Phil O'Keefe: In The Studio Trenches

[TBush]

"I use Monster Cables- they're a 'pro tool'"
(Paraphrased from the Guitar World Spinal Tap interview)

Seriously, this is something I have to consider- I do a lot of mixing for other people, and up until the recent past everything was cool; I asked for rendered (or 'merged') continuous wav's or aiff's, all starting at the same time, 44.1/16 or 24, and that was that.

Today I got a DVD with tracks to mix, and it's got all of the PT stuff, user presets, etc.. with only some of the wav's rendered. Two weeks ago I also received a 500-gig external drive with an entire CD's worth of metal to mix, but it's all in PT files- no rendering at all.

My question is, is it worth it for me to buy some lower-end version of PT just to mix?
And would that be compatible with session files from a 'big' rig?

Thanks.
I currently use Reaper and Logic on Windows, and I love both programs.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Pro Tools 10 by itself is kind of expensive - about $699. If you're a student, teacher, have an earlier version, or a version of Pro Tools M-Powered, you can upgrade for less. Is it worth it? Well, if you get a lot of projects in that format, it might be. Personally, it's my DAW of choice.

[TBush]

Pro Tools 10 by itself is kind of expensive - about $699. If you're a student, teacher, have an earlier version, or a version of Pro Tools M-Powered, you can upgrade for less. Is it worth it? Well, if you get a lot of projects in that format, it might be. Personally, it's my DAW of choice.

Thanks Phil- I guess one good project and it's more than paid for. I do have a buddy who will take PT session files and render them for me (it's a little long-distance), so at least that option is open as well.

[Phil O'Keefe]

BTW Tim, in terms of file compatibility, any of the newer versions (8.0 and later) should be cross-compatible. You can't always get the same plugins (HD systems use DSP on PCIx/e cards), but the actual sessions will open just fine, and you'll see all the audio files in the right places, etc. If I sent you the session file and unconsolidated audio files for a song that I did in PT HD, you'd still be able to open the session in PTLE8, or in PT9/10, as well as in HD8 / HDx9/10 - you just would see the HD plugins greyed out and inactive. Outside of the Mac vs PC drive format & cross-platform read/write issues, that's true cross-platform too. IOW, I can open a session I worked on in HD8 on my PC on my Macbook Pro, which is currently running Pro Tools 9.0.6. That may change when Pro Tools 11 is eventually released. We're all kind of expecting big changes for PT11 due to the announcements Avid has made. Looks like AAX format will be replacing the current TDM plugins, and RTAS and other things may change as well. It's almost certain they're prepping to go to a 64 bit system, so a lot could change, and I really have no idea how soon we can expect to hear anything. Winter NAMM 2013 would be my guess, but that's just a WAG with nothing really to back it up. My advice for right now would be to hang tight if you can wait a bit. If you get a lot of projects on PT, then I'd go ahead and get it now, but if not, you might want avail yourself of your buddy's help for consolidating files for a while and bide your time a bit and see how the next Pro Tools release plays out.

[TBush]

My advice for right now would be to hang tight if you can wait a bit. If you get a lot of projects on PT, then I'd go ahead and get it now, but if not, you might want avail yourself of your buddy's help for consolidating files for a while and bide your time a bit and see how the next Pro Tools release plays out.

Yup- good advice! All this technology stuff is so dynamic- so 'in flux'- that it just seems that if you aren't asking your software to do that which it can't, then maybe just stick with what you know and what works. I get around like a jackrabbit on a date within Logic, too. Little "Christmas Story" reference there... Thanks Phil

[UstadKhanAli]

Not to be funny, but rather than have your buddy do this, shouldn't you simply request that they adhere to your guidelines and give you completely rendered files? Maybe you can charge extra per track if they are not rendered, which should get people to submit their tracks completely rendered more often.

[TBush]

Not to be funny, but rather than have your buddy do this, shouldn't you simply request that they adhere to your guidelines and give you completely rendered files? Maybe you can charge extra per track if they are not rendered, which should get people to submit their tracks completely rendered more often.

Good point- yes, that's usually the case, and whether they were using Cubase or PT (or whatever), or if they were kinda new at it, they either just rendered the tracks or I was able to walk them through it successfully. This particular project is being mediated through a manager-type fella, and I haven't been in communication with the guy who actually recorded the band. Yet...

[Zooey]

Good point- yes, that's usually the case, and whether they were using Cubase or PT (or whatever), or if they were kinda new at it, they either just rendered the tracks or I was able to walk them through it successfully. This particular project is being mediated through a manager-type fella, and I haven't been in communication with the guy who actually recorded the band. Yet...

It would have been pretty easy for the studio to do this before they handed off the hard drive or DVD. I'm convinced that some studios neglect to do it to generate more business, though I have encountered a few studios that are so incompetent that they just don't know how to consolidate the tracks and export them as files in Pro Tools. I would not attempt to do this long distance. You should hire a local studio for a couple hours and sit there with them to make sure you get all the tracks you need. And of course, add that expense to the bill along with a markup for your time.

[TBush]

It would have been pretty easy for the studio to do this before they handed off the hard drive or DVD. I'm convinced that some studios neglect to do it to generate more business, though I have encountered a few studios that are so incompetent that they just don't know how to consolidate the tracks and export them as files in Pro Tools.

I would not attempt to do this long distance. You should hire a local studio for a couple hours and sit there with them to make sure you get all the tracks you need. And of course, add that expense to the bill along with a markup for your time.

:thu:

[CME]

Just one little side note. PT10 now uses .ptx files. In other words Pro Tools 10 can open any Pro Tools session. It will just save it as a .ptx file, but if it's already a .ptx file you'll need PT10 to open it. Once you've done that you can save a copy as an older format. Hope that makes sense.