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anonymous 13 February 2001

I have a screamin' PC with NT on it right now. (933 PIII coppermine w/512 mhz SDRAM SCSI RAID O) I want to buy Pro Tools but want to use it with this computer. My main concern is tranferability between my computer (.WAV file) and a MAC at another studio (SDII files). Other than the obvious ethernet, is Pro Tools able to read and convert files from one computer to the other and vice versa? :confused: :confused:

Comments

anonymous Wed, 02/14/2001 - 21:28

Hi Greg,

Maybe I am wrong, but I thought that all PC (at least Nt, Win2K & 98) DAW platforms use WAV files. I thought that only Mac OS/PT used SDII files. If I am wrong and ALL PT, not matter NT or MacOS use SDII, then that would be great because there would be no compatability issues at all and I can put the software and cards in my computer and be on my merry way. Anybody in the know?

anonymous Wed, 02/14/2001 - 22:45

Sure you can get either computer to talk to each other via simple translators, WAV-AIFF and visa versa.....and also it's possible to convert after a bounce in ProTools. (That's from my experience using mac). However to simply open a PC session on a mac requires that you save the session as a mac file, burn it on CD and open it on the mac - VERY FIDDLY and not 100%.

Version 5.1 will be introducing a whole lot of new Cross Platform features.

Good luck!

Greg Malcangi Thu, 02/15/2001 - 10:03

Hi Proaudio,

<< Maybe I am wrong, but I thought that all PC (at least Nt, Win2K & 98) DAW platforms use WAV files. >>

Nope. WAV files are the consumer standard on PCs with standard OEM sound cards. However if you are going to use PTools it will create SDII files for play back through it's own hardware.

SDII is not platform specific but is the format introduced in Sound Designer and used by PTools, regardless of platform.

If you can crush your files on to a zip drive, that's obviously easier than burning a CD. Better still email 'em.

Greg

anonymous Wed, 03/21/2001 - 17:35

In my experience, it is always better to burn a CD of all of your session files onto a CD for transfer. This assures that all the data is written in a continuous stream, thereby eliminating the possibility of fragmentation. If you send it over the Internet, the files will be moved in packets instead of whole files. If you compress the files in order to fit them onto a Zip disk, you run the risk of losing data during compression and unstuffing.

However, if you are going to be going from a PC to a Mac, the best way is to get an external drive (check with the studio and see what type of drive you need as far as connections go. I have had huge problems with people trying to save a buck and getting a drive that ended up having the wrong SCSI connector on it) big enough to hold your project, Mac format it, and copy your sessions to it. Then all you have to do is walk into the studio, plug in your drive and go. This information about how exactly to do session transfers between platforms is on Digi's site under "Support".

BTW, I just checked Digi's site about the PC audio format question, and versions of PTPC under 5.1 do NOT create SDII files! PTPC 5.01 and under support .wav or .aiff files only. So, if you want to use them on a Mac, the files will have to be .aiff or else you will have to convert the .wav files at the studio before importing them. Or, you can get the 5.1 update. This information, and exactly how to do session transfers between platforms is on their site under "Support".

[ March 22, 2001: Message edited by: Chris W. Langer ]

[ March 22, 2001: Message edited by: Chris W. Langer ]

[ March 23, 2001: Message edited by: Chris W. Langer ]

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