AudioMasters

For those that are into this sort of thing.

There has been a bit of chatter around importing & exporting session data between AA and a range of other DAWS.
While it is not something that ordinarily would interest me but a post by John Lundsten in the UK prompted me to re-examine AA's XML file.

While the XML output from AA probably resembles the dead sea scrolls the AA programmers have provided all the info you need iits just not easy to interpret - probably for nartional security reasons  :-)

Well I have been working with John on this problem for a few weeks (it seems much longer).

While not finished yet and our list of features keeps increasing we finally have a beta version (not yet for release) which will allows us to:-
Export from AA an XML session to an AES formatted file which can be read by the free EDLTranslate app and converted so that it could be imported in to Reaper & Samplitude. Additionally for those who have ProConvert (but that aint free) our output can be converted for use in ProTools 7.x and a whole heap of other applications.

Got the following functions to write:-

• AA session merge facility
• Fade & Pan events
• Import via an AES formatted file which can originate from all those other apps via either EDLTranslate or Proconvert
• Assorted bells & whistles

Still early days but we are getting there - keep you posted.

For those too lazy to read to the end and find out how many more features have been added since this post here is the web site http://www.aatranslator.com.au (http://www.aatranslator.com.au)

Edit: See last post for massive price cut details!   http://audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php?topic=7339.91 (http://audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php?topic=7339.91)

Hi there,

This sounds interesting! At my work (the World's best employer!), we have a fully fitted music studio in the basement, complete with instruments, effects, and, unfortunately, a Pro Tools mixer and a PC with PT software.
I have offered my services as producer and engineer as I am the only one with any experience at all (and mine is mainly theoretical when it comes to recording live music). I have taught myself the basics of PT, but still feel far more comfortable with AA.

So to the point - will your utility be able to convert in both directions? (I am sure I can get my company to buy the Proconverter if necessary) - it would make my life much easier!

The short answer - At present we can export from AA and we are currently building the import functionality.

Is it easy - no otherwise everybody would be doing it

Are there stumbling blocks - yes but not with AA.  Some issues are that some of the other DAWs don't adhere to specs and also don't have equivalent functionality that is found in AA.  Eg AA can handle stereo & mono clips on the same track - most others can't so we have had to build functionality to split stereo wavs and the list goes on, FXs & midi won't be covered but neither are they covered with any other DAW in regards to import export.

So the bottom line is that once completed you will be able to take a session back & forth from AA.  Some things just aren't going to export/import (this is not an AA problem) but if you have a session with any number of clips and level, fade & pan points plotted it will disassemble/reconstruct it.

Lots more testing to do (thanks John) but we are too far down the track to stop now.  :wink:

prior to EDL's conversion to SSL I had some success using it with AA 1 & 1.5 (rather obviously it works best when you need it least and when you plan in advance and know limitations of both session applications)

while SSL is promising big things there is a heft price tag just to discover whether it might be a required tool

the thing you are working on here could easily be exactly what I need . . . not panacea but a tool so that I don't loose 'gestures' executed in one environment (requiring time and focus to make exhaustive notes to counter) when moving among applications . . . something not likely to change soon

importing into AA is still my primary need

as the SSL price is (i think) neighborhood of $700 this is a tool towards which even my scotish genes could be persuaded to contribute

unfortunately after PT the 2nd most common session app I run into is Garage Band
 

I will be pretty straight about this.  Have we bitten off more than we can chew?

I didn't think so until we really go started and the hole we started to dig our way out of just seemed to get bigger.

Most of the stumbling blocks are that each DAW has a lot in common with every other DAW but they each have their special thing that they do.  There is a spec/standard that most DAWS (try to) comply with,  But this is a bit dumbed down in order to have 'common' ground in order to pass back & forward.

Myself & John have already spent weeks on this thing and I mean lots of hours almost every day and there is still lots to do.

The current plan is that we will provide a donationware version (mind you to date this hasn't been real succesful and I'm sure that not everyone who owns AA is Scotish  :-D ) and a version that has all the bells & whistles for a (modest) price. 

What features are in each, what price etc are really of little concern at the moment as we try to pump in as many features and get around all the crazy things that some of the other convertors & DAWS do.

Garage Band is certainly not on our current list and I'm pretty sure that GB doesn't import OMF or XML projects?

It might help us if others AA users gave an indication which other DAWS they have to interact with.

Ideally Iwe would like a version out there which didn't need to communicate with any other app including ProConvert which requires a lot of $$$ but in the short term that is just way too much work.  Besides that I'd rather not be sending business their way.

We are keen to get a working version out asap hopefully with the AA merge & AA import functions in the first version

Anyway there's more code to cut, more testing and more bourbon to be consumed and its only 5am  :-)

PS If I can get a Scotsman to part with some pennies then I'm impressed  :-D

I'm not Scottish (although SWMBO has 50% Scottish ancestry) but I think it's only fair to point out that the Scots are noted for being thrifty, not tight - and that this has regularly been misinterpreted around the globe. So I'm sure that if you provide a version that is cost-effective and does what a Scotsman or woman wants, they will part with the money for it. Why shouldn't they?

And I have also to say that recently, I've come across some very generous Scottish folk who don't live up to the stereotype at all.

Can't rely on anyone anymore!  :-D

Another quick update

Export facility is all but done - a little bit more refinement with the fades.
Rewrote some routines in C/C++ for increased speed.

I have finally worked out the minimum that needs to be supplied to AA without crashing (I am essentially lazy after all).

Still to go (apart from further feature creep)

• Session Import
• Session Merge (serial and/or parallel merge)
• Re-assembling Left & Right Mono wavs back into Stereo wav
• Incorporate track mutes (already cater for clip mutes)
• Possibly provide direct EDL output
• User guide
• Annoy JL with even more testing  :-)

Feel free to offer feature suggestions or ask any questions.

Whatever you do don't try this at home :evil:

Finally got a complex session to import to AA!!

Still some work to do but we are making very promising headway.

Keep you posted.

Got past a few major hurdles with splitting stereo wav types (why do there have to be so many) .....

Status:-

• Session Import pretty well finished
• Some issues importing a video clip in to the session - hope to get past that but audio, gain, markers etc come in ok
• Some features held over to version 2 (assuming enough interest)
  Things like Session Merge/Append, maybe track mutes (clip mutes are fine) and (probably) native EDL output probably won't make v1

I suspect that the feature list for version 2 is already growing  :cry:

Just have a heap more testing (thanks John Lundsten) and some fine tuning on some of the UI features etc.

Starting to get really sick of this and want to have version 1 finished real soon! :roll:

I think I'd rather a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotomy - Tom Waits

Well its probably a good thing that me & John are thousands of miles away - its a lot harder to slap each other over the back of the head  :-D

The import facility for v1 is now in the mopping up stage (someone one left a mess in there and it was probably me)  :oops:
We have had a lot of trouble making adjustments for other apps which don't seem to adhere to the spec.

The export facility has been pretty well fine for some time.
Had lots of trouble again having to cater for other DAWs.

It is really only now doing a 'where's wally' for any bugs/undocumented features.

We have already planned a swag of additional features for v2 and a list of DAWs to provide translation functionality but a v2 depends on demand of course.
 
One thing I know I have learned from this exercise is don't believe all that marketing hype - PT is one the biggest marketing cons (apart from NS10s) ever pulled off.  It is not a patch on AA where it really counts.  I suspect that there will be many scurrying across to AA (without letting their workmates know 'cause that wouldn't be cool)  :wink:

Anyway - JL has more testing (and no doubt cursing of me) and there are easter eggs to eat and a manual/user guide (for JL) to cobble together (although, like error messages,  I don't think anyone reads these things anymore).  :-D

More shortly...

The only positive thing about NS10s was that if your mix sounded good on those speakers it would sound good on anything. 

You should read Scott Dorsey's article in "Recording" June 2007 pg 96 - very interesting.... :wink:

That JL is a slave driver  :-D

Program is done except for:-

• User Manual
• Last minute testing
• Late UI changes

Just when you think its safe to hit the release button and another feature gets added....

Just finished the import facility for Samplitude EDLs v1.5 & 1.6
Gonna try and do the AA export to same before release of version 1

Which of course means more testing for JL - sigh

I'm sure I'm just updating this thread so that I know where we are up to.

Well the program is 'finished' so to speak - except for some GUI mods and the user manual (testing never seems to finish)

We were held up for a little while with working out just how differently Reaper and Samplitude interpret the same EDLs and then making AA happy with importing and exporting to and from this pair - Sigh

But that's all nailed now.

I have had dstdean from this forum send me some EDLs & XMLs and successfully converted them for him (given the limitations of what Reaper could handle) so that's a good thing I guess

Have already got a fair way down the track with a number of conversions to/from other DAWs but they will surface after version 1.0

While PT & OMF are on our conversion hit list they will take a bit longer.

Apart from what we have included in version 1.0 (which is heaps) we have also pretty much nailed Vegas & OpenTI and as well as looking at Final Cut Pro, Avid's ALE & CMX EDLs.

While there has been mention of Garage Band & PT in this thread feel free to let me know of any other pressing conversions that may be required

Apart from having to redo a big chunk of code to better take into account workflow issues with those in the film industry its all down to finalising a user guide and of course take the opportunity to do a bit more testing  :wink:

In summary - with Version 1.00 of AATranslator you can export from and import to an Adobe Audition® version 2 or 3 session
the following DAWS:-
Reaper, Sadie, Samplitude, Sequoia, Nuendo, Cubase, Pyramix, Audiophile, Soundscape, Fairlight, DAR and n-Track
the following Recorders:-
AAton, Nagra, Alesis Masterlink, HHB, Otari, Genex and Zaxcom
And using the very expensive SSL-Pro-Convert:-
OMF1, OMF2, SAW, CoolEdit, Steinberg XML, Discreet Edit, Tascam BAU, Pro-Tools 5, Vegas, Wavelab, Pro-Tools 7 & Apple XML (Final Cut Pro, Logic)

This app which sounded so simple at day one and planned to be 'knocked over' in a few days has taken the combined efforts of three people around 8 to 10 weeks.
No this one isn't going to be donationware but there will be a fully functional 'demo' which is only limited by number of audio files and/or clips.

But to show my appreciation for those few who have supported me in the past - anybody who has already made a previous donation for any of my other utilities prior to this post will be eligible for a substantial discount far greater than the amount that they have donated.

This tool is not for everybody but I am hoping that it brings in a lot more people who have wanted to use Audition's superior editing functionality but were unable to convert their projects in the past.

More to come over the next few days.....

I was hoping to release this on Star Wars Day (May the 4th  :-) ) but a small problem with some xfades when splitting stereo tracks into mono as well as a sub folder path issue cost us most of this weekend but thats all fixed and the weekends gone.

Plus I got sidetracked building a utility to manipulate AA's Marker List (if ever copying the contents into another list and turning the background of AA' Marker List bright green becomes fashionable - I'm already there).  The plan is for it to do other things!

Anyway I'm hoping that all thats left is for John to do a bit more testing and finalise the user guide (I told him no-one would read it anyway)  :evil:

I suspect that I'm talking to myself but then again I like the sound of my own keyboard.   :-D

Michael, you and John have done a brilliant job on this and I count myself lucky to have been one of the "testers" (although in reality, I only ever provided you with a couple of sessions... :roll:)

Thanks for taking the time and EXTREME effort to work up this utility as well as the other utilities that you have provided the community!!

--Dean

I thought no-one was listening.

Thanks but now your just embarassing me  :oops:

And you know I can do that myself  :-)

Well, the thread has been accessed well over a thousand times...


That would be "you're just embarrassing", I presume...  :-P (I wouldn't normally do that - but this one was just too good to pass up!)


But I'm sure that many people will come to recognise the value of what you've done over time. It almost always comes down to individual effort to create something like this - simply because no software developers ever really want work to swap between applications, even though in the real world this is somewhat inevitable.

