Keyboard shortcuts are essential to become a Pro Tools ninja. But sometimes there's one missing. Rest assured, your nightmare is now officially over, you can create your own!
In this video, Pro Tools expert Fab Dupont will show you how to create your own shortcuts so you can customize your set up even further. Watch this video to save yourself countless clicks & scrolls and crank your Pro Tools skills up another notch.
Shortcut creation doesn't just work on Pro Tools but with every program on a Mac!
00:00:07 Good morning children!
Today we're going to talk about
creating your own
Pro Tools shortcuts.
00:00:12 Pro Tools has a lot of
built-in shortcuts,
an enormous amount actually.
00:00:15 And we have a video about that.
00:00:17 But there are things
that the good people at Avid
thought you would not need.
00:00:20 But you still do.
So here's a way around that.
00:00:24 The first thing you
need to do is go to
your little apple on the
upper left corner here...
00:00:28 System Preferences.
00:00:30 You have now the
System Preferences Dashboard.
00:00:33 Hit Keyboard.
00:00:35 Hit Keyboard Shortcuts.
Here you go.
00:00:38 Before we create our own shortcut,
why don't we go to Spotlight
and remove
'Show Spotlight search field'
being Cmd+Space
because that's also
Record in Pro Tools
and it's a conflict
and it sucks.
00:00:49 Now we can go to
Application Shortcuts.
00:00:52 While you're here, disable
the 'Show Help menu'
because that conflicts with
the 'Update Automation' shortcut
in Pro Tools.
And it's very handy.
00:00:59 And I'd rather be able to update
my automation than show my help menu.
00:01:03 The next step is to
go back to Pro Tools
and pick something that
you wanna automate.
00:01:09 I use the Color Palette a lot
in Pro Tools.
00:01:11 But there's no shortcut for
it so I'm gonna make one.
00:01:13 I have to go into the
menu and find it.
00:01:15 It's in 'Window'...
00:01:17 Color Palette.
00:01:18 You have to memorize exactly
how it's written.
00:01:21 It's exactly how it's written.
00:01:23 I see Color...
00:01:25 Palette, takes to Ts.
00:01:27 I go back to my
System Preferences.
00:01:32 Click the little + here.
00:01:35 And then you have to
select your application.
00:01:38 Oddly enough,
because Pro Tools is contained
within a folder,
it's not in the list.
So you have to click 'Other'.
00:01:45 And then go into the folder,
and then...
00:01:50 Select it. Yes, I have
a lot of applications.
00:01:53 Pro Tools, 'Add'.
00:01:54 So now I'm telling the system,
for the application Pro Tools,
and the menu called
'Color Palette', with two Ts,
I would like my keyboard
shortcut to be,
I don't know, something that
is not used anywhere else,
for example
Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+C.
00:02:11 Add.
00:02:13 So now, every time
Pro Tools is forward
and you hit
Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+C,
your Palette comes up.
00:02:20 Isn't that wonderful?
Another function in the same menu
that I use all the time is 'System Usage'.
00:02:27 I use Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+U for usage.
00:02:31 I'm in and out that window 20 times
a session, it's worth a shortcut.
00:02:36 In the 'Setup' menu I use
'Hardware' and 'Playback Engine' a lot.
00:02:41 The Playback Engine because of the
delay compensation, short or long,
and the number of voices
and stuff like that.
00:02:47 You have to be careful when you
set up the Playback Engine one,
it does wanna see the three little dots
after, they're not just for decoration.
00:02:53 The system wants to
see the exact name.
00:02:56 If you don't enter the three little
dots in the Playback Engine name
Pro Tools will not
recognize the shortcut.
00:03:02 My shortcut for Playback Engine
is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+P.
00:03:06 I actually use Ctrl+Opt+Cmd
for all my personal shortcuts.
00:03:09 That way I know it's always
the start of my shortcut,
I don't have to think too much
because I don't like to think.
00:03:15 In the 'Setup' menu, I always
create a shortcut for the I/O setup.
00:03:19 Here.
00:03:20 I'm in and out of that window
about 700 million times per session
so it's worth a shortcut.
00:03:24 My shortcut is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+I.
00:03:29 Another shortcut I always
setup is 'Save as'.
00:03:31 It's in 'File' menu...
00:03:33 And it's 'Save As...'
With the capital A.
