Pro Tools
Encyclopedia
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation
platform for Microsoft Windows
and Mac OS X
operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology
. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring
, film, and television post production. Pro Tools can run as standalone software, or operate using a range of external A/D converters and internal PCI or PCIe audio cards with onboard DSP
.
, AIFF
, mp3
, SDII audio files and QuickTime
video files. It features time code
, tempo maps, automation
and surround sound
capabilities.
The Pro Tools mix engine has traditionally employed 48-bit fixed point arithmetic, but floating point is also used in some cases, such as with Pro Tools HD Native.
the possibility of integrating their renamed 'Sound Tools' software into the Emulator III keyboard released in 1987. E-MU rejected this offer and Gotcher and Brooks started Digidesign
.
Sound Tools debuted on January 20, 1989 at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers). At this stage Sound Tools was a simple computer based stereo audio editor. Although the software had the possibility to do far more, it was limited by the hard drive technology which was used to stream audio and allow for the non-destructive editing that Sound Tools offered.
The first version of Pro Tools was launched in 1991, offering 4 tracks and selling for $6000USD. Digidesign continued to improve Pro Tools, adding a sequencer and more tracks, with the system offering 16 bit, 44.1 kHz audio recording. In 1997 Pro Tools reached 24 bit, 48 track versions. It was at this point that the migration from more conventional studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry.
by The Beach Boys
.
Ricky Martin
’s "Livin La Vida Loca" was the first No. 1 single to be recorded, edited, and mixed completely within the Pro Tools environment by Charles Dye
and Desmond Child
. Garbage's Version 2.0
was the first album to be nominated with Grammy for Album of the Year that had been entirely recorded and edited through Pro Tools.
Miami is widely believed to be the first city to broadly adopt Pro Tools in professional recording studios, and is often referred to as the 'Ground Zero' for Pro Tools.
Bob Clearmountain
once expressed concern that people would acquire Pro Tools system with little understanding of the editing process.
Some artists are now making a point of recording without Pro Tools. Jack White of The White Stripes
argues that "I think Pro Tools is highly inappropriate to record music... It's too easy to correct mistakes, it's too easy to fix things. We hear this sort of clean, plastic perfection that's been applied to all the tracks. That is not the kind of music we grew up loving and listening to and wanting to be a part of."
Rapper GZA
named his 2008 album
after the program.
Pro Tools was used for creating the audio for the games DJ Hero
and Guitar Hero
, using the modeling plug-in Eleven for the guitar sounds.
tracks, and provides graphical representation of the information recorded or imported. Here, audio can be edited in a non-linear
, non-destructive
fashion. MIDI
information can also be manipulated. The Mix window displays each track's fader channel and allows for the adjustment of a channel's volume and pan, as well as being the usual place to insert plug-in effects and route audio to and from different outputs and inputs.
The creation of Pro Tools 8 added a MIDI edit window which enables the user to manipulate MIDI data in either piano-roll or score windows. It also includes MIDI edit lanes so that the user can see note, velocity and other CC data in the same window. These additions took Pro Tools from the long standard 2 edit window approach to having 3 edit windows.
Real-time effects processing and virtual instruments in Pro Tools are achieved through the use of plug-ins, which are either processed by the DSP
chips as TDM plug-ins, or the host computer as RTAS (Real Time AudioSuite)
plug-ins. Additionally, out-of-time processing is available in the form of AudioSuite plug-ins, which also enables time-domain processing.
processor chips that perform the audio processing in conjunction with rack-mounted interfaces which will handle the outgoing and incoming audio, Midi, and sync connections. The DSP cards are connected to the interfaces with a proprietary DigiLink cable.
While the DSP cards are manufactured exclusively by Avid Audio (formerly Digidesign), interfaces from numerous manufacturers feature DigiLink connectors.
Pro Tools systems have long relied on dedicated DSP
cards to handle most audio processing, due to the fact that at the time Pro Tools was first developed, consumer-level computers were not powerful enough to process high-end digital audio. An HD Core PCI
card or an Accel Core PCIe
card is required in a HD 1 system; the inclusion of one or two additional Accel cards upgrades the system to HD 2 or 3 respectively, and increases the system's overall processing power, allowing for higher track counts and more plug-ins. An 'Expansion HD' product increases capability up to a total of 7 cards using Digidesign's PCI-X expansion chassis product, which is available with both PCI-X and PCIe host cards for the computer.
