When your Pro Tools system gets sluggish or repeatedly crashes, sometimes the simplest thing can fix the problem. Just upping the computer’s RAM will often help but there are also deeper, hidden features that can get your rig humming along like a bullet train. I invite you to participate and add your own entries in the comments section.

The Problem: When using Virtual Instruments on a multi-core computer, Pro Tools may give you buffer errors saying it is running out of processing power even if no other plugins are in use.

The Fix: Go to the Setup/Playback engine pulldown and set the number of RTAS / HOST processors to 3 instead of 4 (Mac Pro Quad Core). If using a Dual Core or a PPC system, reduce the number of RTAS / HOST processors to 1. This works on LE, M-Powered and HD systems.

The Problem: Apple’s Spotlight is a great way to find data on your computer but it can make your whole system sluggish if not properly set up.

The Fix: Go To Apple System Preferences under the Apple symbol at the upper left side of your monitor. Find the Spotlight option and limit the search index to only the most important categories. Not only Pro Tools but your whole system will run better.

The Problem: Plugins with streaming ability can bog down your system bringing your session to a halt.

The Fix: New with Pro Tools 8, the plugin streaming buffer can help content stream more efficiently from the disk. Go to the Setup/Playback engine pulldown and adjust the buffer size to find the best setting. Also try turning on the “optimize for streaming content” box to enhance performance.

The Problem: Some wildly capable plugins such as AmpliTube Fender from IK Multimedia are DSP hogs and become sluggish with minimal use.

The Fix: Go to the Setup/Playback engine pulldown and reduce the CPU Usage Limit to 60% or less. This will give your system the power it needs to run DSP-intensive plugins smoothly.

The Problem: Pro Tools preference files, database files, DAE files and AMS setup files can become corrupted bringing down your system in short order.

The Fix: Rather than deleting these hidden files yourself, download the free Pro Tools Preference and Database Helper from http://www.jcdeshaies.com/. It easily removes a variety of elusive, damaged and unreadable files that can cripple your system. Versions are available for Pro Tools systems on 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) but not yet for 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and Pro Tools 8.0.3.

Thanks go out to Pro Tools power user Sean Conkling for helping with this post

I did get a few notes from folks who have been following our work here at Road Kill Creative asking if that meant that I would be emptying out my desk of the dead armadillos and music editing software.  HECK NO!  RKC will continue to be the leader in imaging and production for news, talk, and sports stations across the country.  We continue to work with some of the best in the business, at both the station level and in syndication.  If anything, being back in the day-to-day mix of radio, I will have the opportunity to be back closer to the pulse of the listener.  That connection is key to your imaging, as much as it is key for me in the new position at KKFN.

I want to thank all of you for the emails and kind words the past few days about this new opportunity.  And, for those who continue to be our partners at RKC, I say onward and upward!

Nate

10 Essential Sound Design Blogs

Ozone Mastering Guide

It’s safe to assume that most of your listeners won’t be sitting directly in between two speakers made solely to reproduce accurate audio. They’ll be in their car, waking up to your station on their alarm clock, or even streaming and listening on their computer speakers.  With this mixed listening environment, how do you know what sounds like a technically perfect mix in your studio, is going be intelligible to your listener when they wake up to your station? You could burn a CD of your work and drop it in a CD alarm clock to check your mix, but that’s a huge workflow buzz kill. Why not monitor your mix in real time on speakers that will let you hear what your mix will sound like when a listener hears it?

Avant MixCubes

1. Station logo (png or gif preferred with transparent background or Photoshop file)
2. A list of cities and towns within your listening area.
3. Output format (WMA, SWF, MP4, or MOV).   If you use a progressive or streaming server for you video playback, let us know that too.

Here’s an example:

Now, start to think about the way that your station, and in particular your imaging, is using their sound pieces.  Are you full of “ear candy?”  Those pieces that make your imaging director smile because it sounds amazing in their studio, but gets completely lost in the fidelity of your AM station?  Or, are you imaging your listener as a small sand bucket on the beach.

Yes, a sand bucket.  My son was once at the beach, filling a bucket with sand.  It was completely full, and yet he kept adding more sand to the top, only to watch it pour over the sides.  To him, it was a game.  But, how much of what you are producing is “pouring over the sides?”  It isn’t just excessive noise in their ears, it is wasted effort and lost productivity in your production department.

