Pro Tools 101+ Course
A comprehensive Pro Tools course and introduction to producing quality music. You will cover all of the essential music production skills needed to create tracks in any genre. As well as being perfect for beginners, even more experienced Pro Tools users will benefit too as they go over the elements indepthly with a professional engineer. This Pro Tools 101+ course is our industry version of Avid’s Pro Tools 101, 110 and 201 courses all rolled into one!
Al Riley and Pete Gleadall are our Pro Tools specialists. Check them out on our instructors page and Google.
Avid’s Pro Tools is usually the sound engineer’s DAW of choice, because Pro Tools is best for audio recording, editing and mixing audio. Whether you’re into dance, hip-hop, rock or pop, this course will teach you the skills you need to create, record and mix tracks using the onboard software instruments and your own recorded live elements. You will learn how to program a beat, record and edit audio, how to use and shape the sounds of the software synths & sampler, and also sound engineering techniques to get the best out of your recording.
The six week course takes place at the Arthaus in London and the price is £449.
If you miss any sessions dues to holidays or illness, we will do our best to engineer it so you can come back on the next cycle to catch up. You also get an industry recognised certificate on successful completion.
The courses are designed for optimised learning so you take in the content in a day, recap in between sessions at home, and come back to us a week later for the next session of learning. This makes use of an educational practice called the Spacing Effect. Evening courses run two sessions per week for three hours each.
Week 1 – The Basics
- Introduction and Setup, Computers, Programming MIDI.
- Overview of the interface, Arrange Window, Mix Window, Midi Edit Window.
- Speeding up your workflow and file management.
- Introducing the Xpand2 sampler and Boom drum machine.
- How to program MIDI and audio to create a beat.
- Key command of the day: ‘R’ & ‘T’= zoom in and out.
Week 2 – Making Your Own Unique Sounds
- Tour of Pro Tool’s instrument plugins.
- Understanding oscillators, filters and envelopes
- Tone generation and shaping
- Putting it all into practice with an in-depth look at the Vacuum monophonic tube synthesizer.
- Using MIDI controllers creatively – controlling filter cutoff, oscillator pitch etc
- Using automation to record and edit your every move
- Key command of the day: ‘alt+4’ = MIDI Real Time Properties editor.
Week 3 – Sound Engineering and Recording Techniques
- Digital, analogue, sampling frequencies and bit rates explained
- Recording techniques: matching microphones for vocals, guitar and other common instruments.
- Auxillary Sends, Headphones and Reverb – how to make your performer comfortable.
- Audio editing, Playlists, Track Grouping and Track Display modes.
- Basic sound processing – EQ, compression, gating when recording.
- Key command of the day: ‘F12’ = ‘command + space = Record.
Week 4 – Advanced Editing and Production Tricks
- Comping – how to get the ultimate vocal or drum take.
- Using Elastic Audio and tempo maps to get Protools in time with your audio.
- In-depth look at Beat Detective, or how to make your drummer sound better than he/she was.
- Production tricks using Audiosuite effects, Eleven amp simulation, Delays, tape-style effects.
- Combining synthetic and live elements to give depth and feel.
- Key command of the day: ‘F’ = Fade.
Week 5 – Using Samples and Loops.
- Where to get samples and the law.
- Mapping drums, tuning and manipulating
- Chopping up loops in Pro Tools
- Using Beat Detective to get samples into time with your song
- Overlaying samples on your recording to improve your drum sound.
- Filtering and time stretching.
- Key command of the day: ‘alt + 8’ = Beat Detective
Week 6 – Tips, tricks and Preparing to Mix
- Arranging for different genres.
- Preparing for the mix.
- DSP and System Resources.
- All about routing with busses and auxes.
- Printing software instruments.
- Consolidating audio and cleaning up your session.
- Key command of the day: ‘alt + drag plugin’ = copy plugin AND all of its settings.
End Of Year 2012
| Date | Time |
| Sunday 13th November | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 20th November | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 27th November | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 4th December | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 11th December | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 18th December | 11.00 – 18.00 |
New Year 2012
| Date | Time |
| Monday 2nd January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 3rd January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 9th January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 10th January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 16th January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 17th January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 23rd January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 24th January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 30th January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 31st January | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 6th February | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 7th February | 18:45 – 21:45 |
Early Spring 2012
| Date | Time |
| Saturday 18th February | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 25th February | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 3rd March | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 10th March | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 17th March | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 24th March | 11.00 – 18.00 |
Late Spring 2012
| Date | Time |
| Thursday 29th March | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 5th April | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 12th April | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 19th April | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 26th April | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 3rd May | 11.00 – 18.00 |
Early Summer 2012
| Date | Time |
| Monday 7th May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 8th May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 14th May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 15th May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 21st May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 22nd May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 28th May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 29th May | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 4th June | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 5th June | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 11th June | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Tuesday 12th June | 18:45 – 21:45 |
Midsummer 2012
| Date | Time |
| Tuesday 19th June | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 26th June | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 3rd July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 10th July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 17th July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 24th July | 11.00 – 18.00 |