older sessions crash while loading PT 7.2

[gilmour123]

Am running PT 7.2 HD2 on Mac OSX 3.4.6, dual processor G4 running at 867mhz, with 768ram. I use external SCSI drives, as I have for years. Any new session is fine, I have recorded 16 tracks at once and had no problem or lag with recording or playback. Any PT 7.1 or 7.2 session loads fine from the SCSI drives, but anything older (and I have sessions running back to 5.1) causes a crash, always. Only ProTools crashes, the Mac says it's fine.
I have tried importing the old sessions into 7.2 rather than opening them, and that crashes as well. I have updated the ATTO firmware for the SCSI interface, and while I haven't gotten the legacy hardware recognized (1622 into a 96io), I don't think either are the problem. 7.2 loads fine by itself when it's icon is clicked. Anyone? Bueller?

[Delta Music Belgium]

I'm having exactly the same problems here, I mailed about it a lot with Digi Tech Support but nobody seems to be able to help me out... It is driving me crazy! I invested more then 150.000 USD in a PT HD 7 Accel and it is not even possible to open any of my older 5.1.3 sessions without crashing, it sucks big time! Sorry but I have to vent sometime...

Marc Schellekens
http://www.deltamusic.be

Mac G4 Dual 1,25 GHz (FW800) + ATTO UL3D + OSX 10.4.7 + PT HD 7.2cs1
PT HD 7 Accel (1 x HD Core PCI + 6 x HD Accel PCI) inside 7-slot 64 bit Digidesign PCI Exp. Chassis
192 I/O + 192D I/O + SYNC I/O + MIDI I/O + ProControl + Avid Mojo
Apogee Big Ben + Apogee Rosetta 200 + Rosendahl Nanosyncs

[Mixchump]

I've had this before, and while I'm sure Digi is working on a fix, here's a way around it.

From my experience, older sessions my contain illegal characters or have minor glitches in the session file that 7x cannot deal with. If you are able to open up the session on an older system that has ProTools 6 on it, there's a pretty good chance that the session will open (session file is fully forward and backward compatible from 5.1 to 6.9). Once it's open, do a 'Save Session Copy In...' and choose .WAV as the file type, 24bit, select +12 faders, and make sure you 'Copy All Audio'. This will ensure that the session file and audio files are quite different from the original.

Now, there's a good chance it will open on 7x.

Give it a shot...
Cheers, eh?

[Delta Music Belgium]

I'm well aware of this workaround, as a matter of fact I still have my old PT 24 MIX 4 with 5.1.3 that I used for the last 6 or 7 years to do this, but I can assure you it is a real hassle to fire up my old rig to do a 'save session copy in' each time I want to use an old session in my shiny new HD 7 Accel...

But I thank you for the tip anyway

Cheers!

[gilmour123]

Ooof! That can't be the only solution out there, can it? I'm talking about dozens of sessions I would have to convert and resave. Is there some sort of Force Convert patch in the works? Does it have anything to do with the speed or model of the Mac?
I appreciate the suggestion, horrifying as it is. Thank you.
Why do I suddenly feel all depressed about spending all this money?

[Delta Music Belgium]

I share your feelings, as stated in my initial reply

I do not think the problem is machine or speed related, I managed to track it down to at least one or more of the following events:

- it has to do with AIFF files (most of the time split stereo)

- it has to do with the naming of files (illegal characters)

- when you do a 'Get info' on these files it states 'open with Quicktime' (or iTunes, or logic Pro, etc...), if you change this manually to 'Pro Tools 7.2' sometimes they do seem to load without crashing PT HD 7.2... Btw, no change in PT HD 7.2cs1 !!! (which I hoped for so much)

For the time being this is all I know for sure and the only solution still seems to be to do a 'save session copy in' with PT 5.x or 6.x.