Review: Digidesign Pro Tools 5.0 [continued]

The Trimmer, Grabber and Pencil tool buttons now sport sub-menus. Clicking and holding the button opens up the tool’s options. Grabber modes include Time (the standard mode), Separation (the selection is cut at the same time it’s moved), or Object (moves only the object selected, regardless of whether or not the track is part of a group). The Pencil has five different drawing modes, from Freehand (the old standard), to Line (straight lines only), and Random (for way-out designs). In addition to the regular Trimmer mode, there’s Scrub (which trims and scrubs simultaneously) and TCE (the appropriate amount of time compression or expansion is applied to the selection to make it fit to the trim location—way cool). The new Trimmer and Grabber modes function in tandem with the Smart Tool, making the Smart Tool extremely flexible.

Multiple timeline rulers can now be displayed simultaneously (e.g., hours:minutes and bars:beats), in the Edit window. Location markers are visible on their own dedicated ruler, complete with names. The bright yellow markers are easy to see and can be freely dragged about. (Indeed, they’re so easy to move, a way to lock their positions down would be nice.) A large Main counter and smaller Sub counter are seen in both the Edit and Transport windows. Each counter can show all available time formats, independent of the other. Discrete Grid and Nudge displays let these two functions operate separately. For example, Grid could be set to whole notes and Nudge to a single millisecond. This is excellent for dialing in “a feel” during music production.

Digidesign 1622 I/O support has been added to the Playback Engine Setup. Once selected as an interface, the 1622’s gain is controllable directly via a 0dBV to +18dBu A/D input reference level mixer under Other Options. The 1622’s 1¼4-inch I/Os are particularly nice for keeping synthesizers and other line-level instruments normaled to Pro Tools, negating the need to run everything through a mixing board—perfect for project and pro studios alike—I love it.

Import, capture and playback of Avid video media is now available (for Mac), in the form of a hardware upgrade, AVoption, which retails for $7,995. DigiTranslator, Digidesign’s OMF (Open Media Framework) application, which converts Pro Tools session files to OMF files (or vice versa), for compatibility with other media workstations, is free with the purchase of AVoption. (The software by itself is $495.) And speaking of different media formats, an MPEG3 export option, MP3 Export, is available as a download online for an affordable $19.95.

Greatly improved DSP handling is high on my list of favorite improvements. With the aid of several System Extension updates—in particular, DSP Manager 1.1—DSP allocation is, generally, faster and smoother. With older Pro Tools versions, trying to reload a session jam-packed with plug-ins was, often, asking for trouble; there were moments with Version 4.2 when the software refused to open a session until I played plug-in shuffleboard with the DAE Plug-Ins’ folder in order to fool the DSP Manager—an awful waste of time. No such problems with 5.0: It opened every session I threw at it, even old 4.2 sessions with tons of plug-ins. In fact, the old 4.2 sessions that showed no DSP available registered as having DSP to spare in Version 5.0.

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Copyright © 2000 by Intertec Publishing. Reprinted with permission from Mix Magazine.