A Producer’s guide for traveling – How to prepare your…

Hi guys, it’s Andre.

For a lot of producers, traveling is a part of their job. Not everyone is bound to one specific studio, especially when you’re recording, mixing and mastering jingles and radio imaging for clients all over the world. Sometimes you need to leave your own beloved studio and move to another for different projects. Some Pro Tools Sessions have been traveled around the world through various studios until the projects are finished.

To keep your sessions prepared and compatible, here’s a little traveling guide for mobile producers.

– Get informed about the other studio:

Checking out the studio before you  visit it, clears most problems with compatibility. Check out which DAW they are using, which version of it and which plugins. So you can compare it with your session and prepare it to make it fit the other system.

– Print your tracks:

There’s nothing more frustrating than having all audio mixed and processed in your session, just to see that it won’t work in the other studio because of missing plugins. If you’re using plugins, which the other studio does not support, print every track in your session as audio. This will make your sure you have everything ready, even if your plugins are not supported.

– Don’t forget your audio files:

Bringing only your session with you, won’t help at all without the matching audio files. Make sure your disk allocation is correct and all audio is in the right place. To make sure you have all audio with your session, use ‘Save Copy In’ and save all your audio files together with your session in one place. Here’s a short guide on how to do this.

– Make sure to be compatible:

Having the same DAW as the other studio is not everything. Especially when you’re working with different versions of Pro Tools like 10 and 9, you need to make your session compatible. You can select the version in the ‘Save Copy In’ window.

– Create stems for switching to another DAW:

If you need to deal with another DAW, make sure to export your audio as stems. This will make it compatible with every kind of DAW and also ensure, you have your audio, even if your session is not working somehow. Set up a start marker at the beginning of every stem track and make them all the same duration. This will make importing them easier.

– Do a test before traveling:

Don’t travel without a last check. Send over your prepared session to another producer transfer it to another computer and check if it’s working correctly and all audio files are in place. This step might save you from a lot of trouble.

– If possible, bring your computer with you:

Laptops are pretty powerful these days and a lot of them can handle even bigger sessions. If you have a working DAW on your laptop, bring it with you. If everything goes wrong, you can still open your session on your own computer.

Before your next traveling, just make sure to check this guide and you won’t arrive with any bad surprises.

Cheers and have a great weekend.