We are getting a lot of questions regarding Pro Tools 11 ship dates, to be honest we were given two dates off-the-record and both have been blown.

Our understanding is that is likely that Avid will take advantage of the time they have left in the Q2 window to ship as stable a product as they can. After all what’s the problem with waiting a few more weeks if we all end up with a few less bugs to iron out?

Just to be clear, dealers taking orders or offering upgrade deals is not the same as shipping the product.

We will keep you posted, but consider anything before the end of June as a bonus.

Softube has announced that they will deliver compatible 64-bit AAX DSP and AAX Native plug-ins in time for the forthcoming Avid Pro Tools 11 release. They say…

The latest version of Pro Tools, the most used and trusted DAW in the industry, provides exponentially improved AAX plug-in performance over prior versions, time-saving capabilities such as offline bounce to disk, as well as complete sound parity when sharing sessions between DSP-accelerated and native-based Pro Tools systems.

So we have another software developer ready for the Pro Tools 11 launch, although perhaps with Softube, it doesn’t come as such a surprise as they had AAX plug-ins ready when Pro Tools 10 launched. But with more and more plug-in developers announcing, they are ready with 64 bit plug-ins, we can look forward to a smoother transition to the brave new 64bit world that Pro Tools 11 will bring, bring it on.

Liquidsonics have announced on their Facebook page the release of Reverberate 1.8 with AAX support, new categorised presets, new graphics, text editable parameters and recursive lost file search. They have also included about 100MB of new IRs, some from real spaces, some from a vintage plate, and most from some superb anonymous hardware units and presets to cover them all. The installers contain 64-bit Pro Tools 11 compatible versions too, so really are Pro Tools 11 ready. In case you haven’t heard of this small company this is what they say about Reverberate…

Click to read more ...

Avid are running a new promo for those buying either Fast Track Solo or Due audio interfaces, which run on Mac, PC and iPad. Buy a Solo or Duo and be in with the chance of winning an Express to Pro Tools 11 Crossgrade worth £310!

Basically, every customer who purchases a Solo or Duo who provides a proof of purchase to ‘registrations@avid.com’ goes in the hat and every two weeks from the 21^st of this month, a winner is chosen.

The promotion is running for 3 months and there will be 6 draws (21^st June, 5^th July, 19^th July, 2^nd August, 16^thAugust, 30^th August).  One winner per draw. 

The incentive to buy now is that the longer you’re in the hat, the more chances you have to win, if you don’t win on the first draw… you stay in the hat till the promo expires.

This promotion is available to residents of The United Kingdom Only 

McDSP claims it has the most AAX plug-ins available of any Avid developer! With 24 AAX plug-ins already available this is another indication that when Pro Tools 11 comes out later this month you will have the AAX plug-ins to work with it. These are the McDSP plug-ins that are ready….

• Analog Channel - AC101
• Analog Channel - AC202
• CompressorBank - CB101
• CompressorBank - CB202
• CompressorBank - CB303
• Channel G Compact
• Channel G Console
• Channel G EQ
• Channel G Dynamics
• 6030 Ultimate Compressor
• DE555
• FilterBank - E606
• FilterBank - P606
• FilterBank - F202
• FutzBox
• MC2000 - MC202
• MC2000 - MC303
• MC2000 - MC404
• ML4000 - ML1
• ML4000 - ML4
• NF575
• 4020 Retro EQ
• 4030 Retro Compressor
• 4040 Retro Limiter

We can expect many more of these kind of announcements as plug-in developers announce that they are Pro Tools 11 ready.

Serato have made no secret since the release of Pro Tools 10 that their Pitch n’Tome Pro plug-in was not compatible with Pro Tools 10. With the immenent release of Pro Tools 11 and theneed for AAX 64 bit plug-ins to work with PT11, some of the community have been in touch concerned about the future of Pitch n’ Time Pro from Serato. Chris Matthey for example says…

I’m sending you this this email to let you know about a problem concerning Serato Pitch n’ Time Pro, which is not compatible with PT10 and, by extension, PT11. PnTPro is a crucial tool in Drums editing for example and I think Serato is being really disrespectful to their customers who bought the license and who can’t use it anymore due to compatibility problems. I’m sure i’m not the only one who is upset with Serato. Thanks again Regards Chris

