Even since before the Digidesign name was subsumed into that of parent company Avid, existing and potential users of Pro Tools have been eagerly anticipating the next generation of Pro Tools hardware — and now, finally, we can reveal what that is.
Three new interfaces for Avid’s Pro Tools HD systems have been announced, along with HEAT, an analogue warmth emulation option for the Pro Tools HD mixer. The interfaces are the first Pro Tools products to dispense entirely with the Digidesign name, and though similar in appearance to the existing 96 IO and 192 IO, these sport a fetching new black and purple colour scheme, which further reinforces Pro Tools’ association with the Avid brand.
HD Omni
Probably the most relevant new I/O box to the home and project studio markets is the HD Omni, a 1U device that not only provides analogue and digital inputs and outputs, but also incorporates the functionality of a few other boxes that you’d otherwise have to buy separately, thus effectively bringing the cost of a Pro Tools HD-based recording system down quite considerably. The front panel, for example, plays host to two XLR/jack combo inputs that accept instrument-, line- and mic-level signals and can supply phantom power, thereby eliminating the need for external mic preamps and DI boxes. A pad, phase-invert switch and high-pass filter augment these, and the gains for both channels are controlled via a single digital rotary encoder that, when pressed, selects which preamp you are adjusting. Settings for the two mic pres can optionally be linked, for stereo recording purposes, and each pre has its own insert point located on the rear panel, which can be switched in or out of circuit via a button on the front.
On to the remaining inputs, then, of which there are 16: four balanced, line-level inputs, two digital stereo inputs (one co-axial S/PDIF, one AES/EBU XLR) and eight digital ins (via an ADAT lightpipe socket) are available on the rear panel, and the latter are capable of running at 96kHz, courtesy of a second ADAT socket that facilitates use of the S/MUX protocol. It should be noted, however, that only four of the abovementioned inputs can be used simultaneously.
The output side of things is similarly well appointed. Eight balanced outs appear on a D-sub connector on the rear panel, along with two TRS jack outputs (these mirror either outputs 1 and 2, or 7 and 8 of the D-sub outs), and a further eight outputs on via ADAT (again, with another ADAT socket present to allow for higher sample rates). The final pair of outputs can be found on the front, and this is a stereo, quarter-inch headphone socket. The behaviour of the headphone out, like the mic preamps, is governed by a single rotary encoder, which, combined with four buttons labelled Setup, Cue, Alt and Mute, also acts as a comprehensive monitor controller. Control room level, headphone level, input and output routing, cue mixing and down-mixing (from up to 7.1 surround to mono) can all be controlled using this section of the front panel, doing away with the need for a separate monitor controller and headphone amp, again effectively bringing down the price (and rack-space real-estate) of a complete Pro Tools HD system.
The rest of the front panel is dominated by metering and indicator LEDs, with eight five-segment LEDs displaying input or output levels, and 10 further LEDs showing the current sample rate and clock source. All of which is impressive enough, but the HD Omni has another trick up its sleeve: it can run as a stand-alone mixer, with routing options being freely configurable from the front panel when your computer is disconnected or switched off — so that’s another piece of studio hardware you may not need to buy! Avid say that this will be useful to musicians who simply want to play or listen to music through their monitoring system, without having to boot up their computer. And finally, all of the analogue inputs have a feature that Avid call Curv: a soft-knee limiter placed prior to conversion, which is designed to prevent digital overs when recording (this feature can also be found in the HD IO, of which more in a moment). Though still too new for UK pricing to be confirmed, US prices for all the newcomers were available, with the HD Omni set to carry an MSRP of $2995.
HD IO
Next up is the HD IO, which effectively usurps the 192 IO’s position at the top of Avid’s range of interfaces. Available in a variety of configurations, the A-D/D-A conversion is apparently significantly improved compared with the previous generation of I/O boxes (the same is true of the HD Omni, by the way), thanks to “advances in design, filtering and clocking”.
