I NEED SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED A.S.A.P. Pleasehelp

[WERMS]

Well I bought my MBOX 2 days ago so you can guess I got alot of stuff to ask...so thank you in advance if you read everything and try to provide me with answers.

1st.
Ok so I Connected my mbox and my powered speakers directly to it. Now I have no sound on my aol. I cant use more than one music program either. Something tells me I should Buy a mixer and connect it to my mbox, and my powered monitors to the mixer. and connect the mixer to the computer as well and switch between protools and everything else. Or should i just disconnect my mbox when not using it? I would still need a mixer I suppose.

2nd. Im a rapper.
I punch-in since im a smoker. But how do I punch in without blocking out some of my previous vocals? I usually would record as much as i could on one track, then fill in what i left out on another track. Which leads to my next question:

how can I add the same effect from one track to another without having to set them again? I mean say if i compress one track, and mess around with the settings, how can I copy that plug in with the same settings i put for the 1st track to another?

Is there anyway i can make presets?

My last question is...how can I lower my breaths?

one last thing...are there any free tutorials I can download or read or something on how to use the plug ins appropriatley?

thanks for answering

check out my website if youd like
www.werms.vze.com

[spkguitar]

Wow man, that's a lot of questions for a first post.

Welcome to the DUC.

The mBox (all digidesign LE hardware really) is a single client device. I'm pretty sure this is intentional to ensure quality I/O. The idea you have of hooking up a mixer is your best bet.

As for punching in, you can select the area that you want to punch on the track, ensuring that you don't record over anything, but the beauty of computer recording is that you don't really need to worry about it. Even if you DID accidentally record over something by mistake, you can use the trim tool to fix it, or use the undo feature, etc etc. Most recording done in Pro Tools is non-destructive, so everything that you've ever recorded is readily available.

Copying effects/settings from one track to another: press alt then click and drag the plugin to the new track. Or you can save the plugin settings in the plugin's window for recall in any session (presets).

There are lots of useful links in

The Education Link at the top of this page, incluing links to The DiskFlix and The Project Studio Handbook and links to the digizine archives, many of which contain articles on using the various plugins within ProTools.

Many of the best resources for learning Pro Tools, however, are already on your computer. I'm talking about the PDF documentation for PT that is available from the help menu within the program, and the digi folder on the start menu. The Pro Tools Reference Guide (basically what we call the manual) has the most comprehensive information about using the various features within the program, including details about the questions that you have asked here (punch-in, etc etc). There is also the DigiRack Plug-Ins guide, which has details on using the stock plugins that come with PT, including how to save presets.

Hopefully, that's helpful.
Again, welcome to the DUC.

[funkyghoul]

Wow...you're forgiving. Great answer. The world needs more of you. I love considerate people.

Man the DUC is a good source.

[WERMS]

Thanks man I appreciate the help. One question still stands though if you or anybody could answer it...how can I lower breaths?

[madrock]

On the Pro Tools installation CD, you will find a wonderful source of information called the Pro Tools Reference Guide.

I suggest spending some valuable time with it.

[spkguitar]

how can I lower breaths?

Stop breathing? LOL (you'll learn that we kid around a lot here...)


Most people feel that breath noise add realism to vocal tracks. Sometimes, though, it does get in the way.
You can automate the volume of the track.
You could automate a mute on the track (not really recommended, but doable)
You can physically edit out the breaths (just be careful not to be too radical about it or the track will lose all it's "life" and realism)

There are probably a number of other ways that I am forgetting...

[Chris Cavell]

Thanks man I appreciate the help. One question still stands though if you or anybody could answer it...how can I lower breaths?

Try the strip silence function followed by fading (ctrl+F, you may need to go in and manually adjust a few of the fades), gates, volume or mute automation, editing, etc...

[Chris Cavell]

you beat me to it shawn...point goes to you this round

[WERMS]

Ok...how do I go about that...i highlighted a breath, and clicked show strip silence and nothing happened. what am i doing wrong?

[Chris Cavell]

Highlight a few phrases as an example.
Show strip silence.
Adjust the threshold up until white boxes appear around the areas that will be kept.
Zoom in if necessary to take a good look at the breath sound next to the beginning of a phrase, and fine tune your threshold and start and end padding settings, leaving enough padding to apply fades.
Hit the stip silence button.
Now hit ctrl+f, and adjust the length to the length you need.

Voila...