HHB Communications is pleased to announce the release of Avid’s new Pro Tools|HDX digital audio workstation and Pro Tools 10 software.
Debuted at the 131st AES Convention in NYC, the new Avid products offer great advantages for Pro Tools users, as they have been designed to deliver enhanced performance, higher sound quality, and innovative new capabilities for audio post and music production professionals. New features have been integrated to provide scalable solutions and deliver better and faster performance, and easier collaboration than ever for professional users.
Pro Tools|HDX
The Pro Tools|HDX system has been enhanced to facilitate bigger and more complex productions by delivering up to 5x more DSP per card, over a thousand dB of additional headroom, and up to 4x the track counts and 2x the I/O as Pro Tools|HD Accel. The new system can also be scaled to increase track counts, power, and I/O, using up to three Pro Tools|HDX cards and multiple Pro Tools HD Series interfaces.
This addition to the Pro Tools family results in two system choices. Users can choose the Pro Tools|HD Native system if they need the advanced workflows and sound quality of Pro Tools HD, and want to leverage their host computer to get the best performance and lowest latency, choose the new flagship DSP-accelerated Pro Tools|HDX system if they require consistent peak performance and near-zero latency to handle extremely large and complex productions.
The new Pro Tools HD 10 software is included with HDX, enabling users to record and play back up to 256 audio tracks per card (or play back up to 768 tracks with three cards).
AAX (Avid Audio eXtension) plug-ins
Pro Tools HD 10 introduces the new AAX (Avid Audio eXtension) plug-in format, which enables better workflows and sound parity when sharing sessions between DSP-accelerated and native-based Pro Tools systems. With two formats available-AAX DSP and AAX Native-AAX opens the door to future advancements in Pro Tools technology.
Pro Tools 10 offers optimised recording and playback responsiveness by way of an extended disk cache, which can load entire sessions into RAM, and ensures maximum track counts from networked-attached storage, such as Avid Unity ISIS, and slower local drives. Up to 12 Pro Tools|HD systems can be controlled from one using the Satellite Link option. Audio can be mixed from up to two Pro Tools|HD systems with a D-Command control surface through Multi-mode.
Pro Tools 10
Pro Tools 10 software adds major new features to the world’s leading digital audio workstation. This new version introduces several new tools and timesaving workflows, such as Clip Gain, which separates pre-mix levels from Pro Tools software’s renowned mixing automation, greatly speeding up and improving the workflow between sound editors and mixers. Users will also be able to achieve higher sound quality and better performance than ever, whether they’re recording, composing, editing, mixing, or playing back sessions.
Pro Tools 10 provides a 32-bit floating point file format for high resolution sound when recording and mixing. It also introduces improved disk cache and real-time fades, four times more ADC for bigger mixes and more plug-ins, AudioSuite Improvements, and the Avid channel Strip plug-in, which delivers the renowned sound of System 5 console.
Over 50 new features are offered by Pro Tools 10 to provide better performance-even on network-attached or slow local drives-with disk handling improvements and real-time fades; more flexibility-and 24-hour timeline capability-when conforming multiple projects into a single timeline. It also allows users to work with multiple file formats and mixed bit depths in the same project-including interleaved-without converting files.
“Today’s audio post and music professionals are faced with evolving challenges and much more demanding productions that require more power, extended capabilities, and better sound quality than ever before,” says Chris Gahagan, Avid’s senior vice president of products and solutions. “Pro Tools|HDX and Pro Tools 10 software mark an enormous leap forward in sound quality and efficiency, enabling our top professional customers to deliver their best sounding, most creative work in less time.”
