Mixing Efficiency

Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Brian Smithers

How to take better advantage of Pro Tools' creative potential.

E-I-E-I/O

Label your inputs, outputs, inserts, and buses. All can be renamed via a right-click menu, or you can manage them all from I/O Setup (see Fig. 3). It's more efficient to assign a send to Verb Bus than to wonder whether it's supposed to be Bus 13-14 or Bus 15-16, and it's much easier to remember what you've done with a track if you can see it has sends to GtrDelay and ShortVerb. When you patch in a hardware processor, name the insert after that device.

Export and reuse your I/O settings. Open a well-documented session and click on Export Settings in the I/O Setup window. Choose a fitting name and save the file to the default location. When you create a new session, choose this setup from the New Session dialog box. All of your helpful names will be immediately available in that session. You can import your favorite mix I/O settings into an existing session by using the Import Settings button in the I/O Setup window. You'll need to reassign any existing I/O paths, but if you do this as you start a mix, it should save you more time than it costs.

Group Hug

The notion of a fader group (a mix group in Pro Tools) is intuitive: move one fader, and its buddies will move along with it. In Pro Tools, simply select multiple tracks and press Ctrl + G (Command + G). The Create Group dialog box underwent some major revisions in version 7.2 (7.3 for LE), and Pro Tools HD's group behaviors became substantially more flexible (see Web Clip 3).

If you want to adjust a grouped track individually, you can either Start-drag (Ctrl-drag) its fader or suspend the group. The standard way to suspend a group is to click on its name in the Groups list — groups are active only when they are highlighted. In the Mix view, it's far quicker to press the group's ID letter, at least for the first 26 groups (A to Z). When creating groups, choose an ID of D for your Drums group and K for your Keyboards group, and you'll have no trouble remembering which key to press.

Even if you don't find yourself using fader groups that often, groups have other important uses. Click on a group's ID in the Groups list to select all members of that group, and Shift-click on another group's ID to add its members to the selection. This works even if the group is not currently active. Start-click (Ctrl-click) on a group's ID to display its member tracks while hiding all other tracks. Shift-Start-click (Shift-Ctrl-click) on another group's ID to show its members as well. Start-click (Ctrl-click) on the All group to show all tracks.

Although some functions, such as assigning sends and inserts, don't follow groups, you can use groups to apply them efficiently. Click on a group's ID to select its members, then Shift-Alt-click (Shift-Option-click) to assign a send or plug-in to one member track. The send or plug-in will be created across all members of the group with the same channel format. Remember that in Pro Tools, the modifier combination Shift + Alt (Shift + Option) means “apply to all selected tracks.” To apply an action to all tracks, hold only Alt (Option) while clicking.

Making Memories

Be sure to take full advantage of memory locations. In addition to storing markers, memory locations allow you to recall zoom settings, track show/hide settings, track heights, group enables, selections, and more. Many repetitive tasks can be sped up by using memory locations. You know how to use mix groups to show and hide grouped tracks — create memory locations to show and hide tracks that are not ordinarily grouped. Create a memory location that shows only your effects returns, only your subgroups, or only your instrument tracks.

You don't need to create memory locations in the default numeric order. Make all your show/hide memory locations start with 30 and your group-enable memory locations start with 50. To create a memory location with a specific number, press the Period key, the number of the memory location, and Enter on the numeric keypad. With 999 memory locations available, you can organize them as you wish.

Create a pair of track-height memory locations to toggle between Small and Jumbo so that when you go into the Edit view to edit mix parameters graphically, you can jump in to do detailed editing. If you find yourself returning to specific sections and looping them, such as looping a short drum fill to tweak EQ on the toms, save the selections as memory locations. Be sure you deselect all General properties (zoom, group enables, and so on) so when you recall a selection, you don't change any of those attributes. Conversely, be sure your Time properties are set to None for your show/hide and track-height memory locations so they don't relocate the playback cursor.

Pro Tools can now save up to 99 window configurations, and these can be recalled as part of memory locations. Window configurations can recall the entire layout of all windows — which ones are open, how they are configured, and how they are arranged onscreen — or the display settings of the Mix, Edit, or Transport windows.

Suppose you use sends A through E for global sends, such as your main reverb, while reserving sends F through J for individual sends, such as a guitar delay. Show just A through E and press the Period key followed by the number 11 and then the Plus key on the numeric keypad to create a window configuration showing just those sends. Check Mix Window Display Settings in the Edit Window Configuration dialog box, and don't forget to give the configuration a meaningful name and description. Create a window configuration with the number 12 that shows just F through J. Press Period, then 11, then Asterisk (*) on the numeric keypad to recall the A through E view.

Create window configurations for any common changes you make to the Mix view, such as opening and closing the Tracks list (or even changing its width) and displaying or hiding sends, inserts, comments, and I/O. If you simply click in the Window Configuration List to change views, you are saving yourself mouse-clicks each time. Better still, recall them from the numeric keypad.