Avid Pro Tools Tutorial: Keyboard Shortcuts
Don’t waste you or your client’s time by slaving around on a mouse. Utilize keyboard shortcuts into your workflow to complete your project faster.
When editing or presenting your project to a client, the last thing they want to wait around for is an engineer with a slow workflow. Keyboard shortcuts can exponentially cut your editing time down, compared to editing without shortcuts. Never go back to editing the long way again or using a mouse to perform time-intensive edits. Let’s take a look at what this tutorial covers:
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Workflow suggestions
- Editing tips
This video is provided by ThePureMixTutorials on their YouTube channel.
Pro Tools Keyboard Shortcuts
Here’s a few of our favorite shortcuts for Pro Tools…
| ZOOM | |
| Horizontal Zoom on Selection | Opt + F |
| Full Horizontal Zoom Out | Opt + A |
| Zoom In or Out | Cmd + [ or ] R or T |
| Zoomer Tool | Cmd + 1 |
| Track Height | Ctrl + (Opt) + Up or Down |
| Waveform Height | Opt + Cmd + [ or ] |
| Fit All Tracks to Screen | Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + Up |
| Full Horizontal Zoom Out | Opt + A |
| TRACK | |
| Mute | Shift + M |
| Solo | Shift + S |
| Record | Shift + R |
| Input Monitoring | Shift + I (HD) or Opt + K (record enabled) |
| Duplicate Track | Shift + Opt + D |
| Duplicate Region | Cmd + D |
| Repeat Region | Opt + R |
| NEW TRACK DIALOG | |
| New Tracks Dialog | Shift + Cmd + N |
| Track Type | Cmd + Left or Right |
| Track Format | Cmd + Up or Down |
| Add Field | Cmd + ‘+’ |
| EDITING | |
| Consolidate Regions | Shift + Opt + 3 |
| Export Regions | Shift + Cmd + K |
| Select Unused Regions | Shift + Cmd + U |
| Clear Selected Regions | Shift + Cmd + B (option to remove all) |
Shortcut Keyboards for Pro Tools
For professionals wanting to take their workflow to the next level, there are keyboards available that have the editing functions and advanced controls printed right on the keys. This is a great way to quickly start integrating these shortcuts into your editing workflow. Pretty soon, they’ll become second nature.
What’s the one Pro Tools shortcut you can’t live without?
Share in the comments below.
