As I encounter Pro Tools problems
and learn solutions I have been
documenting my discoveries in the
blog so that I can reference the
answers in the future. I decided
to simplify the search process by
isolating the old blog entries to a
dedicated page. This is that page.
I can't hear the click track.
Press 7. It's stupid but it works.
Oi! How do I create samples that can be triggered with a controller?
Import WAV files into Structre Free.
How do I change the bus output to multiple tracks at the same time?
1) Select the tracks
2) Hold down Alt+Shift and made the changes to one of the tracks
How do I deselect tracks?
Press the Control key and then click on one track
How do you turn off the count in feature?
Press the number 8. It's that simple to disable and accidentally enable.
I have a MIDI track with a full kit on it and want to remove just the snare. How?
Select the corresponding keyboard key in the MIDI editer with the tool set
to SELECT. All of the notes should then be highlighted.
I have multiple SSD tracks and suddenly I can no longer hear the audio even though I can see the data.
Just remove SSD as an insert and then add it again to correct the MIDI assignments.
I can't hear my recording enabled track in the headphones!
Could be two things:
1) Options > Low Latency Montitoring is on or
2) Input Only Monitoring is on. Alt K to toggle it
I can't change the H/W buffer size!
Instead of Setup > Playback Engine try Setup > Launch Setup App
Why isn't Transpose working on my vocals?
Make sure that you're using Audio Suite and not the Event options. Those are strictly MIDI-related.
Why is there a gray section taking up the start of my screen?
Go to Options and change Continuous Scrolling to Page
How do you delete the Timecode section? The option to deselect is grayed out.
Select Bars and Beats
How do you record loops with Boom?
Press C3-D3 while recording to play selected loops.
Suddenly Pro Tools resumes plays where you last stopped vs where your marker is.
Press the N key. It's stupid and that simple.
Yikes! There is a measure missing on the timeline!
Just delete the closest meter change.
How do I delete a TEMPO marker?
Click on the marker while pressing the ALT key.
Oi! My clips list and track/audio lists don't match!
I found that consolidating all of the tracks solved the problem.
How do I change tempo and meter in middle of a song?
Tempo: click on the + and indicate where you want the marker set
Meter: Window/View Transport Click on Tempo and indicate the starting measure and signature change
How do I merge multiple MIDI clips into one?
Copy clip
Select target
Press ALT M to merge
Suddenly playback is starting wherever I left off last
instead of at my marker.
Turn off Insertion Follows Playback
by clicking to the right of the options.
in the Smart Tools options.
My session is crackling when others do not.
That likely means you have a jillion tracks or plug-ins. Go into
SETUP>HARDWARE>LAUNCH SETUP and change the value of the
buffer size. Going from 512 to 1024 did it for me.
Imported MIDI data looks good but doesn't play.
Copy the region/data onto a freshly set-up stereo instrument track.
Ooops, I turned off Smart Tools
Just click the frame around the three primary tools
Pro Tools keeps creating loops in the timeline
Deselect Link Timeline & Edit
How do I remove Minutes:Seconds from Timeline?
Click on the counter menu and select Bars:Beats
Then you'll be able to deselect Minutes:Seconds
How do you assign multiple tracks to a single bus?
Create the bus
Select all of the tracks
While holding SHIFT-ALT select the desired
bus in just one of the tracks and the rest
will automatically adjust.
When I click on the timeline it selects all of the tracks
Deselect Link Track & Edit option
Song doesn't scroll while playing
Change Scrolling to Continuous
I can't slide the regions around while the song is playing
Change Scrolling to Page
MIDI imports are greyed out - no audio
Dunno why it happens but
simply duplicating the
track seems to make
resolve the issue.
Remove unwanted tempo marker
Ugh! Recording music
with a computer is stupid!
In Pro Tools, delete an
unwanted tempo marker
by left clicking on it and
dragging it off of the screen.
You'll see the cursor turn
into a trash can. Now off
to relearn how to remove
partial measures from the
start of the song.
