Pro Tools

You use Pro Tools and VoiceOver the way you normally would, and Halo fills in what VoiceOver can't get to. It adds keys that read a track or the session and change things on them, and after a lot of Pro Tools' own keys it tells you what happened, since Pro Tools mostly doesn't.

• The Inspector reads the track the VoiceOver cursor is on. M is mute, S solo, V volume, N pan, L the level meter in tenths of a dB. Press a key twice quickly to press the button.
• Option and a number key picks up a plugin and drops it on another insert, on the same track or a different one. Press it twice to move the whole plugin chain. Add Shift to copy.
• Option+Up Arrow and Option+Down Arrow move tracks, in and out of folders too.
• Shift+V grabs a fader or pan knob so you can ride it with the arrow keys while the music plays.
• The Plugin Monitor reads plugin parameters as they change, plus the gain reduction on compressors and limiters.
• Track Lists shows every track's mute, solo, record or input monitor as a checkbox.
• Halo Helper, which Halo installs for you, reads plugin panels, the Relink window and exact meter values.

The Pro Tools tutorial

REAPER

Out of the box, REAPER gives VoiceOver one long flat list of controls, and a lot of them don't have names. Halo sorts them into groups: tracks, the mixer, the arrange view, the transport and the main toolbar.

• Each track has its name and type, record arm, monitor, mute, solo, volume, meter and effects.
• Halo has its own versions of OSARA's actions under the same names, so the OSARA key map works as is. If you have OSARA installed, Halo leaves the speech and keys to it.
• In the MIDI editor you move by chord, hear the notes as you land on them, and get each note's name and beat.

The REAPER tutorial

Coming from Flo Tools

Halo is a native rebuild of Flo Tools. The keys are the same, it doesn't need Keyboard Maestro, and a single key press talks right away. What changed

Updates

Halo updates itself, and Halo Helper and the REAPER extension come along with it. Check for Updates is in the Halo menu if you don't want to wait.