Advice on taking a full session to studios that use PT

[jaguarguitar]

Wondering if there is any advice on this.

I currently have a session with a very large track count. I was intending to bounce things down so I have only audio tracks, and then take an AIFF file format which I believe PT uses. But it is kind of messy. My session also has tempo automation.

I tested this once with PT, and it seemed to work.

But now I'm wondering, if to save myself even more time - if I could take my session as is, without bouncing (provided the studio has the same plugins I do or that I minimally bake insert fx for every track).

Has anyone encountered these issues? Or alternative suggestions?

 

[OutrageProductions]

As someone who transfers to/from PT on a weekly basis, your best operation is to export all tracks as audio (broadcast wave or AIFF starting at bar/beat one) and the entire session as MIDI type 1 for tempo information.
Make sure that each track is correctly named as to source material.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Also check that Pro Tools is set to the same pan law that you're using.

Unfortunately Pro Tools doesn't support the .dawproject format. I've had great luck transferring projects between Studio One, Cubase, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Bitwig (although I haven't tried the latest update). Hopefully Avid will awake from their slumbers and incorporate .dawproject. Or maybe the code is written in German, so that's why only German DAWs support it

 

[jaguarguitar]

Hello Craig! Thanks for the tip. Thanks as well @OutrageProductions. I will try these things. I never knew about .dawproject! That is very useful to know because it just increases the possibility some 'real' studios could handle my project esp if they use Cubase or something.

Sidecomment @Craig Anderton - I read one of your articles a couple months ago (believe it was from like 2021 or something), regarding integrating FL Studio w/ Studio One since Rewire is deprecated.

I actually came from FL Studio and went to S1 because I was really not happy with audio editing in FL Studio. But boy, I love their plugins (The Reeverb, Bass Boost, etc). I used FL for so long, I could just mix so quickly in it. I also have some old projects in there. Maybe I open a separate thread, but, do you know of any other ways to incorporate FL Studio w/ Studio One?

I find the VST method not so nice. The biggest thing is I would just like to use FL Studio plugins within Studio One, from what I remember FL Studio won't sync to S1 - or the other way around.

I'm also aware of a SW called Bluecat, but I haven't used it yet.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Thanks as well @OutrageProductions.

Yes, he gave you all you really need to know. The odds are that the Pro Tools Studio is using the default -3 dB pan law, but if they do a lot of work for broadcast it might be set to -6 dB. Or if they come from using SSL consoles, to -4.5 dB.

And since OutrageProductions solved your issue, we can dispense of the FL Studio question in this thread and call it a day FL Studio can sync to Studio One. The confusing part is that FL Studio won't allow Studio One to sync to it. The following excerpt from The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks might be helpful:

About Transport Sync​

Control FL Studio with Studio One’s transport. FL Studio follows Studio One’s tempo, including Tempo Track variations. You can jump to different parts of a Song in Studio One, and FL Studio will follow.

Unlike ReWire, though, the reverse is not true. FL Studio’s transport operates independently of Studio One and doesn’t control Studio One. If you click FL Studio’s Play button, only FL Studio will start playing. This can be an advantage if you want to edit FL Studio without hearing what’s happening in Studio One.

 

[ianaeillo]

I am constantly doing this between my mixing space and two studios I freelance out of. I export to AAF because it retains automation and keeps file sizes down. Remember if you use AAF with S1, the entire session gets rebuilt in the default song path for some reason. So even if you bring it back to your computer on a drive, there’s a chance it will get resaved to the documents folder on your computer.

 

[jaguarguitar]

thanks so much everyone and @Craig Anderton for that piece about FL.

thanks ianeillo - i did use that AAF export once, i remember the studio i went to was able to import it but i had to tell the engineer how to do it since he was not familiar with it.

@ianaeillo when you are doing exporting importing, im guessing that is audio only, no plugins at that point?