Pro Tools For Breakfast: Get Started Guide For The Most Used Software In Recording Studios: Stefano Tumiati, #2

By Stefano Tumiati

Pro Tools For Breakfast: learn to use the software that has become a standard in recording studios!

The preface is written by Matteo Cantaluppi, musical producer for Francesco Gabbani, Thegiornalisti, Le Vibrazioni, Dente, Dimartino, Fast Animals and Slow Kids, Ex Otago, Arisa, Bugo, Canova

 

This is intended to be an introductory guide to the software Pro Tools, used in recording studios for recording, editing, mixing and mastering. Each function is explained step by step in order to guide you in the Pro Tools studio. In this way you will be able to recording and produce music in a professional recording studio or in your home studio.

 

Breakfast is the first meal of the day, the most important one. This guide intends to be only the first step towards the full knowledge of Pro Tools, the most used software in recording studios. Everything is explained and organized according to the teaching experience of Stefano Tumiati, Pro Tools teacher at the schoolNAM, in Milan since 2016 and AVID certified user of Pro Tools.

 

This book it's full of Tip & Tricks, useful on how to move quickly in Pro Tools and fully exploit its potential. You will see what are the most used and useful settings for correct use both in production and mixing.

 

Today the audio production it's onlydigital, it's useful to know a sequencer (a software for digital audio) like Pro Tools for produce your demo, podcast, base, audiobook, songs, ... In the audio production process there are many things to do: pre-production, the recording process, editing, mixing, mastering, ... To be autonomous, therefore, you need to know the work flow of your sequencer well and how best to manage it.

 

The main topics you will find in Pro Tools For Breakfast are:

• Introduction to Pro Tools
• Create a session
• Recording
• Editing
• Session management
• MIDI
• Mixing

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stefano Tumiati
• Release date: Feb 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393676744

Book preview

Pro Tools For Breakfast

Get Started Guide for the most used software

in recording studios

Stefano Tumiati

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Please note, that the copy of the book you purchased is strictly personal and that Stefano Tumiati is the exclusive owner of the intellectual property of the educational material made available in this book.

Names and trademarks mentioned in the text are generally deposited or registered in the respective manufacturers and are referred exclusively for educational purposes.

This book does not intend in no way to replace official manuals but rather to express the various concepts through one's own educational experience.

The total or partial reproduction, even if in the form of reworking of parts of the elements making up this text, as protected by law, is prohibited.

It is forbidden to use the texts for the academic courses without prior notice via e-mail to [e-mail] and subsequent approval.

Any violation will be punished according to copyright law

www.stefanotumiati.it

Breakfast is the first meal of the day,         the most important one.

This guide intends to be only the first step towards the full knowledge of Pro Tools, the most used software in recording studios.

Table of Contents

Preface by Matteo Cantaluppi

Book Presentation

1 – Software Introduction

Digital Audio Fundamentals

Pro Tools: what is it and what is it used for

Available Versions

2 – First Steps

Creating a session

The Session Folders

Setting Buffer Size and Playback Engine

The Main Windows: Edit and Mix

Track Sections

Track types

3 – Recording and Importing

Recording a musical instrument

Playlists

Importing audio

Setting the Click

The 4 recording methods

4 - Editing

The Edit Tools

Editing and Loop commands

The 4 Edit window working methods

Setting the grid

Fade and Crossfade

Undo and Redo

Tab to Transients

The Nudge

Setting a track in a grid with click

Clip groups

Lock Clip

Strip Silence

Drums Manual Editing

Drum editing with the Beat Detective

Elastic Audio

5 – Session Management

Rename, organise e colour tracks

Setting the main scale

The Rulers

Display settings and Zoom

Zoom

Hide/Show and Make Inactive/Active

Scrolling Options

Pre and Post Roll

The Markers

Saving Parameters

Backup Sessions

I/O Setup

Export and Import  I/O Settings

6 – The MIDI

What is MIDI?

Hardware interface

Recording MIDI

MIDI Controls

Editing MIDI

Event Operations

The Virtual Instruments of Pro Tools

7 – Learning to Mix

The Inserts

Equalizer

Compressor

Sidechain

The Bus

Submix

Managing an effect with a Bus

Tracks Group

Use of groups and VCA tracks

The Automations

Reading the meters

Export parameters

Freeze, Commit and Bounce Track

8 – Some Useful Rules

9 – Useful Resources

Preface by Matteo Cantaluppi

DURING THE YEAR 2000, when I was just a little more than twenty years old guy coming from the province, I set foot in one of the most important recording studios in Milan. I found myself facing one of the most significant transition periods in the history of recorded music.  The transition was from linear and destructive recording on tape, analogueical or digital, to random access acquisition on magnetic media.  I had just finished my studies as a sound technician, and many teachers spoke to us about recording on hard disk via computer as something still unreliable for making high-level productions.  Besides, the hours of theoretical and practical lessons about these systems were few, very few.

