Pro Tools help for free!!!

Ebony n' Brian V...

I haven't forgotten about you man. I just haven't had a chance to free up my ears. I'll get back to you by tomorrow at the latest.
 
Hey all...

I wanted to take a moment to show you how to properly use reverb in Pro Tools (or any other DAW) because it is becoming apparent to me that people keep using it incorrectly. The reason you would use it this way is because it saves your CPU's (Computer Processor Unit) workload and not to mention that all the big mixing boards are set up like this and all professional Pro Tools engineers set up this way. But this is the standard process and the MOST EFFICIENT.

The way to properly set up a reverb track in Pro Tools (or any DAW) goes like this....

1.Set up an stereo Aux Track and name it Reverb (make sure you bring up the fader on the Aux track as well or else you won't be hearing any reverb later on and you'll be like WTF!!!..lol)
2.Put any type of reverb you want on any of the inserts in that new Aux Track you just made.
3.Set in Input of that Aux track to an available buss (If your not using any of the buss's then use Bus 1-2).
4.Now go to the track that you want reverb on. Go into the send section of that track (below the insert section) and on any of the sends select Bus 1-2 (if thats what you set your input on the Aux Track too)
5.Turn up the level of your send while playing back your audio and voila! You have reverb.

The reason you would do it this way instead of putting reverb in everyone of your tracks is so that your not taxing your computers CPU and you have more flexibility.
So the next track you want reverb on, all you gotta do is select the send for that track and set it to whatever your Aux Track's Input is and turn up that send. This way your using only one plug in but you can still manage the amount of reverb that the tracks are going to have.

I know this one's a little confusing but I know you guy's will get it. Its all for the purpose for being smart between your RTAS and AudioSuite plug ins. If you guys don't know about that then I'll let you know whats up with that as well. lol. Thats what I'm here for. And if you have any questions, you know where I am. =)
 
Ebony n' Brian V...

Good job on your mix. It sounds really good. I would say since you are using a vocal pitching tool, why not try and pitch it up an octave or so to give a degree of difference. And try putting a fair amount of reverb on your claps (or snare). This will give it a sense of intamacy like on Kanye's Graduation CD, his very 1st track "good morning", All the tracks aren't effected by the reverb too much execept for his snare hit and this gives depth into a sterile setting. You know? Also I don't know how you have your instruments panned but try panning some instruments around in a way where nothing is all the way to one side, yet it isn't dead center. This way, you will give your overall sound variety and make space for all your individual sounds (this can also be done by EQ).

Also, try adding a distince sound (or sounds) to allow the audience know when the chorus is going to be dropping. Because your vocal is so consistent throughout the track, you should try adding variety to the track to work around and compliment your vocal. You know?

But overall, that was good. Thank you very much for trusting me with it and opening your mind to let me advise some tips on it. Hope they help. =)
 
Live a Dream...

You are right about hooking up MBox 2 to the Big Knob for the most part. You would hook up the Monitor Outputs from your MBox 2 into the Big Knob's DAW Mix input under the "Sources" Section on the back of the unit. From THERE, you would connect the "Monitor A" Outputs (located on the left of the unit) into your Monitors (speakers). They also have the option of B and C so that you can have up to three sets of monitors to compare, contrast, and reference. And to activate the monitor that you want to hear from, you would simply push the "A, B or C" Buttons in the "Monitor Select" section on the front of the Big Knob Device.

The way you hook up your head phones is also on the front of the device (Bottom left titles "Phones"). There are two inputs so that you can have two headphones and each respectively has their own independent level control (so you can hear precisely while the artist can be bumping the sh*t out of theirs, or something of that manner..lol).

For Reason you know how you have a mix board and i'm assuming you use redrum for your hits, right? Do this. Flip to the back of the devices and re-wire the redrum so that each drum sample has its own channel in the mix board. This mix board that you are using will then become completely dedicated to ReDrum. And now you would have to re-wire THAT mix board into your main mix board (as a single stereo channel) so that your hearing the correct output. And by doing this you are now not only getting direct input and more sound out of each sample (plus opening up a whole new world of options for each sample now!), when you double up or triple any of your sounds, it will sound HUGE and POWERFUL very quickly.

