Monthly Archive for January, 2010

ProTools 8.0.3 and Canopus crash problem

Published on January 31, 2010 in bug and problem. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

This is a scary bug that somehow has slipped through the beta testing process. If you want to read all the posts then click here, but here is a synopsis of the issues and suggested work rounds…

nhaudio outlined the basic problem…

Just updated ProTools to 8.0.3 on two systems and have found a major problem:
If I save and close a session that has a video file in it (.dv which is going out firewire to a Canopus ADVC110), when we try to reopen the session, ProTools ‘Unexpectedly Quits’ when trying to rebuild windows (the last few status updates you get when a session is opening).
Sessions with no video file open fine, no problem whatsoever.
We can’t work like this! We open various tv commercial sessions all day, and rebooting each time is brutal!!!

Digidesign pitched in very quickly and asked for crash log file details…

In Pro Tools 8.0.3, we added better and more robust logging to help track down problems like the one you are seeing. When Pro Tools crashes, some information about the crash is written out to a log file. The log files are kept in the “LogFiles” folder that is next to the Pro Tools application.

Here’s what you need to do…

1) Reproduce the crash you are seeing.
2) Look in the LogFiles folder and find the latest log file. The file name ends with .dlog
3) Email this “dlog” file

There is no need to do it now as the list of posts confirming the problem grew very quickly and Digidesign quickly confirmed they could reproduce the problem…

We can now reproduce this bug in our test lab. We’re still investigating what is going with this bug and are trying to narrow down the root cause of the issue.
It looks like there is some combination of changes that were made in Pro Tools 8.0.3 and updates to the Apple QuickTime software that introduced this issue.
I’m glad to see there are several workarounds for this problem, albeit not particularly nice ones.
Bob Brown
Principal Software Engineer

Also two workarounds came through from users. The first came from nhaudio…

I’ve found a workaround for now. It seems if the Canopus is powered off when I launch a session, it opens fine. Then I can turn the Canopus back on and work as normal. So for now, I plan to turn it off before opening any session to keep workflow… well… flowing.

And the second from stustan…

I also have the exact problem but I have a different work around that is 100% effective. Instead of bothering with the Canopus Box which is out of easy reach, I rename the pix folder by adding an X to its name. PT 8.0.3 LE then opens perfectly with the relink window informing me it cannot find pix. I then relink to the renamed folder and all is well. The next time I need to boot the session I rename the folder again, usually back to the original name and go through the above steps. My pix folder’s name then flip flops between Pix Folder and XPix Folder

Then diamondscwin chipped in to say…

at the moment it seems to me that Quicktime playback and 8.0.3 is broken… people in this thread are reporting issues with Blackmagic cards, AVID Mojos, Canopus boxes and just desktop playback… only cure regardless of OS is rolling back to 8.0.1 so I dont think its apples fault.

Then uno1234 was one of several that suggested…

We are reverting all our 4 systems back to 8.01. As nasty as that 8.01 bug list is, we just can’t deal with firewire out crashing anymore. How exactly does an official software release get so bungled up like this? Was there no beta testing in a simple post production workflow? Is there ANY accountability at Digidesign anymore?

Also to note that the 8.0.3cas1 update hasn’t fixed this problem so it would seem that for video post facilities using video peripherals should say on Pro Tools v8.0.1 for now.

What to do if your Mojo dies

Published on January 28, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Mike Aiton asked this question recently here on the Digidesign User Conference

Sadly my mojo (composite version) is displaying signs of illness
Upon power up all iights come on
After power up only 48kHz and host and power remain lit- vid ref does not light

Looking at my plasma I see the avid logo card, but rolling rapidly and in black and white- as if it is asynchronous NTSC in my pal world.

I have tried rebooting the mojo (a power enema) many times to no avail. I have tried unplugging the PSU brick as well.

Incidentally Protools kindly proffers the advice that my video peripheral has a power up problem and promptly ignores the mojo which is a bummer with Avid video! My Nanosyncs is happily clocking all other peripherals in the room.
To Fix Avid UK is quoting £330…….

Mike Aiton
Dubbing Mixer/Sound Designer
BAFTA member

Postman replied…

The way I see it, Ebay prices for an analog MOJO are quite low, US$300-320 right now. That’s not a lot of money and maintains the performance you already have.

If you’ve got a spare machine for video:

1. Upgrade to Avid with video satellite: buy a satellite link $US749, upgrade MC (unless you already have MC3.1.2 at least) US$395, and stick on the lowest cost MOJO available, US$320. Takes any SD/HD material, outputs to SD monitor, with MOJO frame edge alignment is always maintained with NTSC/PAL reference but HD reference not possible. Actually the MOJO is optional but I wouldn’t recommend software only video playback, the image quality suffers and who knows what sync consistency is like. You can upgrade the video hardware later if you have “spare cash”. Total ~ US$1500.

