45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
1 of a kind book on Pro Tools showing details of useful tasks, April 25, 2006
This review is from: Pro Tools for Musicians and Songwriters (Paperback)
Pro Tools is a Digital Audio Workstation by Digidesign for music production and digital audio editing. It is widely used to create audio for film, television, and music and serves as the de facto standard in those industries. As one of the first programs to provide CD-quality (16-bit and 44.1 kHz) multitrack editing on a personal computer, use of Pro Tools has quickly grown in the sound recording field. It originally became popular because of its simple, streamlined interface for non-linear, non-destructive audio editing. This appealed to analog producers making the switch to computer-based production. Thus, now just about anyone can have the power of a recording studio on their personal computer, thus eliminating much of the need for expensive professional recording time.
Most books on Pro Tools are really dumbed down and basically just show you what interfaces and controls do what without giving you the big picture. None of them up to this book show artists how to use this computing package to assist them in their craft. I really liked this book's readable style coupled with useful graphics on all of the controls, as well as tips on recording techniques. It is suitable for Pro Tools novices as well as those already familiar with the controls since the book takes you from the basics into adding your own plug-ins, working with MIDI, arranging and recording your own music, and finally exporting your music to CD or to the Internet.
I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here. As you can see from the table of contents, much of the book concentrates on exercises so that you get plenty of hands-on experience.
1: GETTING STARTED 2
The First Step 3
EXERCISE 1: Start a New Session 3
Fasten Your Seatbelts 9
EXERCISE 2: Create Your First Track 9
EXERCISE 3: Add Your First Plug-in 12
EXERCISE 4: Change the Click Sound and Volume 14
EXERCISE 5: Change the Tempo 17
EXERCISE 6: Get to Know the Ruler Timeline 18
Wrap Up 19
2: LOOPS & RECORDING 20
The Upside of Downloading 21
EXERCISE 1: Download Loops 21
EXERCISE 2: Import Loops into Pro Tools 24
EXERCISE 3: Resize and Move Tracks 26
EXERCISE 4: Mute, Solo, Pan, and Volume 29
EXERCISE 5: Repeat Audio Loops 31
Intro to Recording 34
EXERCISE 6: Prepare to Record 35
EXERCISE 7: Record Your Track 40
EXERCISE 8: Punch In and Punch Out 44
Manually
EXERCISE 9: Automated Punch-In and 45
Punch-Out
Wrap Up 48
3: THE EDIT WINDOW 50
EXERCISE 1: Import Audio a New Way 51
EXERCISE 2: Use the Zoomer 55
EXERCISE 3: Use the Grabber in Grid Mode 60
EXERCISE 4: Create a Snare Track and a Hi-Hat Track 66
EXERCISE 5: Use the Trimmer with Slip Mode and Spot Mode 73
EXERCISE 6: Change Timebase 80
EXERCISE 7: Use the TCE Trimmer 84
EXERCISE 8: Use Shuffle Mode 88
Wrap Up 94
4: PLAYLISTS & MARKERS 96
EXERCISE 1: Use Save Copy In 97
Working with Playlists 100
EXERCISE 2: Record with Playlists 101
EXERCISE 3: Record Four Playlists 105
EXERCISE 4: Create a Composite with Playlists 109
Markers and Memory Locations 114
EXERCISE 5: Create and Use Markers and Memory Locations 114
The Secret to Doubling 118
EXERCISE 6: Try Out Doubling 118
Wrap Up 123
5: USING PLUG-INS 124
Two Types of Plug-Ins 125
The Anatomy of an EQ 126
EXERCISE 1: Add a 1-Band EQ 127
EXERCISE 2: Repair the Snare 132
EXERCISE 3: Add More EQ 135
EXERCISE 4: Copy, Mute, and Move Plug-ins 142
Wrap Up 144
6: INSERTS & BUSSES 146
EXERCISE 1: Use a Reverb as an Insert (the Wrong Way) 147
EXERCISE 2: Use Reverb on a Bus (the Right Way) 153
EXERCISE 3: Remove Inserts and Sends 158
EXERCISE 4: Name Your Busses 160
EXERCISE 5: Use a Delay 164
EXERCISE 6: Use Solo Safe 170
Compression 172
EXERCISE 7: Tackle the Compression Plug-in 173
Wrap Up 179
7: MIDI TRACKS 110
EXERCISE 1: Download and Install SampleTank Free 181
EXERCISE 2: Download SampleTank Sounds 187
What Is SampleTank? 190
About Virtual Instruments 191
EXERCISE 3: Testing MIDI, 1 2 3 191
EXERCISE 4: Authorize SampleTank 194
EXERCISE 5: SampleTank and Instrument Tracks 197
EXERCISE 6: Record Multiple MIDI Tracks 202
EXERCISE 7: Record a Bass Line 209
Wrap Up 215
8: MORE ON MIDI 216
EXERCISE 1: Set Up a Keyboard Track 217
EXERCISE 2: Change the Song Start Time and Create a Count-Off 219
EXERCISE 3: Adjust Real-lime Properties 222
