Re: Soft Synths and Instruments thread
On Thursday, March 7, 2013 12:08:02 PM UTC-5, Mark Borsina wrote: Hi everyone, I was hoping it would be possible to start a virtual instrument and softsynth accessibility thread. My thought is to compile a list of users who can share what is and isn't accessible in terms of virtual instruments and maybe even a list somewhere of users who have created presets and templates. I've searched through the group and many of the threads for softsynths are not answered or never resolved. It would be great to know what experience a user had with a synth, what people have come up with for preset libraries, what is and isn't accessible and have it all in a thread for newcomers to understand what they can and can't use. It would also be fantastic for there to be a place where people like Gorden, Jason and others could put what they've come up with for templates in one spot. I know Kevin was working on a site for this but we could use dropbox or something else for a quicker turn around. I'd really love for there to be one place for all of this because even though PT is not the most user friendly for virtual instruments there still are those who would like to use whatever is available and there's very little information I could find on what does and doesn't work without searching 100's of threads. I saw Gorden has Ivory presets, Jason and Vinny had Structure and Velvet and who knows who else might have others to share. After searching I'm still unclear to which synths work better than others, samplers that can be used and where to get presets. Upon a Google search I found it's possible to use Structure with imported libraries from other samplers such as Giga and Akai using CD extract. Another blind person said they had as many softsynths as a sighted person with over two TB of samples and loops completely accessible using Bootcamp with Sonar and PT together. These are the things I'd love to have all in a great spot for us to experiment with and help each other. Those of us who use PT for strictly editing and tracking wouldn't have to be bothered with this part of the forum. So, I'm hopeful we can have others step up and create a bit of a Softsynth, virtual instrument thread within this group. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Pro Tools Accessibility group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Modifier keys
If a sighted person had 24 tracks and wanted to record on the first ten tracks starting with input #6 going through to input #16 in order, they would hit the command and option keys together while clicking the mouse on the input field of the first track and start with #6. I can't figure out how to do this either with or without a mouse. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Pro Tools Accessibility group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Re: Protools busy and interacting?
Slau, as I do very much appreciate the fact that you're being very helpful I do think you need some etiquette lessons. From the beginning I stated I've only had PT and VO for three weeks so it should be quite obvious that I have very little understanding which is why I joined this group. I believe had your explanation been more clear rather than saying you've had PT since version 5 and don't know about scrubbing and simply addressing my problem would show quite a bit more refined couth on your part. I understood this group was for helping new comers rather than tactfully condescending members. Someone like Chris who is admittedly also new to PT seems to have a better understanding of how to explain concepts and someone like Chuck who seems to have been with this for a while doesn't say things like, I don't know what your level of understanding is which again, could be taken very condescendingly.I'd appreciate you taking an extra minute and rereading a post because your answer wasn't even correct. When I had to further explain to you that scrubbing and selecting were different in PT 5 you then posted things had changed in 7.4. Had you read my original post throughout the first time we could have avoided 2 other posts on here. My level of understanding in PT 5 got me 2 grammy nominees and touring with one of the most famous bands in Canada. I don't know your age but I believe I'm older than you and have been using Digidesign products since the mid 80's and my level of understanding was apparently good enough whereby they even had changed a part about nudging in the manual back in the 90's when I brought it up to the attention of the engineers. I really don't want to make this a who's better than who war so again, I've never boasted about what I do on here and very clearly said I was new to anything after PT 5 and Outspoken from the beginning. I'm sure I was one of the very first blind users of Digidesign products from the 2 track version of Sound Designer to the 4 track version of Soundtools and so on. I could go on and on and tell you who the very first Digi engineer was and I had home phone numbers when the company had only 2 engineers and 1 product out. I've been trying to change with the times but got stuck in PT 5 and all I'm doing now is trying to do is as you stated, keep up with appearances but I don't believe anybody feels the need to be tested on their knowledge of PT in this group.
Re: Protools busy and interacting?
