I’ve seen many, many Pro Tools systems but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one using anything other than the default waveform views. What can you change and why might you want to?

Peak Vs Power

The default setting is Peak. This is perfect for visualising how close audio samples are to digital headroom. This is the only option available while recording but once the record pass is over there is another option. Power displays a waveform based on the RMS level and this displays the waveform in a way which corresponds more closely with the level we perceive, in much he same way as a VU meter displays wheat we hear more closely than a peak meter does.

Outline And Rectified

The default waveform view displays waveforms with a fine black line round it, this can be turned off. More useful is rectified view which displays the positive and negative halves of the waveform on top of each other so the higher up the track display, the higher the level whether positive or negative.

Watch the free video tutorial to see this in action