Fantastic work guys. :mrgreen: I have been following the thread quietly since it started and I am amazed how you have managed to meet your ambitions! I will be waiting with great anticipation for the PT functionality (our house band is making noises about recording some tracks and I would love to do a PT version and an AA version (I have far better plug-ins and FX than the PT version they have bought!). Maybe I can persuade them to chuck PT and buy AA instead. :-D

See I told you I could embarrass myself!   :-D
I knew there was an automatic spell checker on this forum  :-P

Thanks for the encouragement MarkT and SteveG you are correct why would they want you moving to another platform.  In fact we had the export functions working over a month ago but decided that it would send a pretty poor signal to Adobe and AA users if we only came out with an export function initially.

Hey we want more AA users not less and I really think that this will help.

John especially has spent heaps of time looking at other DAWS and it is surprising just how many short comings PT has compared to AA.  Mind you he was impressed enough with Samplitude to buy that.

Where as myself I have not seen one that I have been impressed with as much as AA but there you go that's me.

What you should do is track in AA then give them a copy of the wav files to process in PT - oh that's right PT can't handle 32bit wavs, better save them a copy as 24bit  :-D

Anyway PT will be hard as I understand they encrypt their session files - but hey pressure is what turns coal into diamonds.

Any day now (and I mean it) .....

Why would they do that?  What are they afraid of?

Or are they protecting the "proprietary" creativity of the engineer?

I suspect it is so you have to pay an enourmous amount for their export/import options I guess

Surely they realise that once you have paid out all that money for their useless hardware that those users can't afford to go anywhere  :-D

Hmmm did I say that or just think it?

Anyway will know more when we get to looking closely at them

Last minute bug with Pans converting from ADL to Samplitude/Reaper EDLs which is now fixed (we now have native Reaper Project files on our list to convert to/from)

A quick review of the user guide and I think we should be good to go within the next 24 hours (though I have allocated some time in that period for sleep)

Watch this space ....

Ooooooo, ya bugger!!  Yay!!  Thanks!!

--Dean

Yeah, I've had a pretty good look at them and (famous last words) should be realtively easy to to get sorted.

OpenTL & Vegas EDLs shouldn't be too far off either.  The main problem I have is that for every new DAW we bring on board I want it to communicate with every other one we already have.  That is if we bring on board OpenTL for example then I want to be able to import from OpenTL and export to AA, Samplitude & Reaper EDLs, Reaper project files etc etc.

Thats the challenge  :-D

Anyway a little bit of tidying up and I'm hoping to release in a few hours.

Back to you soon...

Well, version 1.00 of AATranslator is blessed, boxed & buried.

I'm confident that no more bugs will be found until it's released  :roll:

Given recent history I'd best spend a few hours checking the grammar and spell checking the user guide before uploading :-D

Well its done!

http://www.aatranslator.com.au/ (http://www.aatranslator.com.au/) is where you will find it.

Many thanks to John Lundsten from  the UK for the idea of this project, for his tireless efforts testing the application and for his insight as well as the user guide.
Thanks also to Adrian Connelly for additional programming efforts and the interface.
 
Its been 3 months in the making and as I mentioned previously its not donationware but it is a fully functional demo only limitation is no of tracks and 'clips'.

Those who have supported me in the past (as at the time of this post) through donating for any of my previous applications are entitled to $50usd off the price for every application they have donated to me in the past.  For some that equals a free copy!  Never let it be said that I don't appreciate your support!

This application is not for everyone but certainly for anyone who needs to move their projects from one DAW to another it is certainly worth a look.

It is the only application which currently allows you to import/export from Adobe Audition!

There are many other DAWS in our sights and significant work has already been completed interfacing to Reaper project files and OpenTL files.  These will appear in a free upgrade in the not too distant future.

Enjoy.....

Congratulations.  Being an Audition-only guy, I can't personally see a use for this just yet.  But you've now given me the power to entrench myself even deeper and insist on doing my work on any future collaborations in Audition.  Way cool.

Thanks for that

I'm like you - I have no need to move from Audition but on the odd time that I have to do a bit of video editing at least I can edit the audio with a product I know that will get me the results I want.  :-)

As I understand it there are folks that for either commercial or personal reasons (especially in the film industry) have the need to move their projects around.  Well now they have the chance to move to AA  :-D

Congratulations Mick.

Hope you are now getting some sleep after what looks like an all night session!

Al You know better than that - got to bed at 4.30 this morning and up at 6.45am  :-D

Been looking at the PT7 session files - they are encrypted!

Not only does PT want to hold their users hostage with the hardware but they don't want to let them go external to PT without paying about $1,000AUD
Ya gotta love those PT boys!

I'm gonna look at the PT5 session file before trying to tackle that encryption.

The fun just never stops  :-)

Looks like thy changed the encryption in PT8 to lock out the ProConvert translation software and strangely enough PT have just had a massive price cut in their DigiTranslator software.

Pity, but I don't think we can take any credit for that.

Anyway, JL is testing the Reaper RPP export functionality which has just been written.  It will be one of the new formats for the next version of AATranslator.
Part way through the import function for RPP files.

So many formats so little time  :cry:
I guess we'll just tick 'em off the list as we do them  :-D

I thought that converting Reaper would be a walk in the Black Forest (remember the Goodies)

Well what do I know?

Clearly not much!

But both the import and export to/from AA are done.  Just tidying up some stereo to mono conversion issues exporting to ADL - there is always something  :roll:
I didn't bother converting 'phase invert' or clip pan but I can do that later if it really bothers someone.
The clip vol/pan envelopes were a REAL pain as Reaper seems to do like a whole track envelope for each where as AA obviously does a clip envelope which means that Reaper could have points in between AA's clips -  :cry:

As I've said before pressure is what turns coal into diamonds  :-D

Anyway it looks pretty impressive - even if I do say so myself   8-)

So when JL has done his "Where's Wally" with all the bugs I've hidden in there then we will release a new version of AATranslator

Found a problem with some Nuendo ADLs which required a fix - thanks Bruce Williams for breaking it - won't be letting you near the china cabinet next time you drop over  :-)

So I have put a version 1.01 up on the site but don't go rushing to download it unless you use Nuendo as there will be another update to add Reaper project files very, very shortly.
Also included is a fix for a minor problem importing some video clips but again it shouldn't be a problem for most.

Reaper is all butt (fleshy part at the top of your leg) finished  :-D

Video import from Reaper is now done and just have to do the video export from AA to Reaper as well as chasing one small bug (which randomly formats your hard drive)

Just joking about the formatting but I thought I'd get your attention  :evil:

Couple of days and then its up there.

I'm guessing by the fact that there have only been a handfull of comments on this thread that connectivity between DAWs is not really worth talking about?

No, definitely not.  :-D

I think the fact that you've managed all this at all has gobsmacked most people - and as we all know, you don't feel too inclined to talk when that's happened!

But I'm sure that everybody is now happy and secure in the knowledge that if they need to do any of this, that the tools are there. I was going to comment about PT, but I'd only end up being very rude about their attitude to import/export so I will refrain...

I'm not happy with the whole (unjustified) PT 'domination' either and it would be interesting to see what other (if any) DAWs others on this forum are having to interact with (and no a reply doesn't mean you have to buy a copy of the application!)

I'm definitely interested in this - but probably more from a Reaper perspective than an Audition perspective nowadays. The two formats that would have been most useful to me recently would be an ability to import Logic files and an ability to import Nuendo files.

Cheers

James.

Jamesp thanks for joining in.

We can certainly import from Nuendo via EDL to AA, Samplitude, Reaper etal and obviously export from all those to Nuendo.

What options do you have in Logic for import/export eg EDL/XML/ADL/OMF ?  I'm happy to have a look (the easier the better)  :-)

I had hoped to have the Reaper functionality ready for release by now.  The Reaper stuff is ready its just that I had to rewrite the core engine for stereo/mono conversion which entails dynamic allocation of tracks, blocks, entities blah, blah, blah (for which AA is the hardest of course).

Its almost done my head in but I'm really hoping to get it finished over the weekend 'cause, just quietly, I need some sleep  :cry:

Well I rewrote the core stereo split stuff (wasn't that fun :roll:)
Then I find that the Reaper track envelopes that have been giving me so much trouble (when I have to dynamically allocate additional track, clips, envelopes etc when I have to split stereo wavs) can actually be replaced with clip envelopes which Reaper has hidden away.

Thank you to JL and NoFish (In Reaper - right click item -> take -> volume/pan envelope. Can also be set up as showing default under options)
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=36154 (http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=36154)

Even though I had to rewrite the envelope code it is much much better (and its done).

All been sent to John over in the UK to test (fingers crossed) and have already developed some improvements to the ADL import for Nuendo users which might appear in the next version but if not will be in the following version shortly after.

I have also had some interest from the web site regarding an "append" session or "merge" session feature.

I was hoping for a simple suggestion like change the text colour   :cry:

Testing is going really well - will know more in a few hours.

Looked at the 'append session' idea for Audition.  Most of the code is already written (reading & writing xml).  Just need a function to renumber all the track, clip, file pointers etc.
Pretty easy - have done it elsewhere in the code so this will certainly get a look in for the next version after this Reaper stuff.

Funny thing is that with a little bit of a work around conceptially you could append from any session to any other session - I guess that's gotta be good thing?

Hi - I'm afraid that I know as much (or possibly less) about Logic as you do. The client that sends me Logic files doesn't know the difference between a .wav and .mp3 so I haven't been successful in finding out what he can export either. At the moment I just make things sound as close to the edits he sends me as possible.

Cheers

James.

I'm pretty sure it uses apple's Final Cut Pro XML - I have downloaded the spec - it looks similar to the dead sea scrolls (without the pictures)  :roll:

It's now on my list of things to do before I go completely crazy  :wink:

Unfortunately as a result of intense testing a couple of minor bugs have surfaced which I have to iron out - should get them done tonight - I still think there is an expectation of software having at least a few bugs :-D

Updated doco for the next release is almost complete.  The Reaper stuff has taken longer than expected but we have tried to import/export a significant number of features between the DAWs.

On the upside I have tentatively completed the 'append session' function.  Just have to knock up a seperate screen and obviously get John to do another good testing job.  When released the first version of this functionality will concentrate on combining/appending the tracks, clips, volume & pan envelopes etc of one session with another.  While it is possible to import things like track EQ (and we might later) by building it this way it maintains the ability (with a couple of steps) to literally combine, for example, a Nuendo session with a Samplitude session or a Reaper session with an AA session etc etc.

Someone stop this ride I wanna get off  :cry:

I got sidetracked with this 'append session' function - screen is done and the whole thing WORKS!

I must admit it is pretty pleasing to see two Audition XMLs appended to each other  :-D

Anyway a quick slap on the back, a collective high five and back to trying to get this Reaper version out the door

After much pain, suffering & anguish version 1.10 of AATranslator is available for your edification.

We have added native support for Reaper Project files allowing transfer of much of Reaper's rich functionality.
At this stage we have catered for clip (or Take) envelopes (gain/volume & pan) and will look at Track envelopes in a later release.
Updated documentation will be uploaded in the next few hours.

This Reaper stuff took longer than anticipated and so the 'append session' functionality wasn't quite ready for this release but should make the next one which is due soon.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments....  8-)

http://www.aatranslator.com.au (http://www.aatranslator.com.au)

It has been brought to my attention that AAT may crash if you try to open a non Audition XML (thank you Lawrence).

Apparently my (unintentional) method of identifying that the XML is not an Audition XML and then crashing didn't constitute error trapping  :-D

That is now fixed but don't bother downloading the update v1.11 (unless you want to) - just don't open a non-Audition XML  :-) 

However, download the following version which should have even more goodies (and error checking).

It should contain an 'Append Session' function and maybe Cubase XMLs - see how we go.

We have just successfuly imported a Cubase XML - gotta be happy with that!

Still early days with Fades & a few other bits & pieces to do plus heaps of testing but the import function shouldn't take too long.

Hi James, as runaway says apple XML is on our list as is Open TL.  Do you know what version of Logic is being used? Open TL has been in there for quite a while as an export/import option. Eg for Logic Platinum V5 the last one for the PC (I think). Apple XML not surprisingly is only for the newer Mac only vers.
John Lundsten

Hello John - I believe that he is using version 7 of Logic but there's a possibility that it is version 8. He's not really an expert user and, as I have absolutely no knowledge of Logic, I don't know how you go about saving sessions in a format other than the default. I could send you a file if it would help.