2. Buy Video Satellite LE: Software enabler US$250, MBox micro system US$279 (if you can find one!), Blackmagic Decklink US$295, Sync HD US$2095. You can exclude SyncHD if you don’t need guaranteed frame edge alignment. Total without SyncHD ~ US$825, with SyncHD ~ US$2925. This gives SD and HD playback, Quicktime and Avid media.

click here for a relatively complete list of video options

Mike decided to send Mojo off for repair to keep his rig the same…

I am not in hurry for vid sat at the mo as I am addicted to my chromatec “in vision” ppms on my plasma and my studio/booth is wired for composite sd.

My clients are a mixture of quicktime fcpers and broadcast avid users, so sd mojo is a good frame accurate solution for me.

Postman replied…

I’m glad you found the problem at least.

I’ve wished for those meters lots of times, my meters are currently off to the side and, while I don’t care, my clients wonder what the heck I keep looking at, they think I’m trying to get their attention! Anyway, I understand the sentiment and agree with you.

VidSat and VidSat LE with hardware wouldn’t change anything in that regard. You’d still have the analog video signals.

New bx_control V2 Brainworx announce public betas now available

Published on January 26, 2010 in announcement and update. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

bx_control

bx_control V2 contains our all new and improved M/S matrix, stereo enhancer with mono maker, and it is a great control listening tool. Chain any other stereo plugin into the Brainworx M/S matrix, or use bx_control V2 to check your mixes and speakers.

New features include:
- individual panning for M & S – (pan vocals and guitars/keys in final mixes!)
- new dynamic range metering within the LED section (end the loudness war… or just win it! :-) )
- solo in place for all solo modes…

Public beta? 14 days trials available NOW: TRY THE V2 BETA.
Downloads: INSTALLER (click here) – - – PDF MANUAL (click here)

Pricing & upgrades:
bx_control V2 will be 99 EUR (native) and 149 EUR (TDM incl. VENUE), plus VAT if applicable.
We will have a 25% introductory discount in February! Sales start Feb 1st!

The upgrades for existing V1 users will be 49 EUR (Native or TDM).
The 25% discount in February will also be valid for all upgrades!
>>> we will accept all DIGIDESIGN MASSIVE PACK 8 customers for upgrades! <<<

Simultaneous 2.0 and 5.1 mixing, sends etc

Published on January 24, 2010 in tips. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

This is a very interesting post on the Digidesign User Conference. When ever I have done 5.1 and stereo projects I have done two separate mixes, usually doing thee surround first and then doing a “Save As” and changing the bussing to stereo and doing another mix.

JonesH started by asking…

Sorry for asking newbie questions, but I can’t get my head around a good solution for this. I’m mixing a song in 5.1 and obviously want a stereo version as well. I’ve solved this my using one send (f) for the stereo balancing and panning, which goes to a stereo mix bus. I’ve bounced the reverbs in order to use the same machine more than once.
My question relates to mostly reverbs and some other 5.1 sources that I of course want to include in the stereo mix as well.

Is there a good way to handle sending 5.1 tracks to stereo buses? From what I’ve found, there’s no way that I can make a 5.1 track send to a stereo bus. My very long-winded solution has been to take all the separate mono regions composing each 5.1 reverb recording, assigning them to a 5.1 bus output to use as a master fader for them in the surround mix while using a send from each mono track to the stereo mix.

This seems highly inelegant and wasteful of buses. Can you tell me if there’s a smarter way?

Soundthinker replied…

A slightly better approach is to create stereo and mono sub-paths of your 5.1 sources in your I/O setup. Then create two stereo and one mono Aux tracks. Assign the L-R, and Ls-Rs sub-paths to the stereo auxes and the C mono sub-path to the mono aux. The auxes are assigned to your stereo mix buss. Basically a no-plugin downmixer.

JonesH responded…

I think that’s essentially what I’ve done but with discrete mono tracks instead of using subpaths to make stereo tracks. Using two stereo tracks instead of four mono doesn’t make a big difference to me, it’s about the number of buses available and ease of mixing… For which I can use the mono version as well. Good idea though!

infinteloop chipped in with…

lotsa Neyrinck Soundcode LtRt. I use about 5 in my regular 5.1 / LtRt simultaneous template.

Any comments from folks here, it would be certainly something I would find useful to save time mixing as long as I can be confident that the stereo won’t become the poor partner in this.

Z Plane release maintenance update of PPMulator

Published on January 22, 2010 in announcement and update. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Zplane's PPMulator PlusZplane have released a new version of their PPMulator Plus software that they acquired from Raw Material Software. On their web site they say…

PPMulator+ 2.11.2 released

Small bugfix release for MacOs.

This is recommended for MacOs only. It fixes the offset error of the plugin-window in dualscreen settings.

release 2.11.2                               ( Jan 14, 2010)

-(mac)  fixed: offset problem of plugin window in ProTools

-(win/mac) updated installation notes

further update on the Fade window bug

Published on January 20, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Following on from my first post here and then an update here this story has moved on.

Mark (mrsticks) emailed to tell me…

I just wanted to update you about the PT 8 dialog Box fades being drawing incorrectly issue.

First, I bit the bullet and purchased a new Mac Pro. It’s great but really I was completely happy with my PPC. Oh well, no European vacation this year I suppose.

