Articles

Converting WAV Files or CD Tracks to 320kbps MP3 or AAC Using iTunes

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:36:33 -0800

When submitting songs to iTunes or Tunecore, they may require high quality MP3’s of at least 320kbps.

This is how I do it, using iTunes:

1. In Pro Tools (or Live or Reaper or whatever), bounce your mix to WAV 44.1khz 24 bit
2. Drag the file to iTunes
3. Open iTunes preferences
4. Click on the "general" tab
5. Click on "import settings"
6. Select "Import Using - MP3 Encoder"
"Setting: Custom"
7. In the custom window, select:

Stereo Bit Rate = 320
Uncheck Variable Bit Rate
Quality = Highest
Sample Rate = 44.1
Channels = stereo
Stereo mode = normal
Check Smart Encoding Adjustments
Uncheck Filter Frequencies Below 10 hz

Hit "OK"
Hit "OK" again

8. On the right sidebar, select "just added" or just find your WAV file
9. With your song selected, hit "Cmnd+i"
10. Fill out as much of this metadata as you can, exactly as it should appear in iTunes
11.Hit OK
12. With the songs still selected, in the menu bar select "Advanced > Create MP3 Version"
13. A new MP3 version will be added to your library.
14. Drag the new version from the library on to your desktop
15. Now drag the song onto your e-mail to send, or FTP or whatever.

How To Get Album Info To Come Up Automatically In iTunes

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:22:51 -0800

iTunes ignores CD-TEXT and uses a different system...

The metadata burned onto the disc and the metadata used by iTunes and Windows Media are completely unrelated. During mastering I've burned the Artist Name, Album Title, Song Titles, ISRC Codes, and UPC Code on the disc, and that info is used by radio stations, ASCAP, your car player, etc.

ITunes, and I assume Windows Media, use the Gracenote CDDB database. This is an online database that uses the number of songs, length of songs, etc. to create a unique identifier for an album. Then, once the CD is stuck in a drive iTunes goes on the web to the database to get the info.

(Gracenote doesn't get any info from the CD-Text data burned on the disc. I don't know why not, but they don't.)

You can submit the album yourself to CDDB using Advanced>Submit CD track names in iTunes. As far as I can tell you only get one chance to do this - your unique identifier will call up the oldest data available when a disc is inserted.

1. You should put the final mastered disc in your computer, let iTunes open it, then hit cntrl+I (cmnd+I on Mac) to open up the info pane.
2. Fill in all of the info
3. Drop some album artwork where you've got it
4. Then select advanced>submit CD track names

Now, when you put the cd in a new computer the track names should appear correctly!

Some other players use different databases:

Microsoft Windows Media Player uses AMG Lasso:
Instructions at:
All Music Guide Submission Info

Other databases in case the above didn’t work for you:
freedb.org > Home
Welcome to MusicBrainz! - MusicBrainz

Pro Tools Hard Drive Problems - Formatting and Partition Issues

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:08:29 -0800

Drive Stuck on Transfer or Playback, won’t record, or throws -9131 errors when recording

Here’s a response I wrote for a friend who switches back and forth between a G5 and an Intel Mac using Pro Tools 8.01. His external hard drives were being marked “T” for Transfer Only or were giving errors immediately on playback or record.

Here are some things to check out:

1. Drive format

- On Intel and G5 macs the drive must be formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"
- To check this go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility
Select your drive NAME from the list (it's indented a bit from the left edge)
Check where it says Format:

Note: MS-DOS formatted disks will work on a mac for everyday use, but will be marked "T" for transfer-only in the Workspace window in Pro Tools.

2. Drive Partition Scheme

- On Intel macs, this can be GUID Partition Table or Apple Partition Map
- On G5 macs this must be Apple Partition Map
- To check this go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility
Select your drive Size from the list (it's something like 465 GB Maxtor STxxxxxx)
Check bottom right corner where it says Partition Map Scheme:

Note: If you use a GUID Partition Table-partitioned drive on a G5 it will appear to work at first but then will throw up lots of -9131 errors on play or record.