The process is a lot simpler than you would think. Just fidget back there and if you run into any problems, let me know. =)
 
samsungwhite said:
Ebony n' Brian V...
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Good lookin out my dude, i def appreciate you takin the time to listen to it, I've been producing awhile now (bout 3 years) and just started using pro tools for about two months... I just literally started singing about a month ago. i def see what you are saying with the variety in the chorus vocals because a lot of people have been telling me that, its just i'm still kinda shy about singing in the first place but with practice i'll be able to adlib and a bunch of other type stuff... i'ma take all your advice with the panning and verbage and i'ma post another run through in a few days... I would be happy if you could give it another run through then and if not i understand and appreciate all the guidance you have given me so far,

thanks again homie! you're a beast
 
Ebony n' Brian V...

No problem man. Best way to learn is by trial and error (in my experiences anyways..lol). I'm actually surprised that you achieved so much within that type of time frame. I bet in a years time, you'll be teaching me some things.

Whenever you get done with your new mix just send it to my email. It's no problem. Just make sure you read my compression and the reverb posts if you have any trouble with either and if you need for me to get in depth with anything else just let me know.
 
Hey guys I just wanted to drop off some knowledge for the day. The difference between Audio Suite and RTAS (the plug ins you put in your inserts on your tracks if your using Pro Tools). This is a pretty important subject that I commonly see a lot of people writing off a lot. I'd say file management is priority #1 when it comes to DAW's but next on my personal list would be CPU management, to ensure everything is working properly and that your all getting the most out of your DAW's.

The difference between Audio Suite and RTAS (Real-Time Audio Suite) is this....

When applying an effect from Audio Suite what its actually doing is making a completely new audio file in your audio files folder (basically, its like you recorded another take). Although it doesn't tamper with your computer's CPU during playback, if you kept applying all your effects like this than you would run out of ROM really quickly. But as you already found, some effects are only available through Audio Suite. In this case the best way to organize your tracks would be to approach it in a manner where you would first select the track you wanted to affect the region on. Let's just use the Pitch Shift plug in (chopped n screwed effect) so my answer pertains to a commonly asked question. After you've chosen what track you want to apply Pitch Shift to, you would then go over to the left (in your Edit Window) and select to "Duplicate Playlist". This way if you want to go back to the original audio file, you won't have to search for hours on end to go back one step (Pro Tools provides only about 10ish levels of undo so if you've applied an effect through Audio Suite and made 26 adjustments after that, you won't be able to undo.... get it?)(Your basically safeguarding yourself). Then go ahead and apply the Pitch Shift effect on your region of audio on the duplicate track. Then write down what adjusts were made in the specific plug in you used in the comment box so you know exactly whats going on with the processed audio. I know its a long process but believe me, just doing these few steps will help you save a lot of unnecessary headaches in the long run.

RTAS is just the complete opposite. When you use an effect on your insert, what is going on is that the audio that is in the track that you have the effect on your insert, is being processed in real time everytime you playback. Thus Real-Time Audio Suite (RTAS). And as you probably figured out, this is the reason it use's so much CPU and RAM resources.

All in all, just step back for a minute when your deciding on how to apply effects to your audio. Just find a smart way to efficiently choose how you should apply the effect. I know you guys will make the right choices for your specific sessions. =)
 
samsungwhite said:
Hey all...

I wanted to take a moment to show you how to properly use reverb in Pro Tools (or any other DAW) because it is becoming apparent to me that people keep using it incorrectly. The reason you would use it this way is because it saves your CPU's (Computer Processor Unit) workload and not to mention that all the big mixing boards are set up like this and all professional Pro Tools engineers set up this way. But this is the standard process and the MOST EFFICIENT.

The way to properly set up a reverb track in Pro Tools (or any DAW) goes like this....

1.Set up an stereo Aux Track and name it Reverb (make sure you bring up the fader on the Aux track as well or else you won't be hearing any reverb later on and you'll be like WTF!!!..lol)
2.Put any type of reverb you want on any of the inserts in that new Aux Track you just made.
3.Set in Input of that Aux track to an available buss (If your not using any of the buss's then use Bus 1-2).
4.Now go to the track that you want reverb on. Go into the send section of that track (below the insert section) and on any of the sends select Bus 1-2 (if thats what you set your input on the Aux Track too)
5.Turn up the level of your send while playing back your audio and voila! You have reverb.

The reason you would do it this way instead of putting reverb in everyone of your tracks is so that your not taxing your computers CPU and you have more flexibility.
So the next track you want reverb on, all you gotta do is select the send for that track and set it to whatever your Aux Track's Input is and turn up that send. This way your using only one plug in but you can still manage the amount of reverb that the tracks are going to have.

