MusicRadar

Pro Tools' interface has been given a facelift.

1 of 5 » View in gallery

• Related News
• Review

Pro Tools 8 sees the AIR logo appearing on a new set of 20 effects designed to complement the existing DigiRack set. These include two EQs (KillEQ and Vintage Filter), three reverbs (Reverb, Nonlinear and Spring), two delays (Multi and Dynamic), six modulations (Chorus, Ensemble, Flanger, MultiChorus, Phaser and Filter Gate) and six harmonics (Lo-Fi, Distortion, Enhancer, Frequency Shifter, FuzzWah and Talkbox).

Making up the 20 is the simple StereoWidth effect. All plug-ins have the stylish simple graphics and offer the same kind of foundation you get from the stock plug-ins in applications like Logic and Cubase.

It's worth saying that version 8 also adds as standard a number of plug-ins that were pay-for extras, including Maxim, D-Fi, Bomb Factory Sans Amp and TL Utilities. You'll also find Digidesign Eleven Free within the installer, and the FXpansion BFD Lite acoustic drum instrument

So, add this lot to the existing plug-in pack and you have a serious package straight out of the box.

Edit windows

Pro Tools 8 has new MIDI and Score edit windows. This is important, harmonising PT's behaviour with pretty much every other DAW out there.

Looking at MIDI first, on the face of it very little has changed, and if you absolutely must, you can carry on working as before. However, a double-click on a MIDI region opens the MIDI Editor screen. Much like other piano roll editors, the keyboard is vertical to the left with a timeline along the top and data such as velocity in a lane below.

Being Pro Tools, notes and data follow the grid, slip, spot and shuffle modes. Rather usefully, modes are independently selectable within the MIDI Editor. Interestingly, the data lane at the bottom goes beyond just MIDI parameters, enabling you to draw in regular automation too – very neat.

Look to the left of the MIDI Editor and you'll see the tracks list. Here you select which MIDI parts appear in the screen, and also which one you want to edit. This means you can edit MIDI completely within this screen without returning to the Edit screen to select different tracks or blocks – again, very neat.

Finally, the MIDI Editor also has a notation display option which quickly switches the MIDI info to traditional score notation.

Staying with the score concept there's also the new Score Edit window. Once again, things follow the traditional Pro Tools method, with tracks selected from the track listing to the left. You'll also a find a bunch of parameters for score set up, printing and visuals. And because the screen only displays the tracks you've selected, preparing score for single or multiple parts is very simple.

But this is more than just a printing tool, as you can also enter, edit and modify many note attributes using the floating Event Operations window. And once you're done, print directly from the screen or export to Sibelius (if you own a copy).