Cheers

James.

Well it's a Mac version then.
I will check with a musician friend who had V7 & now 8 and get back to you. But as far as I remember it was just File - Save as  - XML.
John

Good to see you pop in JL  :-)

Jamesp - JL knows more about this stuff than me - I thought Frooty Loops was a breakfast cereal  :roll:

well I have been "lurking" for a while - & good stuff here. But the "other site" is soooo bad i have to find  a new Home.  8-)

Welcome, John, and we hope you find it cozy here!

We've been working on a few improvements to AATranslator. 

The Append Session function works but needs testing - still have some screen design issues to fix before giving it to John to test
We have successfully imported a Cubase SX3 XML file into AA, Reaper, etc - still lots to do
Working on Cubase 4 & 5 - which are both different again (thanks Lawrence - Reaper/KVR Audio forums for the XML files)

New version soon...

Also making very good process import OpenTl files
Some issues with Cubase XML track gain - I wish I'd paid attention during math classes  :cry:

Here are the planned additions for the next release:-

• Audition 'Append Session' feature
• Import OpenTL files
• Import Cubase SX3 XML files
• Import Cubase v4 & v5 XML files

All this has been sent for testing and knowing JL there will be list a mile long to sort out .... sigh  :-)

Some features we currently have for other DAWs like splitting stereo files may not appear in this version for Cubase & OpenTL imports.  I expect these features to be added in subsequent versions.  OpenTL was originally developed for Tascam recorders but is used by many DAWs including Nuendo http://www.steinbergusers.com/TechDocs/Nuendo4/NUENDO_ExportingImportingOpenTL.pdf (http://www.steinbergusers.com/TechDocs/Nuendo4/NUENDO_ExportingImportingOpenTL.pdf)

In the next version the 'Append Session' feature won't import FX & EQ settings but depending upon demand may be added later.

The difficulty of course (apart from actually doing this stuff and staying sane) is getting enough 'real world' test cases.

Anyway back to the grind stone.

Row well and live number 42.....

Some major break throughs with structure analysis.  Successfuly parsed AA3 & AA2 sessions.  Worked out most of the CEP2 and AA1.5 session structures.  Gotta hand it to those Syntrillium guys - very clever structure and very well enhanced to be the current structure - I'm impressed but not nearly as impressed with myself for working it out :-)

This could lead to a heap of possibilities.....

Too much to do and not enough time.

I just copied this from the other thread (too lazy to link to).

There is a good chance after the next version that we could look at importing CEP2 or AA1.5 & AA2 sessions but we will see what sort of interest there is first.

Must go - actually have paying work in the studio :-)

RUN, before they walk out!

Another happy customer - and me too - they paid!

Ah well back to writing these crappy programs :-(

Message to myself - Did I mention that I hate Steinberg's XML?

Thanks to Lawrence's supply of confounding XMLs I think we are nearly there.  Open TL seems ok and the Append Session function is holding up but requires more testing.
It has been a major rewrite to accomodate the matix of conversion possibilities and still make sense.

Getting there....

Hate Steinberg XML, bit harsh me Ozzy mate, yes it it is a challenge, like every version is a bit different, but we have Cubase 4/5 sorted, well it seems solid to me. Some of the Nuendo XML's have problems - but knowing you, these will be but a few mind f - er, challenging hours work.  :roll:

A challenge ?  now thats an understatement :-)

May need to go with v4 & v5 Cubase XMLs in the short term (other versions may load - especially  SX3) - see how we go.
Some very good input from Plush2 (Reaper forum) regarding an option for our EDL output to be readable by EDL Convert which we have taken onboard and will also be in the next version.

I need a budding math wizard.

Ok - I've been stuck on this problem for a few days and the answer is no doubt staring me in the face but I need some math genius to point out the obvious to  me!

Here is the problem.

If I have a 44.1k audio clip placed in time on a track at the 10 sec point at 120 bpm naturally the sample point is 441000 - the value saved in the Cubase XML is 9600
I change the bpm to 140 the clip moves now to 378000 and the value stored in the XML is still 9600.

So knowing only these figures :- 'start' position 9600, bpm 120 (or 140) and 44.1k I need the formula to get either (in this case) 441000 or 378000.

well, you get the required answers using:


Think in beats per second, and you get:


Then the factor of two given by the constants is probably something to do with the internal buffer structures.  It would be interesting to see if the 9600 entry changes with the sample depth (16/24/32 bits) or for mono vs stereo tracks.

Paul

Cubase is probably using its own internal tick count. In the old days one of the best sequencer's selling points was their 960 pulse per quarter note resolution although, in this case, Cubase would appear to be using 480 pulses per quarter note (assuming 1 quarter note = 1 beat).

Cheers

James.

Paul thanks for that.

Only problem is when I read the Cubase XML I don't have the number of seconds.

All I have is the 9600 being the start position, the bpm & the 44.1k

If I had the seconds that would make it much easier :-(

Jamesp
"480 pulses per quarter note (assuming 1 quarter note = 1 beat)" - Why didn't I think of that - in fact who knows this sort of stuff :-)

Thanks James I willl explore that as well

This Cubase stuff is really, really hard - I'm beginning to think its not worth the effort!

I think Jamesp may have hit the nail on the head - well at least not his thumb :-)

I have to check if changing the bpm matters or not but it loks like it is 960 ticks per second may be the answer - I have JL testing as we speak(type)

Well I think we are REALLY close now - maybe only a day or two before another release goes out.

Thanks to John Lundsten for figuring out the Nuendo differences and Jamesp for the insight on the 'tick' idea (beats my magic number theory).
So it looks like we will provide BASIC import support for Nuendo 2, 3, 4 etc, Cubase SX3, v4 & v5.
Additionally we have added import capability for OpenTL files.
We have included an Audition 'append session' function (its almost 100% solid)
Finally we have included a suggestion from Plush2 (Reaper forum) to provide backward compatability for Samplitude v1.5 EDLs so that they can be read by EDL Convert

JL can correct or add to any of this when he reads it.

After this I'm not sure what else we can do to get people interested in this.

Well it is taking longer, but what runaway has attempted is a major update. This man is dedicated beyond belief.
We have had some really useful stuff ready for a while:--
1) append Audition sessions, so useful IMO, though I like AA3 loads, I do miss this feature that was in AA 1.5.
2) Being able to export to same format as is import, now for example it is possible to import a Samplitude v1.6 or 1.7 file, which AAT understands just fine & output it as v1.5. The major & lovely EDL Convert program many people use can't understand anything newer than v1.5, same is true for EDL Translator. Hey the latest vers of Samplitude only saves EDL's in v1.7 and can only be understood by that version.
2a) EDL Convert & Pro Convert output all AES31 ADL's using stereo files in a format only understood by them & Neuendo -we can create a standard ADL for everyone else.
3) Reading Open TL, good for those using the IMO ironically named "Logic".

Now the delay is because of this, Cubendo Track save & import is obviously a fine thing to support. But getting it just right is V hard. Clearly Steinberg have in the name of good backwards compatibility kept all old methods from previous versions of both Nuendo & Cubase, whilst adding new enhanced capabilities as they revise the capabilities of their programs. IE there are several ways used to achieve the same result, we have to analyse all these and come up with a single output that works. What makes this even more tricky is that it is quite possible to have a Cubendo session that includes "track Imports" using very different methods.
Getting all this to work well is the reason for the delay.
I'm confident we have now got a better understanding of all this, than say SSL Pro Convert, excellent as it is, in many ways. Eg we know what the session sample rate is, unlike Pro Convert we can place clips in the right place for Cubase sessions SX3 & newer.

AATranslator Vers 1.2 is available now :-D
http://www.aatranslator.com.au/

Beta testing, in particular the Steinberg XML functions has taken me hundreds of hours, there are so many variations & combinations possible with a Steinberg Track archive (& there have been a couple of other guys on the job too, thank you) so now runaway has 3 people telling him, yes that good but what about x y z and... shouldn't it make tea & give a neck massage?

BTW, we have tested using every version of Cubase & also Nuendo 2, 3 & 4, but does anyone have any Nuendo vers 1 or 5 files they could let us try? Or to put this another way if you buy AATranslator & there are any problems understanding Nuendo vers 1 or 5 files, we (well Runaway) will fix em. Well that's been my experience every time I give him a head banging problem to solve.

This is a pretty major update so it will taken while to update the notes, here are a few pointers to the new stuff.

The Import tabs now have TL, RPP, EDL, ADL, XML.
XML includes both Adobe Audition & Steinberg (track Archive) XML's, if you click on an XML either of these 2 types will load.

TL is the Open TL standard used on the Tascam MX2424 and a number of DAW's Logic being a major one of these.

Append:
       Will add 2 Audition XML files together. You access this via the "File" menu. Yes it's just AA XML and why not? The Audition session format is very fully featured so a good no compromise append to any of the other supported formats can be done by going via AA XML.

As well as the special Reaper EDL compatibility option we had before you can now save to Samplitude v1.5 to be compatible to all the app's that haven't kept up to date with the later V1.6 & 1.7 Sam EDL formats.

You can now save to the same format as imported.
I reckon this is a major addition, to get a file that theoretically should work, to an actually does work, status.

The truth is standards are very loosely interpreted by many (probably most) software developers, we have worked hard to understand most variations that are around re Import and then then Export in as standardised format as possible.
That in itself can be regarded as a "clean-up" function. Plus on export having options to be compatible to some specific known Export forms/variations/deviation/mistakes (?) And there is filtering of data available too.

To give a better idea of what AATranslator can do we have increased the number of files/clips you can use in Demo mode. 

As John points out there has been a lot of effort put into this product both in development & testing and as you can see there are a significant number of features.

John is currently testing the beta of the next version which includes Sony Vegas (import & export), improved Cubase/Nuendo support, conversion of additional Reaper features and probably some other things I can't think of or haven't thought of yet.  :wink:

After that I'm not really sure what we can do to raise interest - I don't really want to encourage people to use PT but I have been breaking down the PT5 session so I guess probably an import function from PT5 might be in order and we still might do something with the knowledge gained from the CEP2, AA1.5, AA2 & AA3 ses files but not sure what just yet.

Anyway its good that JL has popped his head in on this thread - it saves talking to myself.......

Big Endian vs Little Endian - why do PT have to make it so hard?  :x

Is it Apple or is it going between apple & pc that makes crlfs vanish? Or is it Logic (no pun intended)?

You have to love an Open TL file where the entire file is one sentence!  Or a Cubendo XML where there are blank lines every 2nd line!

Are these developers doing this on purpose!


Sigh..... :roll:

What text editor are you using?  Does it explicitly handle line ends in the three possible forms (cr only, lf only, cr+lf)?

Paul

I'm looking at these files with a hex editor.

Refer attached OpenTL from Logic - its like a book with no punctuation :-)

I have written code to deal with this sort of thing but I really don't want to!
And who would think to expect this sort of thing.

PS I had to add the .txt to upload the file

Guys you've made a real useful product with AAtranslator.

I use AA exclusively, so I would never need to convert my sessions to anything else.
But I find Append To Session a really missed feature in AA. It takes a bit of work appending a session by hand.

I think you might be able to sell more programs if you broke the main AAtranslator into parts: AA-Reaper, AA-Cubase, AA-Nuendo, AA_Append etc..
That way people can buy just the functionality they need, and you should sell more because more people will find it affordable. And for the pearson who needs everything you can still have the whole enchilada for a price too.
In fact it can all come in the same program but activate the portions they pay for. In my case all I need is Append to Session.

Firstly let me say that we appreciate the compliment - there aren't too many of any type of comment :-)

Like you I'm an AA only guy and don't have a need (at the moment anyway) for this app.

Secondly your suggestion has some merit and we actually thought about something like that at day one but decided that it was way too hard to maintain plus incorporate the security aspects and then you have the various combinations that a buyer might want - too hard :-)

Thirdly, we are just a couple of guys with a passion (and a bit of skill) trying to achieve something and at the same time get a little bit to compensate for the huge effort - we certainly aren't marketing or salepersons - so as far as pricing maybe we are way off the mark.  Compared to other apps maybe, maybe not - I really don't know.

