Intro to Pro Tools - part 1

Congratulations! You have officially graduated from the World of Reason and are now moving into the Universe of Pro Tools.

So what does Pro Tools do? Basically, it gives you all the main functions of a recording studio on your computer:

• It lets you record
• It lets you edit
• It lets you mix

Beyond that, though, it also serves as the center of your music production setup. Meaning that it can connect to and control all of your software and hardware instruments using MIDI.

A software program that can do all of these things (audio and MIDI) is called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

Pro Tools is definitely not the only DAW on the market. Other popular DAWs include Logic, Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, and others. Pro Tools isn't even necessarily the "best" DAW. Lots of people feel that other programs (e.g. Logic) are actually a lot better for certain things, like recording MIDI.

So why then does everyone seem to be using Pro Tools these days? Probably a number of reasons, including ruthless marketing tactics by Digidesign. Personally, I think that Pro Tools is laid out in a very simple, straight-forward format. It's easy to look at and get around in.

There are actually two main components to any Pro Tools setup: the software and the hardware interface.

The software is where the actual recording/editing/mixing happens.

The interface is just a piece of equipment that lets you get audio into and out of the software. In our classroom we have two different types of interface: the Mbox2 Minis on the student stations, and the Digi 003 on the instructor station. Even though they look really different, they are still performing the same basic function - audio in/audio out.

Important: Pro Tools will not work if it doesn't have a Digidesign interface connected to the computer!

OK, so let's go ahead and open Pro Tools and see what we're dealing with.

To Import your Audio files into Pro Tools:

1. Create a new Pro Tools session: Go to File>New Session.
   
2. Name it like this: (song title)_(your name)
3. Make sure the song is being saved into My Documents>ADP your folder>Pro Tools Stuff.
4. Now go to File>Import>Audio files.
5. Find the folder on your hard drive that contains all the audio files you exported from your song in Reason.
6. Draw a box around all of them to highlight them.
7. Hit Add Files.
8. Hit Done.
9. You should see a new window pop up asking you to choose a destination folder. If you see the Audio Files folder selected at the top, then go ahead and hit the Use Current Folder button at the bottom of the window.
10. Another window will pop up that says "Processing Audio"
11. Then another window will pop up, called "Audio Import Options". Make sure "New Track" is selected and hit the Choose Button.
    

All your audio files should now be in Pro Tools.