Loading Dailies Using RecordLock

Dailies and similar types of transfers are comprised of multiple takes or scenes, each recorded while locked to unique time-of-day timecode. In between each take, timecode does not continue but stops completely. Because of this, the timecode on dailies and similar source material is said to be “discontinuous” or discontinuous (also known as broken timecode).

By default, Pro Tools drops out of recording when it goes offline due to broken timecode. However, you can change this behavior so that Pro Tools will instead remain armed, waiting to begin recording again when lock is re-established with the timecode of the next take.

To configure RecordLock for loading:

1 Choose Setup > Preferences and click the Operation tab.

2 Enable Transport RecordLock.

3 Enable Audio Track RecordLock.

4 Configure synchronization and other settings as required.

5 Put Pro Tools online, and start the external source player.

6 Whenever timecode drops out or stops, Pro Tools remains online and waits to receive new timecode. The Transport and record-enabled tracks remain record-enabled. When timecode resumes, Pro Tools begins recording to a new audio file (properly time stamped based on the incoming code).

Because Pro Tools has a 24-hour Timeline limit, you must use multiple sessions to load dailies if the span is more than 24 hours.