I have gone down the donationware path a few times before and let me tell you based on that experience - this one wasn't going to be free - way too many months on this one :-)

And while the program is not yet finished (we are continually adding & improving) - you have certainly given us something to think about.

I would certainly welcome any other suggestions.

BTW We are continuing to improve & add to the Append Session function as well as other features with another release available real soon

The more I have to delve into other DAWs the more I appreciate AA

BTW I really hate Cubase now :-)

Testing one, two - anybody hear me?

Okay - should have another version ready for release in a few days - fine tuned a few things, fixed a few others  and added a few other bits & pieces.
Added support for Vegas EDLs (import & export).
Added support for some crazy Cubase thing related to partial audio events (don't fully understand it but it cost me a weekend!).  This is only for pre v4 & v5 Cubase (at the moment).
Improved the OpenTL function plus a lot of Reaper<->Vegas stuff
Added video support to the Append Session feature

Lots more to do but that can wait for another version.

Got to write a Reaper version of MediaSweeper so that will distract me a bit.

I will let you know when the next AATranslator release is ready - watch this space

Yeah I know - rust never sleeps and neither do I :-)

After bashing my head in on this Cubase xml I think I understand it enough to begin working on the export to Cubase function.

See how we go, hopefully it makes the next version.
 

Yeah, we're just watching the on-line product history growing - but quietly!

... 'cos we don't want to disturb your concentration...

It's a great utility, and I've pointed it out to the radio station people who use Reaper and Audition, though I'm not sure whether they often need to switch software mid-project.

Thanks for that input :-)

I think we have certainly opened up a can of worms with this app and I must admit it is wearing me down.
The differences between DAWs is so significant and so varied that quite frankly sometimes I don't know if I'm coming or going!

We will probably put out a new version this weekend which will fix a few things and add additional functionality.
Then I suspect that there will be another version with export to Cubase/Nuendo and no doubt further fixes/enhancements.
After that, unless the support is there, probably move focus to other projects and just tinker with enhancements as time permits.

I have finally managed to get AATranslator to export to a Cubase file (from Reaper, Audition, Vegas, Samplitude, OpenTL etc etc).

It is basic clip positioning, offsets, gain, mute & lock information. As soon as I add clip fades and get JL to test it we will put up a new version of AATranslator as there are a heap of other additions and 'fixes' that have also been made.

I'll let you know when its ready.

I'm sure I mentioned earlier that I hate Cubase XMLs ;-)

Version 1.30 is now available.

Among a heap of other improvements we have added export to Cubase and Sony Vegas EDL import/export.
We also found time to improve video support across all DAW formats.

FWIW I'm sure there will be another version real soon but hopefully we can now get some time to concentrate on breaking down the PT5 session format.

The AAtranslator is a great thing.  I work with other studios who use PT and cubase.  As well as clients who have recorded stuff at home.  Having the ability to go to there studio or vice versa and mix sessions would be a great relief.  I am a AA only user myself but i do from time to tme need to use other daw's.  Keep up the good work.  cheers

Goodonya Mate :-)

I'm actually making headway with the PT5 import - slow going but getting there.


If anyone has a couple of PT5 session files I would appreciate it - it helps to have some other examples.
Nothing too complex - say 2 or 3 tracks with 3 or 4 clips scattered about
A screen dump &/or maybe some text describing the start, offset & length in samples of each clip would be nice.
Maybe send them via the web site www.aatranslator.com.au (http://www.aatranslator.com.au)

Thanks

It is clear that our abilities lay in analysis, design, programming & testing and not marketing or sales.
We think that AATranslator is a pretty good program.  Sure its not perfect very few are (except maybe MediaSweeper) and for sure things are tough out there yet we still want everyone to be able to experience this application.
So before we move too much further down the ProTools conversion path and in the spirit of 'give a bit get a bit' we have decided to drop the price to $39USD!

But being good guys we have not only dropped the price but have offered all existing buyers of AATranslator a refund of the difference in their purchase price.

I don't think we could be any fairer than that!

While AATranslator makes no claims to converting everything it does do quiet a lot!

So download a copy, try it and then support us in supporting you.

I've mentioned that at http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3682025#3682025 - that's where the people who have every DAW under the sun gather!

Thanks ozpeter, yes AATranslator does all the formats you mention, including DAW specific variations of so called "standards". But there are far more DAW's it is compatible with than we have listed on the Web site, & you quoted.

Thanks for the plug OzPeter - much appreciated.

As far as more DAWS being supported even I didn't realise the extent!

There are some say like n-Track for example which you can save as a Samplitude EDL and of course that opens the door to a heap of others.

I have just received a pile of Sonar stuff from a mate for me to start working on - that should be interesting - NOT!  :-)

FWIW I have had some very promising progress with the PT5 conversion - some very detailed PT sessions from Mim from Belgium has been very helpful.

I'm pretty sure I've finally cracked the last major piece of the PT5 puzzle.

Its just a matter of writing the code so that I can read both the 'native' PT5 session and one produced by ProConvert (which rearranges them internally!).  I will worry about writing an export function once I have an import function up and running.

How good is that!

BTW I have also been working on an Avid ALE import/export function whenever I get bored :-)

There should be plenty for JL in the UK to test soon.
And I have Adrian reviewing JL's doco and coming up with a better install/setup routine that hopefully will have an upgrade/patch facility.

All this and more for currently only $39 - I think Big Macs cost more in some countries :-)

Another BTW - we are getting a lot of really good feedback from users.

This is an impressive undertaking and one I wish I had use for.  Unfortunately, I don't!  Hope the price drop brings lots of users onboard and the volume handsomely brings up the cash flow.  If not, still, you're making life a lot easier for a bunch of audioheads.

Thanks for those encouraging words - I don't have a need for it either :-)

Yes the price drop has caused a few to throw caution to the winds and their feedback is also encouraging plus we have had requests to cover other DAWs as well.
But each DAW is a lot of work.

BTW I'm only doing PT cause I want to give those that want to bailout a cheap way of doing it :-)
However, there is more than a good chane that the price will increase for new users once the PT functionality goes in.

I guess that's a subtle way of me bringing into the conversation the old "buy early and buy often" line - LOL

Anyway thanks again.

Maybe you don't want to say here, but do you have intentions of going higher than PT5, and is it possible and legal to break 'em?

2 problems:-

1. The clever sausages (or is that paranoid shysters?) at PT encryped their session files from v5.1 to v7ish.
The German cracking crew (or equivalent I guess) broke the code (SSL whatever) and were quickly bought out by ProConvert
PT in their effort to stifle competition and to stop anyone escaping from their evil clutches changed the encryption algorithm from v8 and dropped the price of their already overpriced converter to below that of ProConvert.  I guess if you are going to take out the competition then don't muck around.

My Enigma machine hasn't worked in quite a while but lets not discount a v7 or v8 but realistically $39 or even $99 ain't gonna cut the effort - although I wouldn't mind being bought out by anybody (hello anyone listening?) :-)

2. I have a pile of emails from people wanting conversions for a pile of DAWs eg Acid, Garage Band, Sonar etc etc and they are all hard enough.

Gonna head out to the kitchen and stab myself in the eye with a fork just to take my mind off this PT stuff which BTW is really coming along.

Given the hits on this thread I'm guessing a lot of people haven't got anything interesting to do :-)
But seriously I need a range of PT5 session files (no audio) just so I can run my test code against them to see if I've missed anything before doing the serious part of building this into AATranslator.
So if anyone has some just 2 or 3 from a few different sources would be good.

I hope that answered the question and thanks for being interested :-)

Its a bit premature but we have just successfully converted a ProTools v5 session file to Reaper, Audition, Samplitude, Vegas, etc,etc

An AATransalator version with PT support is not far away.

A collective high five is warranted here :-)

Goodness me, I am impressed! This is what I have been waiting for since you began this epic endeavour! I look  forward to when it is ready!

Not as much as me :-)

An updated user documentation has been uploaded which covers the latest (v1.3) release.

PT5 is almost there and the first PT release will include a facility to import PT5 session files.
We do need more PT5 session files in order to expand our test bed.  If anyone has some it would be appreciated........

It's probably only fair to let everyone know that with the PT release there may be a small price rise (still much cheaper than the opposition products of $800 & $500).  Existing purchases at the time of release will naturally receive the upgrade for free.

Be advised.

The House band at my work have warned me that they are nearly ready to start recording (we have moved the whole studio to the building next door), so I will have to boot up the pc and check what version of ProTools we have (Oh please let it be 5!). Otherwise I will have to learn how to use it native!  :wink:

Good news is that all later versions of PT will save back to v5 :-)

Been busy - not much sleep but getting very near the end for a v1 PT import support version of AAT

We have been testing all sorts of PT sessions and only have a couple of things really to tidy up.

We have also rewritten the installer - much much better now :-)

I guess its best I let everyone know that the cunning marketing price cut will end with the PT release (it is mandatory that anything with PT in it must cost more).

So if you are thinking of getting a copy probably best to do it before then and get the upgrade free when it comes out - just a suggestion.

PS The more I see under the PT cover the greater my respect for AA ;-)

 :-D :-D :-D

I've sucessfully resisted the PT bandwagon this long, wonder how long I'll remain successful!  (Have never used it, ever)

I have only experienced a mate running it (and he didn't like it either) and plenty of screen dumps :-)

However, knowing what it does & how it does it and what is under the cover it just reeks of bad!

Every clip is a new file! The internal math (that I can see) is very much like M$ Windoze integer based - efficient just not as accurate!
It doesn't cater for so many things that you take for granted in AA

I'm sure JL will jump in on this for more info  :wink:

Yes this is undoubtedly true, if you are like me and have used many DAW's then PT comes as quite a shock, I'm old enough to have had to use clunky old reel to reel tape machines, and then these machines got way better, you had microprocessor control & could do stuff like punch in/out of record & go straight from locate to play - so PT did/does seem a backwards move. Eg you have to press Stop between almost every operation (unlike every other DAW). For me there is is a "why the f** does it work like this?"

But the thing is though PT seems crude & inept to me, compared to the previous generation of analogue gear & most other DAW's they have largely by dint of 3rd party plug-in manufactures, who realising that anyone prepared to pay these prices can afford our stuff, have made PT IMO the most powerful DAW available.

But yes it is built on dodgy code & fundamentally flawed concepts. The thing I like about Digital compared to the old Analog way, is the possibility "bit accurate processing" the possibility that having got something the way you want it to sound it actually stays like that. Hey anlog may be interesting, cool even, but stability is a fine thing too. Well PT has a sound, IMO, this is crap, a DAW should be neutral.

Now I have come across loads of PT users who are not encumbered with any of this historic stuff, PT is the only DAW they have used, so having spent some quite considerable time getting to grips with it's massively illogical user interface (er IMO) think anything else is odd, and as I say PT can do loads, maybe slowly and often badly but it is IMO the most powerful DAW going. But it's built on shit, for sure.     

I can see that a the "Master Region" & sub region concept PT has is causing my mate grief, but as a (somewhat reluctant) PT user I can see merit in this idea {but is is a bit of of pain to R'way that no-one else does it this way}.
But re what PT can do v AA, yes PT is MASSIVELY limited.

The initial release of AATranslator with PT5 support will do Import only, so once we have fully deciphered the many and wonderful ways this info is encoded within various PT5 files it should be easy to extract all that PT has to offer.
What will be a bit of a challenge is to reduce the info in a AA, Reaper etc file that has loads more info.

Hey everyone, to get this "right"
We desperately need as many Pt5 files as we can get,  please, please send these to http://www.aatranslator.com.au/
Ideally what we want is:-
1) tell us from what vers of PT you have exported your PT5 & if Mac or PC
2) BTW, no audio files needed
3) a screen grab/picture V much appreciated and will be Very useful [use PrtScn on a PC, or Mac, Apple -shift -3] 



 

Its been a while but we now are confident that we can effectively convert a ProTools v5 session to Audition, Reaper, Samplitude, Vegas, Cubase, Nuendo, etc, etc, etc.
 
