDI Machine Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161

Enabling MIDI Machine Control in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1162

MMC Transport Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1164

Setting Minimum Sync Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165

Remote Track Arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165

Spotting Clips to SMPTE Frame Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1166

The Spot Dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1166

Capturing Timecode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167

Auto-Spotting Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168

Using the Trim Tools in Spot Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168

Time Stamping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168

Identifying a Synchronization Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170

Troubleshooting SMPTE Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170

Speed Correction for Film, NTSC Video, and PAL Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1172

Chapter 51. Working with Video in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175

Introduction to Pro Tools and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175

QuickTime Movies Support in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176

Windows Media Video (VC-1 AP Codec) Support in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177

Before Starting Your Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177

Video Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1178

Main Video Track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1179

Video Track Controls and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180

Locking Video Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182

Video Engine Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182

Importing Video into Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183

Configuring Video Import Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1185

Extracting Audio from QuickTime and Windows Media Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1186

Video Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1187

General Video Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1188

Renaming Video Disk Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191

Video Clip Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191

Using the Video Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191

Browsing Video in the Video Universe Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1193

Playback of High-Definition QuickTime and Windows Media Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195

Playing QuickTime DV Video to an External Monitor Over FireWire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1196

Contents xxiii

Playing Video to an External Monitor Using a Video Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1197

Bouncing the Video Track to a QuickTime Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199

Bouncing a Video Track with Windows Media Video to a WIndows Media Movie . . . . . . . 1200

Using Pro Tools to Import Video from Other Versions of Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1201

Chapter 52. Working with Field Recorders in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203

Field Recorder and Production Workflow Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203

Supported Field Recorder Audio Files and Metadata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205

Displaying Field Recorder Metadata in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1206

DigiBase Support for Field Recorder Metadata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1206

Field Recorder Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207

Ensuring Metadata of Source Files Have Been Preserved. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1208

Receiving Source Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1208

Importing Source Files into Pro Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1209

Designating Field Recorder Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211

Displaying Multichannel Files from a Field Recorder in the Clip List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211

Selecting a Matching Field Recorder Channel to Replace a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212

Expanding Matching Field Recorder Channels to New Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1216

Determining the Method of Expanding Matching Field Recorder Channels to New Tracks. 1217

Overview of Production Workflows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1221

Film Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1221

Video and Fully Non-Linear Workflows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1224

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1227

Pro Tools Reference Guidexxiv

Part I: Introduction to

Pro Tools

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools

Welcome to Pro Tools®, brought to you by Avid® Technology. Pro Tools integrates powerful multitrack digital audio and MIDI sequencing features, giving you everything you need to record, arrange, compose, edit, mix, and master professional quality audio and MIDI for music, video, film, and multimedia.

Pro Tools Documentation

Pro Tools documentation provides you with workflow and reference information to help you successfully use Pro Tools.

Help

is installed automatically during Pro Tools installation and can be accessed from within Pro Tools.

PDF Versions of Guides and Read Mes

stalled automatically during Pro Tools installation. The main guides can be accessed from within Pro Tools. Additional documentation is available in the Pro Tools Documentation folder.

To view or print PDFs, you can use Adobe Reader or Apple Preview (Mac only).

Print Versions of Documentation

with some Pro Tools software and hardware. Examples include Quick Setups and Installation guides.

Print-on-demand copies of the Pro Tools Reference Guide and some of the other guides in the Pro Tools guide set can be purchased separately from Avid (www.avid.com).

are in-

are included

Launching Pro Tools Help

Pro Tools Help provides quick access to workflows and reference information while Pro Tools is open. Built-in search capabilities and an index are included to better support your Help needs.

To launch Help in Pro Tools:

 Choose Help > Pro Tools Help.

For more information, see Chapter 4, “Using Help.”

Accessing Guides in Pro Tools

PDF (Portable Document Format) versions of the main Pro Tools guides are accessible from the Pro Tools

To access guides in Pro Tools:

 Choose Help, then a guide name (such as

Menus Guide).

Guides Accessible in Pro Tools

The following guides are available from the Pro Tools

• Audio Plug-Ins Guide

• Pro Tools Menus Guide

• Pro Tools Reference Guide

•ProTools Shortcuts

For information on these guides, see “Pro Tools Documentation in the Documentation Folder” on page 4.

Help menu.

Help menu:

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools 3

Accessing Pro Tools Guides in the Documentation Folder

PDF (Portable Document Format) versions of many Pro Tools guides are installed with Pro Tools. They are accessible from the Pro Tools Documentation folder.

To access guides in Pro Tools Documentation folder:

1 Locate the Documentation folder on your hard

drive.

• On Mac, go to Applications/Avid/ Documentation.

• On Windows, go to All Programs/Pro Tools/ Documentation.

2 Open the subfolder that has the documenta-

tion you want.

3 Double-click the PDF you want to view.

Pro Tools EUCON Guide

Provides information

about setting up Pro Tools for use with

EuControl software and a EUCON™-compatible

controller.

Hardware & Peripherals 003 Family User Guide

operation information for 003

Provides installation and

, 003+, and 003

Rack Pro Tools hardware.

192 Digital I/O Guide

about 192 Digital I/O™

Provides information

audio interfaces for

Pro Tools|HD systems.

192 I/O Guide

Provides information about

192 I/O™ audio interfaces for Pro Tools|HD

systems.

96 I/O Guide

Provides information about

96 I/O™ audio interfaces for Avid HDX,

Pro Tools|HD systems.

For information on guides in the Documentation folder, see “Pro Tools Documentation in the Documentation Folder” on page 4.

Pro Tools Documentation in the Documentation Folder

Pro Tools guides and Read Mes in the Documentation folder are located in product-based subfolders, as follows:

Control Surfaces C|24 Guide

control surface for Pro Tools systems.

Command|8 Guide

Command|8 other supported Avid systems.

D-Command Guide

worksurface for Avid ICON systems.

D-Control Guide

surface for Avid ICON systems.

Pro Tools Reference Guide4

Supports Avid’s C|24™ 24-channel

Supports Avid’s compact

control surface for Pro Tools and

Supports D-Command®

Supports D-Control™ work-

96i I/O Guide

Provides information about

96i I/O™ audio interfaces for Pro Tools|HD

systems.

Avid DigiTest Guide

Provides information about using DigiTest to troubleshoot your Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native hardware.

Expanded Systems Guide

Provides instructions for expanding Pro Tools|HD systems with additional Pro Tools|HD cards and audio interfaces, with or without an expansion chassis.

HD IO Guide

Provides a hardware overview, as well as detailed information for installing and configuring HD I/O audio interfaces for use with HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware.

HD MADI Guide

Provides a hardware overview, as well as detailed information for installing and configuring HD MADI audio interfaces for use with HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware.

HD Native Install Guide

Provides hardware in-

stallation instructions for HD Native hardware.

HD OMNI Guide

Provides a hardware overview, as well as detailed information for installing and configuring an HD OMNI audio interface for stand-alone use and for use with HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware.

HD User Guide

Provides hardware installation

instructions for Pro Tools|HD hardware.

HDX Install Guide

Provides hardware installa-

tion instructions for HDX hardware.

Plug-Ins Access Music Indigo Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using the Access Music Virus Indigo plug-in.

AIR Virtual Instruments

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using A.I.R. Virtual Instrument plug-ins (Hybrid, Strike, Structure, Transfuser, and Velvet).

Aphex Plug-Ins Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using Aphex plug-ins.

Mbox Mini User Guide

Provides hardware installation and operation information for the Mbox Mini audio interface.

Mbox Pro User Guide

Provides hardware installation and operation information for the Mbox Pro audio interface.

Mbox User Guide

Provides hardware installation and operation information for the Mbox audio interface (3rd generation).

PRE Guide

Provides detailed information for in-

stalling, configuring, and using PRE™, both

stand-alone and with Pro Tools.

SurroundPanner Option Guide

Provides hardware installation and operation information for the JL Cooper Surround Panner for Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit.

SYNC HD Guide

Provides a hardware overview,

as well as detailed information for installing and

configuring the SYNC HD™ and SYNC I/O syn-

chronization peripherals for stand-alone use and for use with HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware.

Audio Plug-Ins Guide

cluded free with Pro Tools, as well as additional

Describes the plug-ins in-

plug-ins available for purchase separately.

Dolby Surround Tools

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using Dolby Surround Tools plug-ins.

Drawmer Dynamics Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using Drawmer Dynamics plug-ins.

Focusrite Plug-Ins Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using Focusrite plug-ins.

MDW EQ Plug-In Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using the MDW EQ plug-in.

Sonic NoNOISE Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using Sonic NoNoise plug-ins.

SymphonicOrchestraSE Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using the Symphonic Orchestra SE sample content for Structure.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools 5

Pro Tools Intro To Pro Tools

Provides several introductory

tutorials for using Pro Tools.

Pro Tools Installation Guide

Provides detailed information for installing and authorizing Pro Tools software, as well as information for optimizing your operating system for Pro Tools.

Pro Tools Menus Guide

Covers all the Pro Tools

on-screen menus.

Pro Tools Reference Guide

Explains Pro Tools

systems and software in detail.

Pro Tools Shortcuts

Lists keyboard and Right-click shortcuts for Pro Tools, including those shown in Pro Tools menus.

Sync & Surround Concepts

Provides an introduction to key synchronization, surround mixing, and monitoring concepts for Pro Tools users.

What’s New In Pro Tools

Provides an overview of

new features in the current version of Pro Tools.

Read Mes

Read Me documents cover compatibility information, known issues and workarounds, and corrections to Pro Tools guides.

Toolkits & Options Complete Production Toolkit

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using the Complete Production Toolkit software option for Pro Tools.

Heat Option Guide

Provides detailed information for installing, authorizing, and using the HEAT software option for Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems.

MachineControl Guide

Provides detailed

information for installing and using the

MachineControl™ option.

Satellite Link Guide

Provides detailed information for authorizing and using the Satellite Link software option.

Video Satellite Guide

Provides detailed information for authorizing and using the Video Satellite software option.

Video Satellite LE Guide

Provides detailed information for authorizing and using the Video Satellite LE software option.

Video Avid Video Peripherals Guide

Describes the use of the Avid Mojo SDI video peripheral with Pro Tools systems.

Pro Tools Avid Interop

Provides a list of web resources for interoperability with Pro Tools and Avid video editing systems.

Pro Tools Avid Interplay

Describes how to use the Avid Interplay system to pass sequences and audio files back and forth between Avid video editing systems and Pro Tools HD audio editing and mixing systems.

Pro Tools Avid MediaNetwork

Provides information on setting up and using a Pro Tools client on Avid Unity MediaNetwork networked storage systems.

Pro Tools ISIS Guide

Provides information on setting up and using a Pro Tools client on Avid Unity ISIS networked storage systems.

Pro Tools Reference Guide6

Conventions Used in Pro Tools Documentation

System Requirements and Compatibility Information

Pro Tools documentation uses the following conventions to indicate menu choices, keyboard commands, and mouse commands:

Convention Action

File > Save Choose Save from the

Control+N Hold down the Control

Control-click Hold down the Control

Right-click Click with the right

File menu

key and press the N key

key and click the mouse button

mouse button

The names of Commands, Options, and Settings that appear on-screen are in a different font.

The following symbols are used to highlight important information:

User Tips are helpful hints for getting the most from your Pro Tools system.

Important Notices include information that could affect your Pro Tools session data or the performance of your Pro Tools system.

Shortcuts show you useful keyboard or mouse shortcuts.

Avid can only assure compatibility and provide support for hardware and software it has tested and approved.

For complete system requirements and a list of qualified computers, operating systems, hard drives, and third-party devices, visit:

www.avid.com/compatibility

About www.avid.com

The Avid website (www.avid.com) is your best online source for information to help you get the most out of your Pro Tools system. The following are just a few of the services and features available.

Product Registration

online.

Support and Downloads

Success (technical support); download software updates and the latest online manuals; browse the Compatibility documents for system requirements; search the online Knowledge Base or join the worldwide Pro Tools community on the User Conference.

Training and Education

courses available online or find out how you can learn in a classroom setting at a certified Pro Tools training center.

Contact Avid Customer

Study on your own using

Cross References point to related sections in this guide and other Avid documentation.

Products and Developers

Learn about Avid products; download demo software or learn about our Development Partners and their plugins, applications, and hardware.

News and Events

Get the latest news from Avid

or sign up for a Pro Tools demo.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools 7

Pro Tools Reference Guide8

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts

Before you begin to use Pro Tools, you may find it helpful to review Pro Tools concepts. These concepts are the foundation of Pro Tools operation and functionality.

Hard Disk Audio Recording

Hard disk recording is a nonlinear (or random access) medium—you can go immediately to any spot in a recording without having to rewind or fast forward.

This differs from tape-based recording, which is a linear medium—where you need to rewind or fast forward to hear a particular spot in a recording. To rearrange or repeat material in a linear system, you need to re-record it, or cut and splice it.

Nonlinear systems have several advantages. You can easily rearrange or repeat parts of a recording by making the hard disk read parts of the recording in a different order or multiple times. In addition, this re-arrangement is nondestructive, meaning that the original recorded material is not altered.

Pro Tools Nonlinear Editing

Pro Tools is a nonlinear recording editing system that lets you rearrange and mix recorded material nondestructively. Nonlinear editing simply means that you can cut, copy, paste, move, delete, trim, and otherwise rearrange any audio, MIDI, or video in the Pro Tools Edit window.

Nonlinear editing provides significant advantages over dubbing (re-recording), and cutting and splicing magnetic tape. It gives you the greatest possible flexibility for editing and arranging, and it is all nondestructive and “undoable.” Additionally, with nonlinear editing in Pro Tools, you will never introduce any degradation of audio fidelity as you would with tape.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 9

DAE

DAE, the Pro Tools audio engine, is a real-time operating system for digital audio recording, playback, and processing. When you install Pro Tools, DAE is automatically installed on your system.

In the same way that a computer’s operating system provides the foundation for programs that run on the computer, DAE provides the foundation for much of the hard disk recording, digital signal processing, and mix automation required by Pro Tools and other products from Avid and its Development Partners.

Playback Engine

Pro Tools lets you adjust the performance of your system by changing system settings that affect its capacity for processing, playback, and recording. These system settings are available in the Playback Engine (

Pro Tools takes advantage of your computer’s host processor for certain tasks and optional host-based plug-in processing.

Pro Tools uses host (CPU) processing to provide audio track recording, playback, mixing, and effects processing. Both Pro Tools and Pro Tools HD use host-based processing to run Native AAX (Avid Audio Extension) and RTAS Time AudioSuite) plug-ins for effects processing. Performance is determined by your system and its Playback Engine settings.

Setup > Playback Engine).

(Real-

The Playback Engine lets you set a hardware buffer size and allocate a percentage of CPU resources for these tasks.

Playback Engine for Pro Tools|HD system

On Pro Tools|HD systems, you can select the number of voices and voiceable tracks for your system and its sessions. Voice count choices are based on how much DSP processing you want to allocate for voicing.

The Playback Engine is also where you assign dedicated resources for Automatic Delay Compensation.

For more information, see “Configuring Pro Tools System Settings” on page 62. See also “System Resources” on page 21.

Pro Tools Reference Guide10

Core Audio

Apple’s Core Audio provides audio stream connectivity between software applications and audio hardware on Mac OS X. Pro Tools software can use audio interfaces with supported Core Audio drivers for playback and recording with up to 32 channels of I/O.

MIDI signal flow

ASIO

Steinberg’s Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) provides audio stream connectivity between software applications and audio hardware on Windows. Pro Tools software can use audio interfaces with supported ASIO drivers for playback and recording with up to 32 channels of I/O.

MIDI

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a communication protocol for musical instruments. This industry standard enables connections between a variety of devices from different manufacturers. Examples of MIDI-compatible equipment include synthesizers, sound modules, drum machines, MIDI patch bays, effects processors, MIDI interfaces, MIDI control surfaces, and MIDI sequencers.

