Tag Archives: pro tools

Digidesign Announces……..what?

Avid/Digidesign put this up:

“Apple has announced that they will begin shipping the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard 64-bit operating system in September 2009. Avid is working closely with Apple to deliver compatible, high-quality versions of Pro Tools® as soon as possible. Please check back periodically for updates on Avid’s Snow Leopard support status.”

For the record, when 10.5 (Leopard) came out, it took Digidesign about 8 months to get out ProTools “certified” for it. Though it sorta worked. However, I’m a little concerned with Digidesign, as they have had a lot of key people leave recently.

In other news, I’d imagine the Logic will work right from the get go. And it will be amazing (and updated). MOTU’s Digital Performer will probably work within the first week if not the same day. Digi is always the last one to the party…..

Pro Tools 8 Released

protools_50667Keeping its promise to ship Pro Tools 8 in December, Digidesign announced that Pro Tools 8 is shipping. However, it is just DOWNLOADABLE right now. This is what you get (if you have M-Powered Pro Tools)

Pro Tools Installer 3994.84 MB
Big Fish Dance DJ Loops 1229.6 MB
Big Fish Hip Hop Loops 1267.08 MB
Big Fish Jazz Loops 516.01 MB
Big Fish Pop Rock Loops 1094.18 MB
Big Fish R&B Funk Loops 1226.28 MB
Big Fish Rock Hard Loops 371.43 MB
Big Fish World Loops 399.43 MB
FXpansion BFD 962.27 MB
Torq LE 234.52 MB
Melodyne Essential 28.7 MB

A good 11+ gigabytes to download :-(. Thanks Digidesign. You should at least have taken $20 or so off the price.

Digidesign Releases ProTools 7.4.2 for OS X 10.5.3

Almost 9 months after Apple released OS X 10.5, Digidesign got around to releasing an update to Pro Tools to let people run it “officially” on 10.5. Woohoo.

I had to run Pro Tools on 10.5 due to a new Mac Pro purchase. It worked ok on the MacPro, failed miserably on my iMac. Then Apple released 10.5.3, and Digi released 7.4.2pr (pre-release), and that worked on the iMac. Looking forward to playing with it later.

Altiverb

I have had the pleasure the last few week to work on mixing a big band that I play in. We recorded 20 something tracks at a concert, and I was able to obtain the Pro Tools session, and set off to salvage the recording session. We recorded twice, and supposedly the second session was better, so, they have been mixing that in the studio. However, the vocalist who performs with us did way better the first session. It was a good way to get your feet wet with Pro Tools, and the whole mixing thing. I’ve always wanted to do a big project like this.

After some cutting, balancing, EQing, etc, etc, I had a fairly good mix happening, but it really lacked something. That something was a good reverb. I was using D-Verb, Pro Tools reverb. Not really all the great. Ozone 3 has a great reverb that I have been using (LOVE Ozone 3) on stuff, but it didn’t seem to do the job. What they were using in the studio was Altiverb, an amazing convolution reverb program.

I’m not going to do an in depth review of it, but what I will say is that this program made everything sound better. The right space, and the right amount made all my mixes finally work and pass the test with various band members. It adds that quality to sound that……it is not easily put into works. It’s the gel, it’s the glue, it’s the stuff. The right reverb just makes it work, and Altiverb is that sort of reverb. True, it was a lot of money, but it makes everything sound better. Even midi mockups sound more realistic now.

Highly recommended. 9.5 out of 10. .5 deducted for the use of iLok, which I’m beginning to hate.