Pro Tools vs. Hindenburg
Macintosh Key Commands:
Session Set-Up and Navigation
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Hindenburg
New Session
⌘N
⌘N
Open Session
⌘O
⌘O
Save Session
⌘S
⌘S
Save Session As
⌘ shift S
⌘ shift S
Zoom In
⌘[
⌘ + (or ⌘ mousewheel)
Zoom Out
⌘]
⌘ – (or ⌘ mousewheel)
Zoom to Entire session
⌘ control [
No equivalent: use ⌘ – to zoom out
Zoom to Selection
⌘ control ] (or option F)
⌘H
Increase Track Height
Control up arrow
Shift ⌘ +
Decrease Track Height
Control down arrow
Shift ⌘ –
Adjust waveform height
⌘ option [ or ⌘ option ]
Waveform height is set
automatically
Play/Stop
Spacebar
Spacebar
Play half speed
Shift spacebar
Adjust varispeed at bottom of
screen
Preroll
⌘K
P
Loop playback
⌘ shift L (or Control-click on
transport play button)
Shift spacebar
Scrub Audio
Control then click and drag mouse
⌘ click and drag mouse
Skip to next edit
Tab (if Tab to transients is disabled)
Tab
Skip to previous edit
Option Tab (if Tab to transients is
disabled)
Shift Tab
Go to Start of session
Return
Home (or Fn ⌘ Left Arrow)
Shortcut
Go to End of Session
Pro Tools
Option Return
Hindenburg
End (or Fn ⌘ Right Arrow)
Recording/Importing/Exporting
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Arm track in Recordready mode
Hindenburg
Shift R
Start Record
Command spacebar, or F12, or 3 on
numeric keyboard
Control Spacebar
Stop Record
Spacebar
Spacebar
Import Audio
⌘ shift I
⌘T
Import Session data
Option shift I
⌘ T (select session file)
Export Mix
Highlight in and out time then press
⌘ option B to bounce-to-disk
⌘ E (exports all clips in the session)
Export Selected Audio
⌘ K (or use bounce as above)
⌘ shift E
Editing
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Hindenburg
Set Edit In point
Down Arrow
⌘ 1 – or – I
Set Edit Out point
Up Arrow
⌘ 2 – or – O
Split audio at Cursor (or
spilt selected area)
⌘E
⌘B
Cut Selected Area and
close gap
⌘ X or Delete (in shuffle mode)
⌘X
Cut Selected Area and
leave gap
Delete (in slip mode)
Delete
Insert Audio
⌘ V (in shuffle mode)
⌘I
Copy
⌘C
⌘C
Paste Audio
⌘V
⌘V
Replace highlighted
audio
⌘ V (in shuffle mode)
⌘ shift V
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Hindenburg
Duplicate highlighted
audio
⌘D
⌘D
Make Crossfade from
selection
⌘ F (opens fade window), ⌘ control
F (uses default fade)
⌘F
Fade Out from cursor to
segment end
Option G
⌘F
Fade In from cursor to
segment end
Option D
⌘F
Consolidate Clips
Option shift 3
No equivalent – use grouping
Nudge Clip
Fn control < fn control > (on
compact keyboard) + or – (on
extended keyboard )
⌘ left or right arrow
Change Nudge value
⌘ option +/-
Zoom in or out – nudge value
correlates to zoom level. Zoom out
for coarse nudge, Zoom in for fine
nudge.
Move clip vertically to
new track
Control drag with grabber tool
⌘ up or down arrow
Auto-Level selected clip
No equivalent
⌘L
Selecting
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Hindenburg
Select from current
segment to end
Option shift return
Shift END (extended keyboards)
Shift Fn right arrow (compact
Keyboards)
Select from current
segment to beginning
Shift return
Shift home (extended keyboards)
Shift Fn left arrow (compact
Keyboards)
Select all segments on
track
⌘A
De-Select all segments
Escape
Group Tracks
Shift-click
or command-click on track names
to be made a group. Press ⌘ G
Shift-click or command-click on
track names to be made a group.
