"Watching Others Using Pro Tools" Program!!!!! WOUPT

[Kenny Gioia]

This afternoon I was working with this young singer (19) who uses Pro Tools at home on an Mbox.

He was listening back in my studio and started hitting a bunch of buttons to get to playback from a specific spot.

Point is: He showed me a pretty cool trick even though his skill level is not the same as mine.

So it occured to me that within Pro Tools (or any DAW) you can accomplish just about any task 37 different ways.

And while some of us already can do most of what we need, it's always cool to see a new perspective.

Some of us have been using Pro Tools so long that we don't take advantage of the newest features while the younger kids only know the new way.

So I'm trying to come up with a way where we can all watch each other work. Even for a couple of minutes.

I could easily post a bunch of my tricks but I'm probably doing things sub consciously that could help others work differently and more efficiently. And Vice Versa.

Any ideas?

Interesting?

[Jules]

No...

[Jules]

I plan to release a DVD of myself flossing and your idea clashes with this. So I have to ban you.

[drew]

here's one i like. when setting up for an auto punch. select the area to be fixed, then while holding Command and Option click in the timeline to the left of your selection, this both enables and sets your pre roll, do the same on the right side for post roll and you're ready to go. it's nothing fancy or earth shattering but i learned it about 2 years into my PT use so maybe it'll be new to someone.

[Kenny Gioia]

Think of the movie "The Aristocrats".

A video collection of every Pro Tools user (well not all) doing the same mundane tasks differently.

Originally Posted by Jules

I plan to release a DVD of myself flossing and your idea clashes with this. So I have to ban you.

So now I know you're lying. We all know that brits don't brush and certainly don't floss.

[drew]

that movie was great.


btw, Jules is American I believe.

[paterno]

Originally Posted by Jules

I plan to release a DVD of myself flossing and your idea clashes with this. So I have to ban you.

You are particularly fiesty today, Jules !!!

I have to say that I really like watching others run a Pro Tools system. I always learn a ton of new tricks -- like when i used to assist...

Wonder how this could be organized?

Cheers,
john

[T_R_S]

I could make DVD of my flying my jet but i don't think that would help.
Hint: Read the manual .

[robmix]

That's a great idea. Of course the other side of the coin is watching someone operate a DAW who is painfully slow. I last about 30 seconds before I move them out.

[The Spark]

Originally Posted by drew

here's one i like. when setting up for an auto punch. select the area to be fixed, then while holding Command and Option click in the timeline to the left of your selection, this both enables and sets your pre roll, do the same on the right side for post roll and you're ready to go. it's nothing fancy or earth shattering but i learned it about 2 years into my PT use so maybe it'll be new to someone.

Cool. Thanks, I apreciate it! thumbsup

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Produceher

Any ideas?

Interesting?

I think this is a great idea. "over the shoulder"

Once I won a contest on Fletcher's forum for a free pass to a Digidesign workshop. they had a big projector for the DAW and showed various things you could do with the software. They covered a lot of ground rather quickly and a lot of it was useful info though not always retained.

The biggest benefit I got from the workshop however, was sitting in the front row and looking over the operator's shoulder instead of at the screen. Ahh that's so much easier than the way I have been doing it! One of the lecturers even addressed this issue -saying that many of the top Post guys use just a handful of shortcuts all the time, but they all used different shortcuts.

I agree that the subconscious stuff would be the more interesting material. The "tricks" you can read about, and then try to repeat, but there are so many little things that are taken for granted. That's what would be so great about the over the shoulder view.

I am no Kenny, but I do teach an audio class and many of my students have an 002 or an M-box at home. Every now and then one of them just shouts out "thank you"! because in the process of showing them something "important" I just used some shortcut or feature they didn't know about- a feature that would save them time and energy every day. And you never know what it will be.


It might be difficult to pull off as a "hey let's all videotape ourselves and post it on the web" kind of thing. I think to do it right, you would need at least two cameras. One focused on or even better, taking a direct feed off the monitor and the other looking over the operator's shoulder at the keyboard/controller/mouse.

I would buy that DVD, especially if I could watch Kenny comping vocals and Jules flossing.

[RKrizman]

Originally Posted by Produceher

This afternoon I was working with this young singer (19) who uses Pro Tools at home on an Mbox.

He was listening back in my studio and started hitting a bunch of buttons to get to playback from a specific spot.

