Pro Tools Mixing Reference

In the recent months, THI Studios has begun to do mixing sessions with Pro Tools based files.  Some clients have recorded elsewhere (at home, for example) and come to us to mix down the project. This blog post is intended as a general reference so that the artists and producers that we work with can get the best sounds and have an efficient mixing session.
The first topic that needs to be addressed is file structure. Pro Tools and many other DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) store files in a similar manner. When you first create a project you make a project folder which contains all the data. Within that folder you will have the .ptf or .ptx files.  PTX files are made by Pro Tools 10, PTF files are created by Pro Tools 9 and earlier. This is the session file that stores info like track counts, aux and buss routing, and edits. This file does not contain the actual audio. The audio files are stored in a separate folder called “Audio Files.” Depending on the version of Pro Tools that was used to create the project, there may be other folders within the master project folder. These could include “Fade File”, “Region Groups”, and “Session File Backups”. All of these files and folders are required when transferring a Pro Tools project from one person’s system to another.  As long as we get all of these relevant files, we can open Pro Tools files directly without importing or exporting anything. Check out the screen shot to see this illustrated.

Screenshot

When a project has been recorded in another DAW like Logic or Cubase, our (or anyone’s) Pro Tools rig will not be able to open the session file directly. The most reliable method of transferring a project from one platform to another is to individually export each track as a .wav file. This requires that each track is selected from the very beginning of the project to the end and then exported. This will maintain the original timing of the tracks in relation to each other. You wouldn’t want your vocal coming in on the wrong beat and 30 seconds early. Especially in this case, it is very important to name your tracks before recording. All DAWs create the actual audio file name from the track name. If you record first and then name your tracks, the audio file will be named something like “Audio 1”. This make is very difficult to reorganize a project when crossing platforms. Always name your tracks first!
The last topic I want to cover is the use of effects. There are two basic classes of effects that I would like to cover. The first I will call traditional. By this I mean reverb, chorus, delay, compression, etc. These are all things that should be bypassed when exporting tracks. If your session is already in Pro Tools, you do not need to worry about these. We can easily bypass them once the project is in our system. The second class of effect I will call simulators. This would refer to amp simulators like Amplitube, Waves, or Peavey. We may not have the same amp plug-in so it is best to bounce, freeze, or export these tracks with the amp simulator. Just as if someone brought us analog tape, we would expect the guitar distortion to already be recorded; we would expect to get the same in the digital projects.  But one caveat; bypass or turn down all reverbs, chorus, flange (time based effects) before exporting/bouncing/freezing. That way we will be able to add our higher quality effects during the mixing session.
Is this sounding like it is a lot to handle? This is the point when it can be more effective to begin your project in the studio, with a real engineer. The engineer will worry about all of these things so you don’t have to. You should ask yourself the question, “Am I being distracted from making my music because I have to worry about all of this engineering?”