Once a week I plan to report on various threads on the Digidesign User Conference that have caught my eye in the last week or so.Pro Tools V8 with SSL Delta Link MADI HD Nasher asked.... hello, has anyone out there used SSL Delta Link MADI HD interfaces with Pro Tools V8 ? V7.x works strait away but V8 has bad audio (distortion etc. The SSl Delta Link boxes enable you do do away with Digidesign interfaces and simply connect the Digidesign cards and provide MADI I/O and save you a packet of money buying loads of 192 interfaces.It would appear to not be a simple solution and some users are reporting all is OK whilst others are experiencing problems.One solution offered by Eric Seaberg was...We've got two of them on our SSL C200 to ProTools HD4 supplying 128-I/O both directions. It works great, BUT after installing 8.0 you MUST confirm the settings for DeltaLink. Do you have the manual? Look for the page that shows you how to 'toggle' settings on the 'analog out' page in the hardware settings.If you want more info then read the thread here.PT 8.0.3 Pre Release For Snow Leopard This started off being a comment that the pre-release version was out but very quickly got into a discussion about the future of the Legacy Port on the back of Digidesign interfaces.This is because as well as announcing the end of Power PC support with v8.0.1 Digidesign have also announced that..."The following items are no longer supported with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr:PowerPC-based MacsMbox (original version)Expansion|HD ChassisThe following legacy audio interfaces:888|24 I/O882|20 I/O1622 I/O24-bit ADAT Bridge I/O"As Snow Leopard doesn't run on Power PC machines that made sense but the dropping of the Legacy I/O units has come as a big shock as Digidesign didn't realise how many users were using the Legacy Port and interfaces like the 888 to get extra I/O at low cost.Eric Lambert asked... I'm using legacy ports on 192s and 96s to connect to 4 legacy interfaces for digital reverbs.Can anyone confirm that the legacy ports are either functional or not functional?Digi ceasing to "support" legacy ports is one thing - ProTools ceasing to work with legacy ports would be crippling for me. Digidesign Tech Support then replied...They are currently non-functional in 8.0.3PR.Although it is not clear what "they" are. Are they all the interfaces or the legacy port itself?However users have reported that the Core Audio application in 8.0.3 is improved which is good news although some are still not satisfied.

The OMF and video files tend to be delivered on DVD±R or on a portable hard drive as the DV video files can be quite large — around 200MB per minute of video. My last project came in at over 50GB of data! There may be situations where you will still receive the video on a 'tape', whether it is VHS or DV or Beta. You will then need to capture this video from a player into the computer and so create your own QuickTime movie. Use your preferred video editing application to capture the video. Mac users will probably have iMovie somewhere, as it comes free with most Macs, or you can use Final Cut Pro — you don't need the latest version and so you can pick up a second-hand copy for a song. Make sure you export it as a DV QuickTime movie, not a DV stream, and all should be fine. On Windows I would recommend getting QuickTime Pro and using that to convert the video files from, say, Adobe Premiere to QuickTime format. If you get your video on a DVD Video disc, you will have to rip the disc and then convert the results into a QuickTime movie, which is a slow process.Wherever possible, then, get the client to supply a QuickTime movie as a video file. Pro Tools will be happy and it won't take you forever to get the video file into the correct format. Note that if the file is delivered to you on a DVD±R, you'll need to copy it off onto a hard drive before trying to import it into Pro Tools. Put the DV movie onto a different drive to your audio files — your boot drive will be fine if you don't have another drive other than your audio drive. While you're on the 'phone to the client, try to make sure they send video with 'burnt-in' timecode. This is where the timecode is overlaid, in numbers, on the video so at any point you can see the exact timecode point. This is very useful to check that the video file matches the Pro Tools timeline by going to the end of the video track and comparing the burnt-in timecode with the Pro Tools counter.

