Here are some more hidden shortcuts... Navigate without scroll bars Navigate quickly without having to dive down to the bottom of the edit window to click on the scroll bars. Using the Alt+Page Down key will scroll the edit or mix window one "screen" to the right and the Alt+Page Up key will scroll the edit or mix window one "screen" to the left. Track height resizing To make a track size larger or smaller use Control+Up or Down Arrow keys.  Adding the Alt key into this shortcut does it to all tracks.  This works on the track selected with the cursor. Nudge/Grid adjust To adjust the Nudge size hold down Command+Alt and use the + or – keys on the number pad to adjust the nudge size up or down. Similarly holding down Control+Alt and using the + or – keys will adjust the grid size up or down.

Flux have announced some new bundles as special offers valid until 30th April 2010, enjoy... Elemental Pack Bundle Elemental Pack - Dynamic Processing 101. Record, Mix and Master! The elemental components needed to take control over the dynamic processing when recording, mixing or mastering. NOW ONLY 159€/$219 (MSRP: 229€/$319) - Elemental Pack, Product Page DynaMix Pack Bundle DynaMix Pack - Everything you'll ever need in order to master the dynamics of your audio recordings, be it recording, mixing, or mastering. A Premium Class bundle offering the most powerful dynamic processors imaginable. NOW ONLY 709€/$979 (MSRP: 1019€/$1399) - DynaMix Pack, Product Page About Flux:: Plug-ins All major native formats are supported for both Windows (VST/RTAS) and OS X (VST/AU/RTAS) and the Epure II TDM-version is Venue D-Show compatible. RTAS/TDM versions requires ProTools 7 or later.All Flux:: plug-ins provide up to 8 channels of processing as well as up to 384 kHz with 64 bit float processing. Flux:: Product Page The last day of this offer is the 30th April 2010 and to take advantage of it Now please visit our online shop, or visit your local dealer. Flux:: Online Shop (Direct download purchase) Flux:: Worldwide Distributors (To find your local dealer) With our warmest regards, The Flux:: Crew

'jahtao' asked this interesting question on the Digidesign User Conference recently.... Default Mixer setup for 5.1, LtRt and stems? Any tips on how to configure the mixer and IO to have simultaneously: 5.1 full mix and M&E Stereo full mix and M&E (made using Neyrinck's LtRt folddown plugin) Stereo stems (music and fx stems would have to be via LtRt) At the moment I'm having to concentrate on getting the 5.1 mix together for the client and worrying about the deliverables later. But I aspire to having everything setup properly and streamlined. I've all HD3 with 2 x 192 etc. 'infiniteloop' replied... well, assuming you've properly grouped all your stem elements correctly, i'd just put a unity gain send on each of Sync, Fx, Mus, M&E and Final busses and send them to new 5.1 busses (I call them SyncMixdown, FXMixdown etc.) Bring them up on aux faders and drop a Neyrinck on each., then set the output to a matching set of stereo busses. Bring these up on audio tracks and you have yourself a stem recorder. Well it is increasing looking like Paul Neyrinck's fold down plug-in is the answer to all our prayers to save having to do two different mixes.

Automation I am sure many of us automate plug-in settings by clicking on the Auto button in the plug-in window, selecting the parameter, adding it to the list and clicking OK, then selecting the correct parameter on the audio track, missing it in the list by mistake and having to try again! For us, there is a really useful shortcut. It turns automation on for your chosen plug-in parameter and switches to the automation data display on the track in two very quick and easy steps... To turn automation on Ctrl+Option+Command-click (PC: Ctrl+Start+Alt-click) on the plug-in parameter. To switch that track to display automation data for a given parameter, Ctrl+Command-click (Ctrl+Start-click) on the plug-in parameter. That's it! Now you are ready to edit the automation graphically. Adding Breakpoints To add breakpoints (or anchors) in any graphical automation you can click with with the Grabber tool, but there are alternatives. On the Mac, you can use Option+'/', which is really nice, as there is a '/' key above the right-hand Option key on most keyboards (this appears to be an HD only option - See comments). On the PC, you simply right-click. To access graphical automation data more easily, you can use Ctrl+Command-click (PC: Ctrl+Start-click) in the Edit or Mix window to change the display as follows: Ctrl+Command-click on the track name changes display to waveform. Ctrl+Command-click on the text 'vol' in the I/O view changes display to volume automation. Ctrl+Command-click on the text 'pan' changes display to pan automation. Ctrl+Command-click on the mute button changes display to mute automation. On the Mac, adding the Option key to any of the above will make the change to all tracks. These shortcuts work on both the Mix Window and the I/O section of the Edit window. Using The Trim Tool To Fill Have you ever wanted to trim out a region precisely to a preceding one? Well you can: by holding down the Ctrl (PC: Start) key whilst trimming, Pro Tools will stop at the preceding region's edge. This works with the Trim tool in TC/E mode, too, thus enabling you to precisely fill or stretch to fit a gap. Neat!