Like the 192 IO, all of the HD IO boxes feature, as standard, stereo AES-EBU ins and outs, stereo S/PDIF I/O, and eight digital I/O via ADAT (unlike the 192 IO, however, these can run in S/MUX mode, courtesy of an extra pair of ADAT ports). There are three basic I/O configurations on offer, plus a range of I/O expansion card options. First up is what Avid call the 8x8x8 option, which bolsters the aforementioned I/O with eight balanced analogue ins and outs (on D-sub connectors), eight channels of AES-EBU digital I/O, eight channels of TDIF digital I/O, and eight channels of ADAT I/O (which, once again, can run in S/MUX mode. Next up is the 16x16 Analog version, which crams in 16 analogue inputs and outputs, in addition to the standard I/O complement. And finally, the 16x16 Digital has 16 channels of AES-EBU I/O, 16 channels of TDIF I/O, and 16 channels of S/MUX-capable ADAT I/O.
Before we move on to the expansion cards, it’s worth pointing out that the 8x8x8 has one empty expansion slot, the 16x16x16 Digital has two, and the 16x16x16 Analog, because of its high analogue I/O count, has none. The range of expansion cards comprises the HD I/O A-D Option (eight balanced analogue inputs), the HD I/O D-A Option (eight balanced analogue outs), and the HD I/O Digital Option (eight channels of AES-EBU, TDIF and ADAT I/O). Pricing for the HD IO begins at $3995, and goes up from there depending on which configuration you opt for.
HD MADI
And rounding off the new range of I/O boxes is the HD MADI, a 1U rack that provides 64 simultaneous inputs and outputs at up to 24-bit, 192kHz quality, on both optical and coaxial (BNC) connectors. All inputs and outputs have onboard sample-rate conversion and, in common with the HD Omni and HD IO, the HD MADI can be sync’d to, or send, a word clock signal, courtesy of its word-clock and loop-sync I/O connectors. It also has an AES-EBU XLR connector for maintaining sync when using the built-in sample-rate converters.
Because of its high I/O count, the HD MADI has two Digilink connectors, and requires at least a Pro Tools HD2 system to use all of the inputs and outputs (only 32 are available if you’re using a HD1 rig). MADI is undoubtedly a high-end protocol (it is most frequently found in broadcast, large-scale live sound and post-production environments), and as such carries the highest price tag of the three new interfaces: MSRP for the HD MADI is $4995.
HEAT
That’s the new hardware dealt with, so on to the last of Avid’s recent announcements, HEAT. Harmonically Enhanced Algorithm Technology (as it stands for) is a software add-on for Pro Tools HD systems that gives you a global mixer option to add harmonic content to your tracks.
There are just two controls, labelled Drive and Tone. The Drive control is not as simple as it at first appears: when set dead centre, no harmonic content is added. When turned anticlockwise, odd-order harmonics (starting with the third and fifth) are introduced, in a non-linear way, and this is said by Avid to emulate the sound of magnetic tape recording, the result being “a sound that fattens up the bottom and mid range of a recording, and smooths high-frequency transients as you increase the process”. Turning the Drive knob clockwise adds both odd and even harmonics, much like what would happen if you were using triode tube circuitry. In either case, the amount of harmonic content applied is dependent on signal level, and as the processing is done on a per-track basis, Pro Tools channels with hotter signals will be subject to more harmonic content than those with lower-level signals (as would be the case if you were working on an analogue system).
Tone, meanwhile, “accentuates or de-accentuates the amount of detail and brightness”, according to Avid. They are keen to stress, however, that it doesn’t work in quite the same way as a normal EQ: “the amount and character of the harmonic content is changed by this control, in a non-linear fashion,” according to the user guide.
There are many software emulations of valve circuitry, tape machines and so on, but HEAT promises to be something rather special, given that it was designed with the help of Dave Hill from Crane Song, who developed Phoenix — possibly the most revered tape-emulation plug-in on the market. The HEAT option for Pro Tools HD (unfortunately it’s not available for LE or M-Powered systems at present, though Avid didn’t rule out the possibility of it eventually becoming so) carries a US MSRP of $495, and can be bought either in a box or as a download.
And that pretty much wraps up Avid’s Pro Tools-related announcements — with the exception of one less major, but still significant, bit of news: Pro Tools has been updated to version 8.1. The update, which apparently includes performance enhancements and bug fixes, is required for compatibility with HEAT and the new interfaces, and can be downloaded from the Avid web site.
