FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting)
What do I do if Pro Tools freezes up?
First try pressing SPLAT-OPTION-ESC. This is supposed to force a quit of the program. You'll get a dialog asking if you want to Force Quit. Try to do so; with luck Pro Tools will quit. (In the case of a crash, Pro Tools will often perform an Auto-save of the session, giving this auto-save a specific name. Still, there are times when you may lose any work done since your last Save.)
The Force Quit procedure doesn't always work, in which case you're facing a system crash and must force a re-start of the Mac. To do this on Power Macs and Beige G3's, press CONTROL-SPLAT-POWER KEY. (The Power Key is that key at the upper right of the keyboard, that you press to start up the Mac.) The newer G-4's lack a Power Key, so you need to press the reboot button on the CPU.
Pro Tools stops playing and I get an error message that my drive "may be too slow or fragmented."
This often occurs if someone makes the mistake of opening a session directly from their Jaz or Zip disk and the session is then actually trying to play off the removable media. These removable cartridges simply aren't fast enough to keep up with the heavy demands of playing Pro Tools audio. Instead, you should copy your session from the Jaz/Zip to a drive/partition designated for audio, then open the session from the audio drive.
Note: To avoid this problem, it's good to get in the habit of ejecting the Jaz/Zip right after you've copied your session from it. Re-insert it only when you're ready to backup your data.
Weird lines that resemble graph paper appear in my Edit Window. Can I removed them?
Yes. You can either click on the little blue dot which is at the left edge of your timeline ruler, or you can go to Setups|Preferences|Display Menu and uncheck that business about "Draw Grid Lines in Edit Window."
Pro Tools won't play back from where I've positioned the cursor.
Make sure that your Edit and Timeline selections are linked. There's a rectangular button in the upper left part of the Edit window, just below the "Grid" button where the Shuffle-Spot-Slip-Grid buttons are. It should be highlighted. If not, click to highlight it. Or: go to the Operations Menu and check "Link Edit and Timeline Selection." For more details, click here.
When I play the session and press stop, the cursor won't go to where I stopped.
Look in the Setups|Preferences|Operations menu. "Timeline Insertion Follows Playback" should be checked.
When I scrub a region to locate the edit point, then release the mouse, the selector won't go to where I scrubbed.
Look in the Setups|Preferences|Operations menu. "Edit Insertion Follows Scrub/Shuttle" should be checked.
Sometimes Pro Tools starts to play from the cursor position and then immediately stops.
This can happen if, when you click on a point in a track, you accidentally slide the cursor ever so slightly as you click. This ends up making a very small highlighted region rather than a single point, and so Pro Tools tends to treat this as a very brief selection, playing it and then stopping. To avoid this, just try to make a very simple click with the selector.
Pro Tools keeps playing the same highlighted selection over and over. I just want to it play the selection once and then stop.
An option called "Loop Playback" is probably turned on. You can toggle it off by going to the Operations Menu.
How can I make the same edit in two or more tracks at the same time?
One method is to position the cursor/tool in one track, then hold down the SHIFT key while doing the same in another track or tracks. (For instance, you can trim two tracks at once in this way.)
It's especially common to want to have edits in one track "mirrored" in another when you're dealing with stereo pairs. In that case it's much easier to group the stereo tracks together in a pair; then making any edit you make in one track is automatically performed in both. (see below)
Just click on the track names of the tracks you'd like to group. This will highlight the track names. Now just press SPLAT-G. (Or from the menubar, select File|Group Tracks.) A dialog will prompt you to name the tracks. With stereo pairs, I like to simply label them "1/2" or "3/4" and so on.
New groups are active by default; you can deactivate them by deselecting them from the groups list in either the Edit or Mix windows. For more detail click here.
How can I select more than one region at a time in order to move them?
Hold down the SHIFT key as you click on regions with the Grabber. This will highlight the entire group and you can move them all together, keeping them in the same positions relative to each other.
I have a track that keeps clipping on the meter no matter how much I lower the fader level.
Chances are you're in the "Pre-Fader Metering" mode. Deselect it under the Operations Menu. (The fact that the clipping indicator was lighting up in the Pre-fader Metering mode means that the soundfile itself is clipped at some point. Listen to the section in question; sometimes a very brief digital clip isn't noticeable.)
I have stereo sounds but my mix sounds like it's in mono.
First check to see if it's a hardware problem; Pro Tools may be putting out a stereo mix but your analog mix panel and monitor chain may not be set up properly.
If the problem seems to be within Pro Tools, chances are you've forgotten to use the panning pots to assign some of your tracks so that they actually play fully Left and Right. If you create a an actual stereo track in the edit window, the left and right sides are automatically panned properly, so if you drag a stereo pair of audiofiles into the track the result will be stereo sound. But if you place that same pair of audiofiles in two mono tracks you must remember to pan the tracks. (The default setting for new mono tracks in a stereo session is for the pan pots to be positioned dead center. This results in equal levels in both left and right -- in other words, mono.)
