Pro Tools Notes
Pro Tools 6.0 at Digiworld
Technique : Pro Tools Notes
This month Pro Tools Notes reports from the recent Digiworld show in London, offering the first chance to see Pro Tools 6.0, and what Mac OS X can do for you.
Simon Price
As previewed in last month's News section, Pro Tools 6.0 is coming, and Digidesign showed it for the first time in the UK at a two-day event in central London in November. Digiworld was held in a large townhouse near the BBC's Broadcasting House — a welcome change from the usual audio dealership or trade show venues. In fact the surroundings, combined with the hordes of people who turned up, made it feel less like a pro audio event and more like a posh cocktail party. TDM Mac users should hopefully be able to update to Pro Tools 6.0 in December, followed by Digi 001, Audiomedia III, M Box and Digi 002 owners. Windows XP users should get the new goodies in the second quarter of 2003. Many of the new features are summarised on the Digi web site at www.digidesign.com/news/hotnews/PTv6, and a full SOS review will give PT6 a thorough going over. In the meantime, here's my pick of the important developments, and what OS X can do for us. Please be aware that these details are subject to possible changes before the actual release!
Perfect 10
Indications are that Pro Tools 6.0 is a completely new application, most particularly because from now on it's exclusive to Mac OS X and Windows XP. It's obviously been in development for a long time, as many long-awaited featu What we know for sure is that PT6 will not support OS 9, or Windows 98/2000: it's Mac OS 10.2+ and Windows XP only. (Actually, the careful wording of the web site information leads one to suspect that the XP release may not initially be the 6.0 code base). It does support TDM systems from Pro Tools 24 upwards, and will support all host-based systems from Toolbox upwards (Digi 001, Digi 002 and M Box) eventually. Support for Unity and AVoptionXL systems will come next year. Unfortunately, plug-ins will need new versions to work. As is usual in these situations, we can expect Digidesign plug-ins to be available from the beginning, with third parties following after. At least moving to OS X and PT6 should be less upheaval than the core hardware change from Mix to HD. Support for PT24 is encouraging, suggesting that Digidesign are concerned not to abandon those with older systems (PT24 been around for more than five years). The majority of TDM users currently have Mix hardware, and I can see no cause for concern for Mix owners. I would be surprised to see Audiomedia III/Toolbox support lasting long into further versions, but all the other LE systems are current products, so my money is on PT6 support being long-term. In summary, the primary issue to focus on will be OS upgrades, and possibly swapping to a machine that can handle OS X/Windows XP. Mac users also face the issue of OS X compatibility with other applications.
res have surfaced here, but I'll come back to that. Graphically, PT6 is still obviously Pro Tools, but with a new curviness and three-dimensional depth befitting the OS X and XP GUIs. Finally (you might want to sit down) colour is sprouting out across the screen, with larger, brighter indicator lights, colour-coded mixer channels and coloured audio regions.
Legacy Support
Pro Tools 6 represents a major software update, and for most Pro Tools owners, ugrading will involve a change of operating system too. Owners of pre-HD systems are naturally expressing concerns about whether they will be supported, and for how much longer.
Veteran Mac PT users, myself included, may find the prospect of switching to OS X fairly depressing, but the benefits do really seem to be worth it. As well as the basic stability of OS X's UNIX foundations, immediate gains are PT6's support for multiple-processor G4s and a switch from the obsolete OMS to Apple Core MIDI services. This last point means that PT6 should be compatible with just about any MIDI device or interface that supports OS X. On a related point, Digidesign have decided not to follow Emagic in supporting Apple's Audio Units with this release. (Audio Units provide an OS-level plug-in/soft synth format). I would guess that, at least for the moment, Digidesign prefer to maintain an independent plug-in structure to give them more control over functionality and simpler cross-platform compatibility.
Another breakthrough made possible by shedding OS 9 was hinted at by the presence of the new Task Window on the demo system's screen. OS X is Apple's first fully multi-tasking platform (stop that smug snickeri
ng please, Windows users) and Pro Tools takes full advantage with background processing support on a number of tasks. For example, we saw an audio file that needed sample-rate conversion brought into the Session. Pro Tools 6 didn't give us the chance to go and make a cup of tea while the new file was created and waveform overview calculated; instead, the file was dragged straight into the timeline, and could be played back from the start while it was being converted!
Instant Gratification
Digi started their formal presentation of new features with a couple of real crowd-pleasers. Plug-ins can now be inserted or switched during playback on TDM systems (LE can already do this). Up till now it's been necessary to stop playback while adding plug-ins, although Logic has long had a kludge where TDM plug-ins could be selected, and playback is stopped briefly while the DSPs are reconfigured. In a similar fashion, PT6 mutes output during the plug-in rejigging, but the pause seemed much shorter: just a tiny glitch.
