Close all programs CMD + Tab (to show the currently running programs) then CMD+Q (Quit) on each program you don t want running.

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1 Objective: Once you can complete the steps in this skills lab without thinking, but reacting, you will have a basic core working knowledge of Pro Tools and virtually any other hard disk recording system. The concepts are all the same, where they put and what they call the buttons will be different, but all the rules will be the same. Every skill on the test may not be covered here. What isn t here has been covered in class or Labs. To mouse or not to mouse on this entry level of Audio Engineering, the mouse is fine. If you want to look expensive, work quickly and keep the client confused at all costs, you will learn the keyboard shortcuts and their alternate keyboard focus keys. Use the keyboard modifiers (CTRL, OPT, CMD & SHIFT) so that looks natural. To do this, as a rule, use only your thumb or pinkie on these keys. Use you thumb to hit more than one key. If you have to twist your wrist more than the natural typing position you are doing it wrong. It looks awkward and does not look expensive. A piano technique called cross over is a good skill to develop. Make the four sign with your hand. Notice how your thumb goes under your fingers. With that same four position lay your hand onto the keyboard so your thumb hits the CMD key. See how your fingers cross over the thumb allowing you to press any key on that side of the keyboard. Close all programs CMD + Tab (to show the currently running programs) then CMD+Q (Quit) on each program you don t want running. Run Pro Tools WITHOUT using the Dock. Get to the desktop CMD+SHIFT+A to bring up the Applications window Press D to get to the Digidesign folder. (If you are using Pro Tools 10 and above, substitute the name AVID anytime a step says Digidesign) Depending on what display mode you are in you could press the right arrow or CMD+O to open that folder. Scroll down to the Pro Tools folder and open it. Scroll down to Pro Tools (either M-Powered, LE or HD, which ever one you might have different versions have different icons and colors) and press CMD+O to open it. DO NOT PRESS ENTER OR RETURN, YOU WILL END UP RENAMING STUFF. Create a New session as 44.1k, 24bit,.wav and save it as YourName_Lab10 to the Student folder. You will delete this immediately when done. All things on the desktop get deleted every day. Be sure you can find it again. Setting Up Your Session: To save yourself a lot of headache, trouble and ulcers for this test, you need to set up the preferences properly, or you WILL have difficulty. Since you don t know who was running this setup or what their needs or goals were there is no guarantee that Pro Tools default settings will match your needs. You need to change Pro Tools preferences to match the goals of this test or you WILL have difficulty. Setup > Preferences > Display tab, Color Coding section, check off Track Type & Track Color Meters section, Peak Hold & Clip Indication = Infinite. Operation Tab, Transport Section, check Timeline Insertion Editing tab, Tracks section, uncheck New Tracks Default to Tick Timebase Mixing Tab, Setup section, uncheck Sends Default to -INF Automation Section After Write pass, Switch to TOUCH Processing Tab, Elastic Audio Section, uncheck, Enable Elastic Audio on New Tracks. Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 1

2 Go to the Setup pull down menu and select preferences. q Import all the tracks from the AE1_Skills_Final session under the Lab Files folder, Audio Engineering 1 folder. SHIFT+OPT+I to import session data. OPT+Click on any track name or (none) so they all say New Track Under the Audio Media Options in the import session data window, the Link to source media (where possible) This tells Pro Tools to leave the audio right where it is but to use it for this session. If the sample rate and bit depth match the session to be imported, LINK will be an option. If the sample rate and bit depth do not match you must COPY. Verify that Markers/Memory Locations is checked, it is critical to later steps. If the Some Inputs were made Inactive window comes up, just click NO. This session was originally recorded on a system that had 48 inputs, we have fewer than that on the lab stations. Upper right corner of the Import Session Data window is Time Code Mapping Options: Make sure Maintain Relative time code values is selected. Otherwise, your audio may show up hours later in the session. This session is a mess, clean it up. Get rid of all Plug-Ins and Sends. Delete all Volume and Panning automation (covered in later steps). If Pro Tools can t locate the audio, see Brad after it fails. There may be a problem with the original Session There is not supposed