MIDI devices are equipped with 5-pin DIN connectors, labeled as either IN, OUT, or THRU. The MIDI OUT port transmits messages. The MIDI IN port receives messages. The MIDI THRU outputs whatever is received from the IN port. MIDI devices are connected with MIDI cables that are available at most music stores.

USB and FireWire-compatible MIDI devices send and receive MIDI messages to and from the computer over USB or FireWire.

Not all devices will have all three MIDI ports (IN, OUT, and THRU).

The MIDI protocol provides 16 channels of MIDI per port. A single MIDI cable can transmit a separate set of messages for each of the 16 channels. These 16 channels can correspond to separate MIDI devices or to multiple channels within a single device (if the device is multitim- bral). Each channel can control a different instrument sound. For example, bass on channel 1, piano on channel 2, and drums on channel 10. Similar to a multitrack tape recorder, a MIDI sequencer can record complex arrangements—even using only a single multitimbral keyboard.

MIDI Terms

The following are some basic MIDI terms:

MIDI Instrument

software instrument (such as an instrument plug-in).

MIDI Interface

connect to and communicate with MIDI devices (such as the M-Audio MIDISPORT).

MIDI Device

module, effects device, or other equipment that can send or receive MIDI information.

A hardware MIDI device or

Hardware that lets computers

Any physical MIDI keyboard, sound

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 11

MIDI Controller

Any MIDI device that transmits MIDI performance data. These include MIDI keyboards, MIDI guitar controllers, MIDI wind controllers, and others. Controllers transmit MIDI from their MIDI OUT ports.

MIDI Control Surface

Any device (such as Command|8), which uses a MIDI connection to send control messages to a software program, but is not generally used to record MIDI information.

Multitimbral

The ability of one MIDI device to play several different instrument sounds (such as piano, bass, and drums) simultaneously on separate MIDI channels. This makes it possible for a single multitimbral MIDI instrument to play back entire arrangements.

MIDI Port

A physical MIDI port on a MIDI interface or a virtual MIDI port created in software. There are separate ports for MIDI In and Out. Physical MIDI ports connect to external MIDI devices using MIDI cables. Virtual MIDI ports connect software plug-ins and applications (see also “Virtual MIDI Nodes”).

MIDI Channel

Up to 16 channels of MIDI performance data can be transmitted on a single MIDI cable. The channel number separates the different messages so your sound sources can receive the correct messages.

Program Change Event

A MIDI command that tells a sound source which of its sounds (or sound patches) to use. The MIDI protocol lets you choose from a range of 128 patches.

Local Control

A controller setting found on most MIDI keyboards that lets them play their own sound source. Disabling “local control” ensures that a device’s internal sound source is only played by external MIDI messages (such as those sent from Pro Tools when MIDI in Pro Tools is routed to the MIDI keyboard). When using Pro Tools, “local control” should usually be disabled (for example, when using MIDI Thru). When “local control” is off, your keyboard still transmits data to its MIDI OUT port.

Continuous Controller Events

MIDI instructions that allow real-time changes to notes that are currently sounding. These include pitch bend, modulation, volume, pan, and many others.

System Exclusive Data

MIDI data commonly used for sending and retrieving patch parameter information for storage purposes.

Virtual MIDI Nodes

When using MIDI with instrument plug-ins in Pro Tools, virtual MIDI nodes are created. These nodes act like MIDI ports and provide software MIDI connections between Pro Tools and other MIDI software, such as instrument plug-ins. For example, when you insert Propellerhead’s Reason as a ReWire client on a track, the various MIDI inputs to Reason become available to Pro Tools MIDI and Instrument track MIDI outputs.

Common Misconceptions About MIDI

Bank Select Message

Many devices have more than 128 patches, which are arranged in banks. The Bank Select Message is a MIDI command that specifies the bank of patches from which to choose.

Pro Tools Reference Guide12

MIDI is not audio, and by itself makes no sound. MIDI is control information only. It is like the piano roll for a player piano; it provides control information for what note to play when, for how long, at what volume, and with what sound (instrument). For example, when you strike a key on a MIDI keyboard, it sends a message to a MIDI instrument to play that particular note at that particular velocity using the selected sound

(instrument). This could be its internal tone generator (like a synthesizer or sampler), another external MIDI instrument, or an instrument plug-in within Pro Tools. In order to play and hear a MIDI recording, you must have a MIDI instrument. Audio from an external MIDI instrument can be sent to an external mixer or monitored through your Pro Tools audio interface (using either an Instrument track or Auxiliary track).

If you are using an external MIDI instrument, it must be connected to MIDI ports that are recognized by your computer. These ports can be on a Pro Tools interface that has MIDI ports (such as an Mbox Pro) or some other MIDI interface (such as an M-Audio MIDISPORT).

Signal paths for external MIDI instruments

To actually hear an external MIDI instrument, you need to connect its audio outputs to a mixing console or connect it to one of the audio inputs of your Pro Tools audio interface.

Just as each Pro Tools system has unique hardware features, each MIDI device has its own features (and limitations) as to the number of voices and instruments it can play at one time. See the device’s documentation for information on its capabilities.

MIDI in Pro Tools

Pro Tools provides powerful MIDI sequencing capabilities. You can record, enter, edit, and play back MIDI data on Pro Tools Instrument and MIDI tracks. These actions can be done in the Edit window, the MIDI Editor window, the Score Editor window, and the MIDI Event List.

MIDI data in Pro Tools can be anything from MIDI note data (note number, on/off, velocity) to System Exclusive (Sysex) messages. MIDI data can be recorded or played back from both external MIDI devices with a MIDI interface (such as the M-Audio MIDISPORT or Mbox Pro) and other MIDI software (such as instrument plug-ins and ReWire client applications).

Synchronization

When you are working with multiple time-based systems, such as Pro Tools and an external deck, you want both systems to be synchronized. Synchronization is where one system outputs clock source (such as timecode or MIDI Beat Clock) and another device synchronizes to or follows that clock source so that they work together. Pro Tools can be synchronized to other devices (or other devices can be synchronized to Pro Tools) using SMPTE/EBU timecode or MIDI Timecode.

For more information on different SMPTE/EBU formats, and other concepts related to timecode, see the Pro Tools Sync & Surround Concepts Guide.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 13

Surround Sound

Pro Tools Sessions

Surround sound simply means having one or more speakers with discrete audio signals (channels) placed behind the listener in addition to the typical stereo pair.

There are multiple types of surround formats in use (from three-channel LCR to 7.1, which has eight channels).

The most common surround format is 5.1, which refers to having 5 speakers and a subwoofer (the “.1”). 5.1 is used in movie theaters and home entertainment systems. Additionally, most DVDs are mixed to 5.1. The standard speaker placement for 5.1 for surround monitoring is stereo left and right speakers, and an additional center speaker in front, two more stereo left and right speakers in the rear, and the sub-woofer on the side.

Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit support mixing in surround formats. In Pro Tools, each surround format is considered to be a greater-than-stereo multichannel format.

When you start a project in Pro Tools, you create a session. It can be helpful to understand the basic elements of a session.

Session File

A session file is the document that Pro Tools cre- ates when you choose configure a new session. Pro Tools can open only one session file at a time. The session file is named with a .ptx (Pro Tools file) extension. Session files contain maps of all elements associated with a project, including audio files, MIDI data, and all your edit and mix information. It is important to realize that a Pro Tools session file does not contain any media files (audio or video). Instead, it references audio, video, MIDI, and other files. You can make changes to a session and save those changes in a new session file. This lets you create multiple versions of a session or back up your editing and mixing work.

File > New Session and

For information on fundamental surround concepts, see the Pro Tools Sync & Surround Concepts Guide.

Pro Tools Reference Guide14

Session file icon

Tracks

Pro Tools tracks are where audio, MIDI, video, and automation data are recorded and edited. Pro Tools tracks also provide audio channels for routing internal busses, and physical inputs and outputs for audio and MIDI.

Pro Tools provides multiple types of tracks: audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, VCA Master, MIDI, Instrument, video, and click.

Master Fader tracks provide controls for physical audio output channels, including the volume level of your mix, panning, and plug-in inserts.

VCA Master tracks (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit only) provide control of tracks in a Mix Group that has been assigned to the VCA Master.

Video tracks support QuickTime movies (all Pro Tools systems) and VC-1 video files (Windows 7 only). Additionally, Pro Tools supports Avid video when using a supported Avid video peripheral. An individual video track can play back only one type of video at a time.

Audio track in the Edit window (stereo track shown)

MIDI track in the Edit window

Video track in Frames view

Audio, MIDI, Instrument, and video track data can be edited into clips or repeated in different locations to create loops, re-arrange sections or entire songs, or to assemble tracks using material from multiple takes.

Auxiliary Input tracks can route internal audio busses or physical inputs to internal busses or physical outputs. Auxiliary Inputs are typically used for audio effects busses, audio throughput (monitoring), and submixing.

Audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, and Instrument tracks can be mono, stereo, or multichannel (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit only). When creating a new track, select from the list of channel formats supported by your system.

Pro Tools also lets you create a Click track so you can record while listening to a click. Click tracks can use the TL Metro plug-in (included with Pro Tools) or a MIDI instrument.

Voices

In Pro Tools, voices are unique, discrete audio streams that can be routed to and from Pro Tools audio tracks, and physical audio outputs and inputs on your Pro Tools audio interfaces. The audio paths to and from Pro Tools software routed to Pro Tools hardware use voices. If you exceed the number of available voices in your system, you have effectively exceeded the available number of audio paths.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 15

Typically, each audio channel for each track in your Pro Tools session uses a single voice. So, for a mono audio track, a single voice is used; for a stereo audio track, two voices are used. When using Punch Recording, two voices are needed for every single audio channel (one for playback and one for recording on punch in and out). In some situations, with Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, more than one voice may be necessary for a single channel (such as when using host processing on a DSP or TDM bus).

Voices can be allocated dynamically (with all Pro Tools systems, any available voices are automatically assigned as they are needed) or ex- plicitly (with Pro Tools|HD systems only, you can explicitly assign audio channels to specific available voices to ensure that audio on those channels is always voiced).

On Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, the number of available voices is dependent on the amount of dedicated DSP processing in your system (see “Playback, Recording, and Voice Limits with Pro Tools HD” on page 49).

On all other Pro Tools systems, the full number of available voices for your system may be limited by the host processing power of your computer (see “Pro Tools Capabilities with Different Hardware Configurations” on page 43).

Audio Files

When you record audio into a Pro Tools session, audio files are created.

Audio file icon

Audio files for each session are stored in a folder named “Audio Files.” Audio files are listed in the Pro Tools Clip List and can appear in an audio track. A section of an audio file can be defined as a clip. See “Clip” on page 17.

MIDI Files

When you record or enter MIDI into a Pro Tools session, all MIDI data is stored in the Pro Tools session file. You can import and export MIDI files to and from Pro Tools sessions, but MIDI recorded or otherwise created in a Pro Tools session does not automatically create new MIDI files.

For more information about voicing in Pro Tools, see “Track Priority and Voice Assignment” on page 245.

Media Files

Pro Tools sessions create, import, export, and reference media files. Media files are audio, MIDI, and video files. Audio and video media files are stored separately from the Pro Tools session file. MIDI data is stored in the session file.

Pro Tools Reference Guide16

MIDI file icon

Video Files

When you record or import video into a Pro Tools session, all video data is stored as the corresponding video file type (such as QuickTime). Video files can be created in (or copied to) the Video Files folder in the session folder. However, in most cases, Pro Tools references video files that have been captured by another

application, such as Avid Media Composer

Clip

Playlist

A clip is a segment of audio, MIDI, or video data. A clip could be a drum loop, a guitar riff, a verse of a song, a recording take, a sound effect, some dialog, or an entire sound file. Clips are especially useful for arranging audio and MIDI. A clip can also have associated automation data. In Pro Tools, clips are created from audio files or MIDI data, and can be arranged in audio and MIDI track playlists. Clips can also be grouped (a “clip of clips”) and looped (repeated).

Audio clip

MIDI clip

A playlist is a sequence of clips arranged on an audio, MIDI, or video track. Tracks have edit playlists and automation playlists.

Playlist selector pop-up menu

On audio tracks, an edit playlist tells the hard disk which audio clips to play in what order. For example, you can have separate audio clips for a song introduction, the first verse, the first chorus, and so on. You can also use the same audio clip to access the same piece of audio multiple times at different locations and not use additional disk space. Different versions of the same original audio can be used in different places and have different effects applied. On MIDI and Instrument tracks, edit playlists can store multiple MIDI sequences (or performances) on a track.

Video clip (Frames view)

Clip group (Mixed audio and MIDI multitrack clip group)

A playlist can be made up of a single clip or many separate clips. It can be made up of similar elements (such as clips from several different takes of a solo), or dissimilar elements (such as several sound effects).

You can create any number of alternate edit playlists for a track. This lets you assemble different versions of performances or edits on a single track and choose between them from the Playlists menu on the track.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 17

Each audio, Auxiliary Input, Instrument, Master Fader, and VCA track also has a single set of automation playlists. Automation playlists can include volume, pan, mute, and each automationenabled control for the insert and send assignments on that track.

MIDI controller data on Instrument and MIDI tracks is always included as part of the track playlist.

Channel

The term channel is used to describe several related components of a Pro Tools system.

The first example of channel refers to a physical input or output of your Pro Tools system. For example, HD I/O provides up to 16 channels of audio input and output to an Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native system, while the Mbox Pro audio interface provides up to eight inputs and eight outputs.

The second use of the term channel refers to a channel strip in the Pro Tools Mix window. Each track in a Pro Tools session has a corresponding channel strip in the Mix window.

Audio and MIDI channel strips have similar controls, but those controls have slightly different effects. For example, audio, Auxiliary Input, and Instrument track channel strip faders control the output gain to the mix bus for that channel, while MIDI channel strip faders send MIDI volume data (MIDI controller 7) to the selected MIDI instrument.

The term “MIDI channel” also describes a separate aspect of MIDI operation. See “MIDI” on page 11.

Pro Tools Reference Guide18

Channel strip in the Mix window (audio track)

Signal Routing

Input from stereo bus path

Outputs to stereo bus path

Audio tracks

Inserts

Sends

Auxiliary

Input Track

Signal Routing Options

Pro Tools provides software-based mixing and signal routing controls for audio and MIDI. These controls are located in the Mix window. Some of these controls can also be accessed from the Edit window.

A common audio signal routing task is to submix multiple tracks to a single channel strip (such as an Auxiliary Input) for shared processing and level control.

The following example shows two audio tracks submixed to a stereo Auxiliary Input.

Signal routing options include the following:

Track Input and Output (I/O) Controls

The most basic type of signal routing is track input and output. A track needs to have an assigned input path to record audio, and an assigned mapped output path in order to be audible through a hardware output. Signals can also be routed to or from other tracks in Pro Tools (or hardware inputs and outputs) using internal busses.

Auxiliary Input and Master Fader Tracks

Auxiliary Inputs can be used as returns, submixers, and bus masters. Master Fader tracks are used as bus and output master level controls. Both Auxiliary Input and Master Fader tracks can have plug-in and hardware inserts.

MIDI Tracks

MIDI tracks are generally used for routing MIDI from internal or external sources to external MIDI devices. MIDI data can also be routed to plug-ins on Auxiliary Inputs or Instrument tracks.

Instrument Tracks

Instrument tracks are the primary way to route MIDI to an instrument plugin and then route the plug-in’s sound to outputs, sends and busses, or other inserts. Instrument tracks can also be used to send MIDI to and monitor audio from external MIDI devices.

Sends

Sends route audio from tracks to hardware outputs, or to internal busses that are in turn routed to other tracks within Pro Tools. MIDI, Master Fader, and VCA Master tracks do not have sends.

Submixing to an Auxiliary Input

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 19

Plug-In and Hardware Inserts

Plug-in processing occurs completely within the Pro Tools system. Hardware inserts use audio interface inputs and outputs for traditional insert routing to and from external effects and other devices. MIDI and VCA Master tracks do not have inserts.