We are doing some last minute testing as well as looking at sessions containing video and also 'PlayLists'
Not long now before we do another release.
 
Be warned anything connected with the word 'ProTools' demands an automatic increase in price and AAtranslator will be no exception and therefore the 'special' won't last  :wink:
 
Anyway, we will get this out very soon and then we will start on the export to PT, then Acid, Sonar, etc, etc

Things would be much faster if these pesky clients didn't want to keep recording  :-D

Been tied down with PT sessions containing video - nearly there just mopping up really.

Been spending time on Avid ALE EDLs as well as being about 75% through writing the code to extract all the data from a ses file.  I'm hoping to be able to read right back to CEP session files but we will see.  JL has been busy testing  and and I'm sure we are both using a different english language :-)  Adrian has finished the new installation code as well  as a new registration function for the proposed 'enhanced' version.

Been getting heaps of requests for conversion from/to just about everything - I don't thing they realise how much time this stuff takes.

I'm sick of reading zeroes & ones  :-(

Must sleep now.....

Yes, lot's of work catering for the way Video is handled in PT. It maybe a bit limited, but it is hard work!  :-P

But we have a problem, we have done lot's of testing using PT8 {on a mac} plus files from EDL & Pro Convert, and some from PC, PT7, but that's it.
What we have is good, but we are reluctant to release the next version of AATranslator till we test it on a wider range of PT5's.

Please, people, any PT5 files will be much appreciated.  :-D
John L

How good is that ?

Working with Macs & PT5 - ya just wanna stab yourself in the eye with a fork just to releive the pain  :cry:

We will probably be putting out a 'limited' PT version in a few days.  The plan (cunning in its simplicity) will allow buyers to import PT5 files for the current $39USD price but will be limited by a relatively generous track/clip/audio file limit.

But wait there's more  :-D

We will also throw in Sony Vegas XML import support as well (thanks Mark Wippey (UK) for his request and input).  The Vegas XML has much more detail than the Vegas EDL/TXT.

Much better than throwing in a set of steak knives and a block of flats in Tasmania  :-D

Getting a lot of good PT input from Airon & Plush which has improved the PT import.  Shouldn't be too much longer.

Others won't be slugged for the PT development so the next release will NOT cost anymore however, PT import will be limited to probably 12 tracks.  Those wanting the full PT functionality (plus export when finished) will pay more.

We have just finished an AGM and have come to the conclusion that we cannot maintain both development resources and the price cut so unfortunately the price cut MUST end with the next release.

The next release of AATranslator is very nearly ready.  Just trying to finalise some on screen help and then we are good to go.
This release will see the addition of a Vegas XML import functionality and the ability to import a ProTools (v5) session file from both PC & MAC.

PT & Vegas XML export, Acid, Sonar and others are on our list to look at including.

Those who purchase before the next release will receive this amazing and useful piece of software for only $39USD including free upgrades.

When released the current $39USD discounted price will end and the price for the 'standard' version will return to $99USD.

The 'standard' version will have one limitation which is a restricted PT track count.
The 'enhanced' version will have full PT access and soon after an export to PT function.  The 'enhanced' version will cost an additional $49USD.

If you are thinking of purchasing this software I urge you to do so before the next release while you can still get it for the bargain price of $39USD.

Even at $99 this is very good value but if you only ever use this application once or you think you may need to use it in the future buy it now before you have to pay more.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it anywhere or maybe I just thought it?
I hate macs!

Trying to 'do the right thing' and cater for mac PT files AAAAAAGGGGHHH!
Anyway I've done all I'm gonna do (despite JL's protests) and I'm hoping (once I get his reluctant signoff) to get this next version out the door tonight or tomorrow sometime.

More interestingly (to me) just managed to read an AA native ses file and display all the clips etc where they are supposed to be.
Just working on the clip envelopes, fades and other stuff.
CEP files should be less drama as they have a much simpler track structure but one thing at a time ;-)
Export to Vegas xml is pretty easy and shouldn't take too long
Avid ALE import is partially written

So we are already well advanced for the subsequent version.

FWIW while I've been waiting for JL to put the finishing touches on the doco, step by step guides and 'tip of the day' stuff (of which there is heaps now) I've been working on importing SES files.

Obviously a heap of testing to do but we can now read AA3, AA2, AA1.5 and CEP 2000 no problem.
Just have to finalise track pan, gain, mute & solo for AA2 & 3 and it will go into the version after this one we are releasing very, very shortly.

Seriously if your thinking about getting this app do it real fast we have finalised a price of $59 for the standard version so get it now while its only $39.

 

Just a quick note to let you know that version 2.0 has finally been released. 

It has a totally rewritten installer so uninstall your old version first – after that any new versions will take care of upgrading things automatically.
The new version has a heap of fixes and enhancements including ‘tip of the day’ and some step by step guides.

It also has a Vegas XML import and for the ‘Standard’ edition a limited ProTools v5 import function (12 tracks, 4 clips or 4 audio files)
This was rather than force everyone to pay for ProTools functionality that they don’t need.
We have already started on a ProTools export function and we have import of Audition’s native SES files for v1.5, 2.0. 3.0 & some versions of Cool Edit Pro already running in beta versions.

A lot of effort has gone into this one so I hope you find it useful.

Lots more to come.

Thanks again for your support

After moving our music room to a neighbouring building - more room and better soundprrofing - the "band" (probably about 3 bands with varying particpants) are gearing up a play list for our mass weekend get-together in the winter. They are talking about getting the sound tech to record their set so that I can turn it into a CD afterwards! I have never mic'd a band so I have to rely on whoever it is to know what he's doing!

The company seems perfectly willing to pay for an AA3 license so i can run that on the same PC as PT, and for the live gig that will be fine.

However for studio work everything is wired into a PT mixer so I will need to convert. They have PT7.3 but if that can save to PT5 I can get the company to buy the session translator and work with it in AA after the initial recording!

Sounds like a result. I will let you know what happens

You can save to PT5 from PT7.3 so thats a good thing.

So essentially you will be using PT to track the 'gig' - I know that PT wants its own hardware but I doubt if that hardware works with anything else the exception being M-Audio gear but I think that M-Audio (as far as PT is concerned) only works with PT LE versions -
Generally anything PT related is a closed shop.

Dont quote me on this I'm no PT expert and certainly no fan of PT so check before buying either AAT or AA.

I don't want to dissuade you and am happy to help in any way for someone to break the PT 'habit' but I don't want you to waste any more money than has already been spent on PT.

I would download the AA3 demo and try it on the PT rig and if as I suspect the PT rig wont talk to any other DAW then if you do use PT to track then save session to PT5, convert using AAT and run like hell to another PC and use some decent software to mix it :-)

If you purchase AA and are only doing a one off transfer I'm happy to convert your PT5 session for you without an AAT sale.

You're a good lad and a lousy businessman! :-D

My company spends thousands of pounds buying Amps, Drums,  Line 6 midi guitars, Gibson Les Pauls, Fender fretless basses AND ProTools, and you are offering free conversions!
I hope this will NOT be a one off, it would mean I had done a lousy job! As I say I hope we will buy AA and AAT and then I will be a happy camper!

Mark

How do I get to work for that company ?  :-D

First learn Norwegian
Move to Oslo
Get top results from data/computer engineering education
Become an expert in some area of IT security
Get through 3-5 iterviews and tests

No problem!

I don't think I'd have a chance I can't even spell Olso  :-D

You probably wouldn't like it there anyway - not exactly the warmest place in the world, and in my limited experience, you gotta like rocks and snow quite a lot!

Personally I think it's pretty good there - but that's just me.

I had the best pizzas of my life in Oslo, from a trailer in a parking lot.

Paul

Mmmmmmmm Pizza... :-P

Back to business - We now have a pretty solid beta which reads CEP 1.2, 1.2a, 2.0, 2.1 and AA 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 & 3.0 session files.
A couple of annoying things to sort out like track pans in AA1.5 as well as write some code to read the track gain & track pan in AA2.0 & 3.0 (been lazy).

May look at reading CEP 1.0 & 1.1 files later if there is any demand

It also has an export to Sony Vegas xml as well as Presonus Capture (xml).  Capture can be read by Presonus Studio One.

A new version should be ready soon-ish

Which reminds me - this apparently cunning get rich quick scheme seems to be taking an unusually long time LOL

Mmmmmmmm Pizza... :-P

I think I should have stayed lazy - I've written enough code to get where I need to be for AA2 & 3's track gain & track pan - just have to spend tomorrow deciphering the remaining few hundred bytes of hex.

As far as AA.15 and earlier I have the data I just have to wade through a heap of trig formulae working out Syntrillium's panning algorithm.

Yes its all beer and skittles until someone puts an eye out ;-)

Whew - AA2 & 3 Track Gain & Track Pan are now done!

Just have to work out the formulae for AA1.5 & prior track pan and I'm home & hosed  8-)

'Id rather a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotomy' - T Waits

I just noticed the number of views on this thread - there must be something interesting in here that I must be missing?

Anyway spent the last 24 hours chasing down an insidious Cubase bug (I think I hate that DAW almost as much as PT).  Just waiting on the thumbs up for that - when you have 1197 clips in a session that seems pretty big to me (and hard to desk check for bugs).

Starting to get bored with working on the ses file conversion so may release it real soon along with some fixes and enhancements that we have sorted out for for other formats.
May just go without the AA1.5 and prior Track Pan setting (its probably easier than I think) and come back to it later.

I had to do some work with Vegas (don't ask me why) - you really appreciate AA when you have to use something else!

Looking at incorporating an export to an AA ses file in AAT.  As we already export to an xml for AA3 I'm thinking maybe AA1.5 but open to suggestions.

Then I guess I have to satart writing out to a PT5 file
sigh....

Okay got the thumbs up on the Cubase mod - another happy customer - thats always good news :-)

Finally tracked down a niggling problem with gain & pan envelopes (type 4 was no longer used from AA2 - who knows that stuff?)

Its back to that cursed pre AA2 Track Pan formula - I really wish I had a Bachelor of Sums about now instead of a computing degree :-)

I've looked at both linear pan & constant power pan rules but I suspect that the texts I'm reading are written in ancient Hebrew :-)

Track Pan for AA1.5 and earlier will have to wait for another time :oops:

We have been hard at it since the last release and we now have a new release available (v2.1).
This release is a free upgrade and it is our intention to continue to provide free updates for as long as possible.

This release adds the following features to an already impressive list of conversion possibilities.

Whats New:
Import function for :-
                Adobe Audition session files (SES) for versions 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 & 3.0
                Syntrillium Cool Edit Pro session files (SES) for versions 1.2, 1.2a, 2.0 & 2.1
Export functions for:-
                Sony Vegas XML
                Presonus Capture (xml)               
Cubase/Nuendo fixes
A few smaller fixes and enhancements

Thanks again for your support its only through sales that we can hope to continue our efforts

In between banging our heads to a pulp on OMF2 we are now beta testing Avid Log files (ALE) - something relatively simple at last!

Famous last words - simple!  Who was I kidding there is nothing simple with this project and OMF2 and bento objects - whats going on there?
Who makes this stuff up?  I'm sure its just to give me the screaming dirts   :cry:

I've noticed the thread count - who is reading this stuff?

Or has someone got that 'stupid bird' from the Simpsons (you know the one that bobs up and down hitting the enter key) hitting this thread?

Makes me very uneasy  :|

Hey guy, I think we're all keeping an eye on this. Both because it's fascinating how you are solving all these problems, and because we are all waiting for your brain to explode  :mrgreen: :-D

That's easy - apart from the bots, if you create a thread with the names of all of the other major audio apps in, you are almost bound to get thousands of hits - just from people who are intrigued by what they find when they enter the name of their preferred poison into a search engine!

I don't know Steve - maybe - but that doesn't explain the hits on the mediasweeper sticky.

