Pro Tools Markers to Reaper Markers converter

[mgrtoma]

Hello, I'm trying to figure out how to import in Reaper the Pro Tools Markers. Fortunately, Pro Tools has a very complete option to export all the data from the session including file names, plugins, positions, markers, etc. as a text file well organized.
I don't want to try to do a full converter like AA translator but just a small markers converter will be a good start.

I created 6 Markers in Pro Tools, then I did same in Reaper at the exact same position, and both session setup to 30fps.

Here is how it looks in Pro Tools Export text :
----------------------
# LOCATION TIME REFERENCE UNITS NAME
1 00:00:01:00 96096 Samples First Marker
2 00:00:04:00 384384 Samples Second Marker
3 00:00:10:00 960960 Samples Third Marker
4 00:01:00:00 5760000 Samples Fourth Marker
5 00:01:30:00 8640000 Samples Fifth Marker
6 01:01:30:00 354240000 Samples Sixth Marker

----------------------
Here in Reaper :
----------------------
MARKER 1 1 "First Marker" 0 0 1 B {60C6BA3C-264E-004C-A9DE-C96DCBAFB29F}
MARKER 2 4 "Second Marker" 0 0 1 B {498D3275-9CFF-8749-B245-B2335F1A0F65}
MARKER 3 10 "Third Marker" 0 0 1 B {6187A424-C84F-F042-A7C4-7A9116EAF88A}
MARKER 4 60 "Fourth Marker" 0 0 1 B {E17935B1-0062-8743-9660-C099932EE6AB}
MARKER 5 90 "Fifth Marker" 0 0 1 B {D851CE1F-0B48-A247-84E8-8457B316586B}
MARKER 6 3690 "Sixth Marker" 0 0 1 B {2BEA4E7A-E4FD-F245-8289-59B3A861742E}


I think the only interesting info to convert from PT Text is the Timecode and the marker name. But I'm a bit confused how Reaper markers system is working...

Is there already someone who did this before ? I'm a bit unexperienced, I just know basic scripting but I'm sure this feature could save a lot of time to people who get PT sessions from their clients and using Reaper as a daily driver.

Any clues how to do that ?

Thanks for your help, I putted the 2 text files attached to my post.

[daniellumertz]

So you need to analise your file by lines and use LUA strings functions to get the info you need. Then use https://www.extremraym.com/cloud/rea...dProjectMarker too add the project markers where you need. And, if you want, delete the old ones ( to just have the imported ones)


Hey bonus trick: You can use reaper.JS_File_Stat(file_source) to check if your item was modfied every defer cycle and if it was it then triggers your action to sync the markes ( this way every time you export the markers from pro tools REAPER will automatically get updated! )

[sonictim]

I think AATranslator might be able to do that...

[X-Raym]

@mgrtoma
This ProTools markers list format seems very close to other Markers imports script I have made here or there.
You can definitely write a script for supporting this format
I think utlimately my version could be moded to also support this position format in seconds (the other columns have nothing special). - I don't remember in which script I have made the timecode parsing function but it can be redone from scratch.



(note sure what is the separator in your ProTools format though cause you paste it as text, not within CODE tags so few things may have been stripped).

[jrk]

Originally Posted by daniellumertz

So you need to analise your file

No, don't. It's not hygienic.

[Runaway]

Originally Posted by sonictim

I think AATranslator might be able to do that...

Not from that txt file - just directly from the PT session file

[Runaway]

If you are writing a marker entry from memory it would be something like..

"MARKER " + marker number, Offset in samples / session sample rate, marker name
If it is a region marker you will need a second one
"MARKER " + marker number, (Offset + Length) in samples / session sample rate, marker name

[X-Raym]

I will surely make a script about this to parse the tetx file into reaper markers directly.

[Meo-Ada Mespotine]

is it only markers(no regions)? And is the format of the stored markers always like this, including the first # LOCATION TIME REFERENCE UNITS NAME line?

# LOCATION TIME REFERENCE UNITS NAME
1 00:00:01:00 96096 Samples First Marker
2 00:00:04:00 384384 Samples Second Marker
3 00:00:10:00 960960 Samples Third Marker
4 00:01:00:00 5760000 Samples Fourth Marker
5 00:01:30:00 8640000 Samples Fifth Marker
6 01:01:30:00 354240000 Samples Sixth Marker

Edit: is "Samples" part of the marker-name or is it the length of the marker, like "96096 Samples" for the first one?

[mgrtoma]

After doing some research, there is a trick that does the job from PT markers to Reaper markers without using PT Text file format.

First : make sure that your Pro Tools session and the Reaper target session have the same framerate/bars setup.

In Pro Tools :
- open your session
- create a blank midi track
- export the session in midi format (.mid)

In Reaper :
- import the .mid file and you will see all the markers from Pro Tools properly named.


It doesn't keep Pro Tools advanced markers features like notes, but it's enough for basic works.
Of course, it requires to have license for both PT and Reaper which is not the best, AA translator can do 1000x more things without even having the need of PT.