Most of us are probably aware that when you have a Waves plug-in window open that various keyboard shortcuts don't act the way we expected but I came across this thread on the Digidesign User conference about iZotope plug-in doing similar things. Eric Freeman - 'lode' asked.... I know Waves and Sound Toys can be accused of this, but now Izotope is "disabling" the PT hot keys if the AS window is up. I'll have to click on and move the Izotope window or process a region, then re-click the PT Edit window to regain hot key control. It's been going on for quite sometime, but am finally posting about it. Anyone else seeing this? 'hummerZ' replied... Just press ESC to regain control. 'Mundoz' also responded... Apparently quite a few AS plugs cause this bug. But yes it's annoying. MIKEROPHONICS added... Happens to me too. Bummer. I also cannot get RX to accept any changes whilst previewing unless I come out of preview, make a control change then select preview again to hear the change. Whilst I'm in full on whinge mode, the preview loops a terribly short region only and doesn't play my full selection. Why? Anyone know a way around this? 'izotope-qa' came in to say... We're aware of the quick-keys (A/Z) issue, and hope to roll out a fix for it soon (maybe next patch, if it's an easy fix). I don't have a quick fix aside from what I've noticed: A/Z seems to recover when you close the AudioSuite window, and you can still re-engage A/Z when the AS window is open (but it has to be re-engaged when you close the AS window... bummer). Also, please contact our support (support@izotope.com) if you run into any other issues if you can't find a quick fix. We usually have a 24 hour turnaround. Mike: To address your issues, does your preview issue apply to all RX plug-ins, or just Spectral Repair? If it's Spectral Repair, it may be a limitation of AudioSuite... because of the way SR works (think of it being like Sound Replacer), we essentially feed new audio to AudioSuite only when you hit preview. This means that, to make changes heard, you unfortunately have to stop and restart previewing. We can look into making this process more fluid. Also, the small working buffer of Spectral Repair is a built-in limitation that forces users to work in small chunks, since a crash would destroy all the user's work in Spectral Repair, and we figured that would be heartbreaking on a long file. We have had some requests to make the working buffer larger, and are taking them into consideration. If you have any other questions or bug reports, please don't hesitate to use the e-mail link in my account here on the DUC to contact me directly. --Tedd Terry iZotope QA lode replied... Looking forward to the fix! (I love it when developers answer directly on DUC about their products. Tells me that they value their customers greatly.) cmaynes added... Soundminer does the same thing- you have to jump between the edit window and the mix window (I use cmd=) to restore the focus keys operation. Mundoz came back with... On the system I have been (PT8, Leopard) the A/Z is greyed out and can't be engaged unless you do either: Go to Finder window and come back, Open Preferences window and close, and other window actions (not all of them). Other than that, wicked stuff. 'mampam' chipped in with... When WAVEs plugs hijack the quick keys I usually push ESC and all is well. I agree with Eric that is is great when the manufacturer responds as Ted has from iZotope with an informed supportive post.

