GuitarBox and GuitarBox Pro combine the award-winning Black Box and Pro Tools M-Powered, along with a dozens of powerful studio plug-ins. Yet for all this power, these affordable packages make it extremely easy to get started. Here’s a quick tutorial illustrating just how simple it is to make guitar-based recordings right away.

1. The Edit window features vertical tracks set against a horizontal timeline and is one of two main windows where you’ll spend most of your time in Pro Tools M-Powered. While it’s easy to record stereo guitar tracks with GuitarBox, we’re actually going to simultaneously record a pair of mono rhythm guitar tracks—one with Black Box amp modeling and the other dry—for maximum processing flexibility later. In the Track menu, select New. In the dialog that appears, specify two mono audio tracks and click OK. Click on the default track names Audio 1 and Audio 2 and name them Gtr Dry and Gtr Amp, respectively.

2. Pro Tools M-Powered automatically configures the Black Box’s stereo DSP (processed) outputs as inputs 1-2 and mono dry output as input 3. You can see that both our new tracks are set to record using In 1. Let’s set the Gtr Dry track to record the unprocessed output. On the Gtr Dry track, click the input selector currently displaying In 1 and use the pull-down menu to select In 3. Now record-enable both tracks by clicking the red R button on each one. To avoid latency during recording, we’ll mute the signal passing through both guitar channels by clicking the M button on both.

3. On the front panel of the Black Box, use the Preset Selector keys to audition and choose an amp model. Now turn the Mix knob about halfway between Input and Playback—then adjust as needed later to get a good balance of click track and your live guitar. Finally, play your guitar while adjusting the Guitar Input knobs so that you have a healthy green Signal LED with little or no flicker of the red Clip LED.

4. Now we’re ready to record the rhythm guitar tracks. We’ll want a click and a 2-bar count in, so make sure the Metronome and 2 Bars buttons in the main Transport window are enabled. Click the transport’s Record button to enable overall recording, then click the Play button to initiate recording. Play a short passage along on your guitar, then click Stop. The tracks will now display the newly recorded waveforms. Click the R button in both tracks to prevent accidentally recording over them, as well as the M button to unmute them for playback. Now you can hear what you just recorded by pressing the Play button in the transport.

5. Next, we’ll make that loop repeat for something to jam against. Make sure the Grabber tool (hand icon) at the top of the screen is selected and click in the waveform display in the first track. The entire passage will become highlighted. Next, hold down the Shift key and click on the region in the other guitar track to add it to the selection. Now click the Edit menu and select Repeat, enter 3 as the number of repetitions and click OK. The waveform updates to reflect a total of four copies.

6. What if you just did the perfect take, but later decide you don’t like the amp model you tracked with? That’s actually the reason we recorded a separate dry guitar track. GuitarBox and GuitarBox Pro both include the Sans Amp plug-in that delivers even

more great amp models right in Pro Tools M-Powered. We’ll insert it on the dry track in the Mix window—the other main window in Pro Tools M-Powered. Here you’ll find a channel strip matching each Edit window track, complete with some common elements from the Edit window that make it easy to do a great deal from each window. Click on one of the five available inserts at the top of the Gtr Dry channel strip and select plug-in > Harmonic > Sans Amp (stereo). Click on the Factory Presets button in the Sans Amp control panel that appears and select a preset (ours is Rock Star).

7. Now that we have a rhythm track, let’s add a lead. Use the same techniques we’ve already learned to create a new stereo audio track, rename it Lead and record-enable and mute the track. This time make sure that the track’s input is set to In 1-2 to record the amp-modeled stereo signal from the Black Box. Go ahead and choose a new amp model on the Black Box for your lead and check your input levels again. Use the Mix knob to adjust the balance between the track you already recorded and your live guitar.

8. We’re going to use a great Pro Tools M-Powered feature called Loop Record mode to record sequential lead takes without stopping the transport. Select the area of the song you want to loop while recording—and each successive recorded pass or take is individually accessible later. Click the second of the four Gtr Dry segments, then hold Shift and click the last segment of the Gtr Amp track. Notice that Start, End and Length readouts as well as the Timeline all change to indicate that we’ve selected that section of time to record in. Next, select Options > Loop Record. Finally, press Record followed by Play on the Transport to initiate recording. After the two-bar count-in, start playing your lead—and just keep on going for as many passes as you want before hitting Stop.

9. Unmute the new track. Click on the small arrows to the right of the Lead track name. A pop-up appears with an entry corresponding to each pass. To audition them, simply select each one and hit Play.

10. Now let’s say that you like the first part of take one and the second part of take two. First, click the Selector tool at the top of the screen. Next, select New from the Lead track take list to create an empty take and name it Lead Comp. Now, bring up the first take, select the first half and choose Edit > Copy.

11. Switch to the Lead Comp take and choose Edit > Paste.

12. Repeat the process with the second half of the second take to complete your composite lead track.

Now you’ve seen just how easy it is to record and produce guitar-based music with GuitarBox and GuitarBox Pro. Of course, there are so many creative options and possibilities that we’ve only just scratched the surface.