Pro Tools has become a standard in so
many studios that there’s always anticipation
surrounding any upgrades. Digidesign
bills Pro Tools 8 as one of the most significant
upgrades yet, and after working with it
on multiple projects (including a Bach
harpsichord CD by Kathleen McIntosh), I’d
have to agree. [Click image above for extra-large version corresponding to the legend below. Looking for the section on PT8's new soft synths? Click here. - Ed.]
HANDS-ON
1.MIDI editing is greatly improved, as evidenced by
the controller lanes.
2.Pro Tools doesn’t support MIDI plug-ins per se,
but the MIDI Realtime Properties options work in
a similar way.
3.Yes, you’re seeing 10 inserts. What you’re not
seeing are the 16 extra tracks the LE version now
includes: 48 instead of the 36 in PT7.
4.The Universe view simplifies navigation with a
compact, quick-scrollable overview of your project.
5.Twenty new effects include this “Talkbox,” which
imparts vowel-like sounds to an audio signal.
6.Comping audio tracks is easier than it’s ever been
in Pro Tools.
7.The interface has a darker, more pro look that’ll
be particularly welcome in video editing suites.
PROS
Greatly improved MIDI capabilities.
Excellent Score Editor. Many significant
workflow improvements. New virtual
instruments rock. More tracks (48) and
inserts (10) than previous versions of
LE or M-Powered. Improved look and
feel. Elastic Audio pitch transposition.
CONS
Retains several “legacy” limitations: No
automatic path delay compensation for
plug-ins, no track freeze, no support
for VST devices, no faster-than-realtime
bouncing.
INFO
Upgrade for LE or M-Powered:
$149.95; HD upgrade: $249.95;
M-Powered new install: $249.95,
digidesign.com
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? The latest version of Pro
Tools, the industry-standard DAW in
commercial studios.
Is the upgrade worth the money?
The new virtual instruments alone are
worth the price, but add the score
notation, greatly improved MIDI, 20
new effects, better workflow, and
Elastic Pitch, and it’s a no-brainer.
Does PT take advantage of 64-bit
operating systems? At press time,
support for Mac Snow Leopard and
Windows 7 were “coming soon,” but
we don’t yet know whether it’ll run
64-bit natively, or as a 32-bit app, as it
now does under 64-bit Vista.
Can the Score Editor replace my
notation program? For pro-level
work such as printing a big orchestral
project, you’ll still need Sibelius or an
equivalent program. But the Score
Editor is based on the Sibelius engine,
so not only is it really good, but you
can export files to Sibelius.
Does Elastic Pitch replace
programs like AutoTune or Melodyne?
Elastic Pitch affects regions,
not individual notes. For really detailed
pitch editing, you’ll want more. But if
you only need to transpose an instrument,
no problem.
How are the new virtual
instruments? They sound great and
they’re super fun to use — click here to get right to them.
WHAT’S NEW
The most obvious changes are the five new
virtual instruments (see page 54), 20 new
effects, greatly improved MIDI editing, and
the Score Editor. There’s also a new look
and new session templates, improved
comping, a decent pitch-transposition algorithm,
and the LE/M-Powered track count
has been upped to 48 mono or stereo
tracks. Some previously optional effect
plug-ins are now included: Eleven Free,
Maxim, D-Fi, and Bomb Factory’s
SansAmp. There are too many other small
tweaks to go into here, but we’ll hit the
high points.
There have also been enhancements to
the optional Music Production Toolkit.
While space doesn’t permit us to review it
in these pages, the basic changes are a
new maximum of 64 tracks, and the inclusion
of Eleven LE, Hybrid, Smack! LE,
Structure LE, and TL Space Native.
We should also mention what you
don’t get. PTLE and M-Powered still
don’t do automatic path delay compensation
for plug-ins — Pro Tools HD systems
do. Some users mistakenly think
that non-HD Pro Tools doesn’t have any
delay compensation — it does, but it’s a
manual process that uses the Time
Adjuster plug-in. Or, you can buy the
Mellowmuse ATA RTAS plug-in, which
pings your system and compensates for
delays. It’s a hassle if you change multiple
plug-ins on a large project, but for
many, this won’t be a dealbreaker.
