Avid have released Pro Tools 2022.9 which brings with it some very significant new features which will benefit both Music and Post Production users alike. We have the details of what’s new.
As pre-announced last month and expected in the next release of Pro Tools, ARA 2 integration becomes available with this release. A huge benefit to music users, this much anticipated feature will bring workflow benefits to all. We covered this feature in the pre-announcement so if you missed it at the time you can get the details using the button below or check out the overview video below but in brief, with Pro Tools 2022.9 it becomes easy to tighten both the tuning and timing of audio material using Melodyne within Pro Tools via a new Melodyne Editor in the Edit Window, making the tedious round tripping out to Melodyne and back into Pro Tools a thing of the past.
Aux I/O
The next headline feature of Pro Tools 2022.9 is Aux I/O, a new feature which allows you to add any Core Audio device as extra inputs and outputs to your current Playback Engine. It’s technical but it’s extremely powerful and addresses some persistent pain points which have dogged certain users for a long time.
Aux I/O is a Mac-only feature, available on Big Sur or later. This is because it relies on access to Core Audio. It allows you to have your primary Playback Engine set up to your preferred setting and still be able to stream to and from other core audio devices. This is very significant as it allows Pro Tools to access other hardware and applications, something which required various workarounds to achieve in the past.
Pro Tools, unlike most DAWs, has a single setting for the Playback Engine which controls both the inputs and outputs. Pro Tools HDX users will be aware of how well the HDX/Hybrid audio engine works but also how it can be very awkward to incorporate other hardware or Core Audio devices with it. The choice has been to use HDX or run natively but if you wanted to combine Core Audio and HDX things got more complicated.
Access to Aux I/O is from the I/O Setup window where a new button opens a window in which new paths can be set up which can access both hardware and virtual devices such as the Dolby Audio Bridge or Dante Virtual Soundcard. Aux I/Os can be given custom names in the I/O setup, one limitation to be aware of is that while hardware can act as both an input or an output, virtual devices have to be either an input or an output. You can roundtrip audio to and from software applications, it just requires setting up two separate core audio devices to avoid creation potential feedback loops.
Presets are provided in the form of the Pro Tools Audio Bridge - Virtual Devices of various channel widths from 2 to 64, which are pre-installed and ready for use, but the advanced user can of course set up their own. As an example of how this new feature can be used it’s possible to route outputs from MainStage directly into Pro Tools. If MIDI is routed from Pro Tools to MainStage via the IAC Driver, previously inaccessible Logic virtual instruments can be used within Pro Tools, or at least driven from MIDI in Pro Tools, with audio routed back into Pro Tools via Aux I/O.
Aux I/O And HDX
Another group of users who will benefit from Aux I/O will be HDX users who will be able to access the Dolby Atmos renderer in software without having to change their Playback Engine from HDX. To use Aux IO HDX users will have to be using the Hybrid Engine. In this way they can keep using their preferred Playback Engine but have an alternative route out of Pro Tools to access their renderer. Involving fewer channels but every bit as useful are the possibilities for routing to or from online conferencing and collaboration tools like Zoom and Pro Tools users will no longer have to compromise their Playback Engine’s performance by creating Aggregate Audio Devices to incorporate additional hardware, though it should be said that there is no delay compensation on an Aux I/O and additional latency will be introduced on the Aux I/O, though in practice this is minimal, dependant on buffer settings. The Playback Engine offers reliable performance with delay compensation and, depending on the particular playback engine, low or negligible latency. Aux I/O doesn’t inherit these characteristics and should be seen as complementary to your Playback engine. Latency might vary between passes and it even has its own Ignore Errors During Playback Setting. Reported performance is apparently very good but it’s important to understand the difference between the Playback Engine I/O and Aux I/O.
Clocking and preventing drift can be achieved for interfaces using conventional clocking if available but for virtual devices this isn’t possible. The Pro Tools Audio Bridge virtual devices which come preinstalled have a built in clocking mechanism which custom virtual devices don’t have so these should be used where possible.
