We love to be able to help you with your problems so you can be more creative. Its the main reason we set up the site. However it would be a great help if you could help us to help you when you ask a question via this site, or via our Facebook page.

Detail is Good
Please describe exactly what’s occurring in as much detail as possible, what you’re doing in Pro Tools when the problem occurs, what any relevant settings are, list any troubleshooting steps you’ve tried as well as any other info that may be relevant.  

Make it Clear
It’s better to write something like ‘DAE Error 9073 when playing back on 002R’ than ‘HEEEELLLLPP!’. It will make identifying the urgency of your problem more apparent, as well as helping to do a search for previously reported issues. 

Please don’t get cross
It is much harder and often virtually impossible to offer help and advice without a clear description of what happened dispassionately. We understand you may be cross because it has caused you problems and let you time, but please don’t take it out on us.

Information please
At the very least, we need the following information…. 

• Computer model and processor speed
• OS version
• Avid, M-Audio hardware model or 3rd party make & model
• Pro Tools version
• Amount of RAM installed
• A concise description of the following 
  • Any attached peripherals (hard drives, other firewire or USB devices that may be attached, etc). 
  • Which port on the computer they’re connected to,  and if you’ve tried replacing cables, what the differences were between the original and the replacement.
  • Number and type (firewire, SATA, SCSI, etc) of drives installed, how they’re formatted and which one(s) you’re using for recording and playback.
  • A concise list of the troubleshooting you’ve already tried - please be as specific as possible! 
  • A description of what was happening when the problem occurred. Sometimes it is what appears to you to be unrelated can point us in the right direction, so things like what other applications were running at the time, where you uploading to the internet are all helpful information.

We look forward to receiving your questions for future editions of the podcast and don’t forget you can submit them by mp3 so we can hear you too.

Thanks