I made an official report to Digidesign regarding the fades problem and received a response stating that the tech could not replicate my issue! Firstly, I was expecting that they would say  – “yes, we’re working on it” – etc. but I never in my life expected for them to tell me they couldn’t re-create the problem. I didn’t quite know what to do. So I sent them a couple screen shots and asked him to please try again and see if they see what I’ve been seeing. He sent me back – with his response – a screen shot of a couple of fades that just happen to be drawn correctly. (Certain fades will in fact appear correct but not most of the types I create – I use un-latched “S” curves a lot and those are particularly mis-drawn with this bug. I know the tech is not trying to pull a fast one on me but it does worry me somewhat.

You actually made me a little nervous about this issue ever being resolved when you wrote that most people don’t use the fades box. All I can say is that I do some extremely complicated cross fades and by careful manipulation using the window, I can achieve some amazing results. Frankly, I don’t know how anyone can just grab two sections of audio and slam a standard fade there without it phasing or red-zoning or just plain clamming etc.

Anyway, I was wondering if you possibly had any news from Digidesign regarding this issue. At this point, I feel like a lonely voice in the wilderness.

Thanks for any help Mike and for just listening.

Well Mark I have now had a response from my contact at Digidesign and the good news is that he tells me that it is a logged bug and it is on the CS critical list. However it isn’t alone on this list by any means and so it may take a little while before it gets to the top of the list as we all agree it is now a relatively small number of people who use the Fades window. So rest assured they do know about it and at least it is on the crtical list for CS updates so it shouldn’t have to wait till the next version to be fixed!

I hope that is good news at least in part.

Digidesign announce Pro Tools 8.0.3cs1 Updates

Published on January 19, 2010 in announcement, bug and update. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here is what Digidesign have announced. It looks as though they have resolved the Eleven update this time, lets see.

Pro Tools 8.0.3cs1 updates for Pro Tools 8.0.3 HD, LE, and M-Powered are available for download from the Pro Tools CS Updates page in the Support section:
www.digidesign.com/support/csupdates

Pro Tools 8.0.3 CS Updates
The following are the current CS Updates for Pro Tools 8.0.3. Previous installation of Pro Tools 8.0.3 for Mac OS X or Windows is required.

Released January 18, 2010:

Quote:

Who Should Use Pro Tools HD 8.0.3cs1?

Even if you do not use an Eleven Rack, this update is recommended for all Pro Tools HD, LE, and M-Powered version 8.0.3 users to provide session compatibility with other users that may have an Eleven Rack.

What’s Included in Pro Tools 8.0.3cs1?

Fixed: Some Eleven Rack features, HyperControl with M-Audio keyboards, and MIDI Sysex dumps not functioning properly in Pro Tools 8.0.3 (Items #120240 and MISCCOMP-61)

  • Pro Tools 8.0.3cs1 resolves an issue with MIDI Sysex in which some functions of Eleven|Rack, HyperControl with M-Audio keyboards, and MIDI Sysex dumps would not function properly.
  • This release replaces the 8.0.3 Eleven Rack Update. All users who previously downloaded the 8.0.3 Eleven Rack Update should update to 8.0.3cs1.

    • Sneak preview video on new Altiverb 7 from Audio Ease

    Published on January 18, 2010 in announcement. 0 Comments Tags: , .

    Check out this video from Stiff at protoolerblog.com on the upcoming Altiverb 7 from Audio Ease. You won’t find this on their web site yet. Thanks Stiff for this.

    More on Source Zip from Source Elements

    Published on January 18, 2010 in comment and update. 0 Comments Tags: , .

    On my first post Mick asked…

    Anyone used this? How about sound quality degeneration due to compression?

    Well Mike Aiton has posted this on the DUC here…

    I had been using file chute (on recommendation from Drew) to send my clients files, with some good success.

    Those jolly nice people at Source Elements have just released Source Zip which is a fab new utility for ziping sessions. It retains all meta data and gives you several options on file compression, mp4 lossy or apple lossless. The Apple lossless is MUCH more efficient than the apple right click archive utilty. The MP4 versions get crazy small (trying to sound American here and work brilliantly for remote monitoring when recording with Source Connect and controlling both sessions from one end.

    The result is a self extracting file – so no software for the remote end.
    Highly recommended – a no brainer for $48

    Mick, I hope that answers your question.

    Command Focus keyboard shortcut part 3

    Published on January 16, 2010 in tips. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

    Here are some more details on what keys do what when you enable the Keyboard Focus

    See part 1 here

    See part 2 here

    Navigation commands

    Move Edit Selection up – P
    This will move a selection from one track to the track above irrespective as to whether there is any audio on it at that point.

    Move Edit Selection down – ; (semi colon)
    This will move a selection from one track to the track below. If no selection has been made this and the command P will move the cursor up or down a track.

    Tab back – L
    This will move the cursor back (earlier in time) to the previous region boundary or sync point on the same track.

    Tab forward – ‘ (apostrophe)
    This will move the cursor forward (later in time) to the next region boundary or sync point on the same track.

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