New AATranslator release

I've recommended to quite a few Ardour users that they consider using AATranslator for handling import/export to other session file formats. It is a proprietary Windows application, but it runs well inside Wine and has dedicated and skilled developers who are focused on improving it. It would be lovely if there was an open source tool that did what AATranslator can do, but there isn't, and so I'm happy to run the following "public service annoucement" from the AATranslator team:

Its that time again – another AATranslator release

While I continually forget to make a note of all the changes we make (as if it’s not hard enough just making the changes) the highlights (that I do recall) are:

  • Added Audition CS5.5 support (sesx). Also check out our donationware Audition/CEP conversion tool Ses2Sesx
  • Significant Audition/CEP conversion improvements and enhancements
  • Improved and increased PT conversion capability
  • Improved PT Track Automation conversion
  • Added an 'Ignore Video' option
  • Improved Ardour conversions (particularly session file locations)
  • Improved AVID EDL import support - includes track volume automation where present
  • Improved OMF export - now have an option to convert 32bit wav files to 24bit as 32bit OMFs are not part of the OMF standard
  • Numerous small bug fixes or improvements in conversions of most formats

As usual with every upgrade we try not to break anything else and that is certainly getting harder to do the more complex this application becomes.

Our version upgrade releases continue to be free of charge but we do have a donation button on the main web page should you be feeling particularly generous. http://www.aatranslator.com.au

As always feel free to pass on any comments or suggestions (providing they don’t involve too much work for us).

Registered users should all have been notified as to the location of the latest release

Thanks for the news Paul.

I’m sorry that proprietary tools like this are necessary for some people and look forward to an entirely open ecosystem in future.

“I’m sorry that proprietary tools like this are necessary for some people and look forward to an entirely open ecosystem in future.”

Reading Lofty Statements like this reminds me why I left linux. Puke…

“Reading Lofty Statements like this reminds me why I left linux. Puke…”

Reading lofty statements like this reminds me why I use and promote the use of Linux.

Sorry to feed the trolls, back on topic: I’m glad something like this exists, proprietary or not. A recent Ardour recording session I did will be going off to a Pro Tools house to get mixed, and it was great to be able to recommend a tool to do the conversion. Kudos!

Troll???

I contribute to the development of Ardour, MixBus, A/V Linux and other linux projects.

Have a good night.

I thought you left Linux… ?

I haven’t been around these parts for a little while. It’s amazing how much time this AATranslator project consumes.

We are trying to get another version out the door but we always seem to add just one more thing…

What’s next?

More detail from PT sessions (still more work to be done around hidden/inactive/playlists and they don’t make it easy!)
Very much improved reading of FCP XMLs (should now read ‘project’ xmls as well as ‘sequence’ ones)
Very much improved export of FCP XMLs
Improvements in reading/writing OMFs (should also read pan automation from most omfs)
Many more small but important additions or fixes.

@runaway

You guys ever get a chance to rewrite crossplatform and I would likely fall in love:) In the meantime though thanks very much for your work!

   Seablade

We recently released v5.0 with increased PT & OMF support as well as covering even more detail from most formats.
We are currently working on our next release which will create SAW Studio sessions, read MXF formats and a lot more.

As an aside we recently got hold of a PT10 PTX session file and as expected they have added another layer of obfuscation. It was easier than expected to read (amateurs) so we will probably add PT10 support once we clear the decks of our current workload.

I have a question concerning AAtranslator and Wine:
When I try to convert a .omf file (e.g. from final cut) to ardour, I just get an error message saying:
runtime error ´91´
object variable or with block variable not set

the aatranslator team suggested me , that there might be missing an MS vb dll.
I never really dealt with wine, but can i configure it that it works correctly with aatranslator?
I tried it also on my desktop (avlinux) and on the laptop (natty) with the same result.
thanks a lot for any help…

update: oh i m a bit closer: i updated winetricks and installed the missing dll, now it s just converting, i keep you up to date if it works! :slight_smile:

update^2: now it reads the toc s but then afterwards it gives me the same output, so still somethings missing… any idea???

think i got a solution:

installing vb6run and vcrun6 through winetricks and i get an error message, but afterwards aatranslator works! :slight_smile:

I used AATranslater yesterday to convert some Pro Tools sessions into Ardour sessions. It ran seamlessly under Wine and the generated sessions opened without issue in Mixbus. Grated, the PT sessions were simple (multiple takes, 13 tracks per take, a total of 39 tracks), but I was very happy it worked on the first try. :slight_smile: This is an invaluable tool, proprietary or not.

