Getting Started Pro Tools LE & Mbox® 2 Mini Version 8.
Welcome to Pro Tools LE Read this guide if you are new to Pro Tools® or are just starting out making your own music. Inside, you’ll find quick 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 Quick Setup instructions or your detailed Setup Guide to install Pro Tools software and your Mbox® 2 Mini hardware.
Monitor Speakers Headphones Where to connect headphones and monitor speakers For detailed instructions on how to connect your Mbox 2 Mini to headphones, speakers, and instruments, see your system’s Setup Guide.
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. It also gives you sound to play so you can test your headphones or speakers. To install and open the Demo Session: 1 Put the Pro Tools LE® Installer disc in your DVD drive. 2 On the disc, open the Additional Files folder, then open the LE Demo Session Installer folder.
4 Launch Pro Tools LE by double-clicking its icon on your desktop (Windows) or clicking its icon in the Dock (Mac). If this is the first time you are launching Pro Tools, enter your Authorization Code (located on the inside front cover of the Setup Guide). This is only required the first time you launch Pro Tools. 5 Choose File > Open Session (click the File menu to choose Open Session), then open the file “Filtered Dream” (it’s inside the folder “Filtered Dream Demo Session”).
Play and Listen To play the Demo Session: 1 On the front of the Mbox 2 Mini, do the following: • Turn the Headphone/Monitor Level knob fully left (counter-clockwise) to be sure your volume is at a low enough level. • Press the Mon Mute switch once or twice until it stays in the “out” position. • Turn the Mix control fully right (clockwise). Headphone/Monitor Level Mix Mon Mute 2 To start and stop Pro Tools, press the Spacebar, or click the Play and Stop buttons on-screen.
3 While the session plays, gradually raise the volume knob. 4 Explore Pro Tools while the demo plays: Use the zoom and Track view controls to zero in on different tracks. Vertical Click to select the Zoomer tool and then drag-select to zoom in.
5 Next, click the Window menu and choose Mix (Window > Mix). The Mix window shows tracks in vertical channel strips. Mix window Tracks The Edit window and the Mix window are the two main work areas in Pro Tools. Throughout the rest of this guide, you’ll see examples of both windows being used for different types of production work. 6 Press the Spacebar or click the Stop button to stop playback. 7 When you’re through checking out the Demo Session, choose File > Close Session.
Bring in a Song from a CD This section lets you see how to create a new Pro Tools session and then import a song from a CD. You can create a new session after you launch or when you first launch Pro Tools. To create a new session: 1 If you already have a session open, choose File > Close. The Quick Start Session dialog is an easy way to create a new session; create a new session from a session template; open any of the last ten most recent sessions; or open any other session.
5 After Pro Tools opens the new session, choose Window > Edit so the Edit window is displayed. It will look something like this: Transport window The Edit window, with the Transport window showing in the foreground To import a song from CD: 1 Put the source CD into your computer’s CD/DVD drive. 2 In Pro Tools, choose Window > Workspace to open the Workspace browser. 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. Tip: Click the speaker icon to audition a selected song; press the Spacebar to stop. 5 Drag the item from the Workspace to the Track List at the left of the Edit window. Track List Tip: You can drag and drop video, plug-ins, and MIDI, too. If you aren’t familiar with these terms, don’t worry you can learn about them later. 6 Pro Tools creates a new audio track, containing the song.
Make an Audio Edit In this example we’ll show you how to do a simple edit to change where a song starts. To show this, we used a song where the drummer is heard “counting off” the tempo (“1...2...1.2.3...”) before the song starts. Here’s what this song looks like in Pro Tools. countoff song start waveforms In the picture, the two waveforms let you visualize the different sections.
Record Yourself This section shows how to connect a microphone and record yourself singing or playing an instrument. Connect a Mic To hook up a microphone: 1 Plug a mic into the Input 1 Mic or Line/DI jack on the back panel: • If your mic has an XLR cable use the Mic input. • If it has a 1/4-inch cable, use the Input 1 Line/DI input.
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. 2 To record a single mic or instrument (as in our example), set the New Track dialog for 1 Mono Audio Track, in Samples, and click Create.
4 In the middle of the new track’s channel strip, notice where it says “In 1 (Mono).” This shows which Input channel (Input 1 or Input 2) is assigned to this track. (To specify a different input channel, click the Input Path selector and choose the other channel.) Input Path selector Record a Performance to a Track To record an audio track: 1 Click the track’s Record Enable button.
2 Choose Track > Input Only Monitoring. This lets you listen to your incoming signal so you can “set your levels.” 3 On the front of the Mbox 2 Mini, turn the Mix knob fully left (counter clockwise). 4 Sing into your mic, and watch the meter in the Pro Tools track while you raise the Input 1 gain knob on the front of the Mbox 2 Mini. Turn it clockwise until you see the on-screen track meter show green most of the time, or yellow for your louder passages.
5 In the toolbar (or in the Transport window) click the Return to Zero button to jump back to the start of the session, then click the Record button. This tells Pro Tools that you’re happy with your levels and are ready to record (think of this as a “master” record enable button). Return to Zero Play Record 6 Choose Window > Edit so you can watch what happens when you record. 7 When you are ready to start recording, click Play or press the Spacebar. To stop, press the Spacebar or click Stop.
Record More Tracks To record another track: 1 Choose Track > New and create 1 Mono Audio Track. 2 Choose Track > Auto Input Monitoring. 3 In the new audio track, click its Input path selector and choose the same input (In 1) you used before. 4 Next, click the track Record button, just like you did on the first track. 5 In the Transport window, click the Return to Zero button to jump back to the start of the session, then click the Record button (the button flashes) to arm Pro Tools for recording.