March 2010 Waves has released new V7r8 installers, which include the following bug fixes: Mac & PC: H-Delay Native now clears buffer when in bypass. H-Delay mono Native: the Phase control now reverses the phase. Renaissance Equalizer: Automation backward compatibility for the REQ mono "Fader left out" parameter is now restored. Vocal Rider Automation buttons are now disabled under MultiRack and D-Show. Vocal Rider now saves the Automation mode correctly. Mac Only: GTR ToolRack, GTR Solo ToolRack & GTR Stomp: Studio 1 no longer crashes when switching presets. Vocal Rider no longer crashes Digital Performer 7 while writing automation. Digital Performer: Reading automation written to multiple controls simultaneously no longer reads only one control. Download Waves V7r8

To take advantage of this very special offer, access your Waves account or contact your local dealer. Studio Classics Collection, SSL 4000 Collection, The API Collection, and V-Series are Native and TDM, and require iLok authorization. Upgrades available! Offer good from March 15th through March 31st 2010 only. All purchases and upgrades include one full year of Waves Update Plan coverage. Contact your Waves dealer or visit our online store for details today

There is a very interesting, all be it, specialist thread on the Digidesign User Conference about getting audio out of Adobe Priemere Pro into Pro Tools. 'jeremiahmoore' asked...... I'm getting ready to start a documentary mix for a project that was cut in Adobe Premiere. (at 25fps, but that's another matter.) There are mixed messages out there about whether OMF or AAF transfer works. For instance here. So I've contacted the editor and am arranging some tests. I've no idea what version they're on - and I see a new one (cs4/4.2.1) is out since 12/8/09. Does anyone have any recent wisdom or experience to share on this matter? 'Craig F' responded with this excellent workflow... This is what we have our animation department do: Export an OMF file for Pro Tools 1. In a Timeline panel, select a sequence. 2. Select File > Export > Export To OMF. 3. In the OMF Export Settings dialog box, type a title for the OMF file into the OMF Title field. 4. From the Sample Rate and Bits Per Sample menus, choose the settings needed for your sequence. 5. From the Files menu, choose one of the following: Encapsulate With this setting, Adobe Premiere Pro exports an OMF file containing the project metadata and all the audio for the selected sequence. Encapsulated OMF files typically are large. Separate Audio With this setting, Adobe Premiere Pro exports individual mono AIF files into an _omfiMediaFiles folder. The folder name contains the OMF filename. Using AIF files assures maximum compatibility with legacy audio systems. Selecting the Separate Audio option in the OMF Export Settings dialog box 6. From the Render menu, choose one of the following: Copy Complete Audio Files With this setting, Adobe Premiere Pro exports audio for the entirety of each clip used in the sequence, no matter how many times the clip is used nor how many parts of the clip are used. Trim Audio Files With this setting, Adobe Premiere Pro exports only the portions of each clip that are used in the sequence: the clip instances. You can choose to export each clip instance with extra length, handles, added to the start and end of the file. 7. In the Handle Frames field, specify the length of the handles, in video frames. This amount of time is added to the start and end of the exported files when you choose Consolidate Media. The default setting is one second, in frames, at the sequence frame rate. If the length of the handles you specify exceeds the length of the clip instance, Adobe Premiere Pro exports the whole clip instance. 8. Launch Pro Tools, and import the OMF file. For more information on importing files into Pro Tools, see Pro Tools Help. Tips for importing OMF files into Pro Tools In the DigiTranslator dialog box: • Deselect Pan Odd Tracks Left/Even Tracks Right. • For automatic gain control, select Convert Clip Based Gain To Automation. • Leave Sample Rate Conversion deselected, unless you need sample rate conversion. In the Missing Files dialog box: • Change the default setting to Manually Find And Relink, and press OK. • Deselect all options. • Navigate to the <projectName> ExternalMediaFiles folder and select it. 'jeremiahmoore' replied... Just experienced a successful test transferring from Premiere Pro CS4 into Pro Tools using OMF. The key was to use OMF (not AAF) and External Media (not embedded). Premiere Pro settings used: Exported from Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 v4.2.1 OMF Title: prem-test3 Sample Rate: 48000 Bits per Sample: 16 Files: separate audio Render: trim audio files Handle Frames: 150 Successfully transferred: - audio media with edits and handles - crossfades were recreated by pro tools - volume automation intact Relink Note: - Files did not autolink successfully. Instead, "Relink Offline" was used from PT's Project Browser. I had to search for matches using "Filename Only" and Deselect "Duration" (or whatever it's called, I'm not in front of the dialog box as I type this.) Other Notes: - PT crashed importing AAF. Soundtrack pro failed to import AAF as well. - OMF with embedded media: region definitions came in, but media could not be linked. (PT could apparently not see the media inside the Premiere Pro OMF.) We shall see in a few days if the whole hour-long project comes across successfully. 'lode' added.... Sounds encouraging. When I read the headline for this post before opening the thread I had already decided to answer that you should run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. We spent a week on importing a session from Premiere. You can find how we solved it here. This sounds like you are on the right track though. Good luck. However it wasn't the final answer 'jeremiahmoore' replied..... I was just informed that the editor was unable to EXPORT the OMF from Premiere once they had the full project loaded. If anything develops worth sharing, I will post it here. 'philiper' asked.... 2Gb file limit? 'jeremiahmoore' replied..... Hi Phil - Maybe it was the 2GB thing, hard to say. I may give the editor a call and see if I can learn more. Then 'JWalkerPostAudio' chipped in.... You may be experiencing difficulties because of the format your media is in. Last year I worked on a project with the same problem, and the media was all MXF. If I remember correctly, since the audio clips in the timeline were attached to the MXF and only referencing the audio, the OMF would not be correctly translated. What the editor had to do was go through every individual audio region on the timeline, manually pull out handles, then "render and replace" the audio to .wav or .aiff, then cut the handles off before the OMF could be correctly translated. A real major PITA. It took a couple months before we were able to do enough research/trial and error/work to get the OMF out. It might take your guy a week or two from here to do all the "render and replace" that needs to be done before the OMF can be made. Good luck and stay away from Adobe! Noiz2 added... A few years back I went through hell getting a project from PP into a usable OMF (they ended up going through Avid to do it). So the other week at the FCPU Super-meet in SF I talked to the presenter for Adobe about exactly this work flow. He admitted there were still some issues but that they have been working pretty hard at getting the back and forth with ProTools especially but also with Avid working smoothly. A few years ago it just wasn't possible so that it works at all backs this up a bit. If they get this working that would be very good because I suspect we are going to start seeing a lot more PP projects. They have really improved the whole suite of apps and I can see it getting a decent piece of the FCP market. Well it certainly seems to be how an easy process and not to be taken on lightly.

