REVIEW: Pro Tools tips and tricks V2 with Kenny Gioia

You know Kenny Gioia by now right? I’ve been writing about anything new from him since the time when he made these small clips and gave them away for free. A while back he released a DVD on Groovebox Music (you can read the review of it here), and now it’s time for part 2.

It’s interesting to note that every DVD I’ve seen on Pro Tools are different from the other. If you take ‘Mix it like a record’ by Charles Dye, not specifically Pro Tools, but still in that environment, it’s all about how to mix. If you take the ASK Video Pro Tools tutorials, then it’s about learning Pro Tools. Kenny Gioia’s videos at Groovebox fills another hole. It’s really as the title states – “tips and tricks”. Kenny shows you cool things you can do that you never knew you could do.

A lot of the DVD focuses on Beat Detective which makes it more suitable to some than to others. Kenny walks through an entire song with Beat Detective in a couple of tutorials. So depending on your work you might find this more or less useful. If you edit real drum takes then this will obviously be very useful, but if you’re working with drum loops (or no drums at all) then it might not be as interesting. It is very obvious, however, that this is an area that Kenny really shines in. He kind of compensates all the drumkit editing with perhaps the most mathematical swing tutorial on drum loops I’ve ever seen. Digidesign, if you’ve seen this, then you know why you must include a calculator with all Pro Tools systems!

So ‘Beat Detective’ is the first of four main categories. The other three are ‘editing & mixing’, ‘keyboard shortcuts’ and ‘utility & workflow’. ‘Editing & mixing’ is typical Kenny Gioia videos, that is cool little tricks on how you can loop, play around with delays and so on. The ‘keyboard shortcuts’ is – you guessed it – tons off keyboad shortcuts. In the final chapter kenny talks about various of things, like bounce to session and other workflow variations. I’d especially like to mention the video on Quick keys (or macro programs). I know a lot of people were interested in how Kenny did a couple of things so fast when he first started doing these videos, and in many cases the answer was Quick keys. I should also mention that most tips are available to all Pro Tools users, but there are a few that are HD only.

If you’re a long time ProTooler reader then you know this by now, Kenny is good with the mic, and a good personality for these types of instruction videos. If you’ve seen any of Kenny’s earlier videos (if you haven’t, go buy one or check out some of the free ones) you know he’s a laid-back guy when tutoring. Personally I find this to be a great quality in an instructional video. It never gets stiff (but I hear some people like stiff) and it doesn’t get boring. It’s just an easy thing to watch to your morning coffee.

Conclusion

So what sets this tutorial DVD apart from the rest of them? Well, it’s my opinion that most of the Pro Tools tutorials out there actually are different and aim at different things. Kenny Gioia’s videos are what the title says, more ‘tips and tricks’-oriented. Kenny will show you things like cool effects, but also a little on workflow. One of the major parts of this DVD is Beat Detective, so if you’re looking for ways to edit drums, then Tips and Tricks V2 is especially useful. Still I think most users will find something useful here. And as always, Kenny is easy to listen to and grabs your attention quickly.

Groovebox Music