Producing With Pro Tools

Hey Folks -

I hope 2010 has started off well for you.

I just wanted to post a quick note here to inform you about a few things:

1) A new semester for berkleemusic.com starts today. You can still sign up for courses this week.

2) NAMM is happening this week in Anaheim, CA. I’ll be there, most like on Thurs and/or Friday. If you’re going to show and would like to meet up, drop me a note here and we’ll try to make it happen.

3) I’m working on a new course for Berkleemusic about using Virtual Instruments and Effects in Pro Tools. It should be ready for next semester (starting in April). This is just a little teaser. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about it here soon.

Happy New Year. Cheers!

df

Hey Folks -

For those of you Pro Tools users who don’t know about this blog, I highly recommend checking it out. Not only does it tell you about the latest happenings re: the AIR instruments in Pro Tools (like news about upcoming AIR releases… hint hint), you can download free and paid sounds for Structure, watch videos on how to use aspects of the AIR instruments, and connect with other AIR users.

You’ll note that a link to this blog is now in my new category “AWESOME BLOGS” on the right side of this screen. More to come there as well.

AIR Users Blog

In my third installment about optimizing Pro Tools performance, I’m going to cover consolidating audio regions and thinning automation data… two techniques you can use to improve the performance of larger Pro Tools sessions. If you’ve tried all of the techniques I recommended in the first two installments about this topic here on my blog and Pro Tools is still acting sluggish, try these out.

Editing density is one factor that can seriously slow Pro Tools down. Each edit in Pro Tools instructs your hard drive to find a piece of audio on the drive. For instance, if you’ve edited your drum tracks with Beat Detective, you may have thousands of small audio regions on those tracks. Making the hard drive find those little pieces of audio all over the drive in rapid succession slows the drive down and thus makes playback more difficult. To combat this, you can consolidate the tracks. Consolidating means creating a brand new single audio file that combines all of the regions on track into one.

Here’s how I consolidate tracks: First, I make sure that all my edits are clean… that is, I make sure there are fades and crossfades places at region boundaries so there are no editing click/pops. Second, I make a duplicate playlist of all the tracks I want to consolidate. I do this in case I ever want to go back to the final edited version before it was consolidated. Third, I highlight all of the regions on the track. Finally, I choose Edit > Consolidate. Pro Tools creates new audio file that combines all of the edited audio regions into one region.

In the screenshot below, you see a large number of edited audio regions on the left, with some of the regions muted. On the right, you see a consolidated version of the edited regions. Note that the muted regions are processed as silence in the consolidated file.

Consolidated Regions

Although not as intensive as audio data, automation data can cause your Pro Tools session to choke up too. Let’s say you have volume, panning, and mute automation on each track, plus send automation and a number of automated effects parameters. All of that automation data is made up of a large number of tiny data breakpoints. To fight this, you can thin out your automation data on your tracks to help reduce the load on your computer. You can tell Pro Tools to automatically thin out your automation data automatically after writing it in the Preferences. Choose Setup > Preferences > Mixing. In the Automation section, check off “Smooth and Thin Data after Pass” and then choose the Degree of Thinning (none, little, some, more, or most). I’d recommend trying “more” first before jumping to “most”. The “most” setting has the potential to make your automation too choppy.

In the screenshot below, you can see the same region with all of the original automation data on the left and the thinned automation data on the right. For this example, the Degree of Thinning is set to “more.”

Thinned Automation

You can also manually thin out automation by highlighting a section on a track and choosing Edit > Thin Automation. This command uses the Degree of Thinning setting from the Mixing Preferences window.

Stay tuned for more ways to save processing power while using Pro Tools…

Hey folks -

If you’ve been checking out this blog and you’re interested in learning production techniques using Pro Tools with me, why not sign up for my class? Its called Producing with Pro Tools. Here’s the course description:

Producing with Pro Tools will help you learn professional recording and producing techniques utilizing Digidesign’s Pro Tools software, the industry standard in music production. Throughout the course, I will help you hone your production and engineering skills through hands-on activities using Pro Tools, interaction with other students, and personalized instructor feedback.

Learning in an online environment might be new to you, yet all of the same elements exist from regular classroom learning, with a few notable improvements.

