Perfect view – Window Configuration in Pro Tools

Working in large Pro Tools sessions with a lot of plugins might get a bit confusing. Keeping the overview over all these tracks and plugins is not always easy, but Pro Tools comes with a feature called Window Configurations.

This feature helps you storing windows settings for your edit or mix window, plugin windows, project browser window and all other windows that can be found under the menu ‘Window’.

Read more on how to use Window Configurations and see some examples for usage:

Here’s a first example:

I have a single track with three plugins in it. I pretty often change settings in this three plugins during work. To open several plugins without closing them instantly, I hold ⇧ while clicking on the plugin insert.

Instead of clicking these three plugins again and again, every time I want to change some settings, I can save the formation of these plugins as window configuration.

I just place the plugins how I like and then click Window –> Configurations –> New Configuration

This will open a new window in which I can name my configuration, assign it to a certain window and add a comment.

Every time you click Window –> Configurations and then the name of your configuration, the three plugins will pop up and you can start editing without clicking single plugins in the track.

To hide all these plugin windows again, just press ^⌥⌘W and they will be gone instantly.

Window configurations can be assigned to certain windows only, yo they only will affect one window of your session.

Here’s a setting just for the Edit window. In two different settings I enabled and disabled the Regions + Tracks lists, in the other one, I can see them both.

By setting up these two configurations, I can easily switch enabled and disabled Regions + Tracks lists.

And without Regions + Tracks lists:

Window configurations can assigned to more windows like the Transport window:

To see all configurations, just click ⌥⌘J for the window configurations list

This will show you all configurations and which window they are assigned to.

And here’s a short tip for the shortcuts freaks: By pressing period (.), then entering a number from 1 to 99 and then pressing plus (+) on the numeric keyboard, you can create a new window configuration on a specific numbered slot (there are up to 99 in Pro Tools).

Especially when you’re having a large amount of various plugin chains or if you have to change quickly between different views keep the overview, then window configurations is a feature you should try. Have your plugin combos and various windows ready in seconds.