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without compromising the audio itself very much, but fundamentally the truth remains—you can’t get the most out of PT 10 if you’re running it on hardware designed for PT 9. This is especially evident in the world of plug-ins, where Avid has introduced a new standard called AAX. Available in DSP and Native versions, AAX offers a lot more consistency in sound when you move from native to DSP-based systems in back, because the two versions share the same basic code, as opposed to RTAS and TDM plug-ins which are completely different under the hood. PT 10 will still run RTAS plug-ins natively and TDM plug-ins on HD cards, but AAX plug-ins won’t work in PT 9, and of course AAX DSP plug-ins won’t work on old HD hardware. This has given rise to a lot of wailing among PT users who have invested heavily in HD systems and TDM plug-ins, because their latest and greatest has just become yesterday’s news. I heard at least one studio owner on the AES showroom floor griping about how his very expensive HD system had

Editorial by Mike Metlay

Pro Tools 10: The Apocalypse That Wasn’t
I’m writing this the day after I’ve returned home from the 131st AES Convention in New York. Look for a full report next month, but for now, I’d like to try to beat my press deadline and squeeze in a few thoughts about one particular product announcement. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know by now that the night before the show opened, Avid announced Pro Tools 10 (shipping now) and the new HDX audio DSP cards (shipping by the end of this year). PT 9 was a big deal because it severed the required connection between Avid hardware and software, allowing third-party interfaces to talk to Pro Tools. PT 10 goes way farther, even though its advantages are more “under the hood” and less directly obvious. Without getting into too much technical detail, PT 10’s big leap forward boils down to this: There has been a major change at the very deepest level in how Pro Tools works with digital data. (You’re going to hear the phrase “32-bit Float” tossed around a lot in the coming months, usually by people who have no clue what it means.) This change, coupled with a lot of higher-level stuff like new disk access protocols, means that PT 10 will have the potential for much improved sound quality while moving data around much faster than it used to—a streamlining that takes great advantage of the way modern digital hardware processes data. Pro Tools 10 will still talk to Avid’s older DSP hardware, but you’ll sacrifice some of what makes the newest version cool when you do that. Avid’s making an effort to offer the ability to move PT 10 sessions backwards onto older systems
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just been obsoleted, and it got me thinking about a lot of hypothetical questions and possible answers... “Am I doomed?” Not necessarily! You might be surprised to discover that when you go into your studio tomorrow, your Pro Tools 9 system will still boot up, your TDM plug-ins will still sound great, and your HD cards will still let you do fantastic work. They didn’t all magically start sounding like wax-cylinder recordings just because Avid released new stuff! Old and new systems, particularly in large facilities, will live side by side for months or years as the transition takes place, both cruising along happily. “Will there be new versions of my plug-ins, and what’ll they cost me?” That is firmly in the hands of the plug-in makers, not Avid. Some will feel they have to offer crossgrades or upgrades for little or no money, sacrificing profit (and possibly endangering their financial welfare) for happier customers. Others will call it “the cost of doing business” and charge you full or near-full price for new versions of everything all over again, and you’ll have to decide how badly you need them to do your job. “What do I tell the clients who demand only the latest and greatest?” Tell them you’re running the latest version of Pro Tools, and don’t offer to rip open your computer to show them which cards you have installed. How many clients do you know who are both tech-savvy enough to ask about HD vs. HDX cards and seriously convinced that they must have one vs. the other to make great tunes? “Will the new systems truly help me work better?” They’ll be more efficient and faster, for sure. But there’s a big argument about whether more capacity for tracks and plug-ins truly gives you room to be more creative and less fussy, or if it just gives you more room to be sloppy and disorganized without tripping over your system’s limitations! For many users, the upgrade will start out painless and not too expensive. Systems that rely on native processor power to do the heavy lifting will see advantages in speed and power right away, while still using RTAS plug-ins already in place. Higher-end users will have serious decisions to make about how to phase in the new hardware and software in a practical and profitable way, but as I said above, they’ll still have their existing systems to do great work. Pro Tools has a huge installed user base. That makes every upgrade a major upheaval in the community. But it’s not the Apocalypse... unless you decide it is. Mike Metlay (mike@recordingmag.com) would like to thank the staff at Avid for helpful answers to his early naive questions, and promises many more such questions to come.

Recording - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2011