Non-Destructive Record mode

Non-destructive recording is the default setting in Pro Tools. Whenever you record in this mode, a new audio file is created without erasing any previous files or clips. This new file gets added automatically to the Audio Clips list, where it resides with other recorded files. (This list is located on the right side of the Edit window. If it’s not visible, click the double arrow at the bottom right of the Edit window.)

Destructive Record mode

Recording in Destructive Record mode erases any and all previously recorded audio clips found on that particular track, which basically mirrors the way traditional analog tape recorders work. This can be handy for keeping your hard drives from becoming full quickly, but you don’t get a chance to use a previous take after you recorded over it. Because Non-Destructive Record mode is the default mode (see the preceding section), you need to select Destructive Record mode from either the Options menu (choose Options ⇒ Destructive from the main menu) or Control-click (Mac) or right-click (PC) the Record button in the Transport window until the D icon appears on the Record button, as shown in Figure 4-1.

Loop Record mode

Loop recording consists of choosing a start and end point on a track and having this section play over and over again while you record and rerecord. Each time the loop runs, it creates a new audio clip. That way, you can record a difficult section of a song as many times as you want and still have all the takes available for review later on. To enable Loop Record mode, chose Options ⇒ Loop Record or Control-click (Mac) or right-click (PC) the Record button in the Transport window until the Loop Record icon appears in the Record button. (Refer to Figure 4-1.)

To create a loop to record to, follow these steps:

1. Enter the start point for your loop in the Start field of the Transport window.

   The Transport window runs along the top of the Edit window. Its (many) features are discussed in detail in Book 2, Chapter 3.

2. Enter the end point for your loop in the End field in the Transport window.

3. (Optional) If you want a pre-roll, enter an amount of time for it to run, using the Pre-Roll field of the Transport window.

   A pre-roll, by the way, is a section of your song before where you actually start recording that plays when you hit the Record button. A pre-roll happens only before the first time through the loop. After that, the loop runs the same way each time through: from start point to end point and then back to the start point.

To find out how to review a bunch of audio clips you recorded using loops, check out the section on auditioning takes in Chapter 5 of this mini-book.

QuickPunch Record mode

QuickPunch Record mode is great for manually adding a corrected musical phrase on the fly — punching in (starting to record) and punching out (stopping the recording process) onto record-enabled tracks while the song plays. Of course, you can punch in and out in Destructive and Non-Destructive modes (by selecting start and end points), but QuickPunch is designed for use on the fly: You can punch in and out up to 100 times during each pass of the song. To select QuickPunch Record mode, choose it from the Options menu (choose Options ⇒ QuickPunch from the main menu) or Control-click (Mac) or right-click (PC) the Record button in the Transport window until the QuickPunch icon (a little P; refer to Figure 4-1) appears on the Record button.

Using QuickPunch also ensures that you can constantly hear the audio while the punch in and punch out happen, seamlessly switching between monitoring the already-recorded track and monitoring the input source for the track being punched.

By default, Pro Tools switches automatically from the recorded material to the fresh input when the punch is enabled, and then back again when the punch is disabled. If you don’t want this feature and prefer hearing your input source before and after the punch (as well as during the punch), choose Track ⇒ Input Only Monitoring from the main menu. (This is detailed in the “Monitoring Your Tracks” section, later in this chapter.)

Record-enabling

Enabling a track for recording (the audio buzzwords are record-enabling) is easy: Just click the Record Enable button for that track in the Edit or the Mix window (see Figure 4-3). The track will stay in Record mode until you either click another track’s Record Enable button or you toggle out of Record mode (by clicking the track’s Record Enable button one more time).

You can keep a track in Record mode when you move on and enable other tracks. To do so, just engage the Latch mode (see the next section) or hold down the Shift key while you select your other track(s).

Aside from simply clicking the Record Enable button, you are free to use keyboard shortcuts to enable all tracks or selected tracks. These are done the following ways:

• To record-enable all tracks: Option-click (Mac) or Alt-click (PC) the Record Enable button of any track.

• To record-enable selected tracks: Shift-click each track to select multiple tracks and then Shift+Option-click (Mac) or Shift+Alt-click (PC) the Record Enable button on one of the selected tracks. You can select grouped tracks to enable by highlighting the group in the Edit Groups list (located in the lower left of the Edit window) and then Shift+Option-clicking (Mac) or Shift+Alt-clicking (PC) a Record Enable button on one of the tracks in the group.

  This step is a timesaver only if you already have some tracks selected and you want to record-enable them. If your tracks aren’t already selected, Shift-clicking the Record Enable button on each track is much faster.

After you have one or more tracks enabled for recording, you can click Record and then Play to start recording. (Chapter 5 of this mini-book has more on the intricacies of recording.)

Using Latch Record Enable mode

With Pro Tools, you have the option of latching — or unlatching — your Record Enable buttons. In Latch Record Enable mode, you basically “lock” down record-enabling so that when you enable recording on one track and then move to enable recording on another track, the first track stays in Record Enable mode. This allows you to consecutively enable more than one track.

With Latch Record Enable mode off, when you enable one track and then go to enable another track, the first track turns off and is no longer record-enabled.

