Jump to content

Protools 9 anounced - very interesting!


vintagevibes

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 79
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

This sounds good:

"Open support for any audio interface"

 

A few years late for me. I stopped using ProTools at version 5 or 6. The $249 crossgrade price seems attractive, but I don't know if I'll ever return to ProTools.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • CMS Author

You mean it'll work with my 1998-era Sound Blaster?
:)

It most likely will if you have Windows 7 and an ASIO driver for your SoundBlaster. I wonder if it would recognize the old clunker with ASIO4ALL. The web site is really confusing. It suggests (according to a colleague who attended their press conference) that it would run on any hardware (within reason) though under Pro Tools 9 requirements on the Avid web site, only hardware from Avid companies is listed. I guess it's too early to tell very much.

 

I guess I'm not going to jump on to it right away since I don't have anything running Win7 and it doesn't appear to be compatible with WinXP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Here are the big draws -- pulled right from the headlines of the Sweetwater promo page (honest to gawsh):

 

More Tracks and Pro Features Standard!

 

Automatic Delay Compensation!

 

 

Check your smart phones, gentlemen and ladies, it's 2010. We may not have flying cars -- but most serious soft DAWs have had not only unlimited tracks but full automatic plug and other delay compensation for many years now. Lifetimes in computer chronology.

 

 

Sounds too good to be true?

 

What? For Avid's competitors?

 

There is no question that PT has remained the big dog in commercial studios and still has many of the serious, heads-down, production oriented features that those doing heavy work flow production (like radio and other non-music audio production for mass media) appear to need.

 

But this promo is just nutty. Of course they had to let loyal PT users in on the fact that they finally have brought the software forward to some sort of vague parity with other DAWs on these fronts -- the lack of real, full delay comp (and I haven't looked into this so I'm taking it at face value, here) has been a major thorn in the side of PT users for... well, since people started using plug ins and sending analog and digital signal out for outboard processing.

 

And there's no doubt that many PT users have got tired of their let's-make-lemonade refrain of I really like having track count limitations -- it forces me to be more resourceful.

 

 

This may well be a positive change for the company -- which could seriously use some positive change, judging from their market valuation (still mired in the low teens after trading around 50 for several years in their glory days in mid-decade).

 

But I suspect that, while there may well be some residual curiosity about PT from those who've never had access to the official hardware as well as outright newbs for whom, like so many musician studio customers, PT is somewhat synonymous with studio fixes and other trickery, most people who are currently doing serious computer recording have probably already made up their mind.

 

 

So, it seems to me what we have here is big news for PT LE users and, to some extent, PT HD users and more or less shruggable news for many of the rest of us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

digidesign is nothing but a bad memory for me. no more poortools in this neck of the woods. i've been quite happy since i switched to motu years ago.

 

they're worse than mackie as far as i am concerned; sell you a turd and market it to be the next big turd on a stick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Sour grapes guys. Pro Tools dominates the studio world and there's no sign of that changing. Studio engineers are pretty picky about the tools they use and that says a lot about the power and usability of ProTools compared to other platforms. No doubt there are plenty of other powerful native platforms, but none of them hit the sweet spot of usability and function the way ProTools does, and none of them integrate with a DSP system the way PT HD does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I like Pro Tools.
:idk::)

Well, it seems like there will be even more reasons to, so, you know, it's all good!

 

I'm just saying that I suspect this is really bigger news to PT LE users (and indirectly to HD users, I guess), as well as however many folks have previously felt 'shut out' by the hardware requirements...

 

... but, of course, in recent years, those hardware requirements were pretty negligible, anyhow. You could pick up a bundle for what seems to me a pretty competitive price, so I don't think all that many folks really still felt shut out or had their nose pressed hard against the window.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

It most likely will if you have Windows 7 and an ASIO driver for your SoundBlaster. I wonder if it would recognize the old clunker with ASIO4ALL. The web site is really confusing. It suggests (according to a colleague who attended their press conference) that it would run on any hardware (within reason) though under Pro Tools 9 requirements on the Avid web site, only hardware from Avid companies is listed. I guess it's too early to tell very much.


I guess I'm not going to jump on to it right away since I don't have anything running Win7 and it doesn't appear to be compatible with WinXP.

 

 

The most official pont of view:

 

As long as your audio interface has ASIO drivers (Windows 7 in PC) or CoreAudio (Snow Leopard, Mac) and your computer meets the requirements, you can run Pro Tools 9 on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It may be funny, but seriously: if you absolutely can't do your song using 96 stereo tracks, maybe you should consider another line of work.
:lol:

 

There are still people who will kvetch about it, guaranteed.

 

I'm not at all unsympathetic to the notion that a lot of people don't get the simple wisdom of the phrase: Just because you can -- doesn't mean you should.

 

And to the suspicion that that failure-to-get has, indeed, helped foster an era where even a simple little 3 chord wonder typically gets the 64 layers of guitar treatment (Glenn Branca, eat yo' heart out), not to mention squashing, gridifying, retuning, robo-mangling treatments.

