From MIDI to Audio: Music Creation Workflow in Pro Tools Tutorial

Introduction

If you’re composing your music using MIDI in Digidesign Pro Tools, chances are, at some point, you’ll want to record your MIDI sounds sources onto Audio tracks. Especially as your project is getting closer to the mixing stage, or if you’re working with limited CPU resources and virtual instruments.

I’ll be showing you a straightforward, tried and true method for this workflow. Along the way, I’ll add some extra “mini-lessons” that will shed some light on the more commonly asked questions surrounding this topic.

Objectives

In this tutorial, you will

• Create a New Pro Tools Session
• Customize the Edit Window display
• Use the Digidesign A.i.r Xpand Virtual Instrument
• Learn how to set “good” record levels
• Use Busses to route audio signals
• and much more…

Requirements

To get the most out of this tutorial, the following are highly recommended:

• Pro Tools 7.1 or higher
• Digidesign A.i.r Xpand Virtual Instrument
• The ability to get MIDI into Pro Tools, via a controller keyboard

Step 1

Create a New Pro Tools session by launching Pro Tools. Select New Session from the File menu.

For this tutorial, you can leave the default settings of the New Session dialog as-is. Just type a name for the new Session in the “Save As” field and hit Save.

You should now have a New Session with no tracks in it - like so.

Step 2

Navigate to, and click on the Track menu and Select New… from the list of menu items.

Step 3

In the New Track dialog that appears, create one MIDI track by selecting MIDI Track from the Track Type drop-down menu (as pictured). But don’t hit “Create” just yet.

Step 4

Still in the New Track dialog window, use the Add Row button - (the plus sign at the far right) - to add three more tracks. Use the the two drop-down menus in the middle of the New Track window (called the Track Type and Track Format menus) to configure the tracks as follows:

1. Stereo Aux Input
2. Stereo Audio Track
3. Stereo Master Fader

Once you’ve done this, check to make sure your New Track dialog looks like the picture (below this paragraph) and then hit “Create”.

Step 5

In the Edit Window, your session should now look something like this.

Step 6

At this point, let’s just take a few moments to customize the Edit Window. This tutorial is written with everything being done in the Edit Window and this step will help ensure that we’re both looking at the same thing in Pro Tools.

First, let’s make our I/O Settings visible in the Edit Window. We can do this by navigating to the View menu, selecting the Edit Window sub-menu and then selecting I/O from the menu items.

Step 7

We also need to make our Inserts visible in the Edit Window. We can do this by navigating to the View menu, selecting the Edit Window sub-menu and then selecting Inserts from the menu items.

Ok - now your Edit Window should be the same as what I’m looking at during this tutorial. Here’s what my screen looks like.

Step 8

On the Aux Input’s first Insert, instantiate (“insert”) the Xpand plug-in by selecting Xpand from your plug-ins list drop-down menu.

Step 9

Assign the MIDI output of the MIDI track to the MIDI Input of the Xpand by doing the following:

• Click on the output tab of the MIDI Track

• Select the Xpand 1 - Channel 1 from the MIDI Output tab’s pop-up menu

Step 10

The default patch on the Xpand! Instrument is a pad sound called “Shimmer”. It has a really slow attack time (meaning it takes a few seconds before the sound is at full volume). So, for the purpose of this tutorial, I think we should use a patch with a little more attack - like an Acoustic Piano.

On the Xpand, the word patch refers to a combination of up to four individual parts (A,B,C, and D), or sounds. The sounds are layered together to produce a richer overall sound, called a patch. The Xpand has over 1000 preset patches that utilize around 500 combinable parts.

At the top of the Xpand plug-in interface, click on the Plug-In Settings Select Button. It’s the little button with two overlapping squares.

When you click on the Plug-In Settings Select Button, the Plug-In Settings Dialog opens. It will look something like this…

At the top-left of this window, you’ll notice drop-down folder selector/menu. (On my system, it always defaults to the “Action Pads” folder.) Click on this Selector to reveal a list of Xpand Patch folders. Navigate down the list to folder “13. Acoustic Piano”.

Now, the plug-in setting dialog will show you a list of all the different acoustic piano patches included in your Xpand library. Click on one that you want to work with and then click Done.

