In this video Julian explains Basic Folders in Pro Tools. From what they are to why and how to use them. They are purely organisational and this is very much the point of them. Routing Folders are available for more streamlined routing, submixing and bus processing but don't overlook the Basic Folder. Their strength is that they don't affect the routing of your session, they just help to make it easier to manage.
Folders were first introduced to Pro Tools back in 2020. As soon as I saw the Routing Folder I knew they were going to replace my, often unwieldy, use of Aux Inputs and track show/hide memory locations I was using to manage larger sessions. But the other kind of Folder, the Basic Folder, was less immediately appealing. While most of the Folder Tracks I create in my sessions are Routing Folders, the Basic Folder is still really useful precisely because it doesn’t affect signal flow. It’s an organisational tool and no more but that’s exactly what you need if you have a session which needs organising!
In this video, which was created when Folder Tracks were first introduced but hasn’t been available on the site for some time. I look at exactly how Basic Folders can help make a large session more manageable.
As well as covering how to create and manage Basic Folders it covers the advantages of using Folder Tracks:
Session organisation - quick control of which tracks are visible at any given time and convenient methods for toggling them in and out of view.
Better Solo Logic - Basic Folders provide a single Solo and Mute for the member tracks and soloing individual member tracks works as expected with these Folder Solo and Mute buttons in or out.
Basic editing of member tracks is possible using the blocks representing the member tracks’ clips in the Folder Track itself.
In The Video
In this extended video we demonstrate the use of Basic Folders including the following:
Using CMD+Up Arrow to go directly to creating a Basic Folder Track from the new Tracks Dialogue
Using CMD+Opt+Shift+N to move tracks to new Folder
Using Shift+F to toggle Folder Tracks
The importance of Track and Edit Selection Linking when using keyboard shortcuts to toggle Folder Tracks
Moving tracks to a New Folder or to pre-existing Folders using right-click menu
How to more clearly visualise the Folder Track hierarchy by using colour and by viewing from the tracks list.