Firstly Digidesign have announced a pre-release version of Pro tools 8. Avid/Digidesign is pleased to announce the immediate availability of a prerelease version* of Pro Tools software that provides expanded Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard compatibility to Pro Tools 8 users. If you’re a Mac-based Pro Tools 8.0.x user, Pro Tools 8.0.3pr software is provided as a convenience should you wish to begin your transition to Snow Leopard before a fully tested and qualified version of Pro Tools becomes available.For more information, and to download Pro Tools 8.0.3pr, please see the following pages:Product News AnnouncementPro Tools Prerelease Now Available for Mac OS X Snow LeopardDownload & DetailsPro Tools 8.0.3pr Snow Leopard PrereleaseDiscussion Forum on the Digi User ConferencePro Tools 8.0.3pr Snow Leopard Prerelease* Important: Pro Tools 8.0.3pr software is pre-release software, and is not fully tested or supported by Avid. Technical Support is not available for pre-release software. We recommend backing up your system and work files before using this software, or installing a fresh copy of Mac OS X 10.6.x on a different system partition. In preliminary testing, we’ve found most plug-ins to be compatible with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr and Snow Leopard.Note we are still on our own - no support and make sure you have backups!! But it is getting closer.Waves have also made a Snow Leopard announcement...September 2009 Waves is working closely with Apple to bring Snow Leopard support to our product line.We recommend that Mac users not upgrade to Snow Leopard until we officially announce support. We are getting closer but by no means there yet and from the blogs and forums I am across it seems that Snow Leopard itself isn't quite there yet with lots of printer related problems to mention just one area.I for one will be waiting until Digidesign formally announces support and we have gone through the first set of hurdles with it in Pro Tools world.Anyone been brave and gone for it care to comment here?

This plug-in has been along time coming, there have been rumur and leaks about it but finally it is out. This is what Flux say about it....Syrah - The Creative Adaptive-Dynamics ProcessorWhen we started sketching our new plug-in project, our aim was to create a versatile and truly musical dynamics processor, which handles the dynamics in a way that allows you to be creative, without a complicated user interface.The result is Syrah, a new generation dynamics processor utilizing real time dynamic detection and level dependent processing, providing adaptive dynamic capabilities, which mean that Syrah is always trying to adapt to the music and to the beat of the material.Using parts of our exquisite ‘BitterSweet’ technology, our new adaptive-dynamics technology, and our well-recognized level independent dynamics processing, Syrah will be well suited as a creative versatile processor for recording and mixing, as well as for delicate and demanding mastering tasks.User Interface and WorkflowAs you may notice, the controls are not the usual suspects found on a dynamics processor, instead, the controls provided typically affect more than one parameter in the underlying algorithms, with everything carefully tweaked allowing for creative processing still ensuring the finest sound achievable.The built in preset manager and the preset morphing slider, provides instant and intuitive control of all parameters and controls. In a second, with a simple one-click operation, everything is copied from one of the two preset slots to the other. even during playback. Except for only A/B comparing two set of parameters, the morphing slider will allow for mixing them, and if desired, record the morph with the host automation.With the built in preset manager, you can save a complete snapshot (called a Global Preset) with all the settings from both of the preset slots, as well as the position of the preset morphing slider, allowing for instant recall of your morphing set.I haven't had my hands on it yet but from what I have read the interesting thing about Syrah is that it adapts to the audio going through it. There are three modes dynamic soft, dynamic deep and static. Static makes Syrah function like a normal compressor but the other modes look interesting. Also as you will see from the screenshot there are some 'different' controls on Syrah that you won't find on a normal compressor like Thickness and Relax. Thrre is also a dry/wet mix control which should enable Syrah to be used in a parallel compression mode for very gentle compression.For more info on Sryah go to the Flux web site.

TC Electronic have just released a bulletin saying...We have just completed a thorough testing and modification cycle to make sure that all of our TDM plug-ins are compatible with Pro Tools 8. The latest versions of these plug-ins can be downloaded from here on the TC Electronic site.I have updated my MD3 and LM5D plug-ins but haven't used them enough yet to see if there are any changes.

In the Dolby E race Minnetonka have announced the release of v1.3 of their Surcode for Dolby E plug-in. This is from their press release...The SurCode of Dolby® E suite consists of separate encoder and decoder plug-ins, a cost effective model affording more flexibility in purchase, deployment and use than monolithic products. The SurCode for Dolby® E Encoder has had several improvements, including better interoperability across all decoder platforms as well as user interface improvements. The SurCode for Dolby® E Decoder version 1.30 delivers improved performance with a wide variety of host and plug–in settings. CPU utilization has also been reduced, alone with significant functionality additions to streamline workflow.For Digidesign users, the new decoder version automatically detects where the Dolby E stream resides within the very strict confines of the Pro Tools 5.1 or 7.1 bus architecture so no I/O reordering is required. The new decoder optionally configures Pro Tools channels to decode a Dolby E stereo program, a 5.1 program, or all eight channels at once. Multiple programs in the data essence can be handled simultaneously, all live and in real time. For Nuendo users, Minnetonka Audio Software has added support for decode from track as well as from live input.There also has been an interesting thread on problems with real time decoding in which both Jason from Minnetonka and Paul from Neyrinck have contributed as well as some other serious experts.You can find this thread here on the DUC.