Step 11

Record enable the MIDI Track by Clicking the Record Enable button.

and use on of the following methods to start recording:

• Press Command+Spacebar (Mac) / CTRL+Spacebar (Win)
• Press the number 3 on the numeric (ten keypad) keyboard
• Press the F12 key
• Click the Record, then the Play button on a Pro Tools Transport

Step 12

With Pro Tools recording, play four or eight bars of something on your MIDI keyboard.

If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard connected to your Pro Tools system, you can download this Pro Tools session. It includes everything in the tutorial up to this point and has some MIDI already recorded on the MIDI track.

Step 13

When you’re finished playing in some midi from your keyboard, hit the spacebar to stop recording.

Click on the Record Enable button on the MIDI Track to disarm Recording on that track.

Step 14

Now that you’ve got some MIDI recorded, it’s a good idea to have a quick listen - just to make sure it’s playing back as you expect.

Using your computer keyboard, play the session back by hitting the Return key to go back to the start of the session, and then hit the Spacebar to play.

You could also click on the Return to Zero button in the Pro Tools Transport window…

…followed by the Play button.

Step 15

Before we can record the audio signal from the Xpand onto the Audio Track, we’ll need to route the Aux Input’s output to the Input of the Audio Track.

First, locate the Audio Output Path Selector on the Aux Input. It’s located in the I/O section that we added to our Edit Window earlier. Here’s what it looks like:

.

Click on the Output Path Selector. The pop-up menu will give you the option of choosing either “Interface” or “bus”. Mouse over to bus to reveal a list of your available busses.

Select Bus 1-2 (Stereo)

By the way, you could use any available bus that you wanted to. There’s nothing special about Bus 1-2. It’s just the first available one, so we’re using it here.

Step 16

Ok - so we’ve got the Output of the Xpand track routed to Bus 1-2. But we still need to tell Bus 1-2 to travel to the Input of the Audio Track.

Locate the Audio Input Path Selector on the Audio Track. Just like the Aux Input, the Input and Output Path Selectors are located in the I/O panel that we added to the Edit Window earlier. Take a look…

When we click in on the Audio Track’s Input Path Selector, we’ll be given two options again; “Interface” or “bus”.

Mouse over the “bus” option and then select Select Bus 1-2 (Stereo) from the list.

Where we’re at so far…

Ok, so now you’ve got the MIDI part done. You’ve successfully set-up the MIDI routing and the Xpand instrument, recorded a MIDI performance and checked it, and then configured the I/O so that you’ve now got the output of the Xpand going into the Input of a new audio track, ready to record. Perfect!

Now, in the next set of steps, we’re going to put Pro Tools into Loop playback mode, discuss and set some recording levels, and then actually record.

Step 17

I’ve only recorded four bars of midi in my session. I want to put Pro Tools in Loop Playback mode so my short, four-bar passage plays repeatedly. That way I can take as much time as I need to check and set my levels.

To put Pro Tools into Loop Playback Mode, do the following:

Navigate to, and click on the Options Menu. Select Loop Playback from the list of items.
Of course, you could also use any of these shortcuts:

• Shift+⌘+L (Mac)
• numeric keypad #4 (Mac/Win)
• Control-Click on the Play button (Mac) / Start-Click on Play button (Win)
• Right-Click on the Play button (Mac / Win)

Step 18

We’ve enabled Loop Playback. But it requires that you have a Timeline Selection made so that Pro Tools knows where your loop starts and ends. An easy way to create a Timeline Selection that corresponds to a single region is to click on the region on your MIDI track’s playlist with the Grabber Tool.

If your MIDI track is currently in “Notes” view, you’ll need to change it to “Regions” view before clicking on it with the Grabber

Click on the MIDI track’s Track View Selector and select Regions from the drop-down menu. This will change your MIDI track to “Regions” view.

Now you can easily single-click on the region to make a selection. This is the selection that will loop during playback.

Note: If clicking on the midi Region on the MIDI track playlist doesn’t create a Timeline Selection for you, check to see that you’ve got the Link Timeline and Edit Selection feature enabled.

The Link Timeline and Edit Selection button is located the black Edit Window bar that runs along the top of Edit Window.

Check to make sure the Link Timeline and Edit Selection button is enabled (outlined in blue), then try Step 18 again.

