Ultimately, if you're a Pro Tools user already, it's almost inconceivable that you would want to avoid Pro Tools 8. Once you get past the different appearance, there are so just many improvements and new features that you will find it hard to live without them. And even if you're not currently a Pro Tools user, version 8 might seem like a tempting place to start. While it probably won't sway the hardcore followers of other products, Pro Tools 8's enhanced music creation abilities may well appeal to those who don't need and actually would prefer not to have some of the sophistication and complexity of other applications.
While the feature gap between the LE and HD flavours of Pro Tools has become smaller over the years, there are still many areas of functionality where the two vary.
Similarly, while HD users can work with surround, LE users are limited to mono and stereo tracks, and the track counts themselves have always been more limited in LE when compared to HD. For some users, buying an HD rig to get these extra features isn't always an option — even if you take cost out of the equation, trying to use Pro Tools HD on a plane is about as convenient as trying to fry an egg while hang gliding. And there are many situations where working on laptops to prepare Session files that will be used on an HD system is absolutely essential.
Digidesign addressed one aspect of this problem back in when the company released the DV Toolkit option for Pro Tools LE, adding features such as timecode support. Following the release of Pro Tools 7 in , Digidesign upgraded the DV Toolkit to version 2, making it possible to use up to 48 tracks in LE, and implementing some of the more advanced editing facilities from HD.
Existing users who already own a Toolkit and want to upgrade to Pro Tools 8 will find that their existing Toolkit authorisations will unlock the extra track count and any features the Toolkits already offered. Users will only need to pay an additional upgrade charge in order to access features and plug-ins that have been newly added to the Toolkits. This basically combines the functionality of the DV and Music Production Toolkits, but also adds features that users have been requesting for some time on LE systems, such as support for surround mixing up to 7.
And although the number of available voices remains at , you can create up to mono tracks compared with 64 on the other Toolkits — if you're working in surround, this equates to 21 5. Being able to work with surround in LE is a really, really big deal for those working in film, especially when you need interoperability with an HD rig. The unfortunate thing is that this functionality doesn't come cheap. The list of improvements and new features seems almost endless in Pro Tools 8.
And although improving Pro Tools for music creation is the emphasis in version 8, Digidesign certainly haven't forgotten about those who use Pro Tools for audio work.
To begin with, following on from the introduction of Elastic Audio in Pro Tools 7. Once you've enabled an Elastic Audio algorithm for a track although pitch adjustments aren't supported if you choose the Monophonic algorithm , you'll notice a new Pitch Shift setting in the Elastic Properties window, enabling you to specify a transposition in terms of semitones and cents either two octaves above or below the original pitch.
Something that has long frustrated me and many other users I know is the rather ineffective way in which waveforms were drawn in Pro Tools. When working with a recorded click track, random beats in the waveform containing the click would disappear at certain horizontal resolutions, so you'd often need to zoom in and out to make sure something was recorded properly.
This means the waveforms will be calculated according to the Root Mean Square RMS of the signal, which is useful if you're viewing the waveform of a whole file at the same time because it gives a slightly more meaningful view of the whole piece of audio statistically, rather than looking at a series of peaks, which is more useful when looking at only a section of audio. Another useful change is that Pro Tools now supports audio files that are almost 4GB in size 3.
This is an improvement over the 2GB limit in previous versions, which could be a real pain if you wanted to leave Pro Tools unattended and recording for a long period of time. If you use multiple Pro Tools HD rigs in your studio, one of the neatest new features in version 8 is Satellite Link, which makes it possible to synchronise up to five systems via Ethernet without the need for additional synchronisation hardware.
Unfortunately, though, I was unable to test this properly before the deadline for the article, so look out for full coverage of this interesting new functionality in a forthcoming article. Pro Tools 8 is full to overflowing with new features, from the 'biggies' like the Score editor to 'littlies' like Insertion Follows Playback now having a button in the toolbar on the Edit window. The look has changed completely. The new toolbar presents what was two rows of tools as one reconfigurable row.
One benefit of this is that all the icons in the toolbar are much cleaner and easier to read, and the buttons that used to be on the black bar in PT 7. The option to re-order elements of the toolbar may prove useful in time, but I can't see it yet.
However, it now needs a lot more width, so make sure you have plenty of screen space if you want all the options on. Among other display improvements, the faders and meters in the Mix window are calibrated, so now we do have a more accurate indication of levels. It would be great if the meters could also have programmable ballistics to suit different environments. Group labelling has been overhauled and is much clearer, displaying the full group name and large colour bar the width of a channel strip.
The new MIDI editor is clearly a big development. There are many other changes that strike me as improvements, one such being the new Quickstart option and template Sessions. These templates can have media in them, and all templates are stored in the Digidesign folder on your system drive. This is so welcome, as templates have been somewhat messy on both Mac and Windows for different reasons for a while. Likewise, the extra bank of five insert points per channel and the ability to record files up to 3.
The list of things I don't like is much shorter! Me and knobs don't get on, so I don't like the fact that the pan controls have changed from sliders to knobs. And in the Edit window, I am not convinced the new waveform options of peak power and outline are all that useful.
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Add this product to Mon ancien matos My current gear My wishlist. Product presentation Description. Reviews 9 9. Classified Ads. Forums 2 2. Tutorials 2 2. News 4 4. Watch how to create virtual instruments tracks, choose and load a virtual instrument plug-in, browse plug-in presets, record enable instrument tracks and record and playback a drum and piano track.
Also see how to quantize the drums so they are in perfect time. Editing Audio. Learn to zoom in and out and scroll horizontally in the Edit Window. See how to resize tracks, navigate the timeline, use Grid and Slip edit modes and use the main edit tools to resize, move, delete, copy and paste audio regions. Editing MIDI. Quick Mix. Watch as Antony takes a rough multi-track song and mixes it before your eyes and ears. See how to make a mix tighter and louder by using EQ, Compression and Limiting plug-ins, select an area to bounce to disk and how to make a stereo file for CD and MP3 players and or the internet.
Presented by Pro Tools 8 power user Antony Livoti, this "direct to the point" series will teach you how to create and set up sessions, use virtual instruments, record and edit audio and MIDI, basic routing and mixing techniques, make files for CD and MP3 players and more, in less than an hour. This series is for new Pro Tools users who just want to get right to it, and not learn every little feature and function, but instead use Pro Tools to record and make music fast.
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