Howard Sonnenburg from Atomic Audio has posted this question...If you are working on a project cut in FCP at TRUE 24fps (i.e Animation, or for finishing on Film via Cinema Tools) and you have exported you mix as a .WAV or .aif at that framerate... FCP puts a timecode value on audio it has imported. This value is the fps in the default capture settings -regardless of the fps of the Sequence. On most systems this will be either 29.97 or 23.976. However when you add this to a 24fps sequence FCP decides "Oh this audio has been pulled down, therefore I must pull it up to match with the 24fps timeline" - even if the audio is synced to a 24fps timeline originally. Yes, this includes BWAV files output from PT. The result is that the audio, which matches perfectly your QT movie in PT, and even in QTPro will play out of sync in FCP. Yes you read that right... FCP WILL pull up your audio without asking! So how do we work around this?1. Have your editor make sure his default capture setting is the same framerate as his Sequence (good luck with this one...)or2. In QTPro, export your .aif as a .mov with the correct frame rate.or3. Use the Sebsky tools bwf2qt function to export an FCP movie with the correct framerate.Gotta love that technology! Just thought I'd share this for those who may have had these weird sync issues in the past. You are NOT going crazy...For all the details go and have a look at the thread on the Digidesign User Conference.There is loads of discussion and advise in the thread and Howard has posted his solution which is to use point 3, he says...Simple fix...1. Export as .WAV (yes .WAV)2. Open Sebsky Tools (click to download here)3. Choose bwf2QT under tools. Check your settings, esp. that Timecode standard is set to 24fps.4. Convert.5. Give to FCP Editor.I recommend anyone using exports from Apple's Final Cut especially at 24fps frame rate take a good look at this thread.

Audio Ease have released Altiverb v6.3.5 for all platforms.It covers two bug fixes, this from their forum...An small update for Altiverb 6 got released today!Altiverb 6.3.5 fixes two things:- [Mac] fixes a crash in openGL- [ALL] dry/wet mix settings are restored correctly (after a bug introduced in 6.3.3).This update is available for download here

Waves have announced a new product which combines their Gold Native bundle with a training and certification package.This is from their release...Over the past few years, thousands upon thousands of aspiring producers, engineers, and musicians the world over have completed the Waves Certification Program and learned the basics of five essential Waves plug-ins. Now, the new Waves Gold Certification Program takes Waves training to the next level, providing a hands-on, interactive educational experience for 18 additional acclaimed Waves processors. A comprehensive course that digs in deep, the Waves Gold Certification Program will give you the audio knowledge and competitive edge you need to succeed. Whether you experience the Waves Gold Certification Program at a recording institute, college, or independently at your own tempo, once you complete the new Gold Certification Program, you’ll not only master Waves Gold Native, you’ll own it as well—in every sense of the word. Waves Gold Certification Program comes with an easy-to-use, richly illustrated study guide, plus two DVDs containing the complete Waves Gold Native bundle, video tutorials, multitrack demos, and more! Once you complete the required coursework and pass the final examination, you’ll receive a Gold Certification diploma suitable for framing, a Waves Gold Certification Program t-shirt to commemorate your audio achievement.For more info go to here on the Waves web siteIt seems a good idea on the surface as the normal Gold bundle is $1300 and the Gold Certification Program, which includes the plug-ins is only $300 more at $1600. So the question is, is the certification worth $300?What do you think? Comments please...

Another one of our free help guides.   This will help Final Cut editor export an OMF that will open in Pro Tools.  

In terms of the materials needed to work to picture in Pro Tools, you will encounter three basic elements, some or all of which will need to be delivered to you. First, you'll obviously need the movie file. Second, you'll want an EDL (Edit Decision List) from the video edit, if one exists. This is a list that records how and where the video was edited. Third, there is what's called 'sync audio', if any exists for the project you're working on. Adverts, for instance, are often shot 'mute', with all sound added in post-production.This workflow has been made a lot simpler with the introduction of electronic delivery of these elements. Before, you would get the video and audio on tapes which would then need digitising and loading into your audio editing system, and then the EDL (which often used to come on a floppy disk) would be used to 'conform' the audio material to match the video edit against the original timecode data from each edit. This process is rarely plain sailing, and is thankfully less common these days.The EDL now more often comes in the form of an OMF (Open Media Framework) file: there are other formats but this is still the most common one. These are interchange standards that enable the user to import, edit and export information to and from different brands of editing station, whether video-to-audio, audio-to-audio or audio-to-video.OMF files can come in two types, 'embedded' or 'referenced'. An embedded OMF is one large file that includes all the audio used in the project and the EDL consolidated into one file. A referenced file is where the OMF file is simply the EDL data, which then points to all the individual files, in the same way as a Pro Tools Session does. The down side of the referenced format is that it is very easy to lose a few files in the transfer process, and I always ask for an embedded OMF file. These can easily be created from video workstations like Avid or Final Cut Pro. If the video editor is unsure on how best to handle the OMF export, there are loads of help guides available on the Internet. For example, for a guide for exporting from FCP see Ken Stone's site, or for exporting from an Avid go to our site where you can download a pdf.