New Quantize Controls
There are also some more modest new features. There is a new set of Quantize controls available in both the Edit Toolbar and in the MIDI Editor Toolbar. This allows quick access to the principal features with a big Q button to quantise selected notes, there has been an assignable Quantize command in the Keyboard Shortcuts Window since its introduction in Pro Tools 2022.4 and this Q button uses the same command. If you want to assign it to a custom shortcut (you might consider using ‘Q’) then you can but the button is right there if you are more mouse-based. You can adjust the quantise grid settings from here, adjust Strength and Swing, or when using a Groove adjust Timing and Velocity, and for deeper access you can get to the Event Operations - Quantize menu using the big button with the Gear Icon next to the Quantize button.
More Markers
Another change with this new version of Pro Tools is that the maximum number of Memory Locations has been increased from 999 to a dizzying 32,000. I’m sure no-one is going to run out of markers now, though I wonder whether offering multiple marker rulers might have been a more popular feature?
Other New Features
There is a new addition to the recently introduced Timecode Overlay function for displaying Timecode in the Video Window. When introduced this overlay could be displayed in any of six different positions in the Video window. 2022.9 offers XY offset sliders allowing the timecode to be placed precisely in any position, offsetting from the chosen starting position.
Small UI tweaks include a change to the Mic Pre track controls which now show the slot number and mic preamp number for preamps which integrate with Pro Tools such as those found in the Avid PRE and Pro Tools Carbon.
A new addition to how the Controller Preferences work, the Edit Window Follows and Mix Window Follows controllers preferences have been enhanced to include track selection as well as controller banking. This means that in 2022.9 if you select a track on a control surface, Pro Tools can scroll the track into view as the left-most track in the Mix window or the top track in the Edit window if this new check box is ticked.
Another new introduction is a change to who qualifies for Soundflow Avid Edition. This Pro Tools specific version of Soundflow, which comes with a wealth of useful Pro Tools macros, was initially only available to users on a Pro Tools Flex annual subscription. Since August all Ultimate users who are on a support contract qualify as well but with Pro Tools 2022.9 all Pro Tools Studio users who are on a subscription or support plan will get Soundflow Avid Edition too.
Operating System And Apple Silicon Support
Current Supported Operating Systems
Windows - Windows 11 64-bit build 21H2 and Windows 10 64-bit build 21H2 are supported with Pro Tools 2022.4 and higher.
macOS - macOS Monterey (12.5.1), Big Sur (11.6), Catalina (10.15.7), and macOS Mojave (10.14.6) are supported with Pro Tools 2022.7 and higher.
macOS 12.6 Support?
We were hoping that 2022.9 would have come approved with macOS 12.6, which, as we reported in our article Apple Release Another macOS Monterey Security Update - Should You Install? Avid pulled all the stops out when Apple released macOS 12.5.1 and approved it within days of its release. However, according to the 2022.9 Release Notes, Pro Tools 2022.9 is not yet approved for use with macOS 12.6.
Attention Windows Users
Avid is warning in the 2022.9 Release Notes that…
“Before attempting to update to Pro Tools 2022.9, please make sure your installed Avid Link is updated to version 2022.9. If you are running Avid Link 2022.7 or 2022.7.1, trying to update to Pro Tools 2022.9 will fail during the installation.”
macOS Mojave
As well as announcing which Mac operating systems are supported with Pro Tools 2022.9, Avid has announced the dropping of testing for macOS Mojave…
Now that this important Pro Tools 22.9 release is done, the Pro Tools team is focused on delivering native Apple Silicon Suport (M1 and M2) in the near future for customers on active subscriptions and support contracts
— Avid Customer Care (@AvidSupport) September 28, 2022
“With the qualification of Monterey 12.3 we will no longer be testing macOS Mojave, however it is expected to work at this time”
Apple Silicon Support?
Avid Customer Care tweeted a response from a customer asking about Apple Silicon native support, saying…
“Now that this important Pro Tools 22.9 release is done, the Pro Tools team is focused on delivering native Apple Silicon Support (M1 and M2) in the near future for customers on active subscriptions and support contracts.”
