Pro Tools Recording Studio Guidelines

The Master Session

This is the main and central session throughout the pre-production, recording
and overdubbing phase. All the work may be done in this session, but any tracks
recorded, edited or processed in other sessions should be transferred back to
this session. This is where all the tracks intended for the final mix eventually
end up.There should be only one Master session. more

Slave Session – Outgoing and Returning

These are usually reduced track versions of the Master session made up from
submixes of its tracks. These are satellite sessions used for overdubbing (e.g.
strings, backgrounds) or editing tracks (e.g. vocal comping) often at other studios
or on other systems. The completed work is then imported back into the Master
session. There may be many Slave sessions. more

Source Sessions

These are usually retired sessions that contain all the original source tracks (e.g.
drum takes, vocal takes, strings) that have been comped or submixed down to
tracks in the Master. These tracks are no longer needed so they are taken out of
the Master session and kept in Source sessions for future reference. There may
be many Source sessions. more

Mix Master and Mix Slave

These are sessions being prepared for mixing or in the mixing phase, either
through a console or inside of Pro Tools. The Mix Master is the main session and
plays back from the Master Pro Tools system. The Mix Slaves are slaves to the
Mix Master and play back from additional locked-up Pro Tools systems. For each
mix there should only be one Mix Master and optionally one or more unique Mix
Slaves. more

These guidelines were created by some of the top engineers in the industry
they are:

Producers and Engineers Wing

Pro Tools Guidelines for Music Production Committee

Eric Schilling, Chair
Carlos Alvarez
Charles Dye
Trevor Fletcher
Gil Gowing
Jim Morris
Tom Morris
Roger Nichols
Ron Taylor