Now that that’s straight, here’s how you actually turn Latch Record Enable mode on and off:

1. Choose Setup ⇒ Preferences from the main menu.

2. From the Preferences dialog box that appears, click the Operation tab.

   The Operation view of the Preferences dialog box appears.

3. Select the Latch Record Enable Buttons check box to turn it on.

   This check box is located in the upper right of the window, as shown in Figure 4-4.

Running Record Safe mode

Record Safe mode does for your tracks what Write Protect features used to do for a floppy disk or a Zip disk in the olden days: namely, make it impossible for you to record-enable a track. This is a truly helpful feature that has saved me from accidentally recording over an already great track. To put a track into Record Safe mode, ⌘  -click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (PC) the track’s Record Enable button. (Remember: You can find the Record Enable button in the Edit window or the Mix window; refer to Figure 4-3.) If you clicked correctly, the Record Enable button will gray out, as shown in Figure 4-5. To reverse this procedure, ⌘  -click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (PC) the button again.

If you want, you can put more than one track at a time in Record Safe mode. Here’s how:

• Placing selected tracks in Record Safe mode: ⌘  +Option+Shift-click (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+Shift-click (PC) the Record Enable button for one of the selected tracks. This step assumes that you have tracks already selected; Shift-click the track names in the Edit or the Mix window to select them. If the tracks aren’t already selected, ⌘  -clicking (Mac) or Ctrl-clicking (PC) the track’s Record Enable button for each track is much quicker.
• Placing all tracks in Record Safe mode: ⌘  +Option-click (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt-click (PC) the Record Enable button on any track.

To toggle either selection off, just repeat whatever click combination you used to get the multiple tracks selected in the first place.

Setting up monitoring

To set up your monitoring, you first need to choose the output of the tracks you want to monitor so they match the main outputs on your system. Do this by selecting the outputs in each track’s Output selector, located above the Pan control in the Mix window. (Book 2, Chapter 3 has more than you’d ever need to know about Output selectors and Mix windows.)

Choosing a monitor mode

Pro Tools has two monitor modes: Auto Input monitoring and Input Only Monitoring. (More on what these terms actually mean in a minute.) You can select between these two options by checking or unchecking Track ⇒ Set Record Tracks to Input Only from the main menu. (See Figure 4-6.)

Linking and unlinking Record and Playback faders

You have the option of “linking” the fader on your tracks when in Record Enable or Playback mode (meaning that moving the fader in one mode moves it the same distance in the other mode) or “unlinking” them (so you can maintain separate fader levels in each mode). If you opt for the unlinking option, Pro Tools remembers where your fader was set in both Record Enable mode and Playback mode and returns the fader to its position when you switch between these modes.

Unlinking your Record and Playback faders allows you to set the level differently for playback and record. This can be useful for punch recording because you can adjust both the recorded stuff and your input source independently and have the same relative levels between your previously recorded track and the input in the mix. Otherwise, your input source might be too loud or too soft in comparison.

To link Record and Playback faders, follow these steps:

1. Choose Setup ⇒ Preferences from the main menu.

2. Click the Operation tab at the top of the Preferences dialog box that opens.

   The Preferences dialog box presents you with its Operation face.

3. Select or clear the Link Record and Play Faders check box located in the column on the right, as shown in Figure 4-7, depending which way you want to work.
4. Click OK.

Adjusting monitoring latency

All digital systems have some latency — delay between the input of the audio and its output. Latency used to be a big deal in computer-based systems because to record more than a couple of tracks at once, you had to set your system — usually by using a high H/W (hardware) buffer size — resulting in painfully noticeable latency. This lag made it hard for many musicians to record because they heard a distracting delay in their headphones while they recorded.

Nowadays, latency isn’t such a big deal because computers are often powerful enough to be able to handle a lower buffer size while recording. You can lower the buffer size in the Playback Engine dialog box, as shown in Figure 4-8. (To access the Playback Engine dialog box, just choose Setup ⇒ Playback Engine from the main menu.) Depending on your audio interface, you have the choice between 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 samples. The lower the number, the lower the latency.

For most recordings, you can get by with either 256-sample or 128-sample settings. When recording at 44.1 kHz, this represents only about a 4- and a 6-millisecond (ms) delay, respectively. This is equivalent to standing three or six feet away from your instrument/amp/speaker. As little as this is, you may find that high a buffer size distracting with headphones on — and may want to go lower when you record percussive instruments. Personally, I choose 32 whenever I can and will accept 64 if I get a lot of errors while recording. When mixing lots of tracks with a bunch of plug-ins, you want to adjust this to a higher setting — such as 512 or even 1024 — depending on the speed of your processor.

Using low-latency monitoring

If you want the least amount of latency possible and you don’t mind not hearing reverb or other effects through your headphones, go for the low-latency monitoring option: Just choose Options ⇒ Low Latency Monitoring from the main menu. (See Figure 4-9.)

