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I am still very new to Pro Tools. I am used to using Adobe Audition which is a much simpler program to use. My application is that I record a church service. Currently I am recording the main left and right outputs of my mixer, which actually produces a very high quality recording for being essentially a house mix. I have now learned how to record with a couple of plugins inserted (Stereo Comp, and EQ) I need to eventually get my audience recording mic into my recording on its own track and i would also like to get the lapel mic on its own track. I am not sure if this is right term, but during the MixDown process I want to be able to fade and even mute different tracks during the recording. How do I do fades in the mix down process?

There's a couple of ways to automate the FADER POSITION (Volume) and the MUTE STATUS during the mix-down. I'm going to tell you about my favorite. Track Envelopes.

Go into the EDIT WINDOW - (Not the MIX WINDOW)

First make sure your tracks are in READ MODE. They are in READ MODE by default. If you look under the R,S,M buttons you'll see a thing that says "AUTO" - next to that it should say READ. If not click on the box and select READ from the drop down. This setting will READ any automation you have applied to that track. You're going to apply some in a second...



If you look at a track in EDIT VIEW you will see underneath the R,S,M buttons a box with "WAVEFORM" written in it. Next to this box is an arrow (really a triangle) pointing to the right.

DO NOT CLICK THE ARROW.

Click on the BOX that says WAVEFORM. Now you'll see some options there, two of which are VOLUME and MUTE. Select VOLUME.

A line appears in the timeline. That line is called an ENVELOPE.




METHOD ONE: Add POINTS (also called NODES) to the envelope using the PENCIL tool. You point to the line where you want to add a node. A little white dot appears. Add a couple to try this out with. Anywhere.

SWITCH to the SMART TOOL (By that I mean click on the BLUE BOX under the trim,waveform, and hand tool buttons) and point to a dot. When you get close enough, the mouse cursor turns into a little hand. Now you can click and drag the point around. Up is louder, Down Quieter. You can also drag it left or right.

METHOD TWO: Forget about the Pencil. Set the Track to VOLUME again as before. Using the SMART TOOL select a portion of your waveform. Drive over to the area INSIDE your selection and ABOVE the line. The cursor turns into some kind of thing that looks like one of those bracket deals turned on its side.

Now you can click and drag up or down and the envelope will change. Once you do that, you can adjust the NODES with the FINGER to fine tune them.

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The Mute Envelope works the same way, except it only has ON or OFF. If the envelope is at the TOP of the track, it is NOT MUTED. If the envelope is at the bottom of the track, it IS MUTED.

Now when you play back your session the volume fader will follow the envelope. You'll see it moving around. The MUTE button will turn on and off as well. Depending on what edits you've done to the envelopes.


Copy and paste this link for an image. You need to copy the whole thing, not just click on it.




http://picasaweb.google.com/natpfunk71/RetardedPhotosIPostOnTheWeb?authkey=9L_acyAOfQc#5243383150190882674

if your in keyboard focus mode (the abc button at the top of the screen), you can just highlight a waveform and hit 'f' to add fades at either end of the region. 'd' will fade to the start of the region from where the cursor sits, and 'g' will fade to the end of the region from where the cursor sits. just makes life quicker...

I didn't think he's going to be using regions, since its a recording of a whole sermon or whatever. I figured it would be one long region and he would only want to lower the volume of certain tracks slightly, not fade them out.

A point that is not clear to me is, are you going to be attempting to mix this live as it is recording or later after the recording is complete?