To wrap things up regarding compressors, I will offer 3 Dos and Don’ts as my final word for now. These are things to always keep in mind when working with compressors. Some may have been previously stated in an earlier blog post. DO          avoid using extreme settings to begin with, if you are just trying to control the dynamics. DON’T   add compression to every channel by default. Start off with minimal compression, and carefully choose where to add compressors. DO        

As you get better with compressors, you will start playing with other knobs and features. One of these is the knee. The knee refers to when and how the ratio starts to change when the compressor starts to take effect. A ‘hard knee’ means the compression becomes immediately active as soon as the input signal hits the threshold. A ‘soft knee’ means the compression becomes audible more gradually. A ‘soft knee’ also means that gentle compression starts happening further below the

Using a click track during recording is, of course, imperative. We can’t do our work if we can’t play to the beat! Luckily for us Pro Tools makes it easy to set up a click track! Just simply go to Track on the menu bar, scroll all the way to the bottom and choose Create Click Track. Pro Tools will create an auxiliary track and automatically put a metronome plugin on the track. The metronome will automatically set to the tempo (bpm) of the song. The metronome is customizable.

It is hard to learn how to record and mix music today. With so much information available on the web, sometimes it is hard to know if the information is true or not – whether it can be trusted or not. Here are six myths that are not true! Ask anyone who really knows his stuff and is experienced and successful. Myth 1 – You can’t use ribbon mics on loud sources This myth is a good one to start with because like the best myths, there’s just enough of a grain of truth to it to k

So . . .  you want to record a song and you’re running out of space on the computer or external hard drive? Wondering if you have enough room? Here’s how to figure out if you do have enough space: The sample rate and bit depth of the audio you record are directly related to the size of the resulting files. In fact, you can calculate file sizes using these two parameters: — Sample Rate x Bit Depth = Bits per second Or, stated another way: — Sample Rate x Bit Depth x 60 = Bi

Patchbays Having a patchbay helps to optimize your signal routing and organization. Even the most modest of studio setups can benefit from the simple addition of a patchbay. Almost any configuration of cable connection – xlr, 1/4″ TRS jack, Cat5, etc. can be connected to a patchbay. And you can make your connections without ever having to leave your seat! If all your equipment I/O (input/output) is connected to the patchbay and it is labeled well, it will save you time by n

Group Cabling Keep cables grouped together by type (audio, MIDI, mains, etc.). This makes it easier to find faulty cables, patch equipment quicker and easier, and help reduce cable-borne noise problems. Putting a little distance between different types will reduce the potential for EMI (electromagnetic interference) problems, because mains cables can induce a 50Hz hum on audio cables. Always try to keep power cords of any kind separate from audio cables. If they do have to c

In Pro Tools, material (audio or midi) on a track is associated with a type of Time Scale. All track types can be set to either sample-based (for the Sample Time Scale) or tick-based (for the Bars/Beats Time Scale). Different tracks can be set to different timebases as needed. Audio tracks are sample-based by default. This means that audio clips have absolute locations on the timeline and are tied to specific sample locations. If you change the tempo or meter the audio will

Did you know that it is important to power up your system and equipment in a certain order? In the early days, for me, I didn’t know that! Because systems are typically composed of both hardware and software, preparing your system for use might involve more than simply turning your computer on and launching your DAW of choice. The larger the system, the more important it becomes to follow a specific startup sequence. Starting components out of sequence could cause a componen

If you’re involved with a lot of production work and do a lot of MIDI work like I do, you record a lot of projects using your sound modules. All sound (tone) modules automatically put effects on the sounds by default (so they sound better). Even free plug-in modules that come with recording software like Pro Tools do this. So if you use Xpand, Sampletank, etc. or you use outboard gear like Roland or Motif – you’ll want to know this! When I use my Motif-Rack, I always go to th