Slau, since apparently I don't get your humor nor do you seem to bother going through posts please do a find on where I said, I do have both link scroll and edit checked in options. I honestly don't know where this whole scrubbing thing came up on your part, you saidHang on, John, you don't know what I mean by scrubbing in a track? Have you never scrubbed audio in Pro Tools?? I had never mentioned scrubbing before you brought it up. You assumed that I assumed you didn't know what the difference between scrubbing and selection is but I was pointing that out to clear it up. That's a lot of assumption going back and forth. With all of that assumption, why didn't you assume when one would first set up PT as a blind user, one would go through all of the menus and linking of insertion and track selection would be checked rather than the negativity of assuming that the person is inexperienced. Do you know there are 26 posts on this and you still never answered my question back in post #2 about is it possible to select tracks for editing without interacting? You gave every answer about interacting possibilities but never addressed my actual question. I even stated Chuck's way and asking if that worked. You seemed to avoid it and wanted to focus on the subject of scrubbing which was never even mentioned in my original post and was actually brought up by you. The closest you came to answering was the statementAgain, you don't have to interact necessarilyfirst you said again but that meant nothing in the context of the phrase, there's no reference to again. Then you went on to say you don't have to interact necessarily what does that grammatically even mean as an explanation? The very simple statement of yes, Chuck's way works or does not would have saved another 3 posts. As for couth, wrong again... Since this time I will assume you won't bother clicking on a link I'll provide it here for you. Couth: showing or having good manners or sophistication; Word History: From as far back as the 16th century and entered webster's dictionary in 1913. Today's Good Word started out as an independent word, became a negative orphan, then was revived by 'back derivation' (removing the un-) fairly recently. It was originally the past participle of can which in Old and Middle English meant know when used as an independent verb (not the auxiliary can : could). Kith, as in 'kith and kin', is a variant of couth and like today's word originally meant (those) known. In the 16th-18th centuries the meaning of uncouth changed to what it is today and couth was left behind. Then, at the end of the 19th century, writers began to resurrect couth as a word with the opposite meaning of uncouth, first facetiously but more recently quite seriously. Today it remains a social part of the English language. I'm sure you may want to debate that with the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. I'd sincerely like to thank all of the members that have helped out in this group but if there are members trying to correct grammar of which they can't even take a second to check up on or bother reading posts throughout and addressing the subject at hand without making it their own, I can't be part of that. I think everyone needs to remember each user has specific needs and just as there is a radio person on here, a live user, studio engineers, musicians etc, I believe a crass attitude and sarcasm can only create more personal faults for that individual. Best of luck to all.
Re: Protools busy and interacting?
Hey all, thanks so much for the great replies. Slau, no, I can't use a control surface in a live club situation. These are large venues 5000 + people and usually 5 engineers. I'm required to be quick while bands are setting up which is why my posts keep talking about doing things in a fast way. I'm trying not to interact as much as I can so I can quickly move through tracks and select them. Chuck's idea is the one I'd love but it's not working for me. Chuck, I had my GF resize the window many different ways but unfortunately VO is not catching your selection idea. Again, it seems however the window is resized when I press VO space on a track it just beeps. Slau, I'm not sure what you mean about scrubbing through a track but I can't use a control surface until I'm home and then I can use a motor mix which I hope someone out there can let me know if that will do the job. It worked great in PT 5. Gord and Chris, the Protools is busy message is totally nuts. It doesn't stop until I actually force quit and restart the machine. I did try turning VO on and off but nothing. I have 2 machines, 1 with Lion 7.2 and 1 with SL 6.8. They are both new 8 and 12 core machines and the same behavior with everything happens on both. I'm using PT HD9 in case anyone thinks that could be giving me trouble. Lots of ppl talk about making sure the mouse is routed correctly but when I have someone look at where my cursor is many times it's nowhere near where it should be. For example, when I'm in a track list VO is reading stuff to me that the mouse is not even close to. I do rout the mouse to VO and tried VO to mouse but it seems many locations don't move together. I've tried multiple ways of cursor tracking on and off and it's also not all of the time. Our ideas here seem to be that VO goes out of a window sometimes while interacting and the mouse isn't able to get to it.
Re: Protools busy and interacting?
Chuck, that sounds great, I can call you tomorrow if you're around at some point. Slau, I think we're talking about to different things. Scrubbing is where you're listening to audio and moving back and forth similar to what an old tape machine did years ago when you would stop the tape and rock it back and forth. Selecting all of the audio on a track including every region means you have to select the track first and command A in order to highlight everything. If you were to just scrub without selecting anything your song would be scrubbing without you selecting any audio to be edited. Unless this version of PT is that different where you're telling me it doesn't work that way? I don't know if that's the case because remember I've only been using PT HD9 for 3 weeks and I'm also trying to grasp VO and all of the differences between PT 5, Outspoken, VO and PT 9. Can you clear up the selection idea you had? I'm confused because it seems like in your plan of interacting with a track and then hitting VO M etc it sounds like it's sort of interacting twice to select a track for editing. If Chuck's way works that would mean we'd be back to the old way of PT 5 and just selecting a track without the extra steps involved.
Re: Protools busy and interacting?
Hi Slau, yes, the control P is cool for moving back or forth but I'm trying to get to all different tracks quickly which aren't in order and select them. I know option command f will let you type the track # but I like to go by name. In a live situation where you're not familiar with the band's stuff it's common for another engineer in a club to throw track names at you which are mostly generic, kick, snare etc. So, as you know with PT 5 we could quickly find a track name using outspoken #1 and select it. I read in this group that you could just VO space on the track without interacting but that's not working for me. Is the VO find option like the outspoken find? Also, any ideas on the busy part where it says Protools busy until you have to force quit? In live venues I can't use a control desk but I have a motor mix I'm hoping to use in a private setting. Do you know if that works well with this new setup?
