How To Record Metal Guitars In Pro Tools

Hitting the big red button in Pro Tools is easy. But tracking guitars that sound tight, professional, and are a dream to edit? That’s all about workflow. The difference between a clunky, frustrating recording session and a smooth, creative one often comes down to a few key Pro Tools features and settings that the pros use every single day.

Forget just arming a track and hoping for the best. We’re going to break down a no-BS workflow for recording guitars in Pro Tools that will save you time, eliminate headaches, and give you better final takes. We’ll cover setting up for success, comping the perfect take with loop recording, and fixing mistakes on the fly with Quick Punch.

Setting Up Your Tracks for a Flawless Session

Before you even play a single note, a couple of quick setup moves can radically improve your recording experience.

Record Arm vs. Input Monitoring: Why It Matters

You’ve probably seen both the record arm button (the flashing red circle) and the Input Monitoring button (the little “I”). What’s the difference?

• Record Arm: When a track is only record-armed, you’ll only hear your live guitar signal while the transport is actually recording. The second you hit play without recording, your live signal cuts out, and you only hear what’s already on the track.
• Input Monitoring: Enabling this keeps your live signal audible all the time—whether you’re playing back, stopped, or recording.

For tracking guitars, you almost always want Input Monitoring enabled on your record track. This lets you jam along with the session, check your tone against the drums and bass, and practice a part before you hit record, all without interruption.

The One Preference You MUST Enable for Loop Recording

This is a total game-changer. By default, if you use Loop Record in Pro Tools, each new pass will simply record over the last one, erasing it forever. That’s a disaster if you played a great take on pass two but messed up pass three.

Here’s the fix:

Go to Pro Tools > Preferences > Operation.

Find the “Record” section and check the box that says “Automatically create new playlists when loop recording.” This is essential for a modern heavy metal guitar workflow.