Crossfading is not as seamless as most
other programs; you can’t just drag one
region over another and automatically generate
a crossfade. And while some complain
about the lack of track freeze, you can
always bounce a track, which is basically a
non-automatic version of freezing. However,
bouncing can only be done in real
time. This isn’t a big deal for a three-minute
pop song, but gets time-consuming on a
20-minute concerto.
Buses are up to 32 from 16, though
I’ve never come close to using 16, let
alone 32. Finally, although some users
complain that PT hasn’t made the move to
64-bit operation, I still think that aside from
Cakewalk Sonar (which went 64-bit when
Windows x64 hit), true 64-bit computing is
currently a niche market. With Apple Snow
Leopard and Windows 7 making it more
mainstream, though, I expect PT will move
to 64 bits sooner rather than later.
The benefits of upgrading to PT8 are so
substantial, though, that you’ll concentrate
most on the plethora of positives.
MIDI: NO APOLOGIES
NEEDED
Pro Tools used to treat MIDI as a secondclass
citizen, as befit a basically audio-only
program. PT8’s MIDI capabilities are now
on par with other DAWs, and some
features are ahead of the pack. MIDI editing
is treated more like audio editing, which
improves workflow. Not only can you create
MIDI loops easily, but a “mirrored”
editing option lets changes in a MIDI
region affect copies of that region.
Perhaps the most convenient addition
is lanes under the notes window for controller
data. Also, automation lanes have
been added to audio tracks. I also think
the ability to group MIDI tracks is huge, as
it is with audio tracks. MIDI’s
Superimposed Notes view is stellar too,
because you can see (for example) the
bass track’s notes while working with the
drums to line up timings, and edit in any
track you can see in the Notes pane. Even
better, you can color-code MIDI notes
based on track, velocity, or track type,
minimizing confusion between
superimposed notes.
My favorite feature is the MIDI Realtime
Properties option. This essentially takes the
place of the MIDI plug-ins found in other
programs; you can edit quantization, duration,
delay, velocity, and transposition in
real time to hear how it sounds without
modifying any data, then apply when
desired. So, you can do a quick quantize
when recording just to make sure everything’s
on the beat for overdubbing, then
turn off the realtime stuff and manually
tweak to make any quantization less obvious.
Of course, you can still use the more
conventional Event Operations window,
which has all the realtime editing options
as well as others.
There are numerous small changes,
such as expanded right-click options,
MIDI note scrubbing, and the option to
select all MIDI events (i.e., controller
data), not just notes. If you use MIDI a lot,
these improvements are a big deal — and
the timing is right, because PT8’s new
soft instruments give people who haven’t
been that much into MIDI an incentive to
get deep into it.
SCORE EDITOR
A new Score Editor (click image above for larger version) takes advantage of the Sibelius-based
notation engine. No, you’re not
getting Sibelius embedded in PT8, but
you’re getting a lot closer. Besides, it’s
easy to export Score Editor data into
Sibelius if you need seriously pro notation
capabilities.
Though I don’t use notation on a daily
basis, I polled some colleagues who do,
and they all had nothing but good to say
about the Score Editor. Their verdict:
While you wouldn’t use PT8 as a professional
notation/engraving program, it
takes what’s important about editing
sheet music and gives it to you — and then
some. As with MIDI, it has a similar workflow
to other elements in PT8, including
the mirrored editing option and a customizable
toolbar. If you work with guitars, you
can add tablature symbols, though this is
for display only and doesn’t affect the
MIDI data.
ELASTIC PITCH
This isn’t about pitch correction or fixing
individual notes, but transposing a region
by up to 24 semitones sharp or flat; there’s
also a cents field for fine-tuning. I was
pleasantly surprised by the sound quality,
although as there’s no formant correction, it
doesn’t sound very natural on the human
voice. However, there’s a big exception to
that rule: Tweak a doubled vocal’s pitch by
a dozen cents or so up or down, and the
doubling effect will be much better than
just adding delay.
