PRO TOOLS DEMO FOR AMPS MEMBERS

 Many thanks to Ian Sylvester of DAT for hosting what was a very successful Pro Tools demo in their 5.1 equipped preview theatre, and to Giles Farle and Jed Allen from Digidesign for an excellent presentation.

 Digidesign’s Pro Tools is a digital sound editing and mixing package based on either a Mac or PC computer. It has for some years been a main contender in its field but it is increasingly becoming something of a de facto standard in America for sound design and general preparation work.

The Avid/Digidesign Combination

Originally designed as a music production tool, its expansion towards film and television postproduction was assured when Digidesign was incorporated by Avid Technology back in 1995. The recently launched Version 5 is the first release of Pro Tools to consciously address the needs of the postpro industry.

In an increasingly competitive field Avid still holds the lion’s share of the professional nonlinear picture editing market, especially at the top end. Often these days sound to be edited/mixed for television or film is imported directly from the Avid picture editing system using OMF 1 (Open Media Framework Version 1). The Avid editor simply hands over a hard disk containing all his/her roughly edited audio, which can be read directly by the digital audio workstation (DAW). Thus, no need for the conform. 

Different digital audio workstations deal with OMF 1 imports with varying degrees of success, including abject failure. One limitation is that, although it does include cue in/out fades, the OMF 1 export does not convey cue levels, so they arrive on your DAW’ s screen at the level at which they were recorded into the Avid. Also, converting the OMF 1 file format into the native format of your DAW (necessary to see the waveform display) can take hours for a big file set. Not ideal. 

A key feature of Pro Tools is its full compatibility with Avid’s sound and picture files. Via OMF 2 (the new improved version) the picture editor’s hard work (including levels) can be imported into Pro Tools in seconds. it’s important to point out that for this to work

you need the sound to have been recorded into the Avid properly in the first place. This is not rocket science but does need care and consideration. Currently Avids can only edit to frame accuracy (insufficient for fine editing) and the need for proper audio post is not diminished. The levels and fades set by the picture editor seldom make it to the final mix, but to have a rough outline mix appear on your screen in seconds is handy. You can, by the way, still conform from an EDL if you like and indeed it’s useful to have an EDL along with the OMF for reference and to conform in anything that might be suspect or would be better taken directly from its original source. At the acquisition end of the chain, Pro Tools (like many other systems) can read certain hard disk-based location recording devices, such as Deva - but that discussion is for another day.

As well as the sound, the picture from the Avid can also be included on the same (or different) hard disk and displayed on a computer or video monitor (depending on your hardware). The quality of the picture is variable from uncompressed (better than DigiBeta) to basic QuickTime. You can then locate instantly to any point in the programme. sound and picture. There are even plans afoot to allow the sound editor to make basic edits to the picture. This is not the revenge we’ve all been hoping for but rather is intended to allow 11th hour picture cuts to be accommodated quickly and easily.

The Virtual Rack

Another attractive feature of Pro Tools is the availability of rackfuls of auxiliary processing equipment from famous names (Aphex, Dolby, Focusrite Lexicon, TC etc) in purely software form. These are known as plug-ins and are said to offer the same level of performance as their originals but, because there’s no hardware involved, they’re less expensive. We were, for instance, shown how VocAlign (a development of the original WordFit program) can be used to help fit an imperfect ADR take to an original - very impressive. 

For many operators, one of the main drawbacks of the system has been its reliance upon standard computer hardware for the human interface QWERTY keyboard, mouse, drop-down menus, etc. Convoluted multi-key keyboard shortcuts have evolved to execute the simplest function and boggle the simpler mind. Version 5 features a new one key/one function layout, still using a QWERTYstyle keyboard, but clearly labelled and much simpler to use.

This certainly helps with editing, but Pro Tools is also a sound mixer. For years you either had to use the mouse to grab one or more virtual faders on the