Step 19

Record Enable the Audio Track by clicking on the Record Enable button on the audio track. Press the spacebar to start playback.

Step 20

As the MIDI track is looping over and over, toggle the audio track in and out of Record Enable. Notice that you only hear the Xpand with the audio track Record Enabled.

This is because you’re hearing Xpand playing back through the audio track’s input and output.

It’s important to recognize that the meter activity on the audio track is showing it’s input volume - that is, the level the you’ll be recording. To demonstrate this point, pull the Audio track’s fader all the way down. Notice that the meter is still showing the exact same activity.

This brings a very important point into focus. Pro Tools channel faders do not control input (record) levels.

Rather, a track’s channel faders only ever control the track’s Output Level. The volume levels going into the track are always set at the source of the signal (ie: a hardware mixer, a microphone pre-amp, a synth, and so-on.

In the case of this tutorial, our sound source is a virtual instrument on an Aux Input. That means that there’s at least five different places where we can control (in varying degrees) the level of the signal being sent to the input of the Audio Track. They are:

• Master Output Level Control in the Xpand Plug-In Interface
• Part Output Level Control in the Xpand Plug-In Interface
• Output Fader Level of the Aux Input where the Xpand is inserted
• MIDI Velocity
• MIDI Volume (MIDI Controller #7)

Step 21

There’s allot that can be said about all the different stages of signal flow and the ways to control output vs. input levels for the best results. But for this tutorial, we’re going to pass on the advanced concepts and use a practical level-setting method using two basic controls.

• Master Output knob on the Xpand interface
• Output fader of the Aux Input

Start by clicking-holding on the Master Level control of the Xpand. Drag the knob up/down or left/right to adjust the overall volume of the Xpand. As you do the relative value of gain being added will be displayed in the Xpand display screen.

If you’ve added +6dB of gain with Xpand’s Master Level, yet still need some more gain to achieve a better recording level, then move onto the Aux Input’s output fader to push an even “hotter” signal out along Bus 1-2 to the Audio track’s input.

What IS a good level? As a general rule, what you’re aiming for when recording into Pro Tools is a clean and strong signal that doesn’t clip. It’s ok if a track has quieter portions, too. But on average, you want the loudest parts of the signal peaking somewhere in the range of -6db to -3db on the level meters. That’s where the level meter in Pro Tools fades from Green to Yellow.

Step 22

Double-Click on the Audio track’s Track Name label to reveal the Track Name dialog.

Naming your Audio tracks before recording onto them is the way to go. I consider it the easiest way to ensure that I don’t end up with a bunch of audio files with meaningless names like “audio1_01″, “audio2_01″ when I’m working. I think you will, too.

Step 23

Yes! It’s time to record!

So, make sure you’re Audio track is still Record enabled, hit Return to make sure you’re at the start of the session and start recording using one of the following methods:

• Press Command+Spacebar (Mac) / CTRL+Spacebar (Win)
• Press the number 3 on the numeric (ten keypad) keyboard
• Press the F12 key
• Click the Record, then the Play button on a Pro Tools Transport

When your recording is done, hit Spacebar to stop recording.

Click the Record Enable button to disable recording on the track.

A little tip. When setting your Timeline selection to record, make sure to add extra time to the end of your selection to allow the decay of reverb or delay effect to be recorded properly.

Step 24

Now that you’ve finished recording the Xpand part as audio, you can make the Aux Input and the Xpand plug-in Inactive. This will free up the CPU resources that they were using while giving you the option making them Active again if you need to. You won’t lose any settings at all.

Right-Click on the Aux Input track’s Name (Track Label)

Select Make Inactive

Step 25

Now that the Aux Input and the Xpand are Inactive, and you’re not using the MIDI track at the moment, it’s not a bad idea to Hide them from view. This will keep them in the session, available at any time. But they won’t taking up valuable screen real-estate.

Click on the Aux Input track label to select it

Shift-Click on the MIDI track label to add it to the selection

Right-Click on the MIDI track name to reveal a mini-menu

Select Hide

Conclusion

That’s it for now. In the next tutorial, I’ll try to pick up where this one left off.

If you think I missed something really vital, or if you notice a mistake, let me know

If this tutorial has made your Pro Tools experience just a little bit better - let others know about it!

Peace to you

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