PTNewbie » Miscellaneous http://ptnewbie.com For musicians, producers and engineers who are new to Pro Tools Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:16:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Pro Tools 10! http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2011/12/20/pro-tools-10/ http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2011/12/20/pro-tools-10/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:16:19 +0000 spkguitar http://ptnewbie.com/?p=526 So shortly after PT9, and PT 10 is here. I haven’t gotten my copy yet ($$$), so I will reserve judgement until then.

Definitely not happy about the price.

]]> http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2011/12/20/pro-tools-10/feed/ 0 Pro Tools 9 is here! http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2010/11/04/pro-tools-9-is-here/ http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2010/11/04/pro-tools-9-is-here/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:27:51 +0000 spkguitar http://ptnewbie.com/?p=383 Continue reading →]]> Avid has announced the release of Pro Tools 9, the most surprising release of Pro Tools to date!

Here are just a few of the new features:

  • ADC
  • Core Audio and ASIO support for third party interfaces
  • 96 voices mono or stereo
  • 64 Instrument tracks
  • 512 MIDI tracks
  • 160 Aux tracks
  • 256 Busses
  • ADC! (I know I already said that, but it’s worth mentioning again!
  • more more more!

    • Just a little taste. More info to come.

]]> http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2010/11/04/pro-tools-9-is-here/feed/ 0 What are free plugins? (a public service announcement) http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2010/10/15/what-are-free-plugins-a-public-service-announcement/ http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2010/10/15/what-are-free-plugins-a-public-service-announcement/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:54:28 +0000 spkguitar http://ptnewbie.com/?p=103 Continue reading →]]> Free plugins are plugins that the manufacturer of the plugin provides free for use, or fully functioning limited versions that are free to use and can have the limitations removed by purchasing.

Unfortunately for everyone, many people often confuse “illegal” plugins, plugins that have had their copy protections removed illegally (“cracked”), as “free” plugins. Those are not “free” plugins, those are “illegal” plugins. While you may be able to obtain these plugins for “free”, they are not, indeed, free.

Another instance of this is “receiving plugins from friends”, where “friends” provide you with a copy of their plugins directory. (just a heads up; most times this doesn’t work due to other missing dependencies). This is also illegal; you did not pay to use those plugins.

There are many actual free and useful plugins available. I’ve listed many of them here on this site, but there are many others that you can find on the net. Most (if not all) of the actual free plugins have user agreements that prohibit distributing them second hand, so I can only provide links here. However, many of the free plugins you might “find” on the internet are actually cracked, illegal copies of plugins that normally require purchase. I strongly discourage the use of these plugins for many, many reasons.

  1. They are illegal.
  2. The process required to “crack” the plugin for use actually requires altering the code. These plugins are often un-reliable and unstable because of this process and can turn your smoothly running DAW software into an unusable pile of garbage fairly quickly.
  3. They are illegal.
  4. The people who “crack” these plugins are, by definition, unethical. Many times exploits are included in the cracked plugins that can allow these individuals access to your system(s) and all of your data.
  5. They are illegal.
  6. The programmers who work on these plugins rely on the income of their sales for their livelihoods. These are real, hard working people, many supporting families, that deserve to be supported for doing their jobs.
  7. Have I mentioned that they are illegal?

Many users have come across cracked plugins and have been tempted to use, or actually used them. I would like to plead with users not to do this. No matter what your reason for doing it is, no matter what excuse you give (“They’re too expensive”, “the Copy protection screws up my machine”, etc) they are still just that, excuses, and it is still just plain wrong.

There are plenty of alternatives:

  • There are quite a few really excellent free plugins.
  • There are quite a few really excellent low priced plugins.
  • There are plugin rental programs.
  • There are online stores with no-credit payment plans (AmericanMusical.com is probably the most famous of these).
  • There are organizations that are dedicated to working with developers to provide authentic, low priced plugins to users:

So, getting to the answer to the question; what are free plugins?

  • “Free” plugins obtained from the manufacturer’s website? Free.
  • “Free” plugins obtained on a promotional disk from a different manufacturer or from a magazine or other publisher? Free.
  • “Free” plugins obtained from a torrent site? Not free.
  • “Free” plugins given to you on a disk from a friend? Not free.
  • “Free” plugins that you know cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars normally? Not free.

Bottom line, don’t use cracked plugins. Ever.

]]> http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2010/10/15/what-are-free-plugins-a-public-service-announcement/feed/ 0 How to capture a screenshot http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2007/11/09/how-to-capture-a-screenshot/ http://ptnewbie.com/blog/2007/11/09/how-to-capture-a-screenshot/#comments Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:04:57 +0000 spkguitar http://ptnewbie.com/?p=90 Continue reading →]]> Sometimes, when troubleshooting a problem, or even just showing cool features, it becomes necessary to post a “screenshot” of the program you are working with. There are multiple ways to do this, with varying degrees of complication, but I’m only going to cover the most basic and simple version here. I’m also only going to cover doing this under Windows (for now).

  1. Get the image on the screen that you want to capture.
  2. Press the “prtscn” key on your keyboard
  3. Open an image editing program (all windows systems come with Microsoft Paint installed, but you can use whatever image editing program you like).
  4. create a new document in your image editing program and “paste” the contents of the clipboard (ctrl + v)
  5. save the file to your hard drive. It’s best to save a file in a common image format such as jpg

Now you have an image of the screen you were working on or that you wanted other people to see. Now you need a way to share it with them. If you need a large number of people to see the image, the easiest way is to post it to a photo sharing site and send them the link to the web page that particular photo is on.

Like this one

I prefer the free photo sharing service Flickr for sharing photos in this way. You can choose another photo sharing program if you like.

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