FTP and MACS

[jfee]

Hey,

I had a problem today that a producer uploaded some protools 7.2 sessions done on a mac to my ftp server (which is windows based).

I opened the session in PC protools, it opened and said 'this was done with sd2 files, they aren't supported on pc so we're going to convert them to .wav's for you'. Great. Anyways, it then opened the 'files cannot be found, do you want to relink'. So then I try to relink...and it won't because it doesn't think the files are audio files.

So anyways, then I go next door and try to open them on the mac pt system. Same problem, won't recognize the files as audio files.

My mac is running OSX. I don't know what his was running.

So I'm thinking it was either an OS9 thing or that somehow when the files got fucked up by the FTP server. I've had stuff like this happen lots before but I always found a workaround. Unfortunately I couldn't today. The audio files have no extension.

Can someone shed some light on to what the issue might be....
thanks in advance,
j

[Brendo]

Maybe get the producer to "Save Session Copy As..." from the file menu... saving to WAV, which automatically copies all audio files with the session. Also make sure he ticks PC/Mac compatibility at the same time, if 7.2 still has that option.

[Spock]

Yea, I have an idea what it may be.

FTP has two different file transfer modes, binary and text. Most of the point and droll/drag and drop programs for MACs or PCs try to look at the file type and use that as a clue for what mode to use. For example .txt, .log, .cvs they would do it in text mode.

Now I have seen these programs make the wrong choice many times.

What happens is it should be transfering the files in binary mode which means, "don't touch a damn thing, and don't try to figure out what my data is." Instead it uses text mode, so just when it runs across a byte that just happens to a CR character, the other side puts in a CR and LF on a PC.

Any way to fix this after fact? No not really. Re-upload and make sure whatever you tool you are using is forced to binary mode, not some type of auto detect mode.

I had almost the same type of problem happen on Cape IV tracks. The FTP I was using on the PC was in auto mode and never gave me any problems. When I went to download BVG tracks, a text file was included in the directory that detailed what everything was. Because of the naming, my FTP client downloaded the text file first in text mode, and then stayed that way for the rest of WAV files. However, it didn't tell me it was doing this stupid thing.

When I pulled in the files, the WAV headers were fine, but with extra bytes stuffed in at random places it really messed things up. At 24 bits per sample, that's 3 bytes per sample, so adding an extra byte every now and then put everything out of sync. The tracks were garbage.

It took a bit of re-downloading to figure it out. The answer in my case was to forget about the text files and just select the waves to download, then things were fine.

[jfee]

Spock I think you pin-pointed the problem!

thanks,

J

[jord]

You may have other problems as well, seeing as there's a chance that if the other guy was on a Mac, the PT sessions could have stored resource forks in the file to which were probably not uploaded when FTP'd. The best way around that is probably to zip the session up and then send it. This way, there's a better chance of everything staying intact.

jord

[Spock]

Good idea jord. Most FTP clients would see a .zip file as binary and not try to mess with it.

[Thumper]

Stuffit. Everything that gets FTP'd. Stuffit seems to work way better than any zip program. It's like $25 or something, and it's completely worth it.

[pounce]

stuffit and transmit work great for me, so on the mac those two will do you just fine for compressing and then ftp'ing whatever the hell you want. thanks to spock for the quick and likely correct answer.

[jord]

Stuffit was good in its heyday. Nowadays, even when dormant, I found Stuffit stealing precious CPU cycles which I could definitely devote to audio processing. Not to mention that its compression routines aren't what they used to be. Thus, it got promptly removed from our systems. Besides, with plenty of freebie compression utilities available (with many of them already built into Mac OS X), my money is better spent on stuff for the project studio.

jord

[FajitaTone]

in OS-X

right click (ctrl-click) on the Session folder and select "Create archve of..."

that will make a .zip file that can be FTP'd all over the world.

use the same process on a PC using WinZip.


:Thumbsup:

[Brendo]

use the same process on a PC using WinZip.

Or, using XP's built in zipping - "Send to Compressed Folder".

[jfee]

Thanks everybody!

Ironically, the guy sending me the stuff had no idea how to use ftp (I talked him through the 'fetch' install over the phone) but....the guy's got an HD3 rig at his house and co-wrote and produced one of the biggest dance/club songs of 2000 (It was so popular it appears on 82 compilation records).

It's kinda funny how a person can be at the top of the game, but never used ftp! I figure he must have an engineer that generally takes care of technical stuff for him.

Thanks again,
j

[nobby]

Spock I think you pin-pointed the problem!


Don't make fun of the man's ears. This will likely come up in CaPE 5, and nipping it in the bud would be a good thing.

[jord]

It's kinda funny how a person can be at the top of the game, but never used ftp! I figure he must have an engineer that generally takes care of technical stuff for him.

It's apples and oranges. One could impose the corollary and say, "Man, that dude is like a Borg on a computer, but he can't push a fader to save his life..." :Razz:

jord

[Bryson]

Stuffit (Drop Stuff) has an option to use no compression in prefs.
It keeps the file headers intact, and I've never had any problems using it.
RBrowser (http://www.rbrowser.com/download.html) is a good FTP app for Mac, and there's a free version.