Specifications

Pro Tools Reference Guide14
Surround Sound
Surround sound simply means having one or more
speakers with discrete audio signals (channels)
placed behind the listener in addition to the typical
stereo pair.
There are multiple types of surround formats in use
(from three-channel LCR to 7.1, which has eight
channels).
The most common surround format is 5.1, which
refers to having 5 speakers and a sub-woofer (the
“.1”). 5.1 is used in movie theaters and home enter-
tainment systems. Additionally, most DVDs are
mixed to 5.1. The standard speaker placement for
5.1 for surround monitoring is stereo left and right
speakers, and an additional center speaker in front,
two more stereo left and right speakers in the rear,
and the sub-woofer on the side.
Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete Pro-
duction Toolkit support mixing in surround for-
mats. In Pro Tools, each surround format is con-
sidered to be a greater-than-stereo multichannel
format.
Pro Tools Sessions
When you start a project in Pro Tools, you create a
session. It can be helpful to understand the basic el-
ements of a session.
Session File
A session file is the document that Pro Tools cre-
ates when you choose
File > New Session and con-
figure a new session. Pro Tools can open only one
session file at a time. The session file is named
with a .ptx (Pro Tools file) extension. Session files
contain maps of all elements associated with a
project, including audio files, MIDI data, and all
your edit and mix information. It is important to re-
alize that a Pro Tools session file does not contain
any media files (audio or video). Instead, it refer-
ences audio, video, MIDI, and other files. You can
make changes to a session and save those changes
in a new session file. This lets you create multiple
versions of a session or back up your editing and
mixing work.
For information on fundamental surround
concepts, see the Pro Tools Sync & Surround
Concepts Guide.
Session file icon