Apologies for not being around lately but life and AAT just seem to get in the way.

We have yet another release (v5.6) scheduled for the 17th (St Patrick’s Day) and as usual it is crammed with goodies…

Version 5.6.0

  • Als Export: Improved writing of ALS file
  • Als Import: Improved reading of ALS file
  • ALS Import: Now read pitch values for each clip
  • Als Import: Now read and convert clip ‘warped’/stretch details
  • Audition XML Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, PTF, RPP, RPP, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • Audition XML Export: Now write pitch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, PTF, RPP, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • Audition XML Import: Now read stretch and pitch values for each clip
  • EDL (CMX) Import: Now attempts to extract audio from MOV files
  • FCP XML Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, Audition XML, PTF, RPP, RPP, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • FCP XML Import: Now read stretch values for each clip
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Export: Fixed error where conversion of large sessions files resulting in huge XML files were not being written to disk
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Fixed error causing endless loop with XMLs containing a Video Track
  • OMF Import: Fixed a file naming issue with OMFs originating from Premiere Pro
  • PTS Import: Now handles PT version 6.7 PTS files
  • PTF Import: Fixed missing clip issue for PT (Windows version) 8.0.3
  • PTF Import: Now read pitch values for each clip (PT8 & PT9)
  • PTF Import: Now read stretch values for each clip (PT7, PT8 & PT9)
  • PTS Import: Fixed errors importing some 6.4 version PTS files
  • RPP Export: Now write pitch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, PTF, Sesx, Tracktion, VIP)
  • RPP Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg PTF, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • RPP Import: Now read stretch and pitch values for each clip
  • RPP Import: Fixed an issue reading some RPP files containing a large number of FX
  • Sam EDL Import: Now read stretch values for each clip
  • SAW Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg PTF, RPP, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • SESX Export: Now write pitch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, PTF, RPP, Tracktion, VIP)
  • SESX Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg PTF, RPP, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • SESX Import: Now read stretch and pitch values for each clip
  • Tracktion Export: Now available
  • Tracktion Import: Improved reading of .trkedit file
  • Tracktion Import: Now read stretch and pitch values for each clip
  • Vegas TXT Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, Audition XML, PTF, RPP, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas XML, VIP)
  • Vegas TXT Import: Now read stretch values for each clip
  • Vegas XML Export: Now write stretch values for each clip from supported formats (eg ALS, Audition XML, PTF, RPP, Sam EDL, SAW, Sesx, Tracktion, Vegas TXT, VIP)
  • Vegas XML Import: Now read stretch values for each clip
  • VIP Import: Now read stretch and pitch values for each clip
  • Drag ‘n’ Drop implemented for importing files - drag a supported file onto the ‘Import from’ pane and AAT will change to that folder and select the file
  • Drag ‘n’ Drop implemented for changing folders - drag a folder onto the ‘Location’ pane and AAT will change to that folder
  • Fixed an issue reading ‘ZOOM Handy Recorder H4n’ BWF Wave files which caused AAT to go into an endless loop

