Reading HFS/HFS+ USB drives on a PeeCee

[Les Cargill]

How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
studio. If all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can
be used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...

HFSExplorer would not read it...

Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply
ignore the "Windows" part of my request?

I sure ain't going to the studio and try to fly an SSL. :)

Oh, and be careful when you send home ruffs. The client
in this case was most unhappy. And geez, these guys are
an easy mix. No up and down, no magic at all, just a little
EQ and compression - and not much of that.

Truth be told, I was going to "produce" the session, but the studio
people started in on expecting being rated on ProTools and the SSL, and
I took the day off. Life is far too short for that. I also
wanted the buddy to kind of do it without me draped
around his neck. There's no payout for me, and ...
sorry, but that stuff is not something you just breeze in and hit go on.

But the ruffs inspired my buddy to request that I mix things... when
you have a "guy with acoustic guitar plus friends" thing, leave a
little of the acoustic in the mix, please?

The client perception is that the studio is trying to squeeze every last
nickel out of him. Pity. Those tracks are his property, totally
work for hire, and ...

His perception was also negatively affected by five hours
of "getting drum sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit)
that I personally have set up for live in under thirty minutes.

--
Les Cargill

[hank alrich]

Les Cargill > wrote:

> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
> studio. If all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can
> be used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>
> HFSExplorer would not read it...
>
> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply
> ignore the "Windows" part of my request?
>
> I sure ain't going to the studio and try to fly an SSL. :)
>
> Oh, and be careful when you send home ruffs. The client
> in this case was most unhappy. And geez, these guys are
> an easy mix. No up and down, no magic at all, just a little
> EQ and compression - and not much of that.
>
> Truth be told, I was going to "produce" the session, but the studio
> people started in on expecting being rated on ProTools and the SSL, and
> I took the day off. Life is far too short for that. I also
> wanted the buddy to kind of do it without me draped
> around his neck. There's no payout for me, and ...
> sorry, but that stuff is not something you just breeze in and hit go on.
>
> But the ruffs inspired my buddy to request that I mix things... when
> you have a "guy with acoustic guitar plus friends" thing, leave a
> little of the acoustic in the mix, please?
>
> The client perception is that the studio is trying to squeeze every last
> nickel out of him. Pity. Those tracks are his property, totally
> work for hire, and ...
>
> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours
> of "getting drum sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit)
> that I personally have set up for live in under thirty minutes.


Sounds like the studio screwed up and sent you incompatible files. I can
easily see that kind of crap supporting your friend's idea that the
studio guys are aiming to drain his bank account. The drum sound thing
is typical BS unless the drummer's kit sucks.

My lack of Windows know-how prevents me from helping here. However, PT
is cross-platform. You could get an answers from DAW-Mac, though you'd
have to subscribe. Could be worth it. Good folks loaded with experience.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/daw-mac/

--
shut up and play your guitar * http://hankalrich.com/
http://armadillomusicproductions.com/who'slistening.html
http://www.sonicbids.com/HankandShaidriAlrichwithDougHarman

[John Bruce]

On 16/10/2010 03:07, Les Cargill wrote:
>
> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools studio. If
> all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can
> be used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>
> HFSExplorer would not read it...
>
> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply
> ignore the "Windows" part of my request?
>
> I sure ain't going to the studio and try to fly an SSL. :)
>
> Oh, and be careful when you send home ruffs. The client
> in this case was most unhappy. And geez, these guys are
> an easy mix. No up and down, no magic at all, just a little
> EQ and compression - and not much of that.
>
> Truth be told, I was going to "produce" the session, but the studio people
> started in on expecting being rated on ProTools and the SSL, and
> I took the day off. Life is far too short for that. I also
> wanted the buddy to kind of do it without me draped
> around his neck. There's no payout for me, and ...
> sorry, but that stuff is not something you just breeze in and hit go on.
>
> But the ruffs inspired my buddy to request that I mix things... when
> you have a "guy with acoustic guitar plus friends" thing, leave a
> little of the acoustic in the mix, please?
>
> The client perception is that the studio is trying to squeeze every last nickel
> out of him. Pity. Those tracks are his property, totally
> work for hire, and ...
>
> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours
> of "getting drum sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit)
> that I personally have set up for live in under thirty minutes.
>
> --
> Les Cargill

You need Transmac from Acute Systems:- http://www.asy.com/ it ain't free, but it
won't break the bank either.

HTH< John

[philicorda[_9_]]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:07:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote:

> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
> studio. If all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can be
> used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>
> HFSExplorer would not read it...
>
> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply ignore
> the "Windows" part of my request?

I would boot the PC from a Linux live CD like 'knoppix', and use it to
copy the files to the PC hard drive.

OSX on the Mac only supports read only mounting of NTFS drives. Write
support is there since 10.6, but is considered dangerous, so it's not
enabled by default. You can also install NTFS3G, a free version of the
Linux NTFS kernel module, on OSX for more reliable write support.

[Scott Dorsey]

philicorda > wrote:
On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:07:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote:

> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
> studio. If all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can be
> used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>
> HFSExplorer would not read it...

