Good morning children! Today we're going to talk about
creating your own Pro Tools shortcuts.
Pro Tools has a lot of built-in shortcuts,
an enormous amount actually.
And we have a video about that.
But there are things that the good people at Avid
thought you would not need.
But you still do. So here's a way around that.
The first thing you need to do is go to
your little apple on the upper left corner here...
System Preferences.
You have now the System Preferences Dashboard.
Hit Keyboard.
Hit Keyboard Shortcuts. Here you go.
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.
Now we can go to Application Shortcuts.
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.
And I'd rather be able to update my automation than show my help menu.
The next step is to go back to Pro Tools
and pick something that you wanna automate.
I use the Color Palette a lot in Pro Tools.
But there's no shortcut for it so I'm gonna make one.
I have to go into the menu and find it.
It's in 'Window'...
Color Palette.
You have to memorize exactly how it's written.
It's exactly how it's written.
I see Color...
Palette, takes to Ts.
I go back to my System Preferences.
Click the little + here.
And then you have to select your application.
Oddly enough,
because Pro Tools is contained within a folder,
it's not in the list. So you have to click 'Other'.
And then go into the folder, and then...
Select it. Yes, I have a lot of applications.
Pro Tools, 'Add'.
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.
Add.
So now, every time Pro Tools is forward
and you hit Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+C,
your Palette comes up.
Isn't that wonderful?
Another function in the same menu that I use all the time is 'System Usage'.
I use Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+U for usage.
I'm in and out that window 20 times a session, it's worth a shortcut.
In the 'Setup' menu I use 'Hardware' and 'Playback Engine' a lot.
The Playback Engine because of the delay compensation, short or long,
and the number of voices and stuff like that.
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.
The system wants to see the exact name.
If you don't enter the three little dots in the Playback Engine name
Pro Tools will not recognize the shortcut.
My shortcut for Playback Engine is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+P.
I actually use Ctrl+Opt+Cmd for all my personal shortcuts.
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.
In the 'Setup' menu, I always create a shortcut for the I/O setup.
Here.
I'm in and out of that window about 700 million times per session
so it's worth a shortcut.
My shortcut is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+I.
Another shortcut I always setup is 'Save as'.
It's in 'File' menu...
And it's 'Save As...'
With the capital A.
I chose the shortcut Shift+Opt+S.
Because that's what it is in most pieces of software
and I don't wanna memorize a different one for Pro Tools.
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.
For example, here in the Window setup,
my Color Palette is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+C.
My 'System Usage' Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+S.
In my 'Setup', my I/O is Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+I.
And my 'Save as' is Opt+Shift+S.
That's it.
So there you have it.
You know how to play God and create your own
shortcuts in Pro Tools on a Mac.
It's time for you to go cut something short.
Et Voilà!