Specifications

Pro Tools Reference Guide242
The Playhead indicates where playback begins
when clicking Play in the Transport window.
To move the Playhead to a particular location
for playback, you can scroll there in the Ruler
(see “Scrolling in the Ruler” on page 239), use
the Edit window’s horizontal scroll bar, or type
the location into one of the Location Indicators
or one of the Counters.
Moving the Playhead with these methods does
not update the Timeline selection. However, up-
dating the Timeline selection automatically
moves the Playhead to the Timeline insertion
point.
With the Playhead enabled, you can jump to
and play an Edit or Timeline selection. For de-
tails, see “Playing Edit and Timeline Selections
with the Playhead” on page 258.
Half-Screen Edit Window
When either Continuous Scroll During Playback
or Continuous Scroll With Playhead is enabled,
a half-screen appears at the far left of the Edit
window (before the beginning of the session).
The Scrubber
The Scrubber lets you “scrub” up to two tracks of
audio in the Edit Window. Scrubbing is a tech-
nique that originated in tape editing, where the
tape was rocked back and forth past the play-
head at slower than normal speeds to find a par-
ticular location (usually for the sake of perform-
ing splices).
While viewing an audio waveform in Pro Tools
can be helpful in visually finding an edit point,
sometimes a waveform display (because of its
sonic characteristics) may not reveal the desired
spot in the audio material. By scrubbing back
and forth over an edit point in Pro Tools, you
can listen and zero in on the exact edit point
you're looking for.
When the Operation Preference for “Edit Inser-
tion Follows Scrub/Shuttle” is enabled, the edit
cursor automatically locates to the point where
scrubbing stops.
When the Scrolling Option is set to Continuous
Scroll During Playback or Continuous Scroll
With Playhead, clicking with the Scrubber in a
track’s playlist centers the Edit window around
that point, and moves the Playhead there. With
these Scrolling Options, scrubbed material
moves past the Playhead, which remains sta-
tionary and centered.
Continuous Scroll With Playhead
Half-screen for Continuous Scroll With Playhead
Scrubbing is only supported for audio
tracks. MIDI tracks cannot be scrubbed.