3. If this isn't the problem, you could have corrupt Digi Database folders. The easiest way to fix this is to delete them, and the easiest way to delete them is using a free utility:

http://www.jcdeshaies.com/
- Get the Pro Tools Prefs and Database Helper. Run it and select AT LEAST:
Select Digidesign Database Folders
Select Volumes Folder
Click on the big trash can

Then restart pro tools, open the workspace window, and change your rogue drives back to "R"

4. You have incompatible plugins in your plugin folder.

- Even though you can do tricks with installers and renaming of plugins to get old plugs past the plugin verifier on startup, this is a bad idea. I tried it myself. It's a bad idea. If I understand this correctly, the reason is that Digi has changed the way plugins address memory, and old plugins can overwrite memory locations used by the Pro Tools application in RAM, corrupting the program. You don't even have to use the plugin for it to corrupt things - plugins allocate memory on launch of Pro Tools, so if it's in the plugin folder it can cause problems like the looping crash, drive corruption, unexpected quits, etc.

It's not easy to determine if your plugs are compatible. Some dude wrote this to help:
http://web.me.com/trombino/EmptySoftware/Plug_Tools.html

In my experience almost every Pro Tools problem can be traced to one of these issues. If it still doesn't work correctly, use the Prefs and Database Helper to delete everything, reboot your mac and try again.

If that doesn't work you probably have a corrupt OS or hardware issue. Methodical process-of-elimination testing is the only way to get to the bottom of these kinds of problems.

Installing Final Cut Studio 3 On A G5 Mac

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:41:30 -0800

I upgraded from the old Final Cut Pro 3 to Final Cut Studio 3 when I started playing with HD footage that the old version didn’t support. However I was disappointed to learn that FCS 3 is listed as Intel Only. Apple doesn’t sell FCS 2 (the last PPC supported version) anymore, so I was stuck.

But Apple provided a gift by compiling the FCS 3 applications as Universal. By tweaking the installer to allow installation on a G5 Soundtrack Pro, Compressor, and Final Cut Pro 7.0 seem to work fully. I am editing HDV 720p24 footage without problems.

Motion and Color work but are super slow. They run much faster on a MacBook Pro 2.2 than on the G5. But it’s better than nothing! All software legally owned, no laws broken.

This trick only works because FCS 3 is a Universal application, which has an Intel-only limitation in the installer. I understand that Logic 9.0 is the same way - people have it working fine on their G5's.

Here's what I did (pieced together from several incomplete discussions on the net):

1. Put the FCS 3 installer disk in drive
2. Open Carbon Copy Cloner
3. Make a disk image of the installer disk on your hard drive somewhere
4. In the new disk image, Cntrl-click on Final Cut Studio Install
5. Select Show Original
6. Cntrl-click on FinalCutStudio.mpkg
7. Select Show Package Contents
8. Cntrl-click on FinalCutStudio.dist
9. Select Open With...
10. Browse your apps folder for Text Edit
11. Remove the section that talks about Intel. Remove from the beginning of that section to "my.result.message = ""; etc
(if you don't do this part right you will get a javascript error when you try to install)
12. Save the edited document
13. You can eject the FCS DVD to avoid confusion...
13. Run the installer on your disk image

- 7 hours later -

Before first running FCP, do the following (This will allow RT Extreme to profile correctly):

1. In your apps folder, find Final Cut Pro
2. Cntrl-click on it
3. Select Show Package Contents
4. Find the file Content/Resources/Non-Localized Settings/FXScripts/Enablers/RT Software Enabler.txt
5. Cntrl-click on it and select Open With... Text Edit
6. Edit the line in the "RT Software Enabler.txt", which originally was:

else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2330 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && x8664bit)

changed to:

else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2500 && cputype == cputtype_ppc && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && ppc64bit)

(changes shown in bold)

Now, when I launch FCP I get the following error:

“One or more unsupported enabler files are installed...” However I haven’t noticed any unexpected behavior so I just click OK and it’s smooth sailing after that.

This worked on a dual 2.5ghz G5 PCIx water cooled model.

- That's it! -

Please don’t ask me questions about this one - this is all I know, Google knows the rest! I did not write the directions, I only compiled them.

Do this at your own risk, I am not responsible if your computer implodes or becomes a spambot for the mob because of this tip.

What Info Is Needed For CD Mastering

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 23:09:12 -0800

When you send the files, could you also include:

- Song titles exactly as they should appear in CD-Text
- Song order
- Album title
- Artist name
- ISRC and UPC codes if you need them

And then any other info you think I should know about... i.e. songs that should crossfade, songs that need to be faded and at what point, etc.

Also if you have a reference mastered project that might help out if we haven't worked together before... if not I'll just do my thing.