It very much felt like I was on the very edge of what was possible, and the CPU Total was right up to percent, but this is clearly a staggering improvement over the previous version.
If all Avid had done was to improve the performance as described, that would have been a great achievement — but they've gone one better. Pro Tools 11's new audio engine also has a feature called Dynamic Plug-in Processing, where native plug-ins are temporarily deactivated if Pro Tools detects that they're not actually processing any signal.
This means that when Pro Tools is stopped and no audio is active, the CPU use drops down to effectively nothing; in previous versions of Pro Tools, plug-ins would remain active all the time, basically processing silence, even when they weren't required to be doing anything.
Dynamic Plug-in Processing won't be all that useful if you have a Session with non-stop audio on every track, of course, but this is rarely how Sessions are constructed.
For situations where you have a set of tracks with a heavy processing requirement at the beginning of a Session, and a completely different set of tracks and processing at the end, the plug-ins used to process audio at the beginning will no longer take cycles away from the processing that happens at the end. Equally, if you build up Sessions by chequerboarding tracks, plug-ins will be activated and deactivated as required, giving you even more processing resources than you thought were available.
And should Dynamic Plug-in Processing fool you to the point where your Session won't play back any more, Avid have made it possible to disable this mode in the Playback Engine window. This can be set to a much lower value, allowing low-latency monitoring of input signals through plug-ins, and immediate response when playing soft synths live.
And, speaking of latency, the Delay Compensation Engine setting has been removed from the Playback Engine window, and if delay compensation is enabled, you now get what was previously the maximum setting by default. This makes sense, since the only reason to make it variable was due to hardware differences between HD and HDX cards, the former of which are no longer supported. In addition to the new audio engine, Avid have also made some improvements to the on-screen mixer.
The level meters are now 30 percent larger than before, making them easier to see from a distance, and can be configured to show different types of metering ballistics and scales. The Venue options are a handy addition for those are used to working with Avid's live sound consoles, or, more likely, anyone who is recording to Pro Tools from a Venue console. Pro Tools' level meters, now 30 percent larger in version 11 and with the ability to show gain reduction as well.
You can select the various metering options by right-clicking any meter, whether on the Mix or Editor windows, or the new Output Meters available in the Edit and Transport windows; and, if this wasn't enough, there's a whole new Metering page in Pro Tools's Preferences window to fine-tune how these options are displayed.
The new Metering Preferences page offers a way to configure Pro Tools 11's new level and gain-reduction metering functionality. My only small criticism of the new metering is the very fact that the level meter is indeed now 30 percent larger than before.
While great for those who want to see the metering more clearly, it also means you lose a few vertical pixels. It would have been really nice if Avid could have made it possible to vertically resize the fader and meter in the same way as you can with Cubase and Nuendo, so you could decide for yourself between clearer metering and seeing more controls. Another interesting metering improvement for Pro Tools HD users is that it's now possible to display a Gain Reduction meter alongside the basic level meter, which shows the amount of gain reduction being applied to a given channel by any processing that might be employed.
The gain reduction appears if you have 'Show Track Gain Reduction Meter' ticked in either the meter's pop-up menu or the Metering Preferences, and you have a dynamics plug-in inserted on that track. An additional nice touch is that a miniature gain-reduction meter is also shown on individual insert slots, but a minor annoyance is that the meter pop-up menu can only be opened by right-clicking in the level meter, rather than the gain-reduction meter, which is a bit counter-intuitive when you want to change a setting for the gain-reduction meter.
For the gain-reduction meter to work, a plug-in must be able to report the amount of gain reduction to Pro Tools.
The good news is that pretty much every dynamics plug-in is already capable of doing this: Avid's D-Control and D-Command surfaces have LED gain-reduction meters, so to support this feature, plug-ins have had to implement gain-reduction reporting for some time. As well as the new metering options, it's now also possible to see expanded send views for any or all of the 10 sends simultaneously, which should make quite a few users happy.
And, sticking with the theme of improved metering, sends can now show a miniature level meter when not expanded so you can see at a glance if any signal is being, well, sent. These miniature meters are also visible on the Edit window where sends are displayed. Pro Tools 11 is a major, under-the-bonnet engine change that both increases performance and makes possible new features such as offline bouncing. There are many who had hoped Avid would bring Pro Tools into the bit universe sooner, but it's clear that they have been undertaking a significant transition over versions 9 and 10 — and the introduction of the HDX hardware — to make Pro Tools 11 possible.
And, ultimately, by using version 10 as something of a stepping-stone release to Pro Tools 11, Avid were able to keep existing users supported while also introducing new technologies such as HDX and AAX. Some users may feel disappointed that the Pro Tools application itself has received less attention than the engine there's still no way to organise tracks into folders, for example , but I think most will probably agree that bit compatibility overshadows most other wish-list items, especially as it's accompanied by a new audio engine that delivers significant performance improvements and finally makes offline bouncing possible.
There are actually quite a large number of non-headline features I didn't have space to discuss that probably answer the cries of a great many users across the board. For example, the various browser windows have been consolidated into a new Workspace Browser, with the underlying DigiBase being replaced by a modern database engine that aims to improve searching, browsing and relinking. You now get twice as many levels of Undo 64 and double the number of Instrument tracks, with Pro Tools and Pro Tools HD now offering and Instrument tracks respectively.
Last, but not least, automation data is now properly time-stamped, and it's possible to record automation while in Record mode. In terms of pricing, the prices are in keeping with what Avid have charged in the past. Given the power of the new audio engine, and that it's now possible to do so much on a native or HD Native system, you could be left wondering whether HDX cards are even still necessary.
Having more power on native Pro Tools systems gives you more choice in how you choose and use Pro Tools, and I've never met an HD user who complained about having too many resources available! Given that Pro Tools 11 can only use bit AAX plug-ins, the availability of plug-ins in this format is obviously rather important. Thankfully, Avid have ported virtually their entire catalogue, including the AIR Creative Collection which has its own installer.
The exceptions mostly include plug-ins which had been developed or distributed in collaboration with third parties, such as Dolby's Surround Tools, Line 6's Amp Farm and Echo Farm, and TC Electronic's plug-ins including the much-loved Master X3. However, to fill the gap, Avid have instead provided an upgraded version of their own Click plug-in. The new Click II provides two separate clicks, which are independent both in terms of rhythm and sound.
The new Click II plug-in can be configured to have two independent clicks, each with its own volume, rhythm and sound. The situation for third-party plug-ins varies from developer to developer, although many companies were ready with bit AAX variants of their wares in time for the Pro Tools 11 release. As mentioned in the main text, many developers already have bit AAX plug-ins shipping, and the process of making them bit-compatible should, in most cases, be relatively straightforward.
Sonnox already have five plug-ins available that support bit AAX, and they say that "Updates are in final-stage development for use with Pro Tools Pro Tools 11 eschews legacy software and hardware technologies to take Pro Tools' functionality and performance to the next level.
All prices include VAT. Pros Pro Tools is finally a bit application. The new audio engine improves performance and makes possible long-sought-after features such as offline bouncing. The metering options with the gain-reduction meter are a nice touch. Cons It might take some time before you can use all your third-party plug-ins in Pro Tools Summary Pro Tools 11 eschews legacy software and hardware technologies to take Pro Tools' functionality and performance to the next level.
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