Music Production using Pro Tools

Our most thorough Pro Tools certificate program, Music Production using Pro Tools provides a complete guided education of Digidesign’s Pro Tools software, from setting up your studio to advanced mixing, mastering and remixing techniques, all from the perspective and experience of Berklee’s renowned music production faculty.

The program begins with Pro Tools 101. Berkleemusic is the exclusive online provider of Digidesign’s Pro Tools 101 curriculum, and this course constitutes the first stage of their Pro Tools certification program. In weekly exercises, you’ll explore the software’s capabilities, learn the basics of Pro Tools terminology, the software’s interface, session design, how to record tracks, MIDI sequencing, audio looping, and even get a taste of advanced features to be covered in detail later. This course provides real-world examples and frequent hands-on assignments that you’ll submit for feedback from your instructor and fellow students. This interactive component is a major part of the learning experience in this class, and will remain so throughout your certificate course work. At the end of the course, you will have an opportunity to take the Digidesign Pro Tools 101 Exam online.

Next up is Critical Listening where instructor Dan Thompson will train you to recognize and evaluate a wide variety of recording tricks, effects, and techniques and then reproduce them in the studio. The course will help you fine-tune your listening and analytical skills – to listen to recordings in a deeper, more active and involved way, and on a number of simultaneous levels. You’ll learn to take listening a step further, to recognize what delay parameters were used in specific recordings, to listen for frequency context, to identify the specific kind types of reverb at work, and various other parameters of a mix. Using interactive exercises and features, and Thompson’s textbook Understanding Audio (Berklee Press, 2005), you’ll learn how to listen for and use EQ, reverb, and other signal processors in a variety of contexts, from jazz to rock to hip-hop, how to tell the sound of a Telecaster from a Les Paul, understand dynamic and frequency range in a mix, and more. These critical listening skills will give you more control over your productions – whether you’re trying to grab some ideas from other artists or you’re doing something totally new.

The program moves on to cover Digidesign’s Pro Tools 110 curriculum (exclusively provided online by Berkleemusic), the second stage of Digidesign’s Pro Tools certification program. Building on the foundational skills you learned in Pro Tools 101, you’ll learn work through a broader range of tools and Berklee production techniques that will help you to tackle more complex Pro Tools projects. You’ll focus on working with expanded hardware and software configurations, developing versatile tools for manipulating and editing both audio and MIDI data, and implementing various techniques to facilitate larger and more sophisticated mixing scenarios.

Once you have gotten a good Pro Tools base, it’s time to put the software through its paces. In Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools, instructor Jeff Baust will take you deep into the software’s capabilities. Students will get an inside view on some shortcuts and ‘power tools’ that help them continue to build up their Pro Tools chops. You’ll learn principles of mixing and mastering that can be applied to any mixing situation, whether you use Pro Tools, other digital workstations, or analog gear. You work through interactive activities, and each week submit a completed mix for evaluation. The course addresses topics like: mix balance; effects processing from simple EQ to complex topics like using bussing and key signals to trigger dynamics processors; approaches to using reverb; and ways to manipulate time such as delay, flanging, and chorusing. Finally you’ll discuss the technical and creative issues involved with mastering recordings.

As the name suggests, Advanced Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools provides students with a deeper understanding of mixing and mastering tools and techniques that can be applied to a wide variety of styles. In this course, you’ll conduct in-depth, hands-on examinations of several mix techniques, such as EQ, compression, reverb, delays, and tempo maps, that are unique to Jazz, pop/rock and electronica. As you progress through the course, you will learn to add character to your mix by using "Lo-Fi" techniques, use multi-band compression in mastering, and master your mix using EQ and limiting. Again, although the course uses Pro Tools as the audio engineering tool, many of these skills will be portable to any kind of studio; regardless of software, hardware, or if the studio is digital or analog based. Berkleemusic, Waves, and AmpliTube have also come together to offer a generous educational discount on a number of required plug-ins for this course.

The required courses in this program wrap up with Remixing with Pro Tools and Reason. In this course you’ll learn to leverage the power of Pro Tools 7 and Reason 3.0 using ReWire technology, and gain a comprehensive understanding of how these powerful programs work together in the remixing process. You’ll produce four remixes based on different types of source material (stereo master, a cappella, breakout tracks, and a multi-track Pro Tools session), and learn the techniques of audio and MIDI editing, ReWire software protocol between Pro Tools and Reason, audio recycling, beat syncing, and groove quantization. You'll move on to study advanced remixing techniques using EQ-ing, filtering, and automation, learn to import and arrange REX audio loops, and understand the time compression/expansion tools needed to create an effective remix. By the end of the course, you'll learn practical applications that go beyond remix production, and gain a diverse skill set that will help you to better understand mixing, editing, and producing original material.

By the end of this program you will not only have the most extensive Pro Tools background that we can provide, as well as the first two stages of Digidesign’s certification program. You’ll also learn a tremendous amount of production tips and techniques from Berklee’s faculty that is portable to any number of digital workstations or analog gear. In addition to the 6 required courses in this program, this master certificate provides 3 elective choices designed to allow you to personalize your study experience.

Substitutions may be requested for electives. Please contact our Continuing Education Registrar at registrar@berkleemusic.com or call (617) 747-2146 to see if your request suits the overall academic requirements for your chosen program.