Confirmed Bug With Pro Tools 2022.9 and Eucon 2022.9
Pressing OK on an Avid Dock to “accept” open menus makes Pro Tools 2022.9 with Eucon 2022.9 quit on computers running macOS Catalina 10.15.7. The bug has been confirmed by Eddie Jones from Avid saying…
“We see this crash here; thanks for reporting. We'll get it fixed ASAP.”
Pro Tools Intro
Aux IO and ARA are big news, but the really big news for me is the introduction of a new fourth tier of Pro Tools at the entry-level. Since Pro Tools First was discontinued, there hasn’t been a free version of Pro Tools. With the release of Pro Tools 2022.4, what had been a two-tier family of products, Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate, became three - Pro Tools Artist, Pro Tools Studio and Pro Tools Ultimate. As someone who started their Pro Tools journey back in the 90s with Pro Tools Free (8 mono tracks - but that was more than my computer could handle anyway!) I’ve always felt strongly about the importance of an easy-to-access, free version of Pro Tools, and unfortunately, Pro Tools First just wasn’t it.
Pro Tools Intro sounds very much like the worthy successor to Pro Tools Free. It is a replacement for Pro Tools First, and importantly it’s built on the same codebase as the rest of the Pro Tools family. Pro Tools First wasn’t, and because of this, it didn’t benefit from updates to the other products and used to lag behind, sometimes for a long time, when new features were introduced.
A feature-limited version, unlike Pro Tools First, it works with Sessions which can be locally saved; there is no longer a prerequisite to work with Projects. There is no limitation on the plugins which can be used with Pro Tools Intro, the old model of only being able to use Avid Marketplace-purchased plugins in Pro Tools First has gone, and any third-party AAX plugins can be used.
Pro Tools Intro is aimed at new users and, as such, has its own dedicated product page, which is populated with content appropriate for these users, including product-specific Fast Start videos and an extensive FAQ. Intro uses Pace disc-based licensing; Pro Tools usually requires either a physical iLok or a Cloud licensing, again making it more accessible to new users.
But Pro Tools Intro isn’t only of interest to new or novice users. All versions of Pro Tools will default to Pro Tools Intro if their licence expires, meaning that, for example, subscription customers who authorise from month to month would still be able to access a version of Pro Tools, albeit a feature-limited version. However, perpetual licence holders who aren’t on a current support and update plan shouldn’t install Intro as it will replace their installed version; you’d need to reinstall your full version of Pro Tools to get back again. To use Pro Tools Intro you do first have to authorise it via Avid Link, once this is done if you have a higher version of Pro Tools it will default to Intro if your licence for your higher version isn’t available.
Pro Tools Intro can open standard Pro Tools Session files. If that Session exceeds the maximum track count of Pro Tools Intro, the session will get truncated, and tracks beyond the track limit will be inactive. When opening a session with more than eight audio, MIDI, and instrument tracks, Pro Tools Intro will prompt you to “save as” a new session and then truncate to the first eight tracks of each track type.
Pro Tools Intro Features:
Stereo Only
8 Mono or Stereo Audio Tracks
8 Instrument Tracks
8 MIDI Tracks
4 Aux Tracks or Routing Folders
No VCAs
No Video Tracks
1 Master Fader
4 Simultaneous Recording Inputs
2000 Basic Folders
Clip FX - Playback Only
Third-Party Hardware Support (Core Audio, ASIO, WASAPI)
ARA2 Support for Melodyne, but no bundled version of Melodyne. If you have a copy, it will integrate.
Bundle of 35 Core effect plugins
Xpand! 2 virtual instrument Plugin
It’s free, and it’s enough to do meaningful work. I could edit the Production Expert Podcast using this and probably will at some point. As I said earlier, as someone who started with Pro Tools Free and has taught hundreds of students how to use Pro Tools, I can see the benefit Pro Tools Intro will bring. ARA 2 is cool, Aux I/O is going to fix a previously intractable issue for me, but in ten years, I think this is the Pro Tools development I’ll remember 2022 for.