In addition to the traditional Pro Tools Sample Peak ballistic, the different meter types include Linear, RMS, VU, and various PPM ballistics, and also provide the three integrated RMS/Peak scales of Bob Katz’s K-metering standard, for optimizing average overall levels in mixing and mastering. This is a collection of options for different meter ballistics, which can be very helpful in various situations, especially for Post-Production work. Metering for the massesįinally, HD’s Advanced Metering feature is also now available to standard Pro Tools users. I find this much more convenient in some situations, and the separate VCA Master tracks can themselves be organized for more efficient access-overall, another very welcome addition. It can also toggle the Record-Enable status of tracks in the Group that have already been record-enabled, and also toggle the Input Monitor status of those record-enabled tracks.įig 4 A VCA Master assigned to a Group of three tracksĪ big difference from using the traditional Group method of controlling several tracks at once is that, in the older Group approach, if you want to edit an individual track within the Group, you have to temporarily disable or Suspend the Group, but when the Group is assigned a VCA Master, you can still adjust individual tracks independently, even while they’re under the control of the VCA Master. You assign a VCA Master to a regular Pro Tools Group, in the Group dialog, and it can control Mute and Solo functions as well as Volume and Pan. But unlike a traditional VCA Master, the faders on the Grouped tracks assigned to it also move (proportionally), so you always have a visual of the individual track levels. A VCA Master track doesn’t pass audio-it works kind of like a traditional console VCA Fader, acting as a Group master control, without having to bus the tracks in the Group through a subgroup Aux. This is an alternative to Pro Tools’ traditional approach to Grouping tracks. Standard-edition Pro Tools users can now also avail themselves of VCA Master tracks. This can be done for multiple selected tracks at once, thanks to an option at the bottom of the Copy to Send dialog box.
Fig 3 New AFL and PFL Solo options are added to the standard Solo-In-Place Copy to SendĪdditional conveniences include the Copy to Send command, which lets you quickly duplicate both static mix data (Volume/Pan/Mute) and dynamic Automation data in the main Track to a Send, which can come in handy when, say, setting up independent headphone mixes that need to mirror the main track.