Sound Digitizing with Pre-Amps and ProTools Free
Your computer must have a sound card to do any of this.
Macs and
PCs should have at least 128 MB RAM. Macs should be using at least OS
8.6 or higher. PCs should be using Windows Me or Windows 98,
Second Edition, not Windows 2000, NT, 95, or 3.1. See the digidesign
home page for further system requirements and compatibility information.
Downloading Hints
https://secure.digidesign.com/ is the place to be.
You have to download BOTH the ProTools Free program and an application called OMS (opcode). PTF won't run without it.
Run only PTF (and DAE, its companion program) at one time. Close all other applications on the computer to give as much memory to PTF as possible.
You should check the memory allocation of PTF to be sure it has sufficient memory to run. In Macs, find the icon of the original application (no aliases) and highlight it, clicking once, not twice. Don't open it, just select it. Then go to the file menu, and get info / memory. Make sure the minimum size is at least the suggested size. If it isn't, then change it. I suggest increasing it to the preferred size for maximum capacity.
Checking the memory makes sure that the program has enough memory for it to run. This will prevent the program from running slowly and crashing.
Starting a sessionOpen PTF. Go to the File menu and create a new session. Name the session and choose 16 NOT 24 bit depth. This is important.
Your session will open. It will be pretty blank, so you need to add some tracks for the sound to go on. Go to File, New Track. Tell it to create some number of new tracks (you can only have up to 8 in PTF). Make them audio tracks, not MIDI or otherwise. We're only dealing with regular old audio tracks here. Now you should see the tracks pop up. You can name them if you like, if that helps to organize.
DAEBe sure that DAE, an accessory program to PTF, is always open when PTF is open. DAE automatically opens whenever PTF opens, but it's possible to close it separately. Don't close it, because PTF won't work without it.
Hooking upThere seem to be two basic ways to get your audio into the program. If you can find others, great- let us know. It all has to do with matching both impedance and amplification (line/mic: strength of signal). Basically, you'll need to have a playback machine with an RCA or mini/phono out; this can be a tape player/recorder, a camera, or whatever else you might be using.
There are two ways of connecting the playback device with the computer. If your computer has RCA audio inputs, then use those. (If the computer has them, they will be on the back of the computer. Yellow is for video- avoid those; red and white are for audio. You should be able to use either one.) You will need RCA outputs out of your playback device. Most cameras have those; the Marantz recorders have them, too. You should not need anything but an RCA-RCA cable to do this. If you are using UT's Nagra (Reel to Reel) be sure to check out the banana ouput cable (banana to ¼”) and the 1/4th to RCA adaptor.
The second method is a little more tricky. If your computer doesn't have RCA inputs for sound, then you'll probably need to use the external mic jack. Sometimes it's on the monitor, sometimes on the back or side of the computer- look for the little mic symbol. Unfortunately, this process is not as easy as finding a cable that converts one signal into another signal, because the playback and the microphone inputs expect different signal strengths, so you have to route the signal through a box called a pre-amp. There are two sub-options here, depending on the outputs of your playback device. (1) If your playback device has RCA out, then plug the RCA-RCA cable from the playback device to the pre-amp box, into the CD/tape RCA inputs in the back of the box. (2) If you're coming from a headphone jack of a playback device, then go from phono or mini (on your playback) to the mini input on the front of the pre-amp, labeled CD/tape. If you're doing it that way, you may need to get a mini (or phono) to stereo mini cable to use; those run about $4 at RadioShack. Also, if you can adjust the levels of your headphone jack (like on the Marantz), then turn that knob to an acceptable level so there's a signal coming through the headphones jack. With either method of connecting playback device to pre-amp, turn the dial on the pre-amp to CD/tape, since those are the inputs you are using. Then use the Y-shaped cable to go from the pre-amp to the computer. In the lab, you plug into the computer on the right hand side. That cable converts two RCA cables from the speaker out on the back of the pre-amp box to a stereo mini signal that the computer can use. If you use the speaker out (rather than tape out) jacks, then you can use the volume knob to control loudness.
Perhaps
you'll want to do this on your own and rent or purchase a pre-amp/cable set.
DJ shops are a good place to find them; ask for a pre-amp that converts from
RCA to stereo mini with cables. You can buy them at RadioShack as well
for about $60. Basically it's a stereo component that takes CD/tape,
radio tuner, and phono signals and sends them to speakers. It's probably
something like your parents might have on an older, larger stereo system.
See this website for the kind the department purchased:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F002%5F001%5F020%5F000&product%5Fid=31%2D5000
You'll also need
cables/connectors appropriate to the inputs and outputs.
Okay, so once you've hooked everything up, there are a few more things to do. First, you should check the sound manager of your computer to be sure it can see the inputs you want. Macs require that you quit PTF before you can do this. Get to the apple menu, control panel, sounds, and select the input you're using, either RCA or external mic. Make sure it is on and not muted, and responding at a decent level. Check the signal level for appropriate gain and check to be sure it will play through an output device. You should be able to turn your playback device on at this point and hear it. Eureka!
Come back to PTF. In order to hear your playback, you'll need to activate the tracks to record. Choose one track and click on the REC button below the name. This switches the track from READING (playing) the track to RECORDING what's coming into it. You should be able to hear a level from your speakers now once you play from whatever device you're using for playback. You should also see the levels in the green LED-like column. You may need to switch the INPUT from L to R or vice versa. Also the OUTPUT should be on L-R as well, not routed to some bus. It defaults to OUTPUT L-R, so you should be okay, especially if this is the first session.
Make sure the levels are okay. If they're not, adjust through the sound manager again. Remember that you don't want levels too hot/distorted, not too low and noisy.
Hallelujah- Let's recordNow you should be ready to record. You need to bring up the transport window- go to windows/show transport, and a little control strip with play, stop, ff, rew, record, etc. should pop up. Click the circle red RECORD button and click the triangle PLAY button. Now your track should start to move and create a (usually) red swath as it records sound. Play your tape player, camera, etc. and watch it draw the sound waveforms.
When you're finished, press STOP on your playback device and on the transport window. Your audio has come in as one huge segment. You'll eventually want to separate it into smaller segments and put different sounds on different tracks in order to edit more efficiently. See directions that follow.
Importing audioYou can also get audio from CDs or other sound files into PTF through the File menu, Import audio/track. Then it's just like any other method of importing things: choose it, add it, and see it appear in PTF. Usually each file imports as a separate track.
Sometimes audio files (especially from regular CDs) need to be converted to a file format that PTF likes, so you'll need to use a sound application that does that. I downloaded SoundApp (already on most of the computers in CMA 5.131), which converts audio files from one form to another, from
It took just a minute to download. Then I opened SoundApp, went to File/ Convert, opened the CD, selected the track. Then below the window, you select what type of file you want to convert the track to. I chose an AIFF file, then pressed the CONVERT button. It saves the converted file in a "SoundApp Converted" folder. Then I went back to PTF and imported (File/Import) the converted file into PTF. Voila, it works.
One note: Sound App does not support Quicktime files, so if you have a quicktime audio file that you need to convert, you'll have to find another program like Peak to do that.
CD.