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Boost Your Workflow: Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts (OS X)

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I'm a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts, and pretty much anything else that speeds up my workflow. One of the main reasons I use and love Pro Tools is because I'm so used to the layout and editing functions, most of which I control with the keyboard rather than mouse. There are, however, some menu items that I find myself clicking on regularly that I wish I could access without have to click around.

Well, thanks to a built in function of Mac OS X, this is no longer an issue, as you can create your own custom keyboard shortcuts for any menu item in any application. This is obviously useful for programs other than Pro Tools, including other DAWs, so if you're using a different platform, take these ideas and apply them to make things faster and easier.

Instructions (or see the video above):

To make your own shortcuts, go to System Preferences>Keyboard and click on the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab. In the left column, click on "Application Shortcuts" at the bottom of the list. Then click on the "+" below the right column, and on the window that pops up, click on the dropdown menu to choose your application (in this case, Pro Tools). For me, I had to scroll to the very bottom of the list and choose "Other..." in order to navigate to Pro Tools in the Finder, which is located in Applications>Digidesign>Pro Tools (I'm on Pro Tools 9, this may have changed with 10, but I would imagine it's similar). After you do this once, it should be in the list of applications. Just remember, you have to enter the "Menu Title" exactly as it is in the menu.

One thing you have to take into consideration when assigning your own shortcuts is making sure that you don't use a combination of keys that is already assigned to another command in the target application. For Pro Tools, there are very few shortcuts that utilize the "Control" key (not to be confused with the "Command"/"Apple" key), so there are lots of possibilities. Below are some that I find particularly useful:

(The "Menu Title for OS X Prefs" column is what you have to enter into "Menu Title" in order to make the shortcut work... this is obvious for some, but less obvious for other options such as toggling "Edit Window Scrolling")

Action Menu Title for OS X Prefs Possible Shortcut Save As Save As... Option+Shift+S Edit Window Scolling Set to Page Page Control+S Edit Window Scolling Off No Scrolling Control+X Solo Mode Set to Latch Latch Control+Shift+S Solo Mode Set to Cancel Previous Solo X-OR (Cancels Previous Solo) Control+Shift+X Delete Fades in Selection Delete Control+D Trim Region Start to Fill Selection Start to Fill Selection Control+W Trim Region End to Fill Selection End to Fill Selection Control+E Open "Playback Engine" Dialog Playback Engine... Control+. Open "I/O Setup" I/O... Control+I Open "Pro Tools Preferences" Dialog Preferences... Control+P Open "System Usage" Window System Usage Control+U Open "Color Palette" Window Color Palette Control+C Open "Undo History" Window Undo History Control+Z Open AudioSuite Gain Plugin Gain Control+G Open AudioSuite Reverse Plugin Reverse Control+R Toggle Show/Hide Track List in Edit Window Track List Control+Command+T Toggle Show/Hide Regions List in Edit Window Regions List Control+Command+R Toggle Pre-Fader Metering Pre-Fader Metering Control+M Toggle Click Sound On/Off Click Control+Shift+C

Those are only some of the possibilities. You can set any AudioSuite plugin to open with a keyboard shortcut, so if there are any that you use frequently, this can save you a couple of clicks.

Hopefully if you didn't already know about this function of OS X, it will help make your workflow faster and more efficient like it did for me.