3 quick-ish ProTools Questions

[dllive]

Hi,
Im just playing around with Pro Tools SE. 3 Quick questions:

- How can I copy effects from one layer to another? I know I can duplicate an existing layer and then delete the wave that was duplicated and resuse the timeline - but wandered if there was another way.
- What exactly are proTools plugins? Teh reason I ask is because I need to make my ProTools run faster and people have suggested disabling the plugins. Are the plugins the effects, or are they 3rd party bits of software?
- Are there any alternatives to ProTools? If I have more than 3 layers, the system just crashes. I have a pretty fast computer (cant remember the spec off the top of my head) so am surprised how processor intensive ProTools is. Maybe exporting out the 3 tracks to one mp3, then importing that into a new project is the way to go.

Thanks

 

[DuraMorte]

www.reaper.fm

Reaper is an excellent DAW, and will run like a scalded dog on even mediocre hardware.
I wouldn't uninstall FauxTools, but I think that if you give Reaper a chance, and really spend a few days poking around, you'll realize it will do everything you need it to, three times as fast as PT will.

 

[Hellbastard]

Hi,
Im just playing around with Pro Tools SE. 3 Quick questions:

- How can I copy effects from one layer to another? I know I can duplicate an existing layer and then delete the wave that was duplicated and resuse the timeline - but wandered if there was another way.

You click the Plug-in instance you wanna copy , while pressing the alt key and just drag and drop the plug-in on one of the inserts of the target channel strip.

or if you wanna copy a whole channel strip, with its plug-in settings, but without the regions (Layers) do this:

1. Select the channel to be copied
2. Press alt+shift+D (Duplication command)
3. choose which attribuites should be in the duplicate
4. Press OK

- What exactly are proTools plugins? Teh reason I ask is because I need to make my ProTools run faster and people have suggested disabling the plugins. Are the plugins the effects, or are they 3rd party bits of software?

Pro-tools Plug-ins or RTAS (Real Time Audio Suite) are Digital Signal Processors meant to recreate the characteristics audio processing equipment, such as Compressors, EQs, FXs, etc.
As their name indicates they run their processing in real time, which for your computer means usage of processing power.

If you want to speed up Pro-Tools performance, disable any Plug-ins you might have inserted but are not needed. Also try not to run any other intensive applications as the same as running pro tools, this is a good practice with any other DAW.

One of the problems I often see is that most people insert a reverb plug-in in every channel strip when reverbs are usually best left as AUX/FX channels, because reverb algorithms require a lot of processing power.

Finally, no matter how fast or powerful your computer is, if you want to record, chat, check facebook and surf the net at the same time, one of the applications is bound to crash.

 

[dllive]

Thanks HellBastard, some great tips there.