Make a Beat This section shows you how to work with the Xpand!2, a plug-in you can use to build beats and compose music. The Xpand!2 Virtual Instrument Plug-in Xpand!2 is a virtual instrument plug-in, which means it makes sound. Xpand!2 is part of the Pro Tools Creative Collection suite of plug-ins that comes free with Pro Tools. It's installed automatically during the install, unless you specified to not have it installed.
2 Choose View > Mix Window to display the Mix window. 3 Click the track Insert selector near the top of the Instrument track and choose Xpand!2 from the Instrument sub-menu.
4 Now let’s load a sound. Click the Librarian menu () and choose a preset from the Loops sub-menu. Presets are pre-configured settings files, and they’re a great way to see examples of what a plug-in can do. Click the Librarian menu to see the list of presets, then choose an item from a sub-menu. 5 Make music by doing one of the following: • If you have a MIDI controller already connected, you can record yourself playing Xpand!2.
Make Beats and Compose Without a MIDI Controller You can make beats and compose in Pro Tools using just the mouse. To create a note: 1 Close or move the Xpand!2 plug-in window, then choose Window > Edit so you can see the Instrument track in the Edit window. 2 Click to select the Pencil tool (it’s in the toolbar). 3 Click the Track View selector for the track and select the Notes format from the menu.
The small horizontal bar created with each mouse click is a MIDI note. The location and length of each note determines when, and for how long, you’ll hear the sound. Since we’re using a Loop preset in this example, we need to lengthen this note so we can hear the complete loop of the Xpand!2 preset.
To compose a beat from scratch: 1 Repeat the previous steps to create a stereo Instrument track and insert Xpand!2 on it. 2 Instead of choosing a Loop preset, choose something from the Drums sub-menu. 3 Now, pencil some notes in on the new drums track. Here’s what our example session looks like after we added another Xpand!2 track to the loop track we set up previously.
4 In the Click plug-in window, click the Librarian menu and pick a sound. You can pick a cowbell, sidestick, and other common click sounds. Librarian menu Creating a Click Track 5 Select View > Transport > MIDI Controls to view the MIDI controls in the Transport Window. 6 Click the Metronome Click button so it’s highlighted blue. Highlighted Metronome button 7 Now click Play in the Transport window or press the Spacebar to listen to the click.
Changing the Tempo You can change the session tempo to speed up or slow down your song. To adjust the tempo do the following: Choose View > Rulers > Tempo. See where it says “Tempo” in the Edit window? Click on the plus symbol (+) that appears next to it. Then type the tempo you want in the Tempo Change pop-up menu and click OK.
Using a MIDI Controller/Keyboard to Compose What’s MIDI? MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data isn’t audio, so it has no sound of its own. MIDI is just a way for musical devices, such as virtual instrument plug-ins, MIDI controllers, and MIDI sequencers, to talk to one another. It helps to have a MIDI controller/keyboard when creating a MIDI recording (or MIDI sequence). To create a MIDI recording, there must be a MIDI instrument (real or virtual) available to trigger.
8 Click the Record Enable button to enable the Instrument track for MIDI recording. 9 In the Transport window, click Return to Zero to start recording from the beginning of the session. You can also record to a selection in a track or from the cursor location in the Edit window. 10 Click the Record button. 11 Now play your MIDI controller/keyboard and hear the bass sound. 12 When you are ready to start recording, click Play or press the Spacebar. To stop, press the Spacebar or click Stop.
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 two examples of how to use plug-ins to process your sound. (The plug-ins used in this chapter are part of the DigiRack suite of plug-ins) We’re going to show you how to use compression on one track, then we’ll apply reverb to a bunch of tracks. Lastly, to finish up our song, we’ll apply a fade out to the ending.
3 Press the Spacebar to start playback. 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.
2 Click the Send selector on your vocal track as shown below and choose Bus 1-2. Send A Selector 3 Choose Track > New, and set it to create 1 stereo Auxiliary Input track, then click Create. 4 On the new Auxiliary Input track you just added, do the following: • Click the Track Insert selector and choose D-Verb from the Reverb sub-menu. • Click the Track Input selector and choose Bus 1-2.
5 Click the Send assignment on your vocal track to open the Send Output window. Send Raise the Send fader 6 Press the Spacebar and slowly raise the small fader in the Send Output window. This adjusts how much of the vocal track you are sending to D-Verb. 7 Keep playing and listening, and check out different D-Verb settings. Repeat this section’s basic instructions to try out a Delay, EQ, or other type of plug-in too.
2 In the Mix window, click the Automation Mode selector (auto read) for a track and choose Write. Automation Mode Selector 3 Press the Spacebar and use your mouse to lower the fader level and fade out the song. Let playback continue for a couple extra seconds (after “last sound”), then hit the Spacebar again to stop playback. 4 Click the Automation Mode selector again and put it into Read mode. 5 Press the Spacebar to hear the same section. Pro Tools reads back your fade out. 6 Now choose Window > Edit.
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 last few 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 most CD burning software like iTunes.
3 In the Bounce Options dialog, do the following to create a CD-compatible 2-track of your audio: • Choose Outputs 1–2 as the Bounce Source. • Choose BWF (.WAV) for the File Type. • Choose Stereo Interleaved for the Format. • Choose 16 for the Resolution and 44100 for the Sample Rate. Digidesign also offers an MP3 Option that lets you bounce directly to MP3 format. Check the DigiStore on our website (www.digidesign.com), or contact your Digidesign dealer if you’d like more information.
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). After Mixdown, Mastering After the bounce is completed, you will have an audio file that you can convert to MP3 using most common CD burning software.
