Compiling A Project - Akai DD1500 User Manual

UTILITIES - SAVING PROJECTS - 15

COMPILING A PROJECT

When working with multiple disk drives, you will probably often have the situation where a
project is created using audio taken from these external disks. For example, one common
setup is to have a system with an MO drive which is used to take the removable master
project disk and have banks of sound libraries on the fixed hard disks also connected to
the system. Projects are built by 'sweetening' the master MO with sound effects, foley,
music etc., from these hard disks. For example, you may receive an MO with all the
dialogue on to which you have to add sound effects, music, etc.. During the track laying
process, you will probably be playing these sound effects from the external hard disks but,
ultimately, of course, you wish to remove the master MO disk for transfer to the mixing
room for the final mix at which point you need to make that MO disk 'self contained' so
that it contains all the audio elements used in the project. In other words, you want to
'compile' your project.
The COMPILE function on the DD1500 is a special type of save routine and is used to
create one 'master' disk for a project to be played from. Without COMPILE, if you were to
remove the master MO and try to play it back without the hard disk(s) also being on-line,
any cues in the project that were created using clips from libraries on the external hard
disk(s) would not be played. COMPILE overcomes this by copying all audio referenced in
the project from the hard disk(s) onto the one 'master' MO. After the project has been
compiled, all cues will play back successfully from the MO.
To compile a project, press F3/F4. You will receive this screen prompt:
The EXECUTE key will flash and you should press EXECUTE (YES) or EXIT (NO/CANCEL)
as appropriate. If you choose to compile the project, you will see this prompt as the
DD1500 copies all relevant bits of audio from the external disk(s) to the main disk.
The DD1500 will scan the project, find out which bits of audio are being used and which
disks they come from and will copy the relevant pieces of audio across. However, please
note that because audio is being copied from the external disk(s), compiling a project can
take some time. Exactly how long depends on the amount of audio that needs to be
copied. If you have only taken a few short door slam sound effects from the external hard
disk(s), it will take a very short time but if you have used lots of clips from the external
disk(s) or they are very long, the process will take longer. As each piece of audio is copied
across, so the prompt shown above will highlight to indicate progress.
NOTE: In the case where you are copying small clips across that are part of longer
recordings, only the section of the audio being transferred will be copied. For example, if
you have used a short 1 second door slam clip that is actually part of a longer 5 minute
recording, only 1 second will be copied with a 10% 'handle' either side to allow some
leeway for trimming it within the project if necessary.
When creating projects using clips from external disks, it is recommended to use
COMPILE to prevent the possibility of audio becoming separated from the project.
However, please note that because you are copying audio across, you will use up more
disk space on the 'master' disk so you should make sure you have enough free disk
space to allow for this. If there is insufficient space, the DD1500 will prompt you.
Version 2.00 - March, 1996 Page 147