Tools FAQ
Pro-Tools

• How do I connect a Minidisc recorder to an M-Box?
• What computer do I need to run ProTools LE with an M-Box?
• How do I archive my ProTools sessions efficiently, or make more space on my drive?
• Why can't I open the ProTools session I made on another computer?
• What Plug-Ins do I want to buy?
• ProTools says my hard drive is too fragmented, what do I do?
• I'm having touble bouncing my files to stereo, and do I really have to do a real-time bounce?

How do I connect a Minidisc recorder to an M-Box?

in order to connect the minidisc to the M-Box, you'll need a slightly odd cable. It's not really easy to find exactly what you need... so you sadly may have to resort to adapters. The best choice is to get a stereo mini-to-dual 1/4" cable, but you won't find that at Radio Shack. If you get a stereo mini-to-two RCA plugs cable, one that you'd use for connecting the minidisc or a walkman to a stereo, you're almost there. (Make sure you get a cable with a stereo mini that splits to left and right outputs, not a mono Y-cable that splits the same signal to both outputs.) Then you need to adapt the RCA to 1/4 " plugs, each of which will plug into the center of the big combo jacks on the back of the M-Box. They look like XLR mic jacks, which they are, but you can also plug a 1/4 " in the center.

Conversely, you could get 1/4 " insert cable, which has a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) 1/4 " connector on one end, and two mono 1/4 " plugs on the other. Then you'd need to adapt the stereo 1/4 " end to a stereo mini, to plug into the minidisc. If your minidisc has a line-out, as opposed to a headphone out, use that, you can adjust the input volume with the top two knobs on the M-Box. Repeatedly press the little inset buttons above and to the left of each input volume knob until the middle LED light over the "line " label lights up.

You're good to go!

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What computer do I need to run ProTools LE with an M-Box?

On the Windows side, ProToolsLE with the M-Box or the 002r, runs on Windows XP only, and if history is instructive, I don't expect that digidesign will develop the software for earlier operating systems, so, for better or worse, you have to be running XP. And there are some specific computer specs that are required to run ProTools LE on Windows, check the digidesign website for updated specifics here.

On the flip side, PTFree will NOT run on XP (will it ever? who knows...) it will only run on Win 98, 2000 or Me.

It's a similar scenario on the Mac side, you can run the M-Box or 002r on Mac OS9 (9.2 recommended) or better, including OSX (10.3 "Panther" recommended). ProToolsFree will not run under OSX, you must be running natively in OS9 (not "classic mode" under OSX.) Similarly, there are recommended hardware configurations, check the digidesign site here.

One either platform, a faster chip is better, and 500 megs of RAM or more is highly recommended.

Of course it is frustrating that the free version won't run on Windows XP or Mac OSX, but we can't blame a company for being slow to update software they give away.

If your machine will run it, PTFree is still a pretty solid program, there have been some improvements in the newer LE versions that require hardware, but many of them are not that important for smaller productions.

We fixate on ProTools at Transom because it is so commonly used, and the free software is so capable, that it's a great starting point and common ground. But there are many other programs, some of which have more compatibility with different OS versions, so depending on what you need to do, it's worth looking at Audition (formerly CoolEdit), or Soundforge or Vegas, or Nuendo, or others if those are better on the OS you are using.

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How do I archive my ProTools sessions efficiently, or make more space on my drive?

If you've done a "save" of the final version of your session, and you're sure you won't need to make any big changes or go back to your earlier version, you can double-click on the bar above your audio "bin " at the right side of the edit window (the long list of files and regions). Choose to "select unused " and then "remove selected ". You'll be given an option to just "clear" the unused regions from the list, which will neaten up your bin, but won't gain any space, or "delete" the unused soundfiles from the hard drive permanently. This will get rid of any soundfiles you are no longer using in this session. But they're really gone, so don't do this if you're not sure... If you used any of those files in another project, they won't be there when you open that other session.

If your session uses a little piece of many big soundfiles you recorded, this process won't gain you anything. But once you've deleted the unused audio, you can then select all audio in your bin and then "compact selected ". This operation will write new files, and delete the old ones, saving only the parts of the files that you are actually using. This is really handy for archiving, getting rid of the extra stuff you loaded-in but didn't use. But it's no good at all if you think you'll come back to the session later and make large adjustments, because that earlier take you didn't use is gone now. There is an option for saving some audio on either side of the regions you used, the default is a second (1,000 milliseconds) and it's good to have some slush room, just in case you want to nudge something a bit, or adjust a fade by a little.

Another version of deleting unused soundfiles is to "save a copy " of the session, and in that save dialog there's an option to duplicate the soundfiles along with other session data. This procedure will duplicate the entire original soundfiles, but only the ones that are used in the final version of the session you are saving a copy of. So if you save the copy into another folder, then delete the original session and audio files, you'll end up with only the files you need.

This is a slightly safer way to back-up or archive, choosing to duplicate the files, make sure the copy plays properly, then archive it to another drive or CDR(s). You can then get rid of the original session with all its chaff.

I usually don't compact files unless I really need to save the space or send it to someone, I like to leave my options open and be able to use a different section of a soundfile if I choose to re-open the session later on. But compacting can be a big help if you loaded things in as long chunks. I try to record in small chunks, just loading in the parts i think I'll need, it reduces these space problems later on.

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Why can't I open the ProTools session I made on another computer?

