Pro Tools – Shortcut of the Week (2009.07.06)

Pro Tools is a strong multi-track editing program, but unless you’re willing to drop some change on a custom keyboard, it can be tough to learn all the keyboard shortcuts. I’m featuring one a week in an attempt to highlight the tricks I find most useful.

Loop Record: Option+L

Prior to Pro Tools version 8, I never found Loop Record to be that useful. There were two distinct work flows for handling multiple takes: Loop Record, which created multiple regions stacked on top of each other, and playlists, which did not allow for loop recording but allowed you to flip between takes easily. I preferred playlists, because of the simplicity of the visual management. When a performer messed up a take, you could stop it and start back at the top without waiting for the loop.

With Pro Tools 8, you can configure your preferences to create a new playlist with every loop of the recording (“Automatically create new playlists when loop recording”). With this option, loop recording is suddenly of use to me. I can set up a performer to give me three takes back to back, letting them get into it and giving me consistent performances to comp between.