All Pro Tools HD card variants contain a combination of 9 DSP chips from the Motorola 56k family. Some chips manage track playback, while other, different chips perform mixing and signal processing operations. At launch Pro Tools HD cards were called HD Process cards. Approximately 2 years later, the HD Process cards were replaced by the HD Accel card, which was designed around a faster variant of the Motorola DSP chip and provided approximately twice the signal processing power per card. When Apple changed the expansion slot architecture of the G5 to PCI Express, Digidesign launched a line of PCIe HD Accel cards that both adopted the new card slot format and also slightly changed the combination of chips. The PCIe HD Core is now an 'Accel Core', whereas the original PCI-X Core remains 'non-Accel'. There are TDM plug-ins that require the presence of Accel chips to run and therefore cannot run on the earlier non-Accel HD systems.
On October 6, 2010, Avid released Pro Tools HD Native, a low-cost ($3,500 USD) PCIe card system designed for host-processing with fully functional HD software.
On November 4, 2010, Avid released Pro Tools 9, a lower-cost ($599 USD) application that can run natively without any special hardware assist or interfaces. Among several new features, Protools 9 has a new track feature named HEAT (Harmonically Enhanced Algorithm Technology), which is used for creating what many in the industry are calling HEDA (Harmonically Enhanced Digital Audio).
When first available, Pro Tools systems relied exclusively on integral hard disks for storage and were thus limited to the storage options available on the Apple hardware platform. In 2002, AVID rebranded a proprietary SAN
product called MediaNet and promoted it to Pro Tools users who were becoming aware of the benefits of network-based collaboration and workflows. MediaNet was based on WindowsNT and could only be administered using Windows-based tools.
To date, neither Pro Tools HD Native nor Pro Tools 9 support commodity network attached storage, and MediaNet remains AVID's only supported option for accessing storage over the network.
Pro Tools LE systems performed data processing on the host CPU. Purchasers were required to choose from a range of proprietary audio interfaces, one of which was required for all audio I/O (recording and playback). The hardware thus doubled as a copy-protection mechanism for the software, as the software did not function without the specialized Digidesign interface.
The entry-level MBox range of interfaces typically connect via USB. All have a stereo audio output, and include a small number of line and microphone inputs. The more powerful 003 (formerly 002) interfaces use FireWire and have significantly larger I/O capabilities. The Eleven Rack, in addition to its many input options, includes in-box DSP processing that offloads the Eleven guitar amp/speaker emulation and guitar effects plug-in processing to the interface, allowing those plug-ins to run without taxing the host system.
Pro Tools LE had a similar look and feel to Pro Tools HD, but had a smaller track count and a lower maximum sampling rate. It also lacked many features such as the ability to export to MP3, SMPTE time code, Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC), ability to import OMF and AAF
files, DigiBase Pro, and multi-track Beat Detective. These features, along with higher track counts, could be accessed via the purchase of the "DV Toolkit" and "Music Production Toolkit" or "Complete Production Toolkit" upgrade packages. Under Pro Tools 9, these upgrades are partially obsolete.
When operating on a machine containing one or more HD Core, Accel or Native cards, the software will run as Pro Tools HD 9, with the full Pro Tools HD feature set. In all other cases it will run as Pro Tools 9, with a smaller track count and a number of advanced features turned off. However, non-HD Pro Tools 9 users can also gain access to the full feature set with the Complete Production Toolkit 2.
Pro Tools 9 also includes as standard many features which on Pro Tools LE were only accessible via additional "Toolkit" upgrades.
Pro Tools 9 is unlike any previous version in having no proprietary hardware requirement, allowing use of the software with any interface. It can operate using the internal sound card of a PC via the ASIO driver and a Mac using Core Audio
. Mac Core Audio also allows, for the first time, the use of aggregate devices, allowing the use of more than one interface at the same time. This can also be achieved on a PC by using the third party application ASIO4ALL. Pro Tools 9 also included a new keyboard shortcut for "New Playlist."
Pro Tools 9 uses iLok
for copy-protection. Pro Tools 9 is the first version to have one 'unified' installer for the software, with the iLok licence determining which elements of the software are unlocked.