 

But, me, I like being given the option to reject excess -- rather than having it forced on me capriciously by a company bent on arbitrarily limiting the power of its more reasonably priced offerings in order to push consumers toward 'having to' spend more money.

 

That's why I just avoided Avid/Digi/PT in the first place. I didn't like their attitude.

 

:)

 

 

PS... And I've yet to regret the decision for even a few moments.

 

PPS... I do, however, like Gus's attitude! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I've made good music with just about every DAW platform as well as open-reel and cassette multitrack analog. Pro Tools is another tape recorder for me. I never really felt severely creatively limited by any format, once I got past my Portastudio days (and I still made those work). :)

 

Anyway, I think for certain people, this kinder, gentler Pro Tools will be a really good thing. Lots of places that didn't want to invest in the hardware -- or are already tied into a set of I/O that they like -- can now run Pro Tools and get the benefits that we can all acknowledge, like the direct compatibility with other people/rooms running PT.

 

So, I'm going with the "glass is half full" side here. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Well, they're just thinking about their future, I'm sure. I strongly suspect they keep their finger on the pulse of the metrics.

 

I mean, what else does parent company AVID have to do with their time?

 

:D

 

 

It seems to me they had to finally bring their feature set up to arguable parity with other DAWs. The LE franchise was clearly running out as it has existed. And while HD has some inarguable merits, it's really priced itself out of all but the high end project and commercial studio markets.

 

By unhobbling the basic hosted DAW's feature set they finally allow it to compete with the other DAWs which, my guess is, have been kicking LE's backside in aggregate sales.

 

Logic alone was never the PT-killer that some people tried to wish it to be, but when you consider Logic and Cubase and Sonar and Reaper together, you see a group of competitors that even an able giant like Digi had clear trouble battling -- at least not with those self-applied hobbles on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have to say I'm pretty optimistic about the news - I'm finally freed from having to pick from Digi and M-Audio's subpar hardware options. I mix through a console and I need hardware (and software) that can support at least 24 outputs.

 

The track count limitation has been upped beyond anything I'd ever conceivably need, and the most important HD-only features (IMO) have trickled down to LE. I will finally be able to take stuff home from the HD3 Accel rigs and work on it in my own studio.

 

And guys, I must say... having used every other competing DAW at some point, I've grown fond of nifty little features they all have, but at the end of the day they can't touch Pro Tools workflow. It's in a class by itself. The only reason I ever avoided PT in my home studio was because I couldn't afford an HD system and didn't want to deal with the ridiculous LE restrictions. This changes all that. (Although I have to wonder if we'll see a serious price drop on older PCI HD Core and Accel cards over the next year.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I like the fact that if I wish to upgrade, I don't have to upgrade the hardware, something I had found irritating with Digi-, er, Avid Pro Tools. It sounds like I can use the old Digi002 interface, which works well for me, go through the Apogee, and I don't have to deal with having to replace the Digi002 hardware.

 

The ADC? I've been screaming for that for years. But sure, nice to have.

 

So instead of Digi004, will we now have Avid005? No, actually, will we have any hardware at all?

 

Anyway, this seems a positive change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if Mackie's latest Onyx i-line of mixers coming out with their own driver to record to Pro Tools had anything to do with opening up this market.

 

Not really. I mean, that was not the first attempt to break the "Digi code" :D ... and it wasn't really a successful experiment for Mackie in the end, even while there wasn't a legal prosecution because of it.

 

It is a huge revolution in Avid's corporate thinking. I am personally so surprised because of this, but hey, more power to the people is always a good thing. At least, that's what I've been pursuing as an M-Audio employee for years. :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Not really. I mean, that was not the first attempt to break the "Digi code"
:D
... and it wasn't really a successful experiment for Mackie in the end...
:cool:

 

Gus: Can you explain what you mean by "wasn't really a successful experiment"?" I haven't read anything anywhere about an inability of the I-series mixers to record to Pro Tools. I ask not becasue I use Pro Tools, but because I almost bought an i-mixer last week but lost an e-bay bid. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh well, I really know nothing about the technical details.

 

The only I know is that after some negotiations, they were offering compatibility with PT M-Powered only in a few models, and they were asking for an extra fee (I guess it is free now, of course) to get the driver for Pro Tools and a little extra effort on registration, etc. Check details here.

 

... so, all that together only meant the sales for that line of mixers did not have the impact they expected... and Avid re-coded everything in recent updates to break their broken code... :D Not sure where is it all now, if it works properly, etc.

 

But PT 9 means no more "war". As I mentioned earlier:

 

 

As long as your audio interface has
ASIO
drivers (
Windows 7 in PC)
or
CoreAudio
(
Snow Leopard, Mac
) and your computer
meets the requirements
, you can run Pro Tools 9 on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...