* Lectures are replaced by guided, hands-on practice.
* You can learn at your own pace.
* You can interact, collaborate, and trade files with me and your classmates easily in chat and Discussion Board.
* You can ask dumb questions or carry on deep discussions with personal stories while remaining somewhat anonymous.
* You can visit me in my virtual office hours from any time zone.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

* use Pro Tools to record and edit audio and MIDI files
* operate Pro Tools with a well-rounded knowledge of the software, including many keyboard shortcuts and other timesaving techniques
* master many basic and advanced functions within Pro Tools
* set up your home studio equipment and recording environment to maximize efficiency and sound quality
* apply your knowledge of the production process to all of your current and future projects, including all of the production and engineering duties along the way

Read more about it here… and see a video with yours truly taped at Capitol Records.

If you’ve already taken me class, check out any of the other amazing offerings from Berkleemusic.

Hope to see in you class soon.

df

With all the plug-ins and virtual instruments available in Pro Tools 8 now, it’s easy to run out of processing power and memory (RAM) within a session, especially if you’re running PT on an older computer. You might hear “rice krispies” (snaps, crackles and pops) while playing back, or even see error messages when you’ve reached the limits of your computer’s capability. In Part I of this topic, I shared how to optimize Pro Tools’ Playback Engine for the best performance. Here, I’m going to share a couple more ways to optimize performance within your session.

Make Inactive
The easiest thing to do in your PT session to lessen the load on your CPU and RAM is to make anything you’re not actually using in the session INACTIVE. You can make effects plug-ins, virtual instruments, sends, outputs, and other items inactive… even entire tracks can be made inactive. What does it mean to be “inactive?” Essentially, the inactive item does not function in the session and uses no system resources. However, the settings of the item are still saved with the session… SO, you can activate the item at any point while working in the session and all of its settings will still be there.

How do you make something inactive? To make an entire track inactive, select the name of the track and choose Track > Make Inactive. You can also Right-click the name of the track and choose Make Inactive from the dropdown menu or click the track type icon (at the bottom of the track’s mix channel) and choose Make Inactive. To make a certain plug-in, instrument, send, output, etc inactive, press Command+Control (Mac) or Control+Start (PC) and click on the item. Inactive items and tracks are greyed out.

In the screenshot below, the Xpand2 instrument and the Instrument tracks’ output (Bus 1-2) are inactive, as is the entire Audio 2 track on the bottom. Right-click on the name of the track or an item to access the “make inactive” option as shown here.

Record Virtual Instruments As Audio
Virtual instruments consume a lot of processing power so it’s a good idea to record their outputs as audio when you’re done working on them. Once you’re happy with a track you’ve made with a virtual instrument, record its output as audio onto an audio track in the session.

Route the output of the Instrument track to a bus (e.g., Bus 1-2). Create an audio track and choose that same bus (Bus 1-2) as the track’s input. Play and record the output from the instrument track. Then, make the instrument track inactive so that if you need to go back and edit the original instrument track, you can simply activate the track later and work on it.

Stay tuned for more ways to save processing power while using Pro Tools…

With all the plug-ins and virtual instruments available in Pro Tools 8 now, it’s easy to run out of processing power and memory (RAM) within a session, especially if you’re running PT on an older computer. You might hear “rice krispies” (snaps, crackles and pops) while playing back, or even see error messages when you’ve reached the limits of your computer’s capability. However, there are some ways to get around the issues… and I want to share a few with you here.

First, quit any other applications that are running along with Pro Tools. Those apps take away precious RAM and processing power that could be allocated to Pro Tools. Then, within Pro Tools, visit the Playback Engine window (Setup > Playback Engine). Set the CPU Usage Limit to the highest percentage available. This allows Pro Tools to take control of most of the processing power in your computer.

If you’re editing or mixing (and not recording any more tracks), set the H/W Buffer Size to a higher amount like 1024 Samples. This enables your computer to work with larger chunks of data and makes audio processing less intensive. Boosting this value beyond 1024 (if you have the option) might cause your user interface to act sluggish. Use your judgment. When recording, set the H/W Buffer Size to a lower value (32, 64, 128, or 256) to reduce latency.

Choose the highest number of RTAS Processors available so Pro Tools can utilize your computer’s multiple processors. You may also check the “RTAS Engine” checkbox if you’re experiencing recurrent RTAS errors that interrupt playback and recording. This option may degrade your audio playback quality on virtual instruments, but you’ll see less errors and thus your workflow won’t be interrupted as often. However, be sure to uncheck this option when mixing to ensure the highest quality of audio playback.

