Pro Tools and Media Composer audio mixes not matching

[LarrySmileyEL]

Hello Everyone!

I could not take it anymore. I had upgraded to Windows 10 but my workstation started developing problems and throwing errors and BSODs more and more. I put Windows 7 Pro back on two nights ago. Here's what I got...

I'm cutting a trailer and I'm passing over the audio to Pro Tools 12 via .aaf. The transfer is fine and after mixing it the bounced file comes in way too hot. I have checked my levels in Pro Tools and everything is clear and my Master level is bouncy and most of the time in the greenish-yellow region. There seems to be a problem with Pro Tools - that's why I posted this here and not in the Media Composer forums. Now, here's how I have it configured.

The BlackMagic is the system main audio and the ProFire is the secondary. Pro Tools runs through the ProFire while Media Composer goes through the BlackMagic. The BlackMagic runs into two channels on the ProFire whereas the HS80Ms are getting signal from the ProFire. The ProFire is the audio center-piece of my whole rig.

So, I built the timeline in Media Composer and then exported the .aaf for Pro Tools mixing. I bounced to disk and imported the files into Media Composer.

The audio is blown out. The wave patterns are solid even when stretched out. The audio sounds intelligible but slightly distorted.

Are there some settings I need to be matching between these components that insures they work together? Like, is there a calibration procedure that I need to observe between the audio cards and software to make them have cohesive audio output?

[The Weed]

What version of PT12? In 12.7 I noticed that there is a new Bounce source, which is the physical 1-2 outputs. I didn't notice this and my Bounce source changed by itself to this new source. When I checked the bounce outside of PT, it wasn't too hot, it was "back" in placement and a bit muffled. Changing the source to Stereo 1-2 fixed that.

Check your bounce source and your routing.

Also, is your Media Composer calibrated to Broadcast Standard, which, IIRC is -20 dbfs? Pro Tools isn't. Maybe you should look at Waves' Plus Loudness Meter or similar.

HTH