Templates Make Life Easier

Templates can make a project run smoothly in any application-program, especially in Pro Tools. In this blog I will discuss the advantages in creating a unique template for work process. For one to create a new session and begin creating tracks and aux busses to route sounds through, can fairly take up time and distract your creative thinking. Pro tools just like any other application today allows you to create a session and make a template off of it, for future use.
First you would want to create a session, which will come out empty with no tracks provided. You will need to create the tracks desired. You can add tracks with the “track” menu. Many people work differently in Pro Tools so choose the work flow that best compliments your work. I usually start with about 5 mono/stereo tracks, 4 Instruments tracks, 3 auxiliary tracks, a click track and 1 master fader for final audio result. After clicking on “create”, your session is half way done. Next we would have to use the busses routing matrix to route the audio to the correct aux’s and so on. That would be up to you to decide where you want the audio to be routed to, using the busses I/O settings. Once the routing has been done, your session is complete. Now you can save the session as a template, so you can easily use the custom settings you have arranged.
You can save a session template in the “file” menu; it’s called “save session template”. Once you opened up this window, you will need to choose where you want to save the template. I would save it somewhere you can find it easily. Create a new category and save it in there. Now when you open pro tools the system will ask you which template or saved session would you like to use. Simply click on the new category you have created and you will find the template you have saved inside. I also recommend you save it with a name you will remember. Templates just make life easier.

Digidesign (publisher). (2007). Pro Tools® 7.3 - Music Creation (Part 1). Retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXGQGpXWCw

Pro Tools, New Tools

Pro tools has made many improvements since its first version released. Today, Pro tools has an extraordinary cool tool for stretching or shrinking audio files without changing the real pitch of the audio file called, “elastic audio”. This tool can be used for many different scenarios and situations. Electronic composers can use this tool to increase or decrease the speed of the hi-hat to correspond with the incline or decline of the song. Vocal mixers can use this tool to chop-up words and use it to make the vocals stutter effect. Which is commonly used in pop music today.
This tool can be activated and operated on by changing the track view to warp. Once activated one has to set event markers to where they want to begin or end their time stretch warp. Event markers can be stretched or shrink to achieve the sound one desires. Think of it as of it was a rubber band and you have set markers between the areas wanted. Now you can drag any of the markers to stretch the rubber band or shrinks it. Except is not a rubber band but an audio region. One can use this tool to fix notes, drum percussions, vocals and even more tracks that are off tempo. Easy fix for what use to be a headache to fix in the past.
They are three different types of event markers that can help one use the tool efficiently. One is called telescope warp, which is applied by taking the end of a region and stretching/shrinking it to match in time or what’s preferred. This event marker stretches or shrinks the whole audio file. Second one is accordion event marker, which is splitting up the whole audio region into two or more to dissect in a more specific manner. Third one is region event marker, which allows one to stretch or shrink very small parts of the audio region like syllables and single hi-hat hits without effecting the other parts of the audio track.

www.avid.com