NT / MAC Cross Platform File Services

[Rob Nokes]

Just a friendly advance warning thought for Digidesign. I strongly suggest that Digidesign develop Intranet compatible technology for previewing and downloading Sd2f sound files.

The .L and .R are troublesome for resolving file types. It would be great to have a browser plug in that recognized .Sd2, .L,
.R, and .M (Sounddogs.com uses .M for Mono).

There are no out-of-the-box solutions for this right now. If you have one let me know. Thanks.

Rob
[email protected]

[Paul Greyson]

Have you looked at the Pro Tools NT import audio dialog?
I t doesn't rely on extensions to determine file types.
It can also audition and import SDII files from servers which support multi-fork files.

Paul Greyson
Software Developer
Digidesign

[Rob Nokes]

Paul, thanks for the reply. I am sure that PT NT is awesome, but the problem we have is this.

All our client computers are MAC PT's, and our server(s) are NT running Services for Mac. We can see the sound files in within Pro Tools (Import and Convert), and in the Finder, but auditioning sounds and copying them to your local drives is not smooth.

We have a database that we need to audition the files from using HTTP commands, and then if we like the file copy it to our drive. This works for AIFF and AU, as supported by Quick Time 4, but the Quick Time 4 plug-in will not allow the Sd2f files to be played through the browser (there is a damaged file error).

I have written Apple to resolve the difference between AU & AIFF and Sd2f, because I was surprised that this issue existed between two supported formats.

Enough rambling.
Rob

[Paul Greyson]

>>All our client computers are MAC PT's, and
>> our server(s) are NT running Services for
>> Mac. We can see the sound files in within
>>Pro Tools (Import and Convert), and in the
>> Finder, but auditioning sounds and
>>copying them to your local drives is not smooth.

Could you be more specific? Don't know what you mean by "not smooth." I do this frequently.

>>We have a database that we need to
>>audition the files from using HTTP
>>commands, and then if we like the file
>>copy it to our drive. This works for AIFF
>>and AU, as supported by Quick Time 4, but
>>the Quick Time 4 plug-in will not allow
>>the Sd2f files to be played through the
>>browser (there is a damaged file error).

SD2 files are "multi-fork" files. The descriptive information (sample-rate, bit-depth) is stored in the resource-fork. I don't think that HTTP has any protocol for transferring multi-fork files. ie., I'm not sure there's a solution for auditioning sd2 files through a browser.

[DigiTechSupt]

Hi. If you install the "Mac Opener" (by DataViz) application you can then attach a HFS formatted drive to the NT system (Adaptec SCSI chain), download SDII files directly to the drive and play or audition the files in PT|NT without any file conversion necessary. There is a 15 day trial version of Mac Opener on the PT 4.2.5 or 4.2.6 installer disk. I hope this is helpful.

Tom S.

[Rob Nokes]

Tom - have Dataviz, it's great.

Paul - "Smooth"

Library is on a network server of 100,000 sound files, 360 Gbs. Need to audition and copy to target folder from server to local drive.

Import Audio - has level control and create folders but can not copy and / or convert to local drives.

Convert & Import - no audition level control, can not make new folder, and can not do a straight 1:1 copy (no conversion). But does the ability to convert (slowly)

We use Turbo Morph which is awesome and fast, but it lacks auditioning. Turbo Morph also allows you to make folders.

Convert & Import is much SLOWER than Turbo Morph.

Process.
1. (Import Audio) Audition with Pro Tolls
2. Convert to local drive with Turbo Morph
3. Import Audio, go to new files and import into session.

This is not a streamlined process as you can tell.

I think the mods to Pro Tools would be easy.

Rob