Now if I had $0.10 for every one of those ......... LOL

BTW I'm starting to actually get somewhere with OMF2 - its not as good as Avid/Didgi make out either.  I might be missing something but it doesn't seem to have automation.
It's design is a bit like the legendary Aussie oozalum bird - google it and you'll know what I mean  :wink:

What was that noise?
I think it was my head exploding :-)

JL in the UK has been doing a bit of OMF2 testing and it seems that OMF2 as a 'standard' leaves a lot to be desired.  Various applications (including the great PT) have trouble with the format - Avid for example had errors reading an Avid OMF2.

I guess that can only mean problems for me - how good is that!   :x

That's good because PT and Digidesign are all part of Avid now anyway. So their right hand doesn't know what their left is doing. Sounds typical :?

Shhhhhh - lets keep it our little secret  :wink:

BTW Thanks to sqkychair over on the Reaper forum track pann for AA 1.5 and earlier now converts correctly :-)
That'll be in the next version (once I finish sorting out this OMF2)

After much head bashing I've now started to make some headway with this OMF and can actually see the pattern - still lots to do but its starting to make sense in its own warped way  :roll:

I'm sure they didn't just make it this complicated just for me.

After hitting a few dead ends (this OMF is like a damn maze!) I'm back on track and actually starting to get some code that makes sense.

Its pretty sad when preparing my tax returns is looking more inviting than working on this  :roll:

At Last!!

I've got something stable (unlike myself) which can actually look at being tested!

Some minor bugs to iron out and some work around fades/xfades, envelope points and track gain & track pan values and I can get out and see some sun  8-)

Compared to whats been done these are pretty minor - woo hoo!

Did I mention that I REALLY hate OMF?  :x

Gain envelopes seem to be working as well as fades.

PT8 seems to have created another 'industry standard' omf which is different to every omf I have seen so far - looks like 'Avid compatability' may be the answer.

I guess it's another late night  :-(

No! Avid compatibility is NOT the answer!

I just posted this over on the Adobe site but if them bots are gonna keep hitting this thread then may as well give them something to read   8-)

I now understand why the gun laws are so strict in Australia - its the government's fear that some crazy person might start delving into the inner workings of PT and OMF!!!

After about a month of sleepless nights we have made lots of progress - no thanks to Avid or Digi!
In fact we were able to translate just about everyone else's OMFs pretty much early in the piece - it's here we got a bit cocky.

Enter a PT omf and you would swear they were chalk & cheese!
Anyway its seems to be getting there - though i fear its a bit like a delicate flower - pluck one petal and......

Well for an 'industry standard' format IMO its a piece of - well you know what.
Give me AES31 any day!

Below I've cut and paste some analysis that JL over in the UK did which shows just how 'standard' OMF is - don't expect to move too much between daws using this format - oh I forgot PT uses it - my mistake it must be great   :evil:

Here is a short list of what seems possible with various DAW's (or Digidesign Software)

Logic Mac & Logic PC
No vol envelopes,Pan envelopes or clip gain

Avid
has vol Pan & clip gain

DigiTranslator2
has Vol,Clip gain,No pan

DigiTranslator1
NoVol, No pan, has Clip gain

OMF Tool
No vol Pan or clip gain

Nuendo2, Nuendo3
Just clip gain

Digital Performer
has Vol, No pan NO Clip gain,

Sonar
No vol Pan or clip gain. Need to remove any overlaps

Ensonic Paris
No vol Pan or clip gain. Need to remove any overlaps

AMS Audiofile
no vol Pan or clip gain

So explain to me people, why is OMF such a "must Have?"

FCP & PT omfs, Cubase/Nuendo, Sonar are all translating fine.

We have fixed a few bugs and added Open TL export which seems to be working well.

The Vegas mods we have made are a big plus

Trying to tidy things up and make sure there are no loose ends.

Starting to read FCP XML specs - how much fun is that  :cry:

Just had to rewrite a heap of code to deal with embedded audio in OMF  :x

My problem is that I'm too logical - who thinks up how this stuff works - it is way too convoluted and inefficient.

Anyway it works and matches up with what ProConvert does - how good is that?

If it wasn't 3.30am and a big day ahead in the studio Im sure that there could be some deep discussions with Mr Jamison or Mr Jim Beam  :wink:

You should stay away from that rot-gut boy! Single malt scotch is the only answer  :-D Well a good Jameson is OK when there's nothing else around - but Jim Beam Aaaaagh!

Yes a single malt is always preferred but then nothing would get done.

Jim Beam on the other hand has an inbuilt limiter - you can only drink so much of it :-)

I knew it wasn't just bots hitting this thread  :wink:

Does anyone know for a fact if Track Volume or Track Pan is actually stored in an OMF?

I have seen their leader and I have his answer -

Track pan and track volume are not in the OMF - can't be having that - it would be just like AES31 then!

Anyway we are pretty close to a release (have I said that before?) but we will be specifically scoping out OMFs produced by Avid Media Composer.

It seems that when it comes to a standard way of doing things using their own standard - well - they do it differently, very differently!

Which means a $hit load of duplicated & rewritten code just for these suckers!
So they can wait as far as I'm concerned.

Getting a few enquiries from the big end of town (not the biggest end of town mind, but just the down the road from them) regarding support for their products (no names no pack drill) especially around you know who.

And if you can read my writing then you can take it down to the chemist and they will fill it for you  :wink:

In between recording & programming this PITA application my eyes burn and my usually low blood pressure is up so high its almost detectable.

I've started research on exporting to OMF and I think its starting to show in my writing............ :roll:

Avid Media Composer OMFs

Ha ha ha  did it!

I cracked the Avid way of doing things!!

I still have to write a $hit load of more or less duplicated code but now I know how they do it!

I'm heading off down to the petty cash department to get myself a gold star - LOL

While you're there get yourself several. You deserve them. :-)

Thanks I'll add them to my free Adobe t-shirts  LOL

Just have a few bugs to sort out and then work out how to get to the embedded audio and we are home & hosed and ready for JL to test.

And this whole thing seemed like such a good idea ten months ago!!!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.......

This Avid stuff is doing my head in - seems to me (and maybe its just me) there's Avid and there's almost Avid.

Trying to sort out what bugs I can for a weekend release but I have a $hitload* of good paying studio work starting to pile up so a weekend release may slide (again).

*Like the technical term 'a poofteenth' meaning length or duration , '$hitload' is a technical term meaning 'bonza', 'motza', 'load', 'heaps', etc.

okay we have most omfs covered.  Yes we get the odd one that exhibits strange behaviour but some are old versions and some daws create really crazy omf implementations - some like Paris we just don't have enough access to good test material and sometimes the daw fails to implement key parts of the omf so they may have a few idiosyncrasies.

So we are down to the final testing.

Starting to get a few software houses interested in information exchange with a view to better coverage of their products - that has to be good for everyone.

Keep you posted.                                                                                 

Pretty well had enough of omf and Avid's omfs in particular.

Made more headway with Avid - not perfect but it will have to do as I don't want to hold up the omf release any longer.

Been inundated in the studio as well which hasn't help (apart from my wallet).

Just a matter of packaging up the doco & converting to step by step guides etc then we can send this sucker out the (digital) door.

Ok thanks to JL's prompt and thorough job with the doco & testing AATranslator v2.2 is now available (don't all rush at once).

We managed to get a pretty good translation of an OMF as well as OpenTL format.

We had a lot of problems converting Avid Media Composer Omfs and we intend to try and rectify that in a later version but there is a warning to that effect when an Avid omf is detected.  This was mainly due to the 'different' way in which they work internally plus we were unable to get enough for testing.

Anyway its there and after a few bourbons (or some Irish Whiskey) its back into it for the next version.

As always before parting with your hard earned cash test this application for its suitabilty to cater for your translation needs

So now AAT has the ability to read OMFs and we will certainly add some improvements to that in the next version (particularly concerning Avid OMFs).

It has been brought to our attention that Final Cut Pro doesn't read OMFs so it may be useful for us to provide an export to FCP's xml as well.

So that as well as a couple of other formats (selected from an ever growing list) is what we are currently working on.

Ha Ha Ha - a few hours work and already we are able to import Final Cut Pro output (xmls)
Lots of testing to do of course.
But after a few hours break for xmas should be starting to export FCP xmls

I finally worked out what the "F" stands for in OMF and it sure aint 'free'

A new year and a new post but still the same pain  :roll:

FCP seems to be importing into AAT very well and starting to get some xmls importing back into FCP (thanks BabaG).  Still working on getting ProConvert to read our xmls but its probably just me.
JL is working feverishly on finding bugs (make a mental note to try and hide them better).

Finally made enough out of this project to buy a toaster (mind you a small one) so things are looking good for the year ahead with the next big purchase being bread for that damn thing.

Thinking about diving into an omf or PT5 export function when fcp is finished but I don't want to depress myself this early in the new year  :cry:

Oh well Chuck Norris has finished kicking the Columbian drug cartel's proverbial back sides on the tv in the green room so it must be about 2.30am

Just waiting on the results of the last beta I sent to JL in the UK then I think I'll try and get to bed before the sun comes up for once.

Finally getting consistent xml imports into Final Cut Pro with a lot of thanks to BabaG for putting up with me.
Reading the FCP xmls into AAT seems to be no problem.

What gives with the (il)Logic application???
Their pi$$ poor effort at producing FCP xmls is embarrassing and a PITA when I have to write code fixes to deal with their $hit!

Is it just me??

Anyway we should have a release real soon - bit more testing and some updates to the doco and make sure our output is ProConvert (backwards) compatible.
So we can import FCP xml 'sequences' and we may expand this to cater for FCP xml 'projects' - FCP folk will know what I'm talking about (no one else should care)

No, it's Apple, isn't it?

Hang on I just looked up the meaning of AVID
avid adj. Having an ardent desire or unbounded craving; greedy

It figures!

I'm about 75% of the way through adding a function to export to AA1.5 session files.

Why?

I guess it seemed like a good idea.

Now able to create AA1.5 session files which should interest somebody (certainly AA1.5 & Proconvert owners I guess) so I'm pretty happy about that.

Just have to fix up some FCP sample/frame conversion issues and then I'm diving into some code which should assist in creating omfs that Ron Novy has gratiously modified.
So you never know we may eventually be able to create omfs from AATranslator - watch this space  (well actually watch the next space watching this one really won't help).

Ron is putting in a big effort with the writing of omfs and all looks promising - look out Digi!

Just sorting out some FCP xmls from the poorly named daw 'Logic' - what were they thinking and then we shouldn't be too far off of a new release.

Plenty of improvements, fixes and additional formats - it should just about feel like xmas - except without the heat, flies and bills  :-D

Well version 2.3 of AATranslator is now available and there's also a dodgy video which I've quickly slapped together and it really shows why I don't have a career in radio :-) - I'll redo it when I get some time.

Lots of enhancements, fixes and new formats.

We have already started on the next version where we are hoping to be able to produce omf files and a few other enhancements but its still early days.

Ron's busting his proverbials trying to get some OMF output happening and he's hoping to get something to us in the next week or so.

In the meantime we are finalising another release.

This release contains :-

• more Cubendo improvements
• now cater for Presonus' unique form of OpenTL
• a split stereo to mono feature for OpenTL exports
• comprehensive support for Paris omfs (bar envelopes at this stage)
• a heap of other bits & pieces
• and if I can get it tested in time an Ardour import function

Version 2.4 is now available for download

The Ardour stuff will make the next version.

Lawrence has once again come to the rescue (thanks mate) and we have established that there is nothing wrong with the AAT Cubase output but rather what appears to be a corrupted Cubase causing the problem (whew).

BabaG has once again helped out with some more FCP testing (thanks also) and we have made improvements in the FCP export.

Have just made a major breakthrough with a niggling problem with empty tracks in the PT conversion throwing things out of kilter and losing the markers among other things.  Now totally fixed and very happy with the result.  I don't know why they encrypt this stuff - its not like its easy unencrypted!

Sometimes I even impress myself (though not often) :-)

But you are certainly impressing us  :-D

Yes, thank you.

I have only converted a couple of projects, and everything went great. The world should soon be beating a path to your doorstep...

I think they may have but I was probably out.  I can't see them now but I can see the mess they left  :-D

Thanks guys.

