Other Academic users can upgrade at a special price. Is my system compatible with Pro Tools 11? Avid have announced provisional compatibility information for Pro Tools 11 and please be aware that this is a work in progress, especially in the area of computer hardware support.
The 3 tiers are. When Avid announced PT10 they said it would be the last version to support the and families. Will my computer run Pro Tools 11? We have had a number of community members who have been concerned that their particular computer is not on the preliminary list of supported machines for Mac or Windows. This is a list of computers that Avid have tested and found not to meet the very high bar they have set for computer compatibility with Pro Tools.
It may be that PT11 will run on Lion but Avid are not qualifying it. Again check the Avid compatibility info for the exact versions that they have qualified. Windows 8 support We get a lot of questions about Windows 8 support and Pro Tools 11 will be the first version of PT that will have Windows 8 support. PT10 and PT11 together with Media Composer 7 will co-exist on the same computer but they cannot be run simultaneously because they will be both trying to access the same hardware.
What about Sound Designer II support? If you need to open old legacy sessions that have SDII audio files you will need to have a version of PT10 installed to convert the session. Will I get the new metering support in PT11? Pro Tools 11 and Pro Tools 11HD will both have the new high definition audio metering but the 17 options of different metering formats will only be available on PT11HD. Currently the ATSC A85 and R loudness recommendations are not included in those 17 options but Avid have said it will be possible to add these in a later version.
The word clock in and out ports let you connect BNC cables to synchronise your R to incoming word clock signals, and synchronise other devices to Pro Tools-generated word clock. Unlike the M Box 2 Pro, what's more, the can clock to external signals at up to 96kHz. Digidesign have also introduced into the family the second headphone output they added to the M Box 2 Pro. Both headphone outputs will be fed with the Aux In signal when Aux In to monitor is enabled.
The headphone outputs are not affected by the Monitor Mute switch, but do follow the Mono switch. Another improvement is the addition of a second monitor output, which is great for having a second 'domestic reference' set of speakers attached to the system without needing another box to connect them. Digidesign have apparently completely redesigned the mic preamps for the and R, and I am surprised they haven't made more of a song and dance about it.
The dynamic range has been improved by nearly 6dB and the total harmonic distortion has been reduced from 0. The first four inputs no longer have separate line sockets, but reviewing the spec, the DI inputs on the first four inputs cover this role as well. The features separate metering and LED 'ring' position indicators on each channel.
So do the technical improvements on these new preamps translate into a better sound? I used my Sennheiser MKH40 mic and compared the sound though a variety of routes, taking care to level-match each route so the comparisons would be valid:.
The R was the poorest of the bunch — not bad, really, but the others were better. I was surprised at how good the preamps in the original M Box were, the only thing that let them down being a comparatively high noise floor.
The preamp compared very well with the Focusrite Octopre sound. If anything, the sounded a little brighter, and it had the best low-frequency performance, with a richer and rounder sound. Consequently, popping was the most noticeable on the The noise floor was every bit as good on the as on the Octopre and subjectively was possibly slightly better.
Having the word clock out on the was great, as the was the master clock on the system. This would have made the units even less dependent on additional equipment for recording complex sessions. Having eight internal preamps, with the ability to add a further eight using something like a Focusrite Octopre, fed into the via the ADAT port, would offer 16 channels of mic preamps in a very compact package. Digidesign have produced a separate comprehensive MIDI Mode Guide to assist you to configure the ; it didn't get installed on my system and I couldn't find it on the install CD that came with the , but a quick search of the Digidesign web site soon turned it up.
The 's control surface has undergone an overhaul with respect to its predecessor. The outer ring of the wheel is a shuttle control. When you rotate the shuttle ring, it automatically puts Pro Tools into Shuttle mode, where you can play forwards or backwards at a variable rate, depending on the Shuttle position.
The shuttle ring returns to the centre position no shuttling when you release it. The Rack inherits many of the improved features of the , including its high-quality preamps. In this mode, you can move the Session transport and cursor forwards or backwards by small amounts, enabling you to find edit points by listening, like we used to have to do before the days of digital audio workstations like Pro Tools.
The jog control also has a couple of other functions. It can be used to bank tracks to different faders: to scroll the display of tracks on the , you hold the Nudge switch and rotate the inner jog wheel clockwise to scroll tracks to the right or anti-clockwise to scroll tracks to the left.
It can be used to continuously zoom in or out horizontally or vertically on all tracks by holding down the Zoom button whilst rotating the wheel clockwise or anti-clockwise. This caught me out for a bit, especially going from jog to shuttle and wondering why it didn't respond immediately. The 's arrow buttons haven't changed in function from those of the , but I did find a bug in Bank and Nudge modes, whereby Banking or Nudging to any group of faders other than the first eight made the cursor return to the start of the Session.
The had a set of LEDs arranged in an arc above the rotary encoders, which could either indicate the position of the appropriate rotary control or act as a level meter for that track. On the Digidesign have separated these functions; the encoder indicators now surround the encoders and the meters are vertical LED bar-graphs. What is more, they have added an option whereby the bar-graphs can display the automation status for each track. I have to say, though, that I don't particularly like the shape and feel of the 's knobs.
They are like upside-down top hats, where you get hold of the rim to adjust the control, and they don't sit well in my fingers. I prefer the knobs on the Command 8 and New controls include a Save button: pressing this switch twice is equivalent to choosing Save in the File menu of Pro Tools.
I had to check the manual on this one after I pressed it once, assuming that would do it, but the button simply flashed at me and Pro Tools didn't save. I presume the double press is to stop accidental pressing of the Save button, but for my money hitting Save should be as easy as possible! Pressing the Mem Loc button once will make it flash; the LCD display will show the first eight Memory Locations in the bottom row, and the eight channel Select buttons will flash.
To select a Memory Location, press the appropriate flashing Select button and that Memory Location will be recalled. If you have more than eight Memory Locations, you can display the additional pages by pressing the Left and Right Page switches.
The features an Input switch that toggles between Auto Input and Input Only Monitor modes for record-enabled tracks. However, the display presents a confusing message when you press the Input button on the When you toggle it so that it is in Input Only mode, the display briefly shows 'AutoIn', and when you press the Input button again to put it into Auto Input, the display shows 'InOnly'. I interpreted this as meaning Pro Tools was in Input Only mode, but in fact it is saying that the next time I pressed this button it would go into Input Only mode.
The same approach is used when you're accessing menu items from the the menu item displays what the state will be when you select it, rather than its current status. Like the same control on the , the Enter OK button is equivalent to pressing Return or Enter on the computer keyboard, and lets you OK on-screen dialogues or create new Memory Locations in Pro Tools directly from the control surface.
However, on this review model, which was one of the first two s in the UK, I found a bug with this. The first time I hit the Enter key to create a locate point on the fly whilst in Play, it created a point as expected, but subsequent presses of the Enter button on the were ignored.
If I then pressed the Enter key on the computer keyboard, the first press was ignored but subsequent presses on the keyboard did create location points.
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