Point is: He showed me a pretty cool trick even though his skill level is not the same as mine.

How about we start by you posting a video of that.

That will answer a lot of questions.

-R

[max cooper]

This is a great idea. Although whenever there's a thread like this, it's inevitable that someone has to turn it into a Pro Tools bashing seminar.

My favorite shortcut;

I use the Griffin Powermate, which is a little standalone USB Jog wheel that costs about $30 and can be set up to accomplish different functions in each application. There are some nice defaults, too, for example, in Mac's Preview, turning the wheel right and left zooms in and out of the document, and pushing and turning flips through the pages.

In Pro Tools (I don't use a control surface right now) I have it set thus:

Click: play/stop
Long Click: record
turn right/left: nudge selection right/left
push and turn right/left: move to start/end of selection

With a mouse in one hand and the Powermate in the other, I get around PT pretty fast.

[Jules]

Originally Posted by joeq

I would buy that DVD, especially if I could watch Kenny comping vocals and Jules flossing.

I leave for Los Angeles tomorrow to try to raise funds and get a 'green light' from the movie mogols.

[Faderjockey]

One cool think to me that saves time...When i'm setting up a bigger session..say a rock band and I'm doing 16 in's or something..A fast way to label everything.
Once you double click the first track to label it..Instead of closing the window to click the next track..While the window for naming is still open..Hit your apple key (maybe alt in Windows) while holding it hit your right arrow key. You will see the name in the box change to the next track..makes things move faster.

The other one i'm sure most know...I love is being able to hold shift and option when adding aux sends..(to make them open on all tracks) Or Having it change input or out on all seletced tracks...another time saver.

[wallace]

Originally Posted by Faderjockey

Once you double click the first track to label it..Instead of closing the window to click the next track..While the window for naming is still open..Hit your apple key (maybe alt in Windows) while holding it hit your right arrow key. You will see the name in the box change to the next track..makes things move faster.

yeah, you can do that.. with a pc it's cntr and over. it's the same with skipping between words in a text editor. If you hit tab, you can go down into the comments section, and cTrl+tab goes back the other way (in all programs).

to edit, I've been using
F5 - zoom
F6 - crop too
F7 - highlight tool

Also, highlighting a region and using the crop to lower change the volume (with volume instead of waveform)

shift +crtrl + spacebar - half speed record
shift + spacebar - halfspeed playback


holding ctrl + moving the volume fader = changes in small increments

the best shortcut for internet is type the word of the website "gearslutz" then hit cntrl + enter. it will add the www. and .com

[lowfreq33]

Not really a shortcut, but an easter egg not everybody knows about yet.
Call up the color pallette for track colors, click and hold on a color and drag the mouse upwards. You'll see the colors on the channel strips onscreen fade into the color selected for the track. Kind of silly, but handy when you have a lot of tracks to keep up with and need some visual reference. This is only in 7.3.

[drew]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

Not really a shortcut, but an easter egg not everybody knows about yet.
Call up the color pallette for track colors, click and hold on a color and drag the mouse upwards. You'll see the colors on the channel strips onscreen fade into the color selected for the track. Kind of silly, but handy when you have a lot of tracks to keep up with and need some visual reference. This is only in 7.3.

You almost have it. You have to hold down all three modifiers while dragging, Command/Option/Control.

[AudioFocus]

Hold down all three modifier keys and click on any meter in the mix window and you get fat meters. kind of handy i think.

Creston

[Pasta4lnch]

thumbsup great thread!

there should be a "tips" and "tricks" forum, cuz it's not just limited to PT.

[Chuck B]

Originally Posted by drew

here's one i like. when setting up for an auto punch. select the area to be fixed, then while holding Command and Option click in the timeline to the left of your selection, this both enables and sets your pre roll, do the same on the right side for post roll and you're ready to go. it's nothing fancy or earth shattering but i learned it about 2 years into my PT use so maybe it'll be new to someone.

new to me. Cool!

[madcowvt]

This is a really great idea!

Like already said...what about a "Tips -n- Tricks" forum with sub catagories within for each specific DAW?

Possibly a video section if people choose to submit user vids for tricks, mixing, tracking techniques etc....

[lowfreq33]

Originally Posted by drew

You almost have it. You have to hold down all three modifiers while dragging, Command/Option/Control.

Yeah, that's right. Sorry.