Best ProTools books?

[wheelingwv]

As an old analog fart, dragged kicking & screaming into the digital domain, I've just bought my first ProTools LE system and am really frustrated with the lack of information in the so-called "manual" that came with it. The pdf version is bigger & better, but I still spent almost an hour trying to locate basic, rudimentary info. about a simple transport function.Can anyone recommend a well-written, logically-organized 3rd party manual for LE 7.3 and higher, that has a comprehensive index, logical cross-references, and clear, concise explanations of both basic & advanced functions? I'm longing for something as well-written as those old SSL manuals!Thanks!

[bobbydazzler]

I got "Protools for Dummies"It covers everything from the most basic settings thru to advanced misxing and mastering techniques...I think its updated fairly regularly.definitley worth a look.

[justinatrecording]

A few things to check out that I'll be reviewing for the mag...The Thompson Course Technologies books are really good, and come with a DVD so you can go through the tutorials. I'm really loving them and they're great for beginners and advanced users a like...I'm also really digging the Pro Tools DVDs from Ask Video. They rock! They're really easy to navigate, and you can jump around different topics. Get the first one to start (there are 3 total) and you'll be up and running in no time.Lastly--if you get Recording Magazine, check out the Feet First section. We have monthly Pro Tools tutorials in there. Since you're an old analog guy, you'll get PT pretty quick. IMHO, it's the best DAW for people who already understand signal flow and consoles, and are just getting into computer recording.Hope that helps!Justin

[nickbatzdorf]

The manual is perfectly fine, frankly - not to put down my old magazine just to say that you don't *need* anything else. What do you find frustrating about it?I never read anything else, yet I know PT very well. It's not because I'm smarter than you, it's because I read the manual.

[justinatrecording]

Definitely, Nick--the manual is fine, but kinda boring to just sit and read. 3rd party books and DVD's hold my short attention span much more easily. Plus, I've been using Pro Tools for 10 years and I'm still learning new tricks, shortcuts and methods of working. The Thompson books and ASK DVD's showed me some really cool stuff I use all of the time now!Cheers,Justin

[wheelingwv]

Thanks, gentlemen! I've also seen some glowing reviews of "Pro Tools for Musicians & Songwriters (Gina Fant-Saez?). Any thoughts on that one?[quote author=nickbatzdorf board=nick thread=1187652136 post=1187906131]The manual is perfectly fine... What do you find frustrating about it?To be fair, I haven't actually bought the real Digi manual yet. I was using the pdf doc. in the pro Tools help guide and thought that the indexing was badly organized. Between the pdf guide and the various settings/options/preferences menus, I spent more than an hour looking for 2 simple functions (a tape transport function and an edit window cursor function). Never did find what I was looking for and had to call a friend to get the answers. I just asumed if the official manual is written by the same folks who wrote the pdf guide, it must be equally frustrating. The little books that come with the 002 are, of course, useless for anything but the most rudimentary steps (plug it in, turn it on, don't pour water on the control surface, etc).By the way, I'm still searching for a basic setting that will allow the traveling play cursor to remain visible through all tracks/regions when the "tape" is stopped--so I can have a visual time marker to which I can drag various regions/tracks left or right on when I want to line them up to the same point in time. IMHO, such a feature should be as basic as providing a grease pencil in an analog editing session, but "continuous scroll with playhead" is not available in LE7 and I haven't found a similar alternative (and Digi tech. support told me that such a discussion falls under "user education" not tech. support).Any suggestions? Thanks,WWV

[nickbatzdorf]

Gina is great. I'd recommend her book even without seeing it.

[justinatrecording]

Hey WWV-I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do in Pro Tools, but you're right that LE does not have the playback head option. Instead, here area a few ideas...- Drop in a marker and use that as your reference point.- Use grid mode. The grid can be anything, including bars and beats. You could set the grid to samples, mins, seconds, etc. and then you'll have the grid to both lock regions to, as well as providing a visual reference.- Use spot mode. Click on each region and enter the start time you want for each region. Do any of these ideas help?Justin

[justinatrecording]

Oh, also forgot... there are many helpful people over at the digidesign user conference, talking about Pro Tools specific stuff all of the time!http://duc.digidesign.com/

[wheelingwv]

Thanks very much, Justin. I'll try the marker thing & see if that does the trick. I'm basically looking for a vertical cursor (like the Play Cursor that appears when the song is playng) that remains visible through all tracks/regions at a chosen point in the song when the "tape" is stopped, so I can visually drag any track/region left or right to butt a chosen point in the waveform up against the cursor (for instance, lining up a cymbal crash sample on track 7 with a kick drum hit on track 1. The cursor runing through both tracks would show me exactly where to drag the transient of the cymbal crash, left or right, to align it with the transient of the kick drum).Other things I've tried so far just show the cursor at the top of the edit window, not through all tracks. The Play Cursor does what I'm looking for, but it disappears when the "tape" is stopped.Thanks,WV