As with most software, you can usually move UP in versions with no trouble at all, so a file you created in PT 5.0 will open perfectly fine in 5.1 or 5.2 or 6.x. But going the other direction usually requires a "save-as " step. This command is found in the file menu. So if you are working in 6.4, and want to open the file on another system that is running 5.1 or 5.0 (like PTFree) you have to save the session as a 5.0 file. Doing that should allow the session to open in the earlier version, and it should work fine, if you haven't exceeded the capabilities of the earlier program.

This can be a problem when using PTFree to work on a file created in 5.1 LE or newer, or a full-blown TDM system: to open correctly in ProToolsFree, your session can't have more than 8 tracks, must be at 44.1khz sampling rate, and 16-bit depth. (Actually the session can have more than 8 channels, but PTFree will only display and play the first 8.)

Also, if you are using plug-ins, when opening the session on a new system, PT will attempt to load the correct plug-ins, but if the new computer doesn't have them, you're out of luck. So if you are doing specific processing and you're not sure if the next system has these exact plugins, you might want to bounce individual tracks with the plug-ins applied.

But if you observe these restrictions and keep your session simple enough to move down a version or two, it should open fine if you "save-as " the proper program version.

In the "save-as" dialog, you'll be asked whether to copy the audio files. If you will be moving an external drive that includes all the audio files to the other system, there's no need to make new copies of the audio files.

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What Plug-Ins do I want to buy?

There are more and more plug-ins available every day to add effects to your audio tracks. ProTools ships with a good selection that will do most of what you want, and check their website, they sometimes have additional free plug-ins for download. If you want to get more elaborate, there are many manufacturers making plug-ins that can be integrated into ProTools. Just make sure they support the RTAS format (Real Time Audio Suite) if you want to use them with ProTools LE. The real-time name simply indicates that the processing is applied live, as if you had a physical device plugged-in to a mixer. You can use these same effects in non-real time as well, processing audio separately, to reduce the load on your computer at mix time. Some processes, such as gain and normalize, are always applied off-line and create a new processed track. The procedure is pretty fast, and the new track drops right where it should in your edit window, but for maximum flexibility and undo-ability, it's great to leave the soundfiles alone and just tweak the processing in the mix window.

There are many manufacturers of Plug-ins. The company Waves has an amazing array of great-sounding plug-ins, from special effects to restoration tools. I'm really happy with the Waves Renaissance Collection, (less than $300 at most stores) which is made up of a compressor, an EQ and a reverb. It's simple, but really great sounding stuff.

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ProTools says my hard drive is too fragmented, what do I do?

One possibility is that your drive is indeed fragmented, and that might interfere with the efficient recording or playback of audio data. If so, run a disc utility to optimize the performance of your drives. But sometimes you will get that alert even if your drive is not actually fragmented. In that case, try designating a specific length of time to record. Open-ended recording, especially onto very large hard drives, can elicit the "fragmented " warning, even on a brand-new drive. The quickest way to do that is to go to the edit window and simply click and drag with the selector tool to highlight a length of time in the track you're recording into. Highlight more than you'll need, you can always stop the recording manually.

If you get a message that your disc is too fragmented when playing back your session, make sure that you aren't attempting to play files from your computer's CD drive. It's possible to add files to a session from a CD without making new copies on the local hard drive, but attempting to access those files in real-time from the CD drive will often create problems. It's better to copy those files to your production drive, then add them to your session, or to import files in such a way that new copies are made.

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I'm having touble bouncing my files to stereo, and do I really have to do a real-time bounce?

"Bouncing " files, that is, combining one or more tracks within ProTools, is a handy utility in digital editing, allowing the user to simplify complicated sections of a mix, or to render a final mix to a single file for burning to CD or FTPing. But there are a couple of problems: first is that in recent versions of ProTools, bouncing is a real-time process. Second is that bouncing has gotten a little buggy in ProTools 6: users are reporting more error messages about the "bounce handler not keeping up " or CPU usage interfering with audio processing , etc. It's still a handy process, but there are times you don't need it, and work-arounds if it just isn't running.

make sure you actually need to bounce. If you are just working on mono or stereo audio, and doing straight edits, you don't actually need to bounce to make a new continuous file out of your edited soundfiles. Just select all of the contiguous audio, including crossfades, and select "consolidate " fromt the edit window. This will not apply any volume automation or plug-in effects, but it will make a new soundfile that reflects any trimming, editing and fades you have applied.

Consolidating can be a handy technique for simplifying a project so it's easier to slide edited clips without worrying that you might have lost one of the many regions created by editing, or for reducing the load on your computer, making it deal with fewer edits and fades at the final mix stage.

To export this file for burning to CD, or importing into a different project, select that region so it and only it is highlighted. You should see this region highlighted also over in the regions bin on the right side of the edit window (click the >> marks in the lower right corner of the edit window if you can't see this bin.) At the top of the bin, click on the bar that says "audio. " You'll get a drop-down menu that offers several options, choose "export selected as files ". You'll get several choices, pick a file type that your CD burner can handle, or whatever the end-user wants, (aiff or .wav are safe choices) pick "stereo " pick "16 bit " and "44.1k ". Choose the destination folder where you want the file to go, then export, the file will have the name of the region.

If you really need to render your mix out to a final stereo file but your computer won't bounce without error messages, try this: make a new stereo aux track, and set the input of that channel to an bus pair (1-2 is fine if you aren't already using any aux bussing). Then change the outputs of each audio channel (except your new aux channel) to "bus 1-2 ". Put your aux channel in record, and play your session. You will end up with what is effectively a "bounce " recorded onto this new track. But it's still dual-mono, or "split-stereo, " so in order to make a stereo-interleaved track to burn to disc or FTP, you should trim that new track to have a nice clean start and end, "consolidate " it and then export as above.

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