pc to mac?

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pc to mac?

Postby Simon B » Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:23 pm

here is a question that I am sure most people know. it is just I know little but nothing certain...........

How easy is it to record or track using a pc, and then mix using a max... or vice versa...... my understanding is that when creating a new session sdII compatible? or when saving.......

any thoughts or suggestions would be most apreciated....
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Postby PeterR » Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:10 pm

if you are using PT you just click the box - enforce Mac - PC compatability for the session then you can drag the whole thing around.

I use wav all the time, dont know about sdII except that some people think its crap because it doesn't store sample rate, bit depth info in the header of the file.
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Postby wez » Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:31 pm

SD2 is a long obsolete format, not supported by anyone, not even digidesign. forget about it, it's gone.
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Postby davemc » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:38 pm

[quote="wez"]SD2 is a long obsolete format, not supported by anyone, not even digidesign. forget about it, it's gone.[/quote]

Yes although you can still select to record to it.
The enforce mac/PC thing should not be a option. Should just do it.
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Postby Martin » Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:35 pm

i understood the purpose of SD2 was that it was quicker to view the waveforms in PT as it didn't take as long to draw them hence faster sessions???

i've always used aiff anyway...
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Postby chris p » Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:59 am

I think its more dependent on the software than the hardware. Logic Pro on the Mac has been able to import just about anything I've reasonably asked of it thats in a industry standard (as distinct from proprietary software) file.

FWIW, I'd use AIFF at 24 / 44.1
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Postby davemc » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:08 am

Macs are normally cool to import to, they read PC burnt CD/DVD's.
PC's a lot do not like SDII format, and cannot read mac format CD/DVD unless you get add on software.
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Postby Kris » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:47 am

Microsoft strikes again.
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Postby davemc » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:49 am

There is no other universe outside Windows remember.. he he he

There are Mac opener utilities arond and SDII to wav/Aiff convertors as well..
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Postby Simon B » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:49 pm

I have always been a pc user. not really due to preference but I grew up on pc, went to audio on pc. I cant say which is better because I havent used mac.

I guess pro tools has always been a mac program. not so much now but earlier versions had the mac icons.

I have always felt pc is just as competant mac..... just never had a reason to use mac even though it is the more accepted in the industry I guess
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Postby Adam Dempsey » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:19 pm

PCs need a Mac formatted hard drive to read SDII or, as on the SADiE 5 P4/W XP, MacDrive software. But yeah, SDII obsolete, really.

For compatibility stick with AIFF, WAV or better still BWF (WAV with time stamping & Broadcast Extension Chunk for extra data).
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Postby rick » Sat Feb 04, 2006 12:38 pm

in my experience a mac running protools will play any protools file wether created on a mac or a pc, however a pc will not load or read or create a sd 2 file.

the biggest hassle we had with the protools on windows (pc) situation is that people still bring in sd2 files created on mac so we cannot load them into the pc it just does not work !
the solution after messing around with mac opener and all its friends was to remove the pc protools from our mastering suites.

sadie will read sd2 files but windows will not
so if you can get it on to the sadie drive you can read them, how do you get them on the drive...?
i still dont know

it doesnt matter what we tell people some guy always shows up with a pro tools file using sd2 files as the only master available
we could load them back into a mac and convert them to wav but whats the point ..?
that makes macs the only choice for protools around here ( we had pcs) at one point but moved them exactly because of this problem
i hate computers, they hate me, itsnot a situation that i seem to be able to solve
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Postby Trent » Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:17 pm

when taking an aiff based protools session from a PC to a mac something funny happens with the audio files names. when you first open up a session all the audio files will be missing and an automatic seach wont find them. you have to open up the work space and do it manually, but make sure when you hit seach, you make it by ID ONLY, not by name and ID.

im not sure if this happens from all pcs, but it happens on every session ive moved so far (at least 30 of them)
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Postby Kris » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:39 pm

I don't think that's an AIFF issue... it's more likely to do with Pro Tools looking for the files via the origianl file path assigned during tracking etc and now that it's on another machine, said file path no longer exists. Any time you move a project it will always ask you where you've relocated the media.
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Postby Trent » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:37 pm

[quote]t's more likely to do with Pro Tools looking for the files via the origianl file path assigned during tracking[/quote]

if that was the case then automatic find and relink would find them. with the sessions ive moved, the only way to "find" the audio files was by unchecking the find by name box and linking by ID only
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Postby Kris » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:45 am

