The Pro Tools Mixer is an incredibly easy window to navigate. Easy it may be but there are times when I need to quickly action several tasks at once such as plug-in loading or multiple plug-in bypassing. Incorporating keyboard shortcuts into your Pro Tools Mixer workflow will help you get your mixes done more efficiently. In this article, I list my essential Pro Tools Mixer Window keyboard shortcuts that help me manage large Pro Tools Sessions while also saving me several thousand clicks of the mouse as well.

For convenience, we've presented all these shortcuts in Mac format. Windows users can use the following modifier key substitutions:

Plug-in Insert and Sends Managment

It's common for me to load up the same plug-in or send across multiple tracks. Don't be tempted to load each instance of a plug-in one by one, that's just a terrible waste of time. Use the keyboard shortcuts below to make light work of loading several instances of a plug-in or send across multiple Pro Tools tracks:

• Select multiple tracks: shift - mouse click track names

• Load same Plug-in or Send across all tracks: alt - mouse click to load plug-in/send

• Load same Plug-in or Send on selected tracks: alt - shift - mouse click to load plug-in/send

• Copy Plug-in/Send with settings to new rack Insert/Send Point: alt - mouse click drag to new Insert/Send Point

Bypassing

Bypassing plug-ins and sends are crucial mix processes that enable us to quickly compare before and after results. Luckily there are many keyboard shortcuts that enable us to bypass plug-ins and sends in a variety of ways:

• Bypass a single Plug-in or Send: cmd - mouse click plug-in insert/send

• Bypass multiple selected Plug-ins or Sends: alt - cmd - mouse click plug-in insert/send

• Bypass all Plug-in Inserts: shift - a

• Bypass Plug-in Inserts A to E: shift - 2

• Bypass Plug-in Inserts F to J: shift - 3

• Bypass All Plug-in Inserts below An Insert: control - mouse click plug-in insert

• Bypass All Sends: shift - q

• Bypass Sends A to E: shift - 4

• Bypass Sends F to J: shift - 5

• Bypass EQ Plug-ins only: shift - E

• Bypass Dynamics Plug-ins only: shift - C

• Bypass Reverb Plug-ins only: shift - V

• Bypass Delay Plug-ins only: shift - D

• Bypass Modulation Plug-ins only: shift - V

Display

By default, Pro Tools only displays one plug-in UI at a time. Several plug-in windows can easily be viewed:

• Show hide Pro Tools Mixer: cmd =

• Show more than one Plug-in or Send: shift - mouse click plug-in insert/send

• Hide all open Plug-ins and Sends: alt - cmd - W

• Expand Sends view: cmd - mouse click on send

I know there a many more useful Pro Tools Mixer Window keyboard shortcuts. If you know and use any other keyboard shortcuts that help speed up plug-in and send workflows then please do share them in the comments below.

If you are new to mixing in Pro Tools then I strongly recommend you learn these keyboard shortcuts as these will speed up your workflow and help you to focus on being creative.