And here is a some more of what we have been up to since my last post

Version 5.5.0.15

  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Now display message if ‘lanes’ are detected
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Fixed error Where incorrect clip locations were calculated in XMLs involving tracks with a mixture of ‘linear’ & ‘musical’ settings
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Now correctly displays message if ‘lanes’ are detected
  • OMF Import: Now checks non wav & non aif files to see if they are in fact aif files and if so renames them to aif
  • PTF Export: Now checks to see if the audio position within the clip/region is less than zero and adjusts to zero
  • PTF Export: Now checks all fade values and adjusts if necessary to cater for PTs inabilty to have overlapping clips/regions
  • PTF Export: Audio with bit depth greater than 24 will be converted to session bit depth if ‘Generate File Copies’ selected
  • PTF Export: Fixed error writing clip positions greater than 16777216 samples causing PTF to crash
  • PTF Import: Fixed marker position problem for version 7.4.2 PTF files
  • PTF Import: PTX Mac sessions converted to PTF by PT not already opened in PT8 or PT9 go into endless loop (‘Optimized Track’) now fixed
  • PTF Import: Mac sessions with audio without suffix incorrectly identified as folder names
  • SAW Export: Fixed an issue with ‘softedges’
  • SESX Import: Improved support for track mute
  • Vegas XML Export: Now write clip names
  • Vegas XML Import: Now read clip names
  • Updated documentation regarding how to deal with Cubase/Nuendo ‘lanes/takes’

Version 5.5.0

  • ALS Import: Fixed an issue with the audio offset within the clip
  • ALS Import: Added a warning message if clips are ‘warped’
  • ALS Import: Now converts track volume and track pan even if track automation is not available
  • ADL Import/Export: Timecode conversion improved for 29.97DF & 48k
  • ADL Import: From Fairlight, fixed issue where time crosses midnight point
  • ADL Import: From Sadie, fixed error where track listing not present
  • ADL Import: Fixed incorrect (xfade) entry
  • ADL Import: Added Range Markers
  • ADL Export: Added Range Markers
  • ADL Import: Fixed ‘show empty tracks’ option
  • ADL Export: New Fairlight ‘DR2’ option to comply with Dream II requirements.
  • ADL Export: Fixed obscure error of missing fades
  • ADL Export: New Sadie option to format the ADL for Sadie
  • ADL Export: New Sadie option to allow the removal of (InFade), (xFade) and (OutFade) entries in the ADL for fades below a user entered value of samples
  • Audition XML Import: Fixed track order. Tracks were displayed based on internal numbering rather than actual order
  • FCP XML Export: Fixed a number of errors which caused these XMLs to not load into CS6
  • FCP XML Export: Conversion from VIP now converts track automation to clip envelopes
  • FCP XML Import: Fixed an issue reading FCP xmls from Premier Pro CS6
  • FCP XML Import: Fixed incorrect clip gain
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Fixed error When converting to another Steinberg XML and only split stereo files asked to be copied
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Removed need to re-sort automation - resulting in faster conversion
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Fixed issue where clip names end up containing “wide = ‘true’”
  • OMF Import: Option now available to convert all media in embedded OMFs to BWF
  • OMF Import: Extracted AIF files are deleted after converting them to BWF
  • PTF Export: Now available
  • PTF Import: Fixed issue with PT regions containing quotation marks - now replaced with a single quotation
  • RPP Export: Fixed error with routing of busses with sessions containing folder tracks
  • RPP Export: Fixed error with non-english language and where session offset exists
  • SAW Import: Now warn if trying to import old SAW 32 EDLs. These can be converted to SAW Studio EDLs using the SAW Studio demo
  • SES Import: Fixed an overflow issue reading CEP 1.2a ses files
  • SES Import: Fixed error converting Audition 2.0 ses files containing midi tracks
  • Stein XML Export: Track polarity was incorrectly reversed - now fixed
  • Stein XML Export: Conversion of envelope points to track automation - initial values set to track volume & track pan if not present
  • Vegas XML Import: Convert ‘&’ to ‘and’ in marker/cue names