The Canadian educator VFS has enhanced their Sound Design for Visual Media program for surround by ordering 60 licenses of Paul Neyrinck's Mix 51 surround for LE plug-in. This is form Neyrinck's press release... Vancouver Film School (VFS), Canada's premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution, and one of the most distinguished in the world, has integrated Neyrinck Mix 51 software into their Sound Design for Visual Media program . Each student is supplied with a Pro Tools LE notebook system with the Mix 51 plug-in installed. This allows every student to edit and mix surround audio with their portable Pro Tools LE system prior to coming in to the school's main Pro Tools HD studio. VFS Sound Design for Visual Media Senior Instructor Shane Rees says, "Mix 51 lets our students work with surround audio outside of class and without needing to reserve time in our main studio. Mix 51 provides a stereo LtRt down mix, so they can monitor with a pair of headphones or at their home with a Pro Logic decoding system. It is tremendously beneficial for them to work in surround anywhere. This substantially improves the students "knowledge and skill in surround audio." Paul Neyrinck, founder and president of Neyrinck adds, "Surround audio post-production is exploding worldwide as HD broadcast takes hold. It is very important to train sound designers about surround. VFS is a premier education facility that focuses on preparing their students for real-world careers in audio production. And I am glad they are really working on making their students competitive professionals. We could not be happier that they have chosen Mix 51 which is a great solution for audio schools." Neyrinck is a software company founded by Paul Neyrinck who has worked on the design of many audio products including TL Space Convolution Reverb, Digidesign D-Show EQ, Focusrite D2 EQ, Digidesign Mbox OS X Software and Orban Digital Optimod 8200.

