User Manual

Chapter 2: Pro Tools Concepts 15
Pro Tools provides multiple types of tracks:
audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, VCA Mas-
ter, MIDI, Instrument, and video.
Audio, MIDI, Instrument, and video track data
can be edited into regions or repeated in differ-
ent locations to create loops, re-arrange sections
or entire songs, or to assemble tracks using ma-
terial from multiple takes.
Auxiliary Input tracks can route internal audio
busses or physical inputs to internal busses or
physical outputs. Auxiliary Inputs are typically
used for audio effects busses, audio throughput
(monitoring), and submixing.
Master Fader tracks provide controls for physical
audio output channels, including the volume
level of your mix, panning, and plug-in inserts.
VCA Master tracks (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools
with Complete Production Toolkit 2 only) pro-
vide control of tracks in a Mix Group that has
been assigned to the VCA Master.
Video tracks support QuickTime movies (all
Pro Tools systems) and VC-1 video files (Win-
dows 7 only). Additionally, Pro Tools supports
Avid video when using a supported Avid video
peripheral. An individual video track can play
back only one type of video at a time.
Audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, and In-
strument tracks can be mono, stereo, or multi-
channel (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools with
Complete Production Toolkit 2 only). When
creating a new track, select from the list of chan-
nel formats supported by your system.
Voices
In Pro Tools, voices are unique, discrete audio
streams that can be routed to and from
Pro Tools audio tracks physical audio outputs
and inputs on your Pro Tools audio interfaces.
The audio paths to and from Pro Tools software
routed to Pro Tools hardware use voices. If you
exceed the number of available voices in your
system, you have effectively exceeded the avail-
able number of audio paths.
Typically, each audio channel for each track in
your Pro Tools session uses a single voice. So, for
a mono audio track, a single voice is used; for a
stereo audio track, two voices are used. When
using Punch Recording, two voices are needed
for every single audio channel (one for playback
and one for recording on punch in and out). In
some situations, with Pro Tools|HD systems,
more than one voice may be necessary for a sin-
gle channel (such as when using host processing
on a TDM bus).
Audio track in the Edit window (stereo track shown)
MIDI track in the Edit window
Video track in Frames view