ProTools opens up

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Friday 14 January 2011 at 11:11am
Tags: audio | audio editing | music | software |

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It has always been thus: if you want to use Avid's ProTools audio editor - one of the most powerful professional multitrack digital audio tools in the business - you have to have one or more Digidesign DSP cards inside or attached to your computer, connected to or integrated with one of a very limited number of high-end approved third party, or one of Digidesign's own audio interfaces. ProTools simply wouldn't talk to any old audio inteface, and while, by allowing only tried and tested hardware compatibility, Avid for a long time guaranteed a level of quality and reliability which justified the extra cost and reduced options, it restricted access and interoperability to a select few.

In recent years a cut-down LE version of ProTools has been able to run on a standard computer with either a Digidesign interface or one of a small number of approved third party interfaces, but ProTools LE lacked some professional features and capabilities. In either case you still couldn't use your own choice of interface.

With the release of Pro Tools 9, however, this has all changed. Avid (who have also now dropped the 'Digidesign' sub-brand from ProTools) have opened up Pro Tools to interface with open software and hardware standards like Apple's Core Audio, or ASIO for Windows, and for the first time you can now buy Pro Tools software on its own (rather than bundled with, or limited to specific hardware) and record and play back through any audio interface. At JISC Digital Media this means we're looking forward to hooking 'Tools up to our Apogee Ensemble interface, as well as other Core Audio and ASIO audio devices we have access to, and getting back to what for some of us is a familiar environment.

News of open standards compliance is always welcome, but especially so (and long awaited) in this case!

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