There are some other HFS-reading applications out there. HFS+ is a
well-documented filesystem so anyone can write some code that will read
it, and lots of people have.

> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply ignore
> the "Windows" part of my request?

The NT filesystem is proprietary and undocumented and Microsoft won't
tell anyone else what is inside it or how it works. So all of the NT
filesystem implementations out there, except at Microsoft, have been done
by reverse-engineering and none of them really work all THAT well.

As of OS 10.6, MacOS is able to read and write NT filesystems most of the
time and they get corrupted less than half the time. This is about as good
as Windows 95 was at first, but it's still not anything anyone would consider
reliable. Linux systems using ntfs3g are a little more reliable but still
not all that reliable.

The tape op SHOULD have made you a native copy and then also an NT or PCFS
version on seperate media, if you had specifically asked for windows.

If I were you I would take the disk to Kinko's and first of all make sure
that I could read it. Then I would write it to an ISO filesystem on a
CD-ROM or DVD and take it back to your PC. Kinko's will have a Mac running
the latest OS version and will charge a couple dollars for you to use it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Les Cargill]

hank alrich wrote:
> Les > wrote:
>
>> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
>> studio. If all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can
>> be used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>>
>> HFSExplorer would not read it...
>>
>> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply
>> ignore the "Windows" part of my request?
>>
>> I sure ain't going to the studio and try to fly an SSL. :)
>>
>> Oh, and be careful when you send home ruffs. The client
>> in this case was most unhappy. And geez, these guys are
>> an easy mix. No up and down, no magic at all, just a little
>> EQ and compression - and not much of that.
>>
>> Truth be told, I was going to "produce" the session, but the studio
>> people started in on expecting being rated on ProTools and the SSL, and
>> I took the day off. Life is far too short for that. I also
>> wanted the buddy to kind of do it without me draped
>> around his neck. There's no payout for me, and ...
>> sorry, but that stuff is not something you just breeze in and hit go on.
>>
>> But the ruffs inspired my buddy to request that I mix things... when
>> you have a "guy with acoustic guitar plus friends" thing, leave a
>> little of the acoustic in the mix, please?
>>
>> The client perception is that the studio is trying to squeeze every last
>> nickel out of him. Pity. Those tracks are his property, totally
>> work for hire, and ...
>>
>> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours
>> of "getting drum sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit)
>> that I personally have set up for live in under thirty minutes.
>
>
> Sounds like the studio screwed up and sent you incompatible files. I can
> easily see that kind of crap supporting your friend's idea that the
> studio guys are aiming to drain his bank account. The drum sound thing
> is typical BS unless the drummer's kit sucks.
>

Yep.

> My lack of Windows know-how prevents me from helping here. However, PT
> is cross-platform. You could get an answers from DAW-Mac, though you'd
> have to subscribe. Could be worth it. Good folks loaded with experience.
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/daw-mac/
>

Thanks. I employed the little Mac laptop, but it's still in
progress. 30 GB takes a while. I also had great exceeding joy with
copy semantics in the Finder doohickie - nothing lost permanently yet...

--
Les Cargill

[Les Cargill]

John Bruce wrote:
> On 16/10/2010 03:07, Les Cargill wrote:
>>
>> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
>> studio. If
>> all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can
>> be used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>>
>> HFSExplorer would not read it...
>>
>> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply
>> ignore the "Windows" part of my request?
>>
>> I sure ain't going to the studio and try to fly an SSL. :)
>>
>> Oh, and be careful when you send home ruffs. The client
>> in this case was most unhappy. And geez, these guys are
>> an easy mix. No up and down, no magic at all, just a little
>> EQ and compression - and not much of that.
>>
>> Truth be told, I was going to "produce" the session, but the studio
>> people
>> started in on expecting being rated on ProTools and the SSL, and
>> I took the day off. Life is far too short for that. I also
>> wanted the buddy to kind of do it without me draped
>> around his neck. There's no payout for me, and ...
>> sorry, but that stuff is not something you just breeze in and hit go on.
>>
>> But the ruffs inspired my buddy to request that I mix things... when
>> you have a "guy with acoustic guitar plus friends" thing, leave a
>> little of the acoustic in the mix, please?
>>
>> The client perception is that the studio is trying to squeeze every
>> last nickel
>> out of him. Pity. Those tracks are his property, totally
>> work for hire, and ...
>>
>> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours
>> of "getting drum sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit)
>> that I personally have set up for live in under thirty minutes.
>>
>> --
>> Les Cargill
>
> You need Transmac from Acute Systems:- http://www.asy.com/ it ain't
> free, but it won't break the bank either.
>
> HTH< John

Ain't gonna happen - I'm not interested in having a generalized
ability to read disks from Macs - I can boot Knoppix if nothing else.
Thanks!