Instrument Plug-Ins

Instrument plug-ins are different from processing plug-ins in that they generate audio rather than process the audio signal from a track’s audio input or from hard disk. Instrument plug-ins are typically played by MIDI.

Paths

Paths are any routing option in Pro Tools, including internal or external inputs, outputs, busses, and inserts. Pro Tools lets you name these paths, and these path names appear in the Audio Input and Output Path selectors and other menus. For more information, see Chapter 7, “I/O Setup.”

Mixing Formats

Sessions can include combinations of mono, stereo, and greater-than-stereo multichannel format tracks, busses, inputs, outputs, and inserts. Greater-than-stereo multichannel formats are supported with Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with the Complete Production Toolkit option only.

Grouping and VCA Tracks

Tracks can be grouped together for mixing so that their relative mix settings are maintained when changing a mix setting for any track in the group. For example, changing the volume of one track affects the volume of all the other tracks in the group. VCA Master tracks (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit only) control the relative mix settings for all tracks within the selected group.

Tick-Based and SampleBased Time

Pro Tools lets you set any track timebase to either sample-based or tick-based. You can also set the Timeline to be viewed as tick-based or sample-based.

Audio in Pro Tools is sample-based by default. This means that if an audio clip is located at a particular sample location, it will not move from that location if the tempo changes in the session—though its Bar|Beat location will change.

MIDI data in Pro Tools is tick-based by default. This means that if a MIDI clip is located at a particular Bar|Beat location, it will not move from that Bar|Beat location if the tempo changes in the session—though its sample location will change.

You can select whether a track is sample-based or tick-based when it is created, or change timebases later.

Sample-Based Audio and MIDI

With a sample-based audio track, all clips in the track have an absolute location on the Timeline. Clips stay fixed to the sample time, regardless of where tempo or meter changes occur in a session.

If you make a MIDI track sample-based, all MIDI events in the track have an absolute location on the Timeline. MIDI events stay fixed to sample time, regardless of any tempo or meter changes in a session.

Pro Tools Reference Guide20

Tick-Based Audio and MIDI

Tick-based audio is fixed to a Bars|Beat location, and moves relative to the sample Timeline when tempo and meter changes occur. However, MIDI events and tick-based audio respond differently to tempo changes with respect to duration. MIDI note events change length when tempo or meter is adjusted, while audio clips do not (unless Elastic Audio is enabled). When Elastic Audio is not enabled on an audio track, meter and tempo changes affect only the start point (or sync point) for each audio clip in a tick-based track. If Elastic Audio is enabled on an audio track, tempo changes apply Elastic Audio processing, which changes the duration of the audio clip.

With Elastic Audio, Pro Tools analyzes entire audio files for transient “events.” For example, an event can be a drum hit, a sung note, or chord played by a guitar. These detected events can then serve as control points for “warping” the audio. Pro Tools can warp (TCE) audio events automatically, such as when automatically conforming audio to the session tempo or quantizing audio events, or you can warp audio manually using the standard editing tools with the audio track set to Warp view.

Elastic Audio is useful in several common workflows: working with loops, correcting performances, remixing, beat and pitch matching, and sound design and special effects.

Elastic Audio

Elastic Audio provides real-time and non-realtime (rendered) Time Compression and Expansion (TCE) of audio. Tick-based Elastic Audio tracks actually change the location of samples according to changes in tempo. The audio stretches or compresses to match changes in tempo. Elastic Audio also provides high-quality non-real-time clip-based pitch shifting.

Pro Tools Elastic Audio uses exceptionally highquality transient detection algorithms, beat and tempo analysis, and real-time or rendered TCE processing algorithms. Elastic Audio lets you quickly and easily tempo conform and beat match audio to the session’s Tempo ruler. It also provides an unprecedented degree of control over transient detection and TCE processing on an event-by-event basis.

System Resources

Track count, plug-in processing, signal path and routing options, and voice availability are ultimately limited by the combined resources available from the host computer and from your Pro Tools hardware.

Pro Tools provides several ways to manage and conserve resources to maximize the performance of your system. As you begin working with Pro Tools sessions and tracks, you can take advantage of the following features to extend the effectiveness of your available DSP and other resources:

 Pro Tools lets you adjust the performance of

your system by changing system settings that affect its capacity for processing, playback, and recording. See “Configuring Pro Tools System Settings” on page 62.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 21

 In order to free up needed DSP resources,

Pro Tools allows for certain items (such as tracks and inserts) to be manually made inactive. Inactive elements are viewable, editable, and retained within the session. See “Active and Inactive Items” on page 22.

 All Pro Tools systems provide flexible voice

options for audio tracks, to help maximize use of available voices in your system. For more information on voice management and options, see “Voice Borrowing” on page 248.

In addition to manually setting Active and Inactive modes, Pro Tools automatically makes items inactive if there are insufficient or unavailable resources.

When active, items are fully engaged and operational.

When inactive, items are silent and off, although most associated controls can still be adjusted. Different inactive items affect available system resources in specific ways, as follows:

Active and Inactive Items

Pro Tools lets you make certain items (such as tracks and inserts) inactive, in order to free up DSP resources and mixer connections.

Items in Pro Tools that can be made inactive include the following:

• Audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, VCA Master, and Instrument tracks

•Track Inputs and Outputs

•Sends

• Side-chain inputs

•Plug-Ins

• Hardware inserts

• Paths (session-wide)

MIDI tracks cannot be made inactive.

Side-chain inputs support direct active and inactive switching, but do not follow switching all or all selected side-chain inputs.

Plug-Ins

When a plug-in is inactive on a track, its DSP is made available for other plug-ins and processing. Plug-In assignments can be made inactive manually or automatically (see “Automatic and Manual Inactive Mode” on page 23).

Paths and Path Assignments

When a path or path assignment is inactive, its mixer resources are made available for other signal routing purposes in the session. Paths and assignments can be made inactive manually or automatically (see “Automatic and Manual Inactive Mode” on page 23).

Tracks

When a track is made inactive, its voices become available for another track. Inactive mono tracks free up one voice; inactive stereo and multichannel tracks free up one voice per channel. Additionally, when an audio, Auxiliary Input, Instrument, or Master Fader track is made inactive, its plug-ins, inserts, sends, and I/O assignments become inactive, and the associated DSP used is freed up for use elsewhere in the session.

Pro Tools Reference Guide22

Display of Inactive Items

Active plug-in Inactive plug-in

Inactive track

Automatic and Manual Inactive Mode

When items are inactive, their names appear in italics, and their background becomes dark gray. When a track is inactive, the entire channel strip is grayed out.

Active and Inactive modes are powerful options for session transfer and system resource management. Pro Tools provides automatic and manual Inactive mode switching. You can manually make items inactive (or active) to selectively manage system resources while editing and mixing.

Automatically Inactive Items

When opening a session, it is possible that not all signal paths, plug-ins, or audio interfaces used in the session will be available as defined on the current system. When opening a session, sufficient voices may also be unavailable if the session was created on a different Pro Tools system type (for example, opening a session created on a Pro Tools|HD system on a Pro Tools system with an Mbox Pro audio interface).

Whenever this occurs, the session will open as it was last saved. All items that are unavailable, or cannot be loaded due to insufficient resources, are made inactive.

Manual Inactive Switching

Active and inactive plug-ins, sends, and tracks

You can manually apply Active or Inactive modes to manage system resources. By making an item inactive, its associated resources are made available elsewhere in the session.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 23

DigiBase

AA F, MXF, and OMF

DigiBase is a database management tool for Pro Tools. DigiBase expands upon basic Pro Tools search and import capabilities by providing powerful tools to manage your data both inside and outside of your sessions, on any hard drive connected to the system.

A database is a way of organizing data such that it can easily be searched, sorted, managed, and utilized. Your checkbook is an example of a database file. For every check you write, you enter a new record. That record contains information about the check, such as when you wrote it, to whom you wrote it, and for what amount. This information is written in specific columns, or fields. Everything you need to know (the check’s metadata) is there, even though the check itself is not.

DigiBase browsers let you search, sort, and mange these databases by volume or catalog. You can use DigiBase browsers not only to organize your Pro Tools sessions and media files (audio, MIDI, and video), but also to audition and import by drag and drop.

Pro Tools lets you exchange audio, video, and sequences with other AAF-, MXF-, and OMFcompatible applications (such as Avid editors).

Media Data (Media Files)

Media data represents raw audio or video material and is stored in individual media files. Every time you record a piece of video or audio material into an application, you are creating a media file. Audio media files hold samples (such as 44,100 or 48,000 samples per second of recording) while video media files use frames (24, 25, or 30 frames per second of recording).

The size of each media file depends on how much audio or video material it contains. For example, a file containing ten minutes of high resolution video might be approximately

2.16 GB in size, whereas a ten-minute audio recording at the might result in a 100 MB file. Media files tend to be large, since high quality audio and video signals are data intensive. Video data generally requires considerably more storage than audio data.

For more information about DigiBase, see “DigiBase” on page 285.

Pro Tools Reference Guide24

Metadata

Metadata is used to describe the following:

• Information embedded in a media file. This may include scene, take, sample rate, bit depth, external clip names, the name of the videotape from which the media file was captured, and even timecode values.

• Information embedded in Pro Tools sessions or other sequences, including what files are used, where they appear in a timeline, and automation.

• For AAF or OMF sequences, metadata also includes information embedded in unrendered AudioSuite™ effects (such as real-time EQ) on Avid workstations. Pro Tools skips unrendered effects on import. Rendered effects are media files that can be imported into Pro Tools.

• For AAF or OMF sequences, information about automation (clip-based gain or keyframe gain).

In the simplest case, only an AAF or OMF sequence is exchanged. If this sequence points to existing media files, the size of the sequence file is relatively small and the export/import process is relatively fast.

AAF and OMF sequences can also have media data embedded in them. This creates a single, larger file that is slower to export and import, but which may be easier to manage than thousands of files stored on different volumes.

AAF

AAF is a sequence file format. AAF sequences are the best way to exchange projects and maintain valuable metadata. An AAF sequence can refer to OMF or MXF media files, or have OMF and MXF media files embedded within them. There is no such thing as an AAF audio or video media file.

Pro Tools will import, play back, and export an AAF sequence that either links to media files or has audio embedded within it.

AAF, OMF, and MXF Basics

AAF and OMF files are mechanisms for storing and retrieving media files and metadata so that projects can be freely exchanged between different applications and platforms. MXF is a media file format that can be used with AAF (but not OMF) files.

Media data and metadata enable an application that receives AAF and OMF sequence files (such as Pro Tools) to automatically and quickly reassemble the composition. A simple metaphor for this approach is that media data files are the pieces of a puzzle and metadata is the set of instructions for assembling the puzzle.

When you import an AAF sequence with embedded audio into Pro Tools, the audio will be extracted into mono tracks using the current session’s audio file format.

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 25

MXF

Pro Tools and Avid Terminology

MXF is a media file format. There are MXF video files and MXF audio files, but there are no MXF sequences. An AAF sequence may refer to or include MXF media files, but OMF sequences cannot refer to or include MXF files.

MXF file icon

Pro Tools can import and play back MXF audio and video files created in Media Composer or other Avid applications.

Video files digitized in Pro Tools are technically in the MXF format, but are intended only for use in Pro Tools and are not tested for compatibility with other applications.

OMF

OMF is both a media file and sequence format. OMF media files can be audio or video, and Pro Tools can import and play back OMF audio and video. Pro Tools can also export OMF audio, but not OMF video.

Pro Tools and Avid use different terms to describe the same items. For example, a Pro Tools session is equivalent to an Avid sequence. The following table lists common Pro Tools elements and their Avid equivalents.

Pro Tools Avid (AAF or OMF)

session sequence whole file clip master clip clip subclip plug-ins real-time audio effects volume automation gain Avid keyframe volume

Whole audio files in the Clip List normally appear in bold type. However, master clip audio files imported from AAF or OMF into Pro Tools will not appear in bold type (indicating clips) in the Pro Tools Clip List even though they are audio files.

Pro Tools can import and play back OMF audio and video files created in Media Composer or other applications.

An OMF sequence cannot reference or have MXF media embedded within it.

Pro Tools can import an OMF sequence with embedded audio, but not embedded video.

Pro Tools Reference Guide26

Embedded Media and Linked Media

Avid Workstation Edited Sequence

Embedded AAF/OMF File (metadata and media)

Export AAF/OMF with Embedded Media

Refers to:

Original Source Media Files

Sequence (metadata)

Consolidated Media Files

(with Handle)

creates...

There are two types of AAF and OMF files: ones with embedded media, and ones with linked media.

Embedded Media

Exporting to AAF or OMF with embedded media results in one large AAF or OMF fi le contai ning both the metadata and all associated media files.

When working with OMF embedded media or creating AAF embedded audio, Pro Tools limits file size to 2 GB. However, you may be able to use Pro Tools to open an AAF embedded audio file larger than 2 GB if it was exported from another source.

AAF/OMF Interchange Workflow with Embedded Media

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 27

Linked Media

Lin

Linked to:

Avid Workstation Edited Sequence

AAF/OMF File (metadata only)

Original Source Media Files

Translated Pro Tools Session File

Pro Tools Imports

Session File

Avid Workstation exports

sequence edits and

file information as AAF

or OMF sequence

Exporting AAF or OMF with linked media results in a single metadata file (.AAF or .OMF) and all associated media stored as separate files.

The main benefit to this approach is that fewer copies of media files may need to be made, so the export and import process can be much faster. Using this approach, it is less likely that you will encounter any file size limitations since the data is broken up into many smaller files.

The main disadvantage to this approach is that there are potentially many files (for example, one AAF or OMF file and hundreds of media files) that must be transported between systems.

AAF and OMF Interchange Workflow with Linked Media

Pro Tools Reference Guide28

Chapter 3: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

For increased operational speed and ease of use,

there are many Pro Tools

keyboard and

Right-click shortcuts.

A full list of Pro Tools shortcuts is available in online Help and in a PDF guide.

To access the full list of Pro Tools shortcuts in online Help:

1 Choose Help > Pro Tools Help.

2 Click Pro Tools Shortcuts on the Contents page

(in the left pane of Help).

To access the full list of Pro T ools shortcuts in the Pro Tools Shortcuts Guide:

 Choose Help > Shortcuts.

Mouse Shortcuts

Right-Click Shortcuts

Pro Tools provides Right-Click shortcuts for choosing various Pro Tools commands and menus with any Right-Click capable mouse.

For a complete list of Right-Click shortcuts, see the Shortcuts Guide.

Scroll-wheel Functions

Pro Tools lets you increment or decrement values in numerical fields by selecting the value and moving the mouse scroll wheel up or down.

Global Key Commands

Some keyboard shortcuts apply to many functions in Pro Tools.

For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, see the Shortcuts Guide.

Track Functions

Pro Tools provides keyboard shortcuts for the following track functions:

• Changing Automation mode

•Enabling playlists

•Adding plug-ins

• Record enabling, soloing, and muting tracks

• Record safing and solo safing tracks

• Assigning inputs, outputs, and sends

• Toggling volume/peak/delay display

•Clearing meters

• Changing track heights

Command Windows Mac

Apply action to all channel strips/tracks

Apply action to selected channel strips/tracks

Alt+ action

Alt+ Shift+ action

Option+ action

Option+ Shift+ action

Chapter 3: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts 29

List and Parameter Selection

Clip List

Keyboard Focus

Group List

Keyboard Focus

Commands Keyboard Focus

(Edit window)

There are three types of Keyboard Focus:

Pro Tools provides keyboard shortcuts for the following items:

• Selection of tracks in Track List

• Enabling of groups in Group List

• Automation Enable window parameters

• Setting Memory Location parameters

Command Windows Mac

Toggle item and set all others to same new state

Toggle item and set all others to opposite state

Controls and Editing Tools

Alt-click item Option-click

item

Control-click item

Commandclick item

Pro Tools provides keyboard shortcuts for moving plug-in controls, faders and sliders, the Scrubber, and automation data.