Notable users: Craig Burrows, Gary Numan, Trent Reznor
, formerly Midiman, was acquired by Avid Technology
in 2004–2005, and Digidesign soon released Pro Tools M-Powered, which brought Pro Tools LE functionality to a subset of M-Audio
USB, FireWire and PCI interfaces. Pro Tools M-Powered uses an iLok
license as copy protection and was formerly the only way to run Pro Tools without using Digidesign/Avid hardware.
Pro Tools compatible control surfaces have also been developed by other companies. For example, the Audient
ASP2802 has integrated DAW
control, and is compatible with Pro Tools as well as Logic Pro
and Cubase. It therefore provides an external analog mixing interface for the computer.
In April 2010, Avid acquired Euphonix, a manufacturer of high quality control surfaces.
The Music Production and DV tool kits increase the capabilities of non-HD Pro Tools systems. Both increase the maximum number of tracks and highest possible sample rate to 96 kHz and include numerous additional plug-ins. The LE only DV tool kit adds feet and frames and timecode timelines and functionality.
(Advanced Instrument Research) a strategic development which meant Avid would be developing virtual instruments and plug-ins for use in Pro Tools.
This was a move which saw the landmark redevelopment of Pro Tools in Pro Tools 8, which relied heavily on the inclusion of AIR plug-ins to bring it closer to its competitor Logic Pro
. This was the first version of Pro Tools to see the inclusion of an entire virtual instrument library to assist those composing music and included:
AIR also contributed reverbs, dynamics, modulation and other effects as part of the Pro Tools 8 bundle, all of these work in RTAS only.
Digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
platform for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology
Avid Technology
Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...
. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
, film, and television post production. Pro Tools can run as standalone software, or operate using a range of external A/D converters and internal PCI or PCIe audio cards with onboard DSP
Digital signal processor
A digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
.
Overview
Fundamentally, Pro Tools, like all Digital Audio Workstation software, is similar to a multi-track tape recorder and mixer, with additional features that can only be performed in the digital domain. It supports 32-bit float audio at sample rates of up to 192 kHz, and can handle WAVWAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, AIFF
AIFF
Audio Interchange File Format is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices...
, mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, SDII audio files and QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
video files. It features time code
Time code
A timecode is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing system.- Video and film timecode :...
, tempo maps, automation
Console automation
Modern digital audio consoles or mixers use automation. Automation allows the console to remember the audio engineer's adjustment of faders during the post-production editing process. A timecode is necessary for synchronization of automation.- Types of Automation :...
and surround sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
capabilities.
The Pro Tools mix engine has traditionally employed 48-bit fixed point arithmetic, but floating point is also used in some cases, such as with Pro Tools HD Native.
History
Pro Tools was developed by UC Berkeley graduates Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. Both majored in electrical engineering and computer science at Berkeley. The first incarnation of Pro Tools started life in 1984 as Sound Designer, while the pair were creating and selling drum sound chips under their Digidrums label. Sound Designer was originally designed to edit sounds for the E-MU Emulator sampling keyboard. Gotcher and Brooks discussed with E-MU SystemsE-mu Systems
E-mu Systems, Inc. is a synthesizer maker and pioneer in samplers and low-cost digital sampling music workstations.-History:Founded in 1971 by Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum, E-mu began making modular synthesizers...
the possibility of integrating their renamed 'Sound Tools' software into the Emulator III keyboard released in 1987. E-MU rejected this offer and Gotcher and Brooks started Digidesign
Digidesign
Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign...
.
Sound Tools debuted on January 20, 1989 at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers). At this stage Sound Tools was a simple computer based stereo audio editor. Although the software had the possibility to do far more, it was limited by the hard drive technology which was used to stream audio and allow for the non-destructive editing that Sound Tools offered.
The first version of Pro Tools was launched in 1991, offering 4 tracks and selling for $6000USD. Digidesign continued to improve Pro Tools, adding a sequencer and more tracks, with the system offering 16 bit, 44.1 kHz audio recording. In 1997 Pro Tools reached 24 bit, 48 track versions. It was at this point that the migration from more conventional studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry.
Use
One of the first albums to be recorded, edited and mixed entirely on Pro Tools was Summer in ParadiseSummer in Paradise
Summer in Paradise is The Beach Boys' twenty-seventh studio album, their first release of the 1990s and the band's last full album of new, original material. It was released in the United States in 1992 on Brother Records and in the United Kingdom in 1993 on EMI. It has been reported that Navarre...
by The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
.
Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin
Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...
’s "Livin La Vida Loca" was the first No. 1 single to be recorded, edited, and mixed completely within the Pro Tools environment by Charles Dye
Charles Dye
Charles Dye is a Grammy-nominated and Latin Grammy-winning record producer, engineer and mixer from Hollywood, Florida, USA.-Grammy:In 2001, Dye received a Latin Grammy for Best Engineered Album for Thalía's Arrasando....
and Desmond Child
Desmond Child
Desmond Child is an American musician, songwriter, and producer. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.-Career:...
. Garbage's Version 2.0
Version 2.0
Version 2.0 is the second album by alternative rock group Garbage. It was released worldwide in May 1998 by Mushroom Records UK and in North America by Almo Sounds. Version 2.0 was the follow-up to the band's multi-platinum debut album Garbage. Despite a slow start, Version 2.0 went on to equal its...
was the first album to be nominated with Grammy for Album of the Year that had been entirely recorded and edited through Pro Tools.
Miami is widely believed to be the first city to broadly adopt Pro Tools in professional recording studios, and is often referred to as the 'Ground Zero' for Pro Tools.
Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He has worked with many prominent names in music including Bruce Springsteen , The Rolling Stones , Bryan Adams , Robbie Williams Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He...
once expressed concern that people would acquire Pro Tools system with little understanding of the editing process.
Some artists are now making a point of recording without Pro Tools. Jack White of The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
argues that "I think Pro Tools is highly inappropriate to record music... It's too easy to correct mistakes, it's too easy to fix things. We hear this sort of clean, plastic perfection that's been applied to all the tracks. That is not the kind of music we grew up loving and listening to and wanting to be a part of."
Rapper GZA
GZA
Gary Grice , better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American hip hop artist and founding member of the seminal hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan. He has also appeared on his fellow clan members' solo projects and has maintained a successful solo career...
named his 2008 album
Pro Tools (album)
Pro Tools is the sixth studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan-member GZA, released August 19, 2008 on Babygrande Records. It serves as his first release since his collaboration album with DJ Muggs, Grandmasters , and follows six years after his last solo effort, Legend of the Liquid Sword...
after the program.
Pro Tools was used for creating the audio for the games DJ Hero
DJ Hero
DJ Hero is a music video game, developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision as a rhythm game spin-off of the Guitar Hero franchise. It was released on October 27, 2009 in North America and on October 29, 2009 in Europe...
and Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...
, using the modeling plug-in Eleven for the guitar sounds.
Interface
Most of Pro Tools' basic functions can be controlled within Edit or Mix windows. The Edit window displays audio and MIDIMusical Instrument Digital Interface
MIDI is an industry-standard protocol, first defined in 1982 by Gordon Hall, that enables electronic musical instruments , computers and other electronic equipment to communicate and synchronize with each other...
tracks, and provides graphical representation of the information recorded or imported. Here, audio can be edited in a non-linear
Non-linear editing system
In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...
, non-destructive
Non-destructive editing
Non-destructive editing is a form of editing signals where the original content is not modified in the course of editing—instead the edits themselves are edited by video editing software on a non-linear editing system ....
fashion. MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIDI is an industry-standard protocol, first defined in 1982 by Gordon Hall, that enables electronic musical instruments , computers and other electronic equipment to communicate and synchronize with each other...
information can also be manipulated. The Mix window displays each track's fader channel and allows for the adjustment of a channel's volume and pan, as well as being the usual place to insert plug-in effects and route audio to and from different outputs and inputs.
The creation of Pro Tools 8 added a MIDI edit window which enables the user to manipulate MIDI data in either piano-roll or score windows. It also includes MIDI edit lanes so that the user can see note, velocity and other CC data in the same window. These additions took Pro Tools from the long standard 2 edit window approach to having 3 edit windows.
Real-time effects processing and virtual instruments in Pro Tools are achieved through the use of plug-ins, which are either processed by the DSP
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
chips as TDM plug-ins, or the host computer as RTAS (Real Time AudioSuite)
Real Time AudioSuite
Real-Time AudioSuite is a format of audio plug-in developed by Digidesign, currently Avid Technology for their Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered systems, although they can be run on Pro Tools HD and Pro Tools TDM systems. RTAS plug-ins use the processing power of the host computer rather than...
plug-ins. Additionally, out-of-time processing is available in the form of AudioSuite plug-ins, which also enables time-domain processing.