00:03:37 I chose the shortcut
Shift+Opt+S.
00:03:40 Because that's what it is
in most pieces of software
and I don't wanna memorize
a different one for Pro Tools.
00:03:46 The good thing is
that, in case you get confused
and you forget
what you just setup,
Pro Tools has the good taste
of reminding you your choices.
00:03:53 For example, here in
the Window setup,
my Color Palette is
Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+C.
00:03:59 My 'System Usage'
Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+S.
00:04:02 In my 'Setup', my I/O
is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+I.
00:04:06 And my 'Save as' is
Opt+Shift+S.
00:04:10 That's it.
00:04:12 So there you have it.
00:04:14 You know how to play
God and create your own
shortcuts in Pro Tools on a Mac.
00:04:17 It's time for you to
go cut something short.
00:04:19 Et Voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has been nominated for Grammys 6 times, including two Latin Grammys and has received many other accolades around the world, including Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards and US independent music awards.
This is nice to see, however, sorry, my machine is on Windows. So the procedures are different, and I'd need a "translation" from MacOS to Win 10. Sorry.
Or is there already? Please if so, state link. Thankx.
guitardude
2017 Aug 22
Amazing Thanks!!!
filch
2017 Mar 09
What about on menus with fly outs like Snap To Previous or Snap To Next?
Dave
filch
2017 Mar 09
What about on menus with flights like Snap To Previous or Snap To Next?
Dave
gseshleman
2017 Feb 17
Great video!!! I've made a few custom shortcuts including the ones that Fab demonstrated in the video; but some shortcuts that I've made do not seem to work. So I have one question: is there any way to determine whether a key combination is already assigned to another command - a kind of reverse lookup?
jhonhiguera
2016 Jul 21
Amazing!!! Thanks!
danielteo
2016 May 05
Omg, finally, thanks Fab!
danielcompositor
2016 Apr 08
i been trying to apply this shortcut thing it seems not to work i am on pro tools 10 with mavericks it won't do nothing after i assign the command?
seedee701
2015 Dec 23
great info, fab!
color palette, I/O, save as
so strange, we all need the same features, still avid is not hearing us. it been years i missed those...
good to have a workaround!
many thanx
p.s.
i do program launches (and much more) with a little app called spark
freewind1974
2015 Dec 22
Very nice!
Creating shortcuts works only for the upper menu bar items, right?
Is there a way for creating shortcuts for right-click menus also? For groups, clips, etc.?
Thanks!
benlindell
2015 Dec 18
@Mdwhitaker
Sub-menu items you can set up the same way as regular menu items, just create a shortcut for "Separate Clip" and you'll be good.
Mdwhitaker
2015 Dec 18
Thanks!
How do you add shortcuts for menu items that have the little arrow in sub folder - such as, Separate Clip?
mike_strong
2015 Dec 14
Hi Fab, I know this isn't the comment section of the MIXCHECK...because there isn't one!
But if I may, I would really like to make a MixCheck request (because I totally dig your MixChecks)...can you please explain the mixing of "Where have you been" by Rihanna? As you once said it so eloquently: I have been pressing my ears againt my headphones for a while, trying to find out what tricks they used - especially the psycho-acoustic tricks! And I just can't figure it out! Please, Obi-Fab Kenobi! You're our only hope! :) Thanks!!!!
JoiAsm
2015 Dec 14
Many Thanks. Very useful.
Rosewood
2015 Dec 13
Nice!
kenrick
2015 Dec 13
Great video! but how would you do this on a PC... Thanks again...
wbherrin
2015 Dec 12
Well done.
silakov1987
2015 Dec 10
Cooool!
msloan
2015 Dec 05
wow, what a great video! thanks!
heli667
2015 Dec 01
Very God !
BillCammack
2015 Nov 30
Very useful! :) Thanks, Fab! :D
bay0bridge
2015 Nov 30
Wow, good video Fab, I didn't knew about this feature!
I can add another suggestion, but it's using a third party application: DTouch.
http://www.deviltechnologies.com/index.php/dtouch-for-pro-tools-v1
It can create Macro buttons that fire shortcuts, launches Pro Tools menus and much much more.. And it gives touch capability to your Mac!
I bought the app about two months ago, and its price is nothing compared to my increase in Productivity.
Keep up the good work Fab!