to be, but things happen. The Track order, names, region names and colors and I/O have been messed up for your inconvenience. Organize, label and color code all tracks to make sense to anyone who would look at that session, by: q Putting the Tracks in this order: Kick, Snare, High Hat, Tom 1, Tom 2, Tom 3, OverHead L, OverHead R, Bass, Piano L, Piano R, Synth L, Synth R, Sax 1, Sax 2. It is important to know what audio looks like for each instrument. Solo a track and listen to the instrument. Once you figure out what the instrument is label the track using one of the names above. In order to hear anything you MUST verify that your audio is routed to Interface 1&2. Make sure 1 covered how to get audio out of the NRV10, refer to it if you are getting meters that dance, but no audio. One by one solo each track and listen to it. If you can t hear anything systematically trouble shoot the problem. I may have messed up the session too well. Make sure all outputs are Interface 1-2. Verify that the faders are turned up. Verify that the interface (Lab 1) has the master volume up to unity gain, Faders 1 & 2 up to some degree, no mutes are on. Verify that the headphone fader is up to some degree and the Phones Source switch is all the way down to Main Mix. If you STILL don t have audio, make sure your headphones are not defective. Otherwise, get me or a lab dude to help. The fastest way to do this is to listen to a track, label it and move on to the next track. Once you can identify a track, double click on the track name and type in that name. Repeat this step until you have relabeled all tracks using the names above. Put the SOLO mode into X-OR. Options > Solo Mode > X-OR (Cancels previous solo) This way when you click in the next track, Shift + S will solo that track and turn off the solo on the previous track. To re-order tracks: Make sure no track names are highlighted. Click and drag on the track s name to Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 2

3 move the track to it s new location. You will see a yellow line on the screen showing you where the track will end up. Let go of the mouse button and the track drops into place. Converting the Synth L & R and the Piano L & R tracks into stereo tracks. Click on the Synth R track to highlight the track, not the regions. Pro Tools always puts a new track after the currently selected track. If no track is selected then the new track goes to the end (bottom). CMD+SHIFT+N to create a new track, Stereo, Audio, Samples F8 (Grabber) until it turns into the Object Grabber. Zoom out so you can see all the audio on those tracks. Click and drag from off the regions to over the regions to highlight all the audio on the Synth tracks. With the regions highlighted (Selected) Press and hold CTRL first while you Then click and drag the audio down to the stereo Synth Track Relabel and color the track appropriately. Delete the original Mono Synth tracks. (right click on the track name, drag down to DELETE) Once you create the destination tracks, another method of moving the audio is to be sure the keyboard focus is in the Edit Window. With your F7 tools (Selector) Click and Drag to Highlight the audio on the two mono tracks. Cut that audio (CTRL X) DO NOT MOVE THE INSERTION CURSOR. Press the semi-colon key ( ; ) to move the selection down to the destination stereo track. Once the insertion cursor is on that new stereo track, press CMD V to paste the audio without losing sync. If you use the mouse to move down a track YOU WILL LOSE SYNC. Sometimes, here at CCCC, new tracks have Elastic Audio active automatically. This will not mess up your tracks as much as prevent you from dragging NON-Elastic audio onto an already active Elastic Audio track. You will know this by getting an error message on your screen when you try to move your audio to that track. Go back to the start of this tutorial where it says Setting up Your Session and verify all those settings are correct. If you are still having problems, get a lab dude or me, but chances are Setup > Preferences > Processing Tab, Elastic Audio, Enable Elastic Audio on New Tracks is still checked. If so, delete that track, uncheck that option, Insert a new track again. When you resize a track and you see this Press and hold the OPT key, Click on that icon just to the LEFT of the P Drag up to NONE and all Elastic Audio is disabled. q Recolor the tracks so that every instrument group has it s own unique color. Once all the tracks are in the proper order you need to color code them. If no color tabs are showing to the left of the track name then go to the View pull down menu, Edit Window Views > Track Color. Go to Setup > Preferences > Display tab, Color Coding. Verify that the Track Type and Track Color options are selected, e.g. there is a bullet in those options. Verify that the Link Timeline and Edit Selection and Link Track & Edit Selection are on. Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 3

