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DIGIDESIGN'S PRO TOOLS EXPLAINED: PART 1

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DIGIDESIGN'S PRO TOOLS EXPLAINED: PART 1
Simon Price begins a three-part series designed to demystify that staple of modern music production, Pro Tools. This month, he looks at the various components that make up Digidesign's systems.
Whichever way you look at it, Pro Tools has become part of the standard kit used in professionalaudio production. In an admittedly sad attempt to back up this statement I counted at least 23 references (not including adverts) to Digidesign's computer-based audio workstations in a recent issue of Sound On Sound. Regular SOS readers will have noticed that many of the producers and artists interviewed use Pro Tools, some for basic multitrack recording and/or editing, and others increasingly duringthe creative process itself. This, coupled with the fact that the Digi 001 has brought Pro Tools into many home and project studios, has prompted SOS to take an in-depth look at the system that has changed the way many sound professionals work. Part one of this three-part series aims to serve as a detailed introduction to those wishing to find out more about the applications and architecture ofthe Pro Tools system. Part Two will offer an overview of the software and starter operational guidelines for the many new Pro Tools software users. Finally, Part Three is intended as a Pro Tools 'masterclass' featuring useful techniques and working practices. Current Pro Tools systems are, roughly speaking, the fifth generation of audio workstations produced by Digidesign. The company started lifein the late '80s, producing sound chips and tapes for a handful of drum machines and sample modules. They developed a software sample editor, which evolved into the widely known Sound Designer software. Sound Designer became the front end for the Sound Tools computer-based hardware system, capable of recording and editing stereo digital audio. Since then the march of progress has seen ever-doublingtrack counts, progressions in software through Pro Edit and Pro Deck to Pro Tools, and the move to modular systems via TDM technology (see below). The Pro Tools Range Digidesign's systems now nearly all follow the same basic pattern. A computer (Apple Mac

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/feb01/articles/protools.asp

27/06/2001

DIGIDESIGN'S PRO TOOLS EXPLAINED: PART 1

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orPC with Windows NT) runs the software front-end of the system, the Pro Tools application (currently at v5.01). The computer is linked to the outside world via one or more PCI cards which in turn connect to a range of audio interface hardware. Having said that, there have been versions of the Pro Tools application that can run without dedicated hardware, and Digidesign have recently released acut-down version of Pro Tools v5 as a stand-alone program — for free! Conversely, many other music software packages can also take advantage of the Pro Tools hardware — more on that later. The current Pro Tools range consists of Toolbox, Digi 001, Pro Tools 24, and Pro Tools 24 Mix and MixPlus. Toolbox and 001 run the LE version of the Pro Tools software, which uses the host computer's power forrecording, mixing and processing audio. The rest of the range uses dedicated DSP processor chips built onto PCI cards to handle these tasks. There's plenty more to be said about this distinction, as the argument over whether dedicated DSPs are necessary — or at least whether they represent a good price/performance advantage — is likely to hot up over the next year (see the 'Playing Host to Controversy'box on page 196). Playing Host To Controversy — DSP-based Versus Host-based Systems
There are definite signs that a showdown is brewing between the developers who back host-based audio products and those who process audio with purpose-built hardware. Steinberg's advertising for their recently released Nuendo package claims: "One of the great myths of digital audio systems is that truckloads of...