Fast Forwarding and Rewinding isn’t as important as it used to be in the days of linear media (that’s tape to most of us) as in a DAW we can just click and play from anywhere on the timeline. That’s fine as long as we know where we need to be in our sessions but playing through tracks faster or slower than real-time while hearing the audio can be useful for all sorts of reasons. Shuttle lock is a really useful feature which allows you to do just this.

Shuttle Lock

By hitting Control on a Mac or Start on a PC and pressing one of the numbers on your number pad you can temporarily enter Shuttle Lock mode, which allows you to scrub through one or two tracks only, depending on where you place your Insertion Point in the Edit window, at faster or slower than real-time and forwards or backwards.

Using Shuttle Lock

• Press a number pad key with Control on a Mac or Start on a PC. You will remain in Shuttle Lock until you stop playback.

• Use 5 for 100% playback speed.

• Use numbers higher than 5 for faster than 100%

• Use numbers lower than 5 for slower than 100%

• Use + or - to change the direction of playback between forwards and reverse

• Use 0 to pause while staying in Shuttle Lock

• Press the Spacebar to exit Shuttle Lock

• When In Shuttle Lock the FF and Rew buttons in the transport window will flash blue

Watch the free video tutorial to see it demonstrated.