PRO TOOLS Questions

[Gammon2004]

Hi all. I'm new to the world of digital recording with pro tools, and I have a few questions. I have Digi 001 with Pro Tools LE running on a G4 450. I have a few questions:

1) Every once in awhile, the mac starts up and locks up right away, saying "error type 41." The only apparent way to fix this problem is to wait a few hours (!) and start the computer up again. Is there some way I can fix this, or should I contact Apple's customer support?

2) As I understand it, there are a multitude of sound cards available for computers that allow you to connect audio and midi sources to the computer. Is the Digi 001 box more or less an "external soundcard" of sorts? I've read that it is not the best preamp for high quality recording - could I purchase another soundcard that would allow me to record from mics into Pro Tools LE? Given that I'm also going to be using Digital Performer and some type of as-yet-undetermined software sampler, do you have any recommendations on what type of card would be best for me? I'm interested in scoring films with high-quality samples and midi, and also in recording my band.

3) Lastly, when I do get into Protools, I seem to be unable to hear a click or countoff. I went through the manual and made sure that both click and countoff were enabled, but no click or countoff was heard. I then went into the countoff options dialog box and switched the output around to every available option one at a time, but none of those options allowed me to hear a click or countoff. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

james gammon

[michaelhoddy]

The onboard preamps in the 001 aren't the best, but you can get around this by purchasing a good outboard preamp. The converters aren't the best, either, but you're going to need to spend quite a bit to significantly inprove here. There are a several mic pre/converter combos that allow you to upgrade both of these, using either the S/PDIF or ADAT digital I/O.

The Digi 001 will work with DP. But you can't use any non-Digi hardware and get it to work with PT LE.

As far as your count-off problems, you need a MIDI device connected to PT LE to produce a click.

[Gammon2004]

Hmn - ok, so does that mean that if I have Pro Tools LE, I cannot record on that computer unless I have either Digi 001 or the MBox? Am I able to record with just a sound card? I know that with Pro Tools Free I could just go from a preamp into a soundcard.
As far as the click, doesn't the "Quicktime musical instruments" thing function as its own midi device?

james