Recording Studio Notes

The recording studio (Room 009) at Ai was recently upgraded to Pro Tools HD version 7.4.2 with a Control 24 control surface and a Digidesign 192 I/O interface. A software upgrade to version 8 is planned for the system, at which time I’ll update this post to reflect new steps for using the studio. If you’re using the headphone amplifier in the recording room, make sure that “monitor to aux” is pressed on the Control 24.

Getting Started:

  1. After getting a pass card from the Cage, login to the Mac with username: studio and password: studio.
    1. You may need to turn on the projector to see the menus.
    2. To change this under System Prefs > Display > Arrangment drag the menu bar icon to the preferred monitor.
  2. Turn on the Digidesign 192 I/O and wait for it to completely finish its boot process.
  3. Start Pro Tools once all the lights have stopped blinking on the 192 I/O.
  4. Turn on the Mackie monitors with the button on the front of each speaker.
  5. Start a new session in Pro Tools and save it on the Student Drive
  6. Start a new track
    1. Use tracks 1-8 for microphones in sequence
    2. Plug the mics into corresponding inputs on the snake (i.e. 1 -> A1, etc.).
    3. Set the “source” on the Control 24 to “mic” for tracks to record from mics.
    4. Use the “gain” to adjust the input levels before recording
  7. Important: when you are finished turn off the monitors before exiting Protools or shutting down the system.
  8. Set the I/O on your tracks based on the following:
    1. A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8 for mono mic input tracks (set source to “mic”)
    2. A1-2 for analog input from the CD player (set source to “line”)
    3. A3-4 for analog input from the DAT deck (set source to “line”)
    4. A5-6 for analog input from the Yamaha keyboard (set source to “line”)
    5. A7-8 for analog input from the internal Mac sound card (set source to “line”)