Re: Solo Safe
Hi again Chuck, thanks much for the tip. Can you just step me through anything I'd have to tell a sighted person about? Is this something a girlfriend can do or does it have to be someone who knows about how tracks look. Can I just tell her to look for the gray bar at the right corner and drag it a little bit? Any non-engineer suggestions for a normal person to do this would be appreciated. Yes, I'll save it once I have it. I assume it's the same way as in the old version whereby you use the get info and check stationary pad or is it different these days? One more question off topic, is there a good MP3 converter that's super quick and easy without bells and whistles? Many times I have to convert wav to MP3 and back and I don't know what the best way of doing that with VO is. I'm currently using a PC for that because I was using SoundJam on the Mac but it can't convert anything 24 bit.
Re: Protools busy and interacting?
Thanks Chuck, I'll try the gray bar tonight. Can you tell me if you've ever gotten a Protools Busy message that doesn't stop unless you force quit? I'm getting it often lately. Also, maybe you can help with 2 other things, #1 I frequently get apple menu is under the mouse no matter how things are routed. I believe it's because the VO cursor is in a place that the mouse can't follow. What are the proper commands to fit everything on the screen, somebody talked about a scroll in to view, is that it? #2 Is there something quick that can let you see 1 aspect of many tracks, for example, any way of knowing the status of solo, mute, record, read, write, latch, touch as you move up and down? Like if you have 24 tracks just hitting down arrow in the automation field and hearing off, off, off, read, read, latch, touch etc. Or scrolling down a part that would say, the track name and record on or record off as you go through each track. The way I'm doing it now is interacting with each track and I have to go through each column 1 by 1 to hear the state of where things are.
Old PT user with outspoken making the switch. HELP!
Hey guys, I still have PT 5.1.3 with outspoken but I figured at some point I have to make the switch. I just got a Mac Pro 12 core and PT HD9. I see some of you on here have used PT with outspoken in the past so my big question is should I continue on with this quest. I feel very discouraged when I read about no softsynths and samplers. I have SampleTank, SampleCell, Stylus and a host of other synths. What I'm doing now is using Sonar for stuff that PT 5 can't do and I have both machines locked so I can do everything in real time. I can't record in Sonar and then bounce the mix over to PT because I need to mix the synths and samplers in with the live stuff in real time and bouncing doesn't cut it. So, since this has been working for me and editing is so quick for flying stuff in and changing midi, will this new system do me just as good as long as I continue to use Sonar with it? Is there any talk of PT being able to do any softsynth or sampling stuff soon? I've been playing with it for a few weeks and so far I'm 50% slower on this new system between all of the VO stuff and editing. I hate all of the interacting stuff but I did manage to do a 24 track live recording within 3 weeks of getting everything. I still need new racks for IO because I have the old 888 IO which won't work with the new PT. Before I scrap everything I need some positive feedback in some of you telling me that the new system will be better and making me forge ahead. At this point it even takes me longer to simply select tracks for editing. Can one of the old timer PT users let me know what the future looks like and if they're making more or less progress than with the old version? Of course since I'm new to VO I also hate it compared to Outspoken and can't believe they couldn't just come up with so many things that Outspoken already had. Did anyone else feel that way at the beginning? Thanks guys and I appreciate you taking the time for posting all of the great wisdom you all have. I've been reading through for the past 3 weeks or so and learned a great deal.
Re: Old PT user with outspoken making the switch. HELP!
Hi, thanks for the quick reply. I'm from Canada and as far as I know we don't have any old PT 5 blind users around. My level meters were built by a tech to beep off of the peak readings. Not completely accurate all of the time do to transients but works great most of the time. In the real world I'd like to be current which is where the big change came from but I thought there would be a lot more in the way of samplers and synths. I lock Sonar digitally through the 888 IO which I'm going to have to get rid of if I make this big switch. I guess I should spell out for you what I was really looking for. #1 I wanted more sampler and synth power with accessibility which I guess is not coming very soon. #2 I want to remain current with a version of PT that won't get laughed at which I don't think will happen enough as long as PT stays current with VO. #3 I'd like to experience some things that couldn't be done with PT 5 for blind users witchh I'm not sure of yet as to the accessibility difference in PT with VO. #4 Everything I do is editing, mixing and sampleing. The big thing here is live bands with tons of samples and a large amount of editing, so, time is important. I hate to be watched by anybody who might be thinking I'm slower than them because of being blind. When I work with sighted engineers on huge projects there can be up to 5 engineers at a time in a live situation and just about 100% of the time I'm faster. That's the reason I want to switch over because when I'm working with others I want to have a system that's compatible throughout the PT universe.
