1. Independent reviews about Multi-Platinum Pro Tools?
2. Compare Multi-Platinum Pro Tools to other products on the market?
3. What's the best Time Stretching software?
4. What's a "Start" Key?
5. Clipping in "Instrument Editing?"
6. Pocketing Drum Tracks?
7. Pro Tools Mismatches Transients?
1. Are there any independent reviews I can read about Multi-Platinum Pro Tools?
Barry Rudolph Reviews MPPT! "With over 300 color screen shots, Multi-Platinum Pro Tools is a must-have and must-read book for beginners, students, and musicians--anyone with a basic knowledge of Pro Tools but who would like to step up and use the system like a pro."
Lighting & Sound Online January 07 Review - "Well recommended for those serious about the (Pro Tools) software."
2. How does Multi-Platinum Pro Tools Compare to other products on the market?
Read What People are Saying About Multi-Platinum Pro Tools!
Check out the Comparison Chart!
3. What's the best Time Stretching software?
I watched the video and had one question. You used Serato for time stretching. I am using an HD4 system and we use the waves software for time compression and expansion. Do you feel that there are less artifacts with Serato or it doesn't matter as they are much better then the Protools TCE. Let me know what you think. Thanks
Gary N
-----
Hi Gary,
Brady Barnett here. I've A/B'd the Waves plugs with Serato's Pitch 'n Time and they are both very good. I personally prefer the Serato plug but the difference from Waves vs. Serato is minimal. They are both substantially better than TCEX for instrument time stretching. One reason I prefer Serato is that it does both time stretching and pitch shifting very well. I'll often pitch shift instruments an octave or more and still end up with very useable audio. Likewise, you can stretch a piece of audio 75% and get away with it whereas with TCEX, you can barely go 10%. Serato is definitely worth the $$$ to have in your arsenal along with the waves plugs.
4. What's a "Start" Key?
So far, the concept and book, seem great. I love the organization. I'm near the beginning, however, and have a question.
In chapter 2, towards the end, the 'zoom' explanations being a prime example, you make reference to Mac/PC keyboard equivalents.
For examples,
P. 62 Ctrl~E (Mac) / Start~E (PC) or
P. 66 Control (Mac) = Start button (PC)
Have I overlooked something quite obvious? I am on a PC and cannot find the 'Start' key. I haven't been able to find any information on the internet about a 'Start' key. Your description seems quite relevant to successful zooming, so I hope you can shed some light on this for me.
Thanks,
A.S.
Hi!
The Start button on a PC keyboard usually has the little Microsoft windows logo on it. It's down near the ctrl & alt keys on your keyboard. :) Seems pretty dumb for it to be called the "Start" key and then not have it printed on it, but you're not the first or last person to run into the same problem.
Thanks!
~~~~~~~~~
Follow up - Yes, I was using a rugged but outdated IBM keyboard that had no 'Start' key!
5. Clipping in "Vocal Editing"?
Quick question. Need it answered as soon as you can. Your book will be used next qtr at The Art Institute of Atlanta for an upper level DAW class. The class starts next week.
I noticed in the session that the master fader, as well as, snare, some vocals and a few other tracks all Clip the meters on my LE 7.0 rig (with pre-fader metering delselected). Is there a reason for this in your opinion? Mine has always been that "red is dead" and that we should never clip in the digital realm.
Next I checked out a few of the downloads and noticed you using SDII as a file format in Protools in your 4200 class. The Academy's P&E wing recomends BWF format and PC/MAC compatability always. Can you explain your reasoning behind this as well? I'd like to to repond when my kids ask the question with your opinion as well as mine.
Steve W
The Art Institute of Atlanta
Steve,
Clipping in PT isn't *necessarily* a horrible thing. If the stereo buss is clipping, that's a bigger deal than if an individual track clips. PT has a good bit of built in headroom so an occasional red blip is not a big deal. Compare this to recording with a digital tape machine. You will most often notice peak lights on almost every track of the tape machine. Digital distortion is EXTREMELY easy to hear so if you're really clipping, you'll know.
As for the SDII,...until the last year or two, BWAV was not the "standard". However, I'll agree that it has now become somewhat of an industry standard. Since our video was released, I've started doing everything in BWAV format. Traditionally, many PT users were SDII because that was the native file format for Pro Tools from the beginning.
Hope this helps. By the way...it's very exciting to me that they are using the book at the Art Institute of Atlanta. Let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Brady Barnett
Of Sound Mind Productions
Nathan and Brady,
Thanks for the response guys... And I do understand being busy....
I would however disagree on the headroom issue in PT when it comes to metering. Since digital clipping at any time is bad. Per PT " The LED meters on Digidesign audio interfaces indicate both full-code (highest level before clipping) and true clipping of Pro Tools output signals. The on-screen meters in Pro Tools indicate only true clipping." I have re looked at your session and the master stereo bus IS clipping (as well as other individual tracks) via on-screen meters. I also hear slight cliping in the mix. Should I assume that this is a mistake on your part?
Steve
Hey Steve,
Thanks for your comments and questions. The best response I can give you here is that if there is 2-buss clipping that should be corrected. However, if there is an occasional peak on an individual track, I do NOT consider that to be a big deal. If I solo that track and hear clipping, then of course, I would correct it.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that our book "Mult-Platinum Pro Tools" is not meant to be a recording or mixing guide, but rather an editing guide. We included the final session as an example of the fully edited tracks, not to be an example of the final mix. In the future, we'll be more careful to include a better mix, but this was not intended to be used as a mixing reference by any means.
