Pro Tools Question

[Anderton]

Can you snap Broadcast WAV files to the correct place on the timeline when you import them? I've seen several posts on the net (the most reliable source of information in the entire universe) saying that Pro Tools can write BWF files, and convert WAVs to BWFs, but cannot place imported BWFs on the time line in their correct locations.

 

This seems like it can't be true. If I drag a BWF into Cubase, Studio One, Cakewalk, etc. I can place them arbitrarily, but I can also tell the program to put them in their proper locations on the timeline. Is that really not possible in Pro Tools? Is it because of the legacy of using AIF files, which don't have this capability?

[Mike Rivers]

Sounds kind of dumb to me. I'm pretty sure I've done it in Pro Tools 10 when playing with BWFs written by something else. Hard to believe that they dropped that function in newer versions, but stranger things have happened in software development and test.

 

Maybe you just haven't found the secret command to make it happen.

[Anderton]

Maybe you just haven't found the secret command to make it happen.

 

I'm sure that's it, but I can't find how to do it. I tried the Spot function, but that didn't do what I needed.

[Anderton]

Well after messing with this for about 8 hours and doing endless web searches, I broke down and asked Mitch Gallagher and Phil O'Keefe if either one knows the answer. I figure if anyone does, one of them will. Stay tuned...

[Mike Rivers]

Since you've blown 8 hours on this already, I'll continue procrastinating before I try some experiments myself. But I can tell you that it's dead simple with my Mackie HDR24/96.

 

1. Drag the file to anywhere on the track where you want it placed in its BWF time position

2. Right-click on the file. A menu pops up.

3. Select "Move to the original time position" (or something like that)

Done!

 

With Reaper, the process is similar, but you have to know the vocabulary (which I had to go to the manual for)

 

1. As above, place the file on the track where it will be used

2. Right-click on the file. This brings up the Item menu, or you can open the Item menu by clicking on Item on the top bar

3 Select Item Processing and another menu pops up

4. Select Move items to source preferred position (BWF)

Done!

 

Who'd think of terms like "Item Processing" or "source preferred position" without thorough study of the manual?

[Anderton]

It may indeed by a vocabulary issue, which is why search doesn't find it. It took me a while to figure out that Cubase and Studio One referred to "moving the clip to origin."

[Mike Rivers]

It is a vocabulary issue. Experts say "Go to Spot Mode and then click on the file. There will be a dialogue to move it."

 

You get to the Spot window by right-clicking on the file that's on the track. At the bottom of the window, it shows the time code, with a pointer up which, when you click on it, loads the time into the Start Time bx at the top of the window. Then when you click OK, . . . .ZOOOOOOOM . . . to the time where it was wherever you got it from,

 

Of course you know what the Spot mode is. I didn't, but I guess it's related to "spotting" where you know the video time when the bomb goes off and you want to "spot" the sound effect there. So it's really a few clicks more complicated than the Mackie procedure, but ya gotta know where to start.

 

Happy spotting.

[Anderton]

If only...I tried Spot mode. It works fine with BWFs generated in Pro Tools, but it can't seem to make sense out of the time stamp with BWF files created in a different program, and imported into Pro Tools.

 

The mystery deepens...I'm usually able to figure out this kind of thing.

[Mike Rivers]

If only...I tried Spot mode. It works fine with BWFs generated in Pro Tools, but it can't seem to make sense out of the time stamp with BWF files created in a different program, and imported into Pro Tools.

 

The mystery deepens...I'm usually able to figure out this kind of thing.

 

Well, you got pretty close. Did the Spot window display the correct tme code, something bogus, or nothing?

 

I tried it with a file that came from Reaper. The full disclosure part that I didn't include in my last post was that while the time code was 0:10:something (a few seconds after 10 minutes from 0 (start time), the time code in the Spot window appended 1080 to the time (1080:10.30.xxx) and when I sent it there I couldn't find it. I tried to zoom in around that time using the Windows Ctrl-[ and ] (why can't they use Ctrl-scroll wheel like everyone else) and that didn't work either. So I quit Pro Tools, restarted it, pulled in the file again at a random place, Spotted it, and this time it displayed the time code I expected to see, and it went there when I loaded it into the Start box in the Spot window.

 

How many times did you re-start Pro Tools? You have to do it the right number of times, you know, and hop three times on your left foot.

 

Here's a link to the Reaper file that I used for testing. Try this one:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p83ifl3eoq7vxy0/Test_BWF.wav?dl=0

[Anderton]

Thanks Mike, that file was helpful and confirmed what was going on with the other files.

 

I think the issue is that if you import each file via the import dialog, it works. Supposedly, dragging them into the Edit view (which is what I tried first) should work identically, but there's some limitation I haven't figured out that keeps it from working. Also it seems although you can import + copy multiple files, there's no way to park them on the same track; they end up on individual tracks. If you want something like all the vocal bits to end up on the same track, you need to do additional dragging with Rel Grid. Still, although the process is much more convoluted than Cubase or Studio One, it works.

[Mike Rivers]

Thanks Mike, that file was helpful and confirmed what was going on with the other files.

 

Good.

 

I think the issue is that if you import each file via the import dialog, it works. Supposedly, dragging them into the Edit view (which is what I tried first) should work identically, but there's some limitation I haven't figured out that keeps it from working.

 

As I said, "Spot" was new to me so I didn't really dig into it. I just clicked on it and imported the file to the selected track after shooting the time code that it read up to the Start position box. I didn't recognize Spot as a "mode" that you could turn on and work in that mode (sort of makes sense to have that capability if you're spotting audio to video) but what I was told was that when working in the Spot mode, going to the time code position was the default operation.

 

Also it seems although you can import + copy multiple files, there's no way to park them on the same track; they end up on individual tracks.

 

I wonder if there isn't a setting for that. In Reaper, putting multiple imported files on separate tracks is a choice when importing. In Pro Tools, it's probably a choice, too, but in some totally unrelated (to us anyway) menu.