Opening old Pro Tools files (What type are they?)

[benwplj]

Ok, I've tried renaming the file extension as .aiff, no dice.

For some reason only the "L" files are letting me rename the file extension to a Sound Designer II file.



I'm liking the idea of having somebody with a Mac play with it, unfortunately, all my friends are filmmakers...

Anyone with a Mac want to take a crack at it?

[aka21stCentury]

Pro Tools sessions have change the suffix I believe after 7.3. So even opening the older legacy session file .pts would be a hassle. Are these contiguous files? I mean was it a band recorded playing live?

Any comping of vocals, or overdubs, other than a player blowing through the complete song in one go? Surely you must remember. There should be track notes.

Pro Tools sessions now have a new suffix I can't remember as I don't have 8 or 9, But a Mac and yeah the 001 did support SD-2, AIFF, and with 5.1 stereo tracks and Wave and Mac/Pc compatibility mode.

Try downloading the REAPER app as it supports AIFF on both PC and Mac and import the AIFF files into mono tracks using REAPERs browser. The browser window in REAPER will show you if they are AIFF dual mono (L,R) or SD-2 dual mono (L,R)

6.9 would have no resource fork issue as the last Mac OS was 9.2.2 (with resource forks) and that was for PTs 5.2.1cs11 and I can't remember what came between that and 6.4 (later version 6.4 on Mac OS was Panther which is Mac OS-X 10.3 -- no resource forks).

Your problem is with the session suffix. If it was a live album (band) the audio should be contiguous and DAW should be able to import the files. If not then you can have someone with 6.4 open them on a Mac and bounce each track to WAVE. Same as: check mac/pc compatibility mode. Many still have 6.4 because that is the last version that supported the awesome PCI 001 interface. It was too good so AVID in their typical manner to sell more and force upgrades, stopped supporting it. ASIO4ALL supports the 001 on the PC (it is free) and REAPER can use this interface on XP.
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http://archive.digidesign.com/support/

I am unsure what the suffix change was for from .PTS to the new suffix, and just read this warning note yesterday and have been pondering what it will do. Will 9 open a .PTS session?

Prior to Pro Tools 5.0.1 all Digidesign Pro Tools TDM, MIX, Le, or under including SD-II or Soundtools were for the Macintosh platform only.

[benwplj]

I've tried downloading REAPER and have tried loading a couple of tracks, however, they only refer to them as, for example, "Organ", Kick" or "Lead Guitar"--but I can't find what file types they are (Please excuse my ignorance in REAPER). Am I looking in the right place?

As for the recording of the album, it was cut basic tracks live (Drums, Bass (on most cuts), Rhythm Guitar and Scratch Vocal), everything else (Lead Guitar, keyboards, etc.) was overdubbed.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by benwplj

Anyone with a Mac want to take a crack at it?

Click on my moniker and e-mail me.

[benwplj]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Click on my moniker and e-mail me.

Check your e-mail. Thanks for helping.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by benwplj

Check your e-mail. Thanks for helping.

Returned.

[Top Jimmy]

As expected, the files are devoid of a resource fork. These were stripped when they were burned to DVD. There's no way to know the file type, sample rate, sample format, time stamp, et al other than opening the session (adding .pts) to see what all the settings were. On PC, this can be done by using the "Import>Session Data" command since Pro Tools wants to convert the session immediately upon opening (but can't properly because the media files are skanked). On Mac, just opening the session would work. It turns out that the session was done on an 001 in PT 6.4 at 24/44.1 with SDII files.

On a PC, sdTwoWav will convert the media files properly but Pro Tools will absolutely refuse to recognize them when trying to relink as the original media regardless of relinking options. Since these files were not consolidated from a common start and they've lost their time stamp, it's next to impossible to get them lined up properly.

On Mac, Pro Tools still will not recognize these files as the original media. The headers have to be recreated with SoundHack and saved as new files one stinking file at a time. Then the files have to be relinked with the session by name only. Last the session has to be saved again converting all of the media files to wav.

[aka21stCentury]

If Reaper displayed the files they are NOT SD-2 but Aiff or Wave. Reaper does not recognize in its browser and SD-2 files. The folder will appear empty. PITA so just rebuild as many tracks as possible that are contiguous (beginning to end) and the overdubs can be located but as TJ said, it's a labor of love. Or if you are getting paid buy the hour, say yes.

[sunburst79]

And when its all said and done building a time machine that would reach back to 2006 and let you throttle the engineer for not archiving the session with Enforce PC/Mac compatibility checked would be a good idea

Props to Top Jimmy for the helping hand.

I was also afraid the files were simply corrupt but didn't want to spoil the party. Good to know they are not.

Would it help to open the session on a G4 001 system? I may be able to access one of those. My connection speed however is terrible. Would almost need to smail mail the session depending on files size. I do have a PC 001 handy but being that the files are SDII I dont see that as being any use.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

Would it help to open the session on a G4 001 system?

I don't think so. Unless there is a way to get PT to recognize the stripped sd2 media files that I am unaware of. Rebuilding the headers was what it took here on a G4/Tiger with PT 7.3.