Solo/Mute a given track without having to find and click on it every time?

[mbahnmil]

Hey all,

I'm working on a song clone, and I have the CD for the song I'm working on, so I ripped it and pulled the song into Pro Tools. In order to do the clone, I'm using several EastWest products and maybe at some point will need tracks for live instruments.

Point is, I'll have a lot of tracks, and the best way for me to work on a clone is by often doing an "A/B". That is, while I'm working, the Song track is muted, but when I want to listen to what I've got going on versus what the song is doing, I have to un-mute the Sang track and solo it as well. and then back and forth.

This isn't so terrible as long as my cursor is on the Song track. I can just hit "Shift-S, Shift-M" to toggle between listening to the Song track and listening to what I'm doing. What I'm wondering is ... is there a way to do that without having to find my song track and then click on it? Like maybe a way to mark the track so that I can use a hotkey to get to it... or something to that effect?

It just gets tedious to have to find it every time when I'm working farther down the window.

Many thanks for any help!

-m

[mbahnmil]

I guess a more direct question might be: how can I audition the Song track at the current cursor position without having to find the song track?

[mbahnmil]

... I could make the Song track the first track in the track list if that would help...?

[mbahnmil]

.... or how about auditioning a selected track? I could just leave the Song track selected while working elsewhere, if there is some key combo that would allow me to audition the selected track?

Thoughts, anyone?

[daeron80]

There's a workaround but it has its own drawbacks, as usual. You can give the reference song track a stereo bus input, and set all your other tracks to output to it. Put the song track in record. Now you can toggle between the reference and your mix with the keyboard shortcut for Auto Input Monitor.

[The Weed]

What about using groups?

Cheers,

[mbahnmil]

daeron - what are the drawbacks

Weed - how would I use the groups? what are the shortcuts that would facilitate it?

Thank you both!

[The Weed]

Group the tracks - not the regions - in your mix, make sure Solos is checked under Linked Within Groups and make sure the Group is activated. Make sure Solo is unlatched under Options (Options>X-OR [cancels previous solo]) and that Timeline Insertion/Play Start Marker Follows Playback is unchecked in Setup>Preferences>Operation ("N" toggles this on or off when in Commands Focus Mode). Now highlight a section you want to listen to or place your cursor where you want to play from, click the "S" on your reference track and play. As you're playing down click an "S" in your grouped mix. This should allow you to solo the reference track and then the mix and vice versa. Worth a try anyway.

Cheers,

[daeron80]

The drawback of putting the song track in record are
1) You can't record anything without erasing that bit of the song track. Well, not really erasing, but you know what I mean.
2) Every time you open the session, you have to remember to put the song track in Record before you can hear your own version.