As for my personal views on recording into Pro Tools...I like my levels as close to zero as I can get them without clipping. An occasional peak is
inevitable and I do try and closely scrutinize those peaks to make sure there is no audible clipping. There are MANY schools of thought on this and I am not trying to make a claim either way with this book. My reason for using the hotter levels is simply personal preference based on my experience in Los Angeles and in Nashville learning from the various engineers I learned from in both cities and in the projects that I've produced since. The "use all your bits" argument makes a lot of sense to me. If we're working in a 24-bit session and our levels are only hitting 50%, then we're not fully utilizing all our bits and therefore not getting the best signal we can get.
Again, this is my own personal recording philosophy and I purposely didn't make those claims in the book since that was not the point of this book. If you intend to use this session as reference material for a class, then by all means, point out that this is NOT a final mix, but just an ongoing rough mix session meant to show the editing work. One interesting point is that the engineer who tracked most of the audio in this session has a completely different philosophy on recording digitally than I do. He typically records in the 65-75% range because he feels without the tape noise from analogue, there's no reason for him to push the levels that hard. So any peaks in our session even escaped his scrutiny. Again, I'm referring to the individual tracks and not the stereo buss.
I hope this helps. To be completely honest with you, this is the first question or comment we've gotten regarding mix or recording issues. Nathan and I are currently working on a series of other products and your questions will help us to make those products even better by reminding us to address those types of issues in addition to just focusing on the editing side of things.
Thanks again for your input. Brady
Brady,
Excellent response...
Personally I agree I try to push all my levels to as high as I can without clipping. I tell my students that a -3dB tracking level is the best area to
shoot for leaving that 3dB of headroom for the crazy peaks that always occur. However I belive that any amount of clipping is undesireable in the tracking phase. I did the 65-75% thing when I first got stated in digital and found that when I pushed my systems harder I got a slightly better sound so that is why I now push as hard as I can without clipping.
I just thought with the clips in your mixed session maybe approaching things from a different angle and wanted to hear that point of view.
Steve
Absolutely! Your input is always welcome. Please let me know how your students respond to the material and how we can make our future releases even better.
Brady
6. Pocketing Drum Tracks?
Hi Nathan-
I have just finished working my way through your book, Multi-Platinum Pro Tools. I have a question regarding track preparation prior to editing.
Do you recommend alignment of individual drum tracks to the overhead tracks prior to editing? For a typical instance where a close-mic'd snare and kick are tracked along with the overheads the image of the snare (kick) in the direct mic'd track will precede the image of the snare (kick) in the overhead track I have heard it recommended that the snare (kick) transients be lined up with the corresponding snare transients in the overhead track. This seems like sound advice for avoiding phase cancellations, but I wanted to get an expert opinion before committing to it. Is this standard practice?
Regarding your book, I was so excited when I found it that I found it difficult to sleep the night after I brought it home. I am grateful to finally find a book that provides the level of detail needed by newby home studio owners like myself who do not have the opportunity to spend years looking over the shoulders of experts.
Regards and thanks,
Neil G.
Hi Neil,
Thanks for the great feedback.
As for your question on time aligning tracks to the overheads, I've heard people espouse the idea, but never yet heard it work out practically. The problem is, you've gone to a lot of trouble (assumedly) to get your drums mics into position where they sound good, and in relative phase (always check your tracking sources in mono!:) to where you've got great sounding tracks. If you then go trying to line them all up visually, what do you line up? the kick? The snare? These make the most sense, but now the snare bleed that got in your kick track is even more out of phase with the actual snare track. If you moved them perfectly the same amount of samples, the kick & snare tracks would stay in phase relative to the bleed in each, but now the hat sound that was bleeding into the snare track is out of phase with the actual hat track. I suppose if you individually cleared out all silence on every hit of every drum, then consolidated all the selections...it might work...but i'd just spend that time getting good drum placement first. :)
Thanks again for the great comments!
nathan
7. Pro Tools Mismatches Transients?
I just bought your book at Barnes & Noble In Nashua,NH. I like it so far. I've been going along with the book and the video and i'm up to the part where i'm using the TCE tool to fill the hole and time stretch the region. When I drag the Tce tool over to the matching transcient, it fills it without the transient. Can you tell me what I might have done wrong?
Vic
Hey Vic,
Brady Barnett here. Thanks for your question. I wish I could say you are leaving out a step or there's an easy fix. Occasionally with certain Audiosuite plug-ins, when you create a new piece of audio, it won't "look" exactly right. With TCEX files, this is more common than with Pitch n' Time. Quite often, if you just move to the next step of dragging back the following transient and inserting your crossfade, your ears will not perceive this as any problem at all. If you're one of those people like me who likes what he sees to match what he hears, you can often fix this problem by simply undoing and retrying the edit. If that doesn't work, quit Pro Tools entirely and launch the session cold. This will fix these types of glitches over half the time.
Have you tried using Serato or one of the Waves time compression/expansion plugs instead of TCEX? If you haven't tried it, I'd highly recommend downloading a demo copy of Serato Pitch N Time and trying it for 30 days. You'll notice an AMAZING difference when compared to TCEX files for instruments.
Hope this answers your question and puts your mind at ease. :)
Brady