4 Select the track or tracks you want to change color. Double click on the color tab just to the left of the track s record enable button. A window pops up. Select the color of choice. As a rule, audio tracks are brightest, AUX tracks are the next shade darker of the thing being fed to that AUX. To get the tracks in the proper order, click and drag on the track s name to the track order position you want. When done properly, you will see a yellow line appear across the screen, this is the drop point of the track. Move the track up or down to the desired position. Put the tracks in order as listed above. DO NOT CLICK ON AUDIO REGIONS you run the risk, highly, of getting your audio out of sync. With Groups on and Click anywhere on a track of that group. The track names should highlight. Double Click on the track color tab. A color pallet shows up. Click on whatever color you want and move onto the next, making each group a different color. Don t make colors too similar, don t make them ultra bright either. Some middle of the road intensity would be good q Fill the screen with all the regions & Tracks, Vertically & Horizontally. Select all tracks by option clicking on any track NAME. It will turn white (if they aren t already) Press CTRL + OPT + CMD and press the down arrow key. This resized all tracks to fit the edit window vertically. Using the F7 (Selector tool) click on any one region and press CMD + A to select all the regions on that track. Press and hold OPT and tap the F key to fill the screen with the selection horizontally. If for some reason you didn t select the LONGEST collection of regions, repeat this for any track that has regions that go off the screen. Verify that all tracks have an output of Interface 1-2 and that all tracks are active. Show I/O in the edit window. OPT click on the output and select Interface 1-2. This will activate inactive tracks and reassign any wrongly assigned outputs to a good output. Save now CMD + S. q Set all faders to -9dB, Pan all tracks to the Center and temporarily disable automation. Verify that there is no automation in the session. If there is, you need to delete it. In the edit window CTRL + CMD Left and Right arrow keys to cycle through the various automation displays e.g. panning, volume, mute. There should be black lines straight through the project, no automation. If there is automation, delete it by displaying the unwanted automation, F7 (selector) click in the gray area before any region in that track, CMD + A and press delete. Repeat this for any automation that happens to be in the session. Hit RETURN to get to the start of the session. Go to the Mixer (CMD =), OPT + click on all faders. & Panning to reset them to unity gain and default panning. Turn the <ALL> group on and drag any one fader to read about -9dBFS then disable the <ALL> group. Set all pans to be 12:00 SHIFT + OPT Click on any one Fader and they should all go to the center. Create groups for all the instrument types Make sure the ALL group is not selected or that groups are disabled (CMD+SHIFT+G) Select all the drum tracks, the name should be highlighted or at least the insertion cursor should be across all the desired tracks. Press CMD+G to create a group. Label the group what the instrument actually is, i.e. drums, piano, sax Yes, the Bass is one track, but make it a one track group anyway. You should end up with five groups. Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 4

5 Make sure Grid is on, turn it off. Right next to the big counter is the Grid & Nudge values, make sure the Grid is not lit up in green. Just click on it to turn the grid lines off. On all tracks, put a fade from the region start to the Sax line start. Confirm the ALL Group is on Turn on Tab to Transient on, if it isn t already With the F7 tool (Selector) Click anywhere before the song on the sax track that starts earlier. Shift Click to the start of the second Sax track. Delete all the audio before the start of the sax note. Make sure the keyboard focus is in the edit window. (CMD OPT Alpha1) Put the insertion cursor just before the first sax note Press the D key to Fade in to here OR highlight the area you want to put a fade and hit CMD F, select the fade type and click OK. This puts a very short fade, probably shorter than 200ms. This kind of fade is to avoid a DC pop when the song starts. If your fade is longer than 500ms it is wrong. Trim all tracks to end where the Sax REGIONS end. Locate the Sax Track. Using the selector tool (F7) click beyond the end of all regions on the Sax track or press OPT RETURN to get to the end of all audio. SHIFT OPT Tab to go to the previous edit