Pro Tools: How To Use Destructive Record

In this tutorial learn how about the use of the Destructive Record mode within Pro Tools 8 which allows you to overwrite audio regions to help you save disk space and keep better organized.

Justin: Hey what’s up, this is Justin at winksound.com. There are many different record modes in Pro Tools 8. In this video, I’m going to show you destructive record and how it affects your audio. It’ll overwrite your previously recorded tracks and it’ll save you this bass without creating two different regions. Okay, so let’s get to the destructive record. You can go to options and to start the record. Or what you can do is go in a little record icon and holding Control and click until a little D pops up, and that’s destructive record. So with destructive record, what it does is that it overtakes the audio file and then it becomes a new file to whatever you’ve recorded over. So like – I’ll show you in regular record, how it creates two separate regions, audio regions. So here’s what the track is [Demonstration]. Okay, you get the idea the same thing over and over. So, I’m in regular record mode right now and I’m going to record over there and let’s see how that plays out. [Demonstration] Okay, so as you can see what I’ve recorded has become two separate audio regions, audio 105 and audio 104. So 104 is my original one. Now I can grab this region dragging out and expand it back to what it originally was. And then 105 is the newly recorded part, so I can put this together to how I like. You know maybe I like the beginning of the new one that I recorded and the end of this so I can play them together real nicely so they go together. Now, if you’re in destructive record – so this is our original audio file. Now destructive record, again, Control and click until you got a D. As you can see, when I’m recording it’s going to just create a solid file, one audio region instead of chopping up two separate regions. So in this case, like you don’t have as much flexibility as regular records because you could still you know click out the original region and drag it out and you’ll still have your original recording. But with destructive record, it makes you take chances and you know makes you commit to your recording and it also saves up disk space because it doesn’t create two different regions. So here is destructive record. [Demonstration] So as you can see, it’s name the same thing as it was originally, 104 but it’s one full region instead of two separate like before and there’s only one region in my regions menu over here. So you’re saving some disk space and it’s making you commit to recording, but you have less flexible options for editing later on. Male: You can always get in touch with Justin at winksound.com and check out more of Justin’s videos including these tittles featuring the new Pro Tools 8, now available on demand at winksound.com.