EXERCISE 4: Edit MIDI Properties Manually 226
EXERCISE 5: Work with Region Groups and Transposing 231
EXERCISE 6: Work with Mix and Edit Groups 235
EXERCISE 7: Use Mirror MIDI Editing 240
EXERCISE 8: Create a Shaker Track with Pencil Tools 243
EXERCISE 9: Use Step Recording 249
EXERCISE 10: Record in MIDI Merge Mode 253
Wrap Up 255
9: ARRANGING A SONG 256
EXERCISE 1: Create the Song's Markers 257
EXERCISE 2: Create a Song Arrangement 263
EXERCISE 3: Hide Tracks and Use Groups 271
EXERCISE 4: Finish Arranging the Song 276
Wrap Up 285
10: TIPS & TOOLS 286
EXERCISE 1: Prepare a New Session 288
EXERCISE 2: Change the Meter and Find the Tempo 292
EXERCISE 3: Change the Tempo 295
EXERCISE 4: Import and Fix More Loops 298
EXERCISE 5: Create Region Groups and Assign Colors 305
EXERCISE 6: Use Shuffle Mode 310
EXERCISE 7: Create Markers in Playback 315
EXERCISE 8: Use Loop Recording 318
EXERCISE 9: Create a Composite with Looped Recording 322
EXERCISE 10: Crossfades, Fades, and Editing Tips 326
EXERCISE 11: Punch In with QuickPunch 330
EXERCISE 12: Using REX Files 333
EXERCISE 13: Create Groups Within Groups 336
EXERCISE 14: Save Copy In 341
EXERCISE 15: Delete Unused Audio 344
Wrap Up 345
11: AUTOMATE & MIX 346
EXERCISE 1: Download and Install the Waves Plug-In 348
EXERCISE 2: Increase Your Hardware Buffer Size 351
EXERCISE 3: Set Up Your Effects 352
EXERCISE 4: Print a MIDI Track to Audio 355
EXERCISE 5: Shift the EP Audio Track 361
EXERCISE 6: Using the SuperTap Delay and Bussing Effects 368
EXERCISE 7: Intro to Automation 379
EXERCISE 8: Use Timeline Insertion 385
EXERCISE 9: Automate Plug-Ins 388
EXERCISE 10: Use AudioSuite Plug-Ins 394
EXERCISE 11: Automate a Send 397
EXERCISE 12: Tidy Up Your Tracks 401
EXERCISE 13: Create a Master Fader 408
EXERCISE 14: Use Mix Bus Compression 409
EXERCISE 15: Bounce to Disk 412
EXERCISE 16: Burn a CD 415
Wrap Up 419
12:...
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best for Pro Tools..., June 5, 2006
This review is from: Pro Tools for Musicians and Songwriters (Paperback)
If you like tutorials, (and why wouldn't you for learning material?), and you're new to Pro Tools (and there are a LOT of new users out there with the release of M-Powered Pro Tools), then this is THE book to own. Trust me, I've read them all. Gina's book goes a HUGE way in giving the user the confidence and skills to handle all but the most advanced in Pro Tools techniques. Honestly, Pro Tools is probably the easiest DAW out there (when compared to Logic Pro, Cubase, Live, Digital Performer, etc...) to master, but it amazed me to read so many books on Pro Tools written by authors who just could not write a cohesive text that truly served to educate the reader--so many seemed like English 101 plagiarisms of Digidesign's Manual rewritten just enough to perhaps fool the instructor! To prevent embarassment for other authors, I won't list them here, but just suffice it to say that if it isn't written by Fant-Saez or isn't the Digidesign 101 book, then it ain't too good unless it is deemed a "reference" book.
I won't go into detail about the contents of this book, as that has already been done by other reviewers. This book has a pleasant style, well thought out tutorials, great graphics, and goes beyond the call of duty into the "intermediate user" territory towards the end. A highly valuable resource!
That said, I have to disagree in a big way with some of Gina's editorial about Production techniques. From the beginning, she says to ONLY record with drummers using a click track. In fact, she goes as far to say that if your drummer will not play to a click, then get a new drummer! I think that this advice is ludicrous. She also claims that over 90% of production today is done to a click track! Maybe electronic music...but NOT rock n' roll, baby! Not at all. Ask Matt Cameron, the Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, AC/DC, Jet, etc... what they think about click tracks...it has been documented in texts by engineers and others that these guys/girls DO NOT use click tracks...I just hope that her statements in this book do not kill someone's idea or dream of drumming just because they choose to be "organic" and to have a sound that "lives and breathes" instead of rigidly following some synthetic crystal-controlled machine...
Off of soapbox now, I can highly recommend this book!
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