Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

I'm wondering if its possible to be able to record enable 48 tracks in Pro Tools in remote mode. We are using a Neve Libra console and what to use its track arming and transport controls. When reading the Machine control manuals for version 5.1 it says only the first 8 Pro Tools tracks can be armed, and also it says that machine id #s are not provided for 48 track configs. On the manual for Machine Control 1.1 (which we have) it lists machine id #s for 48 track machines like the sony 3348HR, and the manual does not say anything about an eight track arming limit. Does any body know the answer? PT 5.1.1

Thanks,

Sean McKee

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

Sentech-
A Soundmaster ATOM syncronizer will do it, but you need PT 5.1.3cs8. Dont see any reason it wouldn't work from your neve. worry not, remote arming on the fly coming soon per Digi via NAB.

-Todd A.

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

Yes, but if I enable remote operation with a 48 track emulation like Sony 3348HR, will I be able to arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools from the Neve using standard RS422 without a synchronizer?

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

I haven't tried it in 5.x version of Pro Tools but I have tried with 6.0 and an SSL console and it worked great.
It is possible to record arm 48 tracks from the console.

Jon Connolly
Digidesign Product Specialist

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

It works just fine with 5.1 as well.

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

It works fine using 5.1.3 from an SSL machine control.

The only problem we have is very poor lock up time when in remote slave mode. Could be 2-5 seconds, but sometimes 10-15, always floating and unstable. Any ideas?

Thanks,
David

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

BTW, in 5.1.3 we identify the protools machine as PROTOOLS (PAL) from the drop down. Using 5.1.1 we also had the 8 track limit - with the best success when PT was emulating a DA88.

-David

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

Lock times can vary due to a few things...

1) Open Ended Record Allocation in the Operations tab of the Pro Tools preferences should be set as low as you can set it. Having it set to "Use all available space" causes longer lockup times. This preference set's the maximum length of a single record pass so be sure to set it higher (in minutes) than your longest record pass is going to be. If you're not sure set it to 30 to 60 minutes.

2) Having your Pro Tools cards in an expansion chassis will potentially increase (make it longer) than having your cards directly in the CPU. The chassis communication with the PCI bus causes this and there is really not much that can be done. You may only see this in sessions where you are recording many tracks at once (32+ tracks).

3) Make sure your Pro Tools system and console are resolved to black (or same clock) so that Pro Tools is onlying identifying a start location and not a playback speed as well.

4) When in remote mode or locking to timecode don't use a Pre-roll or Count off. This can sometimes cause longer lock up times.

5) Make sure your drives are healthy, In other words, initialize them on a regular basis. A drive in need of maintenance will force Pro Tools to work harder to allocate drive space for recording which means longer lock up times.

6) Not positive, but I believe a lot work was done on Pro Tools 6.0 Remote Mode/Machine Control so you may see an improvement over 5.x Pro Tools Remote Mode/Machine Control functionality.


Hope this helps,
Jon Connolly
Digidesign Product Specialist

Re: Remote arm 48 tracks of Pro Tools 5.1.1?
 

Lastly, in addition to the above settings, if Pro Tools is the timecode master device while in remote mode then response should be very fast. However, if Pro Tools is the timecode slave device while in remote mode make sure you use the "Delay before Play" setting in Preferences > Operations with a setting between 30-60 frames. This defines the amount of time that Pro Tools will wait for the master device to settle before Pro Tools locks it's timecode relative to the timecode master device. Then, following timecode alignment, Pro Tools will buffer the disk information and start playback. This should provide more consistent results when Pro Tools is the timecode slave device when in remote mode.