PROTOOLS TO DP - DIGITAL FILE ISSUES - ANY SUGGESTIONS APPRECIATED

[SMOOGHEAD]

Hello forum

I've been using DP since issue 4.6 many, many years ago. And I'm very happy with it, now on DP11. I'm a MacOS user.

Before DP 4.6, I used a free issue of ProTools 5.0.1 on a G3 Mac with a recognized Digidesign sound card. Around 2002, I was using Protools 6 but all the hardware from those days is now sadly gone.

All mixdowns were burned to CD and so I do have some decent quality reference audio from that time.

However I recently found a set of 7 x CDs with the raw Protools audio files from that period (Protools 6). I'd like to remix/remaster those songs in DP if I can, given the huge leap in processing technology and software over the last 20+ years. After a bit of homework, I managed to convert them (on PC) from SD2 to WAV using sdTwoWav, and I have now imported all those WAV files into DP. But there is a big issue - and a surprising one - to me , at least !

The audio files play well and quality is pretty good. The originals were 48k, 24 bit and that is how I imported them into DP. But the speed is higher than the original recordings - if I import the same audio tracks, the WAV taken from the CD is longer and slower than the converted audio files. I could see this happening with old analogue recordings (eg tapes) but I hardly expected it from a digital audio source being converted to another digital audio source!!!

For example, one CD track at 3min14sec converts to a time of 2min 59sec, 15 seconds faster (7.7%). Great for hitting notes I can no longer sing (lol) but it's doing my head in !

I was wondering if I am missing something here in the file conversion or import settings ? Or if anyone out there has had similar issues ? Thanks

I can scale time (stretch) the files to fit but with 18 separate tracks and 8 channels of audio each, that's a lot of work !

Many thanks for any help. It would be most appreciated.

Regards

Smoog

[bayswater]

If it was a difference of 8.8%, I’d say maybe you have files that were 44.1 and are now being played at 48.

If you don’t figure it out, there are apps that will do bulk conversion. DSP-Q is one. There might be others that are free and will d it. XLD maybe?

[Phil O]

I seem to recall seeing this when collaborating with someone using ProTools. We finally figured out it was some time stretch setting in ProTools, but it was a long time ago and I can't remember what the setting was called. I also can't remember if it was going to or coming from PT. What I do remember was it WAS a setting somewhere.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[SMOOGHEAD]

Thanks both.

I've tried reconverting the first track at 44.1k rather than 48k and the timing is now almost spot on with reference to the CD mix. I will convert the others over the next few days, but the 44.1/48 thing seems to sort the first track at any rate.

Thanks again

Smoog

[Killahurts]

Sounds like sample rate issue.. but if it's not:

When you converted from SD2 files, did you make them Broadcast Wave files (bwav) or standard wavs? I have found when going back and forth with DP and Pro Tools, exporting/saving as regular wave files (Core audio wave export) saves me from these mysterious timing bugs, presumably because the metadata in the bwav that has placement, tempo etc., is stripped off. I have found that these issues happen between DP and Cubase as well.

[dwilliams]

I would use Amadeus Pro for this. You can probably use iZotope RX. Sometimes you can batch convert to another format, then batch convert to the desired format and "trick" the conversion to get the result you want.