With instruments that don’t have as
well-known a sonic context, Elastic Pitch
is clean enough that extreme pitch transposition
is more like an effect. I pitched a
drum track up an octave and it sounded
like a cheesy analog drum machine —
kinda cool, if you like cheese. But the
main point is that it sounded natural and
useable; there wasn’t extreme “fluttering
and flamming.”
LOOPS, COMPING,
AND EFFECTS
PT8 comes with 8GB of loops and
content, finally joining the majority of
DAWs that bundle soundware. Part of
this is to emphasize that because of the
Elastic Audio feature introduced in PT
7.4, loop-based musicians are now welcome
in the Pro Tools world. Musical
styles include Dance, DJ, Hip-Hop, R&B,
Funk, Soul, Pop, Rock, World, Rock
Hard, and Jazz, and while the loops
aren’t credited, they’re very good.
There’s also a demo project for each
style, which you can think of as a stealth
tutorial on how to use the content with
Pro Tools.
Twenty new “Creative Collection”
effects fill gaps that you used to have to
look for third-party plug-ins to fill.
They’re also kind to your CPU. Highlights
include KillEQ for DJ-type filtering,
VintageFilter with its envelope- or
LFO-controlled response, two delays
(multitap, and one that “ducks” when
signal is present to avoid muddiness),
stompbox-style modulations (chorus,
phaser, etc.), and Filter-Gate-
Sequencer — AdrenaLinn fans, listen
up! There’s no vocoder, but hey, they
had to leave something for PT9, right?
The process of comping together
the ideal track from multiple takes is
much improved: Look at takes in Playlist
view, select the good bits, and copy
them easily to the main playlist. I still
think Logic Pro (reviewed Oct. ’09) sets
the gold standard for comping, but
PT8’s is a big improvement. However,
the comping workflow doesn’t apply to
MIDI tracks, only audio. Fortunately, you
get other tools for editing multiple MIDI
tracks simultaneously, such as Superimposed
Notes view. As to hardware integration,
you can now map plug-in knobs
to hardware MIDI controllers . . . better
late than never.
CONCLUSIONS
If you use Pro Tools, you want this upgrade.
Period. It fills in holes that were making PT
look a bit dated compared to the competition,
improves workflow in ways large and
small, and adds soft synths that aren’t just
“lite” versions of the ones you really want,
but fine instruments in their own right.
Some companies do upgrades in
hopes you’ll switch from a different
program. Others do upgrades to keep
you from switching, either by including
lots of little tweaks or a few biggies.
PT8 includes both, and our sense is
that it’ll keep the Pro Tools faithful,
faithful. MIDI users needn’t feel constrained,
and the score editing will be a
huge plus for anyone who works and
thinks in sheet music.
The killer app could very well be the
attention to workflow: MIDI, audio, and
notation are treated more interchangeably,
and throughout, functions are easier to
access. Sure, I’d appreciate easier crossfading,
and marker handling could be
enhanced. However, I’ve always felt few
programs could handle the most essential
thing about producing music — capturing
tracks — as easily as Pro Tools, and now
the rest of the program has been brought
up to the same ease-of-use standards.
If you’re already into Pro Tools, PT8
will make your day. If you’re just getting
into it, you sure picked the right version
for your maiden voyage.
ABOUT THAT MACKIE MIXER . . .
Since the dawn of Pro Tools, aside from the very limited Pro Tools Free software,
you couldn’t run PT without Digidesign hardware. Originally, this meant
expensive interfaces and cards, but over the years, products such as the
Digi-001, 002, and 003, Mbox series, and Pro Tools M-Powered (which
works with M-Audio interfaces) have made PT accessible to almost any
musician on any budget.
Now, Mackie has introduced their Onyx-i series — cross-platform
FireWire mixers compatible with a variety of hosts, but more importantly,
that can run Pro Tools M-Powered.
Although I assume Digidesign isn’t too thrilled with this, ultimately it just
might sell more Pro Tools M-Powered software. What’s more, it really
does work. For more info, see the review in the Nov. ’09 issue of EQ
magazine. - Craig Anderton