This is a reproduction of the first post of a thread on the Digidesign User Conference by the user "Nucelar" who decided to create a thread and outline the options, pros, cons, and costs of all the different options for displaying video with Pro Tools. Pro Tools video Output options: 1. QuickTime to desktop monitor (1st or 2nd monitor port, with or without DVI-video adapter) System requirements: Any Mac or PC with a secondary DVI or equivalent monitor output PROS: Cheapest solution. Low latency. Good quality when DVI or VGA is used. Handles most codecs Quicktime can play back. CONS: You only have one monitor left for Pro Tools. Uses CPU for video decoding, thus less power available for other tasks (such as RTAS). Output only. Does not output a native video signal: may cause visible tearing due to refresh rate not equal to frame rate. PRICE: Adapter 19 US$ from Apple + cable for example here & here Note: If you're on a Mac Pro or G5, you could use a Matrox DualHead2Go on your primary DVI output to connect one more monitor, but it's not approved by Digidesign. 2. Canopus converter (ADVC110 is the most popular and approved by Digidesign) System requirements: Any Mac with Firewire port (Firewire 400). FW 800 to FW 400 adapter cable may be needed. Should be used in a dedicated Firewire 400 bus, not in the same bus as interfaces or audio hard disks. PROS: Cheap hardware. Controlled latency (about 18 quarter frames) . Captures SD analog video in DV format as a bonus (using third party application). Frees CPU from video decoding. CONS: Mac only. Video must be available in DV format. SD only. Composite or S-Video output only. Irregular and unpredictable sync PRICE: about 200 US$ WEB: ADVC family 3. Avid MOJO SDI System requirements: Any Mac or PC with Firewire port (Firewire 400). FW 800 to FW 400 adapter cable may be needed. Must be used in a dedicated Firewire 400 bus, not in the same bus as interfaces or audio hard disks. PROS: Direct Compatibility with Avid video files (MXF). No latency with avid video. Captures video directly into Pro Tools session in sync. Frees CPU from video decoding. CONS: Quite Expensive. SD only. Struggles with codecs other than Avid's. PRICE: 2500 US$ WEB: Avid Mojo SDI 4. Digidesign Video Satellite LE System Requirements: Main system must be Pro Tools HD. Needs a second computer dedicated exclusively to video output. Connects to the main PT system via Ethernet. Secondary computer could be a Mac Mini, but then you're stuck with the drawbacks of desktop video quality. For best performance, secondary computer should be a Mac Pro with a Decklink HD card. (see Post #2) PROS: Dedicated, stable, scalable and flexible solution from Digidesign. Frees main CPU from video decoding. CONS: Relatively Expensive, hassle of second computer PRICE: Mac Mini+ Mbox micro + Video Satellite = aprox. 1200 US$ PRICE: Mac Pro + Decklink HD +Mbox Micro+ Video Satellite = aprox. 4200 US$ WEB: More info on the Video Satellite LE 5. Avid Video Satellite WEB: More info on the Video Satellite 6. Chase video deck System requirements: Pro Tools System with Machine Control ability and of course a pro video deck. PROS: You can use professional deck for direct playback and layback. No capture or conversion needed. CONS: Very specific workflows. Tape-based, linear. Additional wear of deck heads. Downside when editing: forward-selecting to picture is not possible because PT only outputs positional info when selecting backwards. PRICE: You don't want to know the price of a digibeta deck. Notes:The Rosendahl Bonsai Drive can be used as a standalone non-linear VTR, eliminating the drawbacks of tape-based decks. SD only. 7. Blackmagic PCI Card System Requirements: Any Mac Pro with a free PCI-e slot PROS: Very good price/performance. Digi approved solution. Accepts all Quicktime-playable codecs. Very good video quality. Controlled latency. CONS: It uses CPU Power for video decoding. Does not capture into Pro Tools or handle Avid video, unlike Mojo. PRICE RANGE: from 200 US$ (Intensity) to 1000US$ (Decklink HD Extreme) WEB: More info the Blackmagic web site 8.Virtual VTR Third party software installed on a secondary Macintosh computer for dedicated video playback and recording."Can be externally controlled via Midi, Sony 9-Pin protocols or TCP/IP, and can also synchronise playback, chasing timecode, even in multi-channel configurations." PROS: Basically the same as Video Satellite LE CONS: Basically the same as Video Satellite LE, Mac Only PRICE: Software is around 1000 US$ WEB: More info on Gallery web site "Nucelar" has done an excellent job in producing this compendium and it provides an excellent resource to help all those who need to display video within Pro Tools sessions to choose the option that suits them best. I have gone for a Canopus ADVC 110.