Have you ever tried to eject a hard drive from your system that you used in a Pro Tools session while Pro Tools was still up and running? It didn’t work, did it? Here’s the scenario and solution: You’re working in a Pro Tools session and the client gives you a hard drive (or flash drive) to grab wav files from. So you take care of that, go to the desktop, and try to eject the hard drive (command E) since you’re done with it. You get some dialog box that says the hard driv

I don’t like wasting time while working on a mix. Being organized in a session is critical. A lot of time can be wasted looking for tracks again and again and again! (Like I used to do in the early days!) Because I use templates (see the post dated Feb. 23, 2015 ‘Creating and using templates in Pro Tools 8’), a lot of my tracks are already organized how I like them, before I ever start. Sweet! It is important to set up all your sessions the same way. That way you always know

OK today let’s first go over the Editing tab. There’s really only one item I want to make sure you know about. At the bottom of the page is ‘Levels of Undo’. This preference sets the maximum number of actions that can be undone. The maximum is 32 levels of undo! That’s a lot! You can “back up” 32 times. Sometimes I use this to my advantage – I may try something knowing that I can go back and undo whatever it is I’m trying. For instance, in editing I might try to edit two diff

OK today let’s first go over the Editing tab. There’s really only one item I want to make sure you know about. At the bottom of the page is ‘Levels of Undo’. This preference sets the maximum number of actions that can be undone. The maximum is 32 levels of undo! That’s a lot! You can “back up” 32 times. Sometimes I use this to my advantage – I may try something knowing that I can go back and undo whatever it is I’m trying. For instance, in editing I might try to edit two diff

In the last blog post I covered the first tab under pro tools preferences – Display. Today I will cover Operation Preferences. First section is Transport: The very first selection ‘Timeline Insertion/Play Start Marker Follows Playback’ is important and I use it all the time. When selected, the Timeline Insertion and the Play Start Marker both move to the point in the timeline where playback stops. When deselected, the Timeline Insertion and Play Start Marker do not follow pla

In the last blog post I covered the first tab under pro tools preferences – Display. Today I will cover Operation Preferences. First section is Transport: The very first selection ‘Timeline Insertion/Play Start Marker Follows Playback’ is important and I use it all the time. When selected, the Timeline Insertion and the Play Start Marker both move to the point in the timeline where playback stops. When deselected, the Timeline Insertion and Play Start Marker do not follow pla

I remember how terrified I felt going to the Preferences (under Setup) tab! I looked at all that and said “Maaann! I am NOT touching anything here! I didn’t understand it and I CERTAINLY wasn’t going to change anything!! Wow! I think the first 3 or 4 years were like that – maybe even longer! It seemed too confusing to me and I just didn’t bother to change anything, much less even get in there! But now, I am in there all the time, changing settings the way I need to, when I ne

I remember how terrified I felt going to the Preferences (under Setup) tab! I looked at all that and said “Maaann! I am NOT touching anything here! I didn’t understand it and I CERTAINLY wasn’t going to change anything!! Wow! I think the first 3 or 4 years were like that – maybe even longer! It seemed too confusing to me and I just didn’t bother to change anything, much less even get in there! But now, I am in there all the time, changing settings the way I need to, when I ne

To help stay organized in Pro Tools, I colorize my tracks, MIDI channels, and sometimes regions. My master fader is always one color, the aux tracks are always a certain color, all the drum tracks are the same color, vocal tracks are all one color, etc. Separate colors can be assigned to audio and MIDI regions, tracks, markers, and groups. Default colors are automatically assigned to tracks, but I always override the default and set my own color scheme.[This is done on pro to

To help stay organized in Pro Tools, I colorize my tracks, MIDI channels, and sometimes regions. My master fader is always one color, the aux tracks are always a certain color, all the drum tracks are the same color, vocal tracks are all one color, etc. Separate colors can be assigned to audio and MIDI regions, tracks, markers, and groups. Default colors are automatically assigned to tracks, but I always override the default and set my own color scheme.[This is done on pro to