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YES! Pro Tools 8


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http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=399&itemid=35068&ref=DN1008US&elq=E1A0299DF1834C58A7F5C0FE11CC8F52

 

Just reading it over now, but one of my long-requested features seems to have been added - editable notation!

 

Looks like LE gets more tracks... 48 mono or stereo standard, up to 64 with either of the Toolkits, or 128 with both installed - AND 7.1 surround mixing.

 

I wasn't expecting much to be announced at AES, but this looks pretty cool - now I REALLY wish I was going to AES this year so I could see a demo of it in action... :(

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I'm excited about this. I'm using 7.3 as there hasn't been a compelling reason to upgrade, but as long as my MPT stays compatible I think I'll be buying the upgrade to 8 (probably after the first CS release comes out to fix any early bugs). I have a few sessions where I'm pushing the 48-track MPT limit, so a boost to 64 would be nice.

 

It will be interesting to see what I can do with editable notation. I hear people talk about it, but I don't usually do much MIDI work so I've never really bothered to see what the fuss is about. Usually if I need a horn part or something, I find a horn player. :)

 

On the thread on the DUC they're talking about some new VIs being included as well? Or perhaps just including more of the VIs that are already around, but that currently cost extra?

 

I don't need surround mixing, but I'm happy to see any improvements in ProTools that help keep it competetive.

 

edit: The new comping windows looks amazing.

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I believe Cakewalk Pro for Windows 3.1 had editable staff notation back around 1995 or so. My final project for an advanced software engineering class in college, also back in 1995, was a graphical staff notation editor that could read and write standard midi files.

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I wish they would throw in Structure, Hybrid, Expand, and Strike for free so the thing would be competitive with Logic 8.

 

I'll be upgrading anyway.

 

Does 7.3 have elastic time? That was reason enough to upgrade right there if that's just a 7.4 thing. I can't remember what release that was in.

 

-W

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I believe Cakewalk Pro for Windows 3.1 had editable staff notation back around 1995 or so. My final project for an advanced software engineering class in college, also back in 1995, was a graphical staff notation editor that could read and write standard midi files.

 

 

Perhaps. But Cakewalk was always historically and painfully slow to develop audio...period. Pro Tools was and has always been years ahead in audio recording and editing.

 

That said I've never held Cakewalk to task. Just doesn't seem practical to jump in Cakewalk threads and point out how much I think it sucks. It is what it is.

 

I'm not sure what your point is here but I believe when PT 8 is available I'm gonna jump on it. Meanwhile you can have Cakewalk Pro for Windows 3.1

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7.3 doesn't have elastic time as that's what I use and decided not to upgrade to 7.4 just for that. I just bought the MPT over the Labor Day weekend and hope it will carry over to 8.0. Hopefully it comes with a better compressor, Smack is very disappointing.

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7.3 doesn't have elastic time as that's what I use and decided not to upgrade to 7.4 just for that. I just bought the MPT over the Labor Day weekend and hope it will carry over to 8.0. Hopefully it comes with a better compressor, Smack is very disappointing.

 

 

You don't like Smack? I usually get good results with it on drums.

 

Yeah, elastic time wasn't enough to make me want to go to 7.4. But 8 is looking pretty compelling.

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I wish they would throw in Structure, Hybrid, Expand, and Strike for free so the thing would be competitive with Logic 8.

 

 

You left off Velvet - and IMO, Velvet has the most realistic EP's I've ever heard short of the real hardware units - it's an amazing VI. But alas, I believe none of those are going to be bundled - I'm not certain, so don't rely on this as gospel, but I think all the bundled plug-ins VI's they're adding are new plugs, not just bundling pre-existing plugs. We'll have to wait a bit to see how they sound, how useful they are, etc. "Xpand!2" is listed as one of the plugs on Digi's site - I really like Xpand, but I mentioned in a review that I wished they'd add "add on" packs to allow you to, well, expand it for more sounds. Hopefully Xpand!2 does exactly that.

 

 

Does 7.3 have elastic time? That was reason enough to upgrade right there if that's just a 7.4 thing. I can't remember what release that was in.

 

 

No, that was released in 7.4. When I first got 7.4, E.A. didin't work very well for me... I got tons of DAE 9400 errors, especially when using it on grouped tracks like drums or anything more than a track or two in a single session. Once I upped my RAM from 2GB to 4GB, it suddenly became usable on many tracks at once, and with drums, etc.

 

Elastic audio is a REALLY useful feature if you do any editing. No more cut / nudge / audition & listen / nudge again / audition again / crossfade... it's a lot faster and fewer steps with EA. Definitely worth the upgrade IMO, but if you haven't gotten 7.4 yet, you might want to just wait for 8, although I would imagine that if you purchased the 7.4 upgrade now, they'd bump you up to 8 once it's released (November? December? They said "late in 2008") - that's been typical of Digidesign's policies with previous upgrades...

