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Pro Tools Etiquette – Labeling I/O
One of the most exciting aspects of working with Pro Tools, is the ability to collaborate with other Pro Tools users. Whether you want another set of hands (and ears) to work on a mix, perform a track or two, or even help with the writing of the song itself – working with others is a great way to be an active participant in the Pro Tools community and the craft of music and/or postproduction itself.
We have already talked about ways for getting your Session file into the hands of another, and will even be sharing some more exciting news for collaborating over the Internet this month. But this week I want to talk about what your session should look like when it arrives.
In order to facilitate better collaboration, the Recording Academy (NARAS/GRAMMY) has put together a panel of professionals, who along with feedback from the community have developed written guidelines and standards, detailing the best practices for working in Pro Tools. Not only do following these recommendations make for an efficient workflow, but by putting everyone on the same page, working together is much easier. So point your browser to the Producer’s and Engineer’s Wing and download the Guidelines and Recommendations, so you can start working towards better Pro Tools bliss (don’t worry, I will wait) – I recommend downloading the one-sheet for a quick overview of the most important points.
Great, now that you have guidelines in hand, take a look at the workflow the panel has come up with. Are these things you are already doing? I actually have printed out the guidelines and kept them right next to my Pro Tools rig when I first caught onto them. Not only does it help when I work with others, but most importantly, it helped me to develop better habits for keeping my session organized and easy to understand. So this is not just about playing nice with others, it’s about making it easier for you to work even on your own.
Although I recommend following all the points in the document, I wanted to detail the one that I think is the most important, and often the one most neglected – Labeling I/O. Having all those wonderful inputs, outputs and busses are wonderful, but if you don’t know where the input is coming from, the output is going to and what the bus is used for, a Pro Tools session can get pretty confusing rather quickly. The solution is to simply label what each input, out and bus is connected to.
To name your signal paths in Pro Tools:
- Choose Setup > I/O.
- Click on the Appropriate Tab (Input, Output or Bus)
- Double-click on a Path or Sub-Path to Rename it
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In this example of some vocal tracks taken from a rather large session, all of the I/O has been labeled making it very easy for anyone to understand the routing. For example, I recorded the Lead Vocal tracks using my Great River, and have labeled those inputs Great River 1 and Great River 2. Not only does this make selecting inputs in my own studio much easier then trying to figure out what A 1-2 are connected to, but anyone viewing my session will know that I used the Great River to record with, which may help inform mixing decisions.
I have sent all the vocals out to a medium reverb. However, instead of just seeing Bus 1-2, the bus has been labeled according to the send effect it is routed to, in this case, TL Space Medium. You can easily see that all Vocal tracks are going out the same send, and that the send is being returned by the Aux Input track with its input set to the same bus labeled TL Space Medium. On a large session, I can’t tell you how much of the guesswork this takes out of working with send effects.
Finally, I have assigned the output of all the Vocal tracks to a Bus labeled Vocal Stem for some additional processing using the SSL Channel strip by Waves. Again, having a label that indicates the destination/use of the bus is much more clear than just using Bus 3-4. The output for the stem is set to Dangerous 1-2, which is my monitoring system, where the entire group of tracks joins the mix.
Labeling I/O is a simple, but powerful method for organizing your session. If you already do this, kudos to you, if not, now is the time to cleanup bad habits and join the ranks of the civilized.
Pro Tools Tidbits
- Digidesign has announced the Mbox Pro 2, an expanded version of the Mbox 2. (LE)
- Digidesign has announced X-Form a new AudioSuite plug-in for high quality time/pitch shifting. (HD and LE)
If you have a Pro Tools related question that you would like me to take a shot at answering or have any feedback, please send it to scott@audioMIDI.com. I will do my best to select the questions that seem to stump the most people.
As always, stay tuned to the audioMIDI.com eNews for the latest reviews and new product info.
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