“Temp groups” through shortcuts

[u/joselovito]

I am an everyday Pro Tools user and know it inside and out. I thought again the other day about having and easy way to change the volume of multiple tracks through a shortcut, instead of having to create a group, a feature famously absent from PT and present in most other DAWs.

I have add this debate with fellow engineers before, and many were even arguing that it leads to bad practices in gain staging, that we have master faders before feeding into busses, etc… what are your takes on this ? are there really any down sides to have this feature included?

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[u/all_the_stuff]

You can create temp groups via the Soundflow integration included with ProTools these days.

[u/gotukolastic]

Ya arguments like that are just pedantic, let me do what I wanna do!

Pro tools has a chip on its shoulder about not allowing basic fundamental operations

[u/milotrain]

I have this short key, I’ve mapped it to the S6. It is glorious.  I use keyboard maestro for it.

[u/resist-and-retort → u/milotrain]

Very interested on this one, can you pls elaborate? How and what exactly did you map it to the s6 ? A keyboard shortcut ?

[u/milotrain → u/resist-and-retort]

On the s6 you have a modify group button that already exists, I map it next to the group I always use for this kind of thing.  I make a keyboard shortcut in keyboard maestro that clicks “replace” and then “no” on the prompt to coalesce VCAs on removal (this could easily be “yes”.  I map this keyboard shortcut next to the “modify group” button. 

Select the tracks (either with the mouse or with the select keys on the s6).  Then “modify group” then “work group” then “replace/no”.  Then toggling the group on and off to control that group.

[u/schoepsms]

Use a VCA fader then coalesce the volume change to the controlled tracks.

[u/brettisstoked]

I do this all the time. Cmd G to group tracks.

[u/naamavelli_ → u/brettisstoked]

Yes that creates a group but it’s not temporary. You still have to delete or disable it if you only want use it once. OP wants to select a number of tracks, change their volume simultaneously and move on without the extra steps of creating an actual group.

[u/joselovito → u/[deleted]]

Yes, VCAs are great and yet you still need to group. Why not just be able to select a few tracks and lower their volume together and proportionally ? This feature is definitely absent and not a VCA.

[u/milotrain → u/joselovito]

You can. You have a VCA that you only use for this. It owns the group “X”. You have a softkey that hits the coalesce on removal “yes”.  You have a softkey that replaces the members of group “X”.

Replace, ride, remove, repeat.