SUMMERY:

Dealing with lot's of drum track's, vocals track's or lot's of guitar tracks can be a tricky process. Grouping tracks is a feature in Pro Tools that makes it easier to deal with these tasks, saving you time and makes managing projects a breeze.

We can group track's for the use of muting or soloing a group of instruments or effect's sends. It's also cool to apply a group to all your guitar track's to a bus send and use that to control their overall volume rather than tweaking every guitar track individually after you have done lot's of auto-riding.

The bottom line is there are dozens of reasons to group track's in Pro Tools.

The Groups list is to the bottom left-hand corner of the Edit Window and the Mix Window. The groups are listed in the main area of the window. A small downward arrow in the upper right-hand corner provides you with some options to create a group, modify a group and various other things.






While the Groups list looks the same in the Edit and Mix Window, each one is different in that there are three types of groups. Mix, Edit and Mix|Edit and they only display those groups that are classified as a type relevant to the window you are in.

Mix, Edit and Mix/Edit Groups

Mix groups and Edit group's both affect different variables. The Mix|Edit Groups, for me is the most versatile in that it will do anything that the Mix and Edit group do together. Pro Tools will select this type of group by default.

Edit Groups Affect the Following.

1. Track View
2. Track Height
3. Track Timebase
4. Audio and Midi Editing Functions
5 Automation and Editing Functions.

Mix Groups in LE Will Affect the Following

1 Main volume
2. Automation Volume
3. Main Mute
4. Solo
5. Send level
6 Send mute

Creating A Group

To create a group, select the track's you want to group and hit Command and G (MAC) or Control and G (PC), or bring up the Groups list drop-down menu and click on New Group.




The Create A Group Window will pop up.




Name your Group. Set the Group Type. The next options are the Linked Within Groups. As discussed, these options will either include Mutes, Solos, Send mutes or Send Levels based on your choice.

The list to the left, "Available", shows you how many track's are not currently assigned to the group. The Currently In Group obviously show you the track's that are. The Add and Remove also clearly show you that you can choose to Add more track's to the group or remove them.

If you find you want to modify a Group for whatever reason, simply click on the downward arrow in the groups window and choose Modify Groups.




You can also Duplicate a group and delete a group from here.

To Enable and Disable a Group, all you have to do is go to the Groups Window and click on it. To Enable or Disable All Groups at the same time, hold down Apple, Shift and G (MAC).




Was this Tutorial helpful? Search more on Google!