Command Windows Mac

Fine adjustment of sliders, knobs, and breakpoints

Hold Control while clicking the item

Hold Command while clicking the item

Commands Keyboard Focus

When selected in the Tracks pane in the Edit window or in the Notes pane of any MIDI Editor window, this provides a wide range of single key shortcuts from the computer keyboard for editing and playing. The frontmost Edit or MIDI Editor window always receives Commands Keyboard Focus when it is enabled.

With Commands Keyboard Focus disabled, you can still access any of its key shortcuts by pressing the Start key (Windows) or Control (Mac) along with the key. See the Shortcuts Guide for a complete list of Commands Keyboard Focus shortcuts.

Clip List Keyboard Focus

When selected, audio clips, MIDI clips, and clip groups can be located and selected in the Clip List by typing the first few letters of the clip’s name.

Group List Keyboard Focus

When selected, Mix and Edit Groups can be enabled or disabled by typing the Group ID letter (in either the Mix or Edit window).

Keyboard Focus

The Keyboard Focus in Pro Tools determines how the alpha keys function. Depending on which Keyboard Focus is enabled, you can use the keys on your computer (alpha) keyboard to select clips in the Clip List, enable or disable groups, or perform an edit or play command.

You can only enable one of the three Keyboard Focus modes at a time. Enabling a Keyboard Focus will disable the one previously enabled.

Pro Tools Reference Guide30

Keyboard Focus buttons

To set the Keyboard Focus, do one of the following:

 Click the a–z button for the focus you want to

enable.

– or –

To enable Toolbar focus for the MIDI Editor pane, do one of the following:

 Click the Toolbar right above the MIDI Editor

pane.

– or –

 While pressing Command+Option (Mac) or

Control+Alt (Windows), press one of the following keys: 1 (Commands), 2 (Clip List), or 3 (Group List).

Although multiple plug-in windows can have a keyboard focus enabled, only the frontmost window receives any keyboard input.

Toolbar Focus

In the Edit window, the MIDI Editor pane can be displayed in addition to the Tracks pane (

Other Displays > MIDI Editor

). When the MIDI Editor pane is displayed, there are two separate Toolbars and Timelines in the Edit window: one for the Tracks pane and one for the MIDI Editor pane. Only one Toolbar and Timeline can be focused for Menu and Toolbar commands (including the corresponding keyboard shortcuts) at a time. The focused Toolbar displays a yellow outline.

If Keyboard Focus for the Edit window is enabled, it follows the selected Toolbar focus.

View >

 Press Command+Option+5 (Mac) or

Control+Alt+5 (Windows).

Numeric Keypad Modes

The Operation preference for Numeric Keypad mode determines how the numeric keypad functions for Transport.

There are two Shuttle Lock modes (Classic and Transport), and one Shuttle mode.

No matter which Numeric Keypad mode is selected, you can always use the numeric keypad to select and enter values in the Event Edit Area, Edit Selection indicators, Main and Sub Counters, and Transport fields.

To set the Numeric Keypad Mode:

1 Choose Setup > Preferences and click the

Operation tab.

2 In the Transport section, select a Numeric

Keypad mode (Classic, Transport, or Shuttle).

3 Click OK.

To enable Toolbar focus for the Tracks pane, do one of the following:

 Click the Toolbar at the top of the Edit

window.

– or –

 Press Command+Option+4 (Mac) or

Control+Alt+4 (Windows).

Chapter 3: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts 31

Shuttle Lock Modes

Transport Mode

There are two Shuttle Lock modes (Classic and Transport). Both modes let you use the numeric keypad to shuttle forward or backwards at specific speeds.

•5 is normal speed.

• 6–9 provide increasingly greater fastforward speeds.

• 1–4 provide progressively greater rewind speeds (4 is the slowest rewind Shuttle Lock speed, 1 is the fastest).

• Press 0 to stop Shuttle Lock, then press the number to resume Shuttle Lock speed.

• Press Escape or Spacebar to exit Shuttle Lock mode.

Custom Shuttle Lock Speed (Pro Tools HD and Pro T ools with Complete

Production Toolkit Only)

The highest fast-forward Shuttle Lock speed (key 9) can be customized.

For information, see “Custom Shuttle Lock Speed” on page 570.

Classic Mode

This mode emulates the way Pro Tools worked in versions lower than 5.0. With the Numeric Keypad mode set to

Classic, you can:

• Play up to two tracks of audio in Shuttle Lock mode. Press the Control key (Mac) or the Start key (Windows), followed by 1–9 for different play speeds.

• Press Plus or Minus to reverse direction.

• Press 0 to stop Shuttle Lock, then press the number to resume Shuttle Lock speed.

• Press Escape or Spacebar to exit Shuttle Lock mode.

• Recall Memory Locations by typing the Memory Location, followed by a Period (.).

This mode lets you set a number of record and play functions, and also operate the Transport from the numeric keypad.

Function Key

Click on/off 7 Countoff on/off 8 MIDI Merge/Replace mode 9 Loop Playback mode on/off 4 Loop Record mode on/off 5 QuickPunch mode on/off 6 Rewind 1 Fast Forward 2 Record enable 3 Play/Stop 0

With the Numeric Keypad mode set to

Transport,

you can also:

• Play up to two tracks of audio in Shuttle Lock mode. Press the Control key (Mac) or the Start key (Windows), followed by 1–9 for different play speeds.

• Press Plus or Minus to reverse direction.

• Press 0 to stop Shuttle Lock, then press the number to resume Shuttle Lock speed.

• Press Escape or Spacebar to exit Shuttle Lock mode.

• Recall Memory Locations by typing Period (.), the Memory Location number, and Period (.) again.

Pro Tools Reference Guide32

Shuttle Mode

(Pro Tools HD and Pro T ools with Complete Production Toolkit Only)

Pro Tools offers another form of shuttling, different from that of the two Shuttle Lock modes. With the Numeric Keypad mode set to playback of the current Edit selection is triggered by pressing and holding the keys on the numeric keypad—playback stops once the keys are released. Various playback speeds are available in both forward and reverse. In this mode, pre- and post-roll are ignored.

Playback Speeds Key

1x Forward 6 1x Rewind 4 4x Forward 9 4x Rewind 7 1/4x Forward 3 1/4x Rewind 1 1/2x Forward 5+6

Shuttle,

1/2x Rewind 5+4 2x Forward 8+9 2x Rewind 8+7 1/16x Forward 2+3 1/16x Rewind 2+1 Loop Selection (1x) 0

With the Numeric Keypad mode set to

Shuttle,

you can also:

• Recall Memory Locations by typing Period (.), the Memory Location number, and Period (.) again.

Shuttle Lock modes are not available when the Numeric Keypad mode is set to Shuttle.

Chapter 3: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts 33

Pro Tools Reference Guide34

Chapter 4: Using Help

Pro Tools Help provides quick access to workflows and reference information. Built-in search capabilities and an index are included to better support your Help needs.

The Help system is HTML-based and runs on most common web browsers. When running in Pro Tools, it automatically uses the in-application Web browser. You can also run Help from outside Pro Tools, using another browser (such as Safari or Explorer).

The Pro Tools in-application Web browser is not available outside Pro Tools. To use Pro Tools Help while Pro Tools is not running, use the default Web browser for your operating system.

Accessing the Help System

There are several ways to access the Help system.

• Open Help at its Welcome page from the Help menu in Pro Tools

• Open Help at its Welcome page from within a Help browser in Pro Tools

• Open Help at its Welcome page outside of Pro Tools

• Open a different version or language of Pro Tools Help

To open Help within Pro Tools:

 Choose Help > Pro Tools Help.

– or –

 From the Pro Tools Online browser window

(which can be accessed by choosing any of the Help browser commands in the Help menu),

Help.

choose

To open Help outside of Pro Tools (or to select a different version or language of Help):

1 Open your favorite online browser (such as

Safari or Explorer).

2 Visit the Pro Tools Help launch page

(http://apps.avid.com/ProToolsHelp/).

3 Follow the on-screen instructions to open a

version of Help.

To close the Help system:

 Click the Help viewer’s Close button.

Chapter 4: Using Help 35

Help Display

The Help system includes the following display elements:

Topics

Help topics open in the right pane of the

Help viewer.

Navigation Tools

Contents, Index, and Search

tabs open in the left pane of the Help viewer.

Hierarchy Links

Use these links to verify the location of the currently displayed topic within its chapter and to jump to relevant higher-level topics, including the Main Topic.

Show in Contents Button

Use this button to

locate the current topic in the Contents.

Previous Topic and Next Topic Buttons

Use these buttons to browse through the topics in the order in which they appear in the Contents.

Click this button to print one or more

topics.

Using the Contents and Index Tabs

The left pane of the Help browser is the display area for most of the Help system’s main navigation tools, including the Contents and Index tabs.

Contents Tab

When you move to a new topic, the contents expands to the level of that topic and highlights the topic. This feature, like the hierarchy links at the top of each topic, lets you see exactly where the current topic is positioned within the logical organization of the Help system.

To display a topic from the contents:

 Click the Contents tab, and then click a topic’s

entry in the contents.

To expand or close a section in the contents:

 Click the Contents tab, and then click a book

icon to the left of a link.

Index Tab

The Index provides an alphabetized list of entries similar to the index of a printed book.

If Java is enabled in your browser, the Index displays as a dynamic index where the listing scrolls as you type a word in the text box. If you do not have Java enabled in your browser, or if your browser does not support Java implementations, a JavaScript version of the index displays, which lets you scroll manually through the entries.

To find topics by using the Index tab:

1 Click the Index tab.

2 Click the first character of the topic in the

Numerics, Letters, Symbols list.

The Contents tab displays a complete hierarchical list of all topics in the Help system. This lets you quickly see the overall organization of the Help system.

You can expand and collapse the contents to view the logical organization of the Help system, and you can move to any topic by clicking its entry in the Contents.

Pro Tools Reference Guide36

To view the topic associated with an index entry:

 Click the index entry.

Using the Search Tab

The Search tab lets you search the entire text of the Help system for one or more words and then lists the topics that include those words. The list of results is ranked, placing the topics that the Search feature considers most likely to be relevant at the top of the list.

When you search for text, the text string automatically highlights by default. You can turn these highlights off. You can also stop displaying highlights after a search by using the Back and Forward buttons to go to a different topic. When you come back to your searched topic, the highlights no longer display.

For more guidelines on using the Search feature effectively, see “Search Guidelines” on page 38.

To perform a basic search:

1 Click the Search tab.

2 In the Search pop-up menu (located below the

Search text box), click whether you want to search in “All Available Books” or a specific book (such as Pro Tools Shortcuts).

3 In the Search text box, type the word or words

that you want to find.

4 Click Go.

A list of topics and ranking numbers appears.

Additional Search Information

The Search feature provides the best combination of usefulness and speed. To use Search successfully, you should understand the following aspects of the Search feature:

• The Search feature uses a database of valid words. This database includes all words that are significant for identifying topics and excludes all other words. When you type words in the search text box, the system ignores any invalid words that you have typed and searches for valid words.

• The Search feature cannot search for words in a certain order. For example, if you type “TIFF graphics import” as a search entry, Search displays all topics that contains these three words regardless of their location in the topic. The results include topics where the three words appear together as a phrase, and also topics where the three words are scattered throughout the topic.

• The Search feature cannot distinguish between words that are similar but not identical. For example, if you type “capture” as a search entry, Search displays topics that include that word, but it does not find topics that include related words such as “captures” or “capturing.” If a search for a word fails to produce useful results, you might be more successful if you search again using one of the related words.

The Help system’s search functionality has a limitation when the Help system is running in the Safari browser. You can perform one search successfully, but subsequent searches do not return results until you clear the Safari cache. You can do this by quitting Safari and relaunching the Help, or by emptying the cache directly (select Safari > Empty Cache, or use the Command+Option+E keyboard shortcut). Other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, do not have this limitation.

Chapter 4: Using Help 37

Search Guidelines

Printing Help Topics

Use the following rules for formulating search queries:

• Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can type your search in uppercase or lowercase characters.

• You can search for any combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).

• Punctuation marks (such as the period, colon, semicolon, comma, and hyphen) are ignored during a search, unless they are part of the topic (such as .WAV).

• You can search for a literal phrase by using quotation marks. You cannot search for quotation marks.

Copying from a Help Topic

You can copy information from a Help topic for use in another document (such a text file).

To copy information from a Help topic to another document:

1 Open or click the topic to make it active.

2 Select the text that you want to copy. 3 Choose Edit > Copy.

You can print Help topics if you need to refer to them during a complicated procedure or to use for reference later.

See your browser documentation for more information on print options.

To print a Help topic:

1 Click the topic pane within the browser

window that you want to print.

2 Do one of the following:

• Click the Print button in the Topic pane.

• Right-click in the Topic pane and select Print.

•Select

3 Select the print options. 4 Click Print.

File > Print.

Topics that you print from Help have limited page layout and formatting features. If you want to print a higher quality version of Help information, Avid recommends that you print all or part of the PDF version of the appropriate guide. For a list of all Pro Tools guides and how to access them, see “Pro Tools Documentation” on page 3.

4 Place the mouse pointer in another applica-

tion, such as a word processing application.

5 Choose Edit > Paste to paste the copied text

into a document. (You can also paste the text into the Search text box.)

Pro Tools Reference Guide38

Part II: System Configuration

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems

There are three types of Pro Tools systems:

Pro Tools

These systems include Pro Tools software with

™

Avid 003 Eleven

or Digi 002® family audio interfaces,

Rack, Mbox® or Mbox 2 family audio interfaces, or M-Audio hardware. These systems also include Pro Tools software using third-party audio interfaces with supported Core Audio (Mac, including the built-in audio on Mac computers) or ASIO (Windows) drivers.

Pro Tools HD

These systems include Pro Tools HD software with any compatible Avid, Core Audio, or ASIO hardware.

Pro Tools HD with Hardware Acceleration

Hardware accelerated Pro Tools HD systems include Pro Tools HD software with HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native hardware. Hardware accelerated systems provide expanded I/O capabilities and low latency monitoring. Pro Tools HD software with HDX or Pro Tools|HD hardware also provides dedicated DSP for plug-in processing and for large mixer configurations.

For a list of qualified audio interfaces and computers, visit www.avid.com/compatibility.

Pro Tools Software

Pro Tools software provides the following capabilities, depending on your hardware configuration:

• Up to 32 channels of I/O depending on your system and audio hardware

• Up to a total of 9 6 vo iced mono or ste reo aud io tracks (up to 128 voiceable audio tracks) per session:

• Playback of up to 96 tracks, or a combination of playing back and recording up to 96 tracks, mono or stereo, at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz

• Playback of up to 48 tracks, or a combination of playing back and recording up to 48 tracks, mono tracks or stereo, at 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz

• Playback of up to 24 tracks, or a combination of playing back and recording up to 24 tracks mono or stereo, at 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz

• Up to 128 Auxiliary Input tracks

• Up to 64 Master Fader tracks

• Up to 512 MIDI tracks

• Up to 64 Instrument tracks

• A single QuickTime video track

• 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point audio resolution, at sample rates up to 192 kHz

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 41

• Automatic Delay Compensation (up to 16,383 samples at 48 kHz)

• Non-destructive, random-access editing and mix automation

• Audio processing with up to 10 real-time plug-ins per track, depending on your computer’s capabilities

• Up to 10 hardware inserts per track

• Up to 10 sends per track

• Up to 256 internal mix busses for routing and mixing

For more information about the I/O capabilities of your audio interface with Pro Tools, see the documentation that came with your audio interface.

