Pro Tools Intro (free) and 2022.9 Melodyne ARA2 integration

[Guy Rowland]

Pro Tools has been updated to 2022.9, and there is yet another new free version.

PRO TOOLS INTRO

Pro Tools Intro™ is a free, feature-reduced version of Pro Tools designed to introduce you to the Pro Tools product line. Visit www.avid.com to register, download, and install Pro Tools Intro. Pro Tools Intro lets you create beats, record performances, and have fun making music with the same tools used by professionals. Pro Tools Intro provides all the essential audio and MIDI tools you need to produce your own music and includes 36 core effects and instrument plug-ins.

All Pro Tools subscriptions and trials automatically default to Pro Tools Intro upon expiration, ensuring that you have some limited capabilities even if your license or trial expires.

Pro Tools Intro software provides the following capabilities, depending on your hardware configuration:

• Up to 4 channels of I/O depending on your system and audio hardware
• Up to a total of 8 mono or stereo audio tracks per session at all sample rates
• Up to 4 Auxiliary Input or Routing Folder tracks
• 1 Master Fader track
• Up to 8 MIDI tracks
• Up to 8 Instrument tracks
• 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point audio
• Support for sample rates up to 192 kHz
• Automatic Delay Compensation (up to 16,383 samples at 48 kHz)
• Non-destructive, random-access editing and mix automation
• Audio processing with up to 10 real-time plug-ins per track, depending on your computer’s capabilities
• Up to 10 sends per track

Pro Tools Intro and Pro Tools | First Projects

If you have been using Pro Tools | First and plan to continue with Pro Tools Intro, be sure to save any cloud-based projects as local sessions. While you will still have 1 GB of Cloud space that will continue to host your Pro Tools | First projects, Pro Tools Intro does not support the creation of any new projects (unless you purchase an Avid Cloud plan). This means that you cannot create your own projects, but you can still be invited by others to collaborate on their projects.

PRO TOOLS 2022.9

Melodyne ARA2 integration

Pro Tools lets you edit audio with Melodyne ARA (Audio Random Access) by Celemony from within the Edit window. Pro Tools
provides a docked Melodyne editor at the bottom of the Edit window along with the docked MIDI Editor and Clip Effects, each organized in tabs. You can analyze and edit whole audio tracks or single audio clips using Melodyne.



Aux I/O
(macOS Big Sur or Later Only)

Pro Tools on macOS (Big Sur or later only) lets you use Aux I/O to extend your Pro Tools I/O capabilities through Core Audio routing on macOS. Choose any device that you prefer to use as your main Playback Engine, such as HDX (Hybrid Engine only) or Pro
Tools | Carbon, and then add individual Aux I/O input and/or output devices in the I/O Setup (such as Zoom or your favorite sound
library application). Each enabled device appears in I/O Setup as an additional interface that can be assigned to input or output of
a track. Use Aux I/O with Pro Tools Audio Bridge to stream audio between Pro Tools and another DAW (such as Ableton Live)
or virtual instrument

Miscellaneous Features and Enhancements

• Increased marker count from 999 to 32,000.
• Quantize Toolbar controls in Edit and MIDI Editor windows.
• Clip Effects tab.
• Enhanced Edit Window Follows and Mix Window Follows preferences for control surfaces.
• Mic Preamp track control enhancements.
• Timecode Overlay X/Y settings for fine-tuning the Timecode Overlay position in the Video window

https://resources.avid.com/SupportFi...ols_2022.9.pdf

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[Guy Rowland]

The new free Intro is a pretty good and useable product. I think it might be come de-facto for audio books, podcasts etc where the track limitations don't matter. It'll even work with Melodyne if you have it installed.

I just did a surprisingly successful test on my aging 2015 Macbook Pro, and learned a few things on the way. My current Studio 2020.11 license is iLok Cloud, and I figured I'd install a separate version of Intro which is of course up to date.

When you go here - https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/intro - and press the Download button, it takes you to your iLok account or prompts to set up a new one (it remembered my usual login), then you download what is labelled as Intro. In fact it is the full 2022.9 installer (which unpacks to over 4gb), and is not labelled Intro at all - it only becomes Intro when launched with an appropriate license (or your subs have run out). In iLok manager I moved the Intro license to my machine, so it's permanently there.

I first renamed the 2020.11 app with a FULL suffix (as it will be for me), then unpacked and installed 2022.9. Once done I renamed the new app 2022.9 INTRO. (I also deleted Avid Link, which historically has sent my 2015 MBP's CPU haywire). Doing it this way also means that if I plug in my physical iLok with my Ultimate license on it, I now have an up to date Ultimate version on my MBP.

