transfering tracks between identical systems

Snydley

New member
Sorry if this has been gone over before, but I'm a newb. :o
I recently recorded some songs with a band I played with 30yrs. ago,(we had a reunion), on a Digidesign 003 Rack+ Factory Pro Tools 8 LE system our bass player bought. It went so well I went out and bought the same identical system. The rest of the guys lives in S. Carolina, I live in N.Y. Our idea was to have them record their parts on their system in S.C. and send the data to me, I would then load it into my system and add my drum parts, and then send it back to them in S.C.
How difficult is this to do? I've been working with computers for over 20 years, the bass player almost as long and we both "get around" on computers pretty well. We are both new to home recording though. We are both running this on Windows XP systems.
Is it just a matter of burning a specific folder or 2 to CD, or do they have to export the data, and then I would import it, etc. Is there a FAQ or guide anywhere that covers this?
I appreciate any help given.
Thanks,
Snyde
 
Hey Snydley (great name btw)
Bit of a noob myself but I would assume you can just save the session on one PC, go into that folder and ZIP it all up, then they can send it over to you or upload it on rapidshare etc for you to download, then you can just open it on your session.
Alternatively if they are recording to a Firewire drive they could always ship that to you, although id make a backup!
Id suggest trying it with a small session first bit of guitar or bass etc,
Perhaps some of the experts can suggest something else? Im not sure if there would be any sound loss in either suggestion.
Mick
 
yeah that's right.

with protools it's straight forward, as all the session info is stored in one folder. (named whatever you called the session)

This folder includes fade files, audio files, backups, plugin settings, session layout etc etc etc.


Ensure that you and you friend limit yourselves to the plugins that are available to both of you.

(ie, if they use loads of waves plugins, and you don't have them,,,they wont load on your computer..sorry if that states the obvious)



My only suggestion would be to do it the other way round though,,,

record the drums and then upload/post the folder to the other guys :)


i find it much much easier to have the drums down first,
unless you're going to a click anyway, and everyone really knows the songs inside out.


best of luck!
 
Hey Snydley (great name btw)
Bit of a noob myself but I would assume you can just save the session on one PC, go into that folder and ZIP it all up, then they can send it over to you or upload it on rapidshare etc for you to download, then you can just open it on your session.
Alternatively if they are recording to a Firewire drive they could always ship that to you, although id make a backup!
Id suggest trying it with a small session first bit of guitar or bass etc,
Perhaps some of the experts can suggest something else? Im not sure if there would be any sound loss in either suggestion.
Mick

Our idea was to send the sessions on CDRs back and forth, or to connect to Rapidshare, or some other service like that, and transfer the data. I'd rather do that than send CDs back and forth, because of the time involved with the Postal Service. As far as a firewire drive goes, I don't think we'd do that unless there would be such a loss in sound quality doing it any other way. At this point it'll just be "covers" but we're looking to do some originals eventually, along the lines of Zepplin, Clapton etc. Stuff from our era.
My last name is Snyder, so I was given/cursed with that nickname many moons ago, when I was just a wee lad. :D
Thanks for the help,
Snyde
 
yeah that's right.

with protools it's straight forward, as all the session info is stored in one folder. (named whatever you called the session)
This folder includes fade files, audio files, backups, plugin settings, session layout etc etc etc.
Ensure that you and you friend limit yourselves to the plugins that are available to both of you.
(ie, if they use loads of waves plugins, and you don't have them,,,they wont load on your computer..sorry if that states the obvious)
My only suggestion would be to do it the other way round though,,,
record the drums and then upload/post the folder to the other guys :)
i find it much much easier to have the drums down first,
unless you're going to a click anyway, and everyone really knows the songs inside out.
best of luck!

Gosh, I hope it's that easy! We have the same exact systems, with the same plugins and at this point we won't be investing in anything more. Maybe if things work out, and there's a plugin we can't live without we'll invest in it.
So I assume that I would zip my session up preserving the folder structure, transfer it to him, he would unzip it on his drive, and import it into a new session?
The reason I thought I'd have them put their parts down first is just so I have something to follow when putting my drum tracks down, theirs would be just "scratch" tracks so to speak. Once I got my tracks down and sent them back, they could delete their old tracks and put new, final tracks down. We haven't even started yet, so I don't know what the best way of doing things is gonna be. I imagine if I can figure out how to use the click track, and am able to hear it ok when playing then we'll use that to keep everything in sync so to speak. Like I said before, I'm a noob, but we've got the equipment together and are ready to record, we haven't tried anything yet.
I appreciate all of your suggestions!
Thanks!
Snyde
 
aah,ok,that makes sense (scratch track) .. fair enough.

everything you said is right apart from "importing" but i suspect that's just terminology getting the better of us...


you literally save the sesssion.exit protools.zip the whole folder and send.


when they receive it, they just unzip, open the folder, and double click the main session file.(.ptf)


protools should open exactly what you saw, without the need to do anything else...


i've moved sessions back and forth from studios to home, and even had sessions that were recorded in other studios brought to me on a dvd for mixing...


it's always just been a case of clicking the .ptf file and working away.



good luck!
 
aah,ok,that makes sense (scratch track) .. fair enough.
everything you said is right apart from "importing" but i suspect that's just terminology getting the better of us...
you literally save the sesssion.exit protools.zip the whole folder and send.
when they receive it, they just unzip, open the folder, and double click the main session file.(.ptf)
protools should open exactly what you saw, without the need to do anything else...
i've moved sessions back and forth from studios to home, and even had sessions that were recorded in other studios brought to me on a dvd for mixing...
it's always just been a case of clicking the .ptf file and working away.
good luck!

Ahh, great!! I can't believe it's that easy, well, I believe you, but I mean I can't believe they've made it that easy!! That's just so contrary to the way computer things USUALLY are. "They" usually make "things" such a complicated draw out process that the average Joe,(if they attempt it at all), have to jump through SO many hoops that they end up giving up and calling tech. support and spending mucho dinero to get done whatever needs to be done. ;) It's done to keeps tech. support in business, and make the almighty $$$$ IMO.;)
Thanks again,
Snyde
 
Back
Top