Given all the processing choices we have available to us in Pro Tools it can be easy to, rather than improve things, just to change them. To make sure your choices are actually working you have to check them.

In this free video tutorial, brought to you with the support of Avid, Julian looks at ways you can check your processing choices when using plugins to make sure that they are actually doing what you think they are doing.

The first check it’s important to make is to toggle the bypass control. This brings with it an important detail - Level matching. Our ears are predisposed to favour louder sounds over quieter sounds and to make sure you’re not being influenced by this its important to make sure that any boost in level is compensated for. Meters aren’t much help here as perceived loudness is different from the levels displayed on the Pro Tools meters. Balancing by ear is best, though some plugins offer automatic level balancing.

Check Against “Flat’

Page one of checking your processing is to audition it (level-matched) against the unprocessed original. This is done using the Bypass button in the plugin UI but by Command-clicking (Control-click on a PC) on the insert slot you can bypass individual plugins and by combining Option with other modifier key combinations it is possible to bypass groups of plugins either by location or type. For more on how to bypass plugins watch this free tutorlal video.

Use Compare To A/B

However, to check alternative processing choices it can be useful to use the Compare function. Toggling this button toggles between the saved settings and the ‘live settings’ in the plugin. To make this useful, and particularly if your plugin doesn’t feature an A/B compare function, in which two alternative ‘live’ settings can be compared, use this feature by saving your current settings as a preset and then making changes. The Compare button will toggle between these two alternative settings.

Comparing plugin settings can be done for multiple plugins across multiple tracks in a single operation but starting with comparing single plugins against bypass and and A and B state is the foundation of these more complex operations.