I know this one's a little confusing but I know you guy's will get it. Its all for the purpose for being smart between your RTAS and AudioSuite plug ins. If you guys don't know about that then I'll let you know whats up with that as well. lol. Thats what I'm here for. And if you have any questions, you know where I am. =)
Click to expand...

I have to give props on this, I already knew it but it's one of those things that when you learn it it opens up so many more possibilities.
 
samsungwhite,

Ohh damn I totally missed the headphone jacks on the front I was concentrated on the ones at the back with the L and R, but I'm just now realizing those on the back where for the Phones AMP, not for the headphones itself lol my bad.

Big props to you man, you were a big help, and I even think you saved me a lot of headache and a "midi nightmare" (as you called it so precisely :) ) if I would have went the route with the Mbox 2 mini, I hope you get some positive karma for this.

Peace.
 
samsungwhite said:
Ebony n' Brian V...

No problem man. Best way to learn is by trial and error (in my experiences anyways..lol). I'm actually surprised that you achieved so much within that type of time frame. I bet in a years time, you'll be teaching me some things.

Whenever you get done with your new mix just send it to my email. It's no problem. Just make sure you read my compression and the reverb posts if you have any trouble with either and if you need for me to get in depth with anything else just let me know.
Click to expand...

lol man i def know what you mean, that song has been through almost 90 revisions and my wife thinks i'm mad crazy but you can only get better when you mess up...

man good looks on all the info, a lot of peeps on this site are mad helpful but not a lot of cats use pro tools so this is golden to me. keep the info comin samsung
 
Hey guys just dropping off another tip for the day...

How to hook up your chorus. This is another common question that I get asked (especially from hip hop guys).

There are A LOT of ways that you can approach a chorus feel out of your chorus section on your track. One particular way that you can achieve this sound is like this...

Start off by recording your main vocal line 4 times. Yes 4 times! The reason for this is to get different timbre (pronounced tam•ber) out of your sound. If you just duplicated your main line 3 more times then what you would end up with is a very sterile, non chorus sounding, effect. You want timbre because of the little differences and imperfections so that your sounds sound fuller and more complex (there's more going on...you know?).

Once you get those 4 lines recorded, you want to select two to hard pan (process where you process all the way to one side) left for one and right for the other. Make sure whichever 2 you do decide to hard pan that you compress slighter more than the other 2 vocals.

Next you want to get the one vocal that you want to be lead vocal and keep it panned dead center. Also, make sure that this vocal is the louder than the panned vocals and less compressed so that it will come out of the mix and give a sense of direction in your chorus.

By now if your still not getting the amount of chorus effect that you would like, the 4th vocal comes into play. Get your 4th vocal and also keep it dead center but this time add a chorus or vocoder type effect onto it. Keep it completely wet (a term meaning fully effected by the processor) because you have three other vocals that are dry that will keep the clarity of your words. Once you find one thats to your liking, blend it in just enough so that you can feel it but not hear it.. This way you keep a sense of mystery to your mix and your audience and peer's will wonder how you got your chorus to sound so full and distinct.

Finally, mix all those vocals together to get a nice symmetry out of your chorus. This is a really simple way to get your chorus to sound full without making it sound all phasy (airy) and processed but still keeping the integrity and uniqueness of your sound.

If that doesn't help then let me know the problems your running into and we'll get down to the root of the situation. =)
 
First let me say thanks for these tips i found every one u posted useful samsungwhite and makes since to me. i have 3 u dont have to answer them all but any info would help me out

my first is...is the best way to unload my cpu resource would be to bounce the audio from my virtual instruments to their own audio track and drop out/inactivate the original? i just learned this trick and its making my creation move along much faster and im happy to see my cpu meter in pro tools at 5-9% in play back when i do this..do u have an even more effective way to do this or is this as good as it gets...other progams have the freeze function but im starting to like the bounce option alot better. and would this work on an aux track such as reverb and delay (i do not do this but was curious to know if it would be any good to do so for cpu sake)




2. can u please please help me understand the 2 PAN knobs on a stereo track its been driving me crazy ive started out on pro tools 8 and i still dont get the concept or reason behind this, is it so i can put them both at 0 and make it mono or something or is it some kind of stereo field thing.


3. i watched a protools video from lynda.com a while back and the instructor was saying its best to have ur audio recordings go to an external hdd for best performance i just bought a 1tb esata drive and have it hooked up just for pro tools and samples is there a way to have everything not needed on the main drive be processed to this drive?
 
