The BBC has announced that it has scrapped an IT project to convert all its tape library to archive, after burning £100m of licence payers money. 

The Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was intended to enable staff to share video and audio material and was seen as an important part of a move of resources to Salford.

It could be argued that the whole project was utter madness, with several companies such as Avid, Quantel and Apple already offering tapeless workflows, so even the idea of creating a proprietary system was perhaps not wise.

John Linwood, the BBC’s chief technology officer, has been suspended. We also understand that the entire team is to be disbanded.

“Talar du svenska?”

If you understand that then we have some great news. The Pro Tools Expert Team has been joined by two new Swedish Editors or will be running our Swedish language site.

Adam Vasse and Björn Karlsson are from Stockholm in Sweden and will be offering a Swedish Pro Tools Expert site.

You can read more here, if of course you read Swedish. There is also a Swedish Facebook fan page here.

Welcome guys!

Russ shows how to get more interesting acoustic guitars using the example from the track “Let Her Go” by Passenger.

• Members watch it here
• Watch it here for $1 using on demand

When we discussed the issue of “Should Pro Tools Users Get Same Software Features As Pro Tools HD Users?” in Podcast 65 Neil came up with the idea of “In App” purchases following our conversation about Apple’s App business model. Surely this wouldn’t be that difficult as Avid have added the Marketplace menu into Pro Tools 10. This got me thinking, what the feature options might be…

• Instrument tracks 64 up to 128
• Surround to to 7.1
• Extended RAM/disk cache
• TrackPunch / DestructivePunch
• Input monitoring
• VCA mixing
• Solo bus AFL/PFL
• Advanced audio editing
• Advanced automation
• Advanced video editing 

What do you think? Are there any other features? What prices would you put on each of these features?

I think it is safe to say this won’t happen for the Pro Tools 11 launch unless Avid decide to do a ‘hackathon’ session, but I suspect they are flat out getting Pro Tools 11 ready to launch so it is more likely to happen in a future upgrade if they decide it is a good idea.

Our recent discussion about Pro Tools HD features without buying the hardware had a great response.

We continued the discussion on the podcast and decided to run this poll. We’ve based it on the price of Steinberg Nuendo (around £1500) although you have to pay £300 extra to get the NEK (Nuendo Expansion Kit) for the more composer friendly Cubase features. 

However we want to know how many Pro Tools users would pay £1500 to get all the HD features without the hardware. Please feel free to comment.

Ample Guitar M Lite aims to bring the Martin D-41 Guitar sound to your studio.

Ample Guitar Lite M is a 670MB reduced version of the 5.59GB Ample Guitar M virtual acoustic guitar.

It features:

• 668 samples in 16-bit / 44.1kHz 
• First four frets limit with fingerstyle - no strumming here. 
• 5 playing techniques are included; sustain, hammer on, pull-off, palm mute and popping
• Reverb and a stereo delay.

Ample Guitar M Lite is available in VST, RTAS and AU formats on Mac OS X and Windows 32 and 64-bits. You can download and compare it to the full version at www.amplesound.net.

Or check our FREE plug-ins database for all the FREE Pro Tools plug-ins

There seems to be a lot of interest and discussion around a the whole issue of Pro Tools users getting the same software features as Pro Tools HD users. Perhaps Avid have made a rod for their own back, this was in fact what CPTK gave users before it was dropped from Pro Tools 11.

However, there are two sides to this argument - on the one side there are those who want the features but don’t want to have to buy what they see as a hardware dongle. On the other side we have those who have invested a great deal in a full HD/HDX system who feel somewhat p*ssed off when they see none-HD users getting the same software. It’s a fallacy to think that HDX users simply benefit from better software, DSP hardware offers lower latency at higher track counts, so there’s more to this debate than simply a software one.

Some suggest that no other company offers tiered systems, not true. Steinberg have several versions of Cubase, as well as Nuendo. Cakewalk Sonar and Studio One have several versions, Reason comes in two versions. Whereas DP and Logic do not, although one could argue that Garageband is Logic Lite. Furthermore, Apple are a unique case, as the software is part of the complete OS package when buying Apple hardware and is often used as a loss-leader to get people to buy Apple computers. Comparing a FREE copy of Garageband with something like Pro Tools Express or Reason Essentials is not comparing Apples with Apples (forgive the pun). One could also argue, as many PC Emagic users did at the time, that Logic does come with a hardware dongle… a Mac!

