There are a couple of shortcuts that significantly speed up my editing in ProTools. Some of you may already know these but for those who don’t, you’re gonna love it. Here’s a video:

Glenn Beck aired a documentary called “The Revolutionary Holocaust.” It took many people working many sleepless nights to put this together. I was one of those insomniacs (I did the sound design). Even with the short time frame we had to put this together, 99% of the music was original, scored by Anthony Newett. A wonderful composer with whom I’ve work for a couple years.

This special aired to excellent ratings and I’m sure that’s a sign of more specials to come down the road. Regardless of your personal opinion of Glenn Beck, it’s an eye-opener to anyone who wasn’t aware of some events mentioned in the documentary. You can find the whole thing on youtube somewhere. Broken into various parts, I’m sure, since it was an hour long.

I’m glad to be done with the long nights but looking forward to the next documentary.

Reaktor, FM8, Absynth and Massive are all on sale for $99 each from November 27th through 30th only (and available from the NI store only). Here’s the link. Happy tweaking!

So today was a nightmare. I got the dreaded DAE  -4 followed by a DAE  -9003 error. This indicates a communication problem with the DSP cards. Digidesign says it could be a faulty Core or Process card which means I’d have to send it in for repair and be out of commission in the mean time.

In the end, I got it fixed but not before some serious headaches and cursing. Turns out my DSP chips are fine (I hope) and it was corrupt preferences (shocking, digi preferences getting corrupt? Noooo).

The Steps I took to get to a resolution:

First I trashed DigiSetup.OSX in my user prefs folder (users/yourusername/library/preferences/) and rebooted. Same problem.
I ran digitest to check the DSPs… it kept crashing and I rebooted, ran the test, rebooted, ran the test, etc. with the same results.
I then trashed DAE Prefs — still a no go.
Turned the machine off, powered down the 96, checked the cable connectors in the back of the machine. Tried again. No go.
This time I deleted all four preference files (com.digidesign.ProToolsHD.plist, DAE Prefs folder, DigiSetup.osx and ProTools v8.0 Preferences).

PRESTO. It works. So all four prefs gone and wiggling cables solved the problem - for now. Ran digitest application and results came back with a passing score. I know I say it again and again that trashing prefs resolves a lot of problems and this case was no different. I’ll be pulling my machine out and dusting the inside just for good measure - after all, dust is a conductor and can fry components if you let it build up long enough.

Here’s a link to Digi’s site about the -9003 error: http://tinyurl.com/y9rn4c8
Here’s another link regarding the -4 error: http://tinyurl.com/y939t4t

And here’s to hoping you (or I) never encounter the -4 error for real!!

- Nick

Today, Native-Instruments has finally released an update to Battery 3 (taking it to 3.0.6) which makes it compatible with ProTools 7.4.2 and 8 as well as Vista 64bit for Windows users. There are bug and graphical fixes. You can install this free update using your NI Service Center application.

My recent VO project for USA’s new original series, “White Collar.” I Can’t wait for this show; check it out this October on USA Network!

Keep an ear out and hear Nick on the latest HBO ON DEMAND spots - running nationally on Verizon’s FiOS TV.

So I just stumbled across a shortcut that should have been obvious but I don’t think I’ve ever used it. It sits right there in the edit menu (I rarely use menu’s anymore - maybe I should rifle through them from time to time).

“Restore Selection” option+command+z

I clear my selection on accident from time to time so this one will be handy. Thought I’d share.