Mike Slinn
Mike Slinn

Pro Tools Tasks

Published 2020-03-01. Last modified 2022-04-03.
Time to read: 3 minutes.

This site is categorized under Pro Tools.

I accidentally discovered that Avid Link ia the best way to update Avid software, including Pro Tools. When it first runs, it only appears in the desktop toolbar, and it might be hidden. Before it can be used, you must sign in with the Windows user id and password.

Then, log in to Avid with your Avid credentials:

It is probably a good idea to enable Only Show Updates.

YouTube Misc

Pro Tools Preferences

  1. In Setup / Preferences / Operation
  2. Change Project Media Cache to F:\proToolsMediaCache
  3. Enable Automatically Create New Playlists When Loop Recording
  4. Enable Setup / Preferences / Editing / Suppress Name Dialog When Creating New Playlists

WorkFlows

One day, this section will mature to describe a useable workflow, as per the Avid File-Based Workflows Guide.

Pro Tools Virtual MIDI Keyboard

Shift-K brings up virtual MIDI keyboard, mapped to computer keyboard asdfghk, wetyu, and zxcv. Z and X transpose the keyboard 1 octave. C and V affect the velocity.

Avid Control for iPad

The iPad Avid Control App provides soft keys. (download)

Install EUCON software

Installing on Windows

Enable EUCON in Pro Tools

Setup / Peripherals, select the Ethernet Controllers tab, then enable EUCON Control Surfaces.

The usual Windows Defender popup appears:

Defining Soft Keys for Pro Tools Macros

Only Launch Avid MC Client for One User

Avid MC Client can only run on one Windows account. By default, it tries to launch on all accounts upon login. Thus, the first Windows user to log in gets to use EUCON. (See page 37 of the Avid Control and Avid Control Desktop Guide.)

Only One Control Surface At A Time

I installed Avid Control on my Android phone. Seems only one control surface can be connected at once:

Lock Entire Surface

By default, Pro Tools must be the selected application on the DAW at all times. Otherwise, the Avid Control surface connected via EUCON does not display anything. To allow other programs to get focus without losing the connection, in EuControl / Assign, enable Lock to Application: Entire surface.

Hot Keys

See thePro Tools Keyboard Shortcuts page. For a 10keyless keyboard with Windows, select the PC Generic keyboard.

Key Modifiers

When A/Z Edit Key is enabled, use keyboard to navigate.

P Up

; Down

L Left

, right

Misc

Ctrl-= Toggle Mix sub-window on top

Ctrl-D duplicate selection

Ctrl-E Cut clip at selection

Ctrl-G> Group selected tracks

Ctrl-N new session

Ctrl-Shift-L Loop toggle

Ctrl-Shift-N New track

Ctrl-Shift-W Close session

Ctrl-Alt-B Bounce mix (mixdown)

Win-P Select previous track

Win-; Select next track

Recording

Enter Return to start of session

Ctrl-space Start recording

Space Stop recording

Ctrl-. Stop recording and discard take

Alt-L Loop record toggle

Ctrl-Alt-L Loop record toggle

Tracks & Compositing

Alt-Shift-D Duplicate track

Alt-Shift-N Move selection to new playlist.

Shift-S Solo playlists with cursor.

Win-Alt-v copy selected portion of selected playlist to main playlist

Ctrl-Win-\ duplicate selected track to playlist.
Ctrl-Win-Alt-\ duplicate all tracks to playlists.
Ctrl-Win-Alt-Shift-\ duplicate selected tracks to playlists.

Win-\ add a new playlist to a single selected track.
Win-Alt-\ creates a new Pro Tools playlist on all tracks (including inactive ones).
Win-Alt-Shift-\ creates new playlists only on selected tracks.

During Playback

Down arrow start selection

Up arrow extend selection

Transport

Enter Go to start of session

Space Start/stop playback / Record stop

Ctrl-Space / F12 Record start

Shift-R Record enable selected tracks

Zoom

Ctrl-[ horizontal zoom out

Ctrl-] horizontal zoom in

Issues

Mix Issues

If levels are not right, this is the default setup.

TotalMix

  1. Set SM7B input gain to 47, ensure orange 48V is on.
  2. Set Audix input gain to 49
  3. Select Phones 1, set output level to 0dB.
  4. Verify Software Input AN 1/2 for Phones 1 is at -11dB.

Pro Tools

  1. Press Ctrl-= and ensure Pro Tools input levels are maximized as shown to the right.
  2. Ensure that the red record lights are on for the smb7 and Audix channels.

Pro Tools Issues

  • RME TotalMix input gains on microphone are fine, no clipping, strong signal, but Pro Tools seems to amplify the inputs a lot when displaying the meter levels (the recorded signal is fine).

Reference