DigiDesign Digidesign Pro Tools 8.0, Reference Manual

Page: 903 / 1112

Chapter 41: Plug-in and Hardware Inserts 885
2
Change the value by doing one of the follow-
ing.
• To increase a value, press the Up Arrow on
your keyboard.
• To decrease a value, press the Down Arrow
on your keyboard.
• Type the value.
3
Do one of the following to confirm the value:
• Press Enter on the numeric keyboard to in-
put the value and remain in keyboard edit-
ing mode.
– or –
• Press Enter on the alpha keyboard (Win-
dows) or Return (Mac) to enter the value
and leave keyboard editing mode.
To clear all clip indicators in the session, including
plug-in clipping:
„
Press Alt+C (Windows) or C (Mac).
Plug-in Automation and Safe
All real-time plug-ins can be fully automated,
and support all Pro Tools Automation modes
(Write, Touch, and Latch, plus Trim).
The Auto button opens the Plug-in Automation
dialog, where you can enable individual plug-in
controls for automation recording (see “Auto-
mating Plug-ins” on page 916).
The Safe button engages Automation Safe mode.
When enabled, existing plug-in automation is
protected from being overwritten (see “Record
Safing Plug-in Automation” on page 918).
Side-Chain Input
The side-chain input is the split-off signal used
by a plug-in's detector to trigger dynamics pro-
cessing, and is generally drawn internally from
the input signal. However, some plug-ins let you
switch between internal and external side-chain
processing.
With external side-chain processing, a plug-in's
detector is triggered by an external signal (such
as a separate reference track or audio source)
known as the
key input .
A typical use for external side-chain processing
is to control the dynamics of one audio signal
using the dynamics of another signal (the key
input). For example, a kick drum track could be
used to trigger gating of a bass track to tighten it
up, or a rhythm guitar track could be used to
gate a keyboard pad.
Side-Chain Filters
Some plug-ins feature key high-pass and low-
pass filters. These controls let you define a spe-
cific frequency range in the side-chain signal
with which to trigger the plug-in effect. A com-
mon production technique is to use these con-
trols to filter a drum track so that only specific
high frequency sounds (such as a hi-hat) or low
frequency ones (such a tom or a kick) trigger the
effect.
In fields that support values in kilohertz,
typing “k” after a number value will multi-
ply the value by 1,000. For example, type
“8k” to enter a value of 8,000.