Trouble E-mailing PT Session files?

[littledog]

Odd thing happened the other day.

I did a Pro Tools session (basic tracks) that was going to be xferred to another studio for overdubs and mixing. At the end of the session I dumped all the audio and PT session files to a firewire drive that the client provided. So far no problem.

But I forgot (after an 11 hour session) to convert the session files from vs. 5.3 to vs. 5.0 (the other guy doesn't have 5.3 yet). So I figured, no big deal, I'll convert the session file (using "Save a Copy In...") and just e-mail it to the other studio (only about 100k).

The problem is, even after e-mailing it a couple of times, the other studio could never open the session. It showed up with a blank icon, and wouldn't open. Eventually I just burned it onto a CD (the exact same file I was e-mailing) and he picked it up. And then it opened fine (once he copied the CD file onto his own drive).

I'm at a loss as to why this should happen. We are both using Macs, by the way, so cross-platform issues shouldn't exist. Why would a file work when transferred via CD, but not via e-mail? Anyone have some ideas?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Emailing a Mac file often times strips the resource fork.. which would cause the issues you're seeing.. simply binhex the PT file before emailing it... or check the option to enforce Mac/PC compatibility in the Save Session Copy In dialog.

Rail

[littledog]

Originally posted by Rail Jon Rogut
Emailing a Mac file often times strips the resource fork.. which would cause the issues you're seeing.. simply binhex the PT file before emailing it... or check the option to enforce Mac/PC compatibility in the Save Session Copy In dialog.

Rail

ooookayyyy..... (coughs..... shuffles feet... as the enormity of his technical ignorance is about to be exposed to one and all...)

ummm.... how do I "simply binhex" the file?

(But thanks in advance for the ideas! I'll test the Mac/PC compatability thingie and report back...)

[littledog]

Reporting back...

Well, I'm down to the "binhex option" (assuming I can figure out what that is...) because the "Enforce Mac/PC compatability" checkbox is greyed out when saving to PT 5.0. It only works when saving the audio files as WAV or AIFF, which is not an option when converting from v5.3 to v5.0.

[davemc]

I think that means zipping it first.
I had the same problem and could not get stuffit to work for me.
Although I am useless on a mac, PC's I grew up on.
PT version 5.1 up is mac/pc compat if I remember..
Hope that helps littledog.

[Rab]

Littledog

If you use Outlook... after you've attached the file, open the Attachments Window (the small triangle next to the list of attachments) and click on the bar just below the list of attached files (probably says "encode for any computer" as default). Under the Compression menu select "Mac (Stuffit)" and go.

[littledog]

Good stuff, Dave and Rab!

I was searching for something like that in Outlook, but the problem was, dummy that I am, I was looking at an old previously sent copy of my original message + attachment, so the encoding options in Outlook didn't show up until I selected "Resend the Message", which then lets you edit it. Duh!

I just sent the other studio 3 copies of the PT Session as an attachment:

1) Binhex encoded
2) Stuffit compressed
3) Binhex encoded AND Stuffit compressed

Waiting back to hear if they can open any or all...

I'll report the results.

Thanks again! You guys are the best!

[Rail Jon Rogut]

BinHex

Rail

[littledog]

Good news. All three of my above files were able to be opened - so binhex or stuffit seems to work!

I love this place!!!

[Alécio Costa]

Yes, reinforce MAC/PC compatibility, save as 5.x.
If you are sending to a PC user, you will need the joliet extension.
Burn the CDR as an ISO 9660/ mix mode PC/MAC

At last, consolidate the audio and send it as audio files or.. go to the closet Post office and send it FedEX.
lol

[littledog]

Thanks, but actually none of those points were relevent to my situation.

•vs. 5.0 doesn't have Mac/PC enforce
•was sending Mac to Mac
•didn't need to send audio - just session files.

But I'll keep those points in mind if i ever run into that scenario.