Online

2013

Pro Tools for Music Teachers

Session 2 Homework
Amy Bennett
Midnight Music
Pro Tools for Music Teachers 3

How to use these notes 3

Getting started 3

Importing Audio (a refresher) 3

Configuring the session 4

Session zoom 4

Session tempo 4

Creating a Memory Location and Tab to Transients 4

Editing the Drums and Guitar 5

Editing the Drum pattern 5

Editing the Guitar pattern 5

Making a MIDI Recording 6

Adding an Instrument Track 6

Two Handy Hints 6

 Pro Tools for Music Teachers

How to use these notes

Last week you should have already have download:

Exercise Media folder

Pro Tools shortcuts

This week you should have downloaded the following from the website:

Midnight Music Online Course Notes Session 2 (Notes)

Midnight Music Online Homework Pro Tools Session 2 (this document)

NoGce in this Homework session two new exciGng uses for the TAB key. Woohoo!

Getting started
Open Pro Tools

Create a Blank Session with the following parameters. Note that you might need to expand the
Session Parameters secGon to see the Sample Rate and Bit Depth seOngs in the Quick Start dialog
box. This is done with the arrow or triangle next to where it says Session Parameters.

o Audio File Type: BWF (.WAV)

o Bit Depth: 24 Bit

o Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz

o I/O SeOngs: Stereo Mix

Navigate to where youd like to save your session and give it an appropriate name.

Save your session

Notes: See Page 10 of the Notes for Session 1, Creating a Session

Importing Audio (a refresher)

Choose File > Import Audio and import all four audio les from the Exercise Media folder. Import
them whichever way you like and make sure they are all lined up at the beginning of the Gmeline
on four separate tracks. Label the tracks appropriately. Choose a track order that suits you.

o DrumLoop.wav

3
 o Guitar.wav

o 10_01.wav (to be relabelled Vox 1)

o 10_05.wav (to be relabelled Vox 2)

Notes: See Page 14 of the Notes for Session 1, Importing Audio

Configuring the session

Session zoom
PracGse geOng around the Gmelines with dierent zooms. Choose a zoom view that will allow you
to start ediGng the audio tracks.

Test out the preset zoom seOngs 1 - 5. Choose one to change and change it to another zoom
seOng, then back to the one it was originally set to.

Notes: See Page 7, Zooming

Session tempo
Set the session tempo a dierent way from last week. Double click on the red Tempo event at the
start of the Tempo Ruler to bring up the Tempo Change dialog box. Set the tempo to 92 bpm and
click Ok.

Notes: See Page 16, Setting the session tempo

Creating a Memory Location and Tab to Transients

Make sure the Markers Ruler is displayed.

A useful way to edit a clip to where the very rst sound is heard is using Tab to Transients. The bucon
looks like this: and when it is pressed down (blue) you can use the tab key to tab between
waveform peaks. This allows you to easily nd where a sound starts. Where this
occurs is called the transient. Therefore this funcGon is called Tab to Transients. Press Ctrl
(Command) + Tab to go back to the previous transient and hold Shie to select as you go.

Use the Tab to Transients funcGon to nd the rst transient on the Drums track aeer the silence. Then
add a Memory LocaGon at this point and label it Drum Start.

Do the same for the Guitar track and label the Memory LocaGon Guitar Start.

Save the le.

Notes: See Page 8, Setting memory locations

4
Editing the Drums and Guitar
Editing the Drum pattern

Set the Edit Mode to Grid Mode. Set the the Grid Value to 0|2|000 (1/2 note). The Main Timescale
should sGll be set to Bars|Beats.

Select the Drum Track. Recall the rst memory locaGon by clicking . (period) then 1 then . (period) on
the numeric keypad. This is the shortcut for bringing up memory locaGons where the number is the
number of the memory locaGon. If you dont have a numeric keypad, just click on the memory
locaGon with your mouse.

Choose Edit > Trim Clip > Start to Inser;on to get rid of the silence at the start of the clip. This
funcGon is a cool, fast way to trim a clip to wherever the inserGon point (fancy name for the cursor)
is. Now drag the clip to the start of the Gmeline. Note how it moves with that parGcular Grid seOng.

Use either the Smart Tool or the Trimmer Tool to edit the drum part so it nishes right at the end of
bar 10. Note that holding the Alt (OpGon) key reverses the direcGon of the trim.

Select the nal bar of the Drum clip (Bar 10) with the Smart Tool or the SelecGon Tool and go to Edit
> Fades > Create to create a fade. AlternaGvely you can use a shortcut to fade the selecGon out. You
should be able to add a fadeout four separate ways. See if you can work them all out.

Notes: See Page 8, Editing

Notes: See Page 11, Fading clips

Editing the Guitar pattern

Go into Shue Mode. Select the Guitar track only. Go to Memory LocaGon 2 while holding Shie. This will
select everything up to that Memory LocaGon. Then you can press Delete to get rid of the silence before
the rst guitar chord. NoGce that when you Delete something in Shue Mode, everything else moves
over to the lee to ll in the gap (ie. it shues over).

Go back to Grid Mode. Select the Guitar clip from Bar 3 to Bar 5. Go to Edit > Repeat and select 2 as the
number of repeats. AlternaGvely you can use the shortcut for Repeat.

Turn o the Tab to Transient bucon. With this disabled, the Tab key moves the cursor to the start of the
next clip on the Gmeline, then to the end of that clip, then to the start of the next clip etc.

Therefore, using Tab, move the cursor to the end of the second repeated clip, then hold down Shie and
Tab to the end of the remainder of the audio clip on that track. Press Delete.

Finally using the Smart Tool or the Trim Tool, extend the nal clip on the Guitar track by one bar so it
ends with the Drum Track.

5
Making a MIDI Recording
Adding an Instrument Track

Add an Instrument Track to your Session. Make it Stereo. Label it My Very First MIDI Recording. Only
joking, you can name it what you like.

On the new track view the MIDI Input Selector. You shouldnt need to change anything here if youve
connected your MIDI keyboard before opening the session. Even if you havent, see if it works rst. Pro
Tools can be clever with detecGng devices.

On the new track, view Inserts A-E. Add any Virtual Instrument youd like to try out and play away!

Arm the track for recording and make a MIDI recording! The song is loosely in E minor. Just have fun. Try
the Boom as well and add some extra drums.

Have a go ediGng your recorded MIDI informaGon in the MIDI Editor Window. Use the Pencil Tool to
move notes around, extend them or make them shorter, or add new notes. Try changing the velociGes of
notes as well. Drag a box around mulGple notes to edit them all at once. You can also try quanGsing your
recording by going to Event > Event Opera;ons > Quan;ze.

Try going to Window > Score Editor to see your MIDI recording as a Score. From here you can print a
score if you so desire. You can also use File > Export MIDI to export a MIDI le for use in another program
such as Sibelius if you want to make the score preOer.

Notes: See Page 12, Recording MIDI in Pro Tools using Virtual Instruments

Notes: See Page 17, Viewing and Editing MIDI data

Two Handy Hints

If you do something and muck it up remember Ctrl (Command) + Z is your friend, the Undo funcGon. Just
keep undoing unGl things are right again.

The Enter (Return) key puts the cursor at the start of the session. Spacebar plays and stops.