Chapter 12. Basic Audio Recording; Recording An Audio Track - DigiDesign Pro Tools Reference Manual

Chapter 12: Basic Audio Recording

Recording an Audio Track

When recording from a mono source, record to
a single, mono audio track in Pro Tools. A sin-
gle, mono audio file is written to disk; the region
appears in the playlist and in the Region List.
To record a stereo audio source in Pro Tools,
record to a single, stereo audio track. A single,
mono audio file is written to disk for each chan-
nel of a stereo track; one for the left channel,
and one for the right channel; regions appear in
the playlists for both channels. In addition, a
multichannel (stereo) region appears in the Re-
gion List.
Recording multichannel tracks (Pro Tools HD
only) is very similar to recording stereo audio
tracks. A single, mono audio file is written for
each channel in the track, and regions appear in
the playlists for each channel. In addition, a
multichannel region for each track appears in
the Region List.
For more information on multichannel
tracks, see "Multichannel Audio Tracks" on
page 706.
To configure an audio track for recording:
Connect a mono or stereo sound source to the
1
appropriate input of your audio hardware.
Make sure to specify the format (analog or dig-
2
ital) of the inputs of the audio interface you will
be using. Choose Setup > Hardware, choose the
audio interface, and select the format for the
channel pair.
Some Digidesign I/O units (such as Mbox 2),
have only two channels that can be set for ana-
log or digital.
If a track does not already exist, choose Track
3
> New and specify 1 Mono or Stereo Audio
Track, then click Create.
New Tracks dialog
To auto-scroll the Track Type pop-up in the
New Tracks dialog, press Control (Win-
dows) or Command (Mac) and use the
Up/Down Arrow keys.
To auto-scroll the Track Formats pop-up in
the New Tracks dialog, press Control (Win-
dows) or Command (Mac) and use the
Left/Right Arrow keys.
If desired, rename the track. Track names are
4
used to auto-name recorded audio files and re-
gions. For more information, see "Default Track
Names" on page 186.
Chapter 12: Basic Audio Recording 197