Cheshire Omnimedia

So today’s moral goes something like this: How do you exchange files between different programs and clients? Is there a fool proof way?

The answer is of course, yes. But getting there can be a bit of challenge.

Audio files are what makes the world go round regardless of what software you use. The idea is to consolidate your files, so that each track is one continuous file. You can then exchange the actual files without any session data (ie. .ptf) back and forth: everything stays in perfect sync.

Each DAW is different of course, and your particular DAW probably handles this function differently.

In Protools, you consolidate by highlighting the beginning of the track to the end and selecting “consolidate” from the edit menu. It’ll fill the blank region space with silence. However many edits you’ve done will be made into one big file. You will want to do this with every track. (You should label each track before consolidating, as in PT it’ll name the new audio file after the track name.) In the Audio Files directory you’ll find the newly created files.

Other programs have similar things. In Cubase it’s necessary to put a silent audio clip at the beginning and end of the track.
All of the files should have the same length and be the same size in the file browser. This also, coincidentally, is the same as the NARAS P&E guidelines for archiving projects.

There’s the whole business of OMF interchange, and while reasonable, I’ve found the best practice is to consolidate and ship. There’s no ambiguity then, and every DAW should be able to support it.

A hilarious post at Gearslutz. Must. Read. Now.

METAL GEAR REVIEWS

One of the myths of the Muse is that while the Muse may inspire others to great works, she herself can not create.

I’ve been doing a bit of house cleaning (proverbially, as I’ve yet to actually spring clean my apartment) and it occurred to me that I’ve not done much in the way of my own music in the last few years. A few years ago my friend Matt Galek was lamenting the fact that he was so busy, he never had time to play or practice any more.

I agree with his sentiment completely.

So I guess that means I should start making music again.

Tomorrow. (I’m busy right now!)

Last night I was answering some questions for a friend doing an article for Griffle (home of IndieCrawler) and it got me thinking. His query was pretty innocent enough: “What are some of the top things musicians shouldn’t do before coming in to the studio?”

Of course it’s pretty easy to come up with a lengthy tome, with such edicts as “Thou Shalt Not Have Dead Drum Heads” or “Thou Shalt Shower.” My personal gripe is when musicians show up hours early before a session, which means that either A) the staff is at lunch, B) there’s another session that goes until their session, or C) there is no staff or we’re getting ready for their session. (The idea is to be a couple minutes early, not hours, btw) I digress.

What really got me going was if there was a single unifying theme to it all. I think there is.

The bottom line when it comes time to go in to the studio is to be prepared.

I know it’s a very Boy Scout thing to say, but it’s really quite true. Don’t worry about what you don’t know, worry about what you do. Do your drums squeek? Does your amp have a rattle in it? Can the whole band play to a click track? Do you know where the chorus starts? What chords are being played? Can you play your part cleanly? Most of the major hold ups in the studio come from those types of issues, not from anything else.

Work on what is in front of you. The rest will work its self out.

Studio Moral of the Day: Backup everything, every day.

That’s what I do, and so far it hasn’t bit me. Note that in the previous post, we’re buying more hard drives for backing up projects. A best practice is to have the last few “versions” backed up, and to have that hard drive unmounted during session work.

Some audio applications will “look” into all the hard drives if they’re on- you don’t want that, hence unmounting the drive. You should have 2:1 backup space to project space, ie a Terabyte in backups for 500 gigs of storage.

At the end of the day, make a safety copy of the project, and label the safety directory with the date. You should keep a couple of “days” around to be safe. That’s for when you consolidate those drum takes and get rid of the source files- on accident. (Another day why that might “accidently” happen.)

So another day goes by. . . I’m sure many have this problem, especially starting out. Now that I’m here, what to say?

Perhaps I’ll just share a story.

A studio I work for was interested in buying a few new hard drives for backing projects up. We were looking at a terabyte drive. Comparing the three major brands that have them on the market was a bit disheartening on Newegg. All of them seem to have an alarming number of DOA’s or premature failures.

Now I’m completely hip to the fact the hard drives are a temporary thing. It’s in their nature. Tiny things are moving at stupifying speeds endlessly. Things break down. But shipping DOA? Every company had a review saying the three of six drives shipped failed, or other, similar problem.

Statistics 101 says I shouldn’t be too worried, as typically people who post are dissatisfied; people who are happy probably don’t. Actual DOA’s are probably a very scarce few.

Looking at the few, it makes it hard to make an informed decision. Seagate it is!