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,
DigiRack, DigiTest, DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Show, 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 M-Powered,
Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, QuickPunch, Recti-Fi,
Reel Tape, Reso, Reverb One, ReVibe, RTAS, Sibelius,
Smack!, SoundReplacer, Sound Designer II, Strike, Structure,
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 Digidesign and/or Avid
Technology, Inc. Xpand! is Registered in the U.S. Patent 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 9106-59126-00 REV A 11/08
Documentation Feedback
At Digidesign, we are always looking for ways to improve our
documentation. If you have comments, corrections, or
suggestions regarding our documentation, email us at
techpubs@digidesign.com.
Welcome to Pro Tools® by Digidesign®.
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.
The Pro Tools Guides
In addition to any printed guides or documentation included with your system, PDF versions of
the printed guides and many additional
Pro Tools guides and Read Mes are installed automatically during Pro Tools installation to the
Digidesign/Documentation folder. To view or
print PDF guides, you can use Adobe Reader or
Apple Preview (Mac only).
Printed copies of the Pro Tools Reference
Guide and some guides in the Pro Tools
guide set can be purchased separately from
the DigiStore (www.digidesign.com).
Setup Guide
The printed Setup Guide for your system includes
instructions for installing Pro Tools and connecting your studio.
Getting Started with Pro Tools Guide
For Pro Tools LE® and M-Powered™, see the
Getting Started with Pro Tools Guide for your
interface.
This guide has tutorials on using Pro Tools (such
as recording in a Pro Tools session, importing
audio from a CD, and creating an audio CD
from a Pro Tools session).
Guides Accessible in Pro Tools
The main Pro Tools guides are accessible from
the Pro Tools Help menu. These include:
• Shortcuts, which lists keyboard and Right-click
shortcuts for Pro Tools including those shown
in Pro Tools menus.
• DigiRack Plug-ins Guide, which describes the
DigiRack plug-ins included with Pro Tools
for both real-time and file-based audio
processing.
• Pro Tools Menus Guide, which covers all the
Pro Tools on-screen menus.
• Pro Tools Reference Guide, which explains
Pro Tools software in detail.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools 3
Additional Plug-in Guides
For information on additional free plug-ins that
can be installed with Pro Tools, and for information on additional plug-ins that you can purchase separately, see the following PDF guides:
• Bomb Factory Plug-ins Guide, which describes
the Bomb Factory plug-ins.
• Creative Collection Plug-ins Guide, which
describes the Digidesign Creative Collection
instrument and effects plug-ins that can be
installed with Pro Tools.
• Digidesign Plug-ins Guide, which describes the
Digidesign® plug-ins.
• TL Labs Plug-ins Guide, which describes the
TL Labs plug-ins.
Conventions Used in These Guides
The Pro Tools guides use the following conventions to indicate menu choices, keyboard commands, and mouse commands:
:
ConventionAction
File > SaveChoose Save from the
File menu
Control+NHold down the Control
key and press the N key
Control-clickHold down the Control
Right-clickClick with the right
key and click the mouse
button
mouse button
These guides are installed with Pro Tools and
can be found in the following locations:
Windows C:\Program Files\Digidesign\
Documentation\Plug-ins
Mac Applications/Digidesign/Documentation/
Plug-ins
Expanded Systems Guide
(Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)
This PDF guide provides instructions for
expanding a Pro Tools|HD
®
system with additional Digidesign cards and audio interfaces,
with or without an expansion chassis.
Additional Digidesign Printed Guides
Digidesign also provides guides with Pro Tools
audio interfaces, dedicated worksurfaces (such
as D-Control™) and control surfaces (such as
Command|8
®
), and other Digidesign options
(such as MIDI I/O™, PRE, and SYNC HD™).
Refer to the separate guide provided with each
Digidesign product.
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.
Cross References point to related sections in
this guide and other Digidesign guides.
Pro Tools M-Powered
References to Pro Tools LE™ in this guide
are usually interchangeable with Pro Tools
M-Powered™, except as noted in the
Pro Tools M-Powered Setup Guide.
Pro Tools Reference Guide4
System Requirements and
Compatibility Information
Digidesign can only assure compatibility and
provide support for hardware and software it has
tested and approved.
For complete system requirements and a list of
Digidesign-qualified computers, operating
systems, hard drives, and third-party devices,
refer to the latest information on the Digidesign
website:
www.digidesign.com/compatibility
About www.digidesign.com
The Digidesign website (www.digidesign.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 Register your purchase
online.
Support and Downloads Contact Digidesign
Technical Support or Customer Service; download software updates and the latest online
manuals; browse the Compatibility documents
for system requirements; search the online Answerbase; or join the worldwide Pro Tools community on the Digidesign User Conference.
