ProTools 7.3 Colored Tracks

[wedge]

I saw a screen grab in a recording magazine recently that showed an "undocumented" feature in the new version of PTs 7.3; namely, the ability the color the entire fader track whatever color you wish it to be, whilst in mix mode. I've always wanted this, and yet the article didn't explain how to do it... Any of youse know how?

[GooberNumber9]

I was just messing with this today and I didn't get it to do what I wanted. You might want to check out the color options in Setup > Preferences. I also noticed today that when you double-click the color bars on a track and bring up the color palatte window, there is a drop-down option that lets you select what you want to change the color of.

I made my first region groups today and I don't totally understand them, but I was disappointed at my inability to change their colors. Time to RTFM for me.

Todd Wilcox

[wedge]

I just found this on the duc...

http://tinyurl.com/ywrl9e

'splains a lot, Lucy!

[ceilingcat84]

yeah that's a weird feature, though not entirely useless. Last week I used 7.3 and someone had made all the track colors really bright and i couldn't figure out how to change it back. started to give me a headache.

[GooberNumber9]

I was VERY skeptical about this feature and I wasn't planning to use it. Then a friend came over with a 25+ track mix. I figured what the heck. So I color coded all the guitars the same, drums the same, etc. Then I did the trick where you make the tracks show the colors.

Boy did that help make sense of the mix. Then I made memory locations for each group (i.e., a location that shows all the gutiar tracks, guitar verb, guitar master, and master fader; same for drums, etc.).

Long story short, what seemed like a very messy and annoying session file because a joy to mix with just a few minutes work setting up the workflow. I'm sold on it.

Todd Wilcox

PS: in case you are wondering, to do this you open the color palatte, press ALL of the modifier keys (CTRL+ALT+Start+Shift on Windows) and click and drag any color upwards. The higher you drag the more saturated the colors of the tracks becomes. Drag all the way down to go back to grey.

[wedge]

Then I made memory locations for each group (i.e., a location that shows all the gutiar tracks, guitar verb, guitar master, and master fader; same for drums, etc.).

I'm not sure what this means... Is this a new function, or something that I should already know about?

[leigh]

I just found this on the duc...

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php? ... ums&Words=
%2B7.3%20%2Bcolor%20%2Btrack&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=1102947&
Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=1&newerval=4&newertype=
w&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post1103658

'splains a lot, Lucy!

This kind of link (i.e. LONG, horizontal-scrolling) is a good one to use Tiny URL on:

http://tinyurl.com/ywrl9e

Please replace it in your post when you get a chance!

Leigh

[GooberNumber9]

Then I made memory locations for each group (i.e., a location that shows all the gutiar tracks, guitar verb, guitar master, and master fader; same for drums, etc.).

I'm not sure what this means... Is this a new function, or something that I should already know about?

Oh, you gotta try this if you haven't yet. It's best on big mixes, but you can use it for all kinds of stuff. Here's what you do:

1) Hide all of your tracks in your session except the drum tracks, drum submaster, and master fader. If you want, change your zoom settings in the edit window and generally make ProTools look the way you want it to for mixing drums.
2) Create a new memory location (enter on the numeric keypad). Select "None" for the first radio button, name the location something like "Drum Mixing" and then check the options you want. You definitely want "Track Show/Hides" and probably "Group Enables".
3) Repeat the above process for Guitars (or whatever else you have a group of, vocals, keys, orchestra, whatever).
4) Now you can instantly see just the drum tracks. Suppose the Drums location is location #1. Press . 1 . on the numeric keypad and suddenly you're looking at drums. Then . 2 . to look at guitars, etc.

I like to also make a master faders memory location, so I can see my master faders (and usually reverbs) all together.

That whole thing is also awesome for tracking. Like I might have a location for recording guitars that has the click track, drum master, bass track, and guitar track that will be recorded to showing. I also usually have a selection for recording so I can use the matching start times takes list for comping. If I come back to the session another day and want to do more takes, I just recall the mem location and I have all my tracks for mixing the headphone mix and the recording selection right there.

Todd Wilcox

[wedge]

I'm definitely gunna try this... Sounds like another big time-saver... Thanks for the description...