Although offically Pitch n’ Time is not supported for Pro Tools 10, it seems that it works for most people as long as you make sure the handles are set to 0, although some users have reported their Pro Tools won’t boot if the plug-in is present. On Serato’s forum there are a number of posts with a standard response…

We currently do not have a release of Pitch ‘n Time that supports Pro Tools 11, but we are working on a future release for Pro Tools 11 compatibility. Serato will continue to offer free technical support to owners of Pitch ‘n Time with currently supported software platforms (including Pro Tools versions 7 to Pro Tools 9). 

However with a little more digging on their site, this…

Unfortunately Pro Tools 10 is not supported as we have not done thorough testing with this platform. It may work but we can’t guarantee there won’t be any bugs or issues. We are wanting to support this properly at some stage but I couldn’t say when this will happen sorry.

And another saying…

I’m afraid our official message about support in Pro Tools 10 that Scott entered above still stands at this point. We are planning to support Pitch ‘n Time in Pro Tools going forward, but we don’t have any announcements to make about this right now. Apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.

It does seem as if Serato are more interested in the DJ and consumer type products rather than actively supporting their professional product Pitch N Time, which has fans in both music and especially post production. We would like to get a sense of whether there is a real commercially viable response for Pitch n’ Time or whether it is only a few users who will miss this plug-in.

I personally do miss Pitch n’ Time, it was my ‘go to’ plug-in for pitch and tempo changing, but since Pro Tools 10 I have found it not very reliable and so tend to use X-Form these days but I would value having Pitch n’ Time back.

Do comment if you are concerned that you might loose Pitch n’ Time Pro or if you have already found a viable alternative for it.  Please can we be ‘grown up’ about this and respect everyone including Serato.

Few seem to have noticed that included in Pro Tools 11 HD is Satellite Link, previously a $750 value add-on, or as some of been talking about previously an “in app purchase”.

Satellite Link allows a user to connect up to five Pro Tools|HD systems (or up to four Pro Tools|HD systems plus one Avid Media Composer Video Satellite system, or one Video Satellite LE system) via Ethernet using the Satellite Link option for Pro Tools HD systems for synchronized playback. Cue, play, and stop the transports, make play selections, and solo tracks across any of the systems from any linked workstation.

It is our understanding that what will be possible is to have Pro Tools 11 on one machine and Pro Tools 10 on another locked together via ethernet, for some this may be a great solution and offer the best of both worlds.

Add to this the Video Satellite that previously cost $250, then there’s a $1000 worth of software now included with Pro Tools 11 HD.

Avid are sometimes accused by some as ‘money grabbing’ and ‘only in it for the money’, however this is a nice touch by Avid. Granted you may not need or use the features, but for those who were contemplating either purchases, put your wallet away.

Our friends over at Alchemea are putting up a cool prize of a copy of Pro Tools 11 as well as £1000 worth of free certified training for one lucky person.

Simply complete the form below and one person will get this cool prize. Alchemea recently upgraded their flagship studio with an SSL Duality SE console, but what desk preceded the Duality? The answer to the question can be found on their blog here.

Please complete all fields. One entry per email address. You are entering for a chance to win one copy of a Pro Tools 11 (Not HD) and £1000 worth of Alchemea training, no cash alterntive. Judges decision is final and no correspondance will be entered into. By entering you are giving permission for either/or both Alchemea and Pro Tools Expert to contact you in the future. You can opt out at any time after the draw has ended, if you do so before it ends then you will be removed from the draw. Contest ends 30th June 2013.

Pro Tools Expert were guests at the Mediaspec Avid Pro Tools 11 launch in Glasgow, with sessions for both music and post professionals. Many of us have seen the official video and our fun parody - we thought it would be good to get reactions from those attending the event. Thanks to those who agreed to be interviewed.

Yesterday we had a great day with Mediaspec in Glasgow and Avid running Pro Tools 11 preview sessions for both music and post - video to follow shortly.

