Using Memory Locations in Pro Tools First to speed up your work flow

In this article, we’ll look at how to use memory locations in Pro Tools First.

This Pro Tools first lesson follows on from the lesson in which we learned how to Navigate Your Sessions Easily Using Markers.

This article will teach you how to take things a step further by utilizing memory locations to quickly recall different locations and properties in your sessions.

Using memory locations in Pro Tools First to move to specific parts of your session:

By using memory locations, you can instantly move to the location of any of the markers that you have set up. To do this, open the memory locations window by clicking ‘Window’ and then ‘Memory Locations’:

Each of the session’s markers will be listed. By clicking on any one of them, you will automatically be taken to that point in the session:

Using memory locations in Pro Tools First to remember pre/post roll times, zoom settings and track heights.

Using memory locations in Pro Tools First helps you to quickly and easily locate a specific part of your session. But you can take this function a step further. You can also use memory locations to recall specific properties in your session…

For instance, if you want to be able to set all of your tracks to a specific height at the click of a button, then you can do this using memory locations. Start by setting the tracks to the height that you want that memory location to produce. (Here, each of the track’s heights are set to mini):

Next, add a marker (click here for how to do this). Name the marker so that it is easily identifiable. As this memory location isn’t determined by a particular time in the session, set the time properties to ‘none’. Check ‘track heights’ under ‘general properties’. By doing this, Pro Tools First knows that it needs to replicate the track heights settings when this memory location is selected:

You will see that the marker/memory location that you have just added has appeared in your memory locations list:

Now, no matter what changes you make to your session, you can achieve the specific properties associated with the marker that you have just created at the click of a button.

Use Memory Locations in Pro Tools First to speed up your work flow.

You can use this process to create memory locations not just for track heights, but for other general properties as well. These include things like pre/post roll times and zoom settings. You can even combine general properties with time properties so that your memory locations recall not just the pre/post roll times or track heights, but specific locations in your sessions as well.

Using memory locations means that you don’t have to manually recreate specific properties again and again in order to set things up in a specific way. Instead, you can set them up once, assign them to a memory location, and recall them when ever you need to.

This feature is a great means of speeding up the way that you interact with your Pro Tools sessions. Is this a feature that you currently use? If so, what do you use the memory locations in Pro Tools First for? I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments section. If you’re not currently using memory locations, can you think of ways that they might benefit your sessions? Share your thoughts below.