point until you reach the end of the Sax regions. Highlight all tracks from that point to beyond the end of all regions. SHIFT P to add to the selection above; SHIFT ; to add to the selection below; SHIFT Click after the end of all regions to add to the selection. Hit delete to remove the end of the regions. If it isn t highlighted, it isn t going to be deleted. Just make sure all regions end when the Sax track ends. Put a fade from the last Sax note to the end of the regions you just edited across ALL tracks. With Tab to Transient on, OPT Tab until the insertion cursor reaches the last note in the Sax part. If the keyboard focus is active in the edit window just press G Otherwise, Shift Click beyond the end of all regions and press CMD F Select the fade out you want and click OK. A typical fade is a log rhythmic taper. Locate to memory location 1 and delete everything before memory location 1 while moving the song to memory location 1. Make sure the ALL group is turned on. With the F7 tool on, click anywhere in the tracks to put the insertion cursor active in the edit window On the keypad press. 1. Press SHIFT TAB to select from marker 1 to the start of the song. Without letting go of the SHIFT key, keep tapping the TAB key until it selects to the start of the Sax region. Since you just edited out the unnecessary audio before the Sax first this should go quickly. Verify you ARE in shuffle mode (F1), Press DELETE and all the audio will shuffle to memory location #1, which just so happens to be 2 minutes into the session. The standard start position for all music. Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 5

6 Place an EQ and Compressor on the Sax tracks and manipulate to taste. (You did this in the labs, refer to your notes) You can always load a preset and manipulate to taste. Put a Compressor on the Bass track so it s dynamic range is not all over the place. (You did this in the labs, refer to your notes) You can always load a preset and manipulate to taste. Pan the instruments where the drums & bass are in the center. Where should the lead instrument be? Always in the center. Piano and synth can get panned slightly to opposite sides where one is mostly one side and the other is mostly the other side. Do not pan one keyboard with both faders hard left or hard right. One knob should be fully in that direction while the other fade knob should be panned straight up. q Automate the sax phrases at 3:24 & 4:04 to be on different sides of the panning (hard left and hard right) then back to normal after that. Method #1: Turn automation for the Sax track back on. Instead of being in OFF or READ mode put them in TOUCH mode. Give yourself some pre-roll and just before the phrase on the Sax track pan one of the tracks Hard left, then after that phrase pan the track hard right. When that phrase is over let go and see if the panner goes back to 0. If not, put it back to zero. Method #2: Display panning automation. Select both tracks using the F7 tool. Press and hold SHIFT + OPT while you click on the track display preference which right now is probably WAVEFORM. Click and drag to Panning. With the F7 tool, select across the first phrase. F6 (Trimmer) click and drag the automation straight up. Repeat this for the next phrase: F7, select the area you want to modify. F6 (Trimmer) Click and drag straight down to pan to the right. Create a stereo AUX for the drums to go through. Pull Down menu Setup > I/O > Buses Rename the next available bus Drum Bus and route it to 1-2, hit OK. CMD+SHIFT+N for a new track. Select Stereo & AUX. Rename this AUX track Drums and color it one shade darker than the color you gave the drum tracks. If you gave the drums purple then make the drum AUX dark purple. Change the Input for this new AUX to be the Drum Bus you just created. Change the Output of all the drum tracks to be Drum Bus To do this all at one time, Click on the first drum track, SHIFT+Click on the last drum track. Then press and hold SHIFT+OPT and changed the output of any one drum and all the selected tracks will have their output changed also. Create a new stereo AUX to contain the Reverb for the entire mix. Create a new bus as needed and label it Reverb Bus. Pull Down menu Setup > I/O > Bus tab. If there is no path then click on New Path. Label it, assign stereo channels, route it to the next available bus outputs. Hit OK. Give the new AUX track the input of the Reverb Bus. Choose which tracks you want to have reverb and use a SEND to get the Audio to that SEND. Make sure the faders on the sends are at Unity gain. The default plumbing should be Post Fader in that the button labeled PRE should be off-unhighlighted-not blue. This means that the signal going to the AUX is set by the fader on that track Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 6

