Digidesign Service & Support

Pro Tools 4.1 ReadMe

September 12, 1997

Welcome to Pro Tools 4.1. We hope you enjoy the benefits and enhancements that this release brings to the Pro Tools family of products. While we've labored long and hard to remove any problems in the software, sometimes some problems will arise at the last minute! Here's a list of known problems, so that you can avoid them, with workarounds for any that we know about.

In addition, be sure to consult your Pro Tools User Guide for information about any generally-known problems with System Extensions, third-party utilities, or other conflicts.

Known Problems

Macintosh OS8

On systems running Mac OS8, the Macintosh sometimes posts the following dialog on startup: "MP Libraries could not be fully installed because of not enough memory." This dialog does not actually affect Pro Tools and appears to be a bug in Mac OS8.

With OS8, use of I/O controls in the Edit Window (such as the pan or volume sliders), causes the Edit Window Counter display to become corrupted. This only lasts as long as the mouse is held down, and appears to be a bug in Mac OS8. You can workaround this problem and several other minor graphic problems either by working with these control types in the Mix Window, or by turning off the "System Wide Platinum Appearance" in the OS8's Appearance Control Panel.

When using Mac OS8, the last "1" in the Edit Window Counter can sometimes become corrupted on screen. Forcing a screen redraw, (for example, by re-sizing the window), fixes this.

Other Problems

Long fades created with Pro Tools volume automation (greater than 3 min.) do not always play back correctly when playback is initiated from the middle of the fade. Playing from the beginning of the automation ramp will play back these long fades correctly. NOTE: This only refers to fades created via volume automation, not to the creation of separate disk-based fade files.

Some 1-band EQ settings cannot be loaded into the 4-band EQ. In these cases, if you attempt this operation and then immediately try to load a 4 band EQ setting, Pro Tools could crash. The suggested workaround is to quit and re-launch Pro Tools if you find a 1-band settings file that cannot be loaded.

When bouncing in sessions that include muted tracks, enabling "Mute Frees Voice" in some cases can improve bounce performance (the number of tracks that can be bounced successfully).

Automation cannot be written simultaneously to "ganged" controls in a stereo Plug-In. In order obtain the same results, you can record the automation to one side, then copy it and paste it to the other side.

The Peavey PC1600 can cause automation tracking to get derailed during rapid fader moves. This is a limitation of the PC1600. The Peavey controller samples its fader movement at a fairly low rate which can sometimes cause it to miss fader positions used for nulling.

If cross-fade areas on disk tracks are selected for deletion in tandem with the same "time selection" on Auxiliary Inputs, when you delete the cross-fades, the audio data in the selection gets deleted instead of cross-fade. In order to avoid this problem, create an edit group that consists solely of the cross-faded disk tracks, and then you can safely delete the cross-fades only.

With Pro Tools III systems, if a crash occurs, there is a chance that the DigiSetup file can become corrupt and your Disk I/O drives will not appear on the Mac desktop. If this should occur, simply drag your DigiSetup file (from within the Preferences folder in the System Folder) to the trash, empty it, and restart. Your drives should then appear on the desktop as expected.

For QuickTime Movie Users:

On Pro Tools 24 systems, playing audio data and QuickTime Movies off of the same SCSI bus will not work reliably, even when using separate drives. To get good results, Movie data must be on a different SCSI bus from Pro Tools audio data.

With Pro Tools 24 and Miro PCI video capture cards, Pro Tools can sometimes crash when looping 16 tracks and a Movie.

If You Are Installing a Pro Tools 24 System and Digital Audio Sequencer Applications:

If you are installing a Pro Tools 24 system for use with a digital audio sequencer application, please keep in mind that you should be using DAE 3.2 (shipped with this release) in order for your Pro Tools 24 system to run. Most installers that come with third-party applications are "good citizens," and will not overwrite the DAE v3.2 that you have installed with your new Pro Tools 4.1, but after installing third-party software, be sure to verify that the DAE and DigiSystem INIT are version 3.2 (or later).

For Mackie HUI Users:

HUI's faders are always active, even during a bounce. Keep in mind that moving them will affect the mix of your bounced file!

If you tell OMS to "Forget Port" when it is searching for a device (such as HUI) you will not be able to reconnect it until after you quit Pro Tools and re-launch.

As of this writing, some problems can occur with HUIs and Mark Of The Unicorn MIDITimePiece multi-port interfaces:

MIDITimePiece I:

With this interface, after power cycling HUI, launching Pro Tools, or assigning a controller in the Peripherals dialog, HUI is usually not completely initialized. Some scribble strips will be blank and the text in the VFD is sometimes not complete. Bank swapping can sometimes cause the displays to update properly. (It appears that MTP I units may not be able to handle the density of MIDI System Exclusive data sent out by Pro Tools). For this reason, at this time we do not recommend use of MTP I units for Pro Tools/HUI inter-communication.

MIDITimePiece II:

When power cycling HUI, the MTP II can get into a "locked up mode" (all output port lights lit), or in a mode where its channelizing the HUI output data to all the ports. (This will not happen every time, be can occur). To avoid the problem, disconnect HUI's output before powering down. Or, if the problem does occur, power cycle your MTP II, and it will return to normal operation.

For Bit 3 Expansion Chassis Users:

Many DSP Farms and some early serial number SampleCell II PCI cards are not compatible with the currently shipping Bit 3 Expansion Chassis. These cards contain a the PCI Matchmaker chip S5933Q. In order to work properly with Bit 3's current product offerings, these chips must be the S5933QC versions. Older Digidesign cards can be upgraded for a nominal fee. Please contact Digidesign Technical Support for upgrade information.

If you are a recent Bit 3 Expansion Chassis purchaser, and you wish to confirm which type of chassis you own, examine either of the PCI interconnect cards that connect the chassis and the CPU. Newer cards have a large IC made by Digital Equipment Corporation (marked "digital"); older chassis either have a sticker that says "Bit 3" or have a large chip marked "IBM."

Some Bit 3 users have reported getting "DAE Memory Low" errors when double-clicking session documents to launch Pro Tools, even though they have allocated sufficient memory to DAE. The workaround is to launch Pro Tools, then open the session from within the application.