Month: March 2010

ProTools templates

Adam Boardman ProTools, Tips , , ,

If you don’t already have a standard blank template for your sessions then you should. I have a few different templates pre-built for certain times so I can start up my ProTools rig, open a session, save a copy and start working. In ProTools 8 there is native support to save a session as a template. There are a few things I like to consider when creating a session template which are –

  1. What situation would you like this template to cover?
  2. How many tracks are you likely to need?
  3. Will you need any MIDI tracks?
  4. Will any stereo tracks be needed?
  5. Are you going to need a headphone mix for the band?
  6. Do you know the processing you will be needing at mixdown? Continue reading →

5.1 control room current setup

Adam Boardman 5.1 Control Room, FAQ, ProTools , , , , , ,

This post is a technical post describing the setup of the 5.1 control room and the capabilities of it. This isn’t a guideline as such, however it can be helpful to know what you are working with, and how it is all connected together.

This control room is centered around Pro Tools LE 8 and a 003 control surface which at the time of writing is the latest and greatest version from Digidesign, this runs on an Intel iMac with plenty of ‘grunt’ to get the job done. This Pro Tools setup isn’t your standard run of the mill install of LE 8 with limited number of tracks, plug-ins, etc there has been a lot of research and spending gone into this system. We have installed the Digidesign Pro Tools Complete Production Toolkit on this single iMac, giving you 128 mono tracks, a whole array of different mix formats, and over £1000 worth of top of the range plug-ins to name just a few of the features of this toolkit. What this means to you is that instead of being a limited cut down version of Pro Tools (or Light Edition) we are running as close to a full Pro Tools HD / TDM system as we can get without actually having Pro Tools HD / TDM. Continue reading →

5.1 control room DON’TS

Adam Boardman 5.1 Control Room , ,

I’ve recently finished setting up the 5.1 surround sound control room and am writing a series of posts detailing the use of this room as there are a few guidelines which MUST be followed. This post will detail the few item which MUST NOT be done unless you want to feel the wrath of Steve (and possibly me) and also ruin usability for other students.

This list isn’t very lengthy but please follow it to ensure smooth running of this control room.

  1. Do not remove the patch leads marked red in the image under any circumstances. These are still to be hard-wired in the patch bay and are linking the outputs from the 003 control surface to the BlueSky monitor system and headphone amplifiers, if they are messed with all the I/O settings for ProTools will be messed up, and you will not get the correct output. Continue reading →

5.1 control room start up guidelines

Adam Boardman 5.1 Control Room, FAQ , , ,

I’ve recently finished setting up the 5.1 surround sound control room and am writing a series of posts detailing the use of this room as there are a few guidelines which MUST be followed. The Pro Tools system in this control room is setup differently to the multi-track control room and has some certain guidelines that must be followed to ensure correct use.

The first thing that must be made clear is that if the system is all shut off when you come to use it there is a certain power up sequence that must be followed in order for everything to sync up correctly. The sequence for correct power up is as follows –

  1. Ensure the BlueSky remote is set to the off position (full left)
  2. DigiDesign 003 Control Surface
  3. Yamaha O2R/96 V2
  4. iMac Continue reading →