Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Pro Tools: The world's leading digital audio workstation
2. Using Pro Tools
3. Time Operations, Tempo Operations, and Key Signatures
4. Working with MIDI
5. Recording
6. Editing
7. Mixing
Appendix: Summing Mixers

About the Author

Mike Collins (Author)
Mike Collins is a studio musician, recording engineer and producer with more than 30 years experience of making records. He has many credits on UK chart singles and albums, for radio and TV broadcasts, advertising jingles and movie scores.

Mike was awarded a BSc Degree in Electroacoustics-with-Music from Salford University in 1979, became a Member of the Audio Engineering Society in 1980, and was awarded an MSc Degree in Music Information Technology, with Distinction, in 1989.

After graduating, he spent 14 months working on transducer designs for Standard Telephones and Cables (STC), followed by a couple of 6-month stints as a Planning & Installation Engineer for Neve Electronics and as a Film Sound Consultant for Dolby Labs, before joining Yamaha's London R & D Studio in 1986 as Senior Recording Engineer and Music Technology Specialist.

Working freelance since 1988, Mike has regularly reviewed music and audio software and hardware and written about a variety of audio and music production topics, with more than 2000 articles and reviews published in Pro Sound News Europe, Future Music, Computer Music, Macworld, MacUser, Personal Computer World, Sound On Sound, AudioMedia, Studio Sound, Electronic Musician, EQ, MIX and similar publications.

In parallel with this, Mike established a career throughout the 1990's as a studio musician, MIDI programmer, recording engineer and producer working on Top 40 albums and singles in the leading London recording studios including Abbey Road, Mayfair, Townhouse, Eden, Strongroom and Sony Whitfield Street Studios, CTS and Lansdowne Studios. In 1997, Mike set up a project studio equipped with a high-end Pro Tools system and has since been involved in everything from dance remixes to TV ads, background and featured music for TV and video, album editing and compilation, and, since 1999, producing jazz, blues and soul recordings. Notable projects include working on music for a Deutsche Bank promotional video, co-production credits on Ayetoro, an experimental jazz/Afrobeat album, and, in 2010, working as a freelance audio transfer engineer at Iron Mountain's studio facility in Slough, helping to digitize Universal Music's vast library of master tape recordings. Most recently, Mike has set up a 'boutique' record label to release recordings he has produced - see http://rudenoterecords.com/author/rudenoterecords/

Reviews

"Mike has done it again, producing a very readable book, full of insights and tips, written in his usual clear and never dull style. I particularly love the notes in grey boxes: practical observations representing Mike's distillation of several decades spent producing, composing, arranging, editing, mixing and performing music. How lucky we are that he has written this book for the rest of us!" -- Dario Marianelli, one of he UK's leading film composers with an Oscar to his credit for 'Atonement' and an Oscar nomination for 'Pride & Prejudice'. "Anyone starting out with Pro Tools or who wants to expand their knowledge of the software will find this book very beneficial. The mixing chapter is most impressive. It covers every aspect from setting up your monitoring to lining up outboard gear, to when you grab the faders and look at the meters - and what those meters mean! All the new features of PT8 for music production are covered in detail. The book also includes lots of timesaving shortcuts that will help on busy sessions." -- John Leckie, one of the UK's most successful record producers, has worked with bands and artists as diverse as Radiohead, Simple Minds, Baaba Maal and Dr. John. "Recording to tape is no longer practical for most producers and musicians, many of whom still don't understand the language of digital recording. This book, written by a musician, uses language that music professionals will understand. It will really help people like me to get up to speed with Pro Tools 8 so we will be much better prepared to achieve our goals in the studio. One of the biggest problems with recordings made this century is that they don't sound as good as those from the previous 50 years because they are totally lacking in dynamics: the music has stopped 'breathing'. The mixing chapter in this book will help you to understand how to retain that vital essence of dynamics in your music, so that tomorrow's recordings can 'breathe' again." -- Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick is the producer and leader of Jazz/Funk/Soul band Incognito who has also produced albums for George Benson, Maysa, Terry Callier and others. "I am 38 years into learning how to play the saxophone and frankly don't have time to sit through long-winded, badly written, unimaginative manuals. Once again, Mike Collins writes about using Pro Tools in easy-to-understand, dynamic and creative language aimed at those of us who have lots of other things on our plates. Mike brings this process to life in a way that, more than once, has made me put my horn down and try something out on Pro Tools that I hadn't tried before! Bravo Mike." -- US Saxophone 'star' Kirk Whalum has recorded and performed with Quincy Jones, Nancy Wilson, Al Jarreau, Barbara Streisand and on several movie soundtracks including Whitney Houston's "The Bodyguard".