Specifications

Chapter 21: Audio Recording 457
Chapter 21: Audio Recording
In Pro Tools, you record audio to audio tracks. Au-
dio tracks can be mono, stereo, or multichannel as
appropriate for the recording source.
When recording a mono source, record to a single,
mono audio track in Pro Tools. A single, mono au-
dio file is written to disk, and the file appears as a
clip both in the track’s playlist and in the Clip List.
When recording a stereo audio source, record to a
single, stereo audio track in Pro Tools. A single,
mono audio file is written to disk for each channel
of a stereo track: one for the left channel, and one
for the right channel. These files appear as a stereo
clip both in the track’s playlist and in the Clip List.
Recording a multichannel source to a multichannel
track (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete
Production Toolkit only) is similar to recording
stereo audio tracks. A single, mono audio file is
written for each channel in the track, and these files
appear as multichannel clips in both the track’s
playlist and in the Clip List (see “Multichannel
Audio Tracks” on page 1109).
Before Recording
Before you start recording in Pro Tools, you need
to set up your Pro Tools system, a session, and one
or more tracks for recording. You will also need to
configure how Pro Tools monitors the input you
intend to record. For information, see Chapter 20,
“Record Setup.”
Basic Recording Steps
To record an audio track:
1 From the track’s Input Path selector, select the
audio Input Path you want to record (see “As-
signing Hardware I/O on a Track” on page 445).
2 From the track’s Output Path selector, select the
main monitoring path.
3 Click the Record Enable button for the audio
track. It lights red.
4 Adjust the output level of your sound source
(instrument, mixer, or preamp). Monitor the
track’s meter levels in Pro Tools to ensure that
levels peak within at least –6 dB to –12 dB on
the input meter without triggering the clipping
indicator on your audio interface.
Record enabling a track in the Mix window