Playback/Record PT and Venue ,

[rdobra]

Hi Everybody ,

In case you are using PT to augument your live is there a way to record as you would nomaly do into PT.I didn't try it and I am just wondering how would you set up your PT session.I hope my question does make sense and does not sound cheap!

Tnks

[emluper]

Because of the 16 assignable tracks that are available in the HDx interface, you can still record up to 48 inputs from the stage rack and playback those assignable tracks into open channels in the Venue. Keep in mind that how you're setting up your session is crucial. Because the Venue doesn't care whether the tracks are audio or outputs from aux returns, if you need more than 16 channels of playback you can still bring those into Venue by submixing into aux returns and then sending the outputs of those aux returns to Venue via the HDx assignables. Just make sure you keep it all straight in the Venue patchbay. I believe that Robert Scovill does a really good job of explaining this in the webinars.

[rdobra]

Thank you for your post.
My question was specifically about how would you go and set up your Pro Tools session so that you can playback into Venue and,at the same time,record from Venue back into Pro Tools.Is that possible? Would it be the same way as in a normal studio session where you monitor the audio from the existing recorded tracks ( in our case playback to Venue ) and record another ones in the same time ( in our case from Venue to Pro Tools ).So far , I've used the external tracks coming from the programmer on the stage,the performer ,and did my recordings into Pro Tools as per normal.I was just wondering if there is a way to do it from the same source.

[emluper]

Set your PT session so that 48 audio tracks are available to accept inputs 1-48 from the HDx1 interface. These are your record channels. After this you can playback as many tracks as your system will handle in realtime (max of 144 additional audio tracks) as long as they are submixed through 16 mono aux returns, or 8 stereo aux returns. These channels need their outputs set to HDx1 Assignables 1-16. In the Venue patchbay set the 16 input channels that you want to use for PT playback to HDx1 Assignables 1-16 and you're done.

You now have 48 channels of record in PT with 16 outputs being returned to Venue for playback. You can do 32 channels of playback and up to 96 channels of recording with a second stage rack and HDx card. If you only need 16 channels of playback then just assign the PT tracks directly without any submixing and you're golden. Also, keep in mind that the HDx Assignable inputs can be set to record in PT too so you could do 64 channels of record and 16 channels of playback simultaneously.

[rdobra]

It's amazing how everything can be setup in this close to ideal marriage between Venue and Pro Tools.They've done a very good job and a lot of incredible skilled guys out there are using it ,including Emluper ( I wish I knew his/her name ).
My question is still online.The whole setup / assignment stage between Pro Tools and Venue is clear.I am hoping that somebody who used this 'playback while recording' mode could offer me a bit of a workflow example of - eg . when you give Pro Tools the Play command ,and Pro Tools starts playing and recording at the same time,you've probably just started a very messy show!
As we know,the best of Pro Tools recording from Venue is when you just archive your material and keep away from it while archiving.I can't imagine any show plot other than the playing back material being a continuous material that would last until the show is over.No audio stops between songs,musicians tight to a timecode.
I do apologize if the subject has been covered in other posts or other materials,but so far except how to assign and set up your system I didn't find anything relevant in terms of real life applications.

[emluper]

I would look up Chris Brown's last tour. He did both and I believe that it was with a 2 stage rack system every night for a full tour. I know it was listed in a Digi press release somewhere.

Erik

[rdobra]

Erik ,
I would assume a punch in record mode would work in such a case.Unless you would design the show in a non stop playing back and recording mode.I saw few of these shows where there is a continuous set change between melodies and basically the playback material feeding Venue is either an atmospherical sound effect or a new melody leading to another one without any brake.It was amazing to see how all the aspects of the show were perfectly timed ( midi timecode I assume ) video,lights and sound.
For the punch in mode,I am just wondering if it would be sensible for the recorded material to be stopped between songs without any risk.We are speaking large amounts of sources hitting the system few good times during a show.In a studio is different.
I know Robert mentioned a punch in record workflow where they used Venue with Icon to record a live rehearsal/show.But there was no playing back material from Pro Tools involved.They were using Venue to monitor the actual performance.

Radu

[emluper]

I'd test it out because getting in and out really taxes the system. I believe the type of computer you're using coupled with the amount of RAM it has available as well as drive speed (in your case I would try to use internal SATA's) will all make a difference as to the amount of delay you have between punch out and punch in. The more tracks you have the slower the system will respond.

Erik

[TwoPort]

I started a thread last year about using Venue Snapshots to start and stop pro tools song playback. A band I worked with had all their songs with tracks. (Click and other stuff were in the tracks). Search for the threads and you'll find gold. I was stumped a bit cause I did not set up the Pro Tools session for MIDI communication but when I did it was all pretty simple after Eric and Sheldon explained a few details.

So far as recording at the same time you're playing back tracks, while it was not exactly an automated solution, I've found that pressing the record button in ProTools before you recall the song preset works. When the song ends and the snapshot stops pro tools (which is how I set it up) Pro Tools automatically comes out of record mode.

What's cool is you can rearrange the snapshot order which rearranges the song list too.