August 3, 2011 Posted by 16dollarbeats in Software Reviews

Pro Tools 9 Review and Video

Pro Tools 9 Review from Electronic Musician at EMusician.com

Pro Tools 9 Review and Video

AT LAST, A FULLY NATIVE VERSION OF THIS INDUSTRY-STANDARD DAW

Pro Tools 9 will run on any Core Audio– or ASIO-compatible interface.

During the past year, Avid has made a concerted effort to change its image from an aloof corporate entity to one that’s responsive to its customers’ needs and concerns. The first hint that something was afoot was a little more than a year ago when Avid cooperated with Mackie in allowing Pro Tools M-Powered drivers to be distributed for Mackie’s Onyx-i mixers. That was the first time a modern version of Pro Tools would run on an interface other than one made by Avid.

Then, during the past six months or so, as Avid has been rolling out a series of new products (interfaces, keyboard controllers, Pro Tools HD Native, and more), it has been stressing in press briefings how it is taking its users’ requests in mind as it designs new products and sets strategies. The product roll-out culminated in the stunning announcement of Pro Tools 9 (see Fig. 1) on the eve of the AES show in November. (At the same press conference, Avid announced Pro Tools HD9, but this review focuses on the native version.)

CHANGING TIMES While

Pro Tools 9

has long been a dominant force in the pro audio world, its offerings for those not able to shell out $12,000 and up for an HD system have been slimmer. Pro Tools LE and M-Powered lack many of HD’s key features and capabilities. If the strategy had once been to entice people to move up to HD by withholding important attributes such as automatic delay compensation from lower versions, it doesn’t appear to have been a rousing success. With native DAWs such as Logic, Cubase, Live, SONAR, Digital Performer, and even newcomers like PreSonus’ Studio One offering better performance for their open native systems, it was harder for LE and M-Powered to compete.

Pro Tools 9

, which runs natively under Core Audio (Mac) and ASIO (Windows), is indeed an answer to the wishes of many. It offers the long-wished-for automatic delay compensation and provides many of the features that were once only available through expensive “toolkit” options. From the DV Toolkit, you get video features such as timecode readout and OMF, AAF, and MXF file exchange. From the Music Production toolkit, you get multitrack Beat Detective (see Fig. 2) and MP3 export.

Because PT 9 is fully native, you’re no longer limited to using an Avid interface, which opens up a whole world of options. Of course, Avid makes excellent interfaces so you might choose to go in that direction, but you’re no longer compelled to in order to run Pro Tools. If you’ve invested in an Apogee, RME, MOTU, or any other interface, you can now use it with PT 9. What’s more, unlike LE, you’re not tethered to an Avid interface as a dongle, which means that you can run PT 9 on a laptop with the only additional hardware being your iLok key because PT 9 will also run on your computer’s built-in audio system. (For Windows systems, an ASIO-compliant audio card is required.)

If you own a Digidesign or Avid interface, you can crossgrade to PT 9 for $249 and download drivers from Avid to make your interface compatible with PT 9. (It’s kind of ironic that you now need drivers to run PT 9 on Avid hardware but not on third-party hardware.) The only Pro Tools LE interfaces that are not compatible for PT 9 use or eligible for crossgrades are the Digi 001 and the original Mbox.

SPEC IT OUT Pro Tools 9 is a powerhouse compared to LE, which it officially replaces. (M-Powered will remain as a less-expensive option.) As well as the aforementioned delay compensation and toolkit features, you get twice as many tracks, simultaneously recordable tracks, and instrument tracks. Pro Tools 9 offers eight times as many buses and 32 additional aux tracks (see “Pro Tools Systems: Selected Features Comparison” chart) as LE.

With all that, PT 9 still doesn’t have all of HD’s features or track count, but you can get it pretty close by purchasing the Complete Production Toolkit 2 for $1,995. It gives you surround mixing—which you don’t get in PT 9—enhanced track and bus counts, VCA mixing, and some additional advanced features. If you’re a DV Toolkit owner, you can upgrade to the Complete Production Toolkit 2 for $299; Music Production Toolkit owners can upgrade for $1,599. The Complete Production Toolkit 2 is definitely a pricey upgrade, but when you consider that you’re getting most of the functionality of HD at a fraction of the price, it doesn’t seem as expensive.

PLUG AND PLAY Pro Tools 9 offers a plug-in collection identical to Pro Tools 8. As with 8 (reviewed in the May 2009 issue of EM), you get a nice selection of processing plug-ins and instruments. Despite the changeover to native processing, the plug-ins remain under Avid’s proprietary RTAS/AudioSuite formats. Because nearly all major plug-ins run under those formats, this isn’t an issue. Concurrent with the PT 9 announcement, Universal Audio announced that its Powered Plug-Ins now have RTAS versions, and you can use UAD plugs with Pro Tools without the need for a VST wrapper.

Thanks to the inclusion of the DV Toolkit in PT 9’s standard feature set, the program is now much better suited to working with video. Beyond just SMPTE readouts, you also get a Feet and Frames readout, the ability to redefine a timecode position by entering a new position at an insertion point, pullup and pulldown commands, and subframe support.

The multitrack Beat Detective capability, which was once only the province of HD or LE with the Music Production Toolkit, is another key addition to PT 9. Previously, LE’s Beat Detective only worked on a single track, which left you in the cold for correcting a multitrack drum kit, which is probably the most common application for Beat Detective. The new MP3 Export feature is thoroughly implemented. You can choose quality level (from 16kbps to 320kbps), encoding speed, and even add ID3 tags for the exported file in pro tools 9.