Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

Hi there. I colloborate online with a mate of mine. When he sends me his audio files (by email or yousendit) they don't align to my click when I import his audio into my session. I always need to go into slip mode to align his files.

We're both running the latest version of LE on identical core 2 iMacs (with 4Gb RAM) & our sessions are recorded to the same BPM (againt our inbuilt PT click tracks).

Any help greatly appreciated!

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

It's well documented that the Pro Tools click track can drift, loads of posts on this.

You might consider printing the click track to audio at the start and both use it to be sure your singing from the same hymn sheet.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

That's because the two of you are not starting from the same start point in the session.

You need to come up with a collaboration method that requires the two of you to be more uniform in your work and sharing.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

How much do you end up needing to slip them? Also are they spot on at the session start and then drift, getting further away down the session?

Seems not right, like something's different in the two session settings. While PT's clock isn't definitive when set to internal, I often get and send files and they fit right in. Tell us more. : )

If you are using a session set at 100 bpm starting at 00:00 and he is also, you shouldn't have any problem. What happens if you "spot" a file to it's "original" time stamp? Does it go somewhere clearly wrong?

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

How about this; whoever creates the session, should record the click to an audio track and include that as you pass things back and forth:rolleyes: Also, consolidate all audio tracks back to time 00:00:000.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

Thx for the replies. We both always bounce audio from 0:00:00 (even if the audio itself only kicks in halfway through the song), so we are starting from the same point in the session.

Printing the click to audio would imrove things for tracking vox & real instruments, but we also use sample/midi based music as well so quantizing / editing wold become a bit a nightmare.

In terms of he amount of drift, we're talking milliseconds... a few ticks. It seems to be a consistent amount throughout.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

If it's consistent then the issue isn't drift, so that can be eliminated. Are you speaking of audio files of printed midi that need to be nudged, or even not printed midi (as opposed to non-midi live files) Unfortunately, this wouldn't surprise me at all. I have yet to work with midi in PT where the results didn't vary within a tiny range even on the same rig on multiple takes. Not enough to sound wrong but the waveforms for multiple prints of a plugin instrument did not exactly line up. Audio where midi is not a factor should always be spot on, though.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

Both audio & midi are affected. The difference is noticeable (i.e. the timing is definately out of synch & needs to be nudged back in before I can work on the session). As far as I can gather, it doesn't seem to get progressively worse, so maybe drfit was the wrong term to use.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

You guys should zero out any MIDI track offsets on each of the systems and then run the session at the same buffer size.

You probably should also share the same Pro Tools session file just to be certain that you're running from the same settings.

Re: Syncing audio recorded on friends system
 

Are you possibly bouncing as MP3's? If so - that's the problem.

The MP3 codec adds a tiny bit of space before the audio starts and it can vary depending on several factors. Unfortunately there's no way around this other than to trim that silence and nudge the audio files into place.

A better method is to use AIF or WAV files, which wouldn't exhibit the problem.