Control-click on any track name,
choose “link tracks”
Ungroup Tracks
Shift ⌘ G to suspend all groups
deselect group name in groups
Control-click on any track name in
the group, choose “unlink tracks”
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Hindenburg
window
Select contiguous clips
Shift-click on last adjacent clip
Shift-click on last adjacent clip
Select non contiguous
clips
⌘ click on clips
⌘ click on clips
Group highlighted clips
⌘ option G
⌘G
Ungroup selected clips
⌘ option U
⌘G
Mute/Unmute clips
⌘M
No equivalent
Lock/Unlock clips
⌘L
No equivalent
Play selection
Option [
Shift spacebar
Markers
Shortcut
Pro Tools
Hindenburg
Add marker
Enter (on numeric keyboard) fn
Return (on compact keyboard)
⌘ Enter
Go to marker
. marker number . (on numeric
keyboard)
Enter numbers 3-9 (and zero)
double-click on marker name in
marker window
Software-Specific Commands:
Hindenburg
Auto-level
JKL scrubbing
Hindenburg automatically adjusts the level of your clips when you import
them. You can turn this on or off, and change the reference level in the Menu:
Hindenburg>>Preferences>>Advanced. We highly advise that you leave autoleveling on, it’s a very handy tool. Leveling is automatically applied when a clip
is imported into the timeline, or a recording is made; but that adjustment is
made based on the average levels of the entire clip. After editing a clip, the
resulting average level might be different, especially if you’ve removed any
significantly loud or quiet sections. You can re-apply loudness normalization to
a highlighted clip by pressing ⌘ L.
You can play audio forward or backward at high or low speeds by using
the J,K and L keys. KL held down together will play the audio quickly in the
forward direction. JK held down together will do the same thing, but moving
backward.
Holding the SHIFT key while using JK or KL will cause the audio to play back
slowly, which is often an easier way to find precise audio events by ear than
scrubbing by clicking and dragging across the audio while holding the ⌘ key.
Select gap between
clips:
Triple Click with the mouse. This is very helpful for selecting a region into
which you can paste ambience or other audio that will smooth the transition
between clips.
Insert Silence
⌘ right arrow
Delete Silence
⌘ left arrow –
Rehearse Edit
Control Shift Spacebar
Clipboard
The Hindenburg clipboard is one of the most powerful components of the
program. It allows neat organization of clips, and efficient movement of clips in
and out of the timeline.
Move clip from
timeline to clipboard
⌘ drag clip
Copy selected clip to
clipboard (each
clipboard has its own
number)
option ⌘ (clipboard number) –
Copy selected clip to
Favorites
option ⌘ 0 (zero)
Copy top clip in
clipboard to timeline
(at playhead)
option (clipboard number) –
Markers
Control 3, control 4, control 5, up to 9 (and zero) – set markers numbers 3-0.
You can then jump to markers 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 0 by simply pressing that
number.
Markers 1 and 2 are always the most recently set in and out points. If you ever
get lost, not sure where in the project you are, pressing 1 or 2 will zoom to the
most recent edit.
⌘ shift enter – make chapter marker (at playhead).
Pro Tools
Hold option key to apply changes to all tracks.
Hold ⌘ key when making fine adjustments.
You can switch between the four edit modes by using the function keys (go to
your computer’s System Preference and make sure you have your keyboard
set to use those function keys as function keys, not as system shortcuts)
F1: Shuffle Mode
Edit Modes
F2: Slip Mode
F3: Spot Mode
F4: Grid Mode
Similarly, you can select the editing tools with function keys as well:
F5: Zoomer Tool
F6: Trimmer Tool
F7: Selector Tool
Tools
F8: Grabber Tool
F9: Scrubber Tool
F10: Pencil Tool
F6 and F7 together will activate the Smart Tool .
Pressing those Function keys repeatedly will change tool modes, such as
standard trim, time stretch or loop for the Trimmer Tool.
Enable or Disable “Tab
to Transients”
This determines whether the tab key jumps to next transient, or to next edit
boundary: ⌘ option Tab
Heal Separation
Pro Tools can remove edit breaks if clips have not been moved or otherwise
altered relative to one another. Click and drag to make selection across the
edit, then press ⌘ H
Strip Silence
Identify quiet sections of audio to remove: ⌘ U
Jeff Towne has been producing radio programs since he was a teenager, back
then with a portable Marantz cassette deck and a Teac four-track reel-to-reel tape
recorder, and now with digital recorders and computer workstations. After honing
his broadcasting skills at high school and college radio stations, Jeff has spent
over two decades as the producer of the nationally-syndicated radio program
Echoes. At Echoes, he has done extensive recording of interviews and musical
performances, produced documentary features, and prepared daily programs for
satellite and internet distribution. As Transom.org's Tools Editor, Jeff has reviewed
dozens of audio recorders, editing software, and microphones, and written guides
for recording, editing and mixing audio for radio and the web. Jeff has also taught
classes and presented talks on various aspects of audio production. When not
tweaking audio files, Jeff can probably be found eating (and compulsively taking
pictures) at that little restaurant with the unpronounceable name that you always
wondered about.