Pro Tools 8 – Redefined feature set
By Paul Lavigne
| Posted in Music Technology
I’ve been asked to produce and record a full album for a rock band. They already have 3 tracks recorded in Pro Tools and want me to help them in the production adding more layers and more depth. Normally I use Pro Tools as a multi-track recorder and a mixing platform and create the arrangements in another Digital Audio Workstation (namely Apple Logic) but with the arrival of Pro Tools 8, Digidesign made this process redundant.
Indeed Digidesign have implemented some great features to make the whole process of composition/arrangement an easy job. The first of all is the implementation of an extensive MIDI editor with its own page and the possibility of controlling every MIDI note or CC Data on this one page. Previous users of Pro Tools will know how tedious it was to program midi sequences on the small screen, so this addition will make it much easier for a lot of people. On the top of this they have added a score editor based on Sibelius, so arrangements have become a lot easier to compose for people used to scoring their music.
To complement the MIDI enhancements, Digidesign have also graced their users with great little virtual instruments (Boom, DB-33, Vacuum Synthesizer, Xpand and Structure, Mini Grand Piano). They are all great instruments but I have to say that my favourite is Boom which brings back the whole concept of step sequencers within a DAW which perfectly suits the way I work.
For the mixing side of things, they have also increased the amount of inserts to 10 instead of the 5 which I always found to be quite limiting, and for the Pro Tools users they have upgraded to 48 stereo tracks with the possibility to add up to 128 with the different Toolkits available (Production toolkit and DV toolkit).
These are but a few of the features found in this new version of Pro Tools and I believe these additions along with the increased workflow will appeal to a lot of composers/producers and keep sound engineers very happy indeed (myself included).
About Paul Lavigne
I have been involved in live and studio sound engineering since 2004. During this time I absorbed myself in the recording, production, mixing and mastering of projects from Punk to Hip Hop, from Metal to classical and electronic music. I even ran a record company of experimental music for a few years.
The reason I do all this? It’s because I love sound and the tools to create these sounds whether it is a plug in or a piece of outboard or a microphone, whatever the tools to get the sound I’m after. I love to share this passion for sound and hopefully you will too reading these blogs.
Tags: Boom, DAW, digidesign, DV Toolkit, Logic 8, Pro Tools 8, Production Toolkit, Sequencer