Dolby Atmos is an immersive technology, which allows you to position sound elements in a three-dimensional space. It gives you the ability to create a single mix that can be monitored and delivered in a variety of formats. Over the years, Dolby Atmos has become ubiquitous in film, television, music, and video game production. With the Pro Tools 2023.12 software release, Atmos integration is now better than ever because Dolby has provided us the tools to integrate their renderer directly into Pro Tools, so you can mix in Dolby Atmos without having to use (and purchase) the external Dolby Atmos Renderer application. This enabled us to greatly simplify the setup and use of Dolby Atmos within Pro Tools, while lowering the cost for you as the new integrated renderer is included free in both Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate.

The Pro Tools Dolby Atmos renderer supports direct monitoring of the following formats: Binaural, 2.0, 5.1, 7.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.4 (Studio and Ultimate) and 9.1.6 (Ultimate only). Binaural can be monitored from your main output, or sent as an independent headphone mix, allowing you to maintain a separate monitor format from your speakers. The Dolby Atmos integration also offers an independent re-render that can be used for loudness metering with your choice of plugin, or as an additional 5.1 or 2.0 send/print of the mix.

For information, go HERE.

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), a leading technology provider that powers the media and entertainment industry, announced the completion of its acquisition by an affiliate of STG in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion. The acquisition was previously announced on August 9, 2023, and approved by Avid stockholders on November 2, 2023.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Avid stockholders will receive $27.05 per share. As a result of the completion of this transaction, Avid common stock will cease trading prior to the opening of trading on November 7, 2023, and will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Avid will operate as a privately-held company and remain headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

“By becoming a private company, we believe Avid will be able to achieve the speed of innovation, scale and performance required for us to continue leading the industry forward,” said Jeff Rosica, Avid’s Chief Executive Officer and President. “Combined with their significant operational and financial resources, STG brings deep investment experience in the technology sector that will accelerate the achievement of Avid’s strategic vision, building on the momentum of our successful ongoing transformation achieved over the past several years.”

“We are excited to begin the next phase of Avid’s journey. Avid’s solutions are integral to content creation and management workflows across the film, television and music markets. Building on Avid’s established leadership position, we look forward to accelerating Avid’s growth trajectory through a deep focus on innovation and delivering enhanced customer value,” said William Chisholm, Managing Partner, and Patrick Fouhy, Principal, of STG.

Avid has announced Pro Tools Sketch, a new non-linear, clip-based creation tool in Pro Tools software that is also available as a free iPad app. Pro Tools Sketch enables musicians to quickly capture new ideas and freely experiment with concepts and songs, and find inspiration with a massive library of free loops, virtual instruments and effects. Years in the making, this new addition to the Pro Tools workflow adds a must-have creation process directly alongside the Edit and Mix windows that established modern linear audio recording.

With Pro Tools Sketch, Avid addresses the growing needs of modern creators, no matter their preferred music creation style. While the Pro Tools Sketch iPad app is available for free to anyone via the Apple App Store, the Pro Tools 2023.9 update is now available to all Pro Tools customers on an active subscription or perpetual license with a current Software Updates + Support Plan, as well as all users of the free Pro Tools Intro application.

Pro Tools Sketch

Pro Tools Sketch is a significant expansion of the Pro Tools music creation workflow, adding a non-linear creation environment to the proven Pro Tools toolset used on the majority of top music releases, movies, and TV shows. Users can now start with clip-based sketches in which loops, MIDI, and recordings can be freely organised and played, and then exported to be shared with friends. Sketches can also be moved to the Pro Tools timeline for further production using its world-class editing and mixing tools. And since sketches can be moved between computer and iPad at will, users can capture and play with ideas anywhere inspiration strikes.

Pro Tools Sketch features 16 tracks and virtually unlimited scenes and includes over 1GB of loops and a variety of onboard effects to create for any kind of music genre. Users can quickly audition audio and MIDI loops in the Browser and drag them into the launcher where they can be played, moved, and tweaked. Audio and MIDI can be recorded and edited alongside loops and then quickly organised into linear song arrangements. Whether users are experienced or new to Pro Tools, Sketch gives them new ways to experiment and make something they truly love.

“Every music creator wants to capture inspiration when it arises and act on it precisely at that magical moment—and it should be simple and easy. We made Sketch to go far with ideation, letting any user start experimenting with their notions right away and then simply hop into Pro Tools when they’re ready to take them further forward,” said David Toomey, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Audio & Music Solutions. “We’re incredibly excited for beginners and pros alike to work out non-linear ideas with total convenience, then mix and edit in Pro Tools. Creators never stop generating new ideas and Sketch lets their output keep pace with their individual creative sparks. Not a single moment wasted, not a single idea lost.”

Other New Pro Tools 2023.9 Features

Pro Tools 2023.9 software update also introduces Export Selected Range, which enables Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate customers to export selected portions of the timeline as a new session. This feature is perfect for breaking up large post sessions, separating a live recording into a session per song, and saving important elements of the session as bite size pieces. The release also delivers drag-and-drop plugin slot reordering to give users greater flexibility in experimenting with and changing processing order, and more.

Availability

The Pro Tools Sketch iPad app is now available free to download via the Apple App Store. The Pro Tools 2023.9 software release is now available to all Pro Tools customers on an active subscription or perpetual license with a current Software Updates and Support Plan, as well as all users of the free Pro Tools Intro application.

New Pro Tools subscriptions (Artist, Studio, and Ultimate) can be purchased on the Avid Webstore or through an authorised Avid reseller. New Pro Tools perpetual licenses are exclusively sold by authorised Avid resellers.

