The question then arises; how do you determine the tempo of the audio track(s) provided if it is not provided by the author of the media, and the information is not embedded in the file and available in the Pro Tools Workspace?

My first recommendation is to request the information from the media’s author. If, for some reason, they cannot provide you with that information (if it’s a collaborator, they should be able to provide this information) or you are in some way unable to obtain it, the following tutorial should help you determine the tempo in Pro Tools. You are going to need to know at least what meter the music is in, however, but most people can do that just by listening to the music in question.

1. Create a new session at the sample rate and bit depth at which you want to work. You might also want to set the meter, but that is not really necessary at this point.
2. If Pro Tools is not set to automatically create a click track in new sessions, add a click track.
3. mute the click track (for now)
4. Make sure that the tempo ruler is visible (View->Rulers->Tempo)
5. Make sure that the "Tab to Transient" feature is enabled.
6. Make sure that the transport is set to "Loop Playback" (this makes it easier to determine that you have a proper measure selected later)
7. Make sure that the preference for "Drag and Drop  from the desktop conforms to session tempo" (Setup->Preferences Processing tab) is not set to "All Files" and that the audio file that you are importing is not a REX or ACID file.
8. Create a new audio track in your session of the appropriate type to match the imported file (stereo for stereo, mono for mono)
9. Make sure that the track is set as sample based, not tick based.
10. Make sure that the track has any elastic audio turned off.
11. Drag and drop the audio file you are importing onto the new track
12. Playback Pro Tools to make sure you can hear the audio track
13. Determine, by listening, where the downbeat of the first measure of the imported track is.
14. Place the protools cursor just before that point and press the tab key. Pressing the tab key should place the cursor exactly on the downbeat of the first measure (If not, you need to manually manipulate the cursor so that it is exactly on the downbeat of the first measure)
15. Press and hold the "shift" key and press tab again to select from the first downbeat to the next detected transient. Repeat this process until you have one or two full measures selected. Pressing play while loop playback is selected will loop over this selection and allow you to make sure that the selection is made properly and is "in time". (If it isn’t, you will have to manually adjust the selection in slip mode. You should definitely know how to manually adjust a selection before trying this procedure   )
16. Once you have made the selection properly, and are sure that it is looping in time to the tempo of the prerecorded song, open the Identify Beat window (ctrl + I)
17. On the identify Beat window, you need to set the start location at 1:1:000 (since you selected the very first downbeat of the very first measure) and set the Time Signature to the value that it should be for the song you imported (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, etc), then set the End Location to whatever measure you selected to (if you selected 1 bar, then it would be 2:1:000, if two then 3:1:000), and make sure you select the same time signature as before.
18. Press "OK"

At this point, you have determined what the tempo is for the selection that you made, and Pro Tools has both inserted it into the timeline for you and moved the song start marker to the first downbeat you selected (also inserted a meter change even if it is not different from the session default). You can now un-mute the click track and check the tempo of the click against the audio. If it does not match, you have done something wrong; either with the selection of the measure(s), or with the time signature selection, or both and you will need to undo and correct.

Many times, especially when music has been recorded to a strict click/metronome, this will be the only thing you have to do as the rest of the song will be at the same tempo as you detected. However, if the original performer didn’t use a click/metronome, and/or the click/metronome from the recorded audio is too far out of sync with the Pro Tools click/clock, or if there are tempo or meter changes within the song, then you will have to go through the song measure by measure and repeat the process. You will need to make sure that when continuing, you not only make sure you make the selection (don’t just select the grid, because that isn’t going to work) and that you indicate on the identify beat window what measure the start and end point is.

1. How to “play” the Strike interface while Pro Tools is running
2. How to play patterns in Strike with MIDI in Pro Tools.
3. How to import MIDI from Strike into Pro Tools (coming soon… or maybe not )
4. more to come…

If you want to play the sounds in Strike using electronic MIDI drums, or a MIDI keyboard controller to create your own beats, you would want to use Kit Mode.

If you want to play (trigger) the pre-recorded beats in Strike (basically MIDI loops), using a MIDI controller (keyboard or drum pad trigger), you would want to use Style mode.

• Using Kit mode in Strike
• Using Style mode in Strike

If you don’t have a MIDI interface, and you aren’t comfortable penciling in notes on the track with the pencil tool, you can also still play the patterns using the Strike interface and the mouse, but you will have to record the audio output of your performance directly to an audio track, or play the patterns every time.

• “playing” the Strike interface with the mouse (coming soon)

• Insert strike on an Instrument track and make sure it is selected
• Select a drumkit or pattern
• Set the MIDI input of the Instrument track to either “All” or your specific controller
• Set the MIDI output of the Instrument track to MIDI Channel 2 of the Strike plugin
• If your system is set to use the first selected track as the default MIDI instrument, you can now play the Strike drums from your MIDI controller. If not, you will need to record arm the Instrument track.

