Backing UP Your ProTools Session on CD
Ø All CD'S are not created equal. There are "R" types and "RW" types. R type cd’s can only be recorded once, RW's can be rewritten. ONLY DATA CAN BE REWRITTEN! RW's are a little more expensive, and will not always be readable by CD-Rom drives (although they are readable by every one in our plant.) RW's are never readable on home CD audio players. For this reason it never makes sense to burn AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) files-the kind of files store-bought audio CD's use, to CDRW's. If you want to use CDRW's, use them to back up session files and audio files, so you can write over them as you make changes.
Ø Once any CD has been written (burned) with audio wave information, like something you listen to on your CD player, that info is set in stone!! ONLY DATA, LIKE INFO FILES AND SD2, MAY BE REWRITTEN OVER! Once a CD is "burned" you may not add information to it. Anything you write over, like when you re-write a data and file CD or write audio waves over data, erases what was there. A "burn" session is a whole new CD. BEWARE, and LABEL your CD's. Bring extras.
Ø There are at least TWO WAYS you might want to use recordable CD’s to back up. One is to make a simple Mac-OS-readable copy of the files on your hard drive partition: this will include your session file (the tape-reel icon), that contains all the positional, fade, and plugin information from your session, and your audio files, which should be contained in your audio files folder. You should back up and include those audio files anytime you add new media to your session.
Ø If you haven't added new media, you can just back-up your session. The procedure is the same, but you do not include your Audio Files in this type of back up. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE YOUR CURRENT AUDIO FILES BACKED UP ON CD, YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THIS AGAIN.
To burn your Pro-tools session and audio files to a CD.Ø What to burn? Your ProTools session- the tape reel icon with the name of your project – is the file that changes every time you make changes. Your audio files have an icon that looks either like a little videotape with ears, or simply like pieces of paper. They live in the “audio files” folder that’s in the same folder as your ProTools session. Your audio files do not change during a session unless you record new files during that session, or make some kind of destructive change to an audio file (as with the AudioSuite plugins or with the pencil tool). Therefore, it makes sense to make much more frequent backups of your session file than of your audio files. The session file is small enough to fit easily on a zip disk or even a floppy, so you might want to use either of those. Or, similarly, you might want to use a RW cd for session file backups. It is a good idea to make backups of your audio files as frequently as you make changes to them.
Ø Should you back up your fade files? No. Never back up fade files, for three reasons: 1) They take up a lot of precious space. 2) Information about fades is saved in your session file, and will be recreated the next time you open your session even if you throw your whole “Fade Files” folder in the trash. 3) Fade files are the first type to get corrupted as the media ages.
ØHow to burn session and audio files:1. Quit ProTools, if applicable.
2. Open the hard drive partition on which you have been working.
3. Make sure you know where all your files are. Sometimes, for space, or through one screwup or another, your audio files have wound up on other partitions as well. If this is the case, ProTools will have created another folder with your project name on that partition, with its own audio files folder. (Note: to be sure where your audio files get saved, check your “Disk allocation” under the “Operations” menu within ProTools.) If your files take up more than one 2 gig partition, then obviously you will need several CD’s (usually their capacity is @ 700 Mbs; it should say on the label) to record your audio files. Similarly, you may find that your one audio files folder is too big to fit on a CD.
4. If necessary, and for purposes of backup only, you may create another audio files folder (call it something like “Audio files 2”) in order to fit the files on a CD. (TIP: to find how big a folder is, highlight the folder and hold down ? and i; a window should pop up with a line describing its size.)
5. Under the “Apple” menu, select “Adaptec Toast.” The toast window should open. If you don’t see it, check under “Applications.”
6. In the Toast window you’ll see a pulldown menu towards the upper left. If it doesn’t already say “Files and Folders”, left click to show the choices and choose “Files and Folders.”
7. You may now simply drag the files you wish to back up into that window. To highlight more than one file at a time in a MAC you use Shift-Click. For a more detailed look at the CD’s contents-to-be, click on the button that says “DATA.” From this new window you can give the CD a name, create new folders, or otherwise rearrange the files. When finished with this window, click “DONE.”
8. In the Toast main window, select “Write CD.” Another window pops up.
9. A note on write speeds: sometimes buffer underrun or similar errors can occur if you write a CD at the burner’s fastest speed. If an error occurs while writing, the CD is thereafter unusable. To change the speed and live more cautiously, under “write speed,” select a slower speed, such as 4X. (All the possible speeds are highlighted). As you may have guessed, faster speeds take less time, slower speeds more.
10. For the most flexibility, select “Write CD” instead of “Write Session.” Whereas RW CD’s allow you to write more than one session, multiple sessions are generally not readable on standard CD-Rom players, but only with the CD-burners themselves.
11. After you select one of these, the main toast window will return and it should do its thing. Don’t touch it! After the progress bar finishes and the timer counts to zero, the program will say “finishing.” Leave it alone; an unfinished CD is useless. A window will pop up asking if you want to verify or eject. Verification is the process whereby the software tests to see that all files are readable. However, it takes extra time (sometimes as long as five minutes), and it is not necessary to do it every time.