Pro Tools|HD systems
Pro Tools|HD systems represent the high-end professional product line. They rely on dedicated DSPDigital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
processor chips that perform the audio processing in conjunction with rack-mounted interfaces which will handle the outgoing and incoming audio, Midi, and sync connections. The DSP cards are connected to the interfaces with a proprietary DigiLink cable.
While the DSP cards are manufactured exclusively by Avid Audio (formerly Digidesign), interfaces from numerous manufacturers feature DigiLink connectors.
Pro Tools systems have long relied on dedicated DSP
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
cards to handle most audio processing, due to the fact that at the time Pro Tools was first developed, consumer-level computers were not powerful enough to process high-end digital audio. An HD Core PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Conventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer...
card or an Accel Core PCIe
PCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
card is required in a HD 1 system; the inclusion of one or two additional Accel cards upgrades the system to HD 2 or 3 respectively, and increases the system's overall processing power, allowing for higher track counts and more plug-ins. An 'Expansion HD' product increases capability up to a total of 7 cards using Digidesign's PCI-X expansion chassis product, which is available with both PCI-X and PCIe host cards for the computer.
All Pro Tools HD card variants contain a combination of 9 DSP chips from the Motorola 56k family. Some chips manage track playback, while other, different chips perform mixing and signal processing operations. At launch Pro Tools HD cards were called HD Process cards. Approximately 2 years later, the HD Process cards were replaced by the HD Accel card, which was designed around a faster variant of the Motorola DSP chip and provided approximately twice the signal processing power per card. When Apple changed the expansion slot architecture of the G5 to PCI Express, Digidesign launched a line of PCIe HD Accel cards that both adopted the new card slot format and also slightly changed the combination of chips. The PCIe HD Core is now an 'Accel Core', whereas the original PCI-X Core remains 'non-Accel'. There are TDM plug-ins that require the presence of Accel chips to run and therefore cannot run on the earlier non-Accel HD systems.
On October 6, 2010, Avid released Pro Tools HD Native, a low-cost ($3,500 USD) PCIe card system designed for host-processing with fully functional HD software.
On November 4, 2010, Avid released Pro Tools 9, a lower-cost ($599 USD) application that can run natively without any special hardware assist or interfaces. Among several new features, Protools 9 has a new track feature named HEAT (Harmonically Enhanced Algorithm Technology), which is used for creating what many in the industry are calling HEDA (Harmonically Enhanced Digital Audio).
When first available, Pro Tools systems relied exclusively on integral hard disks for storage and were thus limited to the storage options available on the Apple hardware platform. In 2002, AVID rebranded a proprietary SAN
Storage area network
A storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
product called MediaNet and promoted it to Pro Tools users who were becoming aware of the benefits of network-based collaboration and workflows. MediaNet was based on WindowsNT and could only be administered using Windows-based tools.
To date, neither Pro Tools HD Native nor Pro Tools 9 support commodity network attached storage, and MediaNet remains AVID's only supported option for accessing storage over the network.
Pro Tools LE systems
The Pro Tools LE line is discontinued as of the release of Pro Tools 9. Formerly, it served as a scaled down, lower priced version of its HD counterpart.Pro Tools LE systems performed data processing on the host CPU. Purchasers were required to choose from a range of proprietary audio interfaces, one of which was required for all audio I/O (recording and playback). The hardware thus doubled as a copy-protection mechanism for the software, as the software did not function without the specialized Digidesign interface.
The entry-level MBox range of interfaces typically connect via USB. All have a stereo audio output, and include a small number of line and microphone inputs. The more powerful 003 (formerly 002) interfaces use FireWire and have significantly larger I/O capabilities. The Eleven Rack, in addition to its many input options, includes in-box DSP processing that offloads the Eleven guitar amp/speaker emulation and guitar effects plug-in processing to the interface, allowing those plug-ins to run without taxing the host system.
