Keyboard Shortcuts for Pro Tools

Imagine a peripheral you could connect to your Pro Tools system that would give you a field of shortcuts for editing and navigating. Imagine this peripheral is easy to connect and integrate into your existing workflow. Now imagine this peripheral is free. Have you figured out what it is yet? It’s your keyboard! That bucket of buttons you take for granted sitting right in front of you. Now imagine Digidesign implementing an entire layout that turns the normal combinations of modifiers and keys into single buttons to execute your desired function. It’s the first line of control you should master to be an effective Pro Tools Operator.

The A…Z (Command Focus) mode of the edit window is great. Studying the functions of the keyboard relating to this mode will make you a much more efficient operator.

Here are a few of the cool ones you should know:

Editing

• B = Separate Region
• F = Fade (with no ensuing window)
• C = Copy X = Cut V = Paste

Navigation

• P = Move cursor or selection to track above
• ; = Move cursor or selection to track below
• L = Move cursor to the left (like option+Tab)
• ‘ = Move cursor to the right (like the Tab key)

All you have to do to make this all work is to enable the a…z button located under the zoom controls in the upper left part of the edit window.

Happy editing!