A ProTools Diary – Product Registration Window keeps popping up

I’ve dealt with this before, but one more time, this time with video, here is how to handle any Pro Tools Product Registration Pop-up Problems.

After updating ProTools, I was getting harassed again, by the registration pop up – twice each time – every few minutes. Instead of boiling over with frustration try the following solution:

Manually delete the following file:

On Mac:
“DigidesignRegistration.app”
from Applications/Digidesign/Pro Tools/

On Windows
“DigidesignRegistration.exe”
from C:\Program Files\Digidesign\Pro Tools

It worked for me! Again!

For Sale: Auction MAGMA PCMCIA (CB-HIF) PCI Expansion Chassis Host Card

For Sale: Auction MAGMA PCMCIA (CB-HIF) PCI Expansion Chassis Host Card

Hi all. I figure for a bit of Pro-Tools blog variety, I should include my auction on ebay for the MAGMA Type II PC card I bought to run my pro-tools expansion chassis on a Macbook Pro laptop. I never used it, so it is unused in its original glass case and bubble-wrap, waiting to give someone a slick mobile pro-tools rig among other possibilities!

Item Name: MAGMA Cardbus / PCMCIA (type II) Host Card Model

Part Number: 01-04551-02

Manufacturer: MAGMA

Condition: unused

Description: Genuine MAGMA Cardbus Host Card

* 68 Pin Proprietary PCMCIA card
* For use with MAGMA PCI Expansion Systems to provide a way to add more PCI slots to your computer

Main Features:

The Magma Card is the connection between your Magma PCI Expansion System and your laptop computer.

The CardBus (also referred to as a PCMCIA Card) is a Type II PC Card

It attaches a Magma PCI expansion system to a laptop computer via a PCMCIA slot.

FREE Sound Toys Little Radiator™ plugin for a limited time.

FREE Sound Toys Little Radiator™ plugin for a limited time.

This is for all my musician and composer geek friends:

For a limited time only, Soundtoys are offering a free plugin using sharing codes. Their Little Radiator™ plugin is free if you have my code.

Little Radiator is based on the warm sound of the classic Altec 1566A tube mic preamp. Soundtoys suggest it is great to fatten up bass, guitar, drums, or vocals. They also feel it is a fantastic addition on an electric piano track. Use a tiny bit or a whole lot. They also point out that Little Radiator brings a lot of  grit and warmth to you sound – perfect for shaking the “clean” vibe off of your tracks.

Some History

Altec gear played a big part in shaping the early “sound” of Motown between 1961 to 1964. Songs by greats like The Four Tops, The Marvelettes and The Supremes owe a lot of their warmth to passing through Altec mixers.

Click the link I’ve included and use the Sharing Code: 386-7887-588 to get your free plugin!

Come on, you know you can’t resist!

A Cheap Apple Power Adapter Travel Solution

Have to travel to Europe on a recording project, bringing the laptop and don’t want to buy a new $79 Apple power supply?

You could buy Apples $39 travel kit but you will loose 4-5ft of cable length and its annoying as hell. After much research I have a stupidly simple solution for you. A $10 travel Adapter head for a plug… check out the video..

Sibelius for Dummies

Is it safe to say that the Sibelius notation software ROCKS the classical notation world. Why? Because it does. I’m sitting here entering my 1st violin concerto into Sibelius and it honestly could not be any easier. Yes, there is a little learning curve for the entry keys on a laptop when you don’t have a numeric keypad, but it certainly isn’t the end of the world.

Tools of the trade

Getting my score from Manuscript paper to computer score has never been easier

Image via Wikipedia

I first used Sibelius way way back in 1996, when it was running on an Acorn computer if you can remember that! It was incredibly user friendly, tied to the Acorn OS and couldn’t run on another machine.  I ended up switching to Finale at the time, simply because I needed something that could run on a PC Laptop.

Years later I finally repurchased Sibelius now that it was available on Mac (having become a mac Pro Tools convert back ~ 2000). I have been slow to take to it, for fear of a large learning curve on a time sensitive project. I thought my concerto was the perfect time to re-introduce myself to it at a high level, seeing as I am feeding it into the computer in stages, as opposed to the usual overnight entry for a film score cue.