Supported Hardware Configurations with Pro Tools Software

Pro Tools software supports the following hardware configurations:

Digi 002 Family

Pro Tools software with Digi 002 family hardware provides up to 18 channels of audio input and output at sample rates of 44.1 or 48 kHz, and up to 10 channels of audio input and output at sample rates up to 96 kHz. A Digi 002 system includes:

•ProTools software

•One of the following:

• 002 audio and MIDI interface (with control surface)

• Digi 002 Rack audio and MIDI interface

Eleven Rack

Pro Tools software with Eleven Rack hardware provides up to 8 channels of audio input and up to 6 channels of audio output at sample rates of

88.2 or 96 kHz. An Eleven Rack system includes:

•ProTools software

• Eleven Rack audio and MIDI interface, and guitar effects processor

003 Family

Pro Tools software with 003 family hardware provides up to 18 channels of audio input and output at sample rates up to 48 kHz, and up to 10 channels of audio input and output at sample rates up to 96 kHz. A 003 system includes:

• Pro Tools software

•One of the following:

• 003 audio and MIDI interface (with control surface)

• 003 Rack+ audio and MIDI interface

• 003 Rack audio and MIDI interface

Pro Tools Reference Guide42

Mbox Family

An Mbox system includes:

•ProTools software

•One of the following:

• Mbox Pro (up to 8 channels of audio input and output at sample rates of 44.1 or 48 kHz; and up to 6 channels of audio input and output at sample rates of 88.2 or 96 kHz)

• Mbox 2 Pro audio and MIDI interface (up to 6 channels of audio input and up to 8 channels of audio output at sample rates of 44.1 or 48 kHz; and up to 4 channels of audio input and up to 6 channels of audio output at sample rates of 88.2 or 96 kHz)

• Mbox (3rd generation) or Mbox 2 audio and MIDI interface (up to 2 channels of audio input and output at sample rates of 44.1 or 48 kHz)

• Mbox Mini or Mbox 2 Mini audio interface (up to 2 channels of audio input and output at sample rates of 44.1 or 48 kHz)

• Mbox 2 Micro audio interface (stereo output at sample rates of 44.1 or 48 kHz only)

M-Audio Interfaces

Pro Tools software with M-Audio hardware provides up to 32 channels of audio input and output at sample rates up to 192 kHz depending on your audio interface. Pro Tools M-Audio systems include:

•ProTools software

• A qualified M-Audio interface

For a current list of qualified M-Audio interfaces, visit the Avid website (www.avid.com)

Core Audio

Pro Tools software with Core Audio–compatible hardware provides up to 32 channels of audio input and output at sample rates up to 192 kHz depending on your audio interface. A Pro Tools Core Audio system includes:

•ProTools software

• A third-party audio interface with supported Core Audio drivers (including Built-in Mac audio hardware)

ASIO

Pro Tools software with ASIO-compatible hardware provides up to 32 channels of audio input and output at sample rates up to 192 kHz depending on your audio interface. A Pro Tools ASIO system includes:

•ProTools software

• A third-party audio interface with supported ASIO drivers

Processing Capacity

The total processing capacity of a Pro Tools system depends on the processing power of your computer. Contact your dealer or visit www.avid.com for the latest system requirements and compatibility information.

Pro Tools Capabilities with Different Hardware Configurations

Pro Tools supports up to 32 channels of audio input and output, but the available input and output capabilities with Pro Tools varies depending on your audio interfaces. For information about the input and output capabilities of your audio interface, consult the documentation that came with your hardware.

If you open a Pro Tools session created on a Pro Tools HD system that contains more than the number of tracks supported on the your Pro Tools system, audio tracks beyond the system’s voiceable track limit will be automatically set to inactive.

For details on transferring session material between Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools systems, see “Sharing Sessions Created on Different Pro Tools Systems” on page 402.

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 43

Pro Tools HD with HDX Hardware Acceleration

Each system require s at least one Avid HD audio interface (sold separately). HDX systems can be expanded by adding HDX cards to increase track count and the amount of plug-in and mixer processing, and by adding additional audio interfaces.

Pro Tools HD Software Capabilities with HDX Hardware Acceleration

Pro Tools HD running with HDX hardware acceleration provides the following capabilities:

• Up to 256 channels of I/O depending on your system.

• Up to a total of 768 voiced audio tracks

• Up to 512 Auxiliary Input tracks

• Up to 64 Master Fader tracks

• Up to 128 VCA Master tracks

• Up to 512 MIDI tracks

• Up to 128 Instrument tracks

• Up to 64 video tracks per session

• 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point audio resolution, at sample rates up to 192 kHz

• Up to 7.1 surround mixing capability

• Automatic Delay Compensation (16,348 samples at 48 kHz)

• Fixed RAM Disk Cache allocation options

• No-latency monitoring

• Non-destructive, random-access editing and mix automation

• Audio processing with up to 10 inserts per track (any combination of real-time plug-in and hardware inserts), depending on your computer’s capabilities

• Up to 10 sends per track

• Up to 512 internal mix busses for routing and mixing

Audio Recording and Playback Capabilities

The number of simultaneous tracks of audio recording or playback depends on your system configuration. A Pro Tools HD system with a single HDX card provides recording and playback of 24-bit or 16-bit audio files with the following voiced track counts:

• Up to 256 tracks at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz

• Up to 128 tracks at 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz

• Up to 64 tracks at 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz

Each additional HDX card increases the possible track count by the same amount. For example, at

44.1 kHz, two HDX cards provide up to 512 au-

dio tracks, and three HDX cards provide up to 768 audio tracks.

Pro Tools HD with Pro Tools|HD Hardware

Each system requi res at least one Avid HD audio interface (sold separately). Pro Tools|HD systems can be expanded by adding Pro Tools|HD cards to increase track count and the amount of plug-in and mixer processing, and by adding additional audio interfaces.

Pro Tools Reference Guide44

Pro Tools HD Software Capabilities with Pro Tools|HD Hardware

Pro Tools HD with Pro Tools|HD hardware on Mac or Windows provides the following capabilities:

• Up to 160 channels of I/O depending on your system, and the number and type of installed audio interfaces

• Up to a total of 192 voiced audio tracks (up to 768 voiceable audio tracks)

• Up to 512 Auxiliary Input tracks

• Up to 64 Master Fader tracks

• Up to 128 VCA Master tracks

• Up to 512 MIDI tracks

• Up to 128 Instrument tracks

• Up to 64 video tracks per session

• 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point audio resolution, at sample rates up to 192 kHz

• Non-destructive, random-access editing and mix automation

• Up to 7.1 surround mixing capability

• Automatic Delay Compensation (up to 4,095 samples at 48 kHz)

• Fixed RAM Disk Cache allocation options

• No-latency monitoring

• Audio processing with up to 10 inserts per track (in any combination of real-time plug-in and hardware inserts), depending on your computer’s capabilities, and the number and type of installed audio interfaces

• Up to 10 sends per track

• Up to 256 internal mix busses for routing and mixing

Pro Tools|HD systems are available in the following configurations:

Pro Tools|HD 1

Includes:

•Accel Core (for PCIe) card or

™

HD Core

(for PCI) card

•ProTools HD software

Pro Tools|HD 2 Accel

Includes:

•Accel Core (for PCIe) card or HD Core (for PCI) card

•HDAccel card

•ProToolsHD software

Pro Tools|HD 3 Accel

Includes:

•Accel Core (for PCIe) card or HD Core (for PCI) card

•2 HDAccel cards

•ProTools HD software

Pro Tools|HD 2

Includes:

•HD Core card

™

•HD Process

card

•ProTools HD software

Pro Tools|HD 3

Includes:

•HD Core card

•2 HD Process cards

•ProTools HD software

Pro Tools|HD PCI cards require a PCI to PCIe expansion chassis. For more information, see the Expanded Systems Guide.

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 45

Expanded Pro Tools|HD Systems

You can expand your Pro Tools|HD system by adding Pro Tools|HD cards to your computer, either directly in the computer or using an expansion chassis. Expanding your Pro Tools system provides increased track counts, adds to the amount of possible plug-in and mixer processing, and lets you connect additional audio interfaces. With support for up to 7 Pro Tools|HD cards in a single system, a Pro Tools|HD system can support up to 160 channels of simultaneous input and output.

For more information, see the Expanded

Systems Guide

Pro Tools HD Software with HD Native Hardware

Each system requi res at least one Avid HD audio interface (sold separately). HD Native systems can be expanded by adding additional HD audio interfaces.

Pro Tools HD systems with HD Native hardware consist of the following:

•HD Native PCIe card

•ProTools HD software

• An authorized iLok for running Pro Tools HD or Pro Tools

• One or more Avid HD audio interfaces (sold separately)

• DigiLink Mini cable for connecting the HD Native card to an audio interface

•A MIDI interface (optional)

For detailed information about installing HD Native hardware, see the HD Native Installation Guide.

Pro Tools Reference Guide46

Pro Tools HD Software Capabilities with HD Native Hardware

Pro Tools HD with HD Native hardware on Mac or Windows provides the following capabilities:

• Up to 64 channels of I/O depending on your system, and the number and type of installed audio interfaces

• Up to a total of 256 voiced audio tracks (up to 768 voiceable audio tracks):

• Up to 256 voices at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz

• Up to 128 voices at 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz

• Up to 64 voices at 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz

• Up to 512 Auxiliary Input tracks

• Up to 64 Master Fader tracks

• Up to 128 VCA Master tracks

• Up to 512 MIDI tracks

• Up to 128 Instrument tracks

• Up to 64 video tracks per session

• 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point audio resolution, at sample rates up to 192 kHz

• Non-destructive, random-access editing and mix automation

• Up to 7.1 surround mixing capability

• Automatic Delay Compensation (up to 16,348 samples at 48 kHz)

• Fixed RAM Disk Cache allocation options

• FPGA-based low latency monitoring (LLM)

• Audio processing with up to 10 inserts per track (in any combination of real-time, hostbased plug-in and hardware inserts), depending on your computer’s capabilities, and the number and type of installed audio interfaces

• Up to 10 sends per track

• Up to 256 internal mix busses for routing and mixing

Supported Avid HD Audio Interfaces

The following Avid HD audio interfaces are compatible with Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware:

•HD I/O

•HD OMNI

•HD MADI

• 192 I/O

• 192 Digital I/O

• 96 I/O

• 96i I/O

Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems require at least one HD I/O, HD OMNI, HD MADI, 192 I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 96 I/O, or 96i I/O.

Maximum I/O Configuration with HDX

HDX supports up to a maximum combination of 12 total of the following audio interfaces:

• HD OMNI (only 1 HD OMNI interface is supported in a single system)

• HD I/O (up to 12 HD I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 3 HDX cards)

• HD MADI (up to 3 HD MADI interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 3 HDX cards)

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 47

Maximum I/O Configuration with Pro Tools|HD

Maximum I/O Configuration with HD Native

Pro Tools|HD systems support up to a maximum combination of 10 total of the following audio interfaces:

• HD OMNI (only 1 HD OMNI interface is supported in a single Pro Tools|HD system)

• HD I/O (up to 10 HD I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 5 HD cards)

• HD MADI (up to 3 HD MADI interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 6 HD cards)

• 192 I/O (up to 10 192 I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 5 HD cards)

• 192 Digital I/O (up to 10 192 Digital I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires five HD cards)

• 96 I/O (up to 10 96 I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 5 HD cards)

• 96i I/O (up to 5 96i I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously—requires 5 HD cards)

HD Native supports up to a maximum combination of up to 4 total of the following audio interfaces:

• HD OMNI (only 1 HD OMNI interface is supported in a single HD Native system)

• HD I/O (up to 4 HD I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously)

• HD MADI (full connectivity with 1 HD MADI interface is possible when both DigiLink ports of the HD MADI are connected to both DigiLink ports on the HD Native card)

• 192 I/O (up to 4 192 I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously)

• 192 Digital I/O (up to 4 192 Digital I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously)

• 96 I/O (up to 4 96 I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously)

• 96i I/O (up to 2 96i I/O interfaces can be used simultaneously)

Pro Tools Reference Guide48

Playback, Recording, and Voice Limits with Pro Tools HD

The table below lists the audio playback, recording, and voiceable track limits with Pro Tools HD software with HDX, Pro Tools|HD, HD Native, Core Audio, and ASIO hardware (including Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit). Playback and recording voices refers to the number of unique simultaneous playback and record tracks on your system. Tot al v oiceable tracks refers to the maximum number of audio tracks that can share the available voices on your system. (Mono tracks take up one voice. Stereo and multichannel tracks take up one voice per channel.)

With HDX hardware accelerated and Pro Tools|HD systems, voice limits are dependent on the session

sample rate and the number of DSP chips dedicated to the system’s Playback Engine. Pro Tools HD can open sessions with up to 768 audio tracks, but any audio tracks beyond that system’s voiceable track limit will be automatically set to Vo ice O ff.

Pro Tools HD audio playback, recording and voice limits by hardware configuration

Playback and Recording

Core System Type Maximum I/O

HDX, 1 card 64 channels 44.1/48 256 768

Sample Rate (kHz)

88.2/96 128 768

Voices (Mono Tracks of Simultaneous Playback and Recording)

Total Voiceable Tracks

176.4/192 64 768

HDX, 2 cards 128 channels 44.1/48 512 768

88.2/96 256 768

176.4/192 128 768

HDX, 3 cards 192 channels 44.1/48 1024 768

88.2/96 512 768

176.4/192 128 768

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 49

Pro Tools HD audio playback, recording and voice limits by hardware configuration

Playback and Recording Voices (Mono Tracks of Simultaneous

Core System Type Maximum I/O

Sample Rate (kHz)

Playback and Recording)

Pro Tools|HD 1 32 channels 44.1/48 96 768

88.2/96 48 768

176.4/192 24 768

Total Voiceable Tracks

Pro Tools|HD 2, Pro Tools|HD 3, or any expanded Pro Tools|HD system

64 channels (HD 2) 96 channels (HD 3) or up to 160 channels (HD 5)

44.1/48 192 768

88.2/96 96 768

176.4/192 36 768

HD Native 64 channels 44.1/48 256 768

88.2/96 128 768

176.4/192 64 768

Core Audio and ASIO

32 channels 44.1/48 256 768 (Pro Tools HD or Pro Tools with

88.2/96 128 768

Complete Production Toolkit)

176.4/192 64 768

Pro Tools Reference Guide50

Avid HD Audio Interface Features

The following table lists the input and output capabilities of the various Avid HD audio interfaces for Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems. Each HDX card in your system supports a maximum of 64 channels of I/O. Each Pro Tools|HD card supports a maximum of 32 channels of I/O. The HD Native card supports a maximum of 64 channels of I/O. To record and play audio with Pro Tools HD with any of these hardware configurations, you must have at least one Avid HD audio interface connected to the first port of the first card in the system.

Avid HD audio interface channel capabilities

Interface Type

HD I/O 16 in/16 out 44.1, 48, 88.2,

HD OMNI 8 in/8 out 44.1, 48, 88.2,

HD MADI 64 in/64 out 44.1, 48, 88.2,

192 I/O 8 in/8 out 44.1, 48, 88.2,

192 Digital I/O 8 in/8 out 44.1, 48, 88.2,

96 I/O 8 in/8 out 44.1, 48, 88.2, 9624-bit 24-bit 24-bit

96i I/O 16 in/2 out 44.1, 48, 88.2, 9624-bit 24-bit 24-bit

Number of I/O Channels

Sample Rates (kHz)

96, 176.4, 192

A/D Conversion

24-bit 24-bit 24-bit

None None 24-bit

24-bit 24-bit 24-bit

None None 24-bit

D/A Conversion

Digital I/O

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 51

HD OMNI Audio Interface

HD OMNI is a professional digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems. HD OMNI provides a compact preamp, monitoring, and I/O solution for music production and recording, and post production studios.

HD OMNI Features

HD OMNI provides up to 8 discrete channels of Pro Tools input and output, with 4-segment LED meters for input or output (selectable).