Recently there have been two threads on the Digidesign User Conference on this subject. One asking about the best codec to put the least strain on the host CPU usastra asks I have a session for a live concert with a quicktime movie using the H264 codec. When the movie is online it crashes very often, especially if I set the cursor to a new place in the timeline. If the movie is offline PT is way more stable (though still with the occasional crash).. I was wondering if the session could be made more stable if I render the movie with a different codec and which codec would be best so I would have the least CPU strain? The other commenting on the load playing an mp4 file has on the host CPU. Roger Stauss asked... I've been using an Mp4 vid to ease the up/download time. The PT session runs with some latency. It's very smooth with a QT DV. Is there a way to smooth out the session operation? (I run Video on separate drive) I have compiled the best responses from both threads below... Chief Technician advised simply... Use the DV codec. c.evans agreed... Agreed. The DV codec works well on my system, but what really helped is adding the Canopus ADVC 110 and sending my video out to an external monitor. Also, it is very important that your video is playing from a separate drive than your audio. I even use the internal SATA buss for my video when using firewire for video. It also helps to have a third party PCI firewire card to add some beef and options to your system. Craig F chipped in... mp4 is a intraframe codec same as h264 hence heavy CPU usage. José Luis Díaz explained... Always choose intraframe codecs (DV, Motion JPEG-A, Photo JPEG, etc). Always avoid interframe codecs (H264, Sorenson, etc). Interframes codecs demand much more brute force from CPU than intraframe codecs. Intraframe codecs only compress the data of one frame regardless any adjacent frame. But to decode a simple interframe stream of frames (like H264) the CPU of your computer will dedicate a lot of its cycles just for that simple moving image because it must to compute differences and similarities between frames. Check all this with Activity Monitor App. Play a PT session with an interframe movie. Them the same with a intraframe movie. Jon_Atkinson added.... Digidesign Technical Support have gone on record here a few times saying that H264 has been the root of many PT related QT problems. "A can of worms" was, I believe, the phrase used.... usastra responded... Thanks for all the replies! For now, I have converted the videos to mjpegB and the session runs much smoother! I will experiment with other codec later. philip888 asked.... What are you using to convert with? usastra replied.... Quicktime Pro Rick Sanchez confirmed.... A couple of solutions I found that worked well for me. 1. Once you've downloaded the video, use Quicktime Pro to transcode it to DV. If you have a fast computer, it's pretty quick to do. Usually much quicker than the download time. 2. Tell the editors to send you Motion JPEG A video instead of MP4/H.264. It's still very small and plays well with ProTools. One of the falsehoods about H.264 is that it is not a frame accurate format. This is not really the case. It can have a variable frame rate, but that is a setting when you do the original encode/capture. What it is, is a long GOP (Group of Pictures) format. Much like Mpeg2. In the first frame, all of the pixels are captured. In between the first (key) frame the next (user selectable) key frame, the computer looks for differences between the the Key frame and the next frame and only encodes anything that has changed. If the pixels (say a non-moving background) stay the same from frame to frame, it just fills in the blank with already captured pixels. Then when the next Keyframe comes around again (I think the default is 24) it captures all of the pixels and starts over. It's much like creating an audio ambiance fill track for a scene. You only need a few seconds of fill and then you loop it until there is the next change in ambiance. I take no credit to the advice I have quoted here but do confirm it from my own experience.

