Pro Tools LE and M-Powered: The complete guide
| 2006-07-10 00:00:00 | | 0 | Multimedia
Pro Tools LE and M-Powered is an authoritative guide to Digidesign's entry-level hardware and software systems. Illustrated throughout with color screen grabs, the book starts by giving you useful overviews and advice about the hardware options available. Subsequent chapters are packed with easy-to-follow instructions, valuable hints and time-saving tips on how to use the software.
Includes:
* Full coverage of all new features in version 7
* Information on tempos, clicks and grooves
* Two chapters on MIDI
* Useful tutorials on using Reason, Live and SampleTank
* Recommendations on backups and transfers
* Guidance on the DV Toolkit for post production
For troubleshooting technical problems, advice on purchasing decisions or inspiration for new ideas, keep this book by your side as a vital reference point.
* Become an expert in Pro Tools LE and M-Powered and learn how to maintain a healthy computer system
* Gain the skills you need quickly with step-by-step tutorials to help you master the tools and techniques of the software
* Get creative with recording, mixing and editing projects and realise the full potential of your system
User review
Informative, but slightly technical
This is a good book for consumers getting into ProTools and wanting to know what's the right `version` of ProTools (including hardware) to buy. However, the book does assume that the reader is somewhat comfortable with technical audio terminologies or vocabulary, and is a comfortable PC/MAC user.
The text is well written, and there are colored pictures of the computer screens of the software. I have not gone through the software tutorial in detail yet, but it looks helpful just from browsing.
One thing that I would recommend: If you own a PC, get a MAC first before you think of buying ProTools. You don't need to read this book for that piece of advice. Many people have trouble running ProTools on PC. But it seems to work much smoother on MACs. I own a PC and I had trouble even installing ProTools on it. That's the reason I hadn't gone through the software tutorial of this book yet.
User review
save yourself the trouble and buy another title
This is the type of book you pick up at your local retailer and it looks really good - color photos, layout,, quality paper etc. After you use the book for a while you realize something's not in the index that should be. Later that day you realize tons of things are missing and then you find items in the text (not indexed) that are not even fully explained. Today I tried to find info about midi sync, ticks and samples, basic items like how to use cut and copy. It's just not there. Terms found in the menus on the sceen should all be in the index, in my humble opinion. I bought this book to learn PT and decide whether or not to go with a Digidesign or M-Audio system. On a one to ten scale for a `missing manual` I'd give it a 2. In addition it is not laid out very well. I would think a sensible way to organize a book like this would be to set it up through the various steps of doing a project and then putting some of the finer details later. This book dwells on details in some sections but tells almost nothing about some of the simpler tasks.
User review
Good Book
This book is informative and easy for the beginner to follow. The flow is logical and an easy straight forward read. The only drawback is the index of the book. More information should be referenced in the index instead of the reader having to skim to find key points. But all in all a good reference tool to use Pro Tools,,,,,,
User review
Not for beginners
I'm new to digital audio, so of course to Pro Tools. I purchased this book as an introductory handbook and had to return it. I found it assumed knowledge I did not have and left a lot unexplained. The explanations that were present were good, but I found it confusing that the discussion might refer to an illustration as much as 3 pages earlier. If I had a basic grounding in Pro Tools I might have found this helpful but as a beginner it was beyond me.
User review
Does The Job But,,.
I am a beginner at home recording so, one must temper my review with that knowledge. Overall Pro-Tools works as advertised. It is robust and necessarily complex.
I have issues with the record mode failing intermittently and I cannot get my external reverb unit to work with Pro-Tools. I had everything working fine until I upgraded to 7.3. Now I have these problems. I will be in touch with Tech Support to try and resolve my problems.
I do have to give a cheer out to Digidesign's Tech Support. When I have contacted them they have been very helpful and willing to explain to a beginner how things work and walk me through the repair. My negative is that is take 20-30 minutes on hol;d before they answer. That is annoying.
I would certainly recommend Pro-Tools to anyone considering home recording software. Perhaps if I was more experienced, I would not be having these problems.