import multiple audio file issues (DP 11.03)

[sayatnova]

I am not sure if this a DP 11.03 bug, or not.. I select a group of mono WAV files on my desktop. I drag them onto the tracks window to the left side and I get the blue outline showing it sees the incoming tracks. I let go of the mouse and it automatically creates a track with the proper name for each sound file. It automatically converts the 48k files to my 96k session rate. So far, so great! I see the tracks as waveforms in the right side of the window. I go to play the tracks using the spacebar, and then all the waveforms disappear and are deleted. No audio plays. It is the same if I hit the play arrow in the transport section, or use the space bar to initiate playback...Not cool. If I go to the Undo History, there is a line input for Erase Tracks?... Huh? Could someone please check this and let me know if it works on their machine?

For more info:

I did this with an older session that had to be saved as a DP 11 file, and created a new file in 11, same result each time...

Shouldn't I be able to import multiple WAV files into a session and have it create tracks that are properly named and have the the soundbite loaded on the respective tracks? This should work, right? The manual seems to imply this.

Thank you!

[mikehalloran]

Did you give DP enough time to do any background processing? Does that window show up after you do the import?

[sayatnova]

Some follow-up:

Yes, all the background processing finished fairly quickly. So, that was not an issue. But thanks for the suggestion, Mike.

Turns out, for some reason DP wants to insert the files at the 53 minute mark... No idea why. So, my perception of the files disappearing was the when the counter was going back to 0:0:00 to start the sequence, the files were not visible...Only when you zoom way out do you see the files inserted at the 53 minute mark.

Trying to trouble shoot why they are appearing at the 53 minute mark, I made sure all selection counters were set to 0:0:0 before trying to drag the group of sound files from the Soundbites window to the tracks window, again. Still places them at the 53 minute mark. Once there I can elect them all and then shift them to the start of the sequence, but I would like to just have them inserted at the top of the sequence instead of having to go though this other step.

I can, however, drag a single soundbite over from the Soundbites window and place it at the beginning of the sequence. But, it will not give any visual indicator to place the files at the beginning of the sequence if you try and do that with a group of files at one time. Am I missing a setting or key combo to allow this to happen? I would just like to be able to drag a group of soundbites from the Soundbite window or the Finder into the tracks window, and have the tracks be named and the soundbites placed at the beginning of the sequence (or, wherever I would like them to go)! Any suggestions?

Thank you for the help and time, I appreciate it.

[James Steele]

Where did the WAV files come from? Is it possible that they were internally timestamped to start at the 53 minute mark?

[Phil O]

I recently had a problem where a new 11.03 project had a faulty time stamp issue. Everything appeared to record properly, but I noticed that the Original Time listed in the soundbite window had some high number. The soundbite was placed where it was recorded, but the time stamp was way off. If I hit command-T (move to original timestamp) the soundbite moved to the high number listed. After much fussing about I found that when I placed the soundbite at time zero the event info showed a sample position of -2. I didn't think negative numbers were even possible. I never did figure out what went wrong, but I corrected the error by moving each soundbite to time zero then nudging them 2 samples to the right and merging with the selection extending all the way to zero.

I realize this doesn't help, but that's the first time I've ever seen anything like this and it was in 11.03. Could be coincidence. Could be a bug. If a pizza falls from the sky is it an omen, or just a pizza?

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[HCMarkus]

I've been flummoxed on occasion when importing audio files from a client's Logic project... where'd the files go?

Turns out they were all placed at 1:00:00:00, not at 0. Now I always look down the timeline before freaking.

[Phil O]

I've been flummoxed on occasion when importing audio files from a client's Logic project... where'd the files go?

Turns out they were all placed at 1:00:00:00, not at 0. Now I always look down the timeline before freaking.

I've seen that importing from ProTools.

[sayatnova]

The files were from a mixing course from Michael White (Mixing with Mike).I know he uses Pro Tools... Really Odd. How do you tell if the soundbite has a set start time embedded in it? Shouldn't that be able to be overruled on import for scenarios just like this? Can you edit the embedded start time data, if there?...

[Phil O]

The original timestamp and the user timestamp can be found in the Sound File Information window. (Studio > Sound File Information) The user time stamp can be edited, but as far as I know the original time stamp cannot. You can however easily create a new sound file with desired time stamp by positioning the soundbite where you want it, select it then merge. The new merged file will have the time stamp corresponding to where you positioned it.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[sayatnova]

Excellent info, Phil! Thank you. Never had to look into that before, This helps a lot.

[Kurt Cowling]

You can also change the SMPTE start time of your sequence to 1:00:00:00 and the files will appear at the same time locations as they were recorded.

[Kurt Cowling]

You can also change the SMPTE start time of your sequence to 1:00:00:00 and the files will appear at the same time locations as they were recorded.

Many times SMPTE start time is set to one hour in case time needs to be added to the front end of a cue. SMPTE can’t do negative numbers.

[FrankD]

Could be the one hour start time difference coupled with a frame rate mismatch?

Is your main counter showing real time or frames?

You can do the math...

[sayatnova]

Thank you for the replies, Everyone. I have never used or looked at SMPTE! But good to have this info if I need it in the future. I think for now, I will just move them and merge to create new files.

[bkshepard]

Shouldn't I be able to import multiple WAV files into a session and have it create tracks that are properly named and have the the soundbite loaded on the respective tracks? This should work, right? The manual seems to imply this.

I just encountered a problem with trying to drag multiple WAV files into a new session. I selected all the files, and dragged them into the Tracks window, but instead of distributing the files onto different tracks, DP stacked all the files on top of each other in Track 1.