Merging Pro Tools sessions
Notes from Patrick about
how to merge two sessoins
with different tempos in
Pro Tools:
Joining two sessions with
different tempos can be
challenging, that's where the
track warp feature becomes
a burden. The best way to do
it is, for the session you'll be
importing from, turn off "ticks"
on all the tracks, including
MIDI, and set them to samples.
Then open the session you're
importing to and open the
"import session data" dialogue.
Import the tracks from the other
session (the one you set to
samples), move them where
you want them on the timeline,
making sure the start point for
the new track is on the grid.
Then add the new tempo at
the start of the new track and
then set everything back to
"ticks."
Changing Song Tempo
So, the tempo (120) of
Christian in July has been
bothering me but I have been
loathe to begin the process
of re-recording all of the tracks.
Decided to give Elastic Audio
a try, since all of the parts are
still in demo form. Set
everything to ticks, guitars
to Polyphonic and vocals to
Monophonic. Wresltled
with removing a marker
that was fouling the starting
point and eventually won.
Changed the tempo to 130
and the results are flawless.
What a horrible and glorious
time to be alive.
Where is the Steven Slate Drum Trigger?
Even though I am
generally no longer the
drummer or the bass
player I still like to come
up with parts when I am
building a song so that
I have a clearer vision of
how it might move. Some
times I play the drum parts
and then use the Steven
Slate Sampler to
compensate for all of the
non-engineering set-up I
performed. Here's the only
reason I mention this - I
can never find the plug-in,
and when I do, I forget to
blog about it to help future
me. It lives in Dynamics
and is called Trigger2.
Deleting markers
I don't understand the first
thing about markers in
Pro Tools. I do know that
sometimes there is an
unknown marker at the
start of a section that I
want to work on and I am
unable to put the major
marker (red or blue arrow)
over it. I've since learned
that holding down the Ctrl
button will place the arrow
over the mystery marker.
One more time, where is the SSD Trigger located?
Again, note to future self -
SSD Trigger is located in
the Dynamics list.
How do I mark the end of a song?
How do I mark the end
of a song in Pro Tools so
that bounces aren't padded
with silence?
Mark the end of the song
by going to the start and
pressing Control/Shift/Tab.
Then select the portion
of the song you want to
bounce by highlighting
the song in the measures
bar. Bounce that mofo.
How do I remove the minutes/seconds ruler?
Pro Tools: The minutes and
seconds ruler option annoys
me greatly. Sometimes if you
click on the drop down menu
to remove it the option is
grayed out. Just click on the
bars and beats ruler and then
you can uncheck minutes and
seconds from there.
Pro Tools not recalling starting marker:
Another one. Pro Tools keeps
starting at the beginning of the
song rather than where you place
the Timeline Selection Point.
Just go to options and check
Link Track and Edit option.
Where did the grid lines go?
Dammit. Pro Tools. The
grid lines have disappered.
Go to the Grid/Nudge/Counter
and click on Grid.
Things I learned about
Pro Tools today:
The Insertion Follows
Playback button is
EVIL! Make certain
that it is not highlighted.
Can't solo bus tracks
Control click on a bus
track will enable
individual track
soloing.
Accidently blew up edit windows fumbling a Control I
Control = is the antidote
for an indadvertant
Control W.
Changing session tempo:
Intro and Jackson
Browne sessions were
set at 110 and Bloof,
with a guitar track,
was at 115. What to
do? If I change the
tempo it will screw up
the audio data, right?
Here's where Paris
once again pays
dividends. He told me
once to use Elastic
Audio to convert the
audio data to ticks
which preserved the
quality of the track
during the tempo
change. And it did.
Importing audio recorded at different frequency
Had a little challenge today.
Gardenaire was built from
some bits I recorded in Houston
on a MacBook. I guess when
I imported them into Pro Tools 12
the session defaulted to 44.1 kHz
instead of 48 kHz, which is what
I use for everything else. So,
when I would exit a Gardenaire
session and load something
else Pro Tools would freak out
about the difference and I
would have to continually exit
and restart. How could I
convert Gardenaire to 48 kHz?