Given these fact, is it reasonable to expect Avid to give the same features to every user when many competitors don’t? Is it reasonable to expect the same software without making the same investment?

We would be interested in hearing from both sides on this discussion.

Mike presents a show & tell review of the Cedar Studio for Pro Tools plug-ins and covers the DNS One, DeBuzz, DeClip and Adaptive Limiter 2 plug-ins.

After several (what seem to us unecessary) weeks, Avid have finally decided to revise their CPTK to Pro Tools 11 upgrade pricing.

In an announcment this morning via the DUC they write…

“Hi folks, After considering your feedback, Avid is pleased to announce revised pricing for Complete Production Toolkit customers who wish to upgrade to Pro Tools HD 11 software. The pricing now matches the standard Pro Tools HD 11 software upgrade pricing.

Customers will be able to purchase these upgrades from the Avid store when Pro Tools 11 software is available for sale later in Q2:

Price (US MSRP)
PRO TOOLS 10 + CPTK to PRO TOOLS HD 11 $599
PRO TOOLS 9 + CPTK to PRO TOOLS HD 11 $999

Again, thanks for your input and commitment to the Pro Tools platform. We’re committed to serving you.”

Now, let’s wait to see the arrival of Pro Tools 11.

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.

Pro Tools PC have released a picture and a base price as well as more details…

• Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz Unlocked
• 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM (upgradable to 32GB)
• 120GB SSD System Drive (upgradable to 480GB)
• 1TB SATA III Audio Drive (add up to 6 drives in total)
• Nvidia GT610 Graphics (upgradable to Quadro)
• DVDR/RW Optical Drive (Blu-Ray optional)
• From £1499 inc VAT
• Coming soon…..

They have said that US and International pricing to follow. If you are interested then you can sign up on their web site.

Russ shows how to track both clean and effected tracks at the same time in Pro Tools, giving the best of both worlds.

• Members click here to watch
• Or watch it on demand for $1

Thanks to a tip off from community member Noir, here’s a sneak peek we’ve grabbed of the new ‘right click’ plug-in preset shortcut in Pro Tools 11. It works for both plug-ins and instruments.

More to follow

Russ shows how knowing some of the fundamentals in Pro Tools get help you become a remix Ninja.

• Members watch it here
• Watch it here for $1 using pay on demand

Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 is not a new product, some of our users have been using it for some time. However as Pro Tools 11 looms on the horizon we’ve been looking at possible ways to host plug-ins in Pro Tools that may not run in the short term, or in some cases ever run in Pro Tools 11.

This video was orginally going to simply be a set-up video for those who already own Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 but Russ has been so impressed by it, he decided to include a review.

Watch the video to see it in action with some VST instruments and a Waves reverb.

Conclusion

From the video you will see that the interface and interaction are both elegant and simple to use, yet offer Pro Tools users a viable way of either hosting VIs in Pro Tool 9 and 10 or for hosting none AAX plug-ins in Pro Tools 11. Russ has seen it working in Pro Tools 11 (even though VE have not announced it as working with Pro Tools 11) with no issue and offering amazing performance, even to the point of seeing UAD hosted plug-ins working and offering offline bounce, something not even possible right now in a native format.

It’s not FREE, some would say that £200 ($350) is a lot of money to pay for this, but bearing in mind it ships with the excellent Epic Orchestra, hosts VST and AU plug-ins and effectively either expands usability for those wishing to remain on Pro Tools 10 or future proofs those wishing to invest in Pro Tools 11 without the worry of unusable plug-ins. Even better you can host it on a separate computer like a Mac Mini and have all your VIs and plug-ins running in 64 bit and running back to Pro Tools, even older 32 bit versions.

As you will gather from the video and also from above, I think this is simply brilliant and perhaps the most no-brainer purchasing decision I’ve come across. If you are a Pro Tools user and use a lot of VIs and plug-ins then this is a MUST HAVE product. It gets our Editors Choice Award without any hesitation… if you already own it then you’ll understand why. If you have any doubt about our verdict then check out other reviews and also customer comments on sites like Sweetwater.

Russ shows how using filters on compressors can help to control dynamics in complex material.

• Members watch here
• Watch here for $1 using our pay on demand service

On a recent Facebook post, Lexicon Pro respond to the AAX question:

“ I can say this is in the works. Unfortunately it is and will take longer that we hoped, but we are working it…and it will be a 100% free update.”