The pictures say it all....For more info go the the Specials page on the Waves web site.

Following on from my previous posts here and here another problem with Pro Tools 8.0.1 has surfaced. It seems to have broken a number of the conforming applications like Conformalizer from Maggot.This is because Digidesign have changed a shortcut that these applications depended on.This is due to a new keystroke sequence used in the edit start end window on PT 8.0.1. Instead of...Slashenter numberslashenter numberreturnIts nowSlashenter numberreturnslashslashenter numberreturnJustin at Maggot has already posted an update for Conformalizer however apparently it take longer to fix Assemblerator as the code for that one hasn't been visited for a while.However Mark from Sounds in Sync who make Editrace has reported thatI've tested EdiTrace Auto (the free conforming app that comes with EdiTrace) on Mac PT HD and LE 8.0.1 and all is working fine. (Mac 10.5.8, EdiTrace Auto 1.3.8)This bug/update in Pro Tools however does effect our application EdiPrompt. It now no longer has the ability to locate PT the set pre-record value. We will issue an update to fix this in the next week or so.for all the details see the thread on the DUC here.

For the basic detail on this see my previous post on this here.There has already been a lot of discussion on the Digidesign User Conference about this update.For example on the DUC there is an enormous thread on the thickness of the automation line. In PT 8 it was made thinner and Digidesign got a lot of flack for it although I personally like the thinner line. However they have made it thicker (2 pixels instead of 1 pixel and got loads of flack for it.Other threads on PT 8.0.1....The horizontal scroll rate has been changed - read about it here includes an explanation from Digidesign Tech Support..Possible problem with Clear Selected unused regions - read about it here, it may have something to do with region groups.There are a number of other Pro Tools 8.0.1 threads that appear to relate to other problems rather than PT 8.0.1.However Digidesign have made one other announcement with the release of PT 8.0.1 and that is the end of Power PC support so for all off you still using G4 & G5 Macs this will be the latest version you will be able to use.The newly released Pro Tools 8.0.1 software will be the last version of Pro Tools to support PowerPC-based Macintosh computers. Future versions of Pro Tools software will no longer be compatible with PowerPC-based Macintosh machines. However, Pro Tools 8.0.1 will continue to be made available in its current form to Avid customers who are still using PowerPC Macs for the foreseeable future. Additionally, product and support documentation will continue to be maintained on the Pro Tools Support site at www.digidesign.com/support.More more info see this page on the Digidesign web site.

If you use any external display to view video files in Pro Tools, it's important that you take into consideration video latency — the delay between video being output by Pro Tools and appearing on a screen. This will be different depending on which method you use to view your video file and what device you use to view it with. For example, some people use video projectors, which tend to have a higher latency than other display devices. Why does this matter? Well, if you are trying to get things in sync with the video and the video you are viewing is delayed, then all your carefully positioned 'hit points' will be out of sync on the finished product and you will have a very unhappy client on your hands! Note that video latency is an issue with both TDM and LE systems. Pro Tools has a feature in the Movie menu where you can compensate for this latency to make sure everything is bang in sync, but first you need to know how much compensation to apply!There are some extremely useful documents on the amounts of latency on the different systems at the Pharoah Editorial site.Richard Fairbanks compares all the different options outlined above with their relative performance and has been very supportive on the Digidesign User Conference on these matters.

