Putting discrete tracks on HDD for use in PT on a Mac

[Dave Labrecque]

How is this best handled? How shall I format the HDD? Pointers?

The guy on the other end isn't much of a digital-phile. Old-world analog guy who doesn't want to fuss with computer stuff. It's just gotta work.

Many thanks.

[DBenkert]

I think the Export function is what you are looking for:

- Select tracks you want to export by clicking on the track number
- go to where you want to start all tracks
- press B to mark begin point
- Go to where you want all tracks to end
- Press E to mark end point
- Go to Process/Mixdown
- Choose Export Track(s) to Soundfile(s) - No Mixer Processing (I am assuming no processing is desired)

All files will line up on the left, but end where the last region for each region is so they should all align nicely

[Dave Labrecque]

I think the Export function is what you are looking for:

- Select tracks you want to export by clicking on the track number
- go to where you want to start all tracks
- press B to mark begin point
- Go to where you want all tracks to end
- Press E to mark end point
- Go to Process/Mixdown
- Choose Export Track(s) to Soundfile(s) - No Mixer Processing (I am assuming no processing is desired)

All files will line up on the left, but end where the last region for each region is so they should all align nicely

Sorry -- my question isn't about SAW. It's about the format for the hard drive that I'm going to bring to the PT guy. He's on a Mac.

[DBenkert]

Moron alert - sorry about that.

I would do FAT32 and WAV files. NTFS MIGHT work because a Mac car read it, but not sure about writing to it these days. Though your pal would only be reading it.

When I do these transfers from PC to Mac, I use FAT32 drives.

[Microstudio]

OSX can read from NTFS but write to it. Best to just use a USB thumb drive then both MAC and PC can read and write to it. 8GB Drives are big enough for a lot of songs.

[Dave Labrecque]

OSX can read from NTFS but write to it. Best to just use a USB thumb drive then both MAC and PC can read and write to it. 8GB Drives are big enough for a lot of songs.

I think you mean that OSX is disabled when it comes to either reading or writing from/to NTFS. But which is it?

I was just gonna give the fellow a DVD (I only need about a gig of space), but he thinks it'll take too long to transfer the files. Nutty, huh?

Client says he'll spring for a cheap HD. I found a 160 GB jobber for $40 with shipping. I think it was last week that I bought a 1 gig drive for $500. I feel like I'm living in the future. Very strange times these are.

[cgrafx]

OS X can read NTFS natively...
OS X with a small plug-in can write NTFS
OS X can read/write FAT32

Send him a DVD. It will only take a few minutes to transfer the files.

[bacchusbuddha]

I have some experience with this, so I'm going to echo what others have said and try to give you a full workflow view...


A Mac will be able to read (only) NTFS and read/write FAT formatted drives.

You're good with just copying the files to the drive right out of the box and sending. .WAV files are fine.

He should then copy all of the files to a Mac formatted drive to work in PT. Not absolutely necessary, but it's the cleanest and safest option.

If the files have the same start point he can just load them on to an empty PT arrange timeline and he's good to go.

Obviously name the files well and organize them into folders by song, etc.


Hope this helps.


BB

[Sean McCoy]

I haven't had to do this for awhile, but in my experience OSX working with FAT 32 drives was slower than molasses. NTFS was much faster. Another option is to use an OSX-formatted drive and use MacDrive or a similar utility to allow your PC to write to it.

[905shmick]

I haven't had to do this for awhile, but in my experience OSX working with FAT 32 drives was slower than molasses. NTFS was much faster. Another option is to use an OSX-formatted drive and use MacDrive or a similar utility to allow your PC to write to it.

I've had no problems with speed when reading from or writing to FAT 32 drives from any of my Macs.