I Need Some Pro Tools Tricks

[partytrain]

So this week, my band is starting to record our next album. Drums begin on Wednesday. This time around, i will be doing the recording with my Digi 002 setup. But I need some tricks.

I know that the Pro Tools Le program only has 32 voices that can be played at the same time. I know I am going to have more than 32 tracks on some of the songs. Are there any tricks to making more available to me? For instance, am I able to mix some of the tracks down to a single stereo track to clear up some space? Or is their any other solutions that you guys can think of?

Also, I am planning on having the CD mixed and mastered at the big time studio down here. I know they run the full pro tools system. If I bring them my PT sessions with some tracks voices turned off, do they have the ability to reactivate the voices on those tracks? Because I know their PT system has more voices available.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm excited, but a little nervous. Should be fun though.

 

[melondaoust]

Good luck with your recording!

To answer some of your questions...

For bouncing tracks, the answer is yes!

Here's how you do it...

If you wish to bounce things in stereo, pick which tracks you wish to bounce and change the output to a Stereo Bus.

Open a new stereo audio track and set the input to that same stereo bus. Keep the output of the stereo track as the DIGI 002 so that you can monitor.

Arm the stereo track to record, use the faders from the bouncing tracks to set your levels, hit record and there ya go!

For ProTools compatibility, I would see no problem in the bigger studio reactivating your tracks. PT is PT and going from HD to LE (though there are some limitations - you can't HD TDM plugins in LE for instance) is pretty seamless.

I hope this helps you out.

Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.

Cheers!

 

[Chiba]

I bounce stuff down to stereo tracks all the time. Not so much to save space/tracks, but more to make it so I have fewer faders to pay attention to (I'm a mouse-mixer, after all!).

Usually it's drums; I'll spend a lot of time getting them balanced, spread out in the spectrum, and EQ'd, then bounce the 8-10 tracks down to a stereo track - from 8-10 faders to 1 (and 8-10 tracks to 2). I sometimes do the same thing with acoustic guitars and/or keyboard tracks, but not as often - usually I want to have individual EQ, panning, or reverb on those.

As far as the 'big' Pro Tools studio, yeah - they can reactivate a track if you've deactivated it. Be sure to make meticulous notes and then you won't have to remember as much - it'll make the mixing sessions a lot easier!

--chiba

 

[partytrain]

Awesome advice guys, that is exactly what I wanted to hear.


Chiba, the drums were exactly what I was talking about. I wanted to do a few extra room mics, and then mix them down into a stereo track, just like you suggested.

Thanks again!

 

[MichaelK]

You can also bounce audio to your hard drive as split SDII files and select "import after bounce." I disable all other tracks' inserts, sends and outputs to minimize processor load.

Why this rather than routing to a buss pair? I dunno... it's the same thing, I guess.