Been a pretty sleepless weekend but I'm on the verge of producing a ProTools session file (PT5)
Has yet to be tested and still a couple things to work out at the end of the file.
So I reckon within a few days we will have one ready for testing - once that gets a tick I'll add in fades & envelopes (which is pretty easy).

Its gone 2am and being Sunday night it won't be another 5am one  8-)

What is it with Digi?

Only they could take an essentially simple session file and add the most convoluted indexing system imaginable.  PT5 has to be where they sat down and under the influence of some habit forming narcotic said -

"I think we have now worked out the most convoluted indexing system possible for a simple binary session file"

and the reply came back -

"No!  Someone will eventually work this out - let us get into cahoots with Avid and then we can think of something even more insidious and lets call it OMF but lets not rest there lets have a backup plan and we will call that AAF!"

I am so close with exporting a PT5 session file that I can smell their fear!    :evil:

Ha ha ha!

I've cracked it - worked out their indexing method - obvious once you work it out of course!

Just have to rewrite a few dodgy paths that I went down and all being good by the end of the weekend I should have something robust enough for JL to test.

Well we are actually ahead of schedule with JL testing over the past 24 hours - all looks good.

I have just added the last piece which is volume & pan envelopes so its all looking very good.

We will start finalising the functionality for the next release in the next few days.

From what I've learnt writing PT5 sessions I am rewriting the PT import function much more efficiently - no I'm not bored!
Sick to death of it sure but not bored  :wink:

Did I read somewhere that this was ahead of schedule ?  :roll:

Well it was.

We have added so much and re-written a heap as well as fixed or enhanced even more.

All this means lots more testing and some of this stuff is hard to test without the particular daw.

Wasted a few days trying to write a mac version of the PT5 file - almost byte perfect replica and still the macs won't play !
This is why the only macs I like come with fries  :-D
Though to be honest its pobably PT - is that possible?

Lots of good work done on the Vegas side and they seem pretty happy with what we are doing as well.
Need to beef up the Final Cut side but its reasonable at the moment

Shouldn't be too much longer

Have finally got all the bits lined up for (PC) PT5 files - was having trouble with avi & mov (both handled differently of course)

What a drama!

More work done to Active/Non Active takes coming from Vegas (Viva Lost Wages!)

Some small bugs with local paths for split stereo files when exporting to PT & EDLs
And some tidying up of FCP pan envelopes (making sure they are going the right way) - it can all get pretty confusing  :roll:

I've moved the release date to Sunday local time to give JL time for some doco updates, last minute testing etc and me time for those small bugs, some studio time and an out of town PA gig - and some sleep  8-)

Been at it all day and I know JL has been doing an unbelievable amount of testing - with a release of this size with so much added or enhanced something is bound to slip through the cracks so bear with us.

The only known PT issues we have (apart from PT itself) are :-
1. haven't worked out their internal referencing method for Beat markers.
2. while ProConvert can read our PT5 generated markers (and vice versa) PT itself may not read ours in all cases

There are still some path issues when converting (to wav) and then splitting sd2 files.

We will address these and any other issues which arise with an update soon after release.

Release won't be tonight but very very soon now.

BTW Ron has nearly got a working omf happening - no envelopes yet but hey neither has some versions of sonar ;-)

Well we have just put up version 3.0 and no doubt there will be a 3.0.1 soon.

There are a range of minor things yet for us to address and no doubt in the (yes) rush we probably missed something obvious but then if it was easy everbody would be doing this or impersonating Elvis (or both!).

By all means let me know if you think you have found a bug but don't be too surprised if your format of choice is letting you down :-)
And yes I'm keen to know if there is something that needs fixing just ask nicely - I am a nice guy but that can change in a heartbeat ;-)

BTW Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to test, support or just badger me into fixing things and of course thanks to JL for his doco and testing (someone please RTFM as he went to some effort with that).

You're just doing this deliberately, aren't you?  :wink:

LOL 

 :evil:

Status report:

OMF import rewrite is progressing well a 5 minute conversion previously is now 5 seconds and have built a function to reverse the track display order when importing from PT (some go one way & some the other & ProCon seems to be the reverse).  Also sorted out some midi/inst track problems with audio clips showing up on them.

Some testing to be done but its looking like its all beer & skittles  :-D

John in the UK has done some quick comparisons using the latest beta and he got these results on a 1.8gb Nuendo OMF

Proconvert conversion to a Samplitude EDL   1 min 57 sec
AVTransfer to Vegas TXT      2 min 2 sec
AATranslator to Reaper RPP      1 min 5 sec

Finally had a break through with NON Avid omfs, Now correctly allocating the right extracted media with the right name. Translation time is dramatically reduced and accuracy is as good as anyone else's and in some cases better. More testing to be done of course.

Some sleep and then try again to crack the same problem I have with the Avid omfs. Of course Avid do it differently yet again.

BTW There is a new beta up there for those who need to know.

Just an update:-
Have just finished working on improving throughput for large sessions eg 1500 files & 3000 clips in an omf converted to Vegas xml.

That session takes ProConvert an hour and the release version of AAT nearly 2 hours. 
Tests indicate that our next version of AAT will now take around 10-12 minutes!

Pressure is what turns coal into diamonds!

WooHoo

Edit:
Correction - about 9 minutes!

Ok its probably a little early but quite frankly I'm so excited I'm beside myself (and what an ugly pair we make)!

I have just received the first 2 omfs produced from AAT by Ron Novy.

One is a referenced and the other an embedded one.

This is exceptional news and means that we will very soon have a version that will cover both importing AND exporting of OMFs

Sorry I just had to share.

Besides the entertainment value of all the puns in this thread, I can't help but wonder if the word is getting out and you're starting to see an uptake in business for this remarkable product.  Three cheers and a frothy mug don't pay the bills!  Hope you're finding this rewarding.

I have it on good advice that I can expect the third cheer any day and as I already have the mug I'm only waiting for the froth.

Its a bit like the studio engineer who won the lottery.

When asked what he was going to do with his winnings he replied -
"I'll just keep operating the studio until it all runs out"

All I can say is that its a good thing I have other means of support  :-D

Thanks for the feedback

That is so sad...

Our next release is taking a little longer than we had hoped. 
It was supposed to be a pretty minor release but is turning out to be much more than that.

JL has been working overtime finding all sorts of little annoying bugs for me to fix and at the same time improving the overall quality of each format conversion.
The rewrite of all export formats to dramatically improve conversion speed has meant more testing than first expected.
The OMF rewrite has been a double edged sword with many huge improvements and at the same time a couple of show stoppers however I have managed to find a couple of valuable pieces to the omf jigsaw puzzle which I'm hoping will make all the difference over the next couple of days.

Anyway, the next release will be worth the wait.

'Standard' omf (what a joke there is no such thing!) is looking pretty good and we have even solved an annoying problem which was stopping an OMF->PT5 function so that's now up and running.  I first thought why would anyone with PT need an omf to PT5 conversion?  Then it dawned on me - once you have shelled out money for their hardware & software then if you want to translate omf you have to (you guessed it) pay even more! - its a business model to aspire to - either that or drug trafficing  :evil:

Anyway fwiw the function is there.

Still working on a subset of avid omfs.

Conversions to Reaper now produce xfades where necessary.

I'm hoping for a release early next week.

Gonna go for a release probably Thursday night.  Will try and fix the problem with certain Avid omf dialects of associating embedded audio with the right clip before release.  There's a warning msg for the moment for those omfs.  There is also a problem with certain Cubase omfs but we have a work around plus some fine tuning with clip gains for those Cubase omfs.  But all in all this should really be called a major release but for some reason v3.1 has a nice ring to it.

You mean, 3.01, right?

Are you making a threat, or a promise?

 :evil:

Well technically it will be v3.01.00 but for all intensive purposes it will be v3.01   :-P

Decided on v3.1.0

Just been released and is now available.

Features:-
Dramatically reduced translation speed
Conversions saved automatically
Improvements in PT, Reaper, Vegas, FCP & AA session conversions
OMF to PT5 conversion now available
And lots more

Note OMF conversions:-
There are a number of 'rougue' omf dialects/flavours which continue to cause us grief. Some we have work arounds for.
This is not an exhaustive list but it is annoying at best
'Well behaved' omfs convert seamlessly but for example certain Steinberg omfs show no clip indent/offset, certain Avid omfs we have trouble associating the correct extracted media.  We continue to chip away at these omfs and will post fixes as they are completed.

While we continually strive to perfect AATranslator there may be conversions which we cannot yet do completely/satisfactorily so it is imperative that you try before you buy or at the very least ask.

I mentioned in my last post that we had been having problems with missing clip offsets/indents when parsing certain dialects of Steinberg OMFS.

Well I have finally stumbled upon where these are hidden. Naturally, this had to come just after the latest AAT release so be assured that we will have another release out probably within 24 hours.

I'm thinking that when these people get together to formulate how they will construct their omfs they try and come up with something that has never been done before - something like 'maybe if we put this value here no-one but us will ever find it' mindset.

Steinberg's Nuendo omfs are just fine - go figure!

Give me a break!    :x

Expect a new version shortly.

Ardour export is finished and an annoying bug writing AA1.5 session files involving AVI files, some minor Reaper export bugs fixed and a bug reading (some really strange) Steinberg xmls which could lead to some clips not being read - all fixed.

OMF export is drawing near - hope to have it ready for the next release.

More advances (read working) with referenced omfs from Premiere to Audition.

Currently working on track automation across all daws where appropriate.

Its pretty amazing to see track auto (gain & pan) and clip env (vol & pan) moving between say Audition & Reaper and back again.

Beats omf any day but then I guess I'm easily pleased

Lots of other additions and improvements.

Everytime I add some new feature it reminds me of that episode of the Brady Bunch where they are building that house of cards.....

My brain hurts from thinking (mainly from thinking why I ever got started on this thing).

Finally got some duck & drakes to line up and the track automation is now looking pretty solid across all daws
JL has been doing a great job of finding these not so well hidden bugs  :-D

New release is immenent (if not eminent)

Version 3.2 is now available

Lots of improvements as well as track automation and support for the Ardour format.

Finally found some time to sort out Steinberg track archive (xml) track automation. Incorporating a very complex conversion formula that JL has come up with which I think somehow involves the number of hairs on someone's grandmothers back.

So the current beta will now read Cubendo track pan and track gain automation.

Will try and get the reverse completed ie track automation code written to cover the creation of Stein xmls.

I guess it's lucky its about 4c in sunny Sydney - too cold to go out - probably get it done :-)

Been too busy to update this thread but I'm back.

The guys at Mackie have given us some support which has helped speed things up on the Tracktion side of things and Matt (NZ) has been most helpful.
Who would have known that you could have multile sessions/edits in the tracktion project file?

We have finally solved our PT track naming problem much thanks to Bill Blue (probably good that we were on the other side of the world as I'm sure some serious head banging could have been on the cards - LOL) and Airon for his patience as well and not to mention JL in the UK.

So the next version will see a lot more PT/Reaper functionality as well as added Tracktion support and all the other stuff I'm too lazy to list.

So a little bit more testing and some updated doco and this sucker is out the door.

It always seems to take longer than expected but we have finally got the next release into an acceptable shape and is now available to be downloaded

As usual there are the obligatory bug fixes and correction of ‘undocumented features’ as well as a host of enhancements.

The standout additions are that more detail is extracted from PT5 sessions – some of this detail is not extracted by the likes of ProConvert eg BPM, Beat markers and more .
We also recombine PT split stereo files to a sub folder called (strangely enough) ‘Stereo’ and of course split stereo files when creating PT5 session files.
We have also added track automation to both import and export of Steinberg track archives
We have also started down the path of collecting plug-in detail eg Plugin details from PT are now added to Reaper notes – we may expand this in the future and we may look at midi as well.
You can now specify a Reaper RPP as a ‘template’ to be used when converting to Reaper – we may expand this to cover other suitable formats.
We have added more detail to Audition & Vegas conversions and a whole lot more.
Tracktion project files (.tracktion) can now be imported and converted and if demand allows we will look to providing an export function as well.

The complexity of AATranslator grows daily and it can be easy to ‘break’ something that was working in a previous release. So let me know if this does happen so we can get it sorted out.

