Pro Tools - The Beginner's Guide

The Playback Engine is the heart of your DAW. This is where you will determine what device is routing your audio in and out of your computer. This is a very important part of working in Pro Tools and I recommend that you get very familiar with this window and knowing exactly what all of the setting here do to your system.

You've got to know how to create tracks if you want to do any recording in Pro Tools. Here is an example of setting up a session to do some vocal recording over a stereo music track. It's basic and simple, but it's good to know how to properly create tracks to optimize your workflow.

New to Pro Tools are the Folder Tracks. There are 2 types of folder tracks and I'll point out the main features and advantages of these 2 types of new tracks in Pro Tools.

Routing Folders give you a bit more control over your mix if you're looking to add sub-mix tracks. You can use these new folder tracks to keep your mix organized and easy to scale down when you get deeper into your mix. This does lean towards a more advanced approach to mixing, but it's good for you to know what they do and how you can use them as you progress in your knowledge of Pro Tools.

The Color Palette is sometimes an overlooked feature of Pro Tools. You can color up your tracks any way you like and make it easier to organize and visually see your tracks while mixing. This is just a short video on the ability to color the tracks, but this feature has many more capabilities to color up different sections and parts of the Pro Tools DAW.

The I/O or also called Input / Output and is crucial to how you are going to work in Pro Tools. Being able to understand how your audio will get in and out of the Pro Tools software will help you get a better grasp of how your audio will eventually be heard by the world. This is a little bit longer video, but all the area we will cover are very important to your understanding of how this software program works.

Aux I/O allows you to connect your Pro Tools DAW to different devices and software programs. In this video we look at the Aux I/O panel and how to enable these connections for use in your sessions. Now you can record your online call and collaborate with anyone over the Internet.

Groups allow you to do many different tasks to a collection of tracks. You can get more control over a selection of tracks when they are in a group. There are a few different types of groups and here we are going to look a how to set them up and use them to control certain parameters of the tracks.

Set your screen to dark mode if you're looking to give your session a new look. Markers can help you navigate your session quickly and speed up your workflow. Here I show you how to place the markers and quickly move the playhead to different points in the timeline with just a few keystrokes. These are very basic skills that can develop into extremely advanced techniques over a short period of time. Start here and I'll add more as we move along in the course.

There will be a time when you need to import audio files into your session. In this video, I walk you through the basic steps to import audio files and get them set up in your session. We will move the files with the "Move song start time" feature in Pro Tools and talk about the benefit of doing this so your timeline stays intact for notes that may come from your collaborators.

Connect with me over at https://www.youtube.com/@ShineOnStudio

I'll be sharing more audio production techniques and have some open discussions about the music industry.

Part 2 of the "Import Audio Files" videos. Here I talk about the setup of Routing Folders for the audio we imported into the Pro Tools session. I cover the setup of some basic markers to be used for easy recall of locations in your session and how to start sorting your audio files into the routing folders that we create from scratch. This one is a bit more on the intermediate side of audio production, but a core technique that will help you speed up your workflow.

Part 3 of the "Import Audio Files" videos goes over organizing the tracks into the routing folders and making sure that the tracks are properly routed to their sub-folders. Once the folder tracks are properly marked with a √ icon before the name, it becomes easier to locate them in the tracks dropdown menu. Color code the tracks an folders to your preference and this should be all you need to get started on your mix and be efficient with your workflow and time.

The scroll feature can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It can save you hours of production time or increase your production time forcing you to waste time moving around on the screen and loosing your place. Let's get this feature under control and learn the different scroll options to enhance your production workflow.

You have more control over your solo settings than you may be aware. Let's look at the different settings and how you can have the solo features that work best for your production workflow.

Using the Smart tool will be your cornerstone for editing and working within the Pro Tools DAW software. Let me share some tips and techniques that are used everyday by professional engineers.

Creating track presets can save you lots of time and allow you to customize your tracks exactly the way that you want them. We'll look at setting up some single and group track presets so that you can save yourself lots of time and worry.

Join our audio community and get more feedback, insight, and advice on all things audio. This is a great networking opportunity for you to connect with like-minded professionals that are working in the audio industry. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers from the whole community. There will be contests that you can join and win audio gear, plugins, or 1 on 1 mix reviews with one of the engineers that works here at the studio. This is just another perk for signing up and joining this course.