The DAE playback buffer determines the amount of memory allocated with Digidesign Audio Engine (DAE) to manage disk buffers. A smaller buffer size might improve the speed of playback/record initiation if you’re experiencing lag time when you press Record or Play, but it might also make it more difficult for slower hard drives to play or record tracks reliably. A setting of “Level 0” might even make it impossible for your hard drive to read data fast enough to play back a PT session. A larger buffer size might improve the performance of a session with a huge number of edits; however, large DAE buffer sizes tend to increase the time lag before playback or record initiates.

I’d leave the DAE Playback Buffer parameters in their default states (Size = Level 2, Cache Size = Normal) unless you’re having an issue that Digidesign specifically recommends you to change those values.

Stay tuned for more ways to save processing power while using Pro Tools…

Hey folks -

If you’ve been checking out this blog and you’re interested in learning production techniques using Pro Tools with me, why not sign up for my class? Its called Producing with Pro Tools. Here’s the course description:

Producing with Pro Tools will help you learn professional recording and producing techniques utilizing Digidesign’s Pro Tools software, the industry standard in music production. Throughout the course, I will help you hone your production and engineering skills through hands-on activities using Pro Tools, interaction with other students, and personalized instructor feedback.

Learning in an online environment might be new to you, yet all of the same elements exist from regular classroom learning, with a few notable improvements.

* Lectures are replaced by guided, hands-on practice.
* You can learn at your own pace.
* You can interact, collaborate, and trade files with me and your classmates easily in chat and Discussion Board.
* You can ask dumb questions or carry on deep discussions with personal stories while remaining somewhat anonymous.
* You can visit me in my virtual office hours from any time zone.

By the end of this course, you will be able to

* use Pro Tools to record and edit audio and MIDI files
* operate Pro Tools with a well-rounded knowledge of the software, including many keyboard shortcuts and other timesaving techniques
* master many basic and advanced functions within Pro Tools
* set up your home studio equipment and recording environment to maximize efficiency and sound quality
* apply your knowledge of the production process to all of your current and future projects, including all of the production and engineering duties along the way

Read more about it here… and see a video with your truly taped at Capitol Records.

Producing with Pro Tools

If you’ve already taken me class, check out any of the other amazing offerings from Berklee Music.

Hope to see in you class soon.

df

To complete the review of all of the new virtual instruments in Pro Tools 8, let’s check out Vacuum. Admittedly, I’m not totally knowledgeable when it comes to analog synths, but I’ll tell ya… running through the parameters on this synth was quite enlightening. After reading up on and tweaking Vacuum’s controls, now I feel like I can intelligently create my own sounds from scratch or intelligently alter the presets on this instrument. Here, I’ll share the way I went through the controls.

For this review, I recommend loading up a preset sound and tweaking the parameters as I mention them here. Twist all the knobs from side to side. Totally dive in. Because a lot of the parameters are linked to each other, you might tweak a control and nothing will happen. If the parameter doesn’t affect anything, then either adjust one of the other parameters in the same section first or try a different preset. OK, on to the review…

Vacuum is a monophonic analog-style synth with a lot of sonic control. Modeled after classic synths, it has one control per parameter and no menus… which is a novel feature these days. ☺

On the left side, it has two Vacuum Tube Oscillators (VTOs). All sounds originate here. Range sets the octave for the VTO, Fine varies the pitch up or down 7 semitones, Shape continuously morphs the VTO between several wave shapes, and Env 1 to Shape controls the modulation of the current VTO wave shape by Envelope 1.

In Mixer section, the two oscillator signals are mixed. Drive adds distortion, RingMod creates a ring modulation effect by multiplying the VTO1 and VTO2 signals together. This is one of my favorite effects of all-time.

Next there’s the Filter section where there’s a High Pass Filter and the Low Pass Filter. These do exactly what their names say… they either let high frequencies pass through, or low frequencies pass through. The VTOs volume level drives these filters… use the mixer volume at a low level for cleaner tones, or boost the mixer volume for more distorted tones.

On to the Filter parameters…

Cutoff – the frequency where the HPF or LPF begins to cutoff the frequencies

Slope – sets the curve of the filter slope. Higher values mean higher slopes and more frequencies are cutoff

Reso refers to resonance, which is the amount of signal that’s fed back into the filter circuit

Env 1 controls the amount that the filter cutoff frequency is modulated by Envelope 1. When it’s centered, no modulation occurs. Move it right for positive modulation, left for negative modulation.