That’s it! Seriously. You should now be able play the drum kit pieces from your MIDI controller. To record your performance, all you need to do is record arm the track (if it isn’t already) and press record.

If you don’t have a MIDI controller, but still want to use strike in this manner, you can also program these notes by penciling in MIDI notes to the track with the pencil tool.

There are two different modes for playing the patterns; normal and latch. In normal mode, the drum patterns play as long as you hold down a key. In latch mode the pattern loops continuously after you hit the key that the pattern is assigned to, until you hit another key to trigger another pattern or you hit the “off” key (C1).

Latch mode really is more suited for playing live and is more of a “hands-off” approach. It’s also the best approach if you are using pad like MIDI controllers (such as the M-Audio Trigger Finger, or the pads on an axiom controller).

• Insert strike on an Instrument track and make sure it is selected
• Select a pattern
• Set the MIDI input of the Instrument track to either “All” or your specific controller
• Set the MIDI output of the Instrument track to MIDI Channel 1 of the Strike plugin (should be the default selection)
• If your system is set to use the first selected track as the default MIDI instrument, you can now play the Strike drums patterns from your MIDI controller. If not, you will need to record arm the Instrument track.
• If you are in normal mode, you will need to hold down the key as long as you want the loop to play.
• If you are in latch mode, you can tap the key for the pattern, and it will play until you press another key, whether for another pattern or the “off” key (C1).

That’s really all there is to playing the patterns. To record the performance, just record arm the track (if it isn’t already), and press record.

If you don’t have a MIDI controller, but still want to use strike, you can also program these patterns by penciling in MIDI notes to the track with the pencil tool.

• Create two audio tracks
• label one Guitar DI, and label the other Guitar Print
• set the input of the track labeled Guitar DI to the input where you have your guitar plugged in
• set the output of the track labeled Guitar DI to an available bus
• set the input of the track labeled Guitar Print to be the same bus
• Insert the amp simulator plugin on the Guitar DI track
• record arm both tracks
• record your parts
• disable and hide the track labeled Guitar DI

Now you have an audio track with the printed output from the amp simulator, and you still have the original DI from the guitar. If you ever want to change the tone, you activate the Guitar DI track, change the tone, record arm only the Guitar Print track, and press record. Then deactivate the DI track again, and you’re all set. When the DI tracks are deactivated, so are the plugins on them, so they use no CPU.

The other benefit to this method is that if you like the performance, but decide you want to use a real amp instead, you can reamp the direct track out to a real amp.

Keep in mind that when using this method, you must be in record mode to monitor your input, and you must be in the proper monitoring mode (Input Only) if you want to monitor the incoming signal continuously.

Here are the steps:

1. Create a stereo Instrument track in Pro Tools. (you can also use multiple tracks for the audio return, but that’s a different tutorial)
2. insert Reason on the track, leaving the default channel selection (Mic L – Mix R)
3. In Reason create a ReDrum device and make sure it’s outputs are routed correctly (Reason Adapted users can skip this step as the ReDrum device is always in the Adapted rack, and routed to the mixer by default)
4. on the instrument track in Pro Tools, on the instrument view, select the ReDrum device on the MIDI output selector
5. in Reason, on ReDrum, select a drum kit
6. If you have Pro Tools setup to use the first selected MIDI track as the Default Thru Instrument, you should now be able to hear sound from ReDrum through the instrument track in Pro Tools. If you don’t have Pro Tools setup that way, then do so () or record enable the track. Keep in mind that the individual instrument channels are mapped to keys C1-B1, so you won’t hear anything unless you play those specific keys.
7. Record or pencil in notes at will.
8. Playback.

That’s pretty much all there is to using ReDrum as a sound module in Pro Tools. There are some “fancy” things you can do with it; like mapping the individual outputs of the instruments to different tracks (separate tutorial), and using it along with other devices in Reason (again, separate tutorial), but those are the basics.

If you want to save the settings for the session only, you need to create some directories in your session folder. In the main session folder, create a directory titled “Plug-In Settings”. In that folder, create a folder with the name of the plugin you are trying to save settings for. Inside that folder is where you will save session-specific plugin settings. (click on the Plug-In Settings button and select “Save Settings As”. Give your settings a recognizable name.) These settings will only be available when using that specific plugin in this specific session. The benefit  to this method  is that  the settings will be transfered with the session, and available to users of the session on other computer/Pro Tools systems.

I will cover the most basic ones first, and then add topics as time permits.

• How to Rewire Reason into Pro Tools
• How to use a MIDI controller with Reason and Pro Tools
• How to control individual levels of devices in Reason through Pro Tools
• How to use ReDrum as a drum sound module for Pro Tools
• more to come…