Again: you have to do this assigning yourself; just bringing a pair of stereo files into the two mono tracks doesn't mean they will play in stereo. You can adjust the pan pots in the mix window, or if you have the I/O strip displayed in the edit window you can do it there.
Another possibility is that you're relying on automation to produce all your stereo effects and the automation has been turned off. Check your automation buttons to make sure they are in "auto read."
I went to re-open my session and got a message "Where is such-and-such audio?"
First, cancel the session opening process and make sure you have a backup of your session document before proceeding. For details on how to cope with potentially missing audio, click here.
I went to re-open my session and got a message "Where is fade__?"
Since Pro Tools can re-create missing fade files, this is not a big deal. Simply press the "Skip" button. If you get more such prompts, you can press "Skip All Fades." Pro Tools will re-create all the missing fades. For more detail, click here.
I found another copy of my session folder on a different drive/partition, but there's nothing in it but some fade files. What gives?
It's likely that some or all of your tracks had their Disk Allocation set for a different record drive than your actual session. So when you created a fade on that track, Pro Tools created a second session folder in which to store the fades.
This is a common symptom of neglecting to check Disk Allocation. Always double check it when creating new tracks or when re-opening a session that's been restored from a Jaz or copied from another drive.
In this case, the easiest way to deal with it is to re-open the session and properly assign the Disk Allocation. After you close the session, check the "bogus" session folder and make sure it contains only fades and no other audiofiles. Then trash the bogus folder. The next time you open the session, Pro Tools will prompt you about missing fades. Choose to "Skip All" and the fades should be re-created -- only this time they should end up in the proper fades folder.
Note: If you neglect to change the Disk Allocation before trashing the misplaced fades, Pro Tools will just re-create them and send them to the wrong place again.
I was about to back up my session, but when I looked in my audiofiles folder I noticed that files I created with Audiosuite plug-ins are missing.
Just like the preceeding question, this is likely the result of some mis-assigned Disk Allocation. Disk Allocation should be set so all tracks have a record drive that is the same as the drive where your session resides.
If you open a session that's on drive "A", and you create an Audiosuite file on a track that is mis-allocated to drive "B", Pro Tools will create a second version of your session folder on drive B, just to store this new audiofile.
This is disastrous if you back up your original session folder, convinced that you've backed up all your audio, and lose important files in the process. In this case, you spotted the problem in time.
The easiest fix is to open the misplaced Audio Files folder and copy the misplaced files to the proper Audio Files folder inside your true Session Folder. Then trash the "misplaced" versions of those files. When you re-open the session, Pro Tools will probably prompt you that it can't find those files. That's because the session instructions are still expecting to see those files on drive "B." Simply point Pro Tools toward the correct folder -- you may have to navigate to the files themelves and click "Look in Current Folder." Then your session should open with everything present and accounted for.
For more on dealing with missing files, click here.
Is there any way to thin out the regions list? It seems like there are hundreds of regions with "-01, -02, etc." tacked to the end of their names.
Many of these are "auto-created" regions -- that is, they're left-overs created each time you carve up some regions, and they get displayed whether or not you're using them in the session. To clear them, go to the Display menu and de-selected "Display Auto-Created Regions." This should thin the regions list considerably.
How do I get music off a CD into Pro Tools?
The easiest way is to use Toast Audio Extractor. (Go to the Apple Menu and Look in Audio Applications.) Remember that if you want bring the music into Pro Tools as stereo, you should select Sound Designer II and "Split" as your format. (Pro Tools needs two separate Left and Right files.)
For complete instructions on using Toast, click here.
How can I burn a music CD from a Pro Tools session?
First bounce your session down to one or more audiofiles, as appropriate. (Go to File|Bounce to Disk.)
Be sure you select 16 bit as your resolution. If it's a stereo bounce, select "Stereo Interleaved" for your format. Your session should be at a 44.1 kHz sample rate; if it is, select "None" under Bounce Options. (If it isn't, you'll want to do a "Convert After Bounce" and pick the appropriate settings.)
Later you can take the bounced audiofiles and burn them to CD using a program such as Adaptec Toast for Macintosh, or other similar programs.
For more on bouncing, click here.
I imported a movie with a frame rate of 29.97 and a 29.97 NDF timecode window burn. How can I position it precisely on the timeline so that my timeline display and timcode window burn agree?
First of all, if you're using Pro Tools LE rather than a TDM system, Digidesign has made your life much more difficult by removing the SMPTE timecode and Feet/Frames timelines, so the following applies principally to the TDM systems.
