Jon Connolly is the most sought-after Pro Tools instructor in the world.
Having been with Avid since the company first started out as DigiDesign in the early ‘90s, he quickly became their Product Specialist in Los Angeles, offering Pro Tools installations, training, and support to major studios like Warner Bros., Universal, Capitol, The Village, Record One, Westlake, and more.
Today, Jon is a Pro Tools Master Instructor for Avid, travelling the world and training Pro Tools users of all levels. He also teaches at the world-renowned Berklee College of Music. In this tutorial, he goes over the differences between the Edit and Mix windows in Pro Tools!
Edit Window
The Edit window is Pro Tools is what Jon refers to as the “tape deck.” This is where you’ll spend the majority of your time recording and editing audio.
To the far left of the Edit window is the Tracks List; any channels you create in the session will appear there. To the far right is the Clips List, where you’ll find all of the clips in your session. As you edit files, more clips will populate in this section.
In the middle section of the Edit window you’ll find the Pro Tools timeline. This is pretty self-explanatory as its where all the audio in the session lives and where things will be recorded.
The top of the Edit window also contains your main transport controls, the different edit modes, all of the tools, MIDI controls, and more. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with each of these sections, as well as customize the view to your liking!
Mix Window
Pro Tools’s Mix window looks just like that—a mixer! Here you’ll find all of the tracks in your session organized as channels, each with a fader, a solo and mute button, a panner, a record enable button, and more.
You have the same controls in the Edit window as well, just in a different view. The Mix window removes the Pro Tools timeline giving you more room to play with Inserts, Sends, I/O settings, and the like!
One important tip: you can toggle between the Edit and Mix windows using the Command = keyboard shortcut.
