File/Project interchange 101?

Question

Trying to gain a basic understanding of how interchange between daw platforms works.  I know there is a aatranslator utility available (I've actually purchased the media sweeper).  My questions are really basic like how does it work?  Are projects recorded on hard disk, brought to another facility?  Is it possible to transmit this information over the internet?  Is this done at the highest possible bit and sample rate?  Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

Thanks for purchasing mediasweeper.
Project interchange - when you say 'how does it work' I'm assuming you mean in general.
Essentially conversion from one daw to another means that you will lose something in the transfer.
For example, midi data, fx and plug-ins and maybe more depending upon what functionality exists in each daw and wether converting can make sense to the receiving daw.
An acceptable conversion is one where all the clips are in their right location, offset, indent and associated with the correct audio.
From there its even better if track gain & track pan, clip or track envelopes, clip gain and fades come across.
It pays to know what the receiving daw expects - some don't like stereo wav files or only deal in 24bit wav files eg PT.
Also don't assume that one daw's implementation of a format is the same as another's eg OMF what you think gets written to the file inot alwayss what you expect and also what gets read from the file may be different - you might expect a pan envelope to be written and its not or it gets written but not read by the other daw.
So essentially you record how you would normally record at whatever settings suit you using your daw of choice and using either the capability of the daw to save your session to a different format or by using AATranslator, Proconvert, AVTransfer, EDLTransfer, DigiTranslator etc to convert the session file to a format readable by the new daw.
If you want to send your project to another facility for editing or mixing (perhaps using a daw whose purchase was influenced by a glossy magazine ad or other such marketing) then you can either burn to DVD/CD or put it on a portable drive (making sure you have ALL the required audio) or you can transmit it over the internet and like any other file this can be transmitted without degradation.
In all cases if someone else needs to do something with the converted session then they will need access to the audio data as well.
Under no circamstances rock up to another facility expecting them to be able to access your session without either discussing it with them or prior knowledge of what they use - and yes we all know everybody who is anybody all use PT and my thoughts on that can't be printed. 
Also do not do this at the last minute ie when you are rocking up for a session that you are now paying premium dollars by the hour!
I don't know how many engineers I've bailed out (read gratis) that has contacted me in a panic.
But on the PT subject don't think that they can import say an AAF file which you have exported from Vegas (at no extra charge to you) because you will probably find that the stingy PT users can't afford to shell out the extra $500+ for the addon to read AAF (mind you Avid & co designed AAF and they charge for it to their own customers!)
So in summary this is an area filled with danger so always ask questions and expect the worst.
You can always bounce each track down to a single seperate wav file and take them to the other facility.
Again you will lose the ability to change a lot of things but could be used as a fall back.
Remember it isn't going to sound better on a non Audition platform.
I hope this helps as much as it helps me when ranting :-)