Training and Education Study on your own using
courses available online or find out how you can
learn in a classroom setting at a certified
Pro Tools training center.
Products and Developers Learn about Digidesign
products; download demo software or learn
about our Development Partners and their plugins, applications, and hardware.
News and Events Get the latest news from
Digidesign or sign up for a Pro Tools demo.
Pro Tools Accelerated Videos Watch the series of
free tutorial videos. Accelerated Videos are designed to help you get up and running with
Pro Tools and its plug-ins.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Pro Tools 5
Pro Tools Reference Guide6
Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts
This chapter explains some of the principles and
concepts that form 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 and/or multiple
times. In addition, this re-arrangement is nonde-structive, 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 7
The Digidesign Audio Engine
The Digidesign Audio Engine (DAE) is Digidesign’s 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 Digidesign and its Development Partners.
The DAE Playback Buffer Size determines the
amount of memory DAE allocates to manage
disk buffers. The DAE Playback Buffer Size can
be changed in the Playback Engine dialog.
For information on configuring the DAE
Playback Buffer Size, see “DAE Playback
Buffer Size” on page 48.
Pro Tools LE uses host (CPU) processing to provide audio track recording, playback, mixing,
and effects processing. Both Pro Tools LE and
Pro Tools HD use host processing to run RTAS
(Real-Time AudioSuite) plug-ins for effects processing. Performance is determined by your system and its Playback Engine settings.
The Playback Engine dialog lets you set a hardware buffer size and allocate a percentage of
CPU resources for these tasks.
®
Playback Engine Dialog
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 dialog (Setup > Playback Engine).
Pro Tools takes advantage of your computer’s
host processor for certain tasks and optional
host-based DSP processing.
Pro Tools Reference Guide8
Playback Engine dialog 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.
On Pro Tools|HD systems, the Playback Engine
dialog is also where you assign dedicated DSP resources for Delay Compensation.
For more information, see “Configuring
Pro Tools System Settings” on page 42. See
also “System Resources” on page 19.
MIDI
passes input
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 connec tors, label ed as ei ther I N, OUT , or THR U. 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.
strument 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 A hardware MIDI device or
software instrument (such as an instrument
plug-in).
MIDI Interface Hardware that lets computers
connect to and communicate with MIDI devices
(such as the M-Audio MIDISPORT).
MIDI Device Any physical MIDI keyboard, sound
module, effects device, or other
equipment that can send or receive MIDI
information.
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 signal flow
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 in-
MIDI Control Surface Any device (such as the
Digidesign 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.
Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 9
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.
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.
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.
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 MIDI Misconceptions
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
as a Digidesign MIDI I/O).
®
2) or some other MIDI interface (such
System Exclusive Data MIDI data commonly
used for sending and retrieving patch parameter
information for storage purposes.
Pro Tools Reference Guide10
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.
Synchronization
When you are working with multiple timebased systems, such as Pro Tools and an external
deck, you want both systems to be synchronized. Synchronization is where one system outputs time code or MIDI Beat Clock and another
device synchronizes to or follows that time code
or MIDI Beat Clock so that they work together
according to the same clock source. Pro Tools
can be synchronized to other devices (or other
devices can be synchronized to Pro Tools) using
SMPTE/EBU time code or MIDI Time Code.
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.
Refer to 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 (like the
Digidesign MIDI I/O or Mbox 2) and other MIDI
software (such as instrument plug-ins and
ReWire client applications).
For more information on different
SMPTE/EBU formats, and other concepts
related to time code, refer to the Pro Tools
Sync & Surround Concepts Guide.
Surround
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 8
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 subwoofer on the side.
Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 11
Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools LE with the Com-
Pro Tools HD
Pro Tools M-Powered
Pro Tools LE
plete Production Toolkit option support mixing
in surround formats. In Pro Tools, each surround format is considered to be a Pro Tools
greater-than-stereo multichannel format.
For information on fundamental surround
concepts, see the Pro Tools Sync & Surround
Concepts Guide.
There are different session file icons for each
type of Pro Tools system software.
Session file icons
Pro Tools Sessions
When you start a project in Pro Tools, you create
a session. Some basic elements of sessions are explained in this section.
Session File
A session file is the document that Pro Tools creates when you choose File > New Session and
configure a new session. Pro Tools can open
only one session file at a time. The session file is
named with a .ptf (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.
Although there are different session file icons,
session files may be opened by the other types of
Pro Tools system software (with certain restrictions). See “Opening a Session” on page 116.
When a session is transferred to a different
Pro Tools system, its session file icon
changes to the icon type of the destination
system.
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 Reference Guide12
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