As for Intro, it seemed to work great. Melodyne was slow to analyse, but it worked. Excellently, it can Import Session Data, so if you're in a fix and need to open an full session, you can just pick the most important tracks. It scanned all my AAXs (and VST3s via Waves' brilliant Studio Rack so I can use everything in Audio Suite). It imports all your templates. The main thing I instantly missed is that it doesn't have a timecode display, it works in basic minutes and seconds, so that throws me a bit but hey-ho.

Anyway, it all now means that even if the iLok servers are down or I lack reliable net access, I do have an emergency basic version of Pro Tools on my MBP that should always work even down the bottom of a big well (getting Pro Tools working will be my primary concern in this situation of course).

I'm not installing 2022.9 on the main rig just yet, there's a few teething reports that I'm waiting to get some clarity on first.

[soundbylaura]

I think this is good from Avid. Pro Tools First was always far too difficult to work with - who wants to re-buy their plugins just to work on a dumbed-down version of PT? - so a true 'basic' version is a much better idea.

Just ordered myself a new MacBook Air and I think I will put Pro Tools Intro on it, as an emergency recording solution. I would not have done that with First.

[Guy Rowland]

I really liked this article from Pro Tools Expert, showing a trick to get 50 tracks out of Pro Tools Intro. It’s a modern take on how things used to be done back in the day with multitrack limitations, bouncing several tracks down to one. With a bit of planning and care, you can have much more flexibility that us poor souls ever had using tape.

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/produc ... dio-tracks

Pretty amazing that, track count aside, this is close to full-featured Pro Tools. Kids of today don’t know how lucky they are etc.

[soundbylaura]

I have put PT Intro on said MacBook Air and set up a template. Haven't had a chance or reason to use it though (just got the MBA on Thursday). I think I might put v9 of RX and Ozone on here too, since I have the licenses. That would make a pretty good backup/travel/emergency computer. Otherwise going to be picky about what plugins I add (famous last words).

[Arbee]

Avid have copped a lot of criticism for going subscription only, but it seems to me that their new tiers make quite a lot of sense. I imagine PT Intro with VE Pro could get you quite some way.

I received a free transition to PT Studio when I changed to sub but will downgrade to Artist (and with Sibelius) next year to keep the annual cost more sensible without really missing anything. I've been looking around to change horses to S1, Cubase or DP but decided to stay with Pro Tools/Sibelius. I know it doesn't get a lot of forum-love but it works well for me and I know it pretty well these days.

[Guy Rowland]

Laura - for me, one of the really good things about iZotope is their licensing, so absolutely go for it. I have one license on an iLok and another on the MBP as a soft license. Very few companies allow that. And one additional thought - I think you have a Studio PT license, right? If so you could try that in the Cloud, meaning if you ever really needed it you could pull it on to the MacBook. Software is identical to Intro, so you’re just temporarily unlocking.

Arbee - I’m not sure Intro / VE Pro will help all that much as you’ve only got the 8 midi tracks. I’m guessing even with Artist limited to 64 midi tracks you’re imagining not using a template but loading as you go?

[Arbee]

Arbee - I’m not sure Intro / VE Pro will help all that much as you’ve only got the 8 midi tracks. I’m guessing even with Artist limited to 64 midi tracks you’re imagining not using a template but loading as you go?

Yes, apart from doubling up instruments Intro's 8 midi channel will be limiting without a lot of tedious bouncing. And yes, I don't have large templates. I checked and all of my existing tracks should (just) tuck into Artist OK.

[Guy Rowland]

I set a friend up with my old 2015 Macbook Pro today. He's an actor is getting into audio book work. He already has a decent Audio Technica mic and some decent sound nous. Pro Tools Intro is fantastic - he'll never want more than a handful of tracks, and in almost every operational regard it is as fully-featured as my £2.5k Ultimate. Add in a few great free plugins (from the Happy Thread of Free) and he's good to go.

I've set up an Audio Book template for him with a record track, 3 playback tracks for editing and assembling, an aux for a master compressor / limiter, print track and 2 auxes that feed the macbook speakers and the headphone socket on his mic, so it's easy to control his monitoring. The only thing he's had to buy is RX Elements - half price with the Elements Suite at £65 - for some basic NR.

This setup would also work very well for a podcaster, or even for mastering chores.

Pro Tools Intro - thoroughly reccommended.