Since its introduction in 2002, the design of the first MBox and its subsequent successors has always been about simple USB ‘boxes’. These came with enough connectivity to provide entry-level access to the world of Pro Tools, and Avid recognised that home studio enthusiasts were a viable market. Avid felt that having them start out with a trimmed-down version of Pro Tools and an MBox, or a Fasttrack interface, might lead to bigger and better things. The units were tough, portable, and reliable — I still have a Fasttrack Duo that always works regardless of the varied Windows OS and obsolete drivers on my laptop.

For those of us who have been around a while, don’t be duped by the MBox moniker. This isn’t a glorified Pro Tools dongle, it’s much more.  

FINGERS & TOES

The MBox Studio manages to shoehorn in an I/O count of 21 inputs and 22 outputs. Aside from the four Variable Z mic/line inputs — which are important for many users — there are TRS line inputs, and ADAT optical ports giving you 8 channels each way. Then there’s MIDI, a sneaky TRS output on the front panel offering a convenient re-amp connector, and, more interestingly, Bluetooth in and out. Finally, there’s a talkback microphone, which is also connected to a guitar tuner, but what gets a big thumbs-up from me are the two separate headphone outputs with individual volume controls.

The layout and workflow of the MBox Studio provide a cool diversion from the norm. Two large rotary controllers allow the adjustment of everything, depending on parameters chosen by a bank of buttons. The concept isn’t too dissimilar to a live mixing console — where you first need to choose what you’re tweaking before a single controller can dial in the changes — albeit in a scaled down way. 

The Studio is essentially split down the middle with the left controller handling Input parameters, while the right rotary dial deals with Output settings. Both have push-button operation to cycle through options. The legending and backlighting of the interface provides clarity — there’s never any confusion about what you’re doing. Four assignable hotkeys can be configured to access most functions (although not as Transport controls) and are given a dedicated colour. These are dual-purpose, where a single, short or long press can trigger different uses.

Still a desktop model, and larger than its predecessors, it requires USB-C to a computer and the included power supply. The wedge-shaped profile that allows the space needed for its wealth of hardware connectors at the rear has the MBox Studio looking like a mini console.

Avid has unveiled Pro Tools Carbon Pre at the AES Show 2022 in New York City. The product allows individual artists, bands, and producers using Pro Tools Carbon, or third-party audio interfaces to easily expand their studio setups to capture every sonic detail of large tracking sessions. Pro Tools Carbon Pre is a pristine multi-mic pre interface that enables the highest-quality audio at 32-bit resolution to maximise dynamic range from input to output across the entire audio production workflow.

“The Pro Tools Carbon system eliminates the barriers and tedious tasks that detract from productivity and creativity to enable artists and musicians to focus on capturing great performances and mixes,” said Francois Quereuil, Vice President, Product Management for Audio and Music Solutions, Avid. “Pro Tools Carbon Pre is a high-quality I/O expansion option for users who need to record full bands. Pro Tools Carbon Pre delivers the flexibility of additional mic/line inputs and outputs to enable brilliant sound quality on every track while leveraging the system’s Hybrid Engine, with complete remote control, and recall capabilities that are fully integrated with Pro Tools.”

Matching the audio performance of Avid’s groundbreaking Pro Tools Carbon interface, Pro Tools Carbon Pre enables users to expand their system with 24 channels of world-class mic/line preamps and line outputs. This allows users to capture large tracking sessions and multi-mic live recordings delivering impeccable sound quality from capture to output. In addition, Pro Tools Carbon’s extremely low-noise mic preamps have variable impedance — which lets users subtly change the tone of their mics — so they can be confident of capturing every sonic detail in the studio.

Existing Pro Tools HD systems needing more mic preamps can leverage Pro Tools Carbon Pre as an eight-channel ADAT preamp expansion unit to scale up I/O. Users can control up to nine Pro Tools Carbon Pre units in a Pro Tools HD system, while also tapping into the Pro Tools Hybrid Engine for low-latency input processing.

To help capture impeccable sound quality across the entire system, Pro Tools Carbon Pre also uses stacked AD converters on each input, while also providing industry-leading double-precision clocking. Pro Tools Carbon Pre allows artists to optimise and colour the tone of mic or instrument inputs with Variable Z impedance switching, so users hear and feel every nuance in their recordings.

Pro Tools Carbon Pre accelerates audio workflows without the need for users to access the interface to make changes. Artists can remotely control, save, and recall all preamp settings — including phantom power, gain, and impedance switching directly in Pro Tools across all Pro Tools Carbon-connected interfaces. With an instant session recall courtesy of the virtual assistant, users can quickly switch between sessions without any delays from manual setup and reconfiguration.

Raising The Bar On Audio Interface Performance
The Pro Tools Carbon audio interface empowers artists, bands, engineers, and producers to record every detail of every performance with the utmost clarity and precision. Built to capture brilliance, this hybrid audio production system features incredible sound quality and intelligent Pro Tools integration that combines the power of the user’s native CPU with the unparalleled performance of HDX DSP acceleration.

Always Innovating For Music Creators
In addition to debuting Pro Tools Carbon Pre today at the Audio Engineering Society Show 2022 (booth 155), Avid is showcasing its brand-new Mbox Studio which brings professional recording power to personal studios with the most comprehensive desktop interface ever made. Avid is also demonstrating the latest version of Pro Tools featuring tightly integrated Celemony Melodyne software via ARA 2 for quick vocal tuning and creating harmonies, re-voicing instruments, fixing rhythm timing, and much more.

Pricing And Availability
Pro Tools Carbon Pre will be available later this month through resellers, starting at U$2,999.