So, when I had my first interview to become a study assistant, I was not very familiar with these systems.  I knew better the 24-track analogueue tape recorders on 2-inch tape.  I was frightened by my lack of preparation, and I was aware of the transition, so I didn't have much of choice: I had to get at it, alone and study Pro Tools in full depth, at the time of Digidesign.  I found myself in this great direction, with a 56-channel bank, an analogueue tape recorder synchronized with an 8-track digital (always on tape) and a shy, expensive, Pro Tools Mix Plus system with an 888 and an 882 interface.  The software was at version 5. In parallel, the world of home recording was moving from the classic MIDI systems with Adat recorders to the Digidesign Mbox and Digi 001 cards, starting a vital path which is still growing.

I accepted the challenge, and forcefully entered the world of Digidesign, which later became Avid.  It was like having a colossal sampler with infinite possibilities. 20 years have passed, I still use Pro Tools almost daily, which in the meantime has evolved, improved MIDI implementations, increased the number of audio tracks, has been enhanced regarding native systems, and updated the user interface.  I think it's still the most reliable, stable and intuitive software in existence.  Every professional recording studio I have been to has Pro Tools as its core system.

In the meantime, the whole world of production was moving to this platform, marking a point of no return.  Today it would seem impossible to record a modern album entirely on a tape recorder.  As has often happened in history, the music itself has changed thanks to technology, becoming part of the creative process.

Thanks to this text, fully in English, you will be granted access to a world made of copy, paste, move and rebuild, and you will be followed step by step.  You will understand how to set the performance of a drummer in time, or how to change the key of a choir.  Small tricks will be revealed to you to speed up your work, and you will learn the keyboard shortcuts.  If you want to become a master of audio, read this manual!

Matteo Cantaluppi

Musical producer

Francesco Gabbani, Thegiornalisti, Le Vibrazioni,

Dente, Dimartino, Fast Animals and Slow Kids,

Ex Otago, Arisa, Bugo, Canova.

Book Presentation

PRO TOOLS IS A SOFTWARE with a lot of potential and features.  For passion and for work, I wanted to deepen my knowledge about this sequencer by obtaining the official certifications Avid 101 and 110. During my teaching career at the NAM in Milan, in sound engineering and sound designing courses, I found the lack of a manual in Italian,  updated to the latest version and easy to understand about Pro Tools.  I decided to write this book, believing I could help aspiring sound engineers. Still, also fans, to get closer to this incredible software that has become the standard for recording studios all over the world.  Basic knowledge of topics related to the audio field such as analogueue-digital conversion, sound card, sections of a mixer and recording is necessary to understand all the explained topics properly.  This guide does not in any way replace the sacred Avid official manual but rather provides a series of essential topics on the use of the software, accompanied by examples, tips and exercises explained in a clear, quick and straightforward learning way.  For those wishing to deepen their knowledge on Pro Tools further, I refer directly to the official Avid manuals and courses.

Good Production!

Stefano Tumiati

1 – Software Introduction

Digital Audio Fundamentals

The technology behind audio recordings has changed a lot since being recorded on magnetic tape up to this day.  The biggest revolution came with Digital Audio ; and with it the ability to capture guitar notes, voices or drums on software, and thus on a computer!

The machines used for analogue tape recording were expensive and only real recording studios could afford such equipment.  Analogue recorders from 2, 4, 8, 16 were produced up to 24 tracks.  With the development of technology, it was necessary to translate the analogue audio signal, a variation of electrical voltage, into a language understandable for the computer: the binary code.  The translation process is called analogue/digital (A/D) conversion.

ANALOGUE RECORDING

Pros: sound recorded with maximum fidelity

Cons: quite expensive recorders, cumbersome physical engraving support, little editing possibilities (physical cutting of the tape), duplication of the recording not identical.

Digital recording

Pros: low costs, practical engraving support (hard disk), a lot of editing possibilities, identical copies

Cons: digital sound will never be identical to the analogically recorded one.

Let's see why digital sound will never be like the analogue one.  Let's start with the definition.

Sound is a mechanical disturbance, produced by a source, which propagates in a medium and creates an auditory sensation.

It's a continuous compression and decompression of air, the medium, which propagates through three-dimensionally in space.  If we take, for example, the graphic representation of a pure sound, which contains a single frequency, we would have a sinusoid:

THIS GRAPH SHOWS POSITIVE sections, above the horizontal axis, and negative sections, below the horizontal axis, which indicates the passage of time.  The vertical axis indicates the sound pressure value, generally measured in Pascal.  The visible result represents the effective compression and decompression of the medium in which the sound propagates.  The continuous trend means that the two events are repeated cyclically until the exhaustion of the sound intensity. As long as we remain in the analogue field, we can affirm that this sinusoid is described by infinite points that