Customer Reviews

Pro Tools 7 Session Secrets: Professional Recipes for High-Octane Results

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was prepared to be underwhelmed when I purchased this book online. A long time recordist/musician, I have only recently moved to Pro Tools as my primary recording instrument. I have become pretty adept and just needed something to provide "advice" for day-to-day use. This book is EXACTLY that. It's like having a friend who's a TRUE expert on the subject in a book. From providing step by step instructions on setting up a multichannel cue mix, to working Reason into PT, to providing professional grade plug-in combo "recipes" for channel strips, this books covers a LOT of material in its' 285 pages. If you are a Pro Tools user of ANY level, this book belongs on your shelf and in your hands. Don't miss out.

And no, I am not the author nor do I know him!

I've read any PT book I can get my hands on, worked on hundreds if not thousands of Pro Tools sessions and this is by far the best book there is out there.

1. Easy to read, logical flow, makes sense, real world tips and funny. This is the only book on PT that I've found that gives the reader information like this:

"Look this is how it is, I'm not going to give you every shortcut and detail that Pro Tools can and will do (that's what the reference guide is for) but what I will do is - Explain all the necessary information in a easy to understand and real world application. I will explain WHY you want to use Beat Detective and how to use it..." you get the drift

Without knowing, I went to take a class to get Pro Tools certified at the Bay Area Video Coalition in SF. When the instructor (Scott) had this book laying around I mentioned that I read it and loved it. He responded with "Oh yea?! I wrote it, and thanks for the compliment"

True story. Crazy though. He is a very nice guy and deserves more recognition for his work.

After completing my first Pro Tools class, I was ready to get out there and start recording. This book was the perfect complement to the information I learned in class and provided tips that were actually useful and helped me express my creative vision. Even with my somewhat limited knowledge of Pro Tools I was able to easily understand the concepts. This book is much more than a boring how to manual.

This book is an excellent guide for those who master Pro Tools and also for beginners. It not only teaches about tricks and tips about Pro Tools, but also gives important information on how to eq drums and position the mics, hot to use gate/expander, compressing and mastering the final track.
It is a complete recording manual.
A must-have for everyone who is in the recording world.

First note the sub-title of this book. This is not a beginners book that starts out with what the opening screen looks like. This is a book of hints, tips, undocumented features, nifty procedures that an expert can use to get a professional quality result quickly and easily.

To further explain this, here are the chapter headings:

Recording and Microphones
MICI with Confidence
Editing: Slip, Shuffle, and Spot your way Home
The Way of the Insert: Inserts and FX
Mixing in Pro Tools: Directing Audio Traffic
After the Bounce, or Life Outside of Pro Tools
Postproduction and the World of Surround.

As the author of the book says: 'the book takes a round trip through all the key stages of a Pro Tools session. Through this journey, you'll learn the fastest workflow techniques, professional power user tips, ideas on how to get specific sounds, expert suggestions on how to work more efficiently, and advanced insight into the new features of Pro Tools 7.'

After recording and mixing a few dozen sessions in PTLE 6.9, I consider myself an intermediate-level user. I've just upgraded to 7.4, which has a ton of new features, so I was looking for a book that explained techniques for 7.x. This isn't the pure 7.4 reference I was seeking, but in many ways it's more important - it's not about the raw mechanics and options, but it IS about tricks and techniques that let you do useful stuff. Especially stuff you might not have tried before. Having this book a year ago would have saved me a lot of time spent figuring out various things the hard way.

Areas I found especially helpful: (1) working with MIDI, instrument tracks, REX, and Reason (although no substitute for the Reason documentation); (2) setting up Aux tracks for plug-ins (e.g. creating a "channel strip" that actually works on input audio BEFORE it's recorded); (3) effective use of side chains, and dealing with plug-in latency. There were also other little tips that are helping me streamline my workflow, and bits of info that just help me understand PT 7 a bit better.

I wouldn't recommend this to a beginner as a sole introduction to PT, but I think it's useful to anybody with basic PT experience and might even help some advanced users. Also note that it's not truly a recording, mixing, or mastering handbook, although there is material that complements the books I have that are devoted to those subjects. Overall, it's very well written and edited, and I found the material easy to understand. One weakness is that it was published in 2006, so it doesn't cover features of more recent PT releases such as 7.3 and 7.4. Can't have everything...

I had used Cubase Studio for quite some time so I was familiar with DAWs. I needed to switch to ProTools to be compatible with other projects I was working on and I needed to come up to speed fast.

I purchased the ProTools 101 book and the ProTools Session Secrets and I had all of the information I needed close at hand. Easy to read and good graphic samples thatr help you gain a quick understanding.

Don't worry too much that it says it's for version 7 of ProTools. Although I'll probably buy the version 8 book as soon as it comes out, there wasn't much missing from the book that I couldn't find in either the 101 book or the helpfile PDF that came with the install (OK, I understand the whole save-a-tree thing but having to flip back and forth between a session project and a PDF file is NOT the same as having a book in front of you).

A very good, basic level manual if you know absolutely nothing about recording and the tools used in the profession.

This is a great no-nonsense how-to guide for those with an intermediate knowledge of Pro Tools. I started with the Musician's Guide to Pro Tools, which is much more beginner oriented and hands-on and then picked this up as a supplement. Both are great publications that interface well with each other. There are a few tips in here that made this worth the money on their own, but together it is a well written and quick reading reference that any home studio Pro Tools user should consider picking up.

This is an excellent resource for the Pro Tools user. It is written with wit and humor and provides expert advice to anyone - beginner to seasoned - using Pro Tools.