Today we’d like to add a few tidbits of information to some of the Tech Tips we’ve posted recently. These don’t stand on their own, but could be useful information.
RE: The difference between AIFF and SDII (Sound Designer II) files (from 9/5/00). One additional difference between these is that SDII files have a time stamp in them. This allows them to be transferred between different systems that don’t recognize each other’s Edit Decision List without having to reassemble everything from scratch.
RE: The ongoing debate between SCSI and ATA drives (8/21/00 & 8/22/00). One reader pointed out that there are some excellent ATA RAID arrays available that address some of the bus, speed, and reliability shortcomings that ATA drives have. Since we haven’t tested any of these it is difficult to comment on it for audio use, but generally RAID arrays provide either better performance, increased reliability, or both.
RE: Problems playing back SMPTE from compressed formats (6/7/00). While the tech tip in question focused more on MP3 players we’ve also seen mini disk players have trouble with this. However, at least one reader has been able to successfully read SMPTE time code played back from a Sharp MD-722 mini disk player. This leads us to believe that many similar players may be able to reconstruct enough of the information to reliably play back SMPTE, but the little bit of actual testing we’ve done has proven inconclusive – i.e. it doesn’t always work.
RE: Continuing questions about running MIDI cables long distances. One product we sell that we know does this reliably is JL Cooper’s MLA (MIDI Line Amp) series. You can check them out at their website.
RE: Exporting MP3 files from Pro Tools. You need to download the MP3 option ($19.95) from Digidesign’s website. Their algorithm uses the renowned compression technology of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute. It shows up as an option in the Bounce to Disk menu of Pro Tools.
RE: ISRC codes (8/30/00) and the question of mixed country codes. The ISRC code is often associated with individual tracks, so a compilation disc could conceivably have ISRC codes from several countries on it. Nevertheless we’ve still not seen this be a problem when duplicating discs.