Analog I/O

• 24-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-toanalog (D/A) converters, with support for sample rates up to 192 kHz

• 2 high-quality Mic/DI preamps (Channels 1–2)

• 2 combined XLR and 1/4-inch TRS front panel inputs for microphone and instrument level input

•2 XLR back panel microphone inputs

• 2 1/4-inch TRS Send and 2 1/4-inch TRS Return back panel jacks for hardware inserts on channels 1 and 2

• 4 analog TRS line level back panel inputs (Channels 1–4)

HD OMNI provides multiple analog input connections, but only provides up to four channels of simultaneous analog input for Pro Tools.

• Soft Clip and Curv limiting circuits to protect against clipping on analog input

• 8 channels of analog back panel output using a DB-25 breakout cable (sold separately) with variable output gain

• 2 channels of analog back panel output using TRS (Mirrors channels 1–2 or 7–8 on DB-25 connector)

• Front panel stereo 1/4-inch headphone jack

Digital I/O

• 8 channels of AES/EBU output (up to 192 kHz Single Wire) using a DB-25 breakout cable (sold separately)

• 2 channels of AES/EBU XLR input (up to 192 kHz Single Wire)

• 2 channels of S/PDIF RCA input and output (up to 192 kHz)

• 8 channels of ADAT TOSLINK input and output

• Support for ADAT S/MUX Optical for sample rates of 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, and 192 kHz

• Support for two channels of S/PDIF Optical with sample rates of up to 96 kHz

• Real-time sample rate conversion (SRC) on Digital Inputs 1–2 of either AES/EBU, S/PDIF, or Optical (S/PDIF)

SRC is not supported with ADAT S/MUX.

Monitoring

• An additional stereo “CUE” output path in

Pro Tools

for headphone monitoring from

the front panel headphone jack

• Front panel Control Room (MAIN/ALT) and Headphone monitoring volume control

• Flexible monitoring with fold-down from all stereo and surround formats (up to 7.1 surround)

• Input mixer for low latency direct monitoring of a variety of incoming signals (configured in the Pro Tools Hardware Setup)

Pro Tools Reference Guide52

Synchronization

• Loop Sync input and output for connecting additional Pro Tools|HD interfaces and peripherals

• External Clock input and output for synchronizing HD OMNI with external Word Clock devices

For more information, see the HD OMNI Guide.

HD I/O Audio Interface

HD I/O is a multichannel digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems. HD I/O features extremely high quality 24-bit analogto-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, and supports sample rates of up to 192 kHz.

HD I/O comes in three standard configurations:

• 8 x 8 x 8 (8 analog in, 8 analog out, and 8 digital in and out)

• 16 x 16 analog in and out

• 16 x 16 digital in and out

You can also add or remove HD I/O Analog Expansion cards (ADC and DAC) and HD I/O Digital Expansion cards for custom configurations.

HD I/O Features

HD I/O provides up to 16 discrete channels of Pro Tools input and output, with 4-segment LED meters for input and output.

Analog I/O

• Up to sixteen channels of 24-bit D/A and A/D converters for superior analog input and output at sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz,

88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, and 192 kHz with Analog In and Analog Out HD I/O cards

• Soft Clip and Curv limiting circuits to protect against clipping on analog input

Digital I/O

• Up to sixteen channels of 24-bit digital I/O, using AES/EBU, TDIF DB-25, or Optical at sample rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz with a Digital HD I/O card

• Real-time sample rate conversion on digital inputs with a Digital I/O card (up to sixteen channels of AES/EBU, Optical, or TDIF)

• Support for S/MUX Optical for sample rates of

88.2 kHz and higher

• Support for 2 channels of S/PDIF Optical (enclosed) with sample rates of up to 96 kHz

• 2 channels of AES/EBU I/O (enclosed) with support for sample rates up to 192 kHz

• 2 channels of 24-bit-capable S/PDIF I/O (enclosed) with support for sample rates up to 192 kHz

Synchronization

• Loop Sync input and output for connecting additional Avid HD audio interfaces and peripherals

• External Clock input and output for synchronizing HD I/O with external Word Clock devices

Expandability

• Optional addition of I/O cards to expand analog or digital I/O

• Simultaneous use of multiple Avid HD audio interfaces to further expand system input and output

For more information, see the HD I/O Guide.

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 53

HD MADI Digital Audio Interface

192 I/O Audio Interface

HD MADI is a 64-channel, digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems. HD MADI supports the Multichannel Audio Digital Interface (MADI) format and sample rates of up to 192 kHz. HD MADI provides simplified connectivity between your Avid HD system and MADI-compatible audio equipment.

HD MADI Features

• 2 MADI Optical and Coaxial inputs and 2 MADI Optical and Coaxial outputs for up to 64 discrete channels of digital input and output (32 channels per DigiLink Mini port)

• Supports sample rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96,

176.4, and 192 kHz

• 24- or 16-bit resolution

• Sample Rate Conversion (SRC) on input or output

• Front panel clock and SRC indicators

• Front panel signal present LEDs for input and output

•BNC Word Clock I/O for synchronizing HD MADI with external 1x Word Clock

• BNC Loop Sync I/O for synchronizing HD MADI with additional Avid HD audio interfaces and peripherals (such as HD I/O, HD OMNI, or SYNC HD)

• Dedicated BNC Word Clock input and XLR AES/EBU input (clock input only) for external MADI synchronization (when using SRC on output)

• Clock support for the following formats: Internal, Loop Sync, Word Clock, AES/EBU, and MADI

• Varispeed modes (supports both 64- and 56channel standards)

For more information, see the HD MADI Guide.

192 I/O is a multichannel digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems. 192 I/O features high quality 24-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, and supports sample rates of up to 192 kHz.

You can also add or remove analog cards (ADC and DAC) and digital cards for custom configurations.

192 I/O Features

• Supports sample rates up to 192 kHz

• Supports both analog and digital connections, including AES/EBU, S/PDIF, TDIF, and ADAT Optical:

• Digital (Digital I/O Card): 8 channels, DB-25 (AES/EBU and TDIF), or one pair of Lightpipe (ADAT Optical) connectors; Expandable up to 16 of channels digital I/O with the addition of the 192 Digital expansion card

• Analog: 8 channels, DB-25 (balanced) connectors, inputs selectable between +4 dBu or –10 dBV, outputs +4 dBu only; Expandable up to 16 analog inputs or 16 outputs using an optional 192 AD or 192 DA expansion card, respectively

• Digital (Enclosure): 2 channels, XLR (AES/EBU) connectors; 2 channels RCA (S/PDIF) connectors

• Optical (Enclosure): 8 channels, one pair of Lightpipe (ADAT Optical) connectors (switchable to 2 channels, S/PDIF)

• Loop Sync In and Out for connecting Avid HD interfaces and peripherals

• External Clock In and Out receive or send 1x Word clo c k

For more information, see the 192 I/O Guide.

Pro Tools Reference Guide54

192 Digital I/O Audio Interface

96 I/O Audio Interface

192 Digital I/O is a multichannel digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems, and supports sample rates of up to 192 kHz.

192 Digital I/O Features

• Supports sample rates up to 192 kHz

• Supports digital connections, including AES/EBU, S/PDIF, TDIF, and ADAT Optical:

• Digital (2 Digital I/O Cards): 16 channels, DB-25 (AES/EBU and TDIF), or two pairs of Lightpipe (ADAT Optical) connectors

• Digital (Enclosure): 2 channels, XLR (AES/EBU) connectors; 2 channels RCA (S/PDIF) connectors

• Optical (Enclosure): 8 channels, one pair of Lightpipe (ADAT Optical) connectors (selectable to 2 channels, S/PDIF)

• Loop Sync In and Out for connecting Avid HD interfaces and peripherals

• External Clock In and Out receive or send 1x Word clo c k

For more information, see the 192 Digital I/O Guide.

96 I/O is a multichannel digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems. 96 I/O features high quality 24-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, and supports sample rates of up to 96 kHz.

96 I/O Features

• Supports sample rates up to 96 kHz

• Supports analog and digital connections, including AES/EBU, S/PDIF, and ADAT optical:

• Analog: 8 channels, 1/4-inch TRS (balanced or unbalanced) connectors, +4 dBu or –10 dBV

• Digital: 2 channels, XLR (AES/EBU) connectors; 2 channels, RCA (S/PDIF) connectors

• Optical: 8 channels, one pair of Lightpipe (ADAT Optical) connectors (switchable to 2 channels, S/PDIF)

• External Clock In and Out receive or send 1x Word clock

For more information, see the 96 I/O Guide.

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 55

96i I/O Audio Interface

96i I/O is a multichannel digital audio interface designed for use with Avid HD systems. 96i I/O features high quality 24-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, and supports sample rates of up to 96 kHz.

96i I/O Features

• Supports sample rates up to 96 kHz

• 16 discrete channels of input, and 2 channels of output, with 4-segment LED meters on each channel. Audio inputs and outputs include:

• 16 channels of 24-bit, 96-kHz capable analog input, with adjustable input sensitivity

• 2 channels of 24-bit, 96-kHz capable analog output, with selectable operating level

• 2 channels of 24-bit, 96 kHz-capable digital S/PDIF RCA input and output

• Loop Sync In and Out for connecting Avid HD interfaces and peripherals

• External Clock In and Out receive or send 1x Word clo c k

Additional Pro Tools Hardware Options

Pro Tools software systems also supports the following Pro Tools hardware options.

• PRE (Eight-channel microphone preamp)

• Eleven Rack (guitar processor)

• MIDI I/O (10 x 10 USB MIDI interface)

• Worksurfaces and MIDI control surfaces:

• Avid Artist Series controllers

• Avid Pro Series controllers

•C|24

• Command|8

• M-Audio Keyboards (such as Axiom Pro)

• Third-party MIDI controllers (such as Mackie HUI, Peavey PC-1600, or CM Labs Motor Mix)

For more information, see the 96i I/O Guide.

Pro Tools Reference Guide56

Additional Pro Tools HD Hardware Options

Pro Tools HD also supports the following Avid HD hardware options.

• Synchronization peripherals (Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD and HD Native systems only):

•SYNC HD

•SYNC I/O

• PRE (Eight-channel microphone preamp)

• Eleven Rack (guitar processor)

• MIDI I/O (10 x 10 USB MIDI interface)

• Worksurfaces and MIDI control surfaces:

• Avid Artist Series controllers

• Avid Pro Series controllers

•C|24

• Command|8

• D-Command

•D-Control

• M-Audio Keyboards (such as Axiom

Pro)

• Surround Panner Option

• Third-party MIDI controllers (such as Mackie HUI, JL Cooper CS-10, CM Labs Motor Mix, or Peavey PC-1600)

Pro Tools HD Software Options

Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD Systems with HEAT

Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems that have been upgraded with the HEAT software option. HEAT (Harmonically Enhanced Algorithm Technology) is a paid software option that adds “analog color” to Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems. For more information, see the HEAT Software Option Guide.

Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD and HD Native Systems with MachineControl

The MachineControl™ software option for Pro Tools HD is supported with Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems. MachineControl is a paid software option for Pro Tools HD that enables serial communica-

tion with Sony

9-pin compatible synchronizers, and video or audio machines. For more information, see the MachineControl Guide.

Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native Systems with Satellite Link

The Satellite Link option for Pro Tools HD is supported with Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems. Avid Satellite Link is a paid option that lets you link up to 12 Pro Tools systems (or up to 11 Pro Tools systems and an Avid

Media Composer

, Avid Symphony Nitris DX®, or Video Satellite LE system) over an Ethernet network so that you can cue, play, and stop the transports, make play selections, and solo tracks across any of the systems from any linked workstation. For more information, see the Satellite Link Guide.

Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native Systems with Video Satellite Link

The Video Satellite Link option for Pro Tools HD is supported with Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems. Video Satellite is a paid software option for Pro Tools HD that lets you link your Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native system with a separate computer running Avid Media Composer or Symphony Nitris DX software for synced video playback, capture, and conversion. For more information, see the Video Satellite Guide.

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 57

Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and Pro Tools|HD Native Systems with Video Satellite LE

The Video Satellite LE option for Pro Tools is supported with Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems. Video Satellite LE is a paid software option for Pro Tools HD, which uses a separate computer running Pro Tools software for synchronized QuickTime HD video playback. For more information, see the Video Satellite LE Guide.

Pro Tools with VENUE Link

For Pro Tools systems that are connected to VENUE systems using ethernet, VENUE Link provides Pro Tools and VENUE system integration and interoperability.

Complete Production Toolkit

The Complete Production Toolkit software option for Pro Tools provides increased voice and track counts, and surround mixing, editing, and automation capabilities that are equal to Pro Tools HD. More specifically, Complete Production Toolkit enables the following features in Pro Tools:

• Surround mixing, editing, and automation up to 7.1 (depending on the output capabilities of your audio interface)

Use the Avid Down Mixer plug-in for monitoring surround sessions in stereo with audio interfaces that have fewer than six outputs.

• Up to a total of 256 voiced audio tracks (up to 768 voiceable audio tracks)

Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit displays up to 768 tracks, with a simultaneous voice limit of 256 tracks. Tracks in excess of the 256-voice limit are made inactive.

• Playback of up to or a combination of playing back and recording up to 256 mono tracks or 128 stereo tracks (256 available voices) at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz

• Playback of up to or a combination of playing back and recording up to 128 mono tracks or 64 stereo tracks (128 available voices) at 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz

• Playback of up to or a combination of playing back and recording up to 64 mono tracks or 32 stereo tracks (64 available voices) at 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz

• Up to 512 Auxiliary Input tracks per session

• Up to 128 Instrument tracks

• Fixed RAM Disk Cache allocation options

•TrackInput monitoring

™

•Ability to use QuickPunch

on up to 64 tracks

•TrackPunch recording

• DestructivePunch recording

• Advanced Group dialog:

•VCA assignments

• Attributes tab

• Follow globals

• Momentary Solo Latch Back/Forward commands

• Custom Shuttle Lock speeds

• Numeric Keypad set to Shuttle mode

•AutoFades

Pro Tools Reference Guide58

•Advanced editing features:

•Continuous Scrolling

•Scrub Trim tool

• Replace Clip command

•Convert Clip Gain and Track Volume Automation

• Coalesce Clip Gain and Track Volume Automation

• TCE Edit to Timeline Selection command

• Selection of alternate field recorder audio channels in the Pro Tools Timeline

• Expanding alternate field recorder channels to new tracks

• Advanced automation features:

• AutoJoin with Latch mode

• Touch/Latch mode

•Trim mode

• Composite automation playlist

• Copy track automation to sends

•AutoMatch

• Prime controls for writing automation in Latch mode

• Glide automation

• Trim automation

• Write automation to Start, End, or All

• Write automation to next breakpoint or punch point

• Overwrite or extend Mute automation

•Snapshot automation

•Preview automation

• Capture automation

• VCA Master track automation

• Advanced video features:

• Multiple video tracks

• Multiple video playlists

• Video editing

• Preferences

•Back/Forward Amount

•Shuttle

• Auto Clip Fade In/Out Length

•Use Absolute Pan Linking

• Suppress Automation “Write To” Warning

• Allow Latch Prime in Stop

• Coalesce when Removing Slaves from VCA Group

•Standard VCA Logic for Group Attributes

• Include Sends in Trim Mode

• AutoGlide Time

• Coalesce Trim Automation Options

• D-Control support

• D-Command support

For information about using D-Control and D-Command worksurfaces with Pro Tools, see the D-Control and D-Command Guides.

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems 59

Checking for Software Updates

Pro Tools can check for Pro Tools application and plug-in updates, either automatically or manually. An internet connection is required to check for updates. Approximately every two weeks, Pro Tools checks online for any available application and plug-in updates.

If updates are available for Pro Tools or any plug-ins, Pro Tools reports what updates (if any) are available and how important the updates are for your system. You can visit the Avid website to locate, download, and install the appropriate updates for your Pro Tools system.