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I like Smack! a lot too... the main drawback when using it on an LE system is that one sample of latency - if you're going to use it as a drum buss compressor, you really HAVE to manually adjust for delay compensation or you get phase issues.

 

On HD, it rocks because you don't have to worry about that. Speaking of ADC, the rumors I'm hearing say LE still will lack that. That's unconfirmed, but bound to disappoint a lot of LE users if it's true.

 

In other news, I did get confirmation that XP sp3 will be supported along with Vista. YAY!

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I like Smack! a lot too... the main drawback when using it on an LE system is that one sample of latency - if you're going to use it as a drum buss compressor, you really HAVE to manually adjust for delay compensation or you get phase issues.


On HD, it rocks because you don't have to worry about that. Speaking of ADC, the rumors I'm hearing say LE still will lack that. That's unconfirmed, but bound to disappoint a lot of LE users if it's true.


In other news, I did get confirmation that XP sp3 will be supported along with Vista. YAY!

 

 

Cool. That is disappointing about the ADC on LE. I assume that Leopard will be supported at first release this time, since Vista is? (I'm afraid to ask about snow leopard).

 

-W

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Phil, I seen you mention PT's lack of notation over the years and I've always wondered how you would use it. For live horns and strings? This type of thing? To mock up a horn arrangement then transfer to paper for hired guns?

 

Many of the sessions I do don't require charts for the players. Sure, some of them do, but it's more the exception rather than the rule. So yes, being able to play in a melodic or counterpoint line on a keyboard and then print it out for the trumpet or cello player will be useful (saves time over pencil and paper ;) ), but there's more to it than that for me...

 

My first really "pro" sequencer was C-Lab Notator. I had version 1.12 way back in 1988 when it was first released, and kept up with all the upgrades all the way through Logic - until Apple purchased Emagic and dumped the PC support. The notation, while not always perfect, was certainly good enough in one respect IMO - the ability to quickly edit MIDI parts in a "language" in which I was already conversant - standard notation.

 

One thing I HATE about the current MIDI editing in PT (V7 and before) is the fact that I have to "look in two different places" to see all the information regarding a MIDI performance. The bars on the grid give me the note length information, but in order to see what notes the individual bars related to (the note pitch for that particular "bar"), I had to look to the left side of the screen to see the keyboard. With notation, I have pitch and length info all in one "place" where I can easily see it at a glance. Oops, that 1/4 note G# should have been a G - no problem; grab the G# and pull it down a half step - done. With the piano roll editor, it would be a case of "hmmm, one of those notes is wrong, but WHICH one of these bars is playing that pesky G#? Look left, find the G# "lane", follow it back across the screen (don't lose track of which lane you're following - they all look pretty much the same), find the right "block", pull it down to G... :facepalm:

 

I'm a musician, and standard notation is one of the "languages" I read - for me, it just makes sense for the program to offer that as a way to interface with and edit things. Based on my time with Notator and Logic, as well as Cubase, Sonar, etc. - it's a LOT faster and easier for me to do that than it is to use the only editor that has been available up to now in Pro Tools - the piano roll. A lot of people - especially people who don't know how to read standard notation - like the piano roll editor metaphor, and I believe it will still be available (I think you can even use / display both simultaneously in PT 8), but for me personally, notation editing is generally faster and less frustrating to use. YMMV. :)

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I like Smack! a lot too... the main drawback when using it on an LE system is that one sample of latency - if you're going to use it as a drum buss compressor, you really HAVE to manually adjust for delay compensation or you get phase issues.


On HD, it rocks because you don't have to worry about that. Speaking of ADC, the rumors I'm hearing say LE still will lack that. That's unconfirmed, but bound to disappoint a lot of LE users if it's true.


In other news, I did get confirmation that XP sp2 will be supported along with Vista. YAY!

 

 

Have you seen this plugin? http://www.mellowmuse.com/ATA.html I haven't used it myself because I don't generally have much of a problem with latency, but it's getting rave reviews over on the DUC. An RTAS version is supposed to be coming soon, too, as a free upgrade to existing users from what I've read.

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Have you seen this plugin?
http://www.mellowmuse.com/ATA.html
I haven't used it myself because I don't generally have much of a problem with latency, but it's getting rave reviews over on the DUC. An RTAS version is supposed to be coming soon, too, as a free upgrade to existing users from what I've read.

 

 

I'm using it and it works great.

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7.4.2 is currently supported on OSX 10.5
:thu:

 

Yup - that's true. :)

 

The bigger question for some Mac users is "will PT 8 REQUIRE Mac OS 10.5?"

