Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Timebase in Pro Tools

In pro tools, material (audio or midi) on a track is associated with a type of Time Scale. All track types can be set to either sample-based (for the Sample Time Scale) or tick-based (for the Bars/Beats Time Scale). Different tracks can be set to different timebases as needed.

Audio tracks are sample-based by default. This means that audio clips have absolute locations on the timeline and are tied to specific sample locations. If you change the tempo or meter the audio will not move. This is helpful, for instance, if you import an audio clip and want to build other audio or midi tracks around it and end up changing tempos or meters a few times. You don't want to affect the original clip. 

However, MIDI and instrument tracks are tick-based by default. This means that midi clips are fixed to bar and beat positions and move relative to the sample timeline when tempo and meter changes. So if you change the tempo, the midi will either speed up or slow down accordingly. 

A good tip to keep in mind is Elastic Audio-enabled tracks can be switched to tick-based in order to automatically follow tempo changes in your session and conform to the session's tempo map. 

And lastly, you select whether a track is sample-based or tick-based when you create it, but you can change timebases later as needed. 

Hope this helps!

Peace - and HEY make it a great day!

Tim



Monday, June 27, 2016

Powering Up Your System in the Proper Order

Did you know that it is important to power up your system and equipment in a certain order? In the early days, for me, I didn't know that!

Because systems are typically composed of both hardware and software, preparing your system for use might involve more than simply turning your computer on and launching your DAW of choice. The larger the system, the more important it becomes to follow a specific startup sequence. Starting components out of sequence could cause a component to not be recognized, prevent the software from launching, or cause unexpected behavior.

The recommended sequence is as follows:

1. Make sure all your equipment, including the computer, is off.
2. Turn on any external hard drives that use external power (wait about 10 seconds for them to spin up to speed).
3. Turn on any MIDI interfaces and MIDI devices (including any MIDI control surfaces) and synchronization peripherals.
4. Turn on your audio interface. Wait at least 15 seconds for the audio interface to initialize.
5. Start your computer.
6. Turn on your audio monitoring system, if applicable.

If your audio interface gets it's power from the computer, it doesn't need to be powered up in advance.

That's it! When you get in the habit of always starting your recording or mixing sessions this way, it will ensure that everything works properly as it should!

Till next time - Peace!
And, HEY, make it a great day!

T

Friday, May 20, 2016

Finally stepping up into Pro Tools HD!

So I've finally moved into Pro Tools HD! I've wanted to do this ever since I first got into pro tools. I was able to get a good deal on pro tools 12 HD, 192 I/O, and an HD Native interface. I'm moving up from pro tools 8 LE and a 002 rack. I'm still working out the bugs on setting everything up. 

Oh and did I mention I got the new Mac Pro!! Saweet! I'm loving it!!

As I work through all the issues I'll be reporting them here. I've already worked through some midi issues so that will come up first. 

Stay tuned!