instant ProTools? basic questions

[ultrajosh]

I've spent the last several months learning CuBase SX on my PC. Then I installed an MBox and ProTools LE so I can mix an album that was tracked and partly mixed in ProTools in a commercial studio.

So far so good, I'm finding my way around, I'm able to do most basic mixing tasks, but some of the tracks are "Greyed-out" and are not affected by the Volume and other controls. Also, there are tracks that seem to have automated volume moves that I can't change (snaps back), yet in Volume view there is no volume line visible.

Do these tracks have automation on them? How do I tweak it? Is there a way to un-mute the silent tracks (they don't appear to be muted in the controls over on the left)? Is there a way to see everything about a track without flipping through a ton of drop-downs?

Also, how do I quickly mute/unmute a selected section? Can I automate muting moves?

Thanks a ton for any help. My ProTools book is back-ordered from Amazon and I hate squinting through massive pdf files. If anyone can point me to a short-cut sheet or in the right direction that would be great.

Thanks!

 

[bennychico11]

1) the "greyed out" tracks are disabled tracks. there can be several reasons why this might be. First check to make sure you have an output set on the track and also that the voice is set to "dyn" or "auto". If you look near the track name on the main window it will say dyn or off right now...and will probably be higlighted in blue. If you're using PT LE (which i'm assuming you are) also make sure you have not exceeded the 32 AUDIO track count that is allowed as the maximum. If you have, this is probably the reason why those tracks are inactive.

2) there probably are null points somewhere that are creating automation, but you just can't see them. try switching these tracks over to each automation mode and zooming out. you may notice a single null point way at the end of the project. pull out the selector tool and triple click on the track to select everything and press Delete.

3) to quickly unmute or mute a selection....well, you'll have to experiment which way is fastest for you. what i like to do is to automate the volume with it instead of automating the mute, since i know the quick key to get to the volume automation.
Select what you want to turn down, press the "-" button to switch over to volume automation and use the trim tool to trim the selected automation down. you can also just leave the volume automation view open and just make selections and trim them when needed....you dont always have to be in waveform view. Same with the mute automation view, you can just stay there and automate when needed.
Another way to mute is called the "regions mute" command. But you have to have an entire region selected. Instead of automating a mute it just makes the entire region greyed out so that playback doesn't read it (different than what track inactive is). To do this, select the region and press Ctrl+M (might be Command+M on mac).
You can also always WRITE automation while playing too. Some people like this instead. Just put the tracks into auto touch or auto write and play the song back. Press mute where you should and then you got it done.

4) I'm not sure what you meant by seeing everything on a track...do you mean seeing all the automation windows at once? If so, no...you pretty much only get one window at a time to toggle through, sorry.

the trick with PT is to get used to all the quick keys. it really helps in being efficient since there are a ton of different ways to do one thing. good luck.