Organization of Pro Tools Sessions - Social Sound Design

Organization of Pro Tools Sessions

2010-07-09T21:38:28Z

Hey all you professional peers,

I am curious how you organize and keep track of different versions of Pro Tools sessions.

How do you write the date?

Do you have a standard naming convention you use?

Do you use a Revision system? Like "R1", "R2", etc. tagged at the end of the session file name?

What are some common abbreviations you use?

Do you have a naming scheme that keeps the most recent session file at the bottom of the list when in alphabetical order? (That's what I do - curious to what other people do).

Do you keep the film split up by reel and each reel gets it's own Pro Tools session? Or is it all in one session?

How often do you Save As?

Appreciated - Ryan

Answer by ianjpalmer for Organization of Pro Tools Sessions

2010-07-09T21:58:28Z

Hey Ryan,

I personally don't need to keep different versions, I have only rarely needed to go back a step and PT has it's automatic backup.

I use a naming convention though....

e.g. Hero:108, series 1, episode 3 would be H103 e.g. Hero:108, series 4, episode 5 would be H405

That's as complicated as I make it.

On rare occasions I merely use the date. e.g. The Art of Time 02FEB2010

I try to remember to copy the entire folder of mixes onto my backup drive each night and onto an external each week. However my system is setup thus...

MacHD - system drive SCSI A/B/C - external Avid SCSI, 1 per show Audio - SFX library on internal SATA Video - MXF & QT on internal SATA Backup - 1TB internal SATA Backup - external FW drive.

Once a show is complete it is archived onto either DVD or BluRay and the HDD wiped.

This means the worst that can happen is I loose a days work. Even if the computer explodes, chances are the work will be fine.

Answer by Jay Jennings for Organization of Pro Tools Sessions

2010-07-10T06:23:17Z

Regular naming convention for features I work on is:

PROJECT TITLE_REEL NUMBER_VERSION NUMBER OR VERSION DATE_CATEGORY

example:

ROAD_R2_V0405_FX
PA_R5_V6_FACTORY FX

I normally don't go beyond that unless I am trying something new that I don't want to commit to, for example:

ROAD_R2_V0405_FX_alt car engine
LETTERS_R2_V2.3_NEW ARTILLERY

I have ProTools setup to autosave 99 backups with each backup occurring every 1-3 minutes, so I have no worry of losing data. I rarely do Save Copy Ins unless I am finished with the reel and sending it to the stage or to another editor for additions/revisions. Lastly, I do a full backup at the end of each day using Chronosync.

Answer by Davide Favargiotti for Organization of Pro Tools Sessions

2010-07-10T17:25:37Z

Usually I don't need to have different versions of the same reel. I make only a copy of my session file everyday and change the progressiveLetter (a progressive letter, from a to z): it's more to keep track of the working days and the changes but I rarely need to open an older session.

My session name is something like:

ProjectName_reelNumber_id_progressiveLetter_versionDate

Where id is an identifier of the editor (if I'm working in team) and versionDate is the date of the conformed video I'm working on.

I've autosave set every 3 minutes, 99 copies.

I started writing in max an app to track version number and comment and renaming file and retrieving them. It works, but I never needed to actually use it in a real production.

I have Carbon Copy Cloner set to clone the project folders every day at lunch time and in the evening when usually my working day is over.