Is Pro Tools Right for me?

[Maree_C]

I have downloaded Ableton and now Pro Tools First and still unsure if I have the right product. I have an upright piano and simply want to record myself playing and singing.

I have done a few Pro Tools tutorials and it looks like it is perfect for someone who wants to create music but quite complicated for someone like me who just wants to record something. I would also like to import a backing track and record myself singing to that.

Could someone please give me some advice. Thanks.

[JFreak]

Hi, welcome to the community.

PT | First is good for everything you want to do. Just watch some youtube tutorials on how to set up your session, and how to import audio. Once you have set it up, Save Copy In and use that backup for your next song. It is all pretty straightforward.

[albee1952]

Agreed, PT is probably a great choice for recording you and an instrument. Ableton is more for triggering loops and making beats, and is much better than PT for backing tracks in live performance.

Back to PT for a moment, there are a few important details to learn ASAP:
#1-create a "session" instead of a "project". Sessions are on your hard drive. Projects are(usually) in the cloud and you want your audio files on your own drive(backup to the cloud is fine)
#2-latency(delay or echo) when recording is caused by a few things; Playback buffer(set this low like 64 or 128 for tracking) and certain plugins(learn which have lots of latency and don't use those until its time to mix)
#3-tutorials are great and you should take advantage as needed. Youtube can be awesome, or lame(but its free). Groove3 is consistently great(but its not free). Sometimes you get what you pay for

[Basslice]

I love working in PT, but for you, I would recommend a simple Zoom recorder. www.zoomrecorder.com. You could go down the DAW rabbit hole, but why?

[Maree_C]

Hi Basslice, I have explored with BandLab and was able to record myself singing over a backing track. But I have a latency problem. Any suggestions for improvement.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Maree_C

Hi Basslice, I have explored with BandLab and was able to record myself singing over a backing track. But I have a latency problem. Any suggestions for improvement.

All DAW's will have some kind of buffer setting. In Pro Tools, its called the playback buffer and it has several choices(64, 128, 256, 512, etc). These correspond to how many samples that the cpu is allowed for processing audio, so the lower numbers give less time(=lower latency) and higher settings give the cpu more time(=higher latency). Find that setting and lower it to lower the latency

[Treelady]

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