True, but what happens when you've got 5 projects and they all have files named "kick", "Snare" etc? Is it possible that automatic find is unable to detect multiple files of the same name and relink them back to the correct project.... hence the manual ID?
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Postby Mitch Kenny » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:09 pm

I agree with Adam. Broadcast Wave is the way to go. The only problem I have had going from mac to pc is being a dill and burning a mac only cd in toast. I have also been stooged the "enforce mac/pc compatability" box. It was so much fun adding extensions manually to all the files to make them work again!
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Postby davemc » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:01 pm

I get PC stuff all the time to my Mac. Only problem I have some are set to read only. So I have to change properties
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Postby Matt » Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:55 am

I transfer between various PC's and Mac's almost everyday on different sites. I'm forced to work like that. I use Wav as standard and have never had a problem at all.
Except with the fact that I've found the Mac's in general to be slower, buggier and tending to crash much more than the Pc's. I use to be very pro Mac, but now I feel disillusioned.
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Postby Kris » Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:39 pm

It's interesting to hear how one person loves macs but the other hates them... same with pc. Matt, if you are having trouble with bugs etc on your mac make sure you try updating it as often as possible (software that is) and also check out the manufacturers websites of your external gear. I was having bug problems with Logic and my MOTU outboard as well as OMF file importing problems. I hooked it up to the net and discovered a whole bunch of new drivers, patches etc, etc and now it's all sweet. Just a thought.
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Postby Steve » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:51 am

You could link the hard drives of the PC and mac together by using 100mbit network cards, cat 5 cable, and a small DLink 100mbit hub (or faster) - effectively a small network. You can drag and drop files (or import) from the remote disk to the local one. The file format is independent of the device. Conversion is conversion regardless of being PC or Mac.

Another option may be a 4GB USB drive and "sneakernet".
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Postby Linear » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:06 am

Steve wrote:You could link the hard drives of the PC and mac together by using 100mbit network cards, cat 5 cable, and a small DLink 100mbit hub (or faster) - effectively a small network. You can drag and drop files (or import) from the remote disk to the local one. The file format is independent of the device. Conversion is conversion regardless of being PC or Mac.

Another option may be a 4GB USB drive and "sneakernet".


You don't need a hub - you can connect two PC's (or a PC and a Mac) directly with a crossover cable.

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Postby lynxmotor » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:33 pm

hi guys, interesting reading. just thought i would add my 2 cents worth about mac versus pc. I started out using pc and thought it was great. then i bought a mac and still think its better!...this was over a 7 year period. ive had the mac for three years now and instead of buying the latest power monster with 15thousand gig, chrome grease nipples and handy toothpaste dispenser, ive just gradually built my g4 up so now its ram maxed and running at 1.8 gig and still on 10.3.9 gotta say it kiks some serious butt. the most important point im making though, is for me, if it aint broke dont fix it..or more importantly dont change it! ..getting to know something inside out is more important to me than whats better elsewhere...cause im such a slow learner probably. :O)
..by the way i worked with macs as a full time job for three years in a radio suite and let me tell you they are way more stable than a pc! .....did I just hear guns being cocked?? :OP
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Postby tall_phill » Tue Mar 07, 2006 5:10 pm

I have a way to open SD2 files on Windows PC, but its not very much fun, and can't be done inside PT.

Using Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition), you can force the software to open any given file as a RAW date file. As it is opened, the software asks you to tell it what the properties of the files were (as in: Sample Rate, Bit Depth, Little Endian/Big Endian, Mono/Stereo).

The WAV/SD2 difference was primarily in the Little Endian/Big Endian choice, so you could open it properly and then save it out as a BWF or whatever takes your fancy.

Of course a) you need to know all the properties of the file you are opening or you get garbage and b) its kinda impracticle for large sessions... but it can be done.

I dont know of any software other than Audition/CEP that will do this, but surely an alternative exists... right?
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Postby wez » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:33 pm

[quote="tall_phill"]
I dont know of any software other than Audition/CEP that will do this, but surely an alternative exists... right?[/quote]

Sequoia... but then again, sequoia does everything.
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Postby mfdu » Wed Mar 08, 2006 10:33 am

there's a lot to be said for enforcing a practical file-naming convention and keeping all session files in a single session folder.

yes, a cat5 crossover cable from network port to network port is the easiest way to do transfer across platforms. otherwise, removable drive trays or external firewire drives (either generally requiring shutdown - hot-swapping can be deadly)

another option - track to tape.

sorry. just had to say it.

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