Friday, January 07, 2011

2011 - Please post any questions here

Please post all questions for 2011 here. Thanks.

30 comments:

Carnesha Johnson said...

Hi Gina,

This is Carnesha Johnson and I am one of your fellow classmates for the next four months!! I am so excited to meet you being that we both are in the same industry. I own an entertainment company called onEon Entertainment. I hope to get to know you a little better!

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
I am enjoying your book so much. I am grateful for the level of detail and clarity. I am up to Chapter 7 and tried to find the revised pages you created in 2008 with the screenshots for Structure Free and Xpand! instead of SampleTank and when I pressed the link, nothing happened. Is there another way I can get those revisions?
Thank you for your fabulous book.

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
I tried to link to the revised pages that use Structure and Expand and was unable to get to them. Is there some other way I can get to these revisions? I am loving your book so much and am very grateful to you.
I am at Chapter 7 and would love to see the screenshots, etc.
Thanks!

Brent G said...

Hi Gina,

I just bought your book and am ready to get started recording. I noticed however that the book is a few years old and was wondering if you had any updated suggestions in terms of hard drives? Aren't some of the new USB drives Firewire compatible?

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Laurie,

I just created a post with the download link and here it is again: http://www.protoolsformusicians.com/SupportFiles/Chapter_7_11_Updates.zip

I'm so glad the book is helping you learn Pro Tools!!! Thank you.

Let me know if you have any questions.

All the best,

Gina

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Brent,

You asked: Aren't some of the new USB drives Firewire compatible?

The thing is, there are two different ports on your computer, a Firewire Port and a USB port. So, you can have either a Firewire drive OR a USB drive. There is no such thing as both. It's like one is a hamburger and one is a hot dog, both are fast food, but different.

Here is the Avid page for what hard drives are supported by Pro Tools: http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=380567

You might want to call Sweetwater or a music vendor and tell them what computer you have and buy a hard drive from them. You might pay a little bit more, but you'll be sure to get something that works.

Good luck!! Hope this helps.

Gina

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,

Thank you very much for responding so quickly.

Unfortunately, this link didn't work either. Hmm.... I have a MacBook Pro and have never had this problem before. Do you think the problem is on my end or yours?

Thank you again for you generosity. By writing your book you were in no way obligated to help those of us starting Pro Tools years later. I feel so lucky to have found you and your book. I have procrastinated for three years learning Pro Tools and with your help, I can't believe it, I am enjoying it. You have a special gift that is helping me move towards my dream.

Laurie Nelson

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Laurie,

I think you're a teeny bit confused. This is a download link. It doesn't go to a page. Look in your download window and you'll probably see that you've downloaded this quite a few times... Your download window is under the window menu in Safari.

The download should be in your download folder in your user folder.

Let me know if that is the issue and if you need help.

Gina

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Laurie,

I think you're a teeny bit confused. This is a download link. It doesn't go to a page. Look in your download window and you'll probably see that you've downloaded this quite a few times... Your download window is under the window menu in Safari.

The download should be in your download folder in your user folder.

Let me know if that is the issue and if you need help.

Gina

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
Let's just say I have a lifetime supply of your revised pages! I found them in the download file and am a happy camper.
Although I have experience with audio recording before computers, I guess now you understand just how remedial I am and why I appreciate your book so much! I don't understand computers and your book allows me to proceed despite that limitation.
Thank you so much. You probably don't have that many 56 year olds trying to learn Pro Tools. (I was originally looking for a book "Pro Tools for Grandmas."
Laurie Nelson

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Laurie,

You are so awesome for learning Pro Tools at 56!! More people should be like you.

And no worries about learning the basics. We all have been there at one point just learning all the ins and outs and intricacies of computers. You hang in there!!

Contact me anytime if you get lost or need.

Warmest regards,

Gina

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
I got the chapter revisions and have been happily going through the exercies but I got stuck yesterday and today on creating an Edit and Mix Group. I thought I did just what you described and there was a group listed, but the volume sliders did not link together. Any ideas of what could have gone wrong? I am so new to this, it could be something really simple.
Thank you for being there.
Laurie Nelson

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Hey Laurie,

I found this video on YouTube. Let me know if this helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VamwkBFjNrU

Please let me know if this helps and if not, we'll try Plan B.

All the best,

Gina

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
I went back to one of my earlier chapter sessions and the grouping worked easily. Could there be something weird with this particular file? I think I will go through the rest of the chapter exercises with a different session. It could take a long time to figure out what I have done to this MIDI session. Does that make sense to you or shall we persevere with figuring out what I have inadvertantly done wrong? Will we be using these tracks in future chapters?
I appreciate you and your generosity.
Laurie

Gina Fant-Saez said...

I think somehow you turned off Groups. Command + shift + G turns Groups on and off. I bet that would fix it.

There is a little triangle to the right of the Groups section. Click on that an you can see a small menu that says "suspend all groups" or "enable" to turn Groups on and off.

But command + shift + G will do the same thing.

Let me know if this helps.

