Pro Tools 11 - #04 - Import Audio; Tap to Tempo Video Lecture | Pro tools Tutorial: Basics to Expert - Video & Sound Editing

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 4 of my Pro Tools 11
tutorial series in this episode I'm
going to show you guys how to properly
import audio and also how to change the
tempo of your project to match the tempo
of an imported loop so first let me just
show you how to import audio the proper
way now one way you can import audio is
just to go find the audio file wherever
it is on your desktop or wherever and
you can drag and drop it drag and drop
it into the project now you can do that
but the problem with this is it doesn't
actually make a copy of your imported
audio in your Pro Tools session folder
under than the audio files folder and
that can be a problem because if I go
back and maybe move this folder
somewhere or maybe I move my session
elsewhere onto a different computer I'm
going to open up the session and this
audio isn't gonna be there anymore it
only copies like the the waveform into
the session it doesn't actually make a
copy of the entire audio file so that
the proper way to do this to make sure
that we're actually importing and making
a copy of the audio file into our
session is to go to file import audio or
you can use the key command shift
command I which brings up this window
you go through your finder and you find
the actual folder that the loop or audio
or whatever it is it's located in mine
is slow and steady hip-hop beat click on
it you can actually hold shift and you
can port multiples if you want I'm just
going to import one for now and there's
a bunch of options down here you've add
at all convert convert all what we're
gonna use is convert because convert is
actually going to convert this audio
file into the correct format for my
session in addition to making a copy in
the session now here's here's part of
the problem this loop that I'm importing
is has a bit depth of 24-bit
and a sample rate of 44,000 144 44100
rather my session actually has a sample
rate of 48,000 so I want to make sure
that I convert this file to the proper
format so it's going from 44 1 to 48
otherwise we're gonna have some weird
playback issues likewise if I choose to
choose add it's not going to convert it
and it's not actually gonna add it to
the the audio file folder by the way if
you are using a loop or a file that's
the same sample rate as your session
convert will actually say copy instead
of convert and that's the one you always
want to click so always click convert or
copy or convert or copy all so I'm gonna
click convert yes we want to apply
sample rate conversion
we'll hit done it's gonna ask us where
we want to save our file to and yes we
want to save it to our sessions audio
files folder so what you hit open its
converted it where do we want to put it
I'm gonna put it in on a new track go
ahead and delete that other track and
here is our drum loop that's now been
imported so it's actually now a part of
the session the session has actually
converted this audio file to the correct
format and made a copy of it in our
audio files folder so I don't have to
worry about saving that other folder
where the original location of the loop
was I know it seems like it's a
complicated process but you're gonna
save yourself a lot of headache in the
long run by doing it this way all right
the next thing I'm going to do is I'm
gonna make sure I turn grid mode on
because I want to work with musical
timing I'm gonna make sure to turn my
grid on and I'm gonna keep my grid on an
eighth note sure that works and a zoom
out just a bit and what you'll notice is
I'm gonna go ahead and grab my selector
tool and what you'll notice is we have
measure one beat one measure to beat to
beat three beat fourths this is one
measure of music and then here's my
second measure of music so the loop is
actually right now a measure and a half
long it's at the wrong tempo now I
already know just because audio blocks
labeled this loop at 80 bpm so if I
really want to
go over here click on this little icon
go down to tempo and I could just double
click on the little red flag looking
thing here and I could just type in 80
and everything would match up right to
the grid so now instead of just to make
this easier to look at I'm gonna change
this from 8th notes to 1 bar so now we
basically have a 1 bar loop here you
know this is exactly 4 beats long I'm
gonna go back and change this to quarter
notes so it matches up now what if what
if the loop doesn't have a label like
that what if it doesn't say that this is
80 bpm 120 BPM or higher and 10 bpm
there is a pretty quick way and we go
ahead and change the tempo back to 120
there's a pretty quick way to tap in an
approximate tempo and then figure out
you know sort of fine tune the tempo
from there the way to do that is just to
listen to the loops I'm just going to
drag over the loop I'm going to go to
window transport or you can press
command 1 our control 1 on your number
pad just pulls the transport up I'm
going to right click on the playback
button and I'm gonna choose loop record
what that's gonna do is it's gonna just
play this play this loop continuously so
there we go you can also pull that up up
here if you right click and you say show
transport you can pull that up here as
well so you don't have to actually have
to have a separate floating window so
what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pull up
my tempo change again again by clicking
on the little red icon there and it's
really cool all you do is click on the
BPM area here and just tap the T on your
keyboard so you can hear me tapping it's
really I'm tapping really fast but I
want it maybe something slower and every
time you tap it records what the tempo
is so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hit
play on my on my loop out there and I'm
going to just sort of feel where the
beat is
tap on Tiki and ProTools will sort of
estimate what the tempo is so by the way
you have to look I guess you have to
close out the let's try it again yeah
you have to close out the tempo change
window press play
then then open it back up yeah so I was
actually able to pretty pretty much get
it right on point I was just hitting T
at the at the tempo of the beat roughly
the tempo of the beat now that I'm not
hearing it and it basically got me
somewhere around 79 80 and so you can
sort of guess to me as to you know the
Faro what the correct tempo is from
there so now I'm gonna go with 80 and
just to double-check this I'm gonna go
to track create click track and let's
see if our click track matches up with
the tempo of the loop kind of hard to
hear let me pull the volume down a bit
let me just loop that so we're right on
point alright so I hope you enjoyed this
video in the next few videos are gonna
be start talking we're gonna start
talking about the Edit tools and we're
gonna use this loop as well as a few
other loops to start building basic song
so I hope you enjoyed the video and
thanks again for watching