Production sounds from Cantar have the same Unique ID !!!

[diane_son]

Hello everyone,

I have encountered an issue with Pro Tools 2020 but by digging further the problem exists since 2019.10 :

Since 2019.10, Pro Tools can read SMPTE ID and create them. In "what's new 2019.10" it says :

"SMPTE ID in Wave FilesWave files generated by Pro Tools now contain a SMPTE ID in addition to the Unique ID.

Linking priority in Pro Tools has been adjusted to prefer the SMPTE ID if it is present.

ID linking priority is as follows:
1 SMPTE ID: Both Pro Tools and Media Composer generate these.
2 Unique ID: Stored in the UMID Chunk. This is the legacy Pro Tools ID.
3 Unique ID: Stored in the OMF Chunk - This is the ID that you see in Wave files included with an AAF from Media Composer. They are shown in the Unique ID field if there is no UMID Chunk ID, and they are only be used for linking if there is no SMPTEID or UMID Chunk ID."


Now my problem is that I conform production sounds generated in Cantar.
The production sound mixer Aaton CANTAR can create multimono files (one file per channel for a take). Each file has a unique SMPTE ID generated by Cantar.

When importing these files in Pro Tools, the SMPTE ID is seen and a Unique ID is created => BUT it is the SAME UNIQUE ID for all the channels !

I have done the conform process in PT2019.10 and I copied all production sounds to the dialog editor who works in 2019.6.

But 2019.6 does NOT read SMPTE ID. So 2019.6 sees the SAME UNIQUE ID for all channels for each take ! (see image import 202012)

When reopening the conform session in 2019.6, we are asked to relink sounds (because of changing disks) : relink name, or relink File ID or relink Name&ID does the same thing : it relinks only the first channel and SWITCHES ALL THE OTHER CHANNELS TO THE FIRST !! erasing all of the edits previously done in 2019.10 ....

This is clearly a bug because relinking by Name should work since every file has a different name !!


I am surprised that I never got any issue, and since I haven't found anything on the duc I guess a few people had it too but it is particularly dangerous ...

Also I find very dangerous to have changed the creation of unique id, since they are no longer unique ... I'm fine with a unique SMPTE id for each file but why not create a UNIQUE unique ID for each file too ??

can someone please help ??
thank you !

[simonchase]

Ouch that looks scary

[manuangrand]

Hello,

this issue is really annoying... Has anyone found a solution ?

Thanks !

[resonatee]

Have you tried Sound Devices Wave Agent to create poly files from the split files and be done with it?

[manuangrand]

Yes, I like to do that......when I have time !
But it's a lot of work when you have 800Go of materials in a lot of folders..

[raoulb]

Hello,

What is the state of affairs in this matter ?

It seems that avid fixed it in 2019.10, is the smpte ID recognition actually reliable in current versions ?

I still go through the process of stamping production files in case the project ends up being opened on an anterior pt version.

As there are no other ways to edit the bwf chunk than manual pro tools import, it can be a really time consuming process, especially because the on import unique id detection is totally random and unreliable ... Sometimes it will work, and sometimes you have to re-open pro tools or create a new session to get it working.

Has anyone found a reliable method for time efficient unique id stamping ? Maybe third party code for bwf chunk batch processing ?