Managing the Clip List or the Region List as it used to be called in older versions of Pro Tools is an important part of looking after your session. As you work, especially when editing, the list can fill up with a lot of clips. The size of this list can impact on the performance of Pro Tools, especially in older versions. If you notice Pro Tools is getting slower to respond, then it might be time to prune the Clip List.

Firstly, save your session and then do a 'Save Session As' version of it. That way if you want to get back any of the clips at some point in the future you have a version of the session with them in.

To remove unnecessary audio files from the audio clip list, click on the arrow on the right-hand end of the Clips top bar and a drop-down menu will appear.

Choose Select and Unused. Then go back into the Clip List menu and choose Clear and then Remove and all the unused clips will be removed from the session and your clip list will be a little shorter.

You may want to choose the Unused Except Whole Files option. This will leave the original files in the list even if they are no longer used in the session as this can make finding original content from the unedited clip easier.

Tip - Clearing Unused Clips From The Clips List

In this free video tutorial, Pro Tools Expert team member Julian Rodgers demonstrates how to clear unused clips from the clips list.

Why Would I Want to Do This? - This is one of the basics of keeping control of your session. As you record, you accumulate clips in your clips list and although you might remove material from the timeline, it will remain in the clips list until you remove it.

Clips Vs Whole File Clips - There is an important distinction between clips and files and while this is beyond the scope of this short video it is something to be aware of: Clips clutter up your clips list, files fill your hard drive.

Remove Vs Move To Trash - An equally important distinction is that between removing reference to a file in a session  - removing it (from the clips list) and moving the source file to the trash. Only one of these clears hard drive space but it also deletes the file, are you sure you don't want it...?

Tip - Temporarily Clear Your Clips List In Pro Tools

In this free video tutorial, you will learn about a very quick tip in Pro Tools which enables you to temporarily remove everything from your clip list. Perfect for those times when all those clips are just in the way.

A Search For Nothing Gives No Results - This is a very simple trick which relies on the fact that there is an "include subsequently added clips" checkbox in the Find dialog in the clips list. If you search for nothing, unsurprisingly, you get no results. But if you include subsequently added clips you can re-populate your clips list with just clips you have created since the Find was performed.

Next Time

In the final episode of Getting To Grips With Pro Tools, we take a look at Mixing & Disk Allocation Tips