Pro Tools LE had a similar look and feel to Pro Tools HD, but had a smaller track count and a lower maximum sampling rate. It also lacked many features such as the ability to export to MP3, SMPTE time code, Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC), ability to import OMF and AAF
Advanced Authoring Format
The Advanced Authoring Format is a professional file interchange format designed for the video post production and authoring environment. The AAF was created by the Advanced Media Workflow Association . The AMWA develops specifications and technologies to facilitate the deployment and operation...
files, DigiBase Pro, and multi-track Beat Detective. These features, along with higher track counts, could be accessed via the purchase of the "DV Toolkit" and "Music Production Toolkit" or "Complete Production Toolkit" upgrade packages. Under Pro Tools 9, these upgrades are partially obsolete.
Pro Tools 9
In 2010-11, Pro Tools HD and LE were effectively merged into a singular, hardware-independent software package.When operating on a machine containing one or more HD Core, Accel or Native cards, the software will run as Pro Tools HD 9, with the full Pro Tools HD feature set. In all other cases it will run as Pro Tools 9, with a smaller track count and a number of advanced features turned off. However, non-HD Pro Tools 9 users can also gain access to the full feature set with the Complete Production Toolkit 2.
Pro Tools 9 also includes as standard many features which on Pro Tools LE were only accessible via additional "Toolkit" upgrades.
Pro Tools 9 is unlike any previous version in having no proprietary hardware requirement, allowing use of the software with any interface. It can operate using the internal sound card of a PC via the ASIO driver and a Mac using Core Audio
Core Audio
Core Audio is a low-level API for dealing with sound in Apple's Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. It includes an implementation of the cross-platform OpenAL library....
. Mac Core Audio also allows, for the first time, the use of aggregate devices, allowing the use of more than one interface at the same time. This can also be achieved on a PC by using the third party application ASIO4ALL. Pro Tools 9 also included a new keyboard shortcut for "New Playlist."
Pro Tools 9 uses iLok
ILok
The iLok or InterLok is a copy protection method developed and manufactured by PACE Anti-Piracy which utilizes a USB dongle and an online registration system. It enables a licensed user of a software application to use the software on different computers without having to register each computer....
for copy-protection. Pro Tools 9 is the first version to have one 'unified' installer for the software, with the iLok licence determining which elements of the software are unlocked.
Notable users: Craig Burrows, Gary Numan, Trent Reznor
Pro Tools M-Powered systems
M-AudioM-Audio
M-Audio is a business unit of Avid Technology that designs and markets digital audio and MIDI interfaces, keyboards and MIDI controllers, synthesizers, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital DJ systems, microphones, and music software...
, formerly Midiman, was acquired by Avid Technology
Avid Technology
Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...
in 2004–2005, and Digidesign soon released Pro Tools M-Powered, which brought Pro Tools LE functionality to a subset of M-Audio
M-Audio
M-Audio is a business unit of Avid Technology that designs and markets digital audio and MIDI interfaces, keyboards and MIDI controllers, synthesizers, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital DJ systems, microphones, and music software...
USB, FireWire and PCI interfaces. Pro Tools M-Powered uses an iLok
ILok
The iLok or InterLok is a copy protection method developed and manufactured by PACE Anti-Piracy which utilizes a USB dongle and an online registration system. It enables a licensed user of a software application to use the software on different computers without having to register each computer....
license as copy protection and was formerly the only way to run Pro Tools without using Digidesign/Avid hardware.
Pro Tools M-Powered Essential
This is a scaled down version of the M-Powered system. It was aimed at the starter market, and offers very limited scope, with only 16 tracks, no 3rd party plug-ins & limited USB device support.Pro Tools SE
Pro Tools SE is a stripped down version of LE, also targeted at beginners. The software is sold in one of three bundles with a hardware unit for guitarists, keyboard players and vocalists. It also comes with the Avid MobilePre interface. This device (aka "dongle") may function with Pro Tools as well as Garageband. There is no option to upgrade to the full version of Pro Tools from Pro Tools SE.Control surfaces
Digidesign/Avid control surfaces attempt to bridge the gap between old style analog desks and modern DAWs by providing physical controls for the Pro Tools software. These include the C|24, a 24-fader surface with 16 built-in Focusrite pre-amps, and the ICON: Integrated Console Environment, combining a tactile control surface and a Pro Tools|HD Accel system in one unit. VENUE, a similar system, was released for live-sound applications. The Command|8 is a smaller eight-fader control surface.Pro Tools compatible control surfaces have also been developed by other companies. For example, the Audient
Audient
Audient was founded in 1997 by David Dearden and Gareth Davies, previously of Soundcraft. They had been founding partners of DDA - a company known for designing good value mixing consoles in the 1980s and 1990s....
