Intro to Pro Tools Pro Tools LE® and Eleven Rack™ Version 8.0.
Welcome to Pro Tools LE and Eleven Rack Read this guide if you are new to Pro Tools® or are just starting out making your own music. Inside, you’ll find examples of how to record, compose, mix, and produce your own music in Pro Tools. One quick question: Have you installed Pro Tools yet? If not, follow the Eleven Rack Quick Setup instructions or the detailed Eleven Rack User Guide to install software and your Eleven|RackTM hardware.
Listen to the Demo Session To get started, you can use the Demo Session to see and hear many of the things you’ll soon be doing in Pro Tools. (If you want to start recording guitar right away, skip to “Record Yourself” on page 5) The Demo Session also gives you sound to play so you can test your headphones or speakers.
Pro Tools opens the session, which should look similar to the following: Toolbar Edit window Eleven Rack Control window Tracks 4 For now, go ahead and close the Eleven Rack Control window; we’ll get to that soon. Play and Listen To play the Demo Session: 1 On the front of the Eleven Rack, turn the Volume knob counter-clockwise to a low level (less than 3.0 on the display). Volume/Monitor Level 2 To start and stop Pro Tools, press the Spacebar, or click the Play and Stop buttons on-screen.
4 Explore Pro Tools while the demo plays by using the zoom and Track view controls to zero in on different tracks: Zoomer Vertical Click to select the Zoomer tool and then drag-select to zoom in. (Double-click the Zoomer tool to zoom back out again) Horizontal Click the Horizontal and and Vertical Zoom buttons to adjust size and length of what is shown in tracks Click the Track Options selector and choose a display height 5 Next, click the Window menu and choose Mix (Window > Mix).
Record Yourself In this section you're going to create a new session, then record yourself playing guitar through an Eleven Rack Rig. Create a New Session from a Template Session templates save you the time of having to create tracks and effects, and assign signal routing. The template shown in this example (named “Guitar Tracking”) is one of three provided that consist of audio tracks, instrument tracks, effects and busses tailored specifically for recording (or tracking) guitar.
5 In the middle of the E.Guitar track’s channel strip notice where it says Eleven Rig L/R (Stereo). This shows which Input channel is assigned to this track. (To specify a different input channel, click the Input Path selector and choose the other channel.) Input Path selector 6 Click the E.Guitar track’s Record Enable button. Record Enable button Record enabling a track in the Mix window 7 Next, choose Options > Low-Latency Monitoring.
Select a Rig Eleven Rack stores combinations of amps, cabinets, and effects as Rigs. You can quickly load any of the preset Rigs, and save your own custom combinations. To select a Rig using the Librarian: 1 Choose Window > Eleven Rack (click the Window menu and choose Eleven Rack) to open the Eleven Rack Control window. 2 In the Eleven Rack Control window, click on the Rig bank/number display. The Librarian window opens, showing all available Rigs in the current bank.
Record Some Guitar To record your guitar with Eleven Rack: 1 Go back to the Pro Tools Mix window. 2 Strum your guitar, and watch the meter in the Pro Tools track to see if you need to adjust the Rig volume by using the Rig Volume tab. (Don’t move the on-screen fader to try and adjust input level because it isn’t going to have any effect; the on-screen fader is only for setting your listening level.
6 When you are ready to start recording, click Play on the Transport window or press the Spacebar. After you’ve pressed the Spacebar, you’ll hear 2 bars of “click, click, click...” (it’s the Click track playing a 2 bar count off before recording begins). Your Eleven Rack session templates already include a Click track with count off enabled. For more information on using a click track/metronome, see the “Using a Click (Metronome)” section on Page 11.
Record More Guitar (Overdub) This section shows you how to layer multiple guitar tracks in multiple recording passes (known as overdubbing). For variety, we’re going to record this track in mono. Create a Track Pro Tools tracks are where audio, MIDI and other elements get recorded and edited within a session. Before you can record, you need to create one or more tracks. To prepare an audio track for recording: 1 In a Pro Tools session, choose Track > New.