v5.4.0

  • AAF Import: Now available in AATranslator ‘enhanced’ version
  • AAF Import: AAFs from PT7-9, Vegas, Nuendo, Logic and STP are initially supported
  • FCP-X (fcpxml) Import: Now available to both ‘standard’ and ‘enhanced’ AATranslator versions
  • OMF Import: Fixed zero length clips/regions which caused most daws to crash - size set to 1 sample
  • VIP Import: Fixed error in clip sizes where xfades were present
  • VIP Import: Fixed error of missing clips caused by track fx
  • VIP Import: Added track pan and track gain where track automation not present
  • PTF Import: Fixed error with very lengthy tick based tracks
  • PTF Import: PT10 PTF files saved as PT v7-v9 fixed another variant from PT10 v10.1.2
  • PTF Import: Improvements in converting clips/regions on ‘tick’ based tracks.
  • PTF Import: Fixed strange overlapping clips without fades - previously missed the last clip on the track now fixed
  • PTF Import: Now converts ‘region groups’ with clip group status converting to formats like Reaper, SES, SESX, etc
  • PTF Import: Fixed error reading BPM in version 9 PTFs
  • PTS Import: Improvements in converting version 5.1 session files
  • PTS Import: Improved reading of media from Mac files without a file extension
  • PTS & PTF Import: Fixed an obscure RT6 error involving markers/cues
  • FCP XML Export: Markers can be no closer than one frame. Some markers may be removed during conversion
  • FCP XML Export: Remove ‘&’ from marker names and description. Replaced with ‘+’
  • Sesx Import: Fixed run-time error reading markers
  • Nuendo/Cubase Export: Mono tracks are now created for mono files and stereo tracks for stereo files
  • Nuendo/Cubase Export: Issues with the odd audio not showing in the clip now resolved
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Fixed Track Automation sometimes not read properly from Group Folder Tracks
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Now convert routing for group channels/sub groups
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Fixed Bus names
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Import: Now read ‘Cycle Markers’
  • Nuendo/Cubase XML Export: Issues with sessions containing mp3s now fixed
  • SESX & SES Export from Nuendo: Fixed clip envelopes set to infinity
  • OMF Import: Fixed errors associating audio with clips from ‘Diaquest PPro4 OMF Converter’
  • Vegas XML Export: Fixed invalid bus details causing Vegas to fail to load XML
  • Vegas XML Export: fixed errors caused by track automation points less than zero
  • OpenTL Export: Issues with sessions containing mp3s now fixed
  • OpenTL Import: Now check for existence of SD2 files before trying to convert to wav files
  • Export to Capture: Fixed issues with sessions containing mp3s. Mp3s now renamed as wav files
  • Ableton Export: Ableton requires bpm - now defaults to 120bpm
  • Convert AIF to WAV: Fixed a recently introduced error causing wav file to not load in some daws
  • The ‘Use This Session File as a Template’ option is now saved on exit

v5.3.1

  • Export to Vegas containing MP3 no longer freeze

v5.3

  • Nuendo/Cubase Import: Fixed overflow error from 20 digit numbers in Cubase 6 xmls
  • Marker track in Steinberg Track Archives now imported from ver 2 or later. And written in a form vers 5 & later can read.
  • Xfades now being imported into Cubase/Nuendo from AAT XMLs
  • Steinberg fade types now convert to Reaper and vice versa
  • AES31/ADL fades now convert to Steinberg XMLs as well as Reaper
  • PTF & PT5 fade types now convert to Steinberg XML
  • ProTools Import: Can now read session files from PT version 5.1 to 6.9 (ie AAT can now read PT versions 5 to 9)
  • ProTools Import: Can now read PT10 PTF files saved as PT9
  • Export to PT5: Added option to remove offset from timeline and add to session offset
  • Export to PT5: Workaround for PT internal bug which caused PT to not properly display all markers
  • Import/Export PT/PT5: Clip/region names now supported
  • Export to PT5: Now write fade types
  • Export to PT5: Identical clips/regions are no longer listed separately in the ‘Region list’
  • SAW Export: Now write session offset to SAW EDL
  • SAW Import: Video track not converting – now fixed
  • SAW Import: Improved support for track layers and track out of order
  • Most formats now have the option to save the conversion to the source folder “Send Output to…” / “Folder containing source…”
  • Fixes problems with Logic v9 produced FCP XMLs
  • Added import & export support for Ableton Live v8 ALS session files (arrangement view)
  • Fixed error reading some Audition sesx files
  • Fixed error writing invalid file length to Audition XML files
  • Now imports Cool Edit 2000 1.0 session files
  • Vegas EDL (TXT) conversions to PT5, OMF and others now fixed where clips overlap by 1 sample
  • Vegas EDL (TXT) conversions to PT5, OMF and others with multiple VIDEO tracks now fixed
  • OMF files containing AIFC chunks now converted to AIFF chunks for SAW and Audition v3 and earlier
  • OMF to RPP conversions now have the option of converting clip envelopes to track automation
  • A heap of OpenTL fixes
  • Fixed conversions from ses to AA3 XML or CS5.5 sesx involving video and missing first track
  • AA3 sessions (ses or XML) converted from a format with a session offset will only record from the start of the track
    To fix this the session offset is no longer converted to AA3 ses or XML session files
  • Fixed problem with files embedded in a Sonar OMF being flagged as AIF type when actually Wav files.
  • Now write OpenTL files with a sample rate of 192k - Note Studio One seems unable to read TLs more than 50.1k
  • Can now convert PT AIF files with non-standard header to WAV

