Thinksamuel

I want to record an improvisation with flute and electronics in Protools. The program I use for the electronic part is Cyan/n, a standalone made in Max/MSP. How can I get the audio to Protools, the nomal DSP window is available, but I don't know how to llink to Protools.

The setup would be, elecronic music going straight to PT, and listen while recording with headphones to avoid feedback. The two parts have to be recorded simultaneously.

I want to record an improvisation with flute and electronics in Protools. The program I use for the electronic part is Cyan/n, a standalone made in Max/MSP. How can I get the audio to Protools, the nomal DSP window is available, but I don't know how to llink to Protools.
The setup would be, elecronic music going straight to PT, and listen while recording with headphones to avoid feedback. The two parts have to be recorded simultaneously.


how-to-record-in-protools

If you're using an Apple / Mac, you might want to check out Soundflower, made by Cycling '74 and available for free on this site. It lets you route the audio to and from any application.

Although I have Max, Pro Tools, and Soundflower, I haven't actually done this yet, so keep that in mind...

After installing Soundflower, open up the DSP Status window in Max, and select "Soundflower 2ch" as your Audio Driver.

Then in Pro Tools, select "Soundflower 2ch" as your input. This should effectively route Max's audio into your ProTools session, and you should still be able to monitor the audio via speakers or headphones without any problem.

However, if you don't have a Mac (or if it doesn't work), the alternative "easy" method would be to open up the "QuickRecord" item found on the "Extras" menu in Max, and just record your performance in Max. The default location of the audio file will be the Max folder, but you can choose where the file will be saved if you wish. From there, you can just load the file in ProTools for editing purposes, etc.

Hopefully one of these will be satisfactory for you. I'm still learning Max/MSP for the most part, so I haven't had much purpose to record anything yet. I think there might be ways of routing the audio via a Max patch itself which would require some amount of programming, although I'd image it would yield the best results, as well.

As ProTools doesn't support any standard beside Rewire, you have to use Rewire. I just know that the usual solutions like Soundflower or Jack won't work, as the rely on System drivers which ProTools doesn't support by design.

But there are other ways to do it: You can record within Max. The Quickrecord coming with Max would allow to do that for example. That would record the result to disk. Then after you recorded it, you can simply import it into ProTools for further treatement. I would do it that way (that's why I can't tell you about my own hands on experience with Rewire, I just know it should work as well...)

I you only have the standalone, the quickrecord patch will be missing. But you can get it by installing Max. You don't need to open the Max application, just open the quickrecord patch with your standalone. Its likely that it will work. (On a Mac you just drop the patch on your standalone which is in fact a Max runtime...)

You will find Quickrecord.maxpat in the Max5 folder under patches/extras....

But there are other ways to do it: You can record within Max. The Quickrecord coming with Max would allow to do that for example. That would record the result to disk. Then after you recorded it, you can simply import it into ProTools for further treatement. I would do it that way (that's why I can't tell you about my own hands on experience with Rewire, I just know it should work as well...) 

Ok, this will record the electronic music, but how do I record the acustic flute at the same time then?

You would need to record a blend of the electronic music and the adc~ input (the flute you are recording). Then you could import that recording into a Pro Tools session and work with it. You could also make two different recordings simultaneously, one of the electronic music and one of the flute, so that they would not blend and you could work with either as an individual file, which I think is what you want to do.

I want a simultaneous recording of the two sources (electronic and flute) and preferably in two diffrent channels, however that is not necessary. Thing is: How do I setup the recording?

Thinksamuel wrote on Thu, 16 April 2009 16:19

Well, you could do that with Max as well. One way would be to modify the Quickrecord patch and simply disconnect some of the adoutput~s and connect an adc~ instead...

I just hacked it together, you can choose In or Out and then choose the channel...

Thinksamuel wrote on Thu, 16 April 2009 16:19Ok, this will record the electronic music, but how do I record the acustic flute at the same time then?

If you want to do it with PT, here's the Rewire method:

2. Launch Max/your standalone, open the DSP inspector, select the ad_rewire driver and turn DAC on.

3. In Pro Tools create a new (stereo) track and in the insert menu select 'max/msp'. Audio from Max/your standalone should now appear on the new track.

4. To record the result to Pro Tools whilst monitoring it, send the track to a bus, then create a new stereo track and select that bus as it's input. Bring the level up with the bus send, and record onto the new track.

If you want to do it with PT, here's the Rewire method:
1. Launch Pro Tools
2. Launch Max/your standalone, open the DSP inspector, select the ad_rewire driver and turn DAC on.
3. In Pro Tools create a new (stereo) track and in the insert menu select 'max/msp'. Audio from Max/your standalone should now appear on the new track.
4. To record the result to Pro Tools whilst monitoring it, send the track to a bus, then create a new stereo track and select that bus as it's input. Bring the level up with the bus send, and record onto the new track.
cheers
Roger


How to record in ProTools?