at least at the moment. here’s the update on the hard drive crash fiasco.

so it ‘recovered’ all the files, all organized in the same folders, but pro tools gave me weird errors when i tried to open the session files. i always got the error “the file could not be opened because…” either a) it was created with a newer version of pro tools or b) it was created with an older version of pro tools. the newer one is impossible; the older one should open anyway. but alas it didn’t.

however, the other thing the program did is sort the file by type of file; in that category there is a folder for .wav files that literally has 915 files in it, most of which are named something obscure like “Audio_1_01.wav” and there’s like 120 of those. but for whatever reason the files in this category are actually usable. its just none of the pro tools session files are in that category.

fortunately for me i named the tracks a little something more discernable with ‘king forever’….things like “acoustic” and “bass” so it wasn’t too big a deal to sort through the 8 or so takes of each and find the one i was using.

so, long story…well, long, i made a new version of the session and just re-imported all my pieces into it. so i’m back, baby! got my song goin again. needless to say, i’m using my newer and better hard drive this time because the old one scares me. rightly so.

SO; i tracked an intro electric part that i had in my head for the song, and i did a lead part. the intro part i’ll have to redo probably because the timing is off. the lead part isn’t bad…i had it in my head to use the melody from the chorus as a lead part for the intro and between verses. i dont know if it will stay that way but i like it for now.

i also figured out all my click track issues…which ended up being good that i started the session over. you just have to set the time signature up before you do anything else, and then things seem to work fine.

the one bad thing from today is that my amp is buzzing a lot. it wasn’t really before. its annoying and i can’t fix it. its not too big of an issue with the louder songs like this but in the future i can foresee problems with the quieter ones.

ever seen one of these? apparently the name for it is a “ground lift” because it takes the ground out of the circuit. or for us lay people it turns a 3 prong plug into a two prong one. its supposed to help with buzzing. of course the side effect is that you could possibly be electrocuted. but, since lightning storms aren’t exactly conducive to recording anyway….i think i’m ok.

anyway it helps a little but not as much as i’d hoped. maybe it helps more in a live setting than a studio.