In this, the third of a short series of tips articles, we present five useful Pro Tools tips. Handy, easily digestible features. Hopefully among them there is something here which will be new to nearly everyone.
In the video below, brought to you with the support of Avid, Julian shares another 5 tips you may or may not already know. Full text descriptions of them are given below the video.
Show Whole Session In 2 Shortcuts
The fact that it is so easy to change the zoom settings sometimes leaves me puzzled why so many very experienced Pro Tools users favour scrolling both horizontally and vertically over zooming out to locate the desired area and using the many zooming shortcuts to focus in on them.
Zooming in, both horizontally and vertically is very quick if you are comfortable with the appropriate shortcuts. Don’t overlook Zoom Toggle which can be used on selections which span multiple tracks as well as zooming timeline selections on single tracks - particularly useful when Timeline and Edit Selections are linked, which for most of the time they will be in Pro Tools.
However being able to quickly zoom out to get a bird’s eye view of your entire session is just as important as being able to quickly zoom in. To do that I use Option+A (Alt+A on PC) to zoom out horizontally to show the entire timeline and CMD+Opt+Control+Down Arrow (Control+Alt+Start+Down Arrow on PC) to fit all tracks to the screen vertically. Using the up arrow works as well. This is indispensable for me, as long as my session isn’t too big to fit vertically on the screen - many sessions are but mine tend not to.
Show Automation Using Ctrl+CMD
By default only volume, pan, sends and mute parameters are enabled for automation in Pro Tools, to automate anything else, such as plugin parameters, you have to manually enable that parameter. The long-winded way of doing this is to open the plugin window, click the Plugin Automation Enable button, select the parameter(s) you wish to enable from the left hand column of available parameters and click Add to add them to the right hand column of automation-enabled parameters.
The quick way to add automation parameters is to click on the parameter you wish to automate while holding CMD+Option+Control (Control+Alt+Start on a PC) and add it from the contextual menu which pops up. This same ‘powerclaw’ set of modifiers will automation enable all of the automatable parameters in a plugin in one action if you use it while clicking on the Plugin Automation Enable button.
Every automated parameter adds to the track views available in the edit page and navigation quickly becomes unmanageable unless you know this second tip. You can change the track view to display the automation playlist for any enabled parameter by Control+CMD clicking (Control+Start on PC) on the parameter’s control. So to view your EQ’s Bypass automation, Control+CMD click on the bypass button, to view the Reverb decay Control+CMD click on the decay control. To view track Mute automation, Control+CMD click on the mute button. To return to Waveform view Control+CMD click on the track name. If you have a suitable control surface this modifier is life-changing!
Temporarily Clear Clips List
The lack of folders in the clips list continues to frustrate many, me included. However if you get to know it, the flat Clips List is surprisingly manageable. One trick I learned years ago is a way to temporarily clear the Clips List and have it only display clips you have created since you cleared it.
The way it works is to use the Find function in the Clips List menu. If you leave the search field blank but tick the Include Subsequently Added Clips box then you will temporarily clear the list but any new files you import or create using Consolidate will be displayed. I use this when importing audio into my Podcast template so that I can import them to my Clips List and drag them to the tracks I want without losing track of them. It’s quicker that renaming clips or re-ordering the list.
Change Clip Gain Amount
Clip Gain is so useful it’s hard to believe that it was only introduced to Pro Tools in version 10. Admittedly that was over ten years ago but I can still remember using Trim plugins to manage gain!
For easy and intuitive use there is the little fader you get in the bottom left of your clips with which you can dial in Clip Gain with just your mouse. If you can’t see the Clip Gain Info hit Control+Shift and Plus (Start+Shift on a PC). This Control+Shift modifier allows you to access loads of Clip Gain related stuff and for quick gain changes use it with the scroll wheel to change the gain of an edit selection. For more precise control you can use Control+Shift with the Arrow Keys but I’ve always felt the default adjustment of 0.5dB is too fine. You can change it to something of your choice in the Editing tab of the Pro Tools Preferences. I use 3dB.
Swap 1-5 from Zoom Presets to Clip FX Presets
In the same area of the Editing tab of the Pro Tools Preferences is the option to change the function of the 1-5 keys from Zoom Presets, which personally I never use, to Clip Effect Presets. This I find very convenient. To set up and store some Clip FX presets open the editor, which has moved the the bottom of the Edit Window, set up a setting and store it by Command-clicking (Control-clicking on a PC) on one of the five preset button. When you release the mouse the preset button flashes. That indicates it has been stored. If you change the preference you will get your Clip Effects applied from the 1-5 keys.
I use this for simple things like high pass filters which can be applied to catch mic pops and table bumps. You could also try a polarity invert and a null setting with no parameters active on neighbouring presets for quick phase toggling and polarity checks from the keyboard.
You can find the first two instalments in this series here: Part 1 and Part 2.
I hope you found something which was new to you in this round up of five more cool things to know in Pro Tools.