User Manual

Chapter 13: Tracks 199
Chapter 13: Tracks
Pro Tools provides different types of tracks for
working with audio, MIDI and video in
Pro Tools sessions.
Track Types
In a Pro Tools session, you can have several dif-
ferent types of tracks. These can include audio,
Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, VCA Master
(Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with Complete
Production Toolkit 2 only), MIDI, Instrument,
and video tracks.
Audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, and VCA
Master Tracks
Pro Tools provides mono, stereo, and multi-
channel format audio, Auxiliary Input, Master
Fader, and VCA Master tracks.
Audio Tracks Audio tracks let you record to disk
and play back from disk recorded or imported
audio files.
Auxiliary Input Tracks Auxiliary Input tracks can
be used as effects sends, destinations for sub-
mixes, as a bounce destination, as inputs to
monitor or process audio (such as audio from
external MIDI instruments), and for many other
audio routing tasks.
Master Fader Tracks Master Fader tracks control
the overall level of audio paths that are routed to
physical output paths. For example, you could
have 24 tracks in a session with channels 1–8
routed to Analog Output 1–2, channels 9–16 to
Analog Output 3–4, and channels 17–24 to An-
alog Output 5–6. You could then create three
master faders, one to control each of these out-
put pairs.
Master Fader tracks have additional uses (such as
controlling submix levels). For more informa-
tion, see “Master Fader Tracks and Signal Flow”
on page 922.
VCA Master Tracks (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools
with Complete Production Toolkit 2 Only) VCA
Master tracks (or VCA Masters) emulate the op-
eration of voltage-controlled amplifier channels
on analog consoles, where a VCA channel fader
would be used to control, group, or offset the
signal levels of other channels on the
console.
VCA Master tracks do not pass audio, so they do
not have inputs, outputs, inserts, or sends. A
Mix Group is assigned to a VCA Master track,
which appears in the VCA track’s Assignment
selector.
The controls of the tracks in that Group, called
the slave tracks, are modified by the controls on
the VCA Master. For more information, see
“VCA Master Tracks” on page 925.
Video track features are described in
Chapter 51, “Working with Video in
Pro Tools”