Long Time PT User; Brand New Rig

[ohmy]

Ok, so I've been using pro tools for 13 years; but I just built a brand new rig.
Mac mini, i7 2.6ghz 16 ram, Saffire Pro 40 interface.
Went from using PT 5.2 on OS 9, to PT 11 - so obviously a learning curve for me.
I have some general questions:
1) should I use the thunderbolt adapter for the interface (thunderbolt to fw 800 to fw 400) Or just go straight FW into the mini?
2) can I have the internet on my studio computer? I've seen where avid recommends that you turn the wi fi OFF - does that mean just during PT use, or forever?
3) Should I elevate the mini for cooling?
4)I've got old sessions from PT 5 - and I also used SD II audio files in those sessions - will PT 11 load those sessions up and convert the files, or are those sessions all lost forever?

I suspect that I'll be on here a lot over the next several months. thanks for your patience.

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by ohmy

Ok, so I've been using pro tools for 13 years; but I just built a brand new rig.
Mac mini, i7 2.6ghz 16 ram, Saffire Pro 40 interface.
Went from using PT 5.2 on OS 9, to PT 11 - so obviously a learning curve for me.
I have some general questions:
1) should I use the thunderbolt adapter for the interface (thunderbolt to fw 800 to fw 400) Or just go straight FW into the mini?
2) can I have the internet on my studio computer? I've seen where avid recommends that you turn the wi fi OFF - does that mean just during PT use, or forever?
3) Should I elevate the mini for cooling?
4)I've got old sessions from PT 5 - and I also used SD II audio files in those sessions - will PT 11 load those sessions up and convert the files, or are those sessions all lost forever?

I suspect that I'll be on here a lot over the next several months. thanks for your patience.

Hi,

1. Use FireWire

2. Yes and no probably best to disable it when using PT but I haven't had any problems leaving it on personally, though don't use the mac much for the net.

3. Always good to keep small form factor computers as cool as possible

4. Should load fine and the SD2 should convert to Wav

Same time tomorrow when you've tried opening your sessions?


Chris

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by ohmy

Ok, so I've been using pro tools for 13 years; but I just built a brand new rig.
Mac mini, i7 2.6ghz 16 ram, Saffire Pro 40 interface.
Went from using PT 5.2 on OS 9, to PT 11 - so obviously a learning curve for me.
I have some general questions:
1) should I use the thunderbolt adapter for the interface (thunderbolt to fw 800 to fw 400) Or just go straight FW into the mini?
2) can I have the internet on my studio computer? I've seen where avid recommends that you turn the wi fi OFF - does that mean just during PT use, or forever?
3) Should I elevate the mini for cooling?
4)I've got old sessions from PT 5 - and I also used SD II audio files in those sessions - will PT 11 load those sessions up and convert the files, or are those sessions all lost forever?

I suspect that I'll be on here a lot over the next several months. thanks for your patience.

Definitely elevate the Mini up off the table top a bit. Most people don't realize the air intake is through that round black plastic cover on the bottom of the unit and it exhausts air out the back where the I/O ports are.

One question you haven't asked and are bound to run into a problem with - no NI stuff is currently aax 64 bit compatible (what you need for PT11), only 32 bit aax which is PT10. So no NI for you in PT 11 for now. And no idea of a date for aax 64 bit from NI.

Are you using the wireless keyboard and mouse from Apple? Don't forget to turn off the keyboard or you'll end up eating batteries really quick. Hold the button in at the top right side of the keyboard (the same one you use to turn the unit on with) until you see a message on the screen that the keyboard is off (or lost communication which is the same thing). The mouse has it's own on/off switch.

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by ohmy

Went from using PT 5.2 on OS 9, to PT 11 - so obviously a learning curve for me.
can I have the internet on my studio computer? I've seen where avid recommends that you turn the wi fi OFF - does that mean just during PT use, or forever?I suspect that I'll be on here a lot over the next several months. thanks for your patience.

If you want to use the mac for other things than protools then my suggestion is that you go for a dual-boot system. I have for years, and I always wondered why it's not more common.

It might sound complicated but it's not, and has many, many advantages.
You have two harddisks or two partitions with OSX on them.
One to boot from to use Pro Tools, and one for everything else.

This means that you can have a taylored system for protools, optimized and backed up, and can be quickly restored if something goes wrong.

On the other system you can have internet, wifi and whatever running, install stuff, upgrade OS, and mess around, and not have to worry about protools not working.

I think that would save you much headaches during the period of setting up and getting it to work, when you keep those two things sparate. F.ex when someting goes wrong with a PT upgrade, a plugin installation or the like, you restore PT disk to its previous state in 30 mins, and start over. Everything not-PT on your mac: untouched.

It takes my mac pro a minute or two to switch boot disks.