Author: James Nenadic-Thorpe

1. What icon is used for the Zoomer tool in the Edit window? How can you use this tool to quickly zoom out, filling the Edit window with the longest track in the session? (See “Zoomer Tool” beginning on page 52.) Magnifying glass. Double click to see ALL (fn+f5 to use Zoomer)
2. Which Edit tool is represented by a hand icon? What is this tool used for? (See “Grabber Tool” beginning on page 54.)  Grabber Tool. It is commonly used for arranging clips. You can use the grabber tool to select an entire clip with a single mouse click you can also use the gravity movie clip along the timeline, within its current track into movie clips between tracks (fn+f8 to use Grabber)
3. Which tool is active when the Trim, Selector, and Grabber icons are all selected (highlighted in blue) in the Edit window toolbar? (See “Smart Tool” beginning on page 55.) The Smart Tool
4. What are the four Edit modes in Pro Tools? How can you switch between them? (See “Edit Modes” beginning on page 56.) Shuffle (fn+f1). Slip (fn+f2). Spot(fn+f3). Grid (fn+f4)
5. Why should you use caution when editing synchronized material in Shuffle mode? When is Shuffle mode useful? Movements and edits made on shuffle mode will cause timing changes for the media on affected tracks. This mode should be used with caution when editing material that is synchronised to other tracks or are aligned to a timing reference or tempo. It’s useful as a way to make clips line up next to each other without overlapping or leaving silence between them. This can be convenient when you need to shorten a line of dialogue by removing a pause, cough repeated word, or similar unwanted material.
6. How does editing a clip in Slip mode affect the timing of other clips on the track? (See “Slip Mode” beginning on page 56.)  In Slip mode, you can move, trim, cut, or paste clips freely within a track without affecting the placement of other clips on the track. All selections, clip movements and edit operations at unconstrained
7. When is it helpful to work in Spot mode? When it is helpful to work in Grid mode? (See “Spot Mode” and “Grid Mode” beginning on page 57.) Spot modelets you move and trim clips using precise locations or durations specified in a dialogue box. In Grid mode selections, clip movements, and trim operations are constrained by the grid, i.e. it is useful for quantising material.
8. What are some ways to set the Main Time Scale in Pro Tools? (See “Main Time Scale” beginning on page 59.) VIEW > MAIN COUNTER. Main TimeScale pop-up menu
9. What are the two types of Rulers available in Pro Tools? What is the difference between them? (See “Ruler Display Options” beginning on page 60.) Timebase rulers and Conductor rulers. Timebase rulers measure time in various ways (they include Bars| Beats, Minutes: seconds, samples, timecode, timecode 2, Feet+Frames). Conductor rulers contain events that map out locations, characteristics and changes within a session (these include Markers, Tempo, Meter, Key, Chords)
10. What are some ways to hide Rulers that you do not need displayed in a session? (See “Hiding Rulers” beginning on page 61.) VIEW > RULERS. Opt+click directly on a Ruler’s name in the Timeline display area.
11. Which Pro Tools windows provide access to MIDI controls, such as Wait for Note, Metronome, and MIDI Merge? (See “MIDI Control Features” beginning on page 62.) The MIDI Control section in the Edit and Transport windows
12. What is the purpose of the Metronome button in the MIDI Controls area? What kind of track must be added to a session for the Metronome button to work? (See “Metronome” beginning on page 62.) The metronome button is used in conjunction with a click track and controls whether or not the click will be audible. When the Metronome button is active, a metronome click will sound during playback and recording, as specified by the settings in the Click/Countoff options dialog box (SET-UP > Click/ Countoff). Metronome playback requires a click track on the click source to be configured for your session.
13. What are the two states or modes available for controlling the current session tempo? How can you switch between these modes? (See “Tempo Ruler Enable” beginning on page 63.) Tempo Map Mode and Manual Tempo Mode
14. What is displayed by the Tempo field in the MIDI Controls area? What are some ways to set the session tempo using this field? (See “Tempo Field” beginning on page 64.) The session’s current tempo based on the play selection. In manual tempo mode (or when the session tempo has not yet been defined) you can enter a BPM value directly into this field. In addition when the tempo field is selected, you can tap in a tempo from a midi controller or from the computer keyboard using the T key

1.Name some of the folders and files that ProTools creates as part of the session hierarchy. Where is the session file (. ptx) stored? All of the files are created in the session folder. (A different kind of document a project file is a cloud-based session file that can be used for collaboration or remote access). The session file .ptx contains a map of all the tracks, audio files video files, settings and edits. The Bounced files folder is a directory used by default profiles created using the bounce to disk function. If this function is not used the folder remains empty and is removed when the session is closed. The Clip groups folder as a default directory that Pro Tools uses for any clip groups exported. If no clip groups are exported it remains empty and is removed when the session is closed. Clip groups are discussed in ProTools 110. Rendered files is a default folder whenever you use rendered Elastic Audio processing. ProTools creates temporary files for elastic audio in this directory. If you commit rendered elastic audio to a track, a new file is written in the Audio files folder and the temporary rendered file is deleted. Session file backup folder – the auto backup function on Pro Tools stores autosaved back up files. You can specify the number of backup files is to maintain and the backup frequency in the operation tab of the preferences dialogue box.

