just got a pt/le system from dawbox,need help!!

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maskedman72

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i just got my system from dawbox.com yesterday(a pt/le digi002 rack and pc)and i will have many questions for you all so please bear with my stupidity. this is my 1st time owning a pc.(im from the old school of analog recording).

the first thing i did when i got it up and running was to transfer a 4 minute song with 14 tracks into pt/le. this went well. next up was to begin mixing. this went not so well. i used a few plugins for comp and eq and verb and up came a window telling me that i was using too much cpu an i had to remove some. i wasnt even near finished and the song wouldnt even play at this point. this sucked. so now what should i do? how could i ever expect to do an entire full length cd for someone if i cant even add a few plugins on one song? heres what i have:

intel d-865 prell mb.
2.4 p4800 fsb cpu.
512 pc400 ddr ram.
2 80gb seagate drives.

what could i do to make my plugin count go up?
mabye there are some settings in the pc itself that need to be tweaked(remember i have as of right now about 3 hours of pc recording expreience)
any advise would help!! thanks!
-jay
 
maskedman72,

if you had reverbs, comps and eq on EVERY track, you are going to run into the CPU problem really quickly.

I select a couple verbs and put them on an aux track and bus to them. I also try to use comp and EQ very lightly. I am using a MUCH older machine than you, however.

second, grab the manual and read up about your buffer settings and CPU usage setting...

this should point you in the right direction, I hope.

Cheers,
C
 
First, look at Digi's recommended settings. They tell you to enable some things and turn some things off in the operating system. This should be in your quickstart guide. Then set your buffer settings and CPU usage higher. Set the Buffer to 1024 samples, the CP usage as high as it will go (85%?). Also, make sure your drives are set right. I assume you're on Windows XP. Make sure both your drives are set to use write caching (look in Windows help for how to adjust this setting). I have had no problem getting 24 tracks of audio with a bunch of EQs, compressors, and one or two reverbs running on a PIII-866 on Win98, so good performance should be no problem on your system.
 
thanks guys! im going to check it all out and see what happens and report back. i will need all of the help i can get. i have the digi 002 manual but all throughout this manual it keeps saying to "refer to the users guide" what is the users guide? my unit didnt come with such a thing. also it didnt come with any info on what all of the keyboard shortcuts are. any idea where i could get this info?
 
They're talking about the reference guide. It's a PDF on your system, go to the help menu in PT, it should be there.
 
i go to the help menu and i see where you can select for help,pro tools users guide and keyboard shortcuts but it dosent do a dam thing..at all.

i checked out the settings like you said charger and they were all on the mark.

at this point i dont see how it is possable to do an entire full length record with this system,let alone having several clients at one time. so if i cant do anything until i remove plugins should i assume that i cant start a new session either?
if i start a new session with no plugins(closing the one with all the plugins) things should be back to full speed right?

now id like to ask about mixing.
how on earth do you use the automation? i cant get it to do anything. i have been trying to do volume changes in the edit window with no luck.....so,so many questions.
i just cant get it going. this is very frustrating.
mabye i should post all this in the newbie section!
it helps when you have a friend or someone who is into it also to help show you how to get it going but i dont have that. all the people i work with are way to busy to show me anything.
anyhow.......if mabye you could guide me through some automation stuff to get me going.
i cant figure out how to group things togther either. i would like to group the gtrs as one but cant do it. sometimes i think i am going insane with all of this. (and the whole insert and bussing thing is pure madness).
what can i do to get a higher plugin count? add more ram?
lost in pt/le -jay
 
I believe the users guide is a PDF on the installation CD. Seriously, sit down and READ it. It's huge but informative. Further, there is a book out called "Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools" by Berklee Press I believe. Breaks down the beginner steps...

You CAN do everything you want to do with this setup. I do with a whole let less CPU than you and a Digi001

Patience and good luck to you...

C
 
Clark_Griswold said:
I believe the users guide is a PDF on the installation CD. Seriously, sit down and READ it. It's huge but informative. Further, there is a book out called "Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools" by Berklee Press I believe. Breaks down the beginner steps...

You CAN do everything you want to do with this setup. I do with a whole let less CPU than you and a Digi001

Patience and good luck to you...

C
Click to expand...
why wouldnt the users guide be there if pt/le has been installed?

thanks for the encouragement. this stuff is very intimadating to me at this point. i was wondering if there were any books out there on pt.
i just dont see how i can do the things i want with this setup. right now i have a mackie 24-8 and an mdr recorder. i dont see pt le doing what this does(aside from automation)
 
maskedman72 said:
i go to the help menu and i see where you can select for help,pro tools users guide and keyboard shortcuts but it dosent do a dam thing..at all.

i checked out the settings like you said charger and they were all on the mark.

at this point i dont see how it is possable to do an entire full length record with this system,let alone having several clients at one time. so if i cant do anything until i remove plugins should i assume that i cant start a new session either?
if i start a new session with no plugins(closing the one with all the plugins) things should be back to full speed right?

now id like to ask about mixing.
how on earth do you use the automation? i cant get it to do anything. i have been trying to do volume changes in the edit window with no luck.....so,so many questions.
i just cant get it going. this is very frustrating.
mabye i should post all this in the newbie section!
it helps when you have a friend or someone who is into it also to help show you how to get it going but i dont have that. all the people i work with are way to busy to show me anything.
anyhow.......if mabye you could guide me through some automation stuff to get me going.
i cant figure out how to group things togther either. i would like to group the gtrs as one but cant do it. sometimes i think i am going insane with all of this. (and the whole insert and bussing thing is pure madness).
what can i do to get a higher plugin count? add more ram?
lost in pt/le -jay
Click to expand...

anyone have any input on any of this?
 
no offense

Holmes,


1. Where it says "Volume" and you can change volume, you can click the world "Volume" and ,make it say "Pan" And on your plugins click the red and white target circle and enable automation on what you want, then click the volume word and new choices for automation will be there.


