With 50,000 screaming fans, system crashes are not an option! My trick for fail-safe operation is set up two Pro Tools rigs with a perfect mirror of your session, with LTC recorded onto an available track in Pro Tools. Send one TC track out to the input of your sync I/O, USD, etc., so both CPUs act as a master. (This also works using Digi 001s or 002s by connecting the MIDI I/O ports of both rigs to each other.) Now open Session Set Up on both CPUs and go to Timecode Settings. Under Freewheel, choose Jam Sync (if you’re using MTC, check the MTC to Port box under Generator), telling Pro Tools to ignore the absence of timecode due to a system malfunction so your backup CPU keeps going. Close Session Set Up, open Transport and click on the image of the clock so both rigs act as a master and slave. Just use an A/B switcher to handle all of your I/O when you switch between the CPUs. If the CPU takes a dive, just switch and your slave becomes the master.
—Devine Evans
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