A special thanks to those like Bill Blue & Matt Bentley who have taken the time to assist in various aspects of testing for this release.

As always feel free to contact me for assistance and don’t be shy in either suggesting enhancements or recommending AATranslator to others.

Thanks again for your support

Just finalised converting PT fades to Reaper & Vegas fades and vice versa
Working on the same for Audition fades and others.

Also some Cubase 5.5 fixes.

Anyone with skills in decryption want to lend a hand on you know what please PM me

Between Ron Novy and myself we have cracked the PT7 session file encryption.

A big hi-five and a woo hoo!

Edit: And now we have also worked out PT8 as well  :evil:

Most impressive.  Really.  You guys are to be congratulated.  So: congratulations.
Isn't it time Adobe buys this thing from you and adds it into the next version of Audition, then pays you $20 for every copy they sell?   :wink:

I hope not - I rather like the timely updates.

James.

I think that James makes a good point there!

Hmmmm I like the idea of the $20 bucks a copy and not having to do an update for a year or three  :evil:

Could we make it $25 - I have habits to support  :-D

Dearie me, yes.  Adobe can post an update for Reader every couple of weeks (it seems) but Audition runs years.  Considering the business model, that's not surprising.  BUT hadn't thought of it when I posted -- thank you James.

Its been a fair while since our last release but we have been extremely busy so its probably opportune to let everyone know where we are at.

Firstly, there have been some fairly significant changes to AAT and in preparation for release v3.4 we have contacted all currently registered users confirming their registration and contact details.

Version 3.4 will be available in the next few days to registered users via FTP download so if you are a registered user and have NOT yet been contacted then IT WOULD BE WISE to contact us with your registration details ASAP.

A demo version of v3.4 will probably be available a bit further down the track but we have greater priorities at present.  In the meantime potential buyers can always contact us for a conversion from one format to another.

As at right now we are able to export all supported formats to OMF (due to Ron Novy's herculean effort!) and we can import practically all PT7 sessions (more work yet to be done).

This functionality along with additional formats (eg SAW) is expected to be the backbone of v3.5 (but will probably be called v4.0) and should only be a few weeks away.

As we are not a registered charity the bad news is that we expect to raise the price of the $99 version (as well as the upgrade price) at the end of October.

The good news is that ALL users with the $99 version as at the end of October will get this upgrade for FREE as we try our best to support those that have supported us.

So this is a heads up that if you purchased AATranslator for $59 or even $39 and you think that you may need the full version in the future then you should probably get on board before the end of October.

We released version 3.4 yesterday morning and all registered users should have been contacted by now with the location of the download.

There is currently no demo version for this release - the current demo version (v3.3) should be sufficient at this point to determine the value of the application.

We currently have a number of new formats being tested for version 4.0.
PT7 continues to be tested for v4.0 and OMF export functionality draws closer to completion.
(Yes our latest beta reads PT 7 files and writes OMF files)

I have posted an updated version (v3.4.03)

Fixed:
1.   Error splitting 24 bit files which contain a 'junk' chunk prior to the 'data' chunk
2.   The 'Send Output to....Folder containing source OMF' state now saves on exit
3.   If selecting the 'Append' function with this OMF state set on an informative message is displayed
4.   The 'hidden' Mac file produced when creating Mac PT5 output is no longer hidden
5.   Now correctly handles RPP files which have a "<SOURCE SECTION"
6.   Now correctly handles RPP files containing mp3 files - "<SOURCE MP3"

It is posted in the same location

We have had some very promising work done getting PT to read AATranslator markers (PT actually reads them but with a few minor problems) - more on that as work progress.

OMF is working but Ron being the perfectionist that he is is aiming to get track automation working for our first release of OMF

Been busy.

Just an update :- Have just converted a PT8 session.

Still lots more to do - cater for video, aux, midi tracks etc

Its getting there - more progress and testing of AAT OMF expected soon

If anyone wants to send me a PT9 session file (no media) I would really like to check it out - I'm that sort of guy

Its getting nearly time for another significant release.

PT7&8 import is looking very solid - I'm sure there are some warts in there but they probably wont surface until after we release (as usual).
OMF should now have track automation (vol & pan) as well as handling wav & aif. Just waiting on fades to be finalised.
Have just started adding routing conversion - eg busses first with AA/CEP & reaper and then adding aothers.

Just had too much on to get on top of all this, however....

Ron Novy's OMF extension to AATranslator now creates OMFs!
It caters for both embedded & reference OMFs using either aif or wav

Well done Ron!

PT7, 8 & 9 are all looking stable but no doubt we will tweak these versions over a few roll outs.

Just got to get time to kick this thing out the door.

Well I did say that we would get this beast out on Xmas eve and while it is nearly 4 hours into my Xmas day its still Xmas eve somewhere in the world and that’s my excuse.

Version 4.0 is now available

Well done. A Happy and Restful? Christmas. :-)

Been busy  - not much rest although I have gained a bit of time by finding my Adobe forum access deactivated a couple of weeks ago  :-P

Lots of mods mainly around the OMF export and PTF import - new update very soon.

Been busy working on latest beta (v4.0.48).
Currently reading SAW Studio EDLs and that is progressing well.
Lots of other goodies being added as well

Still loitering in the bushes

We have been about to do a release for a couple of weeks and everytime we get it ready its 'just add this one thing"... which is the equivalentof pulling a thread on a jumper - LOL

Lots of fixes/add ons for CMX and SAW. Added buss import/export for aa1.5 and other formats

Did I mention lots of small fixes?

Improved PT 7/8/9 support

We have a couple of other surprise apps we are working on as well - more later

New version will be announced very soon - I think we have passed our planned version 4.1 as our beta is at v4.1.17

Been chasing a bug for weeks which I'm sure has been annoying more than just me.

Yep you guessed it PT5 & OMF to PT - a sneaky elusive bug assumedly caused by AAT which caused PT to crash.

Well as it turns out yes I guess its our fault but only in that we failed to cater 100% for the total inadequacies of PT.

PT will happily give you a stupid pre or post xfade (what is that!!) but no unlike Reaper, Cubase and a heap of others if you get a fadeout that starts before a xfade ends then well bugger me bones poor little PT craps out.

Well its fixed now so we can finally get a release out - will be released this week with a new version.

Excuse me while I go and hit something!

The bottle? :wink:

Well that sounds like as good as excuse as any - though an excuse is not usually needed LOL

BTW Bit the bullet - v4.2 is out there now
All registered users should have been notified as to where to download it from

We have been a bit busy but suffice it to say that we will have a new version of AAT out as soon as AA4 is released.
It will have the ability to import and export AA4 session files as well as improved functionality across other daws and we finally added CEP/AA clip pan support (not easy).
Lots of other things which I usually forget to write down for times such as these.

Ses2Sesx has greatly chewed into our time but the good thing is that in the next AAT version we have improved our already pretty comprehensive AA/CEP conversion.

We will get a release out as soon as possible - working on 2 apps at the same time which are similar but not the same is very frustrating

Its that time again – another AATranslator release!

While I continually forget to make a note of all the changes we make (as if it’s not hard enough just making the changes) the highlights (that I do recall) are:

* Added Audition CS5.5 support (sesx).  Also check out our donationware Audition/CEP conversion tool Ses2Sesx
* Significant Audition/CEP conversion improvements and enhancements
* Improved and increased PT conversion capability
* Improved PT Track Automation conversion
* Added an 'Ignore Video' option
* Improved Ardour conversions (particularly session file locations)
* Improved AVID EDL import support - includes track volume automation where present
* Improved OMF export - now have an option to convert 32bit wav files to 24bit as 32bit OMFs are not part of the OMF standard
* Numerous small bug fixes or improvements in conversions of most formats

As usual with every upgrade we try not to break anything else and that is certainly getting harder to do the more complex this application becomes.

Our version upgrade releases continue to be free of charge but we do have a donation button on the main web page should you be feeling particularly generous.
http://www.aatranslator.com.au

As always feel free to pass on any comments or suggestions (providing they don’t involve too much work for us).

Registered users should all have been notified as to the location of the latest release

Been working on lots of Nuendo enhancements/fixes.  Specifically getting Nuendo to read AATranslator's ADL, OpenTL and XML formats. 
Lots of Nuendo limitations but apart from that all looking good.

New release soon enough.

Has it been that long since I posted on this thread?

I know it seems like we sit around doing nothing but we are trying to finalise our next release.  As usual lots of trinkets & baubles as well as heaps of little fixes and enhancements.
A lot of work done on Nuendo conversions (to and from) plus we look like we have finally sorted out PT Playlists.

Some testing still to do but the next version (due real soon) will have an option to import PT Playlists or ignore them.

Now where is my Avid/Dodgy voodoo doll........

It never seems to end but we are gearing up for a new release of AATranslator.

No doubt I have missed some but a summary of features included in the next version include:
1.   Improved ADL (AES31) import & export especially in relation to Nuendo
2.   Improved Steinberg Track Archive (XML) conversions
3.   Improved reading of looped clips in Reaper
4.   Corrected error if Video was last track in Reaper
5.   More informed conversions (msgs & Media Tab)
6.   Progress messages should no longer get hidden below other windows
7.   Improved PT conversions including hidden tracks and playlists
8.   Improved CMX-EDL conversions eg now read audio volume values
9.   OMF export now has an option to convert 32bit to 24bit as well as other improvements
10.   We have added import support for TripleDAT (ARG) files and can convert TDM & TDS audio files to wav.
11.   Improved FCP xml import with still more to do
12.   Numerous bug fixes/enhancements across most daws

There will likely be more features added as we try to complete the coding & testing for this next release.  We continue to work on numerous improvements for future versions of AAT  eg SAW export, more FCP features, etc.

Likewise if there are formats or features that you feel we should look at then let us know.

Everytime we are almost ready something else slips into the release or another bug needs squashing....

We are very close now - lots of really great stuff in this one and we are already working on heaps more goodies like MXF, FCPXML, SAW export etc, etc, etc.

Just tidying up doco (really wish someone would read this stuff as John Lundsten has done a lot of good work in this area) and nailing down a pesky PT marker issue (thanks again Ron Novy).

BTW We have started getting a few requests for one off conversions.  We understand that not everyone has a need for this sort of product so what we are doing is offering a conversion service.  If you are happy with the conversion then make a donation via the website.  Obviously the donation should be commensurate with the value of not having to do this manually.

What we also are saying is that if you end up doing a few conversions over time and end up paying the equivalent in donations of a registration eg $59 then we will just give you a registered version.  So you really dont lose which ever way you go.

Just released version 5.0

All registered users should have been notified of its download location.

Well done. :-) Thanks to all for all the hard work getting V 5 released.

We finally got hold of a PT10 session file (PTX) and of course they had to add another layer of obfuscation.
PTX is not our priority right now but a challenge is a challenge.
Damn amateurs - I think they do it just to be annoying, anyway it's done now and we can read them - good onya Ron!

Now that it's done its back to work on our other priorities.

We will add PTX support a bit later, why? - because we can ;-).

Just a heads up for asian AA users that we have been working to deal with the challenges (for me) of these and other non-english languages.  Many thanks to Dino9021 for his patience and efforts in helping us come up with a solution.  We have a working version which converts "Traditional-Chinese" as well as "Simple-Chinese".

We just have to make the solution a bit more 'elegant' as well as try and cover a few more languages.

I must admit that this was never on my radar.

We will have a new version of Ses2Sesx soon.

We released v5.1 a few days ago and since that release I have had to make a few necessary fixes and have hopefully uploaded the last for a while

This is what has changed since v5.1

v5.1.01
* Cubase 6 XMLs now have ridiculously high pointer numbers which cause an overflow error in AAT - now fixed
* Reaper: Issues with "Takes" and Bus Tracks causing AAT to crash now resolved

v5.1.02
* SAWStudio Track names not appearing in Reaper conversions due to extra Null character  - now fixed

v5.1.03
* SAWStudio Track Pan values reporting incorrectly  - now fixed

v5.1.04
* When extracting AIFs from some OMFs AAT may lockup  - now fixed
* Fixed memory leak when splitting stereo wav files