I’m biased but Pro Tools is awesome, however even a diehard fan like me will admit that for the new user it’s not completely intuitive. In this article, which is aimed at people who are new to Pro Tools but not necessarily new to editing audio on a computer, we look at some basics. Start here!

I’ve introduced enough new users to Pro Tools to understand that it’s important to know something about how what is on the timeline related to what is on your hard drive right from the beginning so we’ll start there.

Files Vs Clips

If you’ve recorded some audio, somewhere on your hard drive (exactly where is a whole subject on its own..) there will be an audio file containing that recording. You can use as much or as little of that recording as many times as you like in your session in the form of Audio Clips on the timeline. These clips are just instructions to Pro Tools to play some of that file. There’s only one parent file and all of the audio clips created from that file refer back to that file. See the diagrams below to help visualise this.

Getting Audio Into Pro Tools

You can of course record straight into Pro Tools. Record arm a track which has an audio input routed to it and you’ll be in business. But if you have a file you wish to import, although you can drag and drop from Finder/Explorer, I recommend using the Import Audio dialog. This helps avoid issues with sample rates. Go to the file menu and select Import until you have learned the shortcut keystroke. The import dialog will ask you whether you want to place the imported file in the Clips List or onto a new track. In this instance place it in the Clips List as it’s easy for the new user to ignore this sidebar on the right of the Edit Window but it reveals some useful information about your session.

Every clip in your session might, but doesn’t have to be, on the timeline. The important thing about the Clips List is that every clip in your session is there, so don’t ignore it. To figure out what is what click on the clip on the timeline and the corresponding clip in the list should be selected and vice versa (I say should because you can turn this behaviour off…).

Grid Mode - AKA Snapping

There are different Edit Tools in Pro Tools which we’ll touch on later but it doesn’t matter which you are using for this, you can drag and drop from the Clips List onto a suitable track on the timeline or over to the Tracks List on the left of the Edit Window and Pro Tools will create one for you. You might find that the yellow outline of the clip jumps along the timeline rather than moving smoothly. This is the equivalent of ‘snapping’ to the grid in other DAWs and if you don’t want this to happen, switch from Grid to Slip in the Edit Modes at the top left of the Edit window.

Editing the Clips

If you want to change the length of the clip, where it starts or ends, use the Trim tool, you’ll notice that you can only extend the clip out to the beginning or end of the parent Whole File Clip which the clip references. If you understand the file/clip relationship this is self explanatory but if you didn’t know it might be confusing.

Making A Cut In Clips In Pro Tools

Making cuts in clips, the kind of task which would be done using a scissors or razor blade tool in other software, is done using the Selector Tool. Make a selection, or just place the flashing ‘insertion point’ line on the clip and ‘Separate at Selection’ from the Edit menu or use a shortcut (B or CMD+E on a Mac, Control+E on a PC).

If you are being thorough you might look at what happens in the Clips List when you split a Whole File Clip into sub Clips. You’ll soon spot the relationship between what is on the timeline and what is in the clips list, especially if you click on clips in the Clips List and on the timeline and see how they correspond.

To see this in action and learn more, watch the free video tutorial brought to you with the support of Avid.