Key Trk controls how the pitch affects the filter’s cutoff frequency. There’s no effect at 0%, but at 100% the frequency is directly related to the keys played.

Sat adds saturation to the resonant feedback loop.

Below the filter section is the Envelope section. Envelope 1 modulates each filters’ cutoff frequency over time, while Envelope 2 modulates each filters’ amplitude over time. Or you can assign them to modulate other parameters using the Modulation Routing section. Use the Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release, and Vel (Velocity) controls to adjust the modulation envelope shape.

The Modulation Routing section enables you to change up the signal routing within the synth if you want to dig deeper into designing sounds. Choose a source and a destination, then choose a depth to set the amount that the source modulates the destination.

Use the Age controls to add pitch drift and dirt to the sound. At low levels, Drift can actually thicken the sound, while higher levels can detune the sound heavily. Dust adds noise to the sound, mimicking how real dust might affect an older synth.

The VTA (Vacuum Tube Amplifier) section sets the master (Vol)ume and is the last place you can add saturation and distortion to the signal using the Shape control.

The ARP section is where you can add an arpeggiator to the sound. On/off is self-explanatory. Rate is the speed of arpeggiation while Mode refers to the direction or shape (up, down, up/down, or random) of the arpeggiation.

The Pitchbend and Mod Wheel can be easily assigned. Use Dest to choose what parameter the Mod Wheel controls (Vibrato, Wah, Tremolo, or Nothing). Rate selects the modulation speed. Click the Setup button (the little wrench icon) to access the Glide, Pitch Bend Range, and Envelope Retrigger settings.

Vacuum is obviously a pretty deep instrument. There are some great sounds in the roughly 200 presets that come with it, but I’d recommend spending some time testing out and reading about its parameters… the time will be well spent as you explore the sonic possibilities that this instrument has to offer.

To complete the review of all of the new virtual instruments in Pro Tools 8, let’s check out Vacuum. Admittedly, I’m not totally knowledgeable when it comes to analog synths, but I’ll tell ya… running through the parameters on this synth was quite enlightening. After reading up on and tweaking Vacuum’s controls, now I feel like I can intelligently create my own sounds from scratch or intelligently alter the presets on this instrument. Here, I’ll share the way I went through the controls.

For this review, I recommend loading up a preset sound and tweaking the parameters as I mention them here. Twist all the knobs from side to side. Totally dive in. Because a lot of the parameters are linked to each other, you might tweak a control and nothing will happen. If the parameter doesn’t affect anything, then either adjust one of the other parameters in the same section first or try a different preset. OK, on to the review…

Vacuum is a monophonic analog-style synth with a lot of sonic control. Modeled after classic synths, it has one control per parameter and no menus… which is a novel feature these days. ☺

On the left side, it has two Vacuum Tube Oscillators (VTOs). All sounds originate here. Range sets the octave for the VTO, Fine varies the pitch up or down 7 semitones, Shape continuously morphs the VTO between several wave shapes, and Env 1 to Shape controls the modulation of the current VTO wave shape by Envelope 1.

In Mixer section, the two oscillator signals are mixed. Drive adds distortion, RingMod creates a ring modulation effect by multiplying the VTO1 and VTO2 signals together. This is one of my favorite effects of all-time.

Next there’s the Filter section where there’s a High Pass Filter and the Low Pass Filter. These do exactly what their names say… they either let high frequencies pass through, or low frequencies pass through. The VTOs volume level drives these filters… use the mixer volume at a low level for cleaner tones, or boost the mixer volume for more distorted tones.

On to the Filter parameters…

Cutoff – the frequency where the HPF or LPF begins to cutoff the frequencies

Slope – sets the curve of the filter slope. Higher values mean higher slopes and more frequencies are cutoff

Reso refers to resonance, which is the amount of signal that’s fed back into the filter circuit

Env 1 controls the amount that the filter cutoff frequency is modulated by Envelope 1. When it’s centered, no modulation occurs. Move it right for positive modulation, left for negative modulation.

Key Trk controls how the pitch affects the filter’s cutoff frequency. There’s no effect at 0%, but at 100% the frequency is directly related to the keys played.

Sat adds saturation to the resonant feedback loop.

Below the filter section is the Envelope section. Envelope 1 modulates each filters’ cutoff frequency over time, while Envelope 2 modulates each filters’ amplitude over time. Or you can assign them to modulate other parameters using the Modulation Routing section. Use the Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release, and Vel (Velocity) controls to adjust the modulation envelope shape.