ASP2802 has integrated DAW
Digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
control, and is compatible with Pro Tools as well as Logic Pro
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002...
and Cubase. It therefore provides an external analog mixing interface for the computer.
In April 2010, Avid acquired Euphonix, a manufacturer of high quality control surfaces.
Related products and services
An official Pro Tools training curriculum and certification program, which includes a full range of Pro Tools–related courses in music and post production, was introduced by Digidesign in 2002. The curriculum is delivered by a number of schools and universities around the world.The Music Production and DV tool kits increase the capabilities of non-HD Pro Tools systems. Both increase the maximum number of tracks and highest possible sample rate to 96 kHz and include numerous additional plug-ins. The LE only DV tool kit adds feet and frames and timecode timelines and functionality.
AIR (Advanced Instrument Research)
In August 2005, Avid acquired the German company Wizoo, developers of software based virtual instruments. They further announced the creation of AIRAIR Users Blog
The AIR Users Blog is a Blog which is the focal point of a community of around 50,000 users a month. All of them are joined by their interest and use of AIR software plug-ins, part of Digidesign Pro Tools. It was started in October 2008 by Russ Hughes, a musician based in London, UK...
(Advanced Instrument Research) a strategic development which meant Avid would be developing virtual instruments and plug-ins for use in Pro Tools.
This was a move which saw the landmark redevelopment of Pro Tools in Pro Tools 8, which relied heavily on the inclusion of AIR plug-ins to bring it closer to its competitor Logic Pro
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002...
. This was the first version of Pro Tools to see the inclusion of an entire virtual instrument library to assist those composing music and included:
- Structure FREE, a sample playback instrument.
- Boom, a beat box
- Xpand2, a multi-timbral sound playback module.
- DB33, a Hammond Organ emulator
- Vacuum, a monophonic vintage synth.
- Mini Grand, Piano.
AIR also contributed reverbs, dynamics, modulation and other effects as part of the Pro Tools 8 bundle, all of these work in RTAS only.
Pro Tools timeline of releases
- 1989
- Sound ToolsSound ToolsSound Tools was a digital audio workstation released by Digidesign in the late 1980s. Its successor, Pro Tools, is the current industry standard in music production and TV/film audio post production....
stereo recording & editing system- 1991
- Original Pro Tools 1.0 system is released featuring 4 voices, ProDECK and ProEDIT software, MIDI, and automationConsole automationModern digital audio consoles or mixers use automation. Automation allows the console to remember the audio engineer's adjustment of faders during the post-production editing process. A timecode is necessary for synchronization of automation.- Types of Automation :...
- 1992
- Pro Tools 1.1, adds support for up to 4 cards/interfaces for 4-16 voices
- 1993
- Pro Tools 2.0 released, combines features of ProDECK and ProEDIT in one application
- 1994
- Pro Tools III system, provides 16–48 voices
- 1997
- Pro Tools | 24 (24-bit audio, 32-64 voices); Pro Tools 4.0 (destructive editing, AudioSuite introduced)
- 1998
- Pro Tools | 24 MIX and MIXplus (64 voices, expanded DSP capabilities for mixing/processing audio); ProControl (first dedicated control surface for Pro Tools)
- 1999
- Pro Tools 5.0 (integrated MIDI sequencing); Digi 001 with Pro Tools LE (Limited Edition of Pro Tools, introduction of RTAS host-based processing)
- 2000
- Pro Tools Free (8 audio tracks, 48 midi tracks, RTAS support), later discontinued
- 2001
- Pro Tools 5.1 (TDM version adds surround mixing, Beat Detective); Control 24 (hardware control surface/interface featuring Focusrite preamps)
- 2002
- Pro Tools | HD system (supports 96 kHz and 192 kHz audio); Mbox and Digi 002 (March and Sept.)
- 2003
- Pro Tools | HD Accel system (additional DSP capabilities); Pro Tools 6.0 (supports Mac OS X); Pro Tools Users group founded in Los Angeles.
- 2004
- ICON D-Control (combines tactile control surface and a Pro Tools | HD Accel system in one unit)
- 2005
- VENUE (Pro Tools for live sound); Mbox 2; Pro Tools M-Powered (Aug); Pro Tools 7.0 (Nov), 7.1 (supports Apple's PCIe G5) (Dec.) Avid acquire Wizoo and announce the creation of AIR (Advanced Instrument Research) as a strategic development arm of Avid, creating virtual instruments and plug-ins for use in Pro Tools.
