Ah... I spent two hours working on a track yesterday only to have Pro Tools crash and delete ALL my work! I hit save, but apparently after a crash PT reverts to the version at the time that you first opened the program. Am I supposed to close PT after every take just to save? I'm so pissed off.

hopefully you had auto save on (it's default on newer versions). if you did, your session would be the one with the latest time in the recovered folder.
...if not, go into your preferences and set it to auto save every 2-3 minutes and you'll never loose anything.
-brian

yeah, I'll make it quicker. I was pretty sure it was on (maybe every ten minutes). It seems like I've had crashes though and sometimes it saves and sometimes it goes back to the last time I opened the session, even though I hit save.

computers can be so frustrating when you hit one button and the next thing you know, you've lost everything.

It must be me.. I've discovered that I can crash any program or f*ck up any preference anytime.

this can happen to any program on any platform, and crashes are sometimes the fault of the app, sometimes the OS, and sometimes hardware, even a power spike or sag (get a UPS).

even a 2" can go insane, into super fast spin dumping you master on the floor and stretching / breaking the tape. not to mention dropping into record on every track, or wiping that prized take, and on tape there really is no undo!

so what to do, get that auto save turned on, learn the save key command and use it, often, like every minute, for me its like automatic reaction, I don't even realize I'm doing it, my fingers just form the CTRL-S shape automatically anytime I'm near a keyboard. and make backups often. Get a synchronization program so you don't need to copy the whole thing each time (just whats changed since last backup)

and the law of digital still applies:

If doesnt really exist unless it exists in two places. (IE different hard drives)

I guess life is the same way... you know you can die or loose a loved one at any time. I just can't stand redoing stuff.


It seems like the version of Pro Tools I'm using is pretty unstable. If I have a session open and go more than ten minutes without doing anything to it, it will slow up, or I'll have to re-open the session. Is this the computer or the application?

I've got a P4, 1.8 Ghz processor w/ 512 mb of ram. Is that enough these days? I was just trying to make a new track when the computer crashed.

If I'm at a critical point in a project (like the super excellent vocal take just happend) I 'Save as...' and give it a new name. If it's 'Slick Rock Song' I'll call it 'Slick Rock Song b'

Very first time I ever worked with Pro Tools was recording with Bryan Carlstrom at Track in '99. Every time we'd do a keeper take, we'd take a break while he did back-ups. He taught me to be really meticulous about it.

All this is great advice! I usually AM pretty careful about saving and backing up, and will close out, or save a song as a backup, etc. It's always the one time you don't do it that you get burned.

But I think I should be able to re-import the audio and try to line the tracks up again. I've done that before, and (hopefully) it will work this time. I think I was maybe just the PT session file that was messed up.

There are some good tips though. Now that were focususing on improving, are there any good tips or settings that you guys have in the PT preferences? The auto save every 2-3 minutes is good. I unchecked the "Aux send at - infinity" box (so now my aux sends are at 0) and that saved me time. What are some other good settings?

I was wondering, which version of Pro Tools do you have? I haven't used Pro Tools that much on Windows operating computer, so I don't know how unstable that OS is when using PT. With MacOS X I've never had too much problems. Last time I chrashed Pro Tools was when I was mixing a song with about 100 tracks on a Pro Tools (version 6.4) HD3 system with three dsp-cards and a Powermac G5 (2,2 gHz) after I put one plug-in too many there... (there were quite a lot of plug-ins at that time). So with Mac it's pretty reliable, if you're not doing anything stupid.

PT madness it is, and you can stand in line with a lot of folks that feel your pain.
What PT unit and software are you working on?? It might be something simple.


edited post, out of respect for J

Sorry to hear about this...

I had it happen once on a PT mix system...
I was doing independent work for a small studio... demo project for a high school kid who didn't have much dough. Dropped in the loops, made a song form, tracked vocals, did a rough... then, it crashed in the middle of a close & save. Nothing I could do, it just froze. Re-opened the session file after re-boot... nothing there. I felt so bad for the kid. I hope the studio didn't charge him (their gear was always %&$#ed, and because of that I stopped doing work for them).

However, in running HD & an MBox in OSX, I haven't had many problems at all... definitely nothing major.

Good luck,
CJ

well the good news is that my wav files were still there.. I was able to import the guitar tracks that I did and at least line them up. It sounds pretty good, but I'd much rather have them in the exact location.

cool, djui5 that's a good tip with the a-z thing. I have it turned on sometimes, but didn't realize what exactly it did.

I'm running the 001 with PT 6.4. I think their is something wrong with that version, because I can't play back CDs through my monitors (and can't uninstall the wav driver), and it seems like my preferences are always reverting back to something else. I checked and auto save wasn't checked, though it was before. Also, from time to time the box labeled "edit window follows audio" (or something close to that) come unchecked and frustrates the hell out of me. I need to upgrade to the 002 or switch to Nuendo at some point, because the 001 isn't that great. But for the time being, I'm stuck.

Here are a few things I use often that aren't really tricks:

"Ctrl =" switches between the mix and edit window (on PC)
"ctrl + shift + n" is a new track.
holding Ctrl while adjusting the volume in the mix window makes small adjustments.

Wallace , were u working with recording audio? If so Protools will keep the audio file but they will not be in the location u recorded them. You will have to go into "SPOT MODE", drag the audio files from the audio folder, double click each one on type in the "Original Location" to put the file where u had it before the crash.

I didn't see it mentioned (maybe I missed it)-

Anytime I make anykind of notable change, I do a "save as...". I put a double digit number after the project name (and maybe sometimes a description of the change i.e. "bass OD" etc). So start with "Project Name" and start saving "Project Name01", "Project Name02", or something like that. It's basically a manual form of what autosave does, so If there is a crash or i decide my project has taken a turn for the worse, I have something to go back to.

Tip: use double digit numbers! (01, 02, through to 99 which you probably won't exeed). If you write "Project Name 1", when you're browsing through your folders things won't be laid out sequentially. It's a simple thing and I could explain it better if I wasn't sitting in on a pretty wacky project right now

you know, someone actually just showed that to me yesterday!! that's great, thanks!