Pro Tools

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:ProToools.pngPro Tools is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) by Digidesign for music production and digital audio editing. It is widely used to create audio for film, television, and music and serves as the de facto standard in those industries.

As one of the first programs to provide CD-quality (16-bit and 44.1 kHz) multitrack editing on a personal computer, use of Pro Tools quickly grew in the sound recording field. It originally became popular because of its simple, streamlined interface for non-linear, non-destructive audio editing. This appealed to analog producers making the switch to computer-based production.

1 Pro Tools systems
2 Pro Tools timeline
3 Mbox
4 External links

[edit]

Pro Tools systems

Image:Hd3.jpg Digidesign offers systems depending on the needs and budget of potential customers:

The professional-level Pro Tools|HD system uses expensive PCI cards to perform audio processing on DSP (digital signal processing) chips to reduce computing burden on the CPU. Similarly, it utilizes TDM (a proprietary plugin system, based on time-division multiplexing, thus the name) to communicate with external I/O devices and other DSP cards to reduce burden on the computer's PCI bus.

Pro Tools HD uses three types of PCI cards: Core, Process and Accel. All three contain 9 DSP chips. Each Pro Tools system requires a Core card. Additional Process or Accel cards may be added to a system to increase capability. Accel cards are the latest generation and offer faster DSP chips and additional RAM compared to Process cards.

Consumer-level systems (such as the Digi 001, Digi 002, Digi 002/R, and MBox or MBox2) perform all processing on the host CPU. Consumer systems offer limited track counts (32 in LE vs. up to 192 in HD), fewer internal routing options, and a feature-reduced version of the Pro Tools application (called Pro Tools LE, or Limited Edition).

A fairly new addition to the range is the ICON: Integrated Console Environment, combining a tactile control surface and a Pro Tools|HD Accel system in one unit. Designed as a replacement for existing studio consoles, it attempts to give the user the feel and control of an analog system, but with a powerful Pro Tools core.

In April 2005, Digidesign released Pro Tools M-Powered which brought almost all Pro Tools LE functionality to a subset of M-Audio USB, Firewire and PCI interfaces.

Pro Tools Free was released as a free demo version and is the only version of Pro Tools that does not require some form of Digidesign or M-Audio hardware to run. It is limited to 8 audio tracks and 48 MIDI tracks. It will only run on Windows 98/ME and Mac OS 9.

[edit]

Pro Tools timeline

1987 - Sound Tools released as "the first tapeless recording studio"
1991 - Renamed Pro Tools I and adds support for NuBus DSP
1994 - Pro Tools III released adding support for third party DSP plug-ins
1995 - Avid Technology purchases Digidesign
1997 - Pro Tools|24 adds support for 24-bit audio
1998 - Pro Tools|MIX adds expanded DSP capabilities for mixing audio
1999 - Digi 001 and Pro Tools LE ship
2002 - Professional Pro Tools|HD system adds support for 96kHz and 192kHz HD audio
2002 - Consumer Digi 002 and Mbox systems released
2003 - Pro Tools|HD Accel system adds additional DSP capabilities
2004 - Digidesign acquires Bomb Factory, a leading provider of DSP mixing effects
2004 - Digidesign receives an Academy Award for development of Pro Tools
2005 - Digidesign extends Pro Tools into live sound with VENUE
2005 - Mbox 2 is released as an update to the original Mbox
2005 - Pro Tools 7 software is released
2006 - Mac OS X on Intel (LE and M-Powered) announced for May 2006.

[edit]

Mbox

Problems with the MBox 2 that have been mentioned so far:

- Mediocre D/A performance

- Problems drawing enough power to power mic pre amps

- Questionable performance with other applications, such as iTunes

- USB, but not hot pluggable

- It's large and cumbersome hardware dongle if you just want to edit

Another solution may be to purchase a compatible audio interface from M-Audio and use the M Powered version of Pro Tools instead. Downsides of USB audio devices in general is that noise may be created if USB ports are nudged while in playback or recording.

[edit]