Good news for Lexicon lovers.

More here

When Pro Tools 11 was announced, one of the claims made was ‘exponential performance gains’ - a claim immediately seized on by my friend and vastly superior writer Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music. Peter said, “As for the announcement, the marketing copy also starts with a peculiar marketing claim: “Get exponentially more processing power than Pro Tools 10 using the same hardware.” It’s hard to know where Avid would find exponential performance gains, unless they know a different meaning of the word. A 64-bit engine, for instance, generally offers marginal, not exponential gains. It seems there is a new engine users are happy with, but there would have to be something horribly wrong with the previous engine for the new one to be exponentially faster on the same hardware architecture.”

This week, we got a chance to see Pro Tools 11 in action.  Something to be noted immediately is that the copy we were shown is a beta version, so some work still has to be done before the final GM (Gold Master) sees the light of day. Therefore, it wouldn’t surprise us if the performance is even better in the final public release; if nothing else, it won’t be any worse. 

That said, what we were shown was impressive by any standard.

Not being a mathematician, I decided to investigate the whole area of exponential theory.  From what I can gather, it simply means an exponential curve shows a far greater increase than a linear curve. So take a look at the graphic showing the same session on the same Mac, but one opened in Pro Tools 10.3.5 and the other on a beta copy of Pro Tools 11. Call it what you like (if you don’t think it’s exponential, I’m not going to have a battle of semantics), but in my words after having seen it in action with the performance gains I witnessed, I would have written different ad copy, to wit:

“Pro Tools 11 gives f*****g awesome improvements in performance”.

This probably explains two things: firstly, why I don’t work for Avid in their marketing department, and secondly, why Avid chose the word ‘exponential’.

In response to Peter’s final consideration, “[T]here would have to be something horribly wrong with the previous engine for the new one to be exponentially faster on the same hardware architecture.”… there was!

More here.

Sometimes the biggest thing stopping us from being creative is the very thing we use to make our music, our DAW. Pro Tools is not alone in this, all DAWs are filled with features that can give us enormous power, but if we are not smart then they can get in the way of getting ideas down fast. 

Here are 5 ways to speed up your workflow.

1. Use Session Presets
   A session preset can be as simple or as complex as you wish, from a single instance of a piano VI and a microphone channel right through to a session of lots of channels for tracking an entire band, just remember to make sure you don’t defeat the object of this exercise by making it too complicated.
2. Configure Your I/O Settings
   I/O settings are where you make sure the inputs and outputs of your audio device are configured correctly. Even better, if you take the time to label your inputs, outputs and busses then you won’t be trying to figure out what is hanging off the end of each channel. Again it can be as simple as labelling your mic channel “mic” and your instrument channel “guitar” or indeed labelling your entire patchbay. It’s also a good idea to make sure you label your buss channels so that you don’t having to keep creating reverb sends etc.
3. Create Instrument Presets
   In some circles the term synth ‘presets’ can be a dirty word. I love getting under the hood of synth and making cool new sounds, but doing that before you try and capture a song is going to distract you. So every time you create a cool new sound, or effect for that matter, then create a new folder for those favourites and save them. You can even save a session preset to load all your VIs and effects along with those presets and save another step.
4. Organise And Label All Your Loops And Samples
   If you want to create sample based music then it’s a good idea to make sure you spend a day going through your library and organising it. It may seem like a chore, but when you need to find a cool Jazz loop at 135bpm then you’ll thank me for suggesting this. Workspace is perhaps the most irritating part of Pro Tools, so anything you can do to make using it easier is time well spent. Most loop libraries ship with this data, but again, make sure you have everything to hand. Spending even an hour trying to find the right loop for a track can really start killing your mojo.
5. Turn Off Distractions
   This tip goes behind any particular DAW and to anyone who wants to be as creative as possible. If you are going to spend a day writing then make sure you check your emails, social networks and other distracting stuff, even your mobile phone and then turn them off. If Apple thought they were helping creatives with most of the features in Mountain Lion then they can think again, having bleeps and visual pop-ups every couple of minutes is not going to help the creative flow. Get one bad email or snarky comment from Facebook and you may as well wave goodbye to your creative session - unless of course you’re a one-in-a-billion creative type who doesn’t take everything personally.

So, there are 5 tips for speeding up your creative workflow… what are yours?

Shane responds to some questions regarding his first videos showing a Hackintosh running Pro Tools Thunderbolt HD.