Basic Folderĭon’t be put off by the word basic. Having them on a separate track to the actual notes really helps. Another use I like them for is recording keyswitching for articulations and pattern changes on virtual instruments. Uses include incorporating external MIDI hardware into sessions and using them to send discrete MIDI streams to multitimbral Virtual Instruments. Largely superseded by the more recently introduced Instrument Track (though that was still a long time ago!), the MIDI track is still useful as a way to record and play back MIDI data without hosting a virtual instrument or any audio routing. Something which gets very complicated when dealing with submixes and Aux inputs. Because of this it behaves independently of the audio routing set up on each track meaning that a track can be a member of multiple Mix groups controlled by multiple VCAs. A VCA is a master fader for a mix groups and behaves as a remote control for the channel faders assigned to it. The advantages of VCAs for these purposes are simplicity. The VCA track, which used to be an Ultimate-only feature, controls the levels of mix groups. This can be done but the next track type is probably more straightforward for controlling levels of collections of tracks. If you’ve used analogue mixers you might think that an Aux Input is the place you would go to control the levels of submixes of groups of tracks. These aren’t available but there are simple workarounds available to create the missing functions. Things which you might be expecting to see which are not present in Pro Tools are a polarity or ‘phase’ switch and a stereo/mono button. It can receive audio, process it and route it to other places but it doesn’t record audio or MIDI.Īux Tracks are endlessly useful but the two uses I’ll refer to here are using them with sends to create effects send/return loops and using them as summing points to submix groups of tracks. Using their analogue equivalents to explain the difference, if an audio track is a channel of a mixing console and a track on a tape machine, the Aux Input is just a mixer channel without a connected ‘tape track’. Once you are familiar with these three, the next track type you’ll need is the Auxiliary Input. Very often the fader is never touched but having that Master Fader meter is helpful and it should be present. Be aware that the insert slots are post fader in Master Faders, for other track types they are pre fader. Master Faders have many other uses not least of which is providing insert slots for buss processors. Its job is to monitor headroom on the output, without a master fader a track can be clipping its output and there would be no visual indication that this was happening. Master FaderĪ Master Fader should always be present in a Pro Tools session no matter how small. In the Edit window look to the top left where you’ll find the track header show/hide controls. To view MIDI settings on Instrument Tracks in the Mix Window go to the view controls in the bottom left of the Mix Window and check “Instrument". Incorrect MIDI routing can be a cause of problems in MIDI sessions so you need to know where to look to find these. The inclusion of these is largely historical but for the novice, if you want to use MIDI in Pro Tools you probably want an Instrument Track.Ī very common source of confusion for new users is the location of MIDI settings on newly created instrument tracks. A common source of confusion is the existence of the MIDI track as well as the Instrument track. Instrument tracks are usually what a user needs if they wish to use MIDI. You used to have to manage this yourself but Pro Tools now does nearly all of it automatically - a big time saver if you work at channel widths greater than stereo. Something you can do more easily that you used to be able to is to route to and from tracks of different channel widths. If audio is playing back at the wrong pitch or speed you might well have a sample rate problem. You have the option to convert mis-matched sample rates. You can mix and match different bit depths in a session but not different sample rates. One common question is whether it is possible to change audio tracks from mono to stereo and vice-versa - it is not, inserting some plug-ins will change the mixer channel to stereo but the track itself will still be mono. You can record to them directly or If you import audio into Pro Tools you will be given the choice to create new tracks for that audio to populate or to place it in the clips list for use later. Audio tracks are fairly self-explanatory.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |