Ever wonder what it’s like to record at the world’s most famous recording studio? Or how a Grammy-nominated producer can pull the perfect performance out of any artist, including Katy Perry and OneRepublic?

Follow up-and-coming UK band Strangefruit’s every step—from preparation to the final mix—as they record a song at Abbey Road with multi Grammy-nominated producer Greg Wells.

• See what it’s like to record in the same studio as The Beatles, with some of the same gear.
• Find out what role Greg plays in the production, and why producers are vital.
• See how Pro Tools home recordings can make it into the final studio mix.
• Get tips at every stage, from mic selection and tracking, to mixing and refining sounds.

Sign up now to start watching and be alerted when the next episode is available.

Tony Cariddi from Avid has asked me to post the following:

The winners of the Avid and Abbey Road song content winners have been announced. They are;

Judges Choice Winners

Click to read more ...

Avid have helpfully posted a list of Avid-supported and unsupported interfaces for those considering the move to Pro Tools 11.

It is worth noting that new drivers are needed to use existing devices when Pro Tools 11 is installed.

“Important Note: If you are upgrading to Pro Tools 11, please download and install the latest drivers for your hardware from the following page:”

The complete list is here

Avid have announced two new portable audio interfaces for composing and recording high-quality music — Avid Fast Track^® Solo and Fast Track Duo. Both interfaces feature a robust industrial design, include Pro Tools^® Express software for Mac and PC, and connect directly to the iPad^®, providing high-quality I/O for supported iOS apps. 

Designed for musicians, students, and aspiring professionals, Fast Track Solo and Duo offer easy entry into the Pro Tools family. Key features include:

Pro Tools Express software

• Provides many of the same tools and features used in commercial recording
  studios.
• Records up to 16 stereo audio tracks and offers full MIDI editing and notation tools.
• Includes high-quality virtual instruments and effects for creating the best sounding work.
• Facilitates time, tempo and pitch adjustments with Elastic Time and Elastic Pitch.
• Users get session compatibility with Pro Tools and Pro Tools HD systems. 

Click to read more ...

Introduction

Some would suggest that the Pro Tools Ideascale site is a good idea, helping users feedback their ideas to Avid to be considered for inclusion in future versions of Pro Tools. Whilst in principle it sounds like a great idea in practice it must be a bloody nightmare to deal with. Granted, some of the top suggestions are worthy ideas to consider for inclusion, yet others range from the plain barmy to those who simply don’t know how to use Pro Tools, rather than any insightful product development ideas. I write this knowing that Ideascale has been cited, on numerous occasions by Avid, as a driver behind product development. Right at the top of the list have been features that 99% of users have been screaming out for years for. Thankfully these do not include a two voice bass synth for left handed drummers or the option to colour code every MIDI note with a different Skittles flavour. 

Pro Tools 11

I’ll cut to the chase, for those wanting a lot of bells and whistle, more stuff to fiddle with, you ain’t got it. For those who wanted the next generation of rock solid 64 bit DAW, Avid delivered.  

In short Pro Tools has had a heart transplant not a boob job and as a professional I’m pleased, in fact I might go as far as saying I’m ecstatic.

So let’s see what boxes have been ticked;

Click to read more ...

Russ and Mike have produced a show as either a YouTube video with slides or audio podcast ‘Everything You Need to Know About Pro Tools 11’.

The 45 minute show is an in depth explanation of the new features found in Pro Tools 11, plus our thoughts on the latest version of our favourite DAW. 

• Watch the video here
• Listen to the podcast on iTunes here
• Download the MP3 here

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here

Avid have as expected announced the latest version of Pro Tools, Pro Tools 11; in their words;

Avid today announced Avid Pro Tools^® 11, a major upgrade of its industry-leading digital audio workstation that redefines music and audio production for today’s workflows. This latest version enables audio professionals to take on the most demanding productions with new, high-powered audio and video engines, 64-bit architecture, expanded metering, and direct HD video workflows. 

“Pro Tools 11 represents a quantum leap in creative power,” said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of Products and Services at Avid. “The newly designed architecture turbo-charges production with more plug-in processing, the ability to run more virtual instruments—and a host of new features—letting users create ambitiously, without holding anything back.”

Pro Tools 11 delivers the features, performance, and workflows professionals need to take on today’s increasingly complex sessions and tighter timelines. Key benefits and features include:

• Fully redesigned audio engine and 64-bit architecture
• Expanded metering
• Direct HD video workflows with built-in Avid Video Engine — Enables audio post professionals to play and edit a wide range of HD video formats including Avid DNxHD^®, directly in the Pro Tools timeline without transcoding, using the same core engine as in Media Composer^®.

“In the world of professional mixing, I constantly need more processing power, and the extra power in Pro Tools 11 is exactly what I need,” said Tim Palmer, mixer and engineer for U2, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, The Cure, and INXS. “I love the new metering and the new sends view is excellent.  It is really impressive. Pro Tools 11 is a big leap forward.”

Availability & Pricing

Pro Tools 11 and Pro Tools HD 11 will be available in the online Avid Store and at Avid resellers worldwide later in Q2 2013. For more information, click here. Pricing will be as follows:

• Pro Tools 11 software (full version): $699 USD
• Pro Tools 10 to 11 upgrade: $299 USD
• Pro Tools  9 to 11 upgrade: $399 USD
• Pro Tools Express to Pro Tools 11 cross grade: $499 USD
• Pro Tools HD 10 to 11 upgrade: $599 USD
• Pro Tools HD 9 to 11 upgrade: $999 USD

Avid have made some changes to the forum; some structural, like renaming sections and forums, and clearing out legacy products etc. They are also trying to add more human face to it. This is what Bruce Paine, Avid’s Community Administrator said….

Click to read more ...

Apple style invitations have started to go out to what is described as a ‘Special Avid Audio event – you’re invited’.

The full text of the invite reads;

Attention audio professionals—we’ve got some exciting news to share and want to personally invite you to attend our very special Avid® online event. Be among the first to see what’s unveiled—register now to see our special event and participate in the live Q&A.

Avid Pro Audio Online Event and Live Q&A Monday,
April 8, 2013 6:00 pm PT/9:00 pm ET

Avid Technology, the owners of Pro Tools, have announced the receipt of a delisting letter from NASDAQ.

We’re not financial specialists, so here is what Yahoo answers say it means for mere mortals…

“To get a stock listed on a major exchange like the NYSE or Nasdaq, a company must meet the minimum standards required by the exchange. On the Nasdaq, for example, a company must pay certain fees, meet minimum standards such as minimum stockholder’s equity, a minimum share price, and a minimum number of shareholders, etc.

The rules for delisting depend on the exchange. On the Nasdaq, the delisting process may be triggered if a company trades for 30 consecutive business days below the minimum bid price or market cap. A deficiency notice is then sent to the company.

Click to read more ...

In an article entitled “Will Accounting Woes at Avid Spark Big Changes or an Acquisition?”, Chris Potter on Screenlight analyses a future for Avid. Its a detailed article so I am not going to reproduce it here, but one highlight was this comment…

Avid could try to invest in significant new product development and new product categories. I think efforts to do this could be hampered by the following:

• It has limited cash to invest in new product development.

• The time horizon for incubating new products in-house is relatively long.

• It has limited financial resources to make acquisitions that would deliver material results quickly.

With this strategy, my first thought was that Avid could round out its suite of editing tools. However, professional video editing only represented 11% of revenue in 2011 (down from 13% in 2010). By contrast, storage and workflow solutions represented 21% of revenue in 2011, up from 16% in 2009. Given the growth in this segment, I suspect that Avid would be more likely to invest in shared storage, collaboration and asset management than anywhere else.

I was surprised Avid’s editing was such a small part of the revenue and that storage and workflow is growing but if you consider the cost of products like ISIS then perhaps it isn’t so surprising.

The guys at Black Lion Audio who have produced upgrades for a variety of interfaces to improve the sonic quality. After all a lot of audio hardware is built down to a price rather than up to a spec and Black Lion have realised that mods like swapping chips in units for better quality versions could make a difference to the sound. However their mods to of course void any manufacturer’s warranty. What caught our eye was the details of mods they are offering for the new Avid HD interface range and their description of the choices of components and design for the new Avid interfaces compared to the older ‘blue fronted’ interfaces. This is what they say on their site….

Click to read more ...

You might want to check out this tease for the upcoming Avid Abbey Road Webinar.

It features copious amounts of gear porn.

You can sign up here

We should have got some clues from the release of Pro Tools 10, but it is likely that Pro Tools 11 will show us even more clearly which customers Avid are targeting.

Our guess is that Pro Tools 11 will have more for the professional and less for the hobbyist. The last 2 years have shown Apple heading for the self-sufficient enthusiast creative (as one commentator put it ‘the 5D movie maker’) whereas Avid are heading for the collaborative, workflow-focussed professional.

So we guess it will have less musical cup holders and heated seats, and more audio airbags and MPG. In other words, it will have stuff that makes a real difference day-in-day-out for the audio coalface pro, and less for those who just want to see what happens when they use ‘this cool feature’. On the other hand, our guess is that Logic 10 will be, as with every other Apple product, brimming with creative candy.

One sounds dull and the other sounds exciting; at face value one could think that - however it shows that Apple are making a deliberate choice, and Avid are too.

The other clue will be in the price. We have no information to suggest it but our guess is that Apple will be selling at a price most can afford and Avid at a price that is aimed at the professional. What is interesting is Avid’s decision to let inMusic sell Pro Tools Express with their interfaces - this is a smart move. It lets a company who understand the creative consumer better than most put Pro Tools in the hands of their vast tribe of Alesis, Akai and M-Audio lovers. At the same time it introduces Pro Tools to the next generation of musical creatives who Avid were having a hard time connecting with.

Before anyone wants to take exception to the idea of Avid wanting to aim their products at professionals, they are not the first. Autodesk and Quantel are just two companies who have made their choice for this market.

At least it may help make a choice of DAW easier. Logic as the ultimate music creation app and Pro Tools the killer audio tool. For those who know their history of both products it’s funny how they seemed to be returning to their roots. Some of our team already own both Logic and Pro Tools, they both have their merits, in future it may be much clearer.

Of course, this is all conjecture - we could be wrong. But watch this space. It may be easier to make your DAW of choice in the future - the decision may be be made for you.

Mike takes a different look at the new Avid Pro Limiter and concentrates on the loudness metering features.

Russ takes a look and of course a listen to the new Avid Pro Limiter and finds out that it has a couple of hidden surprises.

Avid have released a long overdue update of the Eucontol software for the Artist Series of controllers….

What’s New in v2.7

• Provides support for Mac OS 10.8
• Provides support for Windows 8
• Support for Apple Mac Book Pro hardware with HiDPI Retina displays.

Note: Studio Monitor Express is not supported on Mountain Lion and is therefore not part of this release.

Bug Fixes

• Mackie Control and HUI now work with Mac OS 10.7 and 10.8
• “Bank to Selected” now behaves more predictably based on user request
• EUCON System Preferences are now stored correctly on Mac OS 10.7 and 10.8
• Improved stability with Pro Tools 10.3 (we recommend Pro Tools 10.3.3 for the best results)
• Fixed an issue with USB mouse connection when device was disconnected causing loss of mouse control. This also affects KVM support which now functions correctly.

Download here but you won’t see the new version unless you log in.

Overview
Features

• Clean and transparent sound—Sits well in the mix while maintaining tight control over output levels

• Unique Character knob—Add soft saturation to get more loudness and a higher amount of gain reduction, without the unwanted digital artifacts of standard brick wall limiters

• EBU R128 loudness metering—Normalize broadcast audio to EBU specifications using a variety of metering, including True Peak, Integrated Loudness, and Loudness Range

• Full surround support—Process up to 7.1 surround mixes in up to 192 kHz resolution, with full metering on all channels

• Front/rear linking mode—Work with surround sound material more easily and link channels for more consistent level management

• AAX DSP optimized—Pro Limiter handles monster-sized Pro Tools|HDX mixes with ease, delivering exceptional sound quality and DSP efficiency

Click to read more ...

Avid Technology have contacted Pro Tools Expert and asked us to print this statement.

“We recognize there are questions about the delay of our Q4 and full year 2012 earnings announcement. We want to assure our customers, employees, business partners, and investors that this delay is due to a technical accounting evaluation, as stated in our press release. We continue to invest in product innovation and execute on our growth strategy, and have significant cash and liquidity, and no debt. We are well-positioned to support our customers’ ongoing success.

In situations where companies have announced a delay in reporting earnings results, it is not unusual to see activity like this from certain law firms.  However, according to our policy, we don’t comment on this type of activity.”