![]() To get a quick visual overview of the structure of the nesting hierarchy, the best place to go isn't the Mix or Edit windows but the Tracks sidebar. In the example Session, which has a lot of nesting, the Kick In track, which ordinarily would be Track 1 in my Session, is far from the first track because it is nested seven folders deep, something I'll take some time to adapt to. Because of this, and the fact that while you can hide member tracks individually, if you hide a Folder Track the Folder Track's contents get hidden too, there is a certain lack of flexibility about exactly which tracks get displayed and in which order. The Folder Track is placed to the left of the member tracks, mirroring their position above the member tracks in the Edit page. ![]() In the Mix window (see opening screenshot) things are slightly different: the Folder Tracks put a box around the tracks contained in the folder, best illustrated by colouring the Folder Tracks something other than their default blue. The Folder Track appears immediately above the member tracks it contains, and an offset of the track header to the right indicates the folder hierarchy, with nested folders becoming increasingly offset as the nesting gets deeper. The Edit page is the view of Folder Tracks we have seen in some detail prior to the release of 2020.3. The Edit window displays Folder Tracks and their contents in hierarchical fashion. Creating Folders, whether Routing or Basic, to a depth of only a single layer changes the appearance of Sessions very little, but if the nesting gets deep then representing this dendritic structure introduces a necessary amount of clutter and takes away some of the control a user has over exactly what order tracks appear in on the Edit and Mix pages. The nesting of Folder Tracks is probably the most significant feature to affect the Pro Tools user experience. The pre-release information suggested that nesting nine layers deep was possible, and I can only assume that the 'nine deep' figure also included the top level of tracks which are not in a Folder. Nesting Folder Tracks within Folder Tracks is possible up to eight layers deep. Any track type can exist in a Folder Track, including VCAs, Master Faders and MIDI and Instrument Tracks, and of course other Folder Tracks. When a Routing Folder Track is created a corresponding bus is also created, inheriting the name of the Routing Folder Track. ![]() Routing, which does everything a Basic Folder Track does but adds submixing features similar to bussing a collection of tracks to an Aux Track.Ĭreating new Sessions using Folder Tracks is well thought out, with Basic and Routing Folder Tracks available from the New Track dialogue, and the option to convert Aux Tracks currently used for submixing in existing Pro Tools Sessions into Routing Folder Tracks via a right–click menu item called 'Convert Aux To Routing Folder'.Basic, which is a logical container for tracks to help organise a Session.Having now used them I'm not sure the transition will be as immediate as I had assumed, as the impact that the Folder Tracks feature has on the experience of using Pro Tools can be significant. When I first saw the Folder Tracks feature in use, I assumed that I would use them in preference to submixing via Aux Tracks. Having now had some time with the actual released version, what more is there to say and, most importantly of all, what are they actually like to use? As such these features were always subject to minor changes, and while we knew quite a lot about how Folder Tracks were going to work, we didn't know everything. This column has already discussed Folder Tracks in some detail, but that was based on the available information from the preview shown at the 2020 NAMM show. But for those of us who use more modest computers, what does Pro Tools 2020.3 offer to our everyday work? Know When To Fold 'Em This isn't without qualification, however, as for the serious power users who have 24- or 28–core machines there are known issues with performance on Native systems. It also supports the new Mac Pro 7.1 with Native systems or DSP systems using up to three HDX cards, though this is likely to be an issue for rather fewer users. Pro Tools 2020.3 supports Mac OS Catalina and is fully notarised, making the increased security in Catalina less obstructive. (The new numbering system replaced version numbers with the year of release followed by the month number after the decimal point.) So what's new and what does it mean for the typical user? Catalina Support The long–awaited new version of Pro Tools finally hit users' accounts on the very last day of March, making this the 2020.3 update. We explore the 2020.3 update and specifically Pro Tools' new Folder Tracks. ![]() In the Mix window, Folder Tracks are identifiable by their colour banding. ![]()
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