Can this be? Only 16 stereo inputs in PT9?

[nst7]

Yes, I meant once they're already in Protools. Meaning, for example, you had 5 mono and 3 stereo tracks of guitars. You want to make a stereo stem and call it "guitars". You bus the various tracks to one stereo audio track that you record them onto. Basically a bouncedown, or mixdown. You could do several things like that at the same time.

You mention printing from an external source, I think that's where I'm confused. What would this external source be?

Also, PT9 standard gives you 96 mono or stereo tracks. If you add the Complete Toolkit you get up to 192 mono tracks, and still 96 stereo.

[MacPC]

Yes -- 30 stereo pairs from external computers. Wind and Strings splits, many Percussion splits, etc.

It's getting the tracks in simultaneously that I was hoping to accomplish in one pass, so that if they re-edit picture right before a recording, I can alter the sequence, edit the orchestration, and reprint very quickly.

[nst7]

But why can't you just import the audio files into your session from their hard drives, as opposed to transferring them in real time?

[HD2]

Originally Posted by MacPC

Yes -- 30 stereo pairs from external computers. Wind and Strings splits, many Percussion splits, etc.

It's getting the tracks in simultaneously that I was hoping to accomplish in one pass, so that if they re-edit picture right before a recording, I can alter the sequence, edit the orchestration, and reprint very quickly.

I think this is where you are missing the point.
If you already have 30 or more stereo pairs of stems on another computer that you need to get into your session, you do not need to bring them into your session via the inputs. All you have to do is transfer them into your session. If they are already in another protools session you would use the import session data function.If your stems are on a NON file based system like a DA88 or some other format then yes you would need multiple inputs.

If you can explain in detail how your current workflow is with these multiple stem imports into your current system, maybe that would give us all a clearer understanding of your concern for the limitations of PT's I/O or maybe it would be easier for someone to suggest another alternative work around, because as it is now from what you have told us I do not see the 32 I/O as being a limiting factor in what you are trying to do. In fact I see it as more than enough based on the information you have provided so far.

[MacPC]

HD2 thank you for staying with this but I'm afraid you are not following me. I have been scoring pictures since 1993 so I'm somewhat familiar with how to do it. The point is not to record on one computer and then move files over from a DAW -- that's what I'm doing now and it causes all kinds of headache -- renaming tracks, sorting through things that could already be done the first time through. That process is tedious, time-consuming and subject to errors and re-dos when transferring 20-40 different cues in a big rush.

The goal is to record one time directly into PT to avoid the transfer/ rename nightmare. The first computer just does midi and hosts some of the VIs -- the second computer is a PT computer that only records. The slave computers holding the majority of the samples get midi in from the first computer, and send audio out via lightpipe to the second.

In any event, I heard back from Digi support and there is no way to get more than 16 inputs into PT9 unless you buy hardware, so it's been an expensive waste of time here.

I do sincerely thank you, HD and all the other people who offered suggestions. It is very generous of you all.

Kind regards to all.

[Keybeeetsss]

OK tell me something? Do/would u not name the tracks when taking the time to record them down simultaneously? & what is it exactly that has to be sorted thru when taking wave files & opening them again?

Just curious in case som1 comes to 1 of our studios with something of rhis nature...

[HD2]

Originally Posted by MacPC

HD2 thank you for staying with this but I'm afraid you are not following me. I have been scoring pictures since 1993 so I'm somewhat familiar with how to do it. The point is not to record on one computer and then move files over from a DAW -- that's what I'm doing now and it causes all kinds of headache -- renaming tracks, sorting through things that could already be done the first time through. That process is tedious, time-consuming and subject to errors and re-dos when transferring 20-40 different cues in a big rush.

The goal is to record one time directly into PT to avoid the transfer/ rename nightmare. The first computer just does midi and hosts some of the VIs -- the second computer is a PT computer that only records. The slave computers holding the majority of the samples get midi in from the first computer, and send audio out via lightpipe to the second.

In any event, I heard back from Digi support and there is no way to get more than 16 inputs into PT9 unless you buy hardware, so it's been an expensive waste of time here.

I do sincerely thank you, HD and all the other people who offered suggestions. It is very generous of you all.

Kind regards to all.

MacPc,
At no time I was questioning your ability, or know how, on scoring for picture. It was more a question of trying to understand what you were doing when it comes to the engineering and workflow side of your job. From what I could gather you were hoping PT 9 would simplify your workflow and judging by your last response that is your goal. Yes unless you buy a HD system (not just any hardware) you are limited to 32 I/O with PT 9.

So if you don't want to work on one DAW and then transfer to another as you stated, you could always just do all your midi, VI's and samples within PT 9. Seems such a waste of a powerful system to just use it as if it is a slave multitrack tape recorder to layback your sessions.
If you add the CPTK 2 you would have, @ 48k, 192 audio tracks, 128 instrument tracks for VI's and 512 midi tracks, 256 busses, 160 aux's, 128 VCA's and 64 master faders. Obviously if you have more than 16 external stereo samplers or instruments that you are triggering with midi and you need to dump all those into PT's in one pass then 16 stereo is your limit for one pass. Even to do that with 16 stereo pair, you need hardware but it does not have to be Avid's.
Anyway good luck in your quest for a simplified workflow.

[Slim Shady]

Basically it comes down to the fact that you're doing it outside the box. Get everything into PT first, then do your mix and stems and you'll be fine.

If you keep it all internal to PT, you can print stems still the cows come home and barely break a sweat, there's more than enough internal busses to handle even large deliveries. The current feature I'm working on has an 67 stem music delivery to the final dub, and I'm able to print all 67 stems simultaneously from within PT (after some round-robin allocation of course) just using LE with the complete production toolkit.

[HD2]

Originally Posted by Slim Shady

Basically it comes down to the fact that you're doing it outside the box. Get everything into PT first, then do your mix and stems and you'll be fine.

If you keep it all internal to PT, you can print stems still the cows come home and barely break a sweat, there's more than enough internal busses to handle even large deliveries. The current feature I'm working on has an 67 stem music delivery to the final dub, and I'm able to print all 67 stems simultaneously from within PT (after some round-robin allocation of course) just using LE with the complete production toolkit.

There you have it from one composer to another

[dterry]

Originally Posted by Slim Shady

Basically it comes down to the fact that you're doing it outside the box. Get everything into PT first, then do your mix and stems and you'll be fine.

If you keep it all internal to PT, you can print stems still the cows come home and barely break a sweat, there's more than enough internal busses to handle even large deliveries. The current feature I'm working on has an 67 stem music delivery to the final dub, and I'm able to print all 67 stems simultaneously from within PT (after some round-robin allocation of course) just using LE with the complete production toolkit.

May I ask what you are hosting inside of PT? With the 32-bit application limitations, there is no way I could fit a full orchestral template inside PT - hence slaves and external I/O required to route stems back in (for what isn't running via VEPro and audio streams apparently not subject to the 16-stereo input limit).

Other libs are hosted locally via VEPro, but still, not inside PT. Just curious as all of my tests show PT is less than efficient at running VIs, especially sample-based VIs. Fwiw, I think VEPro may solve this for many users, but I haven't stress-tested it with PT9 yet to see just how many streams we can get away with.