Timecode Commands (TDM Only) These final two sets of commands relate to timecode features or the use of a stationary playhead are not available on Pro Tools LE. Snap to timecode Having ‘parked’ your machine at a suitable timecode position these 3 commands allow you to spot the highlighted region to the ‘parked’ timecode position. Protools will obviously need incoming timecode from a slaved machine for this to work. Snap Start (of selected region) to timecode - Y Snap sync point (of selected region) to timecode - U Snap End (of selected region) to timecode – I Snap to stationary Playhead This group of commands allows you to snap your selected region to the playhead position. Snap Start (of selected region) to playhead - H Snap Sync point (of selected region) to playhead - J Snap End (of selected region) to playhead - K Conclusions from the ‘pain barrier’ For me the best parts of using the Keyboard Focus are being able to Zoom in and out both with the Preset zooms and the Zoom Out – R; and the Zoom in – T commands. These alone have made it worthwhile to have the Keyboard Focus on and the Track View toggle, Zoom toggle, Separate, and Nudge keys are serious bonuses. I still use the Smart Tool for the fades and the Trim tool but I am definitely declaring long live Keyboard Focus! Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, part 4 & part 5.

Found this thread on the Digidesign User Conference recently. Laki asked... Looking at getting one of these and offloading my hardware boxes. Anybody care to weigh in on which to buy? The Neyrinck or Minnetonka version. Mike Aiton posted... Just a thought, but if you have the Dolby Audio Tool blue box, dont't let go yet. The problem that I see with the software encode/decode solutions is that you can't listen to your downmix with the metadata that you are encoding with. In the Uk on the Sky plaform, most viewers hear the downmixed 5.1 to 2.0 (as they don't have a 5.1 decoder) so it is vital to be able to hear this. The network doesn't transmit the LtRt that you sweated cobs over and loving put in your second programe audio on ch 7&8.. That said, I have passed this observation to Paul Neyrinck and he is "smarter than the average bear", so I am sure a solution will be forth comming. quadraphonics added... I have tried both the Minnetonka and the Neyrinck software Dolby-E solutions, after using the hardware for a while and ended up purchasing the Neyrinck software. It was exceptionally easy to work with and the plug in (both encoder and decoder) worked just like the hardware - just faster. We have done well over 100 shows since we got this software. If you have any questions about how it performed in our workflow, I would be more than happy to help. laki replied... Thanks Randall! Tried both demos and came to the same conclusion.

From 3rd March to 31st March 2010 they are offering their Reverb plug-in for only $199! One of the most highly regarded plug-ins in the Eventide Anthology II TDM bundle will be available for the month of March for only $199, a discount of over 70% off of its original retail price of $695.  Available for purchase as a download through Eventide plug-in dealers worldwide, or here, this full-featured, flexible, multi-effect plug-in born from Eventide’s flagship H8000 processor, the Eventide Reverb features nine room types, randomizing modulation, a Low-Fi effect, as well as a compressor, parametric EQ, and stereo delays.  This is a one-time-only promotion.  No extensions will be granted and, at the end of March, 2010, the Eventide Reverb will no longer be available as a separate plug-in. For more details go to the special page on the Eventide web site.