--
Les cargill

[Les Cargill]

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> > wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:07:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote:
>
>> How to? Buddy wants me to mix a pile of songs he did in a ProTools
>> studio. If all else fails, there's a Mac laying around here which can be
>> used to transfer the files via Samba. It's an OS9 laptop...
>>
>> HFSExplorer would not read it...
>
> There are some other HFS-reading applications out there. HFS+ is a
> well-documented filesystem so anyone can write some code that will read
> it, and lots of people have.
>
>> Do Macs have no NTFS capability at all? Or did the tape op simply ignore
>> the "Windows" part of my request?
>
> The NT filesystem is proprietary and undocumented and Microsoft won't
> tell anyone else what is inside it or how it works. So all of the NT
> filesystem implementations out there, except at Microsoft, have been done
> by reverse-engineering and none of them really work all THAT well.
>

I know it is fairly disgusting. So it goes...

> As of OS 10.6, MacOS is able to read and write NT filesystems most of the
> time and they get corrupted less than half the time. This is about as good
> as Windows 95 was at first, but it's still not anything anyone would consider
> reliable. Linux systems using ntfs3g are a little more reliable but still
> not all that reliable.
>
> The tape op SHOULD have made you a native copy and then also an NT or PCFS
> version on seperate media, if you had specifically asked for windows.
>

I asked for "Windows PCM" which was apparently ambiguous. But hey,
they're his ruffs... don't mix the clients acoustic down...

> If I were you I would take the disk to Kinko's and first of all make sure
> that I could read it. Then I would write it to an ISO filesystem on a
> CD-ROM or DVD and take it back to your PC. Kinko's will have a Mac running
> the latest OS version and will charge a couple dollars for you to use it.
> --scott
>

It's 30 GB o' stuff. DVD is almost completely out of the question. Ah
well, I got the files xferred - thanks all.

--
Les Cargill

[Ty Ford]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:07:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote
(in article >):

> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours of "getting drum
> sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit) that I personally have set up
> for live in under thirty minutes.

That's very old school, as you probably know Les, unless they don't have the
right mics or know where to put them.

Stereo overheads with a punch for kick and snare would probably be fine if
they were isolated.

Regards,

Ty

--Audio Equipment Reviews Audio Production Services
Acting and Voiceover Demos http://www.tyford.com
Guitar player?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWaPRHMGhGA

[Les Cargill]

Ty Ford wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:07:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote
> (in >):
>
>> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours of "getting drum
>> sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit) that I personally have set up
>> for live in under thirty minutes.
>
> That's very old school, as you probably know Les, unless they don't have the
> right mics or know where to put them.
>
> Stereo overheads with a punch for kick and snare would probably be fine if
> they were isolated.
>


That is precisely what I do for live recordings, and the resulting bleed
is anything but unpleasant. Managing phase issues with that setup by
adjusting the time position of the tracks can still be a challenge.

> Regards,
>
> Ty
>
> --Audio Equipment Reviews Audio Production Services
> Acting and Voiceover Demos http://www.tyford.com
> Guitar player?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWaPRHMGhGA
>

--
Les Cargill

[Scott Dorsey]

Les Cargill > wrote:
>
>That is precisely what I do for live recordings, and the resulting bleed
>is anything but unpleasant. Managing phase issues with that setup by
>adjusting the time position of the tracks can still be a challenge.

It's better to move the mikes around until the phase issues are solved,
but it shouldn't take forever to do that. The thing is, as the number of
mikes on the kit increases, the interactions between them increase
exponentially and either you solve it by using mikes with really tight
patterns or by endless noodling.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Les Cargill[_2_]]

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Les > wrote:
>>
>> That is precisely what I do for live recordings, and the resulting bleed
>> is anything but unpleasant. Managing phase issues with that setup by
>> adjusting the time position of the tracks can still be a challenge.
>
> It's better to move the mikes around until the phase issues are solved,
> but it shouldn't take forever to do that.

I don't mean hardcore phase issues - I just mean making sure that
the snare is roughly the same in all four tracks. And no, it doesn't
take long. But I've had a couple cases where things
got interesting.

> The thing is, as the number of
> mikes on the kit increases,

I use exactly four... not a big fan of tom mics, and have
never kept a hihat mic track...

> the interactions between them increase
> exponentially and either you solve it by using mikes with really tight
> patterns or by endless noodling.
> --scott
>

--
Les Cargill

[Ty Ford]

On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:24:01 -0400, Les Cargill wrote
(in article >):

> Ty Ford wrote:
>> On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:07:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote
>> (in >):
>>
>>> His perception was also negatively affected by five hours of "getting drum
>>> sounds" when it's an acoustic band (plus kit) that I personally have set up
>>> for live in under thirty minutes.
>>
>> That's very old school, as you probably know Les, unless they don't have the
>> right mics or know where to put them.
>>
>> Stereo overheads with a punch for kick and snare would probably be fine if
>> they were isolated.
>>
>
>
> That is precisely what I do for live recordings, and the resulting bleed
> is anything but unpleasant. Managing phase issues with that setup by
> adjusting the time position of the tracks can still be a challenge.


Me 2.

Regards,

Ty Ford

--Audio Equipment Reviews Audio Production Services
Acting and Voiceover Demos http://www.tyford.com
Guitar player?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWaPRHMGhGA