Intro to Pro Tools - part 1

Congratulations! You are ready to officially start moving into the universe of Pro Tools.

So what does Pro Tools do? Basically, it gives you all the main functions of a recording studio on your computer:

• It lets you record
• It lets you edit
• It lets you mix

Beyond that, though, it also serves as the center of your music production setup. Meaning that it can connect to and control all of your software and hardware instruments using MIDI.

A software program that can do all of these things (audio and MIDI) is called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

Pro Tools is definitely not the only DAW on the market. Other popular DAWs include Logic, Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, and others. Pro Tools isn't even necessarily the "best" DAW. Lots of people feel that other programs (e.g. Logic) are actually a lot better for certain things, like recording MIDI.

So why then does everyone seem to be using Pro Tools these days? Probably a number of reasons, including ruthless marketing tactics by Digidesign. Personally, I think that Pro Tools is laid out in a very simple, straight-forward format. It's easy to look at and get around in.

There are actually two main components to any Pro Tools setup: the software and the hardware interface.

The software is where the actual recording/editing/mixing happens.

The interface is just a piece of equipment that lets you get audio into and out of the software. In our classroom we have two different types of interface: the Mbox2 Minis on the student stations, and the Digi 003 on the instructor station. Even though they look really different, they are still performing the same basic function - audio in/audio out.

Important: Pro Tools will not work if it doesn't have a Digidesign interface connected to the computer!

So today, we're going to do a couple of things with Pro Tools:
1) We're going to record the audio from our sound collecting experiment on Saturday into Pro Tools.
2) We're going to record our own voices into Pro Tools and create audio files that we can use in our beats.

To record from the MiniDisc player into ProTools:

1. Connect the MiniDisc player to Input 1 on your Mbox using the cable provided by the instructor.
   
2. Launch Pro Tools and create a new Pro Tools session: Go to File>New Session.
   
3. Name it like this: City Sounds_11-8-08
   
4. Make a new track by going to Track>New.
   
5. Pro Tools will now have you specify what kind of track you want to make. You want to create 1 Mono Audio track. If you see anything different than this, ask the instructor to take a look. If it looks all good, click Create.
6. On the left side of the track, hit the Record Enable button. It should flash red.
7. Start the Minidisc player and listen to the level going into PT. If it is too low, turn up the Input 1 knob on the front of the Mbox, if it is too high, turn it down. Whatever you do, MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON'T HIT THE RED BOX ON THE TRACK'S VOLUME METER.
   
8. When you get a good level, turn the Minidisc player back to the beginning of the first track.
   
9. Click on the Record button at the top of the Window and then hit the Play button right next to it.
10. Hit Play on the Minidisc player and you should be recording!
11. Let Pro Tools record everything that we recorded on Saturday. When it gets to the end, hit Stop.
12. Save this session by going to File>Save.
13. Save it into your folder and call the session file "(your name)_City Sounds.pts"
14. Give all the equipment to another student and let the instructor know that you are done with this part of the assignment.

Here is today's other assigment:

1. Record 2-3 vocal samples into Pro Tools (the instructor will help you with this).
2. Load your samples into the Media Share folder and copy files into your folder on your computer
3. Open Reason and create a new song.
4. Create a NN19 Sampler
5. In the screen of the NN19 right click and select 'Split Key Zone'.
6. Click on the Key Zone on the left side and click the browse sample button
7. Load one of you two samples
8. Now click on the Key Zone on the right side of your NN19 screen and click the Browse Sample button.
9. Play some of the keys on your keyboard and notice where the pitch changes are happening.
10. Now lets change the key where the sample on the right plays its original pitch.
11. Find the knob called Root Key (under the NN19 screen).
12. Turn the knob until the root key is C4.
13. Your two samples should now play in their original pitches on Keys C3 and C4.
14. Make a beat that incorporates your samples.