- 2006
- Pro Tools 7.2 (Aug.) and 7.3 (Dec.); Pro Tools LE and HD support Intel-based Mac (May and Sept. respectively); Mbox 2 Pro; Mbox 2 Mini
- 2007
- 003 and 003 Rack (Feb.); Mbox 2 Micro (Oct.); Pro Tools 7.4 (Nov.) (Elastic Audio)
- 2008
- Pro Tools 8 (Elastic Pitch, Score Editor, MIDI Editor, AIR plug-ins); 003 Rack +
- 2009
- Pro Tools Essential (Limited track count for starter market); "Eleven Rack"(Guitar effects processor and Pro Tools LE DSP accelerated interface)
- 2010
- Pro Tools Mbox Mini, Pro Tools Mbox , Pro Tools Mbox Pro (Third Generation, first full release by Avid), Pro Tools HD 8.1 (HEAT), Instrument Expansion Pack, Pro Tools HD Series Interfaces (HD I/O, HD OMNI, HD MADI, SYNC HD and PRE); Pro Tools HD Native (Oct), Pro Tools 9 (hardware independent) (Nov)
- 2011
- Avid releases Pro Tools 9, breaking down the wall between LE and HD with end of LE versions. The new ability to use the software without using an Avid specific interface - it can run from an iLok.
- Pro Tools 10 and Pro Tools HD 10 (Oct). First version to include Extended Disk Caching (the ability to load sessions completely into RAM memory.) Pro Tools HDX cards, the successor to "Accel" also unveiled at AES convention.
See also
- Ableton LiveAbleton LiveAbleton Live is a loop-based software music sequencer and DAW for Mac OS and Windows by Ableton. The latest major release of Live, Version 8, was released in April 2009. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for...
- ACID ProACID ProSony ACID Pro is a professional digital audio workstation software program. It was originally called "ACID pH1" and published by Sonic Foundry, but is now developed and sold by Sony Creative Software....
- Cakewalk SONARCakewalk SonarCakewalk SONAR is a digital audio workstation made by Cakewalk for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and outputting audio. The latest versions of the software are SONAR Home Studio 7, SONAR Home Studio 7 XL, SONAR X1 Producer Edition, SONAR X1 Studio Edition, SONAR X1 Essential Edition, and...
- Digital PerformerDigital PerformerDigital Performer is a full-featured Digital Audio Workstation/Sequencer software package published by Mark of the Unicorn of Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Apple Macintosh platform.-Ancestry:...
- FL StudioFL StudioFL Studio is a digital audio workstation developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. FL Studio features a graphical user interface based on a pattern-based music sequencer...
- Logic ProLogic ProLogic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002...
- RenoiseRenoiseRenoise is a contemporary digital audio workstation based upon the heritage and development of tracker software. Its primary use is the composition of music using sound samples, soft synths, and effects plug-ins. It is also able to interface with MIDI and OSC equipment...
- Steinberg CubaseSteinberg CubaseCubase is a music software product developed by Steinberg for music recording, arranging and editing as part of a Digital Audio Workstation. It is one of the oldest DAWs to still enjoy widespread use...
- Steinberg NuendoNuendoNuendo is a music software product developed by Steinberg for music recording, arranging, editing and post-production as part of a Digital Audio Workstation. The package is aimed at audio and video post-production market segments, but it also contains optional modules that can be used for...
- Samplitude
- Comparison of multitrack recording softwareComparison of multitrack recording softwareThe following tables compare general and technical information among a number of digital audio editors. Please see the individual products articles for further information.-General:Basic general information about the software: creator/company, license/price etc....
External links
- Digidesign page on Avid.com
- Avid Audio Forums (100,000+ Members, aka the DUC)
- Pro Tools Users' Group
- ProToolers - Italian User Group
- Digidesign Pro Tools Learning Center Free Video Tutorials from ProAudioLand
- Free Video Tutorials on Pro Tools at the London College of Music (LCM) Website
- WikiRecording's Guide to Digidesign's Mbox Pro Tools Interface
- A Free User Group (2200+ Members) for all things Pro Tools hosted by Yahoo Groups
- AIR Users Blog
- Pro Tools how-to database