Digidesign Pro Tools 8 Tips and Top Features

Mar 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Atom Troy

Go to a laundry list of new features and add-ons in Pro Tools 8.

There's no Denying that Digidesign Pro Tools is everywhere in the audio, music and film industries, but something that is so widely standardized can't rest on its laurels alone. With Pro Tools 8, Digidesign doesn't do that. Many people use other digital audio workstations with Pro Tools because, historically, it has lacked some tools and features that are standard options in nearly all other DAWs. But the company has been stepping up features at an incredible rate: Pro Tools 7.3 was a huge leap into nonstop work flow and productivity, and with the introduction of Elastic Audio in version 7.4, Digidesign gave all music makers a new excuse to stay inside the software.

Some may say that the company is playing catch-up with such features, but you have to hand it to Digidesign for thinking about its customer carefully. For one, Digidesign intends to streamline and simplify, not complicate, the application's updates. Moving from Pro Tools 7 to Pro Tools 8 is easy once you realize that you're doing some things faster than ever before. Pro Tools 8 isn't a copy of another program — it's Pro Tools with some necessary, modernized enhancements.

CRACK THE NUTSHELL

Pro Tools 8 software comes with an overhauled graphical user interface (GUI), an incredible amount of new and updated plug-ins, expanded editing and mixing, and improved control-surface integration. Also, with PT8's new MIDI Editor window, you get a better work flow with more MIDI functionality, scoring for MIDI and a Score Editor.

Pro Tools LE and M-Powered versions now have a higher standard track count of 48 stereo tracks. And thanks to Elastic Audio, they have improved sound quality and Elastic Pitch, a region-based pitch transposition. Also included are enhanced Toolkit options for LE and M-Powered that provide more Pro Tools|HD functionality and compatibility between HD and LE and M-Powered systems.

Other enhancements include simpler key commands and indicators for common preferences, a new approach to track compositing and five additional inserts (for 10 total), multiple automation lanes (big thanks for that), and session templates. Other updates, such as a customizable toolbar, help simplify and streamline many common tasks.

QUICK START

Launching Pro Tools 8 brings up the new Quick Start box with four options: create a new session from a template, create a new blank session, open any of the previous 10 sessions or open any other session on your system. You cranky old Pro Tools users could turn off the Quick Start box, but you'll soon learn to love it.

GETTING GUI

Seasoned Pro Tools users may go through shock and denial when first launching 8, but it's still Pro Tools and you can customize it significantly. Some things have moved, but everything is still there. For instance, your edit focus is on the right side of the Edit window, and some things have moved up to the customizable toolbar. The Link Timeline and Edit Selection, and Link Track and Edit Selection options have moved up below the toolbar; next to those is my favorite new indicator, Insertion Follows Playback, which will be worth the upgrade alone to some.

Pro Tools 8 introduces two new main windows: MIDI Editor and Score Editor. You'll also notice a Universe window, a past HD and DV Toolkit feature that is now standard in Pro Tools 8. It's now called the Universe, or Universe View, located in the top right-hand menu button on the toolbar.

YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND: THE TRACKS LIST

You are going to love the new functionality of the Tracks List. I now leave it open all the time. You get little solid dots to the left of the track names — click on them or move them up and down to show or hide tracks instantly. You also see additional edit playlists in the Tracks List when the Tracks view is in Playlist mode (new). The Tracks List will indicate the additional edit playlists underneath your main playlist.

CUSTOMIZABLE TOOLBAR

A menu button on the right-hand side of the Edit window toolbar lets you show and hide the toolbar's available controls and displays, or you can select all. To move these from left to right on your toolbar, simply hold CTRL (Windows) or Command (Mac), and your mouse arrow turns into the grabber for moving the toolbar sections. The new MIDI Editor and Score Editor windows use the same customization methods. A new GEN MTC button for the toolbar automatically generates MIDI timecode for all assigned MIDI ports, without having to go to your session setup.

The new Snap to Grid feature lets you combine edit selections that are constrained by the Grid mode and any other Edit mode. What that means is that you can snap to grid while being in Shuffle, Slip or Spot mode. When it is enabled, edit selections and cursor placement will constrain to the current grid, and region editing and placement are based on the other Edit mode. For example, with Slip and Snap to Grid enabled, you can make a selection lock to the grid and then move or separate the selection or regions in Slip mode. That opens up many quick editing possibilities.

MIDI EDITOR WINDOW

The idea behind the MIDI Editor window is to give you more detail for working on MIDI compositions and editing tasks. This window gives more focus on specific MIDI-editing tasks, as well as a bigger and better dedicated environment. The window can show MIDI data for incoming aux inputs and instrument and MIDI tracks. And you can open multiple MIDI Editor windows to get different views.

SCORE EDITOR WINDOW

Now that Avid (Digidesign's parent company) owns Sibelius Software, PT8 incorporates the Sibelius render engine — but don't expect to get fancy Sibelius scores. The idea is to be able to print out a quick arrangement for a player in the studio or, should you have a session player who only reads notation, have some quick scoring options. It works well and has all of the basic tools, but it won't give you the fine print necessary for a full, detailed composition.

The Score Editor works like the MIDI Editor window but doesn't dock. Inside its more traditional page view, you can view, edit, arrange, print, import, draw, navigate, step and transcribe MIDI data in real time. You can show and hide tracks from the Edit window or from its own Track List. You also get Notation Display Track settings to show how individual MIDI and Instrument tracks will appear in the score. Using the Score Setup Window, you can set the page layout, staff spacing and clefs, as well as specify the composer and title.

TRACK COMPOSITING

If you haven't fallen in love already, now you will. Track Compositing is PT8's new way of creating traditional comp tracks. In previous Pro Tools versions, it was fairly time-consuming and tedious to build comp tracks from multiple takes, but the basic methods used have now been combined into a unified work flow using playlists.

DRUMROLL, PLEASE: ELASTIC PITCH

Before you get too excited, Elastic Pitch isn't as fancy as Antares Auto-Tune or Celemony Melodyne. Rather, it's a convenient, real-time, region-based audio-pitch-transposition tool. Elastic Pitch lets you transpose the whole region in semitones or cents on Elastic Audio-enabled tracks (but not with the Monophonic algorithm). You do this through the Elastic Properties window or the Transpose window. Assigned key signatures on the Key Ruler have no effect on Elastic Pitch tracks. It is a real-time region transposition, and with a little practice and a good ear, you can easily fix pitch problems.

BUT WAIT … THERE'S MORE

If Digidesign's goal was to create a one-stop app, it may have achieved it with PT8. The developers added so many enhancements it's crazy. Go to page 2 for a more comprehensive list of new specs, including a description of the new virtual instruments, plug-ins and software bundle.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!

Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus