Updated for 2021, in this article we collect together Pro Tools tips for everyone from beginners to more experienced users. If you’ve ever wondered what the keyboard shortcut to create new and duplicate playlists is or whether you should automate that volume using clip gain or volume automation, and what to do if you’ve made the wrong choice, these tips will help.

Pro Tools Quick Tip - Using Replace Clip In Pro Tools Ultimate To Substitute Snare Samples

In this free video tutorial, you will learn about how to use the replace clip command in Pro Tools Ultimate to change every instance of the snare drum in a drum loop.

Replace Clip - Not Just For Post

This is a command I associate with post-production. I'm sure many people use it in music workflows too but it's not something I've come across many times in this context so I thought I'd use a drum loop as a demonstration.

In this video, I have used separate at transients to split the loop up into its constituent hits but be aware that the snare is a sample which has been copied onto beats 2 and 4 of each bar of the beat. It is the same clip in all four locations, just by dividing a loop up using separate at transients and expecting Pro Tools to identify the snare hits on its own isn't going to work. However, in cases where people are building beats from a limited set of samples, as many do, this technique will work first time.

Pro Tools Quick Tip - Auditioning Clips from The Clips List In Pro Tools

This free video tutorial shares a useful tip, which allows you to audition clips from the Clips List within Pro Tools.

When working with Pro Tools it can be useful to audition a clip before bringing it onto the timeline. The Workspace browser has very useful features to help with auditioning before clips are imported but once in the clips list it can still be useful to hear the contents of a clip before bringing it onto the timeline. This is as easy as Option/Alt-clicking in the clips list.

If you need to audition individual channels if a multichannel clip you can do that easily by clicking the disclosure triangle next to the multichannel clip. The only drawback of auditioning from the Clips List is that playback starts from the beginning of the clip and if there is a significant amount of silence at the beginning of the clip this might not be the best way to go.

If you need to access the contents of the Clips List in a Workspace Browser then hit Alt+O and you’ll do straight to your session, from there you can benefit from all the extra information available there.

Audition Path

The Audition Path is set in the output tab of IO setup and, while it usually mirrors the monitor outputs it can be set to any available output meaning that, for example, an editor could audition via headphones without disturbing the client and leaving the monitor playback uninterrupted.

Pro Tools Quick Tip - Group Priority In Pro Tools

In this free video tutorial, you will learn about how, when a track exists in more than one group in Pro Tools, which group ‘wins’ when more than one is active.

There are two criteria Pro Tools uses: group size and creation order. If a track is in two active groups and one has more track, that group wins. If the groups have equal numbers of tracks the older group wins.

With these two criteria there is a scheme in place which Pro Tools can follow to determine which group behaviour you’ll see. The “biggest group wins” behaviour makes itself apparent more obviously than the creation order criterion, which makes it useful to know about.

Toggle Groups From The Keyboard

If you use Groups a lot in Pro Tools make sure you get familiar with toggling Groups on and off using Keyboard Focus. Hit CMD+Opt+3 (Ctrl+Alt+3 on PC) and select and deselect groups by hitting their group ID letter from the keyboard.

Capital and Lower Case Group Letters

In the video, you'll see how the group taking priority is displayed in uppercase when it is taking priority over an active group, a helpful visual reminder.

Pro Tools Quick Tip - Edit Selections On The Fly

Something I do all the time is to drop edit selections on the fly. Rather than looking at waveforms or bar numbers and relating that to what I'm hearing, I just listen. When I want to mark my in point I hit the down arrow key, when I want to mark my out point I hit the up arrow.

Some people will see this as a basic Pro Tools operation but so many people learn Pro Tools via the mouse, the basics are often the parts, which are missing when it comes to keyboard control.

How To Remember Which Arrow Is Which When Making Edit Selections

To remember which is which, I think of a tape head coming down onto the tape at the beginning of a drop in (down arrow for edit selection in point) and up again and the end of the drop-in (up arrow for edit selection out point).

If you are inaccurate, it's easy enough to shift+drag with the selector tool to tidy up. At least your on-the-fly edit selection got you to the right beat without having to audition more than once. 

Pro Tools Quick Tip - Trim Read Mode To Rebalance A Mix

If you own your own Pro Tools Ultimate then you should definitely take the time to learn the Ultimate-only automation features it offers. However, I have met users who find mix automation difficult and the most common issue is that rebalancing the track is more difficult once Pro Tools has taken control of the faders. If however, you are working in Ultimate you can automate and keep control of your faders using Trim Read.

Simple Trim Automation

Although Trim Automation is extremely powerful, the easiest way to incorporate it into your mix is to automate levels using conventional track automation and as soon as you feel that you need to adjust relative levels between your automated tracks, drop into Trim Read. It’s like a second layer of faders on top of the automated faders, while you can consolidate your Trim automation with your underlying automation, you don’t have to and if you are just introducing static offsets in the Trim layer there’s no real reason to.

If you have no automation written in Trim mode (i.e. one breakpoint at time zero and no others) then your fader is free-floating and can be set anywhere. Use the conventional automation for track automation and get a free set of faders on top to adjust levels. Don't worry about consolidating trim automation until you're ready, and gold Trim faders are cool!

Pro Tools Quick Tip - New Playlist

Playlists are so useful, If you don’t use them a lot you aren’t using them enough! You can get by without them but in pretty much every application I can think of, playlists offer a more elegant and frankly better way of working.

What Is The Shortcut For Create New Playlist?

Rather than create a new playlist by clicking the playlist selector on the track header in the Edit window (the little downward pointing arrow to the right of the track name), use Ctrl+\ or Start+\ on the PC to open the new playlist dialogue.

What Is The Shortcut For Duplicate Playlist?

Sometimes you want to Duplicate an existing playlist, particularly if you are going to try something as an experiment, which you anticipate might not end up getting used. In cases like this just add Command on a Mac or Control on a PC. So the shortcut is Ctrl+CMD+\ on a Mac or Start+Control+\ on a PC

Pro Tools Quick Tip - How To Customise The Tool Bar in Pro Tools

We are not all the same and the way we work and think is different. the way I lay out my desk will almost definitely be different to the way you do it.  There is a feature in Pro Tools where you can re-order the sections of the toolbar and so we have made a video to demonstrate how you can show or hide different sections of the Tool Bar or rearrange them to suit your workflow.

How Do You Re-order the Toolbar In Pro Tools?

If you hold Command on a Mac or Control on a PC and click and drag the toolbar element you wish to move you’ll see a yellow bar jump between the different points along the toolbar where the element you are moving can be dropped.

Note that you have to grab by a piece of blank space in or near the element not in the buttons or displays themselves, the cursor will change to a hand when you’ve got the right spot.

Showing And Hiding Elements From The Tool Bar

Since the video above was made, Avid has introduced multi-select menus which make showing and hiding elements less laborious. Instead of opening and closing the menu for each change, multiple changes can be made in a single operation and if you use the up/down keys to navigate the list and the spacebar to select and deselect list items these menus are even quicker to navigate.

Pro Tools Quick Tip - Swapping Volume Automation And Clip Gain In Pro Tools Ultimate

Another Pro Tools quick tip, this one is the cool way that Pro Tools Ultimate users can convert volume automation to clip gain and vice versa.

Some people are not aware of this feature but it has several uses including;

• You may want to commit your automation to the track as clip gain and then render it to the audio track for exporting as a completed audio track.

• Clip gain happens before processing by inserts, volume automation happens post insert so clip gain affects compression and gating and volume automation doesn’t

Here’s how to do it.

How To Copy Automation To Clip Gain In Pro Tools Ultimate

If you want to convert your automation to clip gain in Pro Tools Ultimate then simply open up the volume automation lane on the track you wish to copy the automation from and select it. Then select Edit/Automation/Convert Volume Automation to Clip Gain. That’s it. Make sure you have the Clip Gain option turned on in the clip so you can see it.

How To Copy Clip Gain To Volume Automation In Pro Tools Ultimate

If you want to go the other way and convert your clip gain to volume automation in Pro Tools Ultimate then simply select the audio on the track you wish to copy the clip gain from. Then select Edit/Automation/Convert Clip Gain to Volume Automation.

It’s as simple as that!

We hope you found something useful in this collection of tips, there are plenty more on the site.