Confused newbie seeking answers!

[Chilliemann]

Greetings, and thanks for taking time to read my post.

I am fairly new to Pro Tools, although I used a 7.x version back in school several years ago.

Anyway, the story goes as following: I've been mixing, making, recording music since I was a kid. On a very amateur level of course. Recently I felt the need to upgrade from FruityLoops, which I have used for quite some time but never got really acquainted to. I decided to go get me a MBOX 2 Mini bundle and shortly after that upgraded to the most recent version of Pro Tools (8 LE).

I have, however, had several problems with it since the start. I fixed the crashes and whatnot but now the main trouble lies within the program. Don't go all "RTFM!" on me now, because I've tried hard to find the information elsewhere. Read the (outdated) PDF's and searched the web.

Let's get into it then...

Drum loops
So I figured out how to add this built-in plugin named Boom! which seemed like an OK addon but I quickly found that I had no idea how to actually add my drum loop to the editing window, with the tracks and all. Also, is it not possible to replace the drums with my own samples? In that case, will I need a plugin similar to FruityLoops' simple pattern-based loop-making, or is there a built-in way to do this in Pro Tools already?

Piano roll?
Is there a piano roll? Where? I've found the MIDI Editor which looks similar but I can't get regular samples to go in there, it only works with MIDI tracks.

Mic problem
Sometimes when I click the Red record button on a track the sound goes boom (if I have plugins added to the track) and nothing more, even though there's a working mic connected to the MBOX. The meters go all the way up to yellow and goes static there but no sound can be heard if it's a track without plugins. The strange thing is that during some sessions it works fine, and I'm not changing the setup in any way.


That's it for now, I guess. If anything else comes up, I'll just add it. Looking forward to answers.

regards
Erik







MB: P35C-DS3R
RAM: 4 GB DDR2
GFX: nVidia GeForce 9800 GT
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2x2,67)
HDD: 4x500 GB (Windows Vista Ultimate)

MBOX 2 Mini + Pro Tools 8 LE

micro KORG XL

[albee1952]

As for drum loops, what kind of sounds are you looking for? BOOM is more of a hip hop beat box (never used it so I can't help) so if you want more drum kit type sounds, you should look at BFD, Strike or ezdrummer(what I use). Ezdrummer has a boatload of loops that you can easily audition and drag/drop in the timeline(using a stereo instrument track and GRID mode).

The piano roll is there. On any midi or instrument track, just select(edit window>track view) to show NOTES(by default it shows regions I think).

Regarding your mic problem, if it only happens with plugins on the channel, see if you can figure out if it is a certain plugin or just having any. Also, wiggle the mic cable while the track is in record-ready and see if maybe you have a bad connection or cable(keep you monitors or phones soft if you have phantom power turned on as that can cause a very loud(and expensive) pop that could toast headphones or tweeters).

[Chilliemann]

Thanks for you reply, albee1952

Originally Posted by albee1952

As for drum loops, what kind of sounds are you looking for? BOOM is more of a hip hop beat box (never used it so I can't help) so if you want more drum kit type sounds, you should look at BFD, Strike or ezdrummer(what I use). Ezdrummer has a boatload of loops that you can easily audition and drag/drop in the timeline(using a stereo instrument track and GRID mode).

Thanks for the suggestions on other plugins to use. I'll see which works best.

Originally Posted by albee1952

The piano roll is there. On any midi or instrument track, just select(edit window>track view) to show NOTES(by default it shows regions I think).

Great, finally found it, thanks.

Originally Posted by albee1952

Regarding your mic problem, if it only happens with plugins on the channel, see if you can figure out if it is a certain plugin or just having any. Also, wiggle the mic cable while the track is in record-ready and see if maybe you have a bad connection or cable(keep you monitors or phones soft if you have phantom power turned on as that can cause a very loud(and expensive) pop that could toast headphones or tweeters).

Actually, it doesn't only happen to channels with plugins on them, so that's kinda confusing. I guess it could be a bad microphone/connection but I still believe it's a software problem. I'll try some stuff I suppose...