Skip to content

Session Browser

When you open one or more .ptx files in PT Peek windows (via Open With, double-click, File → Open, or drag to dock), you get the full session browser. This provides the same information as the Quick Look preview, plus interactive features for playing audio files and clips and importing to Pro Tools.

Sections

Session Setup

A grid showing session parameters, similar to the Pro Tools Session Setup window:

  • Sample Rate, Bit Depth, Audio Format
  • Session Start, Length
  • Pan Depth, Interleaved, Timecode Rate

Overview

This represents the top area of the timeline:

  • A timeline view — each clip is drawn as a colored rectangle matching its Pro Tools color, with tracks stacked vertically. Clips that are selected elsewhere in the browser are highlighted in the Overview so you can see at a glance where they sit in the session.
  • A ruler above the Overview with selectable display modes: Min:Sec, Timecode, Bars|Beats, Feet+Frames, and Samples. The ruler defaults to the session's Main Counter format.
  • Tempo and Meter (including change indicators)

The Session Setup and Overview sections are pinned at the top of the window. Only the lower sections (Tracks, Audio Files, Clips, Plugins, Memory Locations) scroll, so the Overview and ruler stay visible while you work below.

Overview Zoom and Pan

The Overview can be zoomed and panned to inspect a specific region of the timeline:

  • Horizontal zoom — Cmd ] / Cmd [ (also Cmd+Right / Cmd+Left in the View menu)
  • Vertical zoom — Ctrl+Option+Up / Ctrl+Option+Down (also Cmd+Up / Cmd+Down in the View menu)
  • Reset zoom — Cmd+0
  • Inline triangle buttons in the Overview section header (Pro Tools-style) do the same thing.
  • Pan with a two-finger trackpad swipe or scroll wheel over the Overview; slim scroll bars appear at the edges when you're zoomed in.

Zoom recenters around the active selection (selected clips, selected tracks, or the rectangle area). With no selection, it recenters around the middle of the visible Overview. The ruler beneath the Overview follows the zoom and pan in lockstep.

Overview Height

Drag the bottom edge of the Overview to grow or shrink it. Dragging down past the intrinsic full-tracks height makes the Overview taller; dragging up past it auto-zooms vertically so each visible row keeps its natural pixel pitch.

Selecting in the Overview

  • Click a clip in the Overview to select it (matches the row's behavior in the Clips section). Cmd-click toggles, Shift-click extends from the anchor.
  • Drag a rectangle in the Overview to define an Overview rectangle — see Filter by Overview Rectangle below.
  • When tracks are selected in the Tracks section, a light frame is drawn around their lanes in the Overview.
  • While a clip is playing inline, a thin accent-colored vertical line marks the playback position in the Overview.

Tracks

A detailed list of every track in the session:

  • Color swatch — matches the Pro Tools track color
  • Name — track name (drag the column divider to resize)
  • Type — Audio, Aux, Master Fader, VCA, MIDI, Instrument
  • Format — Mono, Stereo, LCR, Quad, 5.0, 5.1, 7.1, etc.
  • Inserts — plugin insert slots (A through J), hover for details
  • Comments — track comments

Click a track to select it. Expand a track to see its clips.

Folder Tracks

Folder tracks are shown with their full hierarchy and are always expanded — nested tracks are visible at all times. PT Peek labels folders as routing folders or basic folders so you can distinguish their function at a glance.

Audio Files

All audio files referenced by the session:

  • Name — file name (drag the column divider to resize)
  • Format — Mono, Stereo, LCR, 5.1, 7.1, and more (multi-mono files are grouped automatically)
  • Path — file path on disk
  • Waveform — inline waveform with play button (click to play)

Non-playable or unhandled audio file types (for example, certain video container formats) are labeled Not Available instead of showing a waveform.

Clips

All clips in the session with their source audio files. Clips from multi-mono tracks are grouped together. The Name column is resizable.

Plugins

Lists all plugins used in the session, separated into Active and Inactive groups.

Memory Locations

Lists all locations with name and color, plus a Start column showing the marker's position. The Start column is rendered in whichever format the Overview ruler is currently showing (Min:Sec, Timecode, Bars|Beats, Feet+Frames, or Samples) — change the ruler format and the column updates in lockstep. Non-marker locations (selections and other types) leave the column blank.

Toolbar

Each session browser window has a title-bar toolbar with:

  • Open with Pro Tools — opens the .ptx file directly in Pro Tools
  • Refresh (Cmd+R) — re-reads the session file from disk
  • Search field — see Search and Filter below
  • Scope picker — limits the search to a single section

Search and Filter

A search field in the toolbar filters the Tracks, Audio Files, and Clips sections by name. Press Cmd+F to focus the field.

  • The scope picker next to the field limits the search to a single section (All / Tracks / Audio Files / Clips).
  • While filtering, each section title reads "(N of M)" to show how many items match out of the total.
  • Any section that has matches auto-expands so the results are visible without manually disclosing it.
  • When a clip name matches, the track that contains it also surfaces, along with its parent folders, so the folder tree stays coherent.
  • Click a row to hand keyboard focus back to that section — arrow keys then move the selection instead of editing the search text.

Filter by Overview Rectangle

Drag a rectangle inside the Overview to narrow the Tracks, Audio Files, and Clips sections to just what falls inside the rectangle:

  • Drag to define the rectangle. Tracks outside its vertical span hide; clips outside its horizontal span hide.
  • When a track is expanded, its inner clip sub-list also follows the rectangle.
  • Arrow-key navigation walks only the rows that are actually visible (including inner clips).
  • Search filtering still applies on top of the rectangle.
  • Click (without dragging) in the Overview — or choose Edit → Clear Overview Selection — to clear the rectangle.

The Quick Look preview also supports this — drag inside its Overview to filter, click to clear.

Filter-aware import

When you import tracks to Pro Tools with a rectangle and/or search active, only the clips that are currently visible are imported. What you see is what you get. See Import to Pro Tools.

Per-File Persistence

Each .ptx file's window remembers:

  • Window size and position
  • Overview zoom (horizontal and vertical) and height
  • Overview rectangle
  • Which sections are expanded or collapsed
  • Name-column widths

These settings are restored the next time you open the same file, across app launches.

Reveal in Finder

Right-click any audio file or clip row to Reveal in Finder. This works for files that are online (accessible on disk) and shows their location in a Finder window.

Selection

PT Peek supports Finder-style multi-selection:

  • Click — select one item
  • Cmd + Click — toggle an item in the selection
  • Shift + Click — extend selection to include range
  • Arrow keys — navigate up/down within a section

Selection is scoped to one section at a time. Clicking in a different section clears the previous selection.