Exporting audio to pro-tools

L

Lynos

Well-known member
Hi

We're having trouble exporting an AAF file from Sony Vegas to Pro-tools. Basically, it can't find it or can't read it. We've done everything by the book and it still isn't working.

Did anyone here export AAF from Vegas to Pro-tools? And also, I would be interested to hear your thoughts about the differences between Pro-tools and Vegas as Audio editing applications.

Thanks
 
I've never used Vegas so I can't help you there. On the Pro Tools side, do you have DigiTranslator 2.0 installed on your system? Pro Tools can't import or export OMF or AAF files without this $500 add-on which comes standard with every other system… sigh. If you don't have Digitranslator and don't use it often enough to warrant purchasing it, find someone that owns it to open up the AAF file for you. You just need someone to open up into a Pro Tools session and you're good to go. If it's not too big and you have an FTP or public folder to upload it to, I would be happy to convert it for you.
 
Brad, be fair. Not EVERY other system, almost EVERY other system...;~)

That's my guess also. The other possibility is that there is some PC/Mac thing going on? AAF is better but AAF and OMF both have a problem in that they are not hard and fast standards and it's way too easy to make an OMF that will have problems with a system that "supports" OMF's. But if PT isn't even seeing the file I suspect that your missing Digi Translator.

A second option to finding someone with it is that I believe you can get a 14 day trial version and that would solve your immediate problem, unless of course they have done that trick before.
 
Yes, we do have digi translator. My sound guy also tried to export to a program called Nuendo and it didn't work. Could be the problem is on the Vegas side. But isn't Vegas supposed to be good with Audio? There must be something we're overlooking here...
 
Since you tried the same thing with Nuendo, you're probably right that the problem lies with Vegas. What exactly is the problem? Do the DAWs "see" the AAF file but it just won't let you open them, or is the file invisible to the DAW? When I have problems opening an OMF in Pro Tools, it'll run through it's paces and then give me an error message when actually unwrapping the files into the session.

You're using Vegas on a PC, is your sound guy also on a PC or a Mac? I'm assuming that you're trying to open the AAF file on two separate computers.

What I would do is first try to open the AAF file using Vegas on your computer. If that works, you know that the AAF file itself is not corrupt. Then see if there is another app on your computer that can open the AAF file. Assuming that works, you'll know that the file is fine and that it works on the same PC. If your sound guy is on a Mac, see if you can find someone with a PC version of Pro Tools that has Digitranslator to open the AAF file and then transfer the Pro Tools sesison to a Mac. Of course then there are some Windows/Mac Pro Tools issues, but that shouldn't be as much of an issue if both Pro Tools versions are 7.0 or later.

If none of that works, throw your hands up in the air, run around in circles and wait for Noiz to chime in cause I'm all out of ideas.
 
LOL. Does AAF have flavors like OMF? I don't think so but I really have dealt with so few AAf's that I don't know. My experience is like Brad's. If PT doesn't like the OMF it will start the process and then trow an error. With OMF's you have "type 1" and "type 2" Digi translator can only deal with type 2. Type 1 is old and not used much so it's pretty rare to see.
Is the file visible in the finder, assuming PT is on a Mac. If you can't see the disk at all then it may be NTFS, windows disk format. Mac can't read NTFS disks.

But were guessing in the dark.
What is PT running on and what version of PT are you on?
Also you might have your sound guy ask about this problem on the DUC since there are a LOT mor PT folks there.
 
Thanks guys.

No, we both use PC's. No Mac. Pro-tools version 6.7 if I'm not mistaken. As for Brad's questions about DAW's I'll have to get back to you on that.

What is DUC? I also posted that question in the Vegas forum.
 
As for the DAWs:

The Nuendo will give an error message when we try to open the AAF (when audio's embedded)
This version of the protools (6.7) does not support embedded sound in AAF.
If we wouldn't embed, both of the DAWs will read the AAF but i wouldn't see anything at the audio pool\timeline.
 
I would definitely try the DUC. There are some differences between the Mac and PC versions and your a number of versions back so??? If PT wants non embedded files then that's a PC thing. As far as I know PT always wants embedded OMF's and AAF's.

Now one thing that may be happening is that you do want embedded files but Vegas is sending a mixed sample rate session, PT won't open a mixed sample rate OMF. So I would make sure on the Vegas end that all the sounds are at the same sample rate. For instance if you dropped some music in off a CD and it was left at 44.1 (I'm assuming your working at 48). Also if Vegas will let you mix formats in the time line that could be an issue.

So my current guess is that you should use embedded AAF's and that you are sending a combo of files that PT doesn't like.
Wich actually brings up another point. What is the format of the audio files in Vegas? Some of these "outside the pro inner circle" NLEs allow you to toss just about anything on the time line. For PT the audio should be WAV or AIFF and be all the same sample rate. I don't think bit depth makes a difference but you might check that also. There may be some check box in the AAF dialog that takes care of it?
You might also ask in the Vegas section here.
 
Noiz is probably right about the mixed sample rate issue. I forgot about not being able to open embedded AAFs in earlier versions of Pro Tools. I've never been able to get the referenced OMF/AAF thing to work.

If you are getting desperate trying to do this, I should be able to open up the embedded AAF file in Pro Tools 7.4 and then do a "save copy as…" to give your sound guy a 6.7 Pro Tools session if that helps. Just email me and we can figure out a way to make it work.
 
And if Brad can't do it give me a holler. THe other option, I think is to do the referenced OMF, import into PT. I think you should be able to import and just have a region list full of offline files. The file names should be the same as the ones in the media folder and you should be able to relink. I think I heard that this would work but I have never tried it. If it does it would be very easy to email the AAF since it should be very small.

Question, can Vegas out put an XML file? I just thought of a poss workaround using XML and Confomalizer. I try to have a lot of ways to solve this kind of issue since I do a lot of (my wife would say too many) low budget projects.
 
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