Hi,

I have got my hands on a collection of recordings made in pro tools HD that I would like to play around with, obviously I can't afford nor justify a pro tools HD rig to just play with 15 songs, however, if pro tools LE will at lease open the files, I can justify that. And what will happen if there are more than 32 tracks in the pro tools file (if it does open them)

thanks in advance

Iggy

ps, what files do i need, i have say for example songname v1.6 but no file extension, then the session backups, fade files, audio files and session files backup. i obviously need all of these, but which are the "pro tools files"? do i just need to add .pts to these files to open them in pro tools?

Iggy - Pro-Tools LE will open the sessions just fine.

anything above a 32tk count, the tracks will show, but won't have a "Voice"

A common practice in LE - is to shut the voices off on a bunch of tracks (you have 32 voices to play with) and create "Satellite mixes of parts" ie...

if there are 8 tracks of BG Vocals...
- send them all out Bus 1 & 2
- open an audio track and set it's inputs to Bus 1&2
- Record a stereo mix of the 8 BG vocals, and deactivate / hide the original 8 tracks.

By this, you just saved 6 voices.

you can do this with groups of vocals, guitars, keys / layers etc...

and you're just "Hiding" the original tracks, and deactivating their "Voice" Should you ever decide down the road, you want BG Vocal #5 louder, you can always re-voice the BG-Vocals rec enable your stereo BG vox mix track, bump Vox #5 up - and re record your BGV mix. etc...

you need "All those files"

that session file that's a "Blank icon" with no extension, will get an icon / program association, when you instal Pro-Tools.

you copy the whole "Song Name Folder" to a local drive, it'll have an Audio Files / Fade Files / Session Backups folder, and a session program file.

if you don't want to "Record anything into pro-tools" and you just want to "Play" with these sessions, mix and edit them in pro-tools... your best option is an M-Box Micro.

it's a USB stick with 1 audio / headphone out, that allows you to "playback only" Pro-tools. The micro ships with a full version of Pro-Tools LE 7.4 - for about $250.00

if you want to record / mic inputs, you'll need to move up to the M-Box.

Have fun !!

Thanks for the advice. i went with an mbox 2 mini in the end, as it was about £80/£90 cheaper than a micro, which i would've preferred but no point paying more for less. chances are I will bounce a lot of the tracks like you suggest and then I can make garageband files (which is the intention)

do i have to bounce tracks the way you suggest, or can i literally just tell it to bounce them like logic pro?

finally, i read it's not leopard compatible, does that mean it doesn't work or is just unsupported as yet?

thanks

I'm running Pro-Tools LE 7.4 in Leopard, it is un-supported by Digidesign, but works fine over here, with USB Digidesign devices... FW is another story.

Couple of things you'll want to learn. to do what you want... "Consolidate" and "Export"

If a track has edited regions, you'll want to highlight All regions on the track, and hit Shift+Option+3 <-- not on your number pad, but above your qwerty keyboard, sharing with #

That will consolidate all audio on that track, print all edits, and crossfades, to 1 solid track / Wave file.

You can then highlight that solid wav file, and hit shift+command+K to export that audio file to a folder, or volume, anywhere on your system.

You can do "Whole sessions" in about 5 quick moves.

- Hold Option down, while you make sure any track is set to Waveform (Option with set All track in the session to Waveform view)
- Enable the edit group ALL (Left column, bottom - click the << double arrows if you don't see the little "Edit Group" window)
- Place the cursor anywhere in the session and hit RETURN (this takes the cursor to the start of the session)
- Hit Command+A <-- For Select All
- Hit Shift+Option+3 to Consolidate all Audio in the session
- Hit Shift+Command+K to export all the audio in the session, as individual files to any directory of your choice, or specify "New Folder" and create your own Directory.

Save Your session... however, you'll notice that all of the audio in the regions list, has duplicated / doubled - if you want to clear the session out, of unused - un referenced regions, that you consolidated over.

- Shift+Command+U <-- will select Unused Rgions
- Shift+Command+B <-- will clear selected regions

there are 2 options..

1. Delete Audio files from Disk
2. Remove Audio Regions from Session

IF you've backed up your ORIGINAL "Un-Messed with" sessions, I'd opt for choice #1

it will ask you if you're SURE you want to delete from disk, for every file... one at a time, as it deletes them from disk -

- If you hold the Option Key down, while you click the delete button, it will never prompt you... it will just delete all selected audio in 1 click, without a warning (Imagine how dangerous this shortcut has been for Engineers)

Have fun playing with Pro-Tools -

thanks again for the help, any general advice on plugins? im sure there are plenty of HD plugins in use that I won't have access too, mostly drum eq and vocal processing

Pt 7.4 "Built in Plugins"

EQIII and Dynamics III (Compressors / Expander / DeEsser etc...) are actually great.

they've certainly come a long way from the "Digirack II crap"

you could mix a whole session, just with those built in EQ's and Compressors.

You want a GREAT limiter, more transparent then Waves $600.00 + limiters, for Vocals, and your master fader.

Download the free trial demo of L2007 from Stephen Massey they Never Expire, or Beep - you can use them forever, even Bounce to disk, or Print them to a track, the only "Limitation" in the Demo, is that the plugin won't remember it's settings on Session Load.

So next time you open the session, the plugin will be Zero'd

To buy the limiter, is $89.00 - by far, the best plugin / value I have ever bought to date. I have Mastered singles we've released to radio / video / CMT with this plugin, and I have access to a Manley Mastering Slam, which should tell you how great this L2007 plugin is.

am having some level of success with the built in plugins,

the files I have use filterbank quite extensively, but seeing as filterbank is in the $1500 price range im not gonna fork over that kind of cash,

but is there a slightly cheaper alternative?

thanks

For under $400.00 I HIGHLY recommend Metric Halo Channel Strip RTAS

I mix many albums, and radio singles with this plugin alone, it is filterbank, compressorBank, Gate, Key / Side Chain - all in 1 - Low CPU usage, and under $400 Bucks.

thanks dude I will check it out. for now ive resorted to buying an iLok and when it arrives I will request a filterbank demo then just bounce all my tracks with filterbank plug-ins

Hey Iggy - in case you're interested, I've started a "PRO-TOOLS" Thread here...

http://macosg.com/group/viewtopic.php?p=86682#86682

And asked BMER to make it a Sticky

I've linked to some Vid Tutorials that I've created, and will add to.

I think for now, You, Cory and I - are the only OSG Pro-Tools users, but I'll try to use my Tutorial Page to divert Questions, and requests, to this Thread.

Hopefully the 3 Of us.... You and Cory and I - will chat about Pro-Tools Stuff on this Sticky.

Cheers

I can second the recommendation for Massey's L2007. It's awesome. There is an AU version in the works as well for use in Logic and other non-Pro Tools DAWs.

C