Published 8/10/08
MIDI + Audio Sequencer
As you can see from the pictures and video, Pro Tools now has the look of other contemporary DAWs, having been “enhanced with a more modern colour palette, as well as higher-contrast text and graphics”.
The toolbar in the new Edit window is now user-configurable, and there are brand new editor screens for scoring and piano roll MIDI editing (courtesy of Sibelius) that can be docked at the bottom of the main window, as is possible in other modern DAWs. Despite these changes, Digidesign say that “all the key functions that users rely on are still right where they should be”.
Pro Tools 8 ships with a total of 70 plug-ins and virtual instruments, of which 20 are new. These include Mini Grand Piano; Boom, a drum machine; DB33, a tonewheel organ; Vacuum, which emulates a tube-based synthesizer; and Xpand 2, a sample player. There’s also plenty of provision for the guitarist: Eleven Free is a cut-down version of Digidesign’s amplifier-modelling plug-in, while a bundled emulation of the Tech 21 Sansamp will give users even more amp tones to choose from.
Other new features include a technology called Elastic Pitch, which enables the user to alter the pitch by plus or minus four octaves, in real time without changing the tempo, directly from the Pro Tools Edit window. There’s also a new track-comping feature, which can assist users managing multiple takes.
The track count of the native versions of Pro Tools (LE and M-Powered) has been increased in version 8; users can now run 48 simultaneous tracks instead of 32, as possible in Pro Tools 7, while the optional extra Music Production Toolkit 2 and DV Toolkit 2 up the channel counts in the LE version to 64. A further add-on bundle, called Complete Production Toolkit gives LE users a maximum simultaneous track count of 128, as well as the option to work in up to 7.1 surround.
For Pro Tools HD users, new features include Satellite Link, with which users can control up to five HD systems as one, and different Video Satellite upgrades enable users to use standard- and high-definition Avid and Quicktime videos inside Pro Tools HD, all without draining Pro Tools’ processing power or lowering track counts.
Pro Tools 8 is due to ship before the end of 2008, and will be compatible with PCs running Vista (32-bit only) and XP, and Macs running Mac OS v10.5.
Digidesign +44 (0)1753 655 999
www.digidesign.com
The toolbar in the new Edit window is now user-configurable, and there are brand new editor screens for scoring and piano roll MIDI editing (courtesy of Sibelius) that can be docked at the bottom of the main window, as is possible in other modern DAWs. Despite these changes, Digidesign say that “all the key functions that users rely on are still right where they should be”.
Pro Tools 8 ships with a total of 70 plug-ins and virtual instruments, of which 20 are new. These include Mini Grand Piano; Boom, a drum machine; DB33, a tonewheel organ; Vacuum, which emulates a tube-based synthesizer; and Xpand 2, a sample player. There’s also plenty of provision for the guitarist: Eleven Free is a cut-down version of Digidesign’s amplifier-modelling plug-in, while a bundled emulation of the Tech 21 Sansamp will give users even more amp tones to choose from.
Other new features include a technology called Elastic Pitch, which enables the user to alter the pitch by plus or minus four octaves, in real time without changing the tempo, directly from the Pro Tools Edit window. There’s also a new track-comping feature, which can assist users managing multiple takes.
The track count of the native versions of Pro Tools (LE and M-Powered) has been increased in version 8; users can now run 48 simultaneous tracks instead of 32, as possible in Pro Tools 7, while the optional extra Music Production Toolkit 2 and DV Toolkit 2 up the channel counts in the LE version to 64. A further add-on bundle, called Complete Production Toolkit gives LE users a maximum simultaneous track count of 128, as well as the option to work in up to 7.1 surround.
For Pro Tools HD users, new features include Satellite Link, with which users can control up to five HD systems as one, and different Video Satellite upgrades enable users to use standard- and high-definition Avid and Quicktime videos inside Pro Tools HD, all without draining Pro Tools’ processing power or lowering track counts.
Pro Tools 8 is due to ship before the end of 2008, and will be compatible with PCs running Vista (32-bit only) and XP, and Macs running Mac OS v10.5.
Digidesign +44 (0)1753 655 999
www.digidesign.com