Second were vast improvements to MIDI quantise functionality. At last MIDI quantising is non-destructive thanks to the Restore Performance command. This removes the need to make a 'safety' duplicate of MIDI regions before altering timing. Going further, PT6 includes groove quantising and groove template creation/import, meaning groove quantis
ing can now be achieved using methods in line with those available in other music packages. Previously, groove quantising was achieved by imprinting the timing variations that constitute a song's 'feel' into the tempo map of the song, then conforming MIDI passages to the map. While this was very useful for certain tasks, it was quite inflexible and the 'groove' was always tied to a particular point in a particular song. The new suite of groove template features separates the quantise information from any song's Bars and Beats grid. TDM systems carry all this functionality over into the realm of audio groove extraction and quantising via additions to Beat Detective.
DigiBase
The single largest addition to PT6 is a new media management system, named DigiBase in conformity with the company's obsessive addition of 'Digi' to the start of everything! Anyway, being a little slow on the uptake, it took me a while to realise that DigiBase is an expanded version of a feature request many people (particularly post-production users) have been making for a few years. The request was to move away from a situation where songs just have a single local file/region list to a more versatile system where you have fast access to additional catalogues of files that be searched, auditioned, and dragged into the timeline. If you've seen or used an Avid Media Composer or Audiovision system you'll know this idea as media 'bins'. DigiBase seems to combine aspects of this functionality with a sophisticated Another PT6-style hack: PT6 will have an Import Session Data option which can import data from tracks in other Sessions. One useful application of this will be to import automation data only from audio tracks, where now it's difficult to separate layers of automation from underlying audio. However, this is possible if you know how. For example, you may want to create a template Session from one song, using all the fader moves, pans and plug-in sweeps with different audio. There's a way of doing this which uses the 'Special Automation Paste' key combination. Save a new copy of the Session with the automation moves you want — this will become your new template. Now select everything across all tracks (triple-clicking the time ruler is a quick way to do this), and switch all tracks to Volume view. Hitting Command-Ctrl-C will copy all the automation. Now switch all the tracks to Waveform view and hit Delete to bin everything. Switch back to Volume view and Command-Ctrl-V will replace the automation onto the empty tracks. You can now record or place audio onto the tracks from the region bin or virgin tracks without disturbing the automation.
file indexing system designed to kiss goodbye to 'Where is file x?'-type messages when moving projects around.
Quick Tips
While we have to wait until PT6 for the new Relative Grid mode as shown at Digiworld, it's already possible to avoid moved items from snapping to the grid in Grid Mode by using a Bars/Beats value Nudge instead of the mouse.
Apparently, DigiBase keeps track of all media files on all your volumes (including off-line devices) in a centralised master index independent of the Mac OS Finder or Windows Explorer. Far more sophisticated than the PT5 'Import Audio' page, DigiBase can search for audio using various parameters such as name or date ranges. Additionally, you can create your own catalogues of pointers to your media: the part-equivalent to Avid's bins. DigiBase appears as an additional window in Pro Tools, listing volumes, catalogues, and files. Files are accompanied in the window by small 'thumbnail' waveforms, allowing quick auditioning from any point in the audio clip. Digidesign hint that further into the future you'll be able to open up files from DigiBase into a separate audio editing window, meaning that you can edit the clip without it having to be dropped into the timeline first. While some of this might not have instant sex appeal to non-post users, I think it'll be a slow-burner that we come to rely on. Even with PT5, for example, you become so used to Sessions being able to re-link to their files via unique IDs that you can tear your hair out when using other programs where this feature is not available. Also, for us as investors in Digidesign systems, this stuff is a big deal in terms of securing Pro Tools's relatively recent wide-scale adoption in the TV and film sectors. Digi assured us that despite earlier rumours, DigiBase will not be a paid-for addition to the software.
LE Gets Less 'Lite'
As was pointed out in last month's Digi 002 review, deciding just how 'limited' the Limited Edition is represents a tough job for Digidesign. While they wish to offer a 'super-pro' version for their large studio and post-production cl Windows
ients, and some features rely on TDM hardware to be viable, rival host-based packages keep creeping forward in line with personal computer technology. Apparently recognising this, version 6 of LE will include many of the new version's advances, while also stealing back some previously restricted features. Recently the 24 audio track limit was relaxed to 32, and PT6 LE will also share the doubled MIDI track limit of 256. Digi's site also mentions support for inactive tracks and voice management, as available on the full TDM version. If this means what I think it means it will greatly increase the tracking power of the system and make it possible to open large TDM projects without losing material. The Trimmer Tool will now include the time-stretcher mode, which makes matching loop tempos to the Session possible in a single mouse move. DigiBase will be included, although without the catalogue feature. And finally, I'm really happy to see that my own number one LE wish has come true: the TDM version's 'command focus' mode will be included. This provides single-key keyboard shortcuts for just about all Pro Tools's edit and zoom functions, and could be the final bit of persuasion I need to get an OS X-capable Mac!
Current Versions
Mac OS
HD: 5.3.1r2.
24/Mix: 5.1.3cs4.
LE for Digi 001/Audiomedia III: 5.2.1cs1.
LE for Digi 002: 5.3.2cs1.
Free: 5.0.1.
24/Mix/HD: 5.3.3.
LE for Digi 001/002/Audiomedia III: 5.3.1.
Free: 5.0.1.
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