But what are the benefits of these two options? Settings can be stored in the central Root folder or with the session from which they are saved. You can choose which you want from the Presets menu in the plug-in.
#PRO TOOLS 12 PLUGINS FOLDER PRO#
Pro Tools enables you to save presets in one of two locations: either in a special folder called Plug-in Settings, within the session folder, or on your system in the Root settings folder. The Presets menu also includes options to lock the current preset to prevent it from being overwritten by the Save command, and to delete the current preset. If you want to keep the starting preset, choose the Save As option instead, and give the modified setting a new name before saving it. Sometimes this is what you want, but if you are starting from a factory preset, you will lose the original factory setting. The basic 'Save Settings' option will overwrite the source preset: to save the current settings as a new preset, choose 'Save Settings As'. If you have created a new setting from scratch, you can simply choose Save Settings however, if you are modifying an existing preset, Save Settings will overwrite the existing preset with the modified settings. Once you've adjusted all the controls on the plug-in to your satisfaction, turn your attention to the Presets section at the top of the plug-in window. The Compare button lets you switch between the modified and original settings with one click, which is very useful, especially with EQ, when it is very easy to kid yourself that you're making the sound better when actually you're not! When you modify any plug-in parameter, you will see that the preset name becomes italicised and the Compare button lights up, indicating that the settings have been changed with respect to whatever preset was originally loaded. Whether you create your own settings from scratch, or modify one of the factory presets, Pro Tools will let you save them without having to overwrite whatever preset was your starting point. The presets in other types of plug-ins, such as reverbs or virtual instruments, are much more useful 'out of the box', but, again, don't be scared to tweak them to suit your project. Whoever created the presets had no idea what your audio would sound like, and presets for EQ and dynamics plug-ins, in particular, should be used with caution. These are often called factory presets, and can be really useful for helping you to understand how a plug-in works, but it often pays to take care when using them in your own sessions. But if you want to use those plug-in settings in a different session, you will need to actively save them as plug-in presets.Ī lot of plug-ins come with a range of presets included. This means that when you open a project, even years later, all the plug-in settings come back just as if it was yesterday.
The first thing to remember is that every plug-in's settings, irrespective of whether you create a preset or not, are saved in the session file.
#PRO TOOLS 12 PLUGINS FOLDER HOW TO#
Learning how to manage plug-in presets, and where on your system they live, can save time and frustration, especially when you need to apply the same settings in a different session. In this month's column, we're going to look at how Pro Tools handles the storage and recall of plug-in settings. Keeping track of your Pro Tools plug-in settings can make your life so much easier.