During the event, Eric from Mediaspec announced the winner of the £800 Pro Tools 11 bundle, kindly donated by Mediaspec. The winner is Simon Wilkinson from London. Simon writes;

“Fab news, thanks! I was at BVE when Mike gave his talk about PT11 (and have spoken to James at a couple of expos in the past year) so it is especially gratifying to actually win the bundle having met at least some of the team.”

Next week we offer a second chance to win Pro Tools 11, so stay tuned!

If you are wondering where the new fader knobs in Pro Tools 11 came from then look no further than the new Avid S3L console (announced yesterday).

Apparently that’s exactly where they came from - so even if you can’t stump up $18,000 for the new console you can still have a piece of it, even if it’s a virtual version.

Not a deal-maker by any means, but a nice new feature in Pro Tools 11 is double click on the Edit Window now creates a new track below the current one. A series of modifier keys determines what kind of track is created.

As we say, not something to make a 1 hour documentary for prime time TV about, but still a very welcome workflow addition.

With the recent announcement of Pro Tools 11 and our inevitable reporting, some users staying on legacy versions of Pro Tools may wonder what our intentions for future video, editorial and podcast content are.

The Pro Tools Expert team appreciate that some users either do not wish to upgrade to a new system or cannot afford to upgrade.

Rest assured, it is our intention to continue to offer advice and tips and tricks (including videos) and answer podcast questions for owners of legacy systems. NEW USERS PLEASE NOTE - this is an independent community site offering tips, tricks, tutorials and advice, for product support related to your purchase please speak to your dealer or Avid in the first instance.

Pro Tools 11 preview events are starting to take place around the world and Pro Tools Expert have obtained an exclusive shot of the new Pro Tools 11 playback engine dialogue window, which shows the extent of the changes to the audio engine from the user side.

On the left is the dialogue windows for the DAE playback engine from a copy of Pro Tools 10 for Mac and on the right the dialogue window for the AAE for Pro Tools 11. (click to enlarge)

Immediately one can see how simplified the dialogue has become with no more setting up with host processors, CPU% limits, delay compensation or even the plug-in streaming buffer. This would indicate that the new improved AAE is doing a lot of that work for the user. This is a welcome change as for many usrs setting this up was somewhat of a dark art. You can also see from the image that there is now a feature to enable or disable the video engine.

We look forward to Pro Tools 11 arrival soon.

Click here to read more about the new features in Pro Tools 11

Click here to win a copy of Pro Tools 11

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.

Sonnox have just announced on their Facebook page the release of the AAX version of their Oxford Limiter plug-in, much loved by post and music guys alike. Anyone like to spot the difference? This is what they say…

Unique processing in the form of the Enhance function provides the sample value limiting needed to reliably avoid overloads in digital workstation environments and allows unprecedented volume and punch to be applied to programme beyond that available from conventional limiting functions. 

Comprehensive metering is provided which displays not only conventional peak sample value, but additionally allows the user to monitor the true validity of the programme in order to avoid the generation of damaging reconstruction overloads in the target equipment which are often invisible during production (sometimes termed ‘inter sample peaks’).

A further function allows the user to dynamically correct for reconstruction overloads in real time, thereby achieving maximum possible modulation levels without the risks of producing illegal signals often associated with compression and limiting.

Comprehensive dithering functionality with selectable and variable depth noise shaping ensures first class mastering output quality in either 24 bit or 16 bit modes.

Features

• Enhance section to increase perceived loudness
• Reconstruction meter shows ‘actual’ signal rather than sampled signal
• Auto compensate feature corrects recon errors without losing overall programme loudness
• Attack, release and variable soft knee controls
• Comprehensive dither and noise shaping
• Complete with many factory presets

Formats

HD-HDX: Pro Tools AAX DSP, TDM, Native

Native: Pro Tools AAX Native, RTAS, Audio Units and VST

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.

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.

We’ve been getting some info regarding a couple of things about Pro Tools 11 installation software.

The first one is that the installer for Pro Tools 11 is currently around 600mb for Mac (possibly the same for Windows too), previous versions of 10 have averaged around 2.4gb, which shows the new installers are about 25% in size before uncompressing. One wonders where all that extra stuff has gone to.

Secondly, the Mac installer is simply a drag and drop into your Applications folder for installation. Nice.