2.What is the WaveCache.wtm file used for? What happens if the WaveCache file gets deleted or goes missing? It stores all the waveform display data for any audio and this enables the session to open quickly. If it is deleted or goes missing Pro Tools will re-calculate the waveform data as the next session is opened, but the session may take longer to open and display.

3. Where are audio files stored in the session hierarchy? They are stored in the Audio files folder.

4.Where are Pro Tool’s is MIDI files normally stored? MIDI data is normally stored within the ProTools session, and no MIDI files will normally exist outside the session document. However MIDI can be exported by using the Export > MIDI command.

5. Which components should you turn on first when powering up a Pro Tools system? Which component should you turn on last? The recommended sequence for starting a proton system is as follows: 

a. Start with all your equipment, including your computer, powered off. 

b. Turn on any components that use external power and wait for them to initialise e.g. external drives, external midi interfaces, midi controllers, audio interfaces (if not bus powered)

c. Start your computer and launch Pro Tools

d. Turn on or unmute your audio monitoring system as the last step.

6. What type of processing does the hardware buffer size affect? What type of processing does it not affect?  Low latency domain processing. This handles host-based tasks such as AAX native plug-in processing during recording or live input monitoring. Lower settings reduce monitoring latency when you are recording on monitoring live input. Higher settings provide more processing power for tracks that are recording on monitoring light input at the expense of higher latency. The Hardware Buffer size does not affect high latency processing (high latency processing is used by Pro Tools for Mix tracks)

7. What kinds of commands can be found under the ProTools View menu? How does the View menu differ from the Window menu? View menu commands affects the display within Pro Tools windows tracks and clips. Most View menu window commands show or hide parts of the main Pro Tools windows. Selecting a command will display a component part of a window and deselecting the command will hide it. Although they are commonly confused, the View menu and the Window menu serve distinctly different functions. Commands in the View menu affect parts of a window or change all the elements within the window are displayed. By contrast, commands in the Window menu show or hide entire windows or arrange the windows on the screen

8.What kind of commands can be found under the ProTools Options menu? How does the options menu differ from the setup menu? The Options menu commands let you toggle several editing, recording, monitoring, playback, and display options. From this menu you can enable loop recording toggle pre-and post-roll on and off, engage dynamic transport mode set scrolling options and make other similar choices

9. Which main Pro Tools window displays audio waveforms and can be used to work directly with audio, MIDI, and video files on tracks? Edit Window

10. Which ProTools window provides access to Pan controls and Volume faders for each track? Mix Window

1. Name and describe five types of production tasks that ProTools can be used for. 1 Audio Processing, 2 MIDI Production, 3 Notation and Scores, 4 Mixing and Automation, 5 Audio for Video and Post-production

2.What’s the frequency range of human hearing? 20Hz – 20Khz

3. What does the frequency of a sound wave affect in terms of how we perceive the sound? How is frequency measured? Pitch. Cycles per second (CPS) / Hertz (Hz)

4. What does the amplitude of the sound wave affect? How is amplitude measured? Loudness / Volume. Decibels (db)

5. How does the sample rate of a system relate to the frequency of audio it can capture? What is the name of the law that specifies the relationship between sample rate and audio frequency? The sample rate of a system should be twice the frequency of audio it is required to capture. Nyquist theorum

6. How does the bit depth relate to the dynamic range of audio it can capture. How can you estimate the dynamic range of a system? The more binary digits included in the bit depth, the greater the accuracy of each sample measurement. For example a 4-bit word (2 to the 4th power) can represent 16 discrete amplitude levels. A 16-bit word could represent 65, 536 levels (2 to the 16) and a 24-bit work can define more than 16 million discrete amplitude levels (2 to the 24)

You can estimate the dynamic range of a system by multiplying by 6.

e.g. an 8-bit system would produce a dynamic range of 8 x 6 = 48b. 16-bit = 96dB (16 x 6) and 24-bit = 144dB (24 x 6)

Note: 16-bit / 44.1Khz mono = 5MB per minute, 16-bit 96-Khz mono = 11MB per minute. 24-bit/44.1kHz mono 7.5MB per minute, 32-bit/44.1Khz = 10 MB per minute.

7. What are some common digital connections available on Pro Tools audio interfaces? What type of connector jack does each use? S/ PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) which uses RCA (a.k.a. coaxial) and AES / EBU (Audio Engineering Society /European Broadcast Union) that uses XLR. The latter is preferable as it is technically more stable and filters out any copy protection encoded in the digital audio stream. Also S/PDIF is consumer grade.

8. Name some audio interfaces that are compatible with standard Pro Tools software. Any audio interface with Core Audio (Mac) or ASIO (Windows) drivers

9. Name some Avid audio interfaces that are compatible with Pro Tools | Ultimate software. Pro Tools | HD OMNI, Pro Tools | HD I/O, Pro Tools | HD MADI, Pro Tools | HD MTRX, Pro Tools | HD MTRX Studio