Step one is to precisely locate the leading edge of a specific frame in the movie. If your movie has a proper SMPTE leader on it, you can use a frame with a standard positional reference, such as the "2" frame of the countdown leader. (If not, you can use any frame and substitute its burn in location value for the numbers used in this example.)
Make sure you're working in the grid mode. In this example, we'll set our main timeline to display Feet/Frames (use Timecode if you prefer.)
Start off with your Nudge increments set to 1 frame. Navigate to the frame you're interested in. Let's suppose it's the "2" frame. In that case your SMPTE window burn probably says "nine seconds" from your session start, or 01:00:06:00. If you have a 35mm feet/frames window burn, it should say 9+00. To locate the exact frame edge, first place the cursor at 9+00, but not in the Movie track itself -- place it in an adjacent audio track, preferably an empty track.
[In Pro Tools 4.3 you could click directly on the movie itself to do this procedure; one of the quirks of version 5.x is that you get the message "Cannot nudge a partially selected video clip" when you attempt to do so.]
Now select a finer nudge value such as 1/4 frames. Use the "+" and "-" keys to nudge the cursor; you're looking for that precise increment where the movie burn in window turns from 8+15 into 9+00. When you've got it located to within a quarter frame, adjust the nudge value to a still finer increment and repeat the process. ("Sub-frame" is probably accurate enough, although you can continue right down to the sample level.)
When you have accurately placed the cursor on the leading edge of the 9+00 value, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Movie window itself. Now the cursor will be blinking at the correct spot on the Movie track. Press SPLAT-COMMA to create a sync reference point on the Movie. Now go into the Spot mode, click on the Movie with the Grabber and enter 9+00 in the Spot Window. This will shift the entire Movie window so that the sync reference point you just created on the "2" frame should be precisely placed on the timeline.
Now if you click around at random in your session, your Pro Tools location window displays should agree with the window dub burn in of your movie.
Once you're satisfied that you have the Movie positioned correctly, it's a good idea to lock the region in place. Highlight the Movie and press SPLAT-L. (Or go to the Edit Menu and select "Lock/Unlock region.)
[If you're working on a Pro Tools LE system, I can offer a somewhat clunky workaround. Set your timeline to read in minutes/seconds, with a grid value of 1 second. Go through the same procedure of locating the leading edge of the "2" frame. Spot the Movie so that the "2" frame will be at 6 seconds. Set your nudge units to samples and enter 1471 samples as your nudge value.
If you've done that, you should be able to nudge in increments of a single video frame, and your timecode window dub should indicate a change of a single frame each time you nudge the cursor. (The feet/frames window burn will not change accurately with this value.) So now you can spot sounds to picture with reasonable frame accuracy.
But here's the unsettling part: the location displays of minutes/seconds in Pro Tools will not agree with your window dub. That's because the Pro Tools display is measuring positions in "real time" and the timecode burn in, being non-drop frame, is not the same as real time. This is to be expected, though, since you're working at a "pulled down" speed.]
How can I sync up a region using something other than the start of the region as a reference point? (Such as the "peak" of a car by.)
First, locate the portion of the region that you want to use as a reference point. Position the cursor there, then press SPLAT-COMMA. A small triangular mark will appear within the region; this represents the sync point. To sync the region on the timeline so that the sync point ends up at the desired spot, you could use the SPOT EDIT MODE and type the appropriate location into the blank given for "sync point."
But it's much simpler to just place the cursor on the timeline where you want that region sync point to line up, then press SHIFT-CONTROL and click on the region with the GRABBER. This will make the region jump to the desired spot. (Remember that CONTROL-CLICKING with the GRABBER jumps the beginning of the region to the cursor position. This time you're SHIFT-CONTROL-CLICKING.)
By the way, you can make the end of the region jump to the cursor location by SPLAT-CONTROL-CLICKING the region with the GRABBER.
I made a sync point in a region but I can't get the region to correctly line up to the new position I've selected. I've done this lots of times with Pro Tools 4.3 but it's not working now.
The procedure is slightly different in Pro Tools 5.0 than in version 4.x -- and to complicate matters, the Digidesign manual gives an incorrect keystroke as the way to do it. Instead of simply CONTROL-CLICKING the region with the GRABBER as you did in version 4.x, you have to SHIFT-CONTROL-CLICK it. (Or, if you have a TDM system in the "Commands Focus Mode" you should be able to just press "J.")
The new procedure is supposed to give you more choices for region syncing, but it's confusing at first. [Especially since the Digidesign 5.x manual incorrectly gives the combo keystroke as "OPTION-CONTROL-CLICK." This will move a copy of the region, not the original, and it will sync to the start of the region, not the sync point.]
See the preceeding question for the complete procedure of creating a sync point in a region and getting the region repositioned on the timeline.
Copyright ©2000 by Rodger Pardee