To manually check for updates:

1 Launch Pro Tools. 2 Choose Help > Check For Updates.

3 Do one of the following:

• If no updates are available, click

– or –

• If updates are available, do one of the following:

•Click

Details to launch your web browser

and see what updates are available for download.

•Click

Not Now if you do not want to review

or download updates until later.

OK.

To disable automatic checking for updates:

 In the Software Update dialog, select the

Do Not Check For Updates Automatically option.

To enable automatic checking for updates:

1 Choose Help > Check For Updates.

2 In the Software Update dialog, deselect the

Do Not Check For Updates Automatically option.

Pro Tools Reference Guide60

Chapter 6: System Setup

You can review and update the setup of your system to ensure it is configured for your needs.

Starting Up or Shutting Down Your System

To ensure that the components of your Pro Tools system communicate properly with each other, you need to start them in a particular order.

Start up your Pro Tools system in this order:

1 Make sure all your equipment (including your

computer) is off.

2 Lower the volume of all output devices in your

system.

3 For Pro Tools|HD systems with an expansion

chassis, turn on the chassis.

4 Turn on any external hard drives. Wait approx-

imately ten seconds for them to spin up to speed.

5 Turn on any worksurfaces (such as

D-Command) or control surfaces (such as Command|8).

6 Turn on any MIDI interfaces, MIDI devices, or

synchronization peripherals.

7 Do one of the following, depending on your

Pro Tools system:

• For Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems, with the volume of all output devices lowered, turn on your audio interfaces (such as HD OMNI or 192 I/O). Wait at least fifteen seconds for your system hardware to initialize.

– or –

• For Pro Tools systems that use hardware requiring external power (such as 003), with the volume of all output devices lowered, turn on the hardware.

8 Turn on your c omp ute r.

9 Launch Pro Tools or any third-party audio or

MIDI applications.

Shut down your Pro Tools system in this order:

1 Quit Pro Tools and any other running applica-

tions.

To quit Pro Tools, choose File > Exit (Windows) or Pro Tools > Quit (Mac).

2 Turn off or lower the volume of all output

devices in your system.

3 Turn off your computer.

Chapter 6: System Setup 61

4 Do one of the following depending on your

Pro Tools system:

• For Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems, turn off your Pro Tools audio interfaces.

– or –

• For Pro Tools systems that use hardware requiring external power (such as 003), turn off the hardware.

5 For Pro Tools|HD systems with an expansion

chassis, turn off the chassis.

6 Turn off any MIDI interfaces, MIDI devices, or

synchronization peripherals.

7 Turn off any worksurfaces (such as

D-Command) or control surfaces (such as Command|8).

8 Turn off any external hard drives.

Checking an Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native System with DigiTest

Configuring Pro Tools System Settings

In most cases, the default settings for your system provide optimum performance, but you may want to adjust them to accommodate large or processing-intensive Pro Tools sessions.

Setup > Playback Engine).

Before you use Pro Tools, you may want to run the DigiTest diagnostic application to ensure that all Avid HDX or Pro Tools|HD cards in the system are recognized, installed in the proper order, and have valid TDM connections. You can also use DigiTest to validate your HD Native card. See the Avid DigiTest Guide for more information.

Pro Tools Reference Guide62

Playback Engine for a Pro Tools HD system with HDX hardware acceleration

Playback Engine for Pro Tools|HD system

Playback Engine for Pro Tools with Mbox (3rd generation)

Current Engine

In the Playback Engine dialog, Pro Tools lets you select the audio engine for use with your audio interfaces. The available options are determined by which audio interfaces are connected and have compatible drivers installed.

Changing the

Current Engine setting can be use-

ful if you have multiple audio interfaces connected to your computer with different routing configurations in your studio, or if you want to prepare a session for use with a specific interface on a different system (for example you might want to prepare a session created on your Pro Tools|HD system for use with the built-in audio on your Mac laptop).

To select which audio engine for Pro Tools uses:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 From the Current Engine selector, select your

audio interface:

• For Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems, use the default setting

HDX, HD TDM, or HD Native.

• For supported Pro Tools and M-Audio audio interfaces (such as the Mbox Pro or ProFire 2626), selecting the name of the corresponding interface uses the Direct I/O engine for Pro Tools.

• For third-party audio interfaces with compatible CoreAudio (Mac) or ASIO (Windows), select the name of the corresponding Core Audio (Mac) or ASIO (Windows) compatible audio interface.

• On Mac systems, if you are using built-in audio, select any of the available built-in options for playback or select

Aggregate I/O

for simultaneous input and

Pro Tools

output with the built-in I/O hardware options.

3 Click OK.

When changing engines with a Pro Tools session open, Pro Tools must close and relaunch the session to initialize the new engine.

Chapter 6: System Setup 63

On Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, changing engines requires that you quit and relaunch Pro Tools for the new setting to take effect.

When changing engines on any Pro Tools system, you may need to reset the default I/O settings to match the selected audio interface.

Pro Tools Aggregate I/O (Mac Only)

On Mac systems using Core Audio, you can use Pro Tools with the built-in audio inputs and outputs on your Mac by selecting any of the available built-in inputs and outputs, or by selecting the

Pro Tools Aggregate I/O option for us-

ing a combination of built-in inputs and outputs simultaneously (for recording and monitoring).

Selecting Pro Tools Aggregate I/O in the Playback Engine (Mac only)

You can configure the Input and Output options for Pro Tools Aggregate I/O in the Mac Audio Setup, which can be accessed from the Pro Tools Hardware Setup.

If you need simultaneous input (recording) and output (playback and monitoring) with Pro Tools using the built-in audio options on Mac, use the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O option. If you only need to playback audio for editing and mixing, select the appropriate built-in audio output option.

Hardware Buffer Size

The Hardware Buffer Size (H/W Buffer Size) in the Playback Engine controls the size of the buffer used to handle host processing tasks such as processing with host-based, or “Native” plug-ins (AAX and RTAS).

• Lower Hardware Buffer Size settings are useful for improving latency issues in certain recording situations or for improving certain system performance problems:

• On all Pro Tools systems, lower settings reduce MIDI-to-audio latency (such as when playing a virtual instrument live and monitoring the instrument’s output). Lower settings can also improve screen response or the accuracy of plug-in and mute automation data.

• On host-based Pro Tools systems, lower settings reduce all input-to-output monitoring latency on any record-armed tracks or Auxiliary Input tracks with live inputs.

• On Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, lower settings reduce monitoring latency that occurs on tracks that have one or more Native plug-ins. Lower settings can also improve the accuracy of MIDI track timing on systems without a MIDI interface that supports time stamping. Lower settings also improve MIDI track timing on tracks using MIDI virtual instruments that do not support time stamping.

• Higher Hardware Buffer Size settings are useful for sessions that are using more Native plug-ins for playback. These settings allow for more audio processing. They can also be useful to reduce errors on machines that require a higher buffer size.

Pro Tools Reference Guide64

To change the Hardware Buffer Size:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 From the H/W Buffer Si ze pop-up menu, select

the audio buffer size, in samples.

3 Click OK.

Host Processors

The Host Processors setting in the Playback Engine determines the number of processors in your computer allocated for Native (AAX and RTAS) plug-in processing and other host processing tasks.

• Depending on the importance of video and overall screen response, and on the density of automation being employed, try different combinations of

Usage Limit

Host Processors and CPU

settings to achieve the best results. For example, to improve screen response in a medium-sized session using a moderate number of Native plug-ins, try reducing the number of Native plug-ins, but keep the

Usage Limit

set to the maximum (up to 99% on

CPU

a single processor system).

To set the number of Host Processors:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine.

With computers that have multiple processors, or that feature multi-core processing or hyperthreading, this setting lets you enable multiprocessor support for host processing tasks. Used in combination with the

Host Processors setting lets you control the

the

CPU Usage Limit setting,

way host-processing tasks are handled by the system.

For example:

• For sessions with large numbers of Native plug-ins, you can allocate 2 or more processors to Native processing and set a high

Usage Limit

CPU

• For sessions with few Native plug-ins, you can allocate fewer processors to host-based processing and set a low

CPU Usage Limit to leave

more CPU resources available for automation accuracy, screen response, and video.

• Increase these settings to accommodate DSP to Native plug-in conversion. Conversely, decrease these settings if you are only using DSP plug-ins or are converting Native plug-ins to DSP. DSP/Native conversion can be desirable during recording, depending on latency, voicing needs, and record-monitoring capabilities of the specific DSP and Native plug-ins.

2 From the Host Processors pop-up menu, select

the number of available processors you want to allocate. The number of processors available varies depending on how many processors are available on your computer:

•Select

1 Processor to limit host processing

for Pro Tools to one CPU in the system.

•Choose

2 Processors to enable load balanc-

ing across two available processors for Pro Tools host processing tasks.

• On systems running four or more processors, choose the number of processors for Pro Tools host processing tasks.

3 Click OK.

System Usage Window and Host Processing

The System Usage window (Windows > System

Usage

) displays the combined amount of host processing occurring on all enabled processors with a single indicator, regardless of how many processors are available in the system. If the System Usage Window shows that you are at the limit of available resources, increase the num-

Host Processors and adjust the CPU

ber of

Usage Limit

setting. (For more information, see

“System Usage” on page 83.)

Chapter 6: System Setup 65

CPU Usage Limit

The CPU Usage Limit setting in the Playback Engine controls the percentage of CPU resources allocated to Pro Tools host processing tasks. Used in combination with the setting, the

CPU Usage Limit setting lets you

control the way Pro Tools tasks are carried out by the system.

•Lower

CPU Usage Limit settings limit the

effect of Pro Tools processing on other CPUintensive tasks, such as screen redraws, and are useful when you are experiencing slow system response, or when running other applications at the same time as Pro Tools.

•Higher

CPU Usage Limit settings allocate more

processing power to Pro Tools, and are useful for playing back large sessions or using more RTAS plug-ins.

The maximum available pends on the number of processors in your computer and on the number of processors you specify for host processing. This value can range from 85% for single-processor computers (except for 003, 003 Rack+, 003 Rack, Digi 002, and Digi 002 Rack, which have a limit of 99%), and 99% for multiprocessor computers (which dedicate one entire processor to Pro Tools).

On multiprocessor computers, the maximum

CPU Usage Limit is reduced when you use all

your processors (as selected in the

ing

pop-up menu). For example, on dual-processors, the limit is 90%. On four-processor computers, the limit is 95%.

Increasing the CPU Usage Limit may slow down screen responses on slower computers.

Host Processors

CPU Usage Limit de-

Host Process-

To change the CPU Usage Limit:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 From the CPU Usage Limit pop-up menu, select

the percentage of CPU processing you want to allocate to Pro Tools.

3 Click OK.

Host Engine (Error Suppression)

The Host Engine options in the Playback Engine determine error reporting during playback and recording. This is especially useful when working with instrument plug-ins.

On Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, there is a single Pro Tools systems, there are two tions.

• Enable error suppression only if you are experiencing frequent errors that are interrupting your creative workflow. When error suppression is enabled, you can experience a degradation of audio quality. However, this may be acceptable in order to avoid interrupting playback and recording when working with instrument plug-ins.

• Disable error suppression when you need to ensure the highest possible audio quality, such as for a final mix.

To enable error suppression:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 Select Ignore Errors During Playback/Record. 3 If available, you can also select Minimize

Additional I/O Latency

4 Click OK.

Host Engine option. On host-based

Host Engine op-

Pro Tools Reference Guide66

Error Suppression Options Ignore Errors During Playback/Record

When enabled, Pro Tools continues to play and record even if the host processing requirements exceed the selected

CPU Usage Limit. This can result in

pops and clicks in the audio, but does not stop the transport.

Minimize Additional I/O Latency (Host-based Pro Tools Systems Only)

When enabled, any additional latency due to suppressing errors during playback and record is minimized to 128 samples. Suppressing errors requires at least 128 samples of additional buffering on some systems. If this option is disabled, the buffer is half the

H/W Buffer Size, or at least 128 samples

(whichever is greater). If you are on an older, slower computer, you may want to disable this option to avoid adverse performance.

This option is only available if the

During Playback/Record

option is enabled and

Ignore Errors

the Pro Tools system you are using requires additional buffering for error suppression, as follows:

•Windows:

• Mbox Pro and Mbox 2 Pro

• All Pro Tools systems with M-Audio devices

•Mac:

• 003 family devices

•Eleven Rack

•Mbox family devices

• Digi 002 and 002 Rack

• All Pro Tools systems with M-Audio devices

•ProTools Aggregate I/O

Number of Voices

(Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)

On Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, the

Number of Voices setting in the Playback Engine

lets you control the number of available voices and how those voices are allocated to DSPs in your system. For example, the default number of voices on a Pro Tools|HD 1 system is 48 voices, using one DSP (at sample rates of 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz).

Changing the number of voices affects DSP usage, the total number of voiceable tracks, and overall system performance.

Depending on the session sample rate and the number of Avid HDX or Pro Tools|HD cards in your system, there are different choices for voice count. For voice limits on different Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems, see “Playback, Recording, and Voice Limits with Pro Tools HD” on page 49.

Chapter 6: System Setup 67

To change the Number of Voices and DSP to allocate for voicing:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine.

2 Select the number of voices and DSPs to allo-

cate for voicing by selecting a value from the

Number of Voices pop-up menu as follows:

• Select minimum voice numbers if you are using high-bandwidth PCI or PCIe cards (such as video capture cards) along with your Avid HDX or Pro Tools|HD cards. These settings place the lightest processing load on each allocated DSP chip, but generally require more DSP chips be dedicated to voicing and mixing (leaving fewer available for plug-ins).

• Select medium voice numbers when your Pro Tools|HD cards are in an expansion chassis, or when you are using other PCI or PCIe cards along with Avid HDX or Pro Tools|HD cards. These settings generally provide an optimum balance between number of chips needed for voicing, and the processing load placed on each.

• Select higher voice numbers when your Avi d HDX or Pro Tools|HD cards are the only PCI or PCIe cards in your computer, or when you are using an expansion chassis to run higher track counts (such as 64 tracks at 96 kHz) and you want more voices per DSP (such as 16 voices per DSP at 96 kHz). These settings use fewer DSP chips for mixing (leaving more available for plug-ins) but place the highest processing load on each.

Sample Rate (Playback Engine)

(Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)

The Sample Rate setting in the Playback Engine determines the default sample rate when you create a new session. This setting is available only when there is no session open. Otherwise, the current session sample rate is displayed, but cannot be changed.

The Sample Rate setting can affect the number of available voices.

You can change the sample rate when creating a new Pro Tools session by selecting a different sample rate in the New Session dialog. (

page 166.)

Sample Rate in the Hardware Setup, as long as no session is open.

To make a copy of a session with a new sample rate, use Save Copy In.

To change the default Sample Rate in the Playback Engine:

1 With no session open, choose Setup > Playback

Engine

2 Select the sample rate from the Sample Rate

pop-up menu.

3 Click OK.

See “Creating a New Session” on

You can also change the default

3 Click OK.

Pro Tools Reference Guide68

Delay Compensation Engine

Delay Compensation Settings

Depending on your Pro Tools system, the Delay

Compensation Engine

setting in the Playback Engine determines how much DSP or host-based processing resources are dedicated to Pro Tools Delay Compensation, which manages DSP and host-based delays in the Pro Tools mixer.

Within a session, you can enable or disable Delay Compensation (

tion

). When Delay Compensation is disabled, it

Options > Delay Compensa-

uses no DSP or host-processing resources.

For more information, see “Delay Compensation” on page 981.

To configure the Delay Compensation Engine:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 From the Delay Compensation Engine pop-up

menu, select

3 Click OK.

None, Short, Long, or Maximum.

Depending on your Pro Tools system, there are up to four settings available in the Playback Engine to dedicate processing resources for Delay Compensation:

None

Allocates no resources for Delay Compen-

sation.

