Three Things I Couldn't Live Without In Pro Tools

I’ve worked in Pro Tools for years in one capacity or another. Something I’m always surprised about is when I discover a tool that I somehow missed, and not just any tool…It’s almost always a golden tool, one that I feel like I can’t live without once I find it. I wanted to share with you three of these tools. Maybe you use these all of the time, but if not, you’ll be happy you are reading this.

Strip Silence

This is especially handy for VO editing, but is also invaluable for editing snare or kick drums. Open strip silence by pressing ⌘ - U (Mac) Control – U (PC), from there, it’s pretty easy to play around with. Set you threshold to the dB level that you want it to start engaging set the minimum length of file you want created and tell it how much time you want at the beginning and end of the cuts that will be created. Once you hit strip, it tears away the silence and you are left with a neatly cut file.







Tap for Tempos

I have to admit, I feel pretty silly about this one. I remember sitting in a session trying to do some overdubs and setting up a click track. I was having an impossible time getting the tempo right when my assistant engineer said “Dude, just open up tempo and tap the ‘t’!” It really is that simple, open up the tempo window, press play, tap “t”, and viola!

Consolidate Region

This is one that I knew had to exist and went looking for it; it was not hard to find either. I wanted to make one file out of all of precise editing that I was working on so I didn’t inadvertently loose the front or back of the file from moving it around. Highlight all of the audio you want to consolidate and on a Mac; Shift+Option +3 and on a PC; Alt+Shift+3 will do the trick.





Simple but effective, I hope these help you out as much as they have helped me! Please fell free to share some of your favorite tools within Pro Tools below.