Pro Tools 8 for Mac OS X and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide

This book is possibly a better quick "go to" reference for Pro Tools than the documentation from Avid that comes with the program. I also find it more informative and much easier to navigate than the help info integrated into Pro Tools. This book is good for someone new to the program, -as well as for the experienced user who needs to look up how to access some program feature that he or she doesn't use very often.My only complaints are that the book often doesn't go into a whole lot of detail on some subjects, but since it's supposed to be a "quick start" guide, that's understandable. The book also hasn't been updated for Pro Tools 9 and 10. But those things aside, it's a good quick way to get up and running with Pro Tools, even if you're using a later version.

Good instructions

I received this text book in two days, in which I really appreciate with. There is few highlights inside, but acceptable on the whole.

This "guide" does not explain how to setup and record with Pro Tools and it does not provide a quickstart.I spent an hour reading the chapters on working with sessions and tracks and learned nothing. For example under track types, the author identifies the controls on the audio track strip then identifies the same controls on the other five types of tracks. This takes up 8 pages! "In the mix window, audio track channel strips include controls for volume, pan, record enable, solo, mute, and group ID; plus selectors for automation, audio input paths, and audio output paths." I don't need a written description of what is right in front of me on the computer screen.Under opening a session, he states the obvious steps for opening a session with a session template. A beginner's guide shouldn't even mention templates, no reason to discuss templates until the user understands the basic recording functions.The Reference Guide PDF file and video tutorial that come with the software are more useful for getting up and running.

Okay, although the book does say learn protools the easy way, the fact is this is going to be a reference book, to us engineers it's a good way of poking back to check almost like a trouble shoot guide. There is repetition in some parts of the book but they use the emphasis and repetition because protools becomes very in depth and confusing at times. You may find this useful to learn off of but the fact is once you know the layout of protools and how each section works then you can start basic recording, it doesn't take a huge amount of time or knowledge to figure your way out around a daw like that. I warn you not to buy this and think your going to learn everything about protools because that's not what it was intended for, you'd be better off watching youtube videos on the gui of protools this however is a very useful book to keep handy in your studio or next to your home recording setup.Remember there are no set constitutional rules to recording and mixing. Everyone does it differently and has a different workflow you just need to find what's right for you. I would recommend this book to more of the intermediate engineer, not so much beginners who started out.

I found this a clear, readable,, and well thought out guide to Pro Tools operation, good for both beginners and more experienced users (I'm a little bit of both). I was able to have questions that came up in the middle of PT work answered concisely and quickly by using the index to get to the information I needed quickly. I learned a lot of things I didn't know, even though I've been a PT user for many years as a music professional (though not a professional engineer). Highly reccomended!

This book is what I call information dumping. It does not tell you HOW to use protools in any way. There are no exercises or useful information. I'm hoping to return it. I would just guess that the author just copied the information from some other source. Goes into no detail at all. Waste of money