There’s not a lot of depth to my blog today, I’ll admit that.  But, I wanted to share the video that Mark shared with me in his daily email.  I hope it got you thinking about your sounds.

Solid State Logic, the makers of premiere mixing consoles, plugins, and other production hardware, have released a FREE plugin called X-Orcism: Voices from the Crypt. It operates on both PC and Mac in both VST and AU formats. We’ve tested it in ProTools 8 and Adobe Audition and it works as advertised. (A note to ProTools users: Since ProTools does not natively support VST plugins, you’ll need to “wrap” X-Orcism in a VST wrapper like fxpansion’s VST to RTAS Adapter. )

Don’t let its jack-o-lantern knobs and effect parameters like “The Howling” and “Tombverb” fool you. X-Orcisim actually sounds really good when it comes to making things sound scary. The folks at SSL do make you “register” to download the free plugin, but they don’t bury you in SPAM. We registered about six months ago and have only received one or two emails as of this posting. What are you waiting for? Put down the candy corn and get some free plugin goodness now by clicking here.

However, as much as I love Twitter, nearly every news/talk radio station I follow has absolutely no clue how to use it.  And the same goes for some industry groups.  The vast majority have no idea how to maintain a constant dialogue with the audience.  Go back and look and you’ll see what I mean.  There’s a nice flurry of news headlines in the morning when the reporter or anchor who’s been assigned the Twitter feed finally  gets around to sending out the day’s headlines.  But then, for the most part, you won’t see anything again for hours.  Or sometimes not until the next morning when that person sits back down again to do it.  Where’s the consistency?  Where’s the constant dialogue?

If your show host blasted all of the news of the day in the first segment of his/her show and then didn’t say anything of substance for the rest of the show, they would be fired.  The audience would not bother to listen.  The same is going to happen to your Twitter feed if you don’t get your act together.  Remember, a recent study said that only 11% of the Twitter audience was under the age of 17.  That means YOUR potential listeners are there.  They are using it.  Want to reach them?  Give them a reason to stick around.

The same goes for your imaging (HA! You knew I couldn’t write this without bringing it back to your imaging).  Where’s your creativity?  Are the great production pieces few and far between?  Or, does your audience know and expect to hear the best-sounding radio station in the city everyday?  Consistency help.  Consistent quality wins.

Take a listen to your station. Track your consistency.  Then call Road Kill Creative and let us know how we can help. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check my Twitter followers.

Now, before we get started on today’s lesson, I have to say that some of my favorite people in the world are voiceover artists.  Please keep them employed.  But, let’s have a heart to heart about how you are using them.

Your voice talent is more than likely paired very well to your station. Hopefully this person is well-established on your frequency and is as much a part of your brand as the traffic jingle or as the car dealer who insists on doing his own commercials (and has for 17 years).  More power to you.  That established voice talent is a good thing.

But think about this:  I’m willing to bet that your sales staff has pitched that car dealer several times to use your morning or afternoon host for endorsement ads instead.  And why wouldn’t they?  He’s an established host.  Great ratings.  Drive time positioning.  And to top it all off, we ALL know how effective endorsement spots are, right?  However, that dealer insists that he can do it better, and you and your sales manager are left scratching your head wondering why he can’t understand the power of a host endorsement.

Now it’s time to look in the mirror.  Do YOU understand the power of your host’s endorsement?  Be honest, now.  “Of course I do,” I can hear you saying.  “His audience supports the local businesses and we have a ton of repeat advertisers.”  Fantastic!  Now, tell me the last time HE did a spot for his own show.

I had this conversation with a PD recently and I swear I heard crickets in the background after I asked that question.  Or, it could have just been my iPhone’s crappy reception, but that’s another story.  The point is that if your host is considered the best thing on your station to sell a Prius (he drives an SUV) or leather furniture (he’s allergic) then how can you not ask him to sell the one thing he knows better than anything?  If he can’t convince someone to listen to his show, through straight-forward, honest talk it could be time for a whole different heart to heart.

Your voice talent belongs on the station.  Just remember that not every script idea you have has to be popped into an email and sent off to the VO farm.

Sometimes the best voices are right now the hall.