User Manual

Pro Tools Reference Guide20
Plug-In and Hardware Inserts Plug-In processing
occurs completely within the Pro Tools system.
Hardware inserts use audio interface inputs and
outputs for traditional insert routing to and
from external effects and other devices. MIDI
and VCA Master tracks do not have inserts.
Instrument Plug-Ins Instrument plug-ins are dif-
ferent from processing plug-ins in that they gen-
erate audio rather than process the audio signal
from a track’s audio input or from hard disk.
Instrument plug-ins are typically played by
MIDI.
Paths Paths are any routing option in Pro Tools,
including internal or external inputs, outputs,
busses, and inserts. Pro Tools lets you name
these paths, and these path names appear in the
Audio Input and Output Path selectors and
other menus. For more information, see
Chapter 7, “I/O Setup.”
Mixing Formats Sessions can include combina-
tions of mono, stereo, and greater-than-stereo
multichannel format tracks, busses, inputs, out-
puts, and inserts. Greater-than-stereo multi-
channel formats are supported with
Pro Tools HD, and Pro Tools with the Complete
Production Toolkit 2 option only.
Grouping and VCA Tracks Tracks can be grouped
together for mixing so that their relative mix
settings are maintained when changing a mix
setting for any track in the group (for example,
changing the volume of one track affects the
volume of all the other tracks in the group).
VCA Master tracks (Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools
with Complete Production Toolkit 2 only) con-
trol the relative mix settings for all tracks within
the selected group.
Tick-Based and Sample-Based
Time
Pro Tools lets you set any track timebase to
either sample-based or tick-based. You can also
set the Timeline to be viewed as tick-based or
sample-based.
Audio in Pro Tools is sample-based by default.
This means that if an audio region is located at a
particular sample location, it will not move
from that location if the tempo changes in the
session—though its Bar|Beat location will
change.
MIDI data in Pro Tools is tick-based by default.
This means that if a MIDI region is located at a
particular Bar|Beat location, it will not move
from that Bar|Beat location if the tempo changes
in the session—though its sample location will
change.
You can select whether a track is sample-based
or tick-based when it is created, or change time-
bases later.
Sample-Based Audio and MIDI
With a sample-based audio track, all regions in
the track have an absolute location on the Time-
line. Regions stay fixed to the sample time, re-
gardless of where tempo or meter changes occur
in a session.
If you make a MIDI track sample-based, all MIDI
events in the track have an absolute location on
the Timeline. MIDI events stay fixed to sample
time, regardless of any tempo or meter changes
in a session.