Opening oversized PT12 HD session in non-HD PT12?

[mjpatey]

Hi, all-

I'm hoping someone here has experience with this sort of thing... I use Pro Tools 12 HD at one location, and am about to install the non-HD version in 2 other locations. I'd like them to be as interoperable as possible. What happens if I try to open a session in non-HD PT12 that exceeds its maximum track count?

I like to keep my sessions as lean as possible, but sometimes the unexpected happens and I don't have time to compact things... I know HD goes up to 128 tracks at 24/96, but non-HD is limited to 64, which I can easily fill up in some sessions.

Will the non-HD version refuse to open such a project? Will it just truncate the project after the first 64 tracks? Will it somehow give me a choice of which 64 tracks I'd like to keep?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed!

-Mark

[Extreme Mixing]

It used to just make the extra tracks inactive. I think I remember a complaint that now it deletes them!!! Hopefully that's changed, but I'm not sure.

[mjpatey]

Thanks! I hope that's changed, too.

[albee1952]

It might be worth looking in the Tracks Bin to see if maybe they are there, but hidden and inactive. As a work-around. Create a new blank session(same bit depth and sample rate) and import batches of tracks that you can create stems from.

[mjpatey]

@albee1952, that's the sort of thing I was hoping to be able to do, perfect! I'll open the session. If the missing tracks are simply not referenced at all in the non-HD session, I'll make some room, then import them. Of course, that's assuming non-HD Pro Tools will see the extra tracks during import.

[Bushpig]

Hi all,

Correct me if I'm wrong (mostly I am), but I seem to remember there being a fairly big flap around here recently, discussing the fact that opening on a non HD system just simply binned off the extraneous tracks (lowest tracks in the edit window) that were over the limit. I'd say open a copy of any session if/when you try this. It seems rather spurious (not to mention dangerous), as previously (can't remember which versions), it would just make them inactive and unplayable due to voice constraints.

Hope I'm wrong, but I guess do a search of the DUC here, and tread very carefully.

Regards.

Steve Bush

[mjpatey]

@Bushpig, good point. I will definitely open a copy! As a side note, I get annoyed with this sort of thing. I've never used another DAW (professionally) whose track count is determined by anything other than the limits of my hardware.