Zoom in or out in Pro Tools First to change the size of regions & waveforms

In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to zoom in or out in Pro Tools First.

Zooming in or out in Pro Tools First is really useful, and its really easy too. It allows you to increase or decrease the size of both the regions and the wave forms in your session.

This enables you to examine finite detail, to fit everything into one screen, or to do just about anything in between.

 

 

Zoom in or out in Pro Tools First: zoom in to make the regions wider:

To make the regions wider, simply click this magnifying glass icon:

Entering this mode enables you to zoom in or out in Pro Tools First.

When you hover over a region, the cursor will display a positive sign. By clicking on any region, all of the regions will be zoomed in, making the view wider:

This is really useful for zooming in to have a close look at the region’s waveform. This allows you to see things in far greater detail. Being able to see this level of detail comes in handy for things like lining up pieces of audio so that they start at exactly the same time.

Zoom in or out in Pro Tools First: zoom out to make the regions narrower:

By holding down option/alt (mac) or alt (win) the positive sign that the cursor displays will change to a negative sign when zoom mode is enabled. So now, with option/alt held down, clicking on the regions will zoom the regions out:

Being able to zoom out comes in handy if you want to view more of your session’s regions on your screen. In fact, you could even zoom out enough to view the entire session if you wanted to.

(Shortcut: press the T key on your keyboard to zoom in or the R key to zoom out. This offers a simple and quick way to zoom in or out in Pro Tools First.)

Zoom in or out in Pro Tools First: Single Zoom mode:

If you hold down the magnifying glass icon, a drop down menu appears. Here, you can select single zoom mode:

Enabling single zoom mode means that your cursor can be used to carry out a single zoom in or out, and will then automatically revert back to your cursors previous setting. This is useful if you know that you only want to zoom in or out once. You simply make your zoom and then you can carry on with your session, as the cursor’s function has been changed back out of zoom mode automatically.

Zoom in or out in Pro Tools First: zoom in to make wave forms taller:

Making the wave forms bigger or smaller within the regions is really simple in Pro Tools First. To make your wave forms taller, simply click in the upper half of this icon:

Doing so will make the wave forms increase in height within their regions:

Zoom in or out in Pro Tools First: zoom out to make wave forms shorter:

To make the wave forms within the regions shorter in height, simply click in the lower half of the above icon. Doing this will make the wave forms shorter in height within their regions.

Each of the steps above can be followed to customize the way you view your regions and your wave forms. How do you like to view your regions and wave forms? Do you have a preference? Or do you only zoom in or out in Pro Tools First when you need to inspect part of the waveform? Share your comments below…

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Click here for a Pro Tools First Tutorial on how to set up markers in your sessions.