For this TOD I wanted to do a simple breakdown on a possible collection of preferences located on multiple S6 pages which can contribute to a more streamlined workflow for the operator. This is one possible path among many.
We start on the
Tracks page and immediately enable
Display Breaks on Track Color to quickly clean up our track matrix which helps manage large sessions when trying to find specific tracks. After enabling, we can scroll down till we get to some of our primary Vocal tracks which are easily identified in Yellow. Back into the
Local Options (gear icon) on the
Tracks page, and we will also enable
Show Home Screen on Track Attention and
Auto Bank to Attentioned Track. Now, when we Attention
LD Vox Main from the
Tracks page we are immediately taken to the Home page and, based on the
Auto Bank to Attentioned Track preference, all of the faders on the console immediately bank within the range of the touched track based on the justification settings.
Next, we’ll dig into the
Local Options (gear icon) for the
Home page and tweak a few settings.
Track Scroller Follows Attentioned Track allows me to ensure that whether I attention a track from the S6 Fader Module Attention button or by touching on the
Tracks Page, the scroller at the bottom of the page is always going to center justify to show me the Attentioned track relative to the whole session. We’ll simplify the center real estate of the Home page window by enabling
Knob View: Selected Function, filtering out other virtual knobs that are not part of the currently selected function scroller module. For
Open Plug-Ins on Workstation When Knobs Assigned, the S6 is looking to the
Master Module to bring up the appropriate plug-in windows for EQ, DYN, or other individual Inserts. Next, we’ll tweak the
Function and Knob Page Selected on Attention Page and
Backup Function and Knob Page Selected on Attention Page. Essentially, we are going to tell the S6 to try and access EQ as the first priority on the Home page and its adjacent docked encoders. If that particular function is not available on the Attention track, then next try and bring up DYN. The second pop-up options for both the
Primary and the
Backup function refer to the specific page to display when EQ or DYN is brought up. So for example, if always wanted to make sure the High-Pass Filter was visible, we could choose
EQ, then specify
Page 2. Lastly,
Auto Show Function Graph on Selection is going to ensure that when the EQ or DYN function is brought up on the Attentioned track, it will also display the appropriate Curve in the center real estate of the Home page.
If we touch
LD Vox Main while in Attention mode on the
Tracks page, the console faders bank to that track range and we are immediately brought to the
Home page with the EQ function accessible on the docked encoders, with the EQ plot visible in the center. If we touch
Sends, dock them to the right side encoders and press the
Lock, S6 will remember this collection the next time we access this track. Returning back to the
Tracks page, this time we touch
LD Rev vox, again while in Attention mode, and since this track doesn’t contain an EQ, the Fabfilter Pro-C2 compressor is accessed instead, our
backup function: DYN. Let’s do the same locking trick again, but this time with the
Input function. We’ve touched
Input and docked the Mic Preamp parameters over to the right side encoder and pressed
Lock. Again, you can see that the
Track Scroller at the bottom of the Home page is centered around the tracks we’ve been working with. We can touch back to
LD Vox Main from here (blue outline indicates Attention), and we get 2 bands of EQ controls on the left - but since we locked
Sends to the right, those take precedence. Let’s touch back to
LD Rev vox using the
Tracks Scroller at the bottom and you can see that once again, EQ does not exist on this track, so DYN is brought up with Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Release always showing up justified on the bottom-left docked encoders. Our preserved Mic Preamp and Input controls are available as a result of the
Lock on the right side encoders.
A few thoughts about preserving these settings once you’ve settled on an appropriate collection of them for your workflow. I would recommend navigating to
Settings >
User and touching
Save to create an actual file containing these settings. You can either save this to the local
S6 SSD, or pop a flash drive in one of the USB jacks on the back of the touch-screen and save it to your
jump drive for portability. In the event that you are moving around between rooms, rigs and facilities, you can take advantage of the
Auto-Load preferences under
Settings >
System and tick the
User Preferences box. This will ensure that when the Pro Tools session is loaded, (assuming you’ve correctly targeted the Workstation with the Blue Star) it will also restore your operator-specific console preferences.
Preferences can be a bit intimidating for the novice and advanced S6 user alike. Experiment with the settings above and we will circle back with additional preferences and workflows to explore down the road.