The Hope Concerto

Surprising Simplicity

Keyboard entry -

was seamless to set up – go to Preferences and select Input devices and if your keyboard is not there already just click Find New Input Devices and voila!

Note entry - 

was equally simple. Pressing N gave me two forms of entry into a measure, and pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 etc changed the note value which could then be entered with the mouse pointer or the keyboard.

Scanning through the document -

simply involves clicking and dragging the paper and it moves as if like a sheet of paper on a desk. Unbelievably intuitive and straightforward.

Playback -

is amazing! Sibelius chooses the instruments from its sound library that it feels best fit your score and does a helluva job mocking up the score, considering its notation software. Simplicity is the key for me. I just want to hear it to be sure I’m not messing up, and it more than handles the challenge with no real work required.

Printing -

As for printing! Honestly, it couldn’t have gone any smoother. To print out a test of the solo violin part, I simply opened up a ‘Part’ window by pressing Option+Command+R and selected the solo violin which opened and then I just printed it… no fixing markings, or titles or any shenanigans like that which I’ve been used to.

I’ll blog a little more on it, when I’m a little further into the transcriptions, but for now, I hope some of these shortcuts and Sibelius for Dummies tips help anyone reading.

My Protools studio is this Week’s Featured Composer Studio on the new Composerstudios.com

Check out the feature on my studio at composerstudios.com.

Film Music Magazine announces the launch of ComposerStudios.com, the magazine’s latest online destination for film and television composers that features photos and descriptions of the studios of working film & TV composers from around the world along with links to the composers and their music.

The new website highlights the technology and tools used by working film and television composers, and features photos as well as and descriptions of the technology, hardware and software used in their studios.

“We’re excited to give composers a look at how their peers work in the industry,” said Film Music Magazine publisher Mark Northam. “One of our primary focuses with this project is on everyday working composers around the world who have streamlined their studios for maximum efficiency and production. Composers often spend so much time working by themselves that they don’t get a lot of time to see how other composers have designed their studios.”

Some Shortcut Keys to speed up workflow in PT9

I’ve been sitting here mixing temp mixes of 8 songs over a few days and as always have been trying to discover ways to speed myself through the process.

The m , . / keys

working from your keyboard, one of the functions that always helps me move faster is simple ‘nudges’. I’ve been such a slave to my nudge keys on my procontrol, that it took me being overseas to ‘miss’ my quick nudges pretty fast. Then came the magic discovery of the nudge keys on the color coded keyboard I have. Revolution! Now I’ve been able to whip the files into place and time is once again being saved.

Control Click

You know, there are just so many wonderful discoveries you can have with a little ‘control click’. The two that have made my week are:

• control clicking the marker line in the Edit Window – its a quick way to enter a marker at the exact point you want it.. even better than the numerical keypad on the Edit Pack!
• pressing control while mousing over a region while in any non waveform view will always give you a little pencil to put in an edit point on the line – saves you having to switch from Smart Tool.

Command 3-7

To select the different tools, try pressing command and then either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 and watch as you select the various tool options. Command+7 is the main one for me, turning back on the Smart Tool from having the Trimmer(Command+2), Selecter(Command+3) orGrabber(Command+4) tool in action.

Pre/Post Roll

Sometimes it helps to have pre/post roll on or off depending on how you are monitoring your edits. Its simply a matter of setting up the amounts that work for you (2sec in my case) and then using command+K to toggle the roll on/off. Very handy without the ProControl Buttons handy, I’ve discovered.

Troubleshooting Tips of the day:

1.  Keyboard Focus

Remember, if for some insane reason you can not get the screen to do what you are asking it, always check to see if the KEYBOARD FOCUS is active in your edit screen. Sometimes, it turns off and can cause consternation unless you figure it out… so remember it as an early round of any troubleshooting

2.  Conductor Track

If you are trying to add tempo changes and can’t  (as happened to me this week), open the Transport Window, and make sure the conductor icon is selected. Sometimes, it turns off and scares the pants off you, even if you never quite figure out how you deactivated it!

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