RodneyRuger...

For your 1st question....
How much RAM does your computer have? Let's just start from there (please give me your session's bit depth and sample rate along with any other info that applies to YOUR specific session for me). If you process the reverb in a manner that I have posted than there should be no reason to bounce your solo'd reverb tracks. The whole point of that was to save CPU to begin with. You know?

2...
The two Pan knobs on a stereo track pertain to the fact that its a "stereo" track. If you look at the level meter (next to your fader), on stereo tracks there are two. The left corresponds to the left meter and the right respectively to the right. One of the reasons behind this is to have your stereo track not be SO stereo but just give enough stereo image to place a certain sound in a track (set your pans so they are not 100% to just one side in this case, or one all the way to the left and the other just a certain amount to the right. This is all for the purpose of mixing your sounds together). If you want your tracks to be mono, then select a mono track to begin with. (p.s. Everyone, all vocal's are almost ALWAYS recorded in Mono! If you want stereo imaging on your vocal than do it through panning or by means of a stereo AUXILIARY track and then put a stereo plug in on that AUX's insert.).

3. Usually you would store all your sessions on a external hard drive (and ANOTHER just for precautions. You think Kanye's engineer would ever risk having only 1 backup?!) and then only have the session that you are currently working on, on the computers main hard drive. And then you would store it once your done into your external hard drive. This is a very common practice. Also make sure that when your running Pro Tools, Pro Tools is THE ONLY THING RUNNING.

Hope that clears some stuff up and I hope to hear from you soon. =)
 
Hi samsungwhite,

I'm making beats on Logic but I know I want to learn ProTools to record audio over my beats. I was wondering what is the best way to mix the beat once it's finished. Should I just do a rough mix in Logic, then put it into ProTools and really work on mixing it?

Or should I do a good mix in Logic, then put it into ProTools, then record my vocals and then mix everything?

I feel like the most efficient way would be to finish the beat, make sure the volume doesn't go into the red, put it into ProTools, record my song, then mix everything (vocals and the beat) at once. Am I correct that this is the most efficient way to do it?

Or should I mix the beat down first, then record vocals, then mix the vocals?

Thank you very much! Your help is much appreciated!
 
Thanks samsung white perfect answers...im on a asus laptop 4gb ram ddr3..my session bit depth is 24 bit and sample rate is 44.1k

one more question about grooves....is there a way to apply a groove to a drum wave i have a electronic snare roll i created and its dead on 1/32 i want to mix it up a little is there a way to do this in a automated way like the swing properties on a midi track...would beat detective be the best way to go?
 
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Taybot...

One of my producer friend and I work this way too actually. He will give me a beat that he has made in Logic and I would present that beat to the studio and if an artist picks it up, we would then load it into Pro Tools as a Stereo track, record vocals on it, then when the talent has gone home, we bounce every track in Logic into Pro Tools and do the final mix there.

I don't know what version of Logic your working on but the reason we do it this way is because the studio is using Pro Tools HD and we have more resources there (not to mention the fact that the studio isn't geared around Logic). But if you haven't figured it out already, the only reason we do it this way is because it is how we're working around OUR situation and set up. You know?

So I guess the correct answer to your question would be that you can do both. lol....i know that's probably not the answer you were looking for. Honestly though, I'm also Logic certified and I know for a fact that you can do everything in Logic that you would want to apply to your vocals in Pro Tools (if not more!). Is there a specific reason that your trying to incorporate Pro Tools into the picture (if not for the pure fact that you just want to run your session in Pro Tools)?

Just work whatever way is the most comfortable for you. Don't over think it man. The end user doesn't know the difference and if it sounds good in the end, then that's what works.

But all in all, your last statement is pretty much how it is most commonly done. ALWAYS make sure that nothing ever hits the red! Just give it a rough mix. Bounce that rough mix into Pro Tools as a stereo track and add as many vocals you want to it (you it this way first so that your not having any latency or CPU issue's while recording). Then when you have all your vocals recorded, bring in each instrumental from Logic into Pro Tools. From there just mix in the vocal and beat with each other so that they complement each other. But great job! Your definetly on the right track!
 
hey samsung, i'm tryin to upload that song to get it out on itunes and ish like that, i was wondering if you still do mastering and stuff like that, and how much you charge... i don't have anybody i know that does this stuff, well i do but he doesn't ever call me back lol, and i wouldn't mind keepin it all in the fp fam... holla at me
 
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