Pro Tools 8: Your Keyboard=Friend, Part 1 January 29, 2009
Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digidesign, Editing, Pro Tools , trackbackPart of the reason Pro Tools is well loved in the industry is because of its excellent implementation of keyboard-based functions. Keyboard Focus mode is an obvious example of this (where each key on the keyboard is a hotkey for a task, eliminating the need for modifier keys). In a sort of slightly random method, I am going to run through some of my most-used commands and give some suggestions on when to use them. Also – if you have a function you’d like to know more about, post in the comments, and I can help.
So, wait… how do I turn on keyboard focus? In Pro Tools 8, there are a few different windows in which you can have keyboard focus enabled. You enable it by clicking the “AZ” button in each window (see below). I would highly recommend enabling the region section of the Edit window, and the group section of the Mixer window (NOT the group selection of the edit window).
See the small gold, square box with the AZ button on the far right side of the picture? Make sure that is yellow, not greyed out:
Pretty much the same (gold box, AZ) thing in the Mix window, except that the button is over by the Groups in the bottom left corner of the window.
So, why would I suggest these two, rather than say the Region or Group focus in the Edit Window? With these two enabled, when you are in the edit window, all of your editing tools are a keyboard click away. When you are in the Mix window, you can switch groups on and off by pressing the corresponding letter of their group. (I.E. in the picture above, I could click the “A” key on my keyboard to turn off/on the first group, labeled “Gtr 1″)
I’m not going to go into keyboard focus basic editing yet (next post!), but I will talk about a few keys now.
First off – the dreaded “N” key. With keyboard focus on, the “N” key turns on/off “Insertion Follows Playback”. If it is enabled, than when you playback your song, and hit the spacebar to stop, the insert point will have traveled with the playback (rather than operating normally, where the insert point would remain in one spot until you moved it). This can be a big pain in the butt if it isn’t set in a way that is conducive to your workflow, so be aware of the “N” key.
Another key that everyone should know about is the minus (“-”) key. This is not the one on the number pad, rather it is almost above the “P” key, next to “+”. When in the edit window, if you click in the region of a track and hit the “-” key, the track’s view will switch. For example, if you click in an audio track’s region, the minus key will alternate the view between waveform and volume views. This is amazingly useful and quick.
Final one for today – If you are like me, you probably use the waveform zoom tools to zoom in on waveforms sometimes. (see picture)
However, there is no button there to return waveforms to their default view. To do this, hold all three modifier keys (Control + Alt + Command) and press the “[” key. (That key is the key directly to the right of “P”).
More to come -
C
The Studio Files
Comments»
Thanks man, all these is really really Helpful. I just joined and i’m currently a new Pro Tools 8 User, so I’ll be around here a lot.
No problem – anything we can do to help.
IF you have any questions, either post them in the appropriate thread (or in the “Ask a Question” tab at the top) or just send me an email (mine’s in the “Who We Are” tab above)