In this article and video Julian demonstrates some time saving techniques in Pro Tools which use the arrow keys to control the creation and display of selections in Pro Tools, including a killer keystroke combination for displaying your playhead.

It’s easy enough to create selections in Pro Tools. There’s even a dedicated tool for it - The Selector Tool. This is useful when the waveform makes it clear exactly where the audio you need is but sometimes the waveform isn’t very helpful. At times like this the simplest way to identify where the wanted audio begins and ends is using your ears (this shouldn’t be a surprise when dealing with sound…). Here are some ways the arrow keys can speed up working with selections.

Up/Down For Selection In/Out Points

Pro Tools makes it very easy to punch Edit Selection in and out points on the fly using the arrow keys. Down Arrow to set the in point, Up Arrow to set the out point.

Shift+Drag to Fine Tune Selection In/Out Points

If you were a little off when you set your In/Out points on the fly, you can fine tune them by using the Selector Tool with Shift to finesse their placement. If you want to audition them precisely use the Audition shortcuts - Use the 6,7,8 and 9 keys on the alphanumeric keyboard to play to and from the Edit Selection start and end points. The precise behaviour depends on your use of pre and post roll but if you don’t know these shortcuts, check them out, they are really useful. But speaking of “Edit Selections” isn’t a selection just a selection, or is there more than one kind?

Edit Selections And Timeline Selections

There are two kinds of selection in Pro Tools - Edit Selections and Timeline Selections. Most users of Pro Tools work with the Edit and Timeline Selections linked, so much so that many users are unaware that they can be unlinked until the first time they unlink by accident and get some very confusing behaviour. The button to link/unlink is in the toolbar, use the shortcut Shift+/ to toggle it and you’ll see which button it is. Most of the time you want them linked but occasionally it is useful to unlink, hence the option to do so.

There is a handy keystroke demonstrated in the video which uses the keystroke Down Arrow+Right Arrow to centre the playhead. This keystroke combination relies on linking the Timeline Selection to the Edit Selection as the arrow keys can be used to control the Edit Selection during playback. If the Timeline Selection is linked to the Edit Selection then the arrow keys can be used to centre the playhead position even when it isn't visible when Edit Window Scrolling is disabled.

Check out the video tutorial below to see how these keystrokes work and why they are useful.