The Modulation Routing section enables you to change up the signal routing within the synth if you want to dig deeper into designing sounds. Choose a source and a destination, then choose a depth to set the amount that the source modulates the destination.

Use the Age controls to add pitch drift and dirt to the sound. At low levels, Drift can actually thicken the sound, while higher levels can detune the sound heavily. Dust adds noise to the sound, mimicking how real dust might affect an older synth.

The VTA (Vacuum Tube Amplifier) section sets the master (Vol)ume and is the last place you can add saturation and distortion to the signal using the Shape control.

The ARP section is where you can add an arpeggiator to the sound. On/off is self-explanatory. Rate is the speed of arpeggiation while Mode refers to the direction or shape (up, down, up/down, or random) of the arpeggiation.

The Pitchbend and Mod Wheel can be easily assigned. Use Dest to choose what parameter the Mod Wheel controls (Vibrato, Wah, Tremolo, or Nothing). Rate selects the modulation speed. Click the Setup button (the little wrench icon) to access the Glide, Pitch Bend Range, and Envelope Retrigger settings.

Vacuum is obviously a pretty deep instrument. There are some great sounds in the roughly 200 presets that come with it, but I’d recommend spending some time testing out and reading about its parameters… the time will be well spent as you explore the sonic possibilities that this instrument has to offer.

When I think of John Madden, famous American football announcer, I always imagine him telestrating and yelling “Boom!” With John Madden announcing his retirement recently, I figured it was a good time to review Boom, Digidesign’s drum machine virtual instrument. Boom is included for free with Pro Tools 8 and is definitely a cool and powerful device.

Boom is a drum-machine-style pattern sequencer. You can create your own patterns, use the innumerable preset patterns, or edit those presets… and easily trigger and switch between the patterns with the mouse or using MIDI data. Boom has 10 drum kits, including Urban 1 & 2, Dance 1 & 2, Electro, Retro, Eight-O, Nine-O, Fat-8, and Fat-9. The last four are based off of the classic 808 and 909 analog drum machines, where the Fat versions feature processed, harder-hitting versions of the Eight-O and Nine-O sounds.

The Matrix display on the upper left side of the screen gives you a visual display of what samples are sequenced to play in the pattern. Click notes in the Matrix to add or delete them. Click a note multiple times to change its velocity. (Like the Reason Redrum drum machine, there are 3 velocity levels.) Adjust the SWING, VOLUME, and DYNAMICS global controls and choose the DRUM KIT below the Matrix.

The Instrument section in the top center and left enables you to alter the panning, volume, tuning, and decay. You can also mute, solo, select the sample (for instance, you can choose a clap sound from any of the 10 preset drum kits), and use the mysterious “Adjuster” button to calibrate the sound of the instrument in “varying ways.” Click and drag the Adjuster button to change the intensity and impact of the sound.

You can change the speed of the beat from double-time (X2), regular speed (X1), or half-time (X 1/2)… try switching between these in real time… fun! Use the Triplet button to create triplet feels, which will only make use of the first 12 steps in the beat. The last four steps will be greyed-out.

The Event bar consists of the 16 Event switches, where each Event switch corresponds to a 1/16 note in a drum pattern. To add or delete notes to the drum pattern using the Event bar, just select an instrument (e.g., click on the name of the KICK track to select it), then click on an Event switch to cycle through the fours states… Note On at full velocity, Note On at medium velocity, Note On at low velocity, and Note Off. Pretty intuitive. Every note you add or delete, as well as the note velocity, is reflected in the Matrix section.

Use the Edit Mode switch to toggle between editing a pattern (Pat Edit) or switching between patterns in a current preset (Pat Sel). For instance, if you load the preset “Electrobump in trunk 103″, set the Edit Mode to Pat Sel to listen to all 16 varieties of that pattern preset. If you want to edit one of the patterns, toggle the Edit mode to Pat Edit and then edit that selected pattern. There are 128 preset patterns, with 16 variations… so that’s a total of 2048 preset beats for you to choose from and edit, if you need a place to start. You can also chain patterns together to create a song arrangement, as well as trigger patterns from a MIDI controller and build your own patterns with MIDI notes.

Here’s an MP3 that plays a few of the presets…

Boom sample beats

I like Boom. I think you will too once you get to know it. Its a pretty powerful beat creation station when you dig a little deeper beyond the presets. Check it out and have fun!