Recording with a Microphone This section shows how to connect a microphone and record yourself singing or playing an acoustic instrument. To hook up a microphone: Plug a mic into a Mic input on the front of your Eleven Rack. For more information, refer to your Eleven Rack User Guide. To prepare an audio track for recording: 1 In a Pro Tools session, choose Track > New. 2 Set the New Track dialog for 1 Mono Audio Track, and click Create.
Using a Click (Metronome) A click track (also known as a metronome) gives you a steady time reference while recording guitar tracks. Eleven Rack session template sessions include a click track already added and ready to go. Pro Tools also provides a menu command to quickly add a click track in one step. To create a click track in a new session, you can quickly add one by choosing Track > Create Click Track. Pro Tools creates a new Auxiliary Input track named “Click” with the Click plug-in already inserted.
To silence the click track: Do one of the following: • Mute the Click track by clicking the M (Mute) button on the Click track. – or – • In the Transport window, deselect the Metronome Click button so it’s not highlighted blue. Then deselect the Count Off button so it’s not highlighted. (Doing both silences the click track and turns off the Count Off.) Setting the Tempo You can specify the session tempo to make the Click faster or slower.
Composing Music with MIDI What’s MIDI? MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data isn’t audio, and it has no sound of its own. MIDI is just a way for musical devices like virtual instrument plug-ins, MIDI controllers, and MIDI sequencers to talk to one another. Hardware MIDI instruments connect via MIDI cables to the MIDI inputs and outputs on your audio interface or MIDI interface.
6 Click the Librarian menu and choose a preset sound from the Drums sub-menu. 7 Select Options > MIDI Thru. (Verify that MIDI Thru is checked, if not select it to “check” it.) 8 Click the Record Enable button to enable the Instrument track for MIDI recording. 9 Now play your MIDI controller/keyboard and hear the drum sound. Pick another drum sound if you want by choosing a new patch from the Drum sub-menu.
Mix and Change Your Sounds Your Pro Tools LE system comes supplied with a wealth of plug-ins that you can use to change the sounds you’ve recorded. This section shows one example of how plug-ins can effect, or process your sound by showing how to use EQ on one track. (Virtual instruments are plug-ins that make sound, and you can learn how to use them in “Composing Music with MIDI” on page 14). To finish up we’ll fade out the ending.
4 In the plug-in window, click the Librarian menu (shown below) and choose an available Settings File (preset) from the list. Librarian menu 5 Choose other presets and you can hear what their settings do to your sound. Try out different plug-ins to start learning about the different colors you have at your disposal. (The electronic DigiRack Plug-Ins guide is installed in your Documentation folder, and it’s a great place to learn more about EQ, delay (echo) and other types of effects.
2 In the Master Fader track, click with the Grabber tool (it’s in the toolbar) at the place you’d like the fade to start. This creates a white dot or “breakpoint.
Get Your Music Out to the World After you’ve finished recording and editing tracks in a Pro Tools session you’re ready to mix down. In these pages you’ll see how to do this using the Pro Tools Bounce to Disk feature to combine all the tracks that make up a session into a single “master” audio file. After the new audio file has been bounced to disk, you can burn it to a CD or convert it to MP3 using a CD burning application like iTunes.
4 Choose Convert after Bounce, and click Bounce. (If you make no selection, your entire session will bounce from start to finish.) Bounce options (shown set to create audio CD burnable tracks) 5 In the Save Bounce As dialog, name your bounce and pick where it should be saved, then click Save. Pro Tools begins bouncing to disk. Pro Tools bounces are done in real time, so you hear audio playback of your mix during the bounce process (you cannot adjust any Pro Tools controls during a bounce).
Import a Song from a CD This section shows you how to import a track from a CD into a Pro Tools session. What we show you here lets you import an entire song or individual tracks, as well as loops (beats, drum patterns, or other pre-recorded musical building blocks) that you can use to build compositions from scratch.
3 In the Workspace browser, click the Audio CD’s Expand/Collapse icon to show the files on the CD. 4 Click an item (track) to select a song on the CD. Workspace Tip: Click the speaker icon to audition a selected song; press the Spacebar to stop. 5 Drag the item from the Workspace to the open area in the middle of the Edit window; Pro Tools creates a new audio track containing the song. The song appears in its new track where you let go of the mouse.
