slicraider wrote: :?:

The other day I was visiting a studio and I noticed that the PT session was synced to the analog tape, but the SMTE number was many minutes past 0:00:00. The guy at the studio did not use any SMPTE offset. My question is this: If the session starts at 0:00:00 is he wasting a bunch of disk space by running his sessions in that way?

Your question is not absolutely 100% clear. But in a nutshell, no, he is not wasting any disk space, regardless of any off-set or lack there-of. Whichever is the case.

Normally one would start your SMPTE count either a minute or an hour (or whatever) past zero anyway. It's good to have a buffer at the beginning in case you need to add in an intro, or otherwise more program material in front of the track, and you don't want the track to be starting in the negative time.

Thanks Recorderman there was no offset just 19 minutes of space before the tune in the PT Session. Sorry to have been unclear.

did he record 19 min's of silence?

No so I guess there is nothing there to make the file bigger.

That's right. You can start the session anywhere in the SMPTE time line you want and disk space won't start being used untill someone hits record.

This is a little off topic but thought you might like to know

There's a new standard for pro-tools sessions that requires the session start time to be 1:00:00:00

That's 1 hour.

This standard has been established by the record labels and the RIAA...among many other standards. I'll post a link when I remember where it is...

djui5,

That sounds like you've been poking around the P&E Wing at Grammy.com. It's been standard at the big rooms in town to start at 1:00:00 but I think that's a video influence for the most part as most all music studios seem to start with only a 15-20 second SMPTE offset.

slicraider wrote: djui5,

That sounds like you've been poking around the P&E Wing at Grammy.com. It's been standard at the big rooms in town to start at 1:00:00 but I think that's a video influence for the most part as most all music studios seem to start with only a 15-20 second SMPTE offset.

Busted.... :shock:

I've never seen a session with a 15-20 second offset..maybe I missed something. Most sessions I've worked on have been started at 1hour. I do know a lot of studios set up their pro-tools rig's to automatically do this when making new sessions, but I haven't worked everywhere either.
It's interesting to look at it from a video standpoint. Never thought about that. I'm a music guy and haven't done any post work since leaving school. Thanks for the insight!

slicraider wrote: djui5,

That sounds like you've been poking around the P&E Wing at Grammy.com. It's been standard at the big rooms in town to start at 1:00:00 but I think that's a video influence for the most part as most all music studios seem to start with only a 15-20 second SMPTE offset.

That can be very problematic to start too close to 00:00:00.00. Depending on what you will need to synchronize to later, you can run into trouble. Some equipment will freak out if you cross "midnight", i.e. go from 23:59:59.29 to 00:00:00.00. Starting at 01:00:00.00 prevents ever crossing midnight, it also makes the math easier if you do need to use offsets later.

Eric

EricK wrote: [quote=slicraider]djui5,
Some equipment will freak out if you cross "midnight", i.e. go from 23:59:59.29 to 00:00:00.00. Starting at 01:00:00.00 prevents ever crossing midnight, it also makes the math easier if you do need to use offsets later.

Eric

1.This is the reason "we" (meaning the industry) started with the 1 hour thing years ago. Computers did not like rolling over.
2. The 15 to 20 second thing comes from the smart pre-roll to have to allow synchronizers (i.e. Lynx's and such ) to lock up analog slaves with their masters.
3. There is a new standard That Eric Schilling and a bunch of others at the P&E wing of NARAS has devised. Very good recommendations.
Of course with Pro Tools you can pretty much compensate for anything....especially if you came up the hard way trying to do the same back in analog only days.