|
A colleague recently directed me to a comprehensive collection of Mac keyboard shortcuts, many of which are not widely known. The list is available at the website of software developer, computer consultant and author Dave Polaschek The site offers dozens of shortcuts, many very specialized. Here are a few of my favorites:
Don't forget that the Option and Control keys, when held down with other keys, will yield a large assortment of symbols and unusual characters. Visit the Keycaps application in the Apple menu to explore all the possibilities. Memory is Cheap I recently experienced the "thrill" of living through a ProControl feature temp mix on a major lot, with some 70 tracks of dialogue, effects and non-stop music playing through a single Pro Tools. In hindsight, with this much material and this little time, we probably should have been
What made it such a terror, er, joy, was that we were inadvertently running the lone G4 with far too little RAM assigned to Pro Tools, so we spent more time crashing than mixing for way too long. Once we doubled the RAM allocation our troubles disappeared, and we made it to the preview by the skin of our teeth, just a little older and grayer.
The moral of this tale: Take advantage of the relative cheapness of RAM. Depending on your computer, you'll probably need either PC100 or PC133 SDRAM. (If your machine needs 100, you can also use 133 -- faster RAM is okay, but slower is not.) This is available from computer stores, superstores like Costco and internet vendors such as Kingston or Chip Merchant. However, avoid unusually cheap memory, because those chips may not have passed all the quality tests and are considered "B" grade. Assign as much memory as you can to Pro Tools and the DAE (Digital Audio Engine) -- ideally at least 264 MB to Pro Tools alone, and 450-500 MB if you are mixing. Also, when mixing, assign substantially more than the default 200K Automation Recording memory (on the "Automation" page in Pro Tools' Preferences menu). This will prevent you from running out of automation memory before reaching the end of a long session. (You can tell that you've run out of automation memory if the automation you just wrote won't play back but automation from earlier in the session plays fine.) Output and Voice Rippling -- At Long Last In Pro Tools version 5.x, Digidesign has finally implemented an easy way to "ripple" voices and outputs. If you haven't discovered this feature, your life is about to get easier!
Because Pro Tools allows you to work with more tracks than you can actually play back at once, you must choose which tracks you want assigned to a voice or output, so they'll be audible during playback. With voice and output rippling, rather than assigning tracks to voices or outputs one at a time, you simply assign a single track, then let the system automatically go down the list and assign the others. At the top of the Edit Window or the left in the Mix window, pick the track that you wish to receive the starting voice or output. Then hold down the Option and Command keys while selecting the voice for that track. Each subsequent track will then assign itself to the next available voice, starting over when the number of tracks exceeds voices. Holding down the Option key alone will result in every track being assigned to the same voice. The same key combinations work for output assignments as well. This only works with TDM systems (you need a Core or Mix card in your Mac). Project card and Pro Tools Free users are, unfortunately, out of luck. Instant Player: My New Favorite Freeware Program Instant Player is a great new freeware program that allows you to audition sound files from the Finder -- Pro Tools doesn't even need to be running. This makes it convenient for looking through sound effects or sample libraries. It will play the sound file as soon as it opens it, so it is also useful as a browser-helper application or as a drag-and-drop player. To play a file, simply start up Instant Player (it needs just 2.5 MB of RAM), and then option-click on the sound file. A playbar displaying the filename appears along the right edge of the screen, and the file begins playing almost instantly. A flickering cursor will move down the playbar indicating the position of the playhead in the sound file. You can click on the playbar to jump to other locations in the file. Command-comma will pause or resume playback. Command-period stops it. Instant Player is a free download at www.soundhack.com, where Soundhack, a venerable sound design program that I highly recommend, is also available as freeware.
|