I tried creating a new session
at 48 k and then importing the
44.1 project. This fails because
the import screen (and this is
a well-documented issue) is
longer than the computer screen
and if you attempt to resize it
it disappears. Went for a walk
to think about it. Came back,
opened up Gardenaire, launched
the Save As process and
discovered that it had an option
for the frequency! Worked
like a charm. Rock and also
roll.
Oy! Where is my USB keyboard?
M-Audio Keystation no
longer recognized in the USB
drive list. Here is what finally worked:
Device Manager > USB
Disable the Unknown device
Power off computer
Unplug computer
Plug in computer
Power on computer
Correct device found
One variable that may have been
critical: I originally had a multi-USB
port adapter in-between the keyboard
and the USB port that I removed
for troubleshooting purposes.
Apparently Windows wanted to
see the adapter???
Again with the frequency issues:
Annoyed by a Pro Tools quirk that
has kept me from mixing On and
Tambourine. Let me tell you about
it now. I have been recording this
album at 48k but the two Juice Box
Berries songs 44.1. This means
that every time I load one of them
Pro Tools has to be restarted, and
then restarted again when I load
one of the new songs. Did the
Save Copy In option that Paris
taught me to convert them to 48k
and it seems to have worked without
any glitches.
Missing files error:
Learned a couple of Pro Tools
tricks from Patrick:
I moved my session files from
one computer to another and
now have "missing files" errors
that won't go away. P taught
me to load the session,
suffer through the errors, and
then use the Copy function
to save the session as a new
project. The new project
loads without errors.
Too many loops on the dance floor"
I run into timing issues when
using too many Xpand2
loops and had been using
bus routing to convert them
to audio files. With Pro Tools 12
all I have to do is use the Commit
option to convert them. Worked
great.
Duplicate notes and quantizing MIDI
Annoying issue with Pro Tools 12
clipping note duration when quantizing
MIDI tracks. Someone suggested
going to Events and using the Remove
Duplicate Notes before quantizing to fix
the issue. And ta-da.
Deleting Automation
How do I delete volume automation from
a track in Pro Tools?
Hi. How are you? You can delete the
automation points by selecting a point
and pressing Alt and Delete. Goodbye.
Mixer and latency issues
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
It's me again! I have 2 fresh problems:
1) I'm having trouble getting input and
output from my Behringer XENYX 1204
interface.
2) I'm having dreadful latency issues!
Bruce
Dear Bruce,
1) Check your mixer to verify that the
red "2-TR/USB to Main" button is UP
and that the red "2-TR/USB" button is
DOWN. Also, in Setup>Hardware
make certian that you have disabled
all of the inputs and outputs from the
sound card unchecked.
2) Make sure that in Setup>Hardware
you do not have the Hardware Buffer
box checked. You can tweak the
buffer size at the bottom of the window.
I love you.
Playback stops working
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
I have a problem with Pro Tools 12.
Suddenly the playback has stopped
working for any of my session files.
I can see the waveforms but the
timeline doesn't move. Also, is there
a shortcut for toggling the Edit and
Mix windows?
No name? That's not very friendly.
Pro Tools wil balk at playing a
session if it doesn't see the
hardware configuration it was
expecting. This could be
because you unplugged an
interface during the session
without going into Hardware>Setup.
Ctrl-+ will toggle the Mix and
Edit windows.
Waveforms are flat
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
I recently imported some WAV files
into my Pro Tools 8 LE project and
now the waveforms are just a flat
line. I can hear the audio fine, I
just can't see it. Is there anything
I can do to increase the size of the
waveform without effecting the volume
or impacting the other waveforms in
the project? Your fan.
Dear Your,
I get this question all the time. Just
go to Audio Events>Other>Normalize.
You're welcome and please don't
send money. To the wrong address.
Remove unused clips
Show clip list
Select unused clips
Press clear
Hold the Alt key and press Delete or Move to Recycle Bin
How do I get a track total?
View > Track Count
How can I merge two mono files into a stereo tracks?
Created stereo track
Drag mono tracks into stereo track
