Pro tools 8 First Impressions

How I love Pro tools 8, let me count the ways. Well the boys at Digidesign have certainly put in the hours to create something most streamlined and beautiful. You know how pro tools 7.4 had that hard and sterile looking GUI? Well Pro tools 8 is very easy on the eye, it looks slick. But looks aren’t everything but it doesn’t take long to realize this is one mean peace of music creation software.

After only a couple of weeks I can only tell you what strikes me first, after all writing a comprehensive review on Pro tool 8 would have me at this keyboard to the wee hours of the morning, it really is that extensive.

Ok, what I like.

Notation.

Midi to score feature is going to be great for passing on my compositions for horn and string arrangements, I can’t write notes and humming it to a would be session musician just doesn’t cut it. Love it!

Um..Mini Grand, sounds great to my ears, maybe not to a concert pianist but within a pop style mix, purfect!

Pro tools 8 with the Mini Grand

The DB-33 organ, growls like the real thing, I’ve heard NI’s B4 and there is a difference in tone but I’m not particularly concerned whether an organ sounds exactly like a real Hammond, I just want a good sounding organ and this one sounds lovely.

Pro tools 8 with the DB-33

Automation is much smoother, you know how in previous versions nailing your automation with a mouse was real tricky.

Smoother automation edits

The new AIR plugin in list is extensive.

New Frequency Shifter plugin

• Effects Plug-ins:
• Chorus
• Decimator
• Distortion
• Dynamic Delay
• Enhancer
• Ensemble
• Filter-Gate-Sequencer
• Flanger
• Frequency Shifter
• FuzzWah
• KillEQ
• MultiChorus
• MultiTap Delay
• Nonlinear Reverb
• Phaser
• Reverb
• Spring Reverb
• StereoWidth
• Talkbox
• Vintage Filter

Now that’s a sweet list ain’t it? I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what these can do for my creativity but I’m real happy about having all these new options, Previously trying to find these effects from third party developers was time consuming and expensive.

Ok, check out the above graphic, this is real nice, see how you can highlight GRID mode and SHUFFLE mode at the same time, a new feature in Pro tools 8. This is really helpful, one less move  when pushing around those regions. Also the Universe is great new feature. Just above bars and beats you can see a series of blue lines which overview the layout of my tracks without having to waste time zooming out. Clicking around this box will navigate me to that particular area in a flash.

As I said, there are so many features but is it really worth that expensive upgrade?

Well I think it’s a bit pricey but then again consider replacing just what I’ve listed here with third party products and you’d be up for thousands.

In a nutshell Pro tools 8 is empowering and it’s more of a one stop shop than ever.

Improved midi performance, state of the art design, a super plugin database, awesome virtual instruments. yep sold me.

A definite thumbs up!

BTW Upgrading from 7.4 to PT8 was a breeze, I thought I would at least lose a few of plugins with incompatibility issues but surprisingly they have all survived.

If I find more interesting stuff I’ll post it here soon.

Happy playing,

Mike de Velta

Side chain compression in Pro tools

I met a professional mixer on gearslutz once on a live chat some time ago and asked him if he worked with stems (merged tracks e.g all drums in on sep stereo track) in a final mix, he said he didn’t like working with them because of the  extensive side chaining work he does with all his tracks.

I was a bit unsure of what he meant but in the simplest terms he went on to explain how you could send a level from a track via a  buss to the compressor of another track that you wanted ducked.

Man! Like a light bulb! I knew how to do it theoretically but never saw or importantly heard this effect in a  real world application.

Listen to the snippet below and listen to  the effect of the vocals “pushing” down the volume of the keyboard sound it is set against.

Sacrifice.mp3
It makes more sense now to employ this method instead of trying to eq or volume ride everything into or out of existence.

Great stuff!

The Pro tools Side Chain Method

In this example a send is created within the vox channel and routed via bus 8 to the input of the compressor on the track below it.
The bussed output on the vox channel is set to  0db and the pre fade “P” button is  clicked on to maximize it’s  level.
The input of the compressor’s key (top-left)  is now set to receive from bus 8 and importantly the  highlighted blue key on the compressor should be activated. (top-right). The compressor is now listening to the external source.
Initially by tweaking the threshold settings within the compressor you should now be able to hear the side chain effect.

Voila!

The above graphic should be self explanatory, if you get stuck just flick me a mail and I’ll elaborate a little.

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About

Typically associated with the Blues and Roots movement and acoustic in nature Mike De Velta's intoxicating compositions and performances are constantly on the move. A rich showcase of modern folk,blues and a hint of the eastern expressed through the shimmering and delightful tones of lap slide, ukulele and acoustic guitars.

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