By now you have probably: Seen the announcement of PT11 from NAB 2013, read countless blogs and reviews about the new features and maybe even attended a pre-launch public demo with question and answer time.
Not a whole heap to add but here’s the hit points.
- 64-bit memory space
- 32-bit float mix engine (yes they are different things)
- New metering options including Gain Reduction metering
- More undo’s for all the errors that you can make faster now
- More VI’s can be used
- New Audio Engine
- New Video Engine
- Faster than Realtime Bounce
- …and much more
But what doesn’t it do? This is not a bash of Avid in anyway rather a way to quickly answer a lot of questions that begin with “So can you…” and end with “…yet?”
- So can you…have multiple video windows…yet?
No, the new video engine is vastly improved in it’s framework and has great features built into it like Draft and Best Performance video views as wel as Full Quality. It can have MXF based video files directly in the timeline as well as a number of new and developing industry-supported formats such as OP1A. you can mirror your picture to Desktop Video and external hardware but you can’t yet have two different videos displayed in your session windows. - So can you…have multiple sessions open…yet?
No, and actually in my humble opinion this is a good thing. I know there are captivating reasons to be able to do it but I like the single session operation, I used to use Logic and this is one thing I definitely do not miss. - So can you…have bin/folders in the clip list…yet?
No. I’d really love to have a compelling reason for this, what exactly does the in paradigm add to your Pro Tools session? Folders I can get on board with to a point but if you can convince me of bins please feel free to comment. The new workspace is a great start at a new database format for the software, it is much faster in searching and indexing drives and the searching is great too…different but great. - So can you…freeze tracks…yet?
No, not really although if you 1 to 1 your outputs to a desk then you could offline bounce 16 of them at a time and reimport. Not the same I know but 4x16 track width offline bounces will take less time than 1x64 track realtime bounce or rerecord pass. - So can you…have mulitple marker tracks…yet?
No, if you are importing from an media composer created omf/aaf then you’ll be able to import the different marker colors from that file but you can’t create different color markers or multiple marker tracks yet. - So can you…run VST plugins…yet?
No. AAX2 is the one and only plugin format in Pro Tools 11. - So can you…have clip based effects or panning…yet?
No. Clip based gain is the one man show of clip based realtime processing. - So can you…create a folder of tracks…yet?
No. - So can you…export part of a session…yet?
No, Save Session Copy will do selected tracks only though. My workaround is to duplicate a set of tracks and then top and tail the media needed. Shift+enter will select to the start of the session from edit point, shift+alt+enter will select to the end of the session from the edit selection point. Ok, it’s a 5 step process but it’s called a ‘work’around… - So can you…Send to Avid after you crash…yet?
Yes, yes you can. If you crash it, report it. Help them help you people. It’s free to submit a crash report and will help the product get more stable.
So there you have it. 10 quick answers to 10 questions I heard after PT10 release. Now, quit reading and go install PT11. You don’t need to uninstall PT10 ‘cause…they co-install. Can’t run simultaneously but then who would want multiple sessions open at one time, right? Oh…wait.