Ever wish for a shortcut in Pro Tools? I have. You may be in luck. This works for commands in Pro Tools that have a menu item associated with them.
March 2009
Temporary INSANITY! (insanity = slip mode)
by Major on March 28th, 2009 in Keyboard ShortcutsWhilst editing in grid mode, you can hold down command to temporarily switch to slip mode. Short and sweet (and I used “whilst” in a sentence!)
Wink wink, Nudge Nudge, Grid Grid
by Evan on March 26th, 2009 in Keyboard ShortcutsThis is a documented shortcut, but I find it fairly useful, especially if you do a lot of nudging and work in grid mode often. If you are like me, you often have to drop down this menu and change your grid or nudge value.
To switch your nudge value, hold ⌘⌥ (command option) and press the + or – key (num pad or regular will work).
To switch your grid value, hold ⌃⌥ (control option) and use + or -.
Happy nudging!!!
More Colorful Sessions
by Evan on March 25th, 2009 in Keyboard Shortcuts
Pretty!
When viewing the color palette in Pro Tools, hold ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ (command-option-control), click anywhere on the color palette and drag the mouse up. The further you drag the mouse up, the less opaque the color’s become, drag back down to make more opaque and to revert back to no colors. This command appears to be aesthetic only, but actually is quite useful. Just being able to more easily see the definition between your groups, or your different varieties of tracks makes a world of difference sometimes.
Note: In Pro Tools 8, Digidesign has made this “secret” available to everyone with a slider and a button to color your tracks in the same manner, so you don’t need to know this key command on Pro Tools 8.
Lock “Write on Stop”
by Major on March 25th, 2009 in Features, Keyboard ShortcutsThe “write on stop” modes are a one shot deal (except “write to next breakpoint”). Once you hit stop, and it writes automation, you have to re-click it to use it again. But if you hold down option and click the mode, it will lock ON. Very handy if you nee to make some global changes to a whole song, especially when used in conjunction with trim mode. Just remember to turn it off when you’re done! (This trick is TDM only, as LE doesn’t have advanced automation modes)
Write to Selection on Stop Mode
Write to Selection on Stop Locked ON
Attention Meters!!! Gain weight quick with ⌘⌥⌃ click
by Evan on March 24th, 2009 in Features, Keyboard ShortcutsThis one is just for fun really. If you find yourself longing for fatter meters in Pro Tools, i’ve got just the thing for you.
Let there be automation!
by Major on March 23rd, 2009 in Keyboard ShortcutsIf you hate this menu as much as I do…
… you’ll love this keyboard shortcut!
hold down ⌃⌘(control-command) and click on a button or knob to show it’s automation. This works on normal things such as volume, pan, and mute, as well as plug-in parameters! Hooray for Keyboard shortcuts!
EQ “Band Soloing”
by Evan on March 21st, 2009 in Keyboard Shortcuts
When using Digidesign’s EQ-3 you can “solo” any band by simply holding control+shift while holding either the breakpoint, or changing the Q, Gain, or Frequency of said band. This is particularly helpful for singling out problem frequencies in noisy audio. This is a great feature of the EQ that I find myself using practically every day.