In this series, I'm going to concentrate on the second option, as it is both the easiest one to implement and the most affordable. Pro Tools, on both Mac and PC, can use any type of movie file you like as long as it is a QuickTime movie! However, you have to be careful which codec is used to create the QuickTime movie. Pro Tools can handle most QuickTime movies, but not all. If the video card used to create the QT movie has hardware data compression, Pro Tools will be unable to play the movie unless the correct card is available in your computer. This tends to make taking the Session from system to system difficult unless they all have the same video card. Second, when exporting from Avid Xpress DV, always use the Apple DV codec in the Export dialogue box. Do not use the Avid codec — if you do then it won't play in Pro Tools. Third, Pro Tools currently doesn't support DV stream files, so make sure you have a DV movie and not a DV stream.The great news is that without any additional hardware Pro Tools will play and display a QuickTime movie in a special movie window on your computer screen. The size of this window is set by the pixel size of the QuickTime movie, and cannot be changed in Pro Tools, which is where QuickTime Pro comes in very handy. It costs about £20 (depending on the exchange rate) to unlock QuickTime Player to enable you to carry out numerous tasks such as video resizing, file conversion and so on. You can buy the 'unlock' code for QuickTime Pro for Windows or Mac OS from the Apple web site.If you prefer to view your movie on a separate screen or video monitor, then you should check the latest compatibility charts. Currently (as of August 2009) Pro Tools supports the following solutions for the Mac platform...Blackmagic Design PCIe Cards - see the compatibility page of the Digidesign web site.Firewire Transcoder boxes – Canopus ADVC 100 & 110, Avid Mojo etc. see video option page of Digidesign web site.For Windows based machines there are very few options here. The only approved solution is the Avid Mojo units. See the Avid Mojo – Windows compatibility page on the Digidesign site.

There has been a thread on the DUC on whether Apple's Xsan will work with Pro Tools.A user's employer has purchased an Xsan having been assured it would work with Pro Tools but found....The Xsan drive is recognized by OS X (Leopard) and ProTools (7.4.2) but we are unable to change the volume type of the drive from "Transfer" to "Record" in workspace. (When tried, we receive the error ""LA_Post" cannot be designated as an Audio volume because it is not a fixed, removable or MediaNet volume" (The volume is named "LA_Post".)The replied all confirming that Pro Tools won't work with Xsan ever. For example...Sadly Xsan can not be used as a audio drive (for record or playback) by Pro Tools and whoever sold it to you should know that; Digidesign have been telling people that it can't since Apple released it.Like someone else said its to do with the way PT accesses the file system. Pro Tools doesn't work with software based raid systems which is really what Xsan is. There are ways to fool Pro Tools to work with it but having tried it I would not recommend them. That said you can play video off a Xsan in PT which speeds thing up a great deal and depending on the speed of your fibre channel connection copying sessions to and from is very, very fast.The iscsi route can use the Xsan storage, but be sure to test before buying.and...Pro Tools has it's own way of handling File level Sharing or Block Level SharingYou actually need a third party software in order to utilize the Xsan and for the storage pool to work with PT(read & write) via iSCSI:The recommendation is to go down the iSCSI route and try either Fibrejet or Fibreshare or to go for complete solutions from Ardistech or Studio Network Solutions.If anyone has any experiences with centralised storage with Pro Tools then please post your comments here.

McDSPFor the month of September, McDSP offers a great special, allowing all customers to purchase individual HD/Native plug-ins at a great discount!Purchase HD versions of Analog Channel, Channel G Compact, Chrome Tone, CompressorBank, DE555, FilterBank, FutzBox, ML4000, MC2000, NF575, and Synthesizer One for just $395 each, or Channel G HD for $795.Purchase Native versions of Analog Channel, Channel G Compact, Chrome Tone, CompressorBank, DE555, FilterBank, FutzBox, ML4000, MC2000, NF575, and Synthesizer One for just $195 each, or Channel G and Revolver Native for just $395 each.See the McDSP site for more details.WavesWaves are offering 25% off their modelling collections during September. Buy any of the SSl 4000, ApI, V Series or Studio Classics collections and get 25% off these modeling collections during September.See the Waves site for more details.

Our Mike Thornton writes the Pro Tools Notes, Techniques and Workshop articles for Sound on Sound as well as reviewing many of the new Pro Tools related products. Note that you will need to be a subscriber to view the recent articles or you can choose to Click & Buy individual ones.   Pro Tools - Missing Files - Click to continue Mike's newcomer guide to Pro Tools. What to do when Pro Tools reports that files have gone missing? Find out in this month’s invaluable assortment of tips and tricks.

Avid have posted a simple announcement about Snow Leopard support, they say...At this time, we’re working closely with Apple to bring Snow Leopard support to the entire Pro Tools® line and extended product families, and ask that all Mac users please wait to upgrade until we officially announce Snow Leopard support.Some folk have tried running Snow Leopard and there are are various posts on the Digidesign User Conference about it.