7 Label this new AUX Reverb, assign it a color and put a reverb onto the insert. Load a reverb preset that best suits this kind of music. Remember, mixing is an art form. There is great leeway is what is right. Personal taste as a lot to do with it. Though, as we have seen in class, when it is wrong people make scrunchy face like there is a foul odor in the room. Mix the song, starting with the lead instrument and work your way through. Automate volume on three different tracks. Create Stems for the Drums, Bass, Keyboards and Sax for the last 30 or so seconds of the song. Insert New Tracks under each of the audio groups you want to create a stem for. In this case Drums, Bass, Keyboards & Saxes. You could put these new tracks at the end of your session, it really doesn t matter. What does matter is the plumbing and that they are labeled and colored to match the source tracks where the audio came from. On the Drum AUX sub mix, set the output to be the next available bus. Repeat this process to the NEXT available bus for the Bass, Keyboard AUX and Sax AUX. Set the inputs of these new audio tracks to be the output of the AUX tracks (and Bass track) Arm these new tracks for record. Using the selector tool (F7), put the insertion cursor at the end of the song. Press and hold SHIFT as you click and drag left. Look at the Length until it reads 30 or so seconds. Make sure you have enough selected to include the reverb ring out of the song. Now that you have a selection, just press record. Confirm that audio is getting to these new tracks. If it is not then you need to confirm the inputs of these tracks are set to the outputs of the AUX tracks. Just ask yourself: ü Can you hear the lead instrument clearly? ü Is there too much reverb that the feeling of being there has been lost? ü Do I get a sense of space, room size? Once you are done with mixing and automating the project needs to be exported for CD creation. Bouncing to disk for CD creation. Using the selector tool (one of the function keys), highlight the thing you want to bounce, including the reverb ring out. In this case, select the last 30 seconds or so of this song. You can bounce out only the stems OR the tracks not both. There will be phasing issues so decided what you want to be your audio source. In this case Mute all tracks but your stems and bounce out the stems. That is easiest in this application. CMD+OPT+B The output you want to record is the main 1-2 output. Select Stereo Interleave, 16b, 44.1kHz Quality of your choosing. For this test you can choose Fastest quality. When you hit ENTER it will ask you where you want to save it and what do you want to call it. Save it to the same folder as your session folder in the Bounced Files folder. When you hit OK. The song will start to bounce to disk. It will be a 4 minute wait. Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 7

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9 Archiving: Archiving is taking all of the audio that was used and putting it all in one place. Remember, this project was imported from a different session and we linked out project to it. The session you created is only going to be a couple of megabytes. The actual audio needs to be collected into one folder in one place. Make sure there is no unwanted audio in the session: CMD + SHIFT + U to select all the unused audio in the session. CMD + SHIFT + B to REMOVE that audio from the session. Keep repeating these steps until the CMD + SHIFT + U & CMD + SHIFT + B high nothing in the region list. Go to File > Save Copy In A window pops up. Under Session Properties leave it all alone. Under Items to Copy make sure you check off All Audio Files. Everything else in this section does not apply to us now. Add the word ARCHIVE to the end of the name. This is the session that is to be graded. Click OK and all of the data is going to be copied to a new folder with a new session This should only take a minute or two. After you have done the Save Copy In be very sure to get the Bounced Files folder from your original session and put it in the new folder that the Save Copy In created. You are done, mostly. Open the folder that Save Copy In created. Copy over the Bounced Files folder to this new archive folder. Take the new folder that Save Copy in created and copy it to a flash drive to hand in. Before you deliver it for a grade, be sure you open this Save Copy In folder on another computer. Confirm that everything is in place, pages fit the screen, zoom levels fit the screen. Make sure that if a client were to open this session everything would be found. When I grade the work each step is two points. Anything wrong with that step is two points off. Any step you need help with is 2 points off. Bradford Cox Audio Engineering 1, Collin County College Page # 9