 

I still don't have the definitive answer for that, but it may indeed be a requirement, not an either / or situation...

 

At least Win XP will still be supported (along with Vista) on PC's, so that's great news for me. I'd hate to have to decide between going to an OS version I don't like and don't trust vs skipping out on all the new PT 8 HD features...

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Have you seen this plugin? http://www.mellowmuse.com/ATA.html I haven't used it myself because I don't generally have much of a problem with latency, but it's getting rave reviews over on the DUC. An RTAS version is supposed to be coming soon, too, as a free upgrade to existing users from what I've read.

 

I've seen it, but have not tried or used it. I'm running HD 2 Accel in the studio, so I already have ADC, so I really don't need it... although if I get my Digi 002 back in service (on my wife's setup, or maybe as a portable rig for doing occasional live gig recordings), I might have to give it a try. It kind of reminds me of the old "windowplacer" utility that we used to use to remember the screen layouts (before Digi added that themselves), or the FXpansion VST / RTAS wrapper... third party companies step in to fill the hole that Digi left in the LE software. Even Digidesign did something similar IMHO with the "Toolkit" options for the LE range, with their increased track counts...

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Speaking of the toolkits, I'm still waiting for details on compatibility between PT8 and the MPT, especially since it appears they're marketing an MPT2 now. I'm hoping there's a free or cheap (probably the latter) upgrade path to get from MPT to MPT2, or that using the MPT with PT8 will still allow for the new higher track count. If there's a reasonably-priced upgrade to go from MPT to MPT2 with the new included plugins, though, I'll probably do that.

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As far as the MP3 converter, I would imagine that, based on previous Digidesign comments on the issue pertaining to the fact that they have to pay for the licensing, the answer will be that you'll probably have to pay for the MP3 option, but I do not know that for certain.

 

As far as what the cutoff date is for people who recently purchased / upgraded to 7.4, I would imagine that the most recent purchasers / upgrade purchasers would get a free bump up to V8, but I don't know what the cutoff date for that is / will be.

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Speaking of the toolkits, I'm still waiting for details on compatibility between PT8 and the MPT, especially since it appears they're marketing an MPT2 now. I'm hoping there's a free or cheap (probably the latter) upgrade path to get from MPT to MPT2, or that using the MPT with PT8 will still allow for the new higher track count. If there's a reasonably-priced upgrade to go from MPT to MPT2 with the new included plugins, though, I'll probably do that.

 

 

I'd be shocked if there wasn't an upgrade path for current MPT owners.

 

MPT 2 seems to have increased the track counts even further... and "standard" LE seems to now have the same track counts you had with the old MPT.

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98 pounds for the upgrade in nov.

 

The Digidesign Pro Tools 8 LE Upgrade is the most advanced audio creation and production software.

The Digidesign Pro Tools 8 LE Upgrade features a superb new interface, dozens of new plug-ins and virtual instruments, exciting new scoring and MIDI features, expanded editing and mixing capabilities, enhanced performance and more.

Pro Tools 8 LE comes packed with a huge collection of over 70 virtual instruments, effects and sound-processing plug-ins. Plus a high-quality sound library of nearly 8 GB of loops to get customers started with creating music.

With Pro Tools 8 LE, you get the most comprehensive music and sound creation features and functionality. Proven to be the dedicated platform for world-class audio production, all in a single application.

The Digidesign Pro Tools 8 LE Upgrade main features include:

 

 

Redesigned interface with new enhancements and customizability

 

Six groundbreaking virtual instruments for music creation (Mini Grand piano, Boom drum machine, DB-33 tone wheel organ, Vacuum synthesizer, Xpand!2
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I'd be shocked if there wasn't an upgrade path for current MPT owners.


MPT 2 seems to have increased the track counts even further... and "standard" LE seems to now have the same track counts you had with the old MPT.

 

Yeah, what I've read says that 8 has 48 tracks standard, while the MPT or DV toolkit expands that to 64. There's also a "combined" toolkit that has all the MPT and DV programs, that I think expands the track count to 128. :) I still wish they'd do away with the track limit altogether, and let me use as many tracks as my computer will handle, but honestly most of my stuff could be done on a 24-track and while I do go over 32 tracks at times, it isn't all that common. I've only run up against the 48-track limit once, and in the end we wound up deleting some of those tracks - it was a session where we weren't really sure where we wanted the song to go, so we just recorded it two different ways right next to each other and then mixed accordingly.

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plus 20 new effects

 

I wish they had a list of the new effects plug-ins posted somewhere... :(

 

One other (IMO, very important) question - will PT 8 work with all of our existing plug-ins, or will we have to "update" them?

 

I sure hope we don't have to update all our plug-ins. I hate having to do that to all of them at once... :(

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