Gina

Gina Fant-Saez said...

I think somehow you turned off Groups. Command + shift + G turns Groups on and off. I bet that would fix it.

There is a little triangle to the right of the Groups section. Click on that an you can see a small menu that says "suspend all groups" or "enable" to turn Groups on and off.

But command + shift + G will do the same thing.

Let me know if this helps.

Gina

Unknown said...

Hi Gina,
I have question that maybe you can answer.
When I use loop record, say to record multiple vocals for a comp, the pre roll only works on the first pass. I know you point this out in your awesome book, but my question is, is AVID aware of this, and is there a fix on the way, maybe in 9?
It's difficult to work around when I want to punch in at a point that has audio right before the punch point. It seems like it shouldn't be too hard for Pro tools to accomplish this task.
thanks for all the help you've given me learning Pro Tools.
David

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Hey David,

I'm sure Avid is aware of the loop record issue. I get around it by make the loop start a bar or two before the punch point - even if that goes over other vocals. I keep anything I need in a saved Playlist so I can fix it later. But, the best thing is to just make the loop start earlier... I know that's not a perfect solution, but it's the only way I know of...

Hope this helps.

All the very best and so glad you like the book.

Gina

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,

After talking to tech support it turns out my Mbox Pro has a glitch with my particular setup and I will be returning it. In your book, you recommend several interfaces you like that are compatable with Pro Tools: Ozonic, FireWire Solo, FireWire 410 and FireWire 1814. Since it is several years later, I thought I would check with you before I buy. What are you recommending at this point? I have been stalled in my learning from your book and hope to get back into it soon.

As always, I appreciate you very much.
Laurie Nelson

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
I posted a question last week and am wondering if it got to you or if I should re-send it. Or maybe you are out of town. I need to purchase a different interface because there is a bug in my MBox Pro and asked if your recommendations have changed since your book was published. Thanks for all your support.
Warmly,
Laurie Nelson

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Hi Laurie,

Sorry for the delay. I am traveling until the 24th of this month and not checking emails very often.

Well - are you Pro Tools 9? You should be because you're no longer tied to Avid/Digidesign or M-Audio interfaces. So that opens up a whole new playing field for you.

It all depends on how many inputs you want and what features you want on your interface and also if it needs to be portable. Apogee makes some very cool interfaces.

I am kinda out of date with interfaces these days but I can recommend someone very cool at Sweetwater Music. His name is Brendan Murphy and tell him I sent you. His prices are great and they also do support.

Let me know if I can help in any way - but i would definitely go with Pro Tools 9 if you're not already.

Warmest regards,

Gina

Scott said...

Hi,

I downloaded the "Wave's" downloads for Mac OSX, but now when I try yo open Pro Tools I get an error message saying that my iLok doesn't have the licenses for all of the plugins.

Any suggestions?

I love the book, kudos on a great job with that.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

S.

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Hey Scott,

The waves downloads are quite old now and you'll have to get the Musician 2 Bundles from the Waves website.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

All the best,

Gina

Adam said...

Hi Gina,

We are using Pro Tools 9 at uni and our lecturer recommended your book. The online book people sent me the wrong book (LE 7 and M-Powered 7). Does this matter?

I can't send it back (I'm in Australia and the book came from London) so I am hoping they are pretty compatible.

Kind regards,

Adam

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Hi Adam,

There are some cosmetic differences in PT 9, but pretty much the functionality is the same.

My book in conjunction with the PDF manual should do the trick.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Thanks,

Gina

Allen Browning said...

Gina:
I have been trying to get pro tools 8 to work for 3 years and keep hitting the wall. I now have a Sweetwater Creation Station built to run pro tools 8. I updated to PT 8.05 this week and when I tried to import loops at p.25 of your book, the files will not import. Any thoughts? One blog said older PT programs won't run AIFF sound files.

Gina Fant-Saez said...

One man Jury - send me an email to gfs@esession.com and I'll email you the wav loops. You do mean the chapter 2 loops right?

Thanks,

Gina

Anonymous said...

Gina

You certainly don't know me, but your book is so wonderful and unique that I have spent so much time with it that I feel like you are "my friend". Ha!
Thanks for the effort. It has been very helpful. I haven't found anything quite like it. I found it at the library but finally just had to buy one.

Got an OCTA-Capture interface (auto sense feature is great for songrwriter) running PT9 works pretty wonderful.

Thanks also for making an effort to post updates to the book. It's still a winner!

Dave in SoCal

Gina Fant-Saez said...

Dave,

Your note made my whole day. So thoughtful and appreciated. Thank you!!!!

Consider me your virtual buddy and please contact me anytime if you get lost or confused. My personal email is gfs@esession.com.

Warmest regards,

Gina

Laurie Nelson said...

Hi Gina,
I got so lucky. Waves tech support supposedly won't talk to you without being a registered user, but Roy picked up the phone in Tel Aviv and he was so kind and walked me through what I had to do to get Pro Tools working again. I am now a major fan of Waves. What kindness!
Laurie