Pro Tools LE

From Garritan Wiki

Hi, and welcome to the tutorial for using GPO in Pro Tools. This tutorial has many screenshots to help understand things a little easier. The screenshots will open in a new browser window, to make it easy to refer to them while keeping the tutorial itself open.

This tutorial is referencing to Pro Tools LE verion 6 (or higher) on a Win XP system. Mac use should be similar; TDM users will have to use Audio Tracks instead of Aux tracks to insert GPO/Kontakt Player, due to the RTAS limitations.

Launch Pro Tools

Create a New Session.

Create a stereo Master Fader. (I do this when creating a New Session; skip if you like!)

Create a Stereo Aux Track. (I usually name tracks as I create them; this one will be named "GPO - Pipes" since I will be using the Pipe Organ in this example)

Insert GPO.

Load an instrument into GPO/Kontakt Player.

Raise Aux Track fader.

Using your mouse, play a note on the GPO GUI keyboard to verify audio can be heard. You might need to move the Mod Wheel forward, due to GPO using this for "volume control" with certain instruments/patches.

Create a MIDI track. (Once again, I prefer to name new tracks as they are created.)

On the new MIDI track, choose "Garritan Personal Orchestra 1 - (no channels activated)" for the Output.

Open the Edit Window. Hold the Control key down, and click on the keys on the mini-keyboard GUI (to the left) (be sure you are clicking on keys within the range of the instrument loaded!) You should see meter activity, and hear the instrument you loaded.

If you do NOT hear audio, but see activity; Or, if you do not see OR hear anything, recheck that you have followed the steps above. Also, verify that you are clicking on keys within the instrument's range which you are trying to verify is working.

Goto the MIDI menu, and make sure "MIDI Thru" is checked.

If you are using a Keyboard controller to play instruments, verify the port it is connected to, and verify it is setup properly. Next, verify that the device, port, etc the controller is connected to is currently "useable" in Pro Tools. First step to do this is to check the Input menu of a MIDI track, and verify it is listed. If not, this will need to be corrected before going further (if using a controller)

Set the input of the MIDI track to "All," or to the device/port the controller is connected to.

Rec enable the MIDI track (ONLY!).

Play a few notes on the controller (within range!). If you hear audio, and see proper meter activity, continue to the next step. If you do NOT, then there is an issue that needs to be resolved before continuing that is beyond the scope, intention, and capability of this tutorial. With the MIDI track still rec enabled, you can now hit Play (not Record and Play), and rehearse with a click, other tracks, etc. Refer to the Pro Tools Reference Guide for the various intricacies/features available while doing this.

Hit record. (record can be started by: pressing 3 on keyboard numpad, Ctrl+Spacebar, click Rec button, followed by Play button, etc)

You should now have some MIDI data on the MIDI track. Goto the Edit window to verify this. If you do NOT, verify that the MIDI track view is set to "Notes." If you still do not, then something got buggered between verifying Step 15 and hitting Record in Step 16.

Once again, refer to the Pro Tools Reference Guide for various tools and features availble to you to use with this newly recorded MIDI data. Save session, keep open if proceeding to Step 17.

[edit] Render/Recording MIDI track as Audio

Create a stereo Audio Track. (I highly suggest naming it; the name you give this track will be the name "base" for any audio files recorded on it, and also regions created from editing, etc, if your Prefs are set to do so)

Set the Input for this new Audio track to a free Buss pair. I will be using Buss 1&2 for this example.

Set the Output for the stereo Aux Track with GPO inserted to the same Buss pair you just set for the Input on the Audio Track. (Buss 1&2 in this example)

Rec enable the Audio Track.

Hit Play. You should hear audio now, and see the meters in the Audio track moving. Do not use the Audio Track fader to adjust the level! This ONLY affects the OUTPUT of the Audio track, NOT what is coming in!. To adjust the level of the signal entering the Audio track (in this, from GPO on the Aux track), adjust the Aux fader. Once you have levels set, proceed.

Verify that ONLY the tracks you want to be recording to are Rec enabled!!!

Hit Record.

Now that you have rendered the MIDI track, using the instrument(s) you chose, to an Audio track, you can now disable the GPO plugin, and mute the MIDI track to free resources if needed.

[edit] Multiple Instances, Instruments and the NI Bug

Told ya I'd come back to this! When using the RTAS version of Kontakt, Kontakt Player, Kompakt, or any library using these, you will only have MIDI channel 1 available for addressing that plug-in, and any instruments loaded.

The following screen shots show three instances of GPO loaded in Pro Tools, along with three MIDI tracks to address each instance:

Well, that's about it! Hopefully that clears up things a bit to get going with using Garritan Personal Orchestra with Pro Tools. If you have further questions, feel free to send an email. Enjoy!

[www.nintheye.com Nikki K]