Within the past few years, digital recording has reached a level that allows its positive aspects to far outweigh its negative ones. There are many of us, including some analog die-hards like me, who now gladly embrace the affordable computer-based digital recording system Pro Tools from manufacturer Digidesign.

The beauty of Pro Tools is that it is capable of doing so much with recorded sound. Ironically, this almost limitless capability can be the horror of Pro Tools. There are so many routes to take and so many ways to apply the software’s features in order to achieve a variety of results. The support manuals shipped with or purchased from Digidesign are comprehensive but do not include an “only what I need to know to do this job” section.

Most of us using Pro Tools simply want to make multi-track recordings of our music, fix musical mistakes in the recorded tracks, edit, and mix them. We want this and nothing more. However we must sift through countless pages about the program’s advanced features in the manufacturer’s manual in order to find the information needed to accomplish our relatively easy goals. The Pro Tools manual is more of a look-what-all-you-can-do rather than a how-to guide.

Not so with veteran musician/producer/engineer John Keane’s new book, A Musician’s Guide to Pro Tools. As the title suggests, this book is all about recording and editing music. It is written by a professional who plays and records music every day and the text never bores the reader by wandering off into “I do not really need to know this” territory. Keane’s intense, focused approach provides the best way for a musician or studio engineer to learn to use Pro Tools. The book includes a helpful CD as part of the training course, allowing a truly hands-on experience for those new to this complex program.

I was impressed by the fact that chapter one gives clear instructions on configuring your computer to work properly as a multi-track recorder / editor. Otherwise the computer owner will quickly find that Pro Tools demands exact tweaks within both the computer’s settings and its own preferences. Pro Tools cannot be just another program on your home computer. It must rule the computer. If not configured properly, it will make sure that both the computer and the other software programs quickly learn who is boss.

Pro Tools is a wonderful program but it does suffer from the unavoidable flaws of computer-based recording, such as latency in monitoring and delays caused by the use of several plug-ins (compressors, reverbs, and other signal-processing software programs). The software requires a computer with tons of ram and a fast processor in order to function yet it can still manage to drag even the fastest computers down to a crawl. These points are addressed in the Pro Tools user’s manual. However Keane’s book provides very easy instructions and illustrations for setting up auxiliary sends and returns, using automation tricks, and applying other valuable CPU-relieving techniques. All instructions are well explained for both Windows and Macintosh users and specifically address the different versions of Pro Tools.

Throughout the book’s lessons, Keane suggests appropriate points for the reader to consult the Pro Tools manual for more detailed explanations. Therefore the book works in concert with the manufacturer’s user manual, making things even more evident and easy to understand. The end result is that one can avoid becoming distracted by the manufacturer’s often-unneeded technical information and proceed to quickly learn to record and edit music.

Lesson One quickly dives in, allowing the reader to easily set up and begin to record some initial tracks. Packed with illustrations, the narrative provides a step-by-step procedure for working with these tracks and completing a simple multi-track recording. This zero-fat, direct to-the-point method allows one to remain focused, fully understanding each step along the way. Although the book covers all of the major aspects of recording and editing with Pro Tools, it never throws a huge chunk of information out at once. It unveils the information only as needed, which is exactly the way a good instructional guide should be written.

Keane left nothing out, including the all-too-common musician’s mistake, such as a bad note or a missed beat. Many manuals provide excellent instructions as long as all is right with the world. However music is not usually free of flaws. This is where this book shines far above others of its type. Keane actually puts musical mistakes into the training course and teaches the reader how to fix them. Even more impressive is that his fixes remain natural sounding and he stresses the avoidance of sterile over-editing.

If I could have purchased this book/CD training course before I started recording with Pro Tools, I could have saved countless hours of brain wrenching and profanity spouting. If you want to spend your valuable time creating music and not cussing your computer, A Musician’s Guide to Pro Tools is an absolute must-have.

Rick Fowler (musician and audio engineer)