Low-latency monitoring bypasses the internal mixer in Pro Tools and sends the input’s sound back out without processing it. This reduces latency, but it also limits what you can do. Here are some of the “strings attached” that come with low-latency monitoring:

• Low-latency monitoring applies only to outputs 1 and 2 on your hardware. Any tracks set to another output can’t be monitored this way, so you must choose outputs 1 and 2 as your outputs for the track you want to monitor.
• None of the plug-ins that you have routed to tracks 1 and 2 can be heard in this mode.
• Tracks set to record from an internal bus (a submix, for example) can’t be monitored this way. You can use this mode only for tracks that use a hardware input.
• Tracks that you’re recording to won’t show up in the levels at the Master Fader channel.

Getting a click track the easy way

You can create a click track in your session in just one step: Choose Track ⇒ Create Click Track. This places a track in your session with the click plug-in already inserted. Check out Figure 4-10.

The only other thing you may need to do to get this click going is to assign an output to this track if you haven’t set your default output setting in the I/O Setup dialog box (Book 3, Chapter 3 covers this). To assign your output, click and hold the Output selector for click track and drag to the physical output you want for your click. This is usually the main outputs for your session.

From here, you can follow the steps in the “Setting the tempo,” “Choosing the meter,” and “Enabling a click track” sections later in this chapter.

Getting a click track the hard way

If you have an external drum machine or synthesizer, you may want to perform a few extra steps so that the click you hear is something you want to hear (the click plug-in that comes with Pro Tools is hard for many people to tolerate). This involves several steps that are outlined in the following sections.

Configuring your external device

To play a click track using an external device in Pro Tools, you need to designate a device for creating the sound. This can be an external MIDI sound module (such as a drum machine or synthesizer).

To configure the click-track device, follow these steps:

1. If you’re using an external MIDI device for your click, connect the device to a MIDI port connected to your computer.

   Some audio interfaces come with MIDI ports, but others don’t. If your interface has MIDI ports, you’re good to go. If it doesn’t, however, you have to get a separate MIDI interface. (Book 4, Chapter 1 can get you up to speed on this.) As well, if you use the Click plug-in, you don’t need to use your MIDI ports.

2. Double-click the Click button in the Transport window.

3. In the Click/Countoff Options dialog box that appears (see Figure 4-11), open the Output drop-down menu to choose the device that will play your click.

   Be sure to choose the port and MIDI channel that your device is connected to.

4. Select when you want the click to be played by selecting one of the radio buttons at the top of the window.

   You can select among During Play and Record, Only During Record, and Only During Countoff.

5. Using the appropriate fields, enter the MIDI note, velocity, and duration for the accented and unaccented notes of the click.

6. (Optional) Select whether you want a countoff only during record and then enter the number of bars you want in the Bars field.

   Selecting the Only During Record check box means that there will be no countoff when you play back the track. If you don’t want any countoff at all, type in 0 in the Bars field.

Even with your device configured, you still won’t get any sound out of your click track until you enable it in your session. The next section shows you how to do this.

Setting the tempo

Whether you created your click track the hard or easy way, you still need to set your session tempo to get the click to pulse at the tempo you want to play to. Here’s how you do this:

1. Disengage the Tempo Ruler Enable button in the expanded Transport window (choose View ⇒ Transport ⇒ Expanded).

   The little Conductor guy turns gray. If it’s already gray, then leave it alone.

2. Double-click in the tempo box in the expanded section of the Transport window (as shown in Figure 4-12).

3. Type the tempo number you want and click Return/Enter.

   Your tempo is set.

Another way to change the tempo is to follow Step 1, and then click and drag the slider located below the tempo setting left or right to get to the tempo you want. Release your mouse button when you set the tempo.

Choosing the meter

You also need to set the meter for the session. You do this using the Meter Change dialog box. You call up the dialog box by double-clicking the Meter button in the expanded Transport window (or choose View ⇒ Rulers ⇒ Meter then click on the plus (+) sign next to the meter ruler bar). The Meter Change dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4-13. The Meter Change dialog box gives you the following parameters to adjust:

• Snap to Bar: Select this check box to align any meter events with the first beat in the nearest bar.
• Location: The number you enter in this field determines the beginning of the meter (time signature) event. For songs with only one time signature, you enter 1/1/000 (bars/beats/ticks).
• Meter: In these fields, type the meter that you want to use (4 in the top field and 4 in the bottom field for common time, for example).
• Click: From this menu, you choose the note value for the clicks played in each measure. Choosing 1/4 note (a quarter note) gives you four clicks in a 4/4 measure.

Enabling a click track

Even an electronic equivalent of a metronome has to be set in motion to do any good. After you set up your click track to do its job, you have to enable it so it will run while you’re recording.

You can enable your click track by

• Choosing Options ⇒ Click from the main menu.

• Clicking the Click button in the MIDI section of the Transport window.

  When Click is engaged, this button is blue.

  You can engage the countoff by clicking the Countoff button in the MIDI section of the Transport window. This button displays the number of bars that the countoff is set for, and shows as blue when it’s engaged.

Setting up tempo and meter events

If your song has any tempo or meter changes, you can set up a map of these changes (events). You might want to do this if you have complex songs with several different time signatures or tempos. This makes sure that your click track follows these changes so that you can stay in time, too. This section shows you how.