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PT Peek User Guide

PT Peek is a macOS app that gives you instant visibility into your Pro Tools sessions — tracks, audio files, clips, plugins, and more. Preview and browse Pro Tools session files (.ptx) directly from the Finder — without opening Pro Tools. Reveal online files in Finder, see offline paths, and if Pro Tools is open, you can quickly import basic track data, files, and clips.

What PT Peek Does

  • Quick Look Preview — press Space on any .ptx file in Finder to see session details instantly
  • Session Browser Windows — open .ptx files to explore tracks, clips, audio files, plugins, and much more
  • Audio Playback — play back audio files and clips, interleaved and multi-mono, through your system's default audio output
  • Import to Pro Tools — import basic track data, clips, and audio files directly into a running Pro Tools session
  • Export Session Report — save a multi-page PDF of the full session for archiving or sharing
  • Session Database (Pro) — catalog the sessions on your drives so they can be searched without opening them
  • Multi-Session Search (Pro) — find sessions across your whole library by session, track, clip, audio file, or plug-in name

What's New in 1.4 Beta

PT Peek 1.4 adds PT Peek Pro — instead of looking at one session at a time, you can now search across every session on your drives:

  • Session Database (Pro) — add drives and folders as Watch Locations and PT Peek catalogs the Pro Tools sessions inside them in the background, then keeps the catalog current as you save, move, and delete sessions. The new window (Window → Show/Hide Session Database, Cmd+Shift+D) shows exactly what's indexed, what's offline, and what macOS is blocking, with a live console and a one-click problem report.
  • Multi-Session Search (Pro) — search your whole session library by session, track, clip, audio file, or plug-in name (Window → Show/Hide Multi-Session Search, Cmd+Shift+S). Results are instant — no session files are opened and Pro Tools never launches.
  • See what matched — expand a result to list only the tracks, clips, audio files, or plug-ins that matched, without opening the session.
  • Session preview beside the results — selecting a result shows the full session next to the list, with the matched track, clip, or audio file revealed in place — where you can play it back, just like a session browser window. Double-click (or press Enter) to open it in a window of its own.
  • Narrow the search — limit a search to a volume or folder with the Locations chips, add criteria rows for sample rate, bit depth, track count, track type, frame rate, modified date, and more, and include or exclude Pro Tools Session File Backups.

What's New in 1.2

PT Peek 1.2 sharpens the Overview and makes large-track-count sessions easier to work with — a new side-by-side layout, track names shown on the timeline, and a cleaner, more predictable Overview:

  • Split View — new layout option with the Overview and the session data side by side so you can better view sessions with a lot of tracks. Toggle the layout with the new toolbar button or with the new menu item View → Switch to Split/Single Column (Cmd+Option+L).
  • Overview Track Names — now the Overview shows track names at the left. The track name font adjusts to the lane height: none, mini, regular.
  • Overview Refresh — added faint vertical grid lines aligned to the ruler and zebra-striped lanes for easier scanning.
  • Overview Auto-Scroll — selecting a track (or one of its clips) in the Tracks section scrolls the Overview to bring that track into view.
  • Overview Resize Height — previously, adjusting the Overview height would alter the track height. Now, it only changes how many tracks are visible. Use the vertical zoom to adjust track height.
  • Quick Look Overview — zoom and height persist between previews.

What's New in 1.1

PT Peek 1.1 makes the Overview the center of navigation, and adds search, filtering, and per-file persistence:

  • Zoomable / pannable Overview — horizontal and vertical zoom with Pro Tools-style shortcuts, scroll bars, and inline triangle buttons
  • Adjustable Overview height — drag the bottom edge of the Overview to grow or shrink it
  • Overview rectangle selection — drag in the Overview to filter Tracks, Audio Files, and Clips to just what's inside
  • Pinned Session Setup and Overview — they stay visible at the top while the lower sections scroll
  • Toolbar search and scope picker (Cmd+F) — filter Tracks, Audio Files, and Clips by name; matching sections auto-expand and show "N of M"
  • Resizable Name columns in Tracks, Audio Files, and Clips
  • Overview playback indicator — a vertical line tracks inline playback through the Overview
  • Waveform double-click to start playback on audio file and clip rows
  • Option-click a section header to open or close all sections (Tracks, Audio Files, Clips, Plugins, Memory Locations) at once
  • Option-click a track disclosure to expand or collapse every track in the Tracks section at once
  • Filter-aware import — imports only the clips currently visible after filtering
  • Per-file persistence — each .ptx window remembers its size, zoom, rectangle, open sections, and column widths
  • Quick Look gets the same Overview controls — zoom buttons, height drag, rectangle filtering

A What's New dialog appears the first time you launch 1.1 with a short summary of these changes.

Requirements

  • macOS 12.0 (Monterey) or later
  • Pro Tools 10 or later .ptx files
  • Pro Tools 2025.6 or later (for Import to Pro Tools features)
  • iLok account (for license activation)

Quick Start

  1. Install PT Peek
  2. Launch the app to register the Quick Look extension
  3. Select any .ptx file in Finder, press Space to preview it
  4. To open a full session browser window, do any of the following:
    • Right-click the file → Open With → PT Peek
    • In PT Peek, use File → Open…
    • Drag one or more .ptx files onto the PT Peek icon in the Dock