Pro Tools sessions sent over from another studio played nothing through a client’s Apollo, because every track was still routed to the outputs of the studio where they were recorded.
A client had been sent some Pro Tools sessions from another studio and needed to open them on his Mac. He has Pro Tools installed and a Universal Audio Apollo system with four UA units connected. He wanted my help making sure his Pro Tools setup was working properly with it, so he could listen to what he’d been sent.
Opening the sessions
When the session loaded, Pro Tools told us some files were missing. They didn’t look relevant to what he needed and were probably on the other studio’s computer, so we skipped that window and left them for another time.
To hear anything, we had to change the outputs. Every track was routed to the multitrack output device the session had been recorded on, and none of those outputs mapped to anything on his system.
Rerouting to the Apollo
First I looked down every channel to see which outputs were in use, and scanned the buses as well, so I knew what the session was expecting. Then I changed them all at once:
- Selected all the tracks.
- In the Mix window, Option-Shift-clicked one track’s output selector and chose Output 1-2 on the Apollo.
- Turned the volume down before pressing play.
Holding Option and Shift when you change an output in Pro Tools applies it to every selected track, which saves rerouting an incoming session one channel at a time.
I pressed play and all the tracks were coming out of the Apollo. The mix itself was probably not right any more, but it was playing back.
Bringing the level down
The next thing I noticed was that it was coming out quite hot. I created a master fader track in the session and pulled it down, so the level was at a sensible volume for his speakers. My advice was that we look at his Pro Tools settings at some point to make sure it isn’t coming out of the Apollo extra loud for some other reason.
Once playback was sorted we soloed some of the tracks, checking that everything that should be there was there and getting a feel for how the music he’d been sent was put together, with its different takes labelled. At his request that turned into a short lesson on using those parts of Pro Tools.
He was happy to have this version working. He could press play, hear it on his own system and solo tracks to get an idea of the different takes.
When a session arrives from another studio, expect its outputs to point at hardware you don’t have, and turn the volume down before you press play.
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