Read the manual. Fiddle around. Go to www.digidesign.com. It will all come.


lD
 
Here are some really usefule references:

http://duc.digidesign.com
The Digi User Conference, a place where all your questions will be answered.

http://www.digidesign.com/support/docs/PT_Reference_Guide.pdf
The Pro Tools Reference Guide

In the Pro Tools Reference Guide:
Chapter 28: Automation
Chapter 8: Tracks, page 101, Grouping Tracks

The Pro Tools Reference Guide tells you everything you could ever need to know about Pro Tools. If you have any further questions after you've read that, check back. Also, be sure that something on your system is not misconfigured. 14 tracks with plugins sounds awfully low to me. Check here:
http://www.digidesign.com/compato/xp/002/
 
Re: no offense

Lorddiagram said:
Holmes,


1. Where it says "Volume" and you can change volume, you can click the world "Volume" and ,make it say "Pan" And on your plugins click the red and white target circle and enable automation on what you want, then click the volume word and new choices for automation will be there.


Read the manual. Fiddle around. Go to www.digidesign.com. It will all come.


lD
Click to expand...

no offense taken, i need all the help i can get!
i have read the manual and it is quite vague. i called digidesign tech support about not having the reference manual pull down tab work and they said that it is a bug in version 6.1 and i need to download 6.1.1 to fix it.
also while i had them on the phone i told them about my cpu running out of power so quickly with a few plugins going and they said that pentium 4 chips have a glitch in them while running pt le that makes them overload when they are not really maxed out. the solution was to insert a dither plug in before any other plugins. they also went through a few other set up items and had me change some things. i was having all of these little pink dots or specks all over my monitor all of the time. they had me disable something and it solved the problem. the tech support was top shelf. i have never got tech support like this. very good!! i did manage to get some automation going with what lorddigram said. thanks! man there is so much to learn with this. i have been recording with da 88's for the past 10 years and a mdr the past 6 months, now all of this. its quite a big step for me. thanks again to all of you for the help!!
 
not sure if this would affect plug in count as much as it does track count/stability, but format your audio drive to FAT32.
 
is there a menu to go into to check and see if it already is if i dont know?
 
fenix said:
not sure if this would affect plug in count as much as it does track count/stability, but format your audio drive to FAT32.
Click to expand...

It would effect stability......for the worse.
 
mask,
I know it seems like a lot right now, but it will come. I think others have said it but you need to read the manual. It will be confusing the first time through, but then play around with it. Save out a session you can just mess with. Then go back to the manual and address each thing as it comes up. It will make more sense in time.

I think you can buy the nice spiral bound manual from Digi for like 30 bucks. It is huge. It might be worth it. Then it is right in your hands as opposed to having to look up a pdf or print it all out. My Digi 001 came with the manual because I bought it a few years ago before the stopped including it with the product. Cost saving. :rolleyes:.

I know you have no computer experience which is making it hard, but I had no recording experience so all the terms and techniques were foriegn to me. I still learn things new all the time and I have been doing this for several years (as a hobby). At least you know how a mixing board works and what it is supposed to do. ProTools does all that and more.

With time the edit screen will become your friend. You will see how you can precisely make adjustments to anything you need. I think you need accept that it will take you time. Months for sure.

My advice is to learn it and learn it well before you try to finalize an album. I recorded our first album (again as a hobby) and I had no idea what I was doing. Now I could do it in half the time and make it sound ten times better. We are going to record it over now. :) Once you learn the power of the software, you will never regret making the leap.

Good luck.
 
Jay,

I am watching your progress bro. I haven't gotten my system yet, cause each time I get the money up I keep getting wacked with something. I am glad to have you as a scout to see how frustrating this journey is. I am curious to see what you will have to say about whether you are satisfied with that particular DAW machines abilitly to handle tracks, plug ins, and so on. I am glad that you are getting good tech support from digidesign. That is reassuring. I would like to thank everybody who has been helping you here, because they have been helping me also.

Kenny
 
everyone has been great here! there are so many people here that know their shit inside and out. it is a great asset to be able to get advise and input from you all!!

the manual costs $39 and i am going to get it to learn this all. i have been considering taking this leap for many years. i got sick of not having automation with just a mackie 8 buss.
the computer itself that i got from dawbox is just massive. i have never seen something so heavy duty. i got the rack mount case and it is a tank. well im going to go and see what i can do in pt/le land.
i am getting a loud poping sound anytime i use a plugin and click bypass. any ideas?

dont kill kenny-its good to know that someone else out there is on the same level too.

thanks all!
-jay
 
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