Short

Provides 1,023 samples at 44.1/48 kHz, 2,047 samples at 88.2/96 kHz, or 4,094 samples at 176.4/192 kHz of Delay Compensation for each channel. This is the most efficient setting. For sessions with only a few plug-ins that do not induce too much DSP and host–based delay, this setting should be sufficient.

Long

Allocates 4,095 samples at 44.1/48 kHz, 8,191 samples at 88.2/96 kHz, or 16,382 samples at 176.4/192 kHz of Delay Compensation for each mixer channel. For sessions with a lot of plug-ins resulting in a large amount of DSP and host–based delay, select this setting.

Maximum

Allocates 16,383 samples at

44.1/48 kHz, 32,767 samples at 88.2/96 kHz, or 65,534 samples at 176.4/192 kHz of Delay Compensation for each mixer channel. For sessions with plug-ins on mixer channels that result in more the 4,000 samples of delay at 48 kHz, select this setting.

The Maximum option is unavailable with Pro Tools|HD systems.

Pro Tools HD with Avid HDX hardware acceleration always uses the full DSP resources of the Maximum setting when Delay Compensation is enabled. The None, Short, and Long settings are included only for compatibility with legacy sessions.

Chapter 6: System Setup 69

System Memory Allocation

(Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)

When you start your computer, Pro Tools automatically reserves a portion of system memory for the Playback Buffer. This reserved memory is unavailable to other applications, even if Pro Tools is not running.

You can set Pro Tools to reserve only the minimum amount of required memory, so that more system memory is available to other applications.

To minimize system memory allocation:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 Select the Minimize System Memory Allocation

option.

3 Click OK.

4 Do one of the following:

• On Mac systems, if prompted, enter your password, then restart your computer.

– or –

• On Windows systems, restart your computer.

Cache Size

(Pro Tools HD and Pro T ools with Complete Production Toolkit Only)

The Cache Size setting in the Playback Engine determines the amount of memory DAE allocates to pre-buffer audio for playback and recording. In most cases, the default setting of

Normal is the optimum Cache Size for most ses-

sions.

Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Production Toolkit can also load audio files used in Pro Tools sessions into RAM for cached playback. Pro Tools prioritizes files closest to the current playhead location. This way, when you start playback, those files are already cached for playback. This is especially useful when working with shared media storage (such as with Avid Unity MediaNetwork and ISIS shared storage systems).

To determine the maximum amount of RAM available for Disk Cache, Pro Tools polls the computer for the amount of RAM installed and subtracts 3 GB with Mac systems or 4 GB with Windows systems.

For example, if your computer has 12 GB of RAM installed, the total amount of RAM available for the Disk Cache will be 9 GB (Mac) or 8 GB (Windows).

Note that Windows systems reserve more RAM for the system than Mac systems.

You can use the Cache Meters in the System Usage window to determine whether or not to assign more or less RAM to the Disk Cache for the current session. See “Cache Meters” on page 83.

To set the amount of RAM for use by the Disk Cache:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 From the Disk Cache selector, select the

amount of RAM you want to allocate for Disk Cache.

3 Click OK.

Pro Tools Reference Guide70

Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size

(Structure Plug-In Only)

This setting appears in the Playback Engine only if the Structure sampler instrument plug-in is installed on your system (this applies to Structure LE and Structure Free as well). The

Streaming Buffer Size

determines the amount of memory DAE allocates for streaming playback from disk with the Structure plug-in. This setting only affects playback if disk streaming is activated in Structure’s plug-in controls (see the AIR Virtual Instruments Guide for more information).

Plug-In

Optimizing the Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size

(Structure Plug-In Only)

This option appears in the Playback Engine only if the Structure plug-in is installed on your system. This option is useful when you are playing samples from the same drive that contains audio for the current session. When this option is selected, Pro Tools automatically optimizes the size of the Plug-In Streaming Buffer to facilitate disk access from both Pro Tools and Structure.

Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size pop-up menu

The is unavailable when this option is selected.

The optimum most sessions is

•

Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size settings lower

than

Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size for

250 ms; Level 2 (Default).

250 ms; Level 2 (Default) reduce the

amount of system memory used for sample playback and frees up memory for other system tasks. However, reliability of sample playback may decrease.

Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size settings higher

•

250 ms; Level 2 (Default) improve the re-

than liability of sample playback, but they also decrease the amount of memory available for other system tasks, such as Native plug-in processing.

Using a larger Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size leaves less system memory for other tasks. The default setting of 250 ms (Level 2) is recommended unless you are experiencing problems with the reliability of streaming playback from disk.

To change the Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine.

To set Pro Tools to automatically optimize the Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size:

1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine. 2 Select the Optimize for Streaming Content on

Audio Drives

3 Click OK.

option.

Configuring MIDI Setup

If you plan to use any external MIDI devices with Pro Tools (such as controllers, keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, sequencers, or sound modules), you may want to configure your MIDI setup using Audio MIDI Setup (Mac) or MIDI Studio Setup (Windows).

For information on configuring MIDI, see Chapter 10, “Configuring MIDI.”

2 From the Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size pop-up

menu, select a buffer size.

3 Click OK.

Chapter 6: System Setup 71

Configuring Pro Tools Hardware Settings

Pro Tools lets you configure the signal routing, digital I/O format, default sample rate, clock source, and other hardware-based settings depending on your system configuration. These system settings are available in the Hardware Setup (

Setup > Hardware).

Hardware Setup for HD OMNI, Main page

Selecting an Audio Interface to Configure

The Peripherals list in the Hardware Setup lets you select any audio interface connected to your Pro Tools system associated with the selected

Current Engine setting in the Playback Engine di-

alog.

To change the specific audio interface or DAE (such as HD TDM, 003, a third-party Core Audio or ASIO interface, or Pro Tools Aggregate I/O), see “Current Engine” on page 63).

For Avid HD audio interfaces (such as HD OMNI or HD I/O) you can configure the signal routing, digital I/O format, default sample rate, clock source, and other hardware-based settings for each HD peripheral connected to your system.

For Pro Tools audio interfaces (such as 003 or Mbox 2) you can configure the signal routing, digital I/O format, default sample rate, clock source, and other hardware-based settings depending on your system configuration

Current Engine setting to use a

Hardware Setup for Mbox 2

Hardware Setup for an ASIO device

Pro Tools Reference Guide72

For third-generation Mbox family audio interfaces, M-Audio audio interfaces, and thirdparty Core Audio (Mac) and ASIO (Windows) compatible audio interfaces, use the

Setup App

button to launch the control panel for

Launch

configuring your specific audio interface.

Launch Setup App

(Pro Tools with Mbox Family, M-Audio, or Third-Party Audio Interfaces Only)

Using the setup application (control panel) for your audio interface, you can change settings in the following areas depending on your audio interface:

• Mixer Settings

•Output Settings

• Hardware Settings (including sample rate, hardware buffer size, and sync source).

You can set the sample rate when creating a new Pro Tools session by selecting a different sample rate in the New Session dialog.

To configure Pro Tools Aggregate I/O settings:

1 Choose Setup > Hardware. 2 In the Peripherals list, select Pro Tools Aggre-

gate I/O

, or whichever Built-in input or output

option is selected as the

Current Engine in the

Playback Engine.

To change control panel settings:

1 In the Hardware Setup dialog, click the Launch

Setup App

2 To change settings in the Control Panel, see the

button.

documentation that came with your audio interface.

3 When finished, close the Control Panel.

Configuring Pro Tools Aggregate I/O

(Mac Only)

On Mac systems using Core Audio, you can se-

Pro Tools Aggregate I/O as the Current En-

lect

gine

to use the built-in audio inputs and outputs on your Mac computer. You can configure the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O setting in the Mac Audio Setup, which can be accessed from the Pro Tools Hardware Setup.

Hardware Setup for Pro Tools Aggregate I/O (Mac only)

3 Click the Launch Setup App button.

4 In the Audio Devices window of the Mac Audio

Setup, configure the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O settings.

The Pro Tools Aggregate I/O device is intended for use only with the built-in audio on your Mac computer. For best performance, use the default settings.

Pro T ools Aggregate I/O in the Audio Devices window

Chapter 6: System Setup 73

Configuring Default Sample Rate Setting in Hardware Setup

The Sample Rate setting in the Hardware Setup dialog determines the default sample rate when you create a new session. This setting is available only when there is no session open. Otherwise, the current session sample rate is displayed, but cannot be changed.

With Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware, you can change the default Sample Rate in the Hardware Setup, or in the Playback Engine.

With Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native hardware, the Sample Rate setting can affect the number of available voices.

On Pro Tools, you can only change the default sample rate in the Hardware Setup or using the control panel for M-Audio and third-party audio interfaces.

Configuring Clock Source

The Pro Tools Hardware Setup lets you select

Clock Source for the system.

the

Changes made to Clock Source in the Session Setup window will be reflected in the Hardware Setup window.

Internal

rectly into Pro Tools, you will usually use the Pro Tools

External

Pro Tools from an external digital device, or if you utilize a common house clock signal, you will synchronize Pro Tools to that digital device or common signal.

Depending on your audio interface, external options can include

cal [Encl] Clock

interface.

If you are recording an analog signal di-

Internal clock source.

If you are transferring material into

AES/EBU [Encl], S/PDIF, Opti-

, AES/EBU 1–8, TDIF, ADAT, and Word

. For details, see the guide for your audio

You can change the sample rate when creating a new Pro Tools session by selecting a different sample rate in the New Session dialog.

To change the default Sample Rate in the Hardware Setup:

1 Choose Setup > Hardware Setup. 2 Select the sample rate from the Sample Rate

pop-up menu.

3 Click OK.

Pro Tools Reference Guide74

To select the Clock Source:

1 Choose Setup > Hardware. 2 Choose the clock source from the Clo ck Source

pop-up menu.

3 Click OK.

Your digital input device must be connected and powered on for Pro Tools to synchronize to it. If your input device is not powered on, leave the Clock Source set to Internal.

Configuring Digital Format and Hardware Routing

The Hardware Setup includes additional settings for configuring the digital format and hardware routing for your system’s audio interfaces.

For an outline of the configuration of an Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native system with one or more Avid HD interfaces, see “Configuring Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native Hardware Settings” on page 75.

To configure specific hardware settings for other Pro Tools, M-Audio, or third-party audio interfaces, see the documentation that came with your audio interface.

Selecting Footswitch Control

(003 and 002 Only)

The footswitch connector on your 003 or 002 family interface lets you use a footswitch pedal to control either playback start/stop or recording punch in/out. Both QuickPunch audio punch-in and punch-out and MIDI punch-in and punch-out recording are supported.

Record Punch In/Out

footswitch connected to your 003 or 002 family interface to punch in and punch out during recording.

Playback Start/Stop

footswitch connected to your 003 or 002 family interface to start and stop playback.

Select this option to use a

Configuring Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native Hardware Settings

On Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems, you configure Hardware settings for each audio interface connected to your system (see Chapter 5, “Pro Tools Systems.”)

For example, Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native systems can have HD I/O, HD OMNI, HD MADI, 192 I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 96 I/O, or 96i I/O audio interfaces connected to HDX, HD Native, Accel Core or HD Core, and HD Accel or HD Process cards in the system. The HD I/O, HD OMNI, 192 I/O, 192 Digital I/O, and 96 I/O can also have additional interfaces attached using the Expansion port on each interface.

Identifying Audio Interfaces

If you have multiple audio interfaces of the same type connected to your system, before you make audio connections to them, you should confirm the identity of each interface. This ensures that you choose the appropriate interface in the Peripherals list when you define its inputs and outputs in the Hardware Setup.

To identify audio interfaces in your system:

1 Choose Setup > Hardware.

2 From the Peripherals list, select an audio in-

terface connected to your system.

Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to scroll though the Peripherals list in the Hardware Setup.

3 Make sure the Main page is shown.

Chapter 6: System Setup 75

4 Select the Identify option, located in the lower

left corner of the Hardware Setup. This illuminates all the LEDs on the front panel of the selected audio interface.

5 Make a note of which interface in your studio

setup corresponds to the identified interface.

6 Repeat the above steps for each additional au-

dio interface in your setup.

Configuring Avid HD Audio Interfaces

Additional pages are available to configure other controls for each audio interface (such as setting operating levels).

To configure Avid HD audio interfaces:

1 Choose Setup > Hardware.

2 From the Peripherals list, select the audio

interface connected to the first card in your system. This will be the interface at the top of the list.

3 Click the Main tab.

HD OMNI supports up to eight channels of simultaneous I/O and multiple I/O formats (such as analog, AES/EBU, ADAT Optical, and S/PDIF). HD I/O, 192 I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 96 I/O, and 96i I/O audio interfaces support sixteen channels of simultaneous I/O and multiple I/O formats (such as analog, AES/EBU, ADAT Optical, S/PDIF, and TDIF). HD MADI supports up to 64 channels of MADI I/O.

The Main page of the Hardware Setup is where you define which physical inputs and outputs on your audio interface are routed to available inputs and outputs in Pro Tools. You can think of this window as a patchbay that allows you to route any of the inputs or outputs on your audio interfaces to channel assignments in the Pro Tools mixer.

Hardware Setup for HD I/O, Main page

Press Command+Left or Right Arrow keys (Mac) or Control+Left or Right Arrow keys (Windows) to move though the different pages of the Hardware Setup.

4 From the Clock Source pop-up menu, select

the appropriate clock source for the interface.

In many cases, you will use

Internal. The other

choices are for resolving Pro Tools to external clock sources. Depending on your audio interface, Clock Source options can include:

AES/EBU [Encl], S/PDIF, Optical [Encl], AES/EBU 1–8, TDIF, ADAT,

and Word Clock (optional

Word Clock rates are available when operating at higher sample rates).

5 If you want to send clock output to other de-

vices attached to the audio interface, select the appropriate output from the

Ext. Clock Output

pop-up menu.

6 Select which digital I/O port on your audio in-

terface enclosure is active by selecting the corresponding option under

Digital Format.

Depending on the type of interfaces in your system, choices include

Optical (S/PDIF)

. Selecting Optical (S/PDIF) re-

AES/EBU, S/PDIF, and

sets the Optical I/O port (which is, by default, eight channels of ADAT Optical I/O) to two channels of S/PDIF Optical I/O.

Pro Tools Reference Guide76

Pinnacle Systems Pro Tools - 10.1 Reference Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools

Pro Tools Documentation

Conventions Used in Pro Tools Documentation

System Requirements and Compatibility Information

About www.avid.com

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts

Hard Disk Audio Recording

Pro Tools Nonlinear Editing

Core Audio

ASIO

MIDI

Synchronization

Surround Sound

Pro Tools Sessions

System Resources

DigiBase

AA F, MXF, and OMF

Embedded Media and Linked Media

Chapter 3: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

Mouse Shortcuts

Global Key Commands

Keyboard Focus

Toolbar Focus

Numeric Keypad Modes

Chapter 4: Using Help

Accessing the Help System

Help Display

Using the Contents and Index Tabs

Using the Search Tab

Search Guidelines

Printing Help Topics

Copying from a Help Topic

Part II: System Configuration

Chapter 5: Pro Tools Systems

Pro Tools Software

Pro Tools HD with HDX Hardware Acceleration

Pro Tools HD with Pro Tools|HD Hardware

Pro Tools HD Software with HD Native Hardware

Supported Avid HD Audio Interfaces

Playback, Recording, and Voice Limits with Pro Tools HD

Avid HD Audio Interface Features

Additional Pro Tools Hardware Options

Additional Pro Tools HD Hardware Options

Pro Tools HD Software Options

Complete Production Toolkit

Checking for Software Updates

Chapter 6: System Setup

Starting Up or Shutting Down Your System

Checking an Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, or HD Native System with DigiTest

Configuring Pro Tools System Settings

Configuring MIDI Setup

Configuring Pro Tools Hardware Settings

Configuring Avid HDX, Pro Tools|HD, and HD Native Hardware Settings