Sorry for the long post but just thought I’d share some of what we have been up to - the fun just never stops :wink:

I just thought Id share…

Our progress with reading encrypted PT10 PTX files is really moving along.

At this point we just need to code the track automation, clip envelopes (we have the clip gain sorted out) and optionally fade types.
Other than that it is just a matter of lots of testing :wink:

@runaway

Thanks for the update of course, I am thrilled to see you are still working on this. Would love sometime to see this shipped native for other OSes of course as well, but in the meantime have you played with shipping a wineskin to run this on OS X as a .app in Wine at least? If I could think of something similar for Linux I would recommend it, but bottles aren’t quite the same thing, though they are very close.

       Seablade

Hi,
What to do when ardour2 --> pt5 conversion keeps ending up with “mixed” regions?

The length of regions in the Pro Tools file seemed to be correct, but some of the regions were in wrong locations. Particularly, some clips that I originally cut out and deleted, had now reappeared – but in various new, strange places. Also, there was a warning of my Ardour session containing “hidden regions which may cause problems with Pro Tools”.

I had similar issues with Reaper --> PT5 conversion, and in both cases re-converting the files hasn’t helped thus far. My session contains only one soundfile, an ~1h 30min speech recording (48000 / 16 / mono), and I am opening the PT5 files with Pro Tools 7. Can the length of the original audio file be an issue for AATranslator?

Another thing: I don’t have an AATranslator licence, so I let somebody else do the conversions for me (I think it was with AATranslator version 4.0 or something similar). Maybe he just needs an upgrade, I don’t know – but I’m curios if the problem could also lay on my side. What typically makes regions / clips “mix” like this in AATranslator conversions?

Thanks for any thoughts!

marttt,
producing some radio, ditching Reaper to finally go Linux-only (Ardour + Arch = zen! :), but still in need to provide PT files for my studio


UPDATE: A later AATranslator version solved my issue. It is interesting what this was, though.

@marttt

It is always best to contact me via the AATranslator web site as I don’t always get time to get across all the forums

I’m pretty sure I know what the cause was and I’m confident it wasn’t AATranslator - contact me directly if you like

@seablade

First off let me say that I usually never touch a mac unless it comes with fries :wink:

In the past I had just told mac users to ‘use wine’ but I have found that some had trouble doing so while others did not
I was never able to get anyone to pass on some clear instructions so the other day I got hold of a mac and despite my ignorance of the finer points of using a mac after a few hours I managed to get AAT running using WineBottler - pretty impressive to see I must admit.

Not sure about a ‘wineskin’ but I’ll try and get some time to sort that out

In the meantime mac users can feel free to contact me for some installation notes

Anyway why I’m here is to mention that we have been working on improving our conversions to ardour and can happily say that in our latest beta version stereo files are being correctly placed on stereo tracks and mono on mono ones

One small step for man… :wink:

BTW our last release was v5.7.10 on 25/06/13

Time passes so quickly when you have your head deep in hex dumps and a gazillion lines of xml so I can’t believe its been that long since I posted.

Anyway, this is just a quick post to say that among the usual long list of mods and fixes we will be adding AAF export to our next release (version 6.0) - free as usual to registered users.
Hopefully, only a couple of weeks away - just doing some last minute testing and updating documentation.