Okay, i want to summarize this thread and make sure I'm right before I jump in face first here.

If doing drums in Pro Tools at big studio, saving the file as an OMF can be converted to EDL easily and opened with Vegas. Is that correct?

There will be drum edits. These won't be single tracks. So the OMF will save all of this info?

To convert from OMF to EDL, is the expensive software required?

I'm running Vegas 3.0c as I never saw the need to upgrade. (And my studio is too busy to waste time playing around with upgrades). It appears, according to the help section that Vegas 3.0c can import EDL files.

Sorry to ask the same questions that have already been asked, but this is going to be a big deal and I don't want to lose a week's worth of tracking trying to deal with compatibility.

Thanks
Brandon Drury

You can OMF.

Digi would rather their software not be compatiable though, so OMF is an EXPENSIVE chunk of software on top of the PT system as an option

WHy would a PT place want to pay money to give their work away to someone else? Thats right they wouldnt. So OMF may not be there

IF you can get it to OMF, AVtranfer can get it to a vegas video EDL, where if you have vegas 5 you might open it.

Your best bet is to do a "consolidate" in PT by selecting from beginning to end of a project.

Im going thru transfer hell from PT right now as well...some omf's are working, most consolidates are working

Like Pipe said, ... IF.. you can get the PT session as an OMF. Cui Bono-Soft's EDL Convert can extract the audio, edit data and convert it to a Vegas text project file, or an XML which opens in Vegas 6 with a script. The XML carries more info, like x-fades ect. but the Vegas text project file works fine.
I have not received any PT session OMFs but I get them from Avid's and FCP all the time and I have not experenced any major problems.
EDL Convert goes for $250us and includes the XML script and some other audio file conversion utilities.
The folks at Cui Bono-Soft are real quick to help and answer any questions. (which is rare these days)

Your other option that was also previously metioned is AAF... but only with w/ Vegas 6, and I don't know how well.. or.. if it even works with projects from PTs, which supposidly can export an AAF. As I understand, unlike OMF, the PTs audio files cannot be embedded so they need to be included separatly as AIFF, Wave or something that Vegas can open.

Another alternative, if you have EDL Convert, is to save the ProTools session as a version 5 because EDL Convert is able to read ProTools 5 sessions. (Though not later than PT version 5.0)

So from the ProTools system choose to 'Save a Copy In...' and in the 'File Type' section of the Save dialogue box choose the drop down for ProTools 5.0 Session to save the current session as a as a ProTools 5 session. This dialogue box will also allow you to choose the file format for the audio files, WAV or AIFF , and any Movie or Video files that might have been part of the ProTools session (if any). Hence ProTools will make a copy of the original session in ProTools 5 format and copy all of the audio into a new session folder with subfolders for audio etc.

Open the PT5 session in EDL Convert and covert and save to a Vegas text file or XML. Though I'm not sure if Vegas 3 is going to accept the XML, or for that matter the Vegas EDL (text) file. Certainly this method will work with Vegas 6.

This is an alternative IF the studio doesn't have Digitranslator installed in their ProTools system and therefore can't export OMFs.
As any ProTools can still Save a copy in the older ProTools session formats.

The major benefit of the OMF is that they can, and ideally should, export an 'embedded' OMF which has all the edit information and audio wrapped into one file. Less chance of audio files being missing because they were stored outside the original ProTools session folder (Audio Files folder) and not copied.

Either OMF or the ProTools 5 sessions works for me and I have transferred back and forth from Vegas and ProTools LE and HD systems.

Regards
Stephen Hope
New Hope Media

Very useful info Steven.

All versions of Vegas can open a Vegas Text project file, but only V6 can open the XML via the script tool.

"WHy would a PT place want to pay money to give their work away to someone else? Thats right they wouldnt. "

So..... if other apps want to break into the PT near-monopoly, they should themselves facilitate the importing of PT projects ! Surely a scripting genius could do this if Sony aren't interested ?

geoff

Okay, I just got back from tracking drums on the Neve in a very nice room. Here's how I got the tracks to open in Vegas.

Pro Tools has an option to consolidate the files which takes all edits and individual files on one track and creates one single file for that track. We consolidated all the tracks.

We burned a data DVD with the Mac.

The opened the data DVD up with Windows XP without a problem and copied it to various hard drives.

No problem at all!

Brandon

I want to go the other way.

12 songs, some 6min+. Vocals only, in separate tracks per verse, chorus, etc. Some parts 15 or more takes.

To 'consolidate' each take to a full length track (with Trackalizer) would possibly end up with a couple of DVD-ROMs per song !

geoff

If I was willing to totally track an entire song in Pro Tools, I'd just go ahead and mix it in Pro Tools too (unless you produced it and someone else engineered it).

It seams like your may be quite comfortable with PT.

Brandon

The PT stuff was done elsewhere, not by me. After tracking the vocals in Vegas, the customer is taking them back to the PT studio - their choice....

geoff

Bummer. You've got me then.

Brandon