Changing Waveform Height

[fastdog]

A dilemma for me has been, for some time, the frustration of not being able to change the waveform height, + or -, for a track within a project. Most of the advice I found on this and other forums and tutorials either did not relate to my OS and/or PT version and was not useful and just caused further frustration.

After much hit and miss and experimentation I have discovered a methodology that is very, very simple and I would like to pass it on to other users that have faced this issue. I do not know if the following instructions will work on other ProTools versions and/or Windows. I am using ProTools8 and Windows 7.

1. Hide those wave tracks whose waveform you do not want to change. If you don't you will end up changing them all simultaneously when you use these instructions. Tracks are listed in the upper left hand corner of your PT8 screen. If they are not, here is how you can see them: Navigate to VIEW>OTHER DISPLAYS>TRACK LIST, using the menu tabs at the top of your screen. When the Track List is displayed, right click on the waveform track that you do NOT want to be affected by your height change and click on HIDE. The track will disappear from your project but, no worries, it is just hidden and you can get it back. If you have multiple tracks to "hide" you will have to do each one separately.

2. Now, select the waveform track whose height you wish to change with the "grabber" tool (the little hand icon) in the upper left of your screen. Place the hand icon on the waveform track and left click. The track will change to a dark background but you can still see the waveform. You may be able to skip this step. Try it first by skipping this step and if the action to heighten or lower the waveform in step 3 does not change anything in the track then, come back to this step.

3. Hold down the Ctrl and Alt key and press either ] to heighten the waveform in the track you wish to change or [ to diminish the height of the waveform. You can make it as big or small as you wish. It does not seem to have an effect on the volume of the track. It's that simple.

4. To see those tracks that you "hid" again....... Go back up to the Track List, place your cursor (pointer) on a track in the list that you wish to see again, Right CLick (a menu will pop up), select SHOW and left click.

Be sure to save your work or the height will revert back to what it was prior to you going through all of these steps.

Done!!! Enjoy.

[joachim]

Or, at least in PT 11 , Win 7 :
select Zoomer Tool
hold Start and drag the mouse up down in one track (without clicking to select the clip, but left-clicking while dragging). Will change the waveform height only on that track.

[joachim]

Originally Posted by fastdog

If you have multiple tracks to "hide" you will have to do each one separately.

At least not true for PT11, you can select and hide multiple tracks at once.