Importing Sonar 2.2 Files Into Pro Tools

[Bill S. Preston]

Okay everyone, I did a search for "OMF", and I read up on how to properly create an OMF file through Sonar in order for Pro Tools to read it. I'm comfortable creating the file, and have already tested it on my computer and it creates the file just fine. Additionally, I made sure that the engineer that will be receiving this file has the DigiTranslator to open the OMF file.

However, the engineer sent me an email with the instruction to "just send the audio files (rendered from the start of the song)." I noticed that the other posts mentioned something about this as well, but the n00b in me can't really wrap my head around it. How do I make sure that all the files are lined up how they should be when the engineer opens them? Is there a specific option I need to pick to "render from the start of the song"? Or, does the OMF file already have the data created to ensure the files line up correctly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Bill S. Preston, Esquire

 

[dachay2tnr]

AFAIK the OMF file should contain everything you need, including the audio if you select the imbed audio checkbox. It will not retain volume, pan and effects settings (which is what you are probably paying the studio do anyway).

However, the way I read this is that your engineer doesn't want an OMF file, he wants a separate wave file for each track. You can do this by simply exporting one track at a time to a wave file.

To me, however, it seems to defeat the whole advantage of using the OMF format - particularly if the song has a lot of tracks.

I haven't actually exchanged files with Pro Tools, so take this advice for what it's worth - i.e., what you paid for it. But you might want to have another discussion with the engineer.

 

[Strryder]

The easiest way to ensure compatibility between platforms is to consolidate all tracks to start at "Zero" on the timeline.

This will fill in any empty spaces in between clips for the track, so that the final wave file is continuous and unbroken from the zero point to it's end, it can then be placed at "Zero" on the timeline and will correctly line up with all other tracks done the same way.

If he is going to be remixing the whole thing, then he most likely wants the tracks as raw as possible, so you should do a "save as" with your session, adding the word "Export" to it's name, that way any changes you make from that point on will not affect your original session.

After doing the "save as", do this in the "Export" session..

Decide what effects (if any) are required to be printed to track, then remove all un-needed effects from the track/aux/mains effects bins, turn off all aux sends, remove all automation that is not required for track consolidation, set all channel trims and faders at "0", all pan controls centered, and mute all channels.

Now you should be pretty much setup to export each track without adding any un-needed processing.

Create a new folder in your project folder for these exported tracks to go into.

Unmute each track one at a time and export it as a mono file, I think that ProTools needs to have seperate left and right tracks for any stereo tracks that you may have, so in these cases set the pan control to one side or the other and export each side as a mono track labeled "trackname_L" or "trackname_R".

When you're finished, you'll have a folder that contains only the wave files for the song, one for each track, and because they all start at "0" on the timeline, anybody could import these wave files into any program and mix away.

This should get you started..

 

[Bill S. Preston]

Gentlemen,

Just wanted to thank you both for taking the time to help me out. Stryder, especially, that breakdown really helped me out and I'm doing that process right now.

You're both lifesavers.

+rep, for what it's worth.

Bill S. Preston