There is a growing thread on the Digidesign User Conference on 9019 and 9031 errors on Pro Tools 8.0.3 It was started by Nathaniel Reichman asking... Since moving from the various 8.0.1 releases to 8.0.3, I frequently get the message: "DAE is having trouble keeping up. Your disk may be too slow...firewire, etc., etc. (-9019)" which is followed by a beachball and then: "DAE error -9031 was encountered." And this repeats until we quit the app and relaunch. Sometimes hours go by with no problem, sometimes we get this 3 times in an hour. We haven't seen this in PTHD, only on the PTLE/CPTK system listed below. We tried trashing databases and volumes folder. After some system and workflow checks Reichman confirmed... Nothing has changed in my typical post workflow or drive usage since PT 7.3. Thanks for posting, but I really doubt the non-contiguous file theory. If that were true, none of my projects would have worked with any version of Pro Tools. For now, I blame the .3. "Garnoil" responded.... Ok, so it must be .3. I am on 8.03 and although I had one massive, annoying, problem (0922 too many files corruption), 8.03 *at least for me*, has been a great improvement. I run HD2 and push it to the limit, I mean 192 voices (160 tracks+) + full HD film at 2k resolution. So far, so good but of course there are lots of bugz to fix, some worse than others. Good luck! Then Digi Tech Support weighed in... I see you have an eSATA hotswap tower in there - is that what you're using for playback/record? If so, have you tested with other drive types? 9019 is a drive error related to drive communication speed - we usually see it on PC's where drives are not in DMA mode. The 9031 error is usually related to having illegal characters in the drive, file or folder name - is that possibly the case here (keep in mind that previously fudged illegal character acceptance is no longer possible, so what may have 'worked' before no longer will)? Reichman responded.... Yes. And I know it's not officially approved, but it's performed flawlessly every since PT 7.3 on a G5. I thought I cleaned out all of my illegal characters in the PT6-7 transition. Thank you for writing back so quickly. I'll report back if I learn anything. The "smpkeys" chipped in.... I just experienced this same problem. I've been on 8.0.3 for about 2 weeks and have not seen this, however , tonight I was using the playlist lanes view for the first time, and that's when it occurred. All my drives are internal SATAs - 1 for OS, 1 for audio, 1 for samples. Not using any video in my session, and no illegal characters. Reichman - have you found a solution with your setup? Reichman replied... Haven't found a solution yet, primarily because it is happening infrequently now. Occurred once yesterday when opening an AudioSuite plug-in window. Every time it does happen, it will continue persistently until I save, quit and restart PT. When I get out from under this mountain of work, I'll try another drive type for a while and see if that helps. For the record PT 8.0.3 is really stable. For PT8 doubters, now is the time to get on board (is Frank Kruse reading this? :) ) Digi Tech Support came back with a request... Can you guys do something for me - after you experience the error, quit Pro Tools as soon as possible after it, then send me your LogFiles folder from inside your Pro Tools folder. Zip it up and send it to: vi [at] digidesign [dot] com. Put the thread number (265212) and '9031' in the subject of the message. "Sunzate" added... I'm getting these errors right now with a midi-only session, controlling the PLAY EastWest orchestral plug-in. Never seen it before today. Recently updated to 8.0.3. Let me know how I can help. Then "Oroz" asked... I'm getting the DAE error -9031 a lot! Can you further explain what do you mean by illegal characters in the drive? How can I solve it? Digi Tech Support replied... Your Pro Tools Reference Guide has a list of unsupported characters. You should make sure that no drive, folder or file name contains any of those characters. This error on Mac is also caused by incorrect drive format. I would recommend backing up your audio/video drives and erasing them using the Disk Utility, then copy the data back and test again. Oroz asked... Do you think that it may be because I'm recording to a partition (dedicated to audio) of the internal drive? If so, would a USB external drive be a solution? Since I'm on an iMac there's only one Firewire 800 port. I have read successful stories from guys using USB drive as an alternative but I'm not sure. Digi Tech Support replied... Recording to a partition or to a USB drive is not recommended or supported and definitely could be a cause for these errors. Please see the General Troubleshooting thread for more details. With an iMac that has only one FW800 port, get a FW800 to FW400 cable to connect to your drives and interface. smpkeys posted... Just happened to me again on Saturday. This time when it happened, I was changing the output of a channel. Digi, I've zipped and sent my log file using the directions posted earlier.  One more thing - I had trashed prefs about 2 hrs before this crash. So a couple of lessons from this thread. You cannot use USB drives for Pro Tools sessions. USB needs processor time to negotiate the data transfer on and off them and does it when it gets round to it. Where as Firewire has dedicated chips on the interface to manage the data transfer in a timely manner. You must have correctly formatted drives irrespective of what platform you are running on. On the Mac platform that must be Mac OS Extended with journalling. I recommend you format your drives with Disk utility rather than any 3rd party formatting software. Check the characters that are used for naming anything. Drives, folder, file names.

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