Planning and Preparing Sessions

Before opening Pro Tools or any Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), it’s important to set up your project for success. A well-planned, prepared, and laid-out session will save you hassle and frustration down the line when you’re trying to locate and manipulate sounds within the mix. Knowing the ins and outs of track routing and management will mean you can focus more of your time on the creative elements of your project, and you’ll also be able to confidently share your sessions with collaborators, knowing they’ll understand the session structure. Finally, a well-structured session will ensure that, should you revisit a project, you’ll be easily able to pick up where you left off. You